Why I Started My Retail Career

Originally Posted on Linked In, 13/10/2026.

Thirty years ago, I was a fairly naughty teenager growing up in South Auckland, in my last year of high school and, to be perfectly honest, not attending school nearly as often as I should have been.

Eventually, my mum had enough. She gave me a pretty straightforward ultimatum. Either go to school or go to work. So, off I went to what was essentially the equivalent of Work and Income today, and told them I needed a job.

I have a twin sister who was far more outgoing and extroverted than I was at the time. She went through the same process and was sent off to work in an office. Me? They sent me to Glassons. I still wonder whether they got us mixed up!

It was a Christmas casual position, working in the stockroom at Glassons Manukau. Which, given that I was painfully shy, was probably the perfect place for me.

And when I say shy, I mean MUTE. I barely spoke to anyone. I wouldn't make eye contact. I was quite happy hiding away in the stockroom, processing stock and avoiding having to talk to people. Not exactly the obvious beginnings of a 30-year career in retail leadership. But that's exactly what happened.

Someone saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself. I was incredibly fortunate to have a manager who recognised potential in me that I certainly didn't recognise in myself. Glassons Manukau was one of Auckland's busiest stores at the time. It was Christmas, stock was flying out the door and there was absolutely no time for anyone to be standing around.

I started off processing stock, but the team constantly needed sizes brought out from the stockroom. I had to communicate. I had to work quickly. I had to become part of the team. Then I started covering breaks on the tills. Then I was covering the shop floor. And eventually, I was selling.

The wonderful thing about Glassons was its structured training programme. The expectations were clear, and you were given the training and feedback to meet them. You couldn't just stand there and avoid talking to customers (which, believe me, would have been my preferred option!). Little by little, I became more confident.

Looking back, what made that manager so good was that she didn't expect me to suddenly become a different person. She gave me opportunities to practice, regular feedback and the encouragement to keep improving. She saw what I was capable of before I did. And that manager, probably without realising it, changed the direction of my life.

From the stockroom to General Manager

I didn't go from Christmas casual to General Manager overnight. Far from it.

I worked my way through pretty much every level of retail. From the stockroom to the sales floor, senior sales, supervisory roles, Assistant Manager and Store Manager across multiple Auckland locations.

I then moved into training and development, coaching managers and helping develop people who were new to the business. My store became a model store where managers and trainees would come to learn how to retail.

Eventually, I became Regional Manager for Glassons before being approached to move across to Hallenstein Brothers as National Retail Manager. From there, I progressed into senior operations leadership and ultimately became General Manager of Hallenstein Brothers, responsible for 46 stores and over $100 million in annual trade.

Over those years, I experienced retail from just about every angle. The shop floor, training, operations, regional and national leadership, ecommerce and the overall commercial performance of a national retail business.

I worked incredibly hard, particularly during those early years. Long days, late nights, weekends and some pretty demanding trading periods. But those experiences taught me resilience, confidence, leadership and how to run a business.

Retail gave me far more than a career.

I grew up in South Auckland, raised by a single mum. There were six of us children, and money was tight. We didn't have a lot, and I certainly didn't grow up learning about financial planning, budgeting or saving for a house. But retail taught me those things.

As I moved into management, I learnt about budgeting, forecasting, managing costs and making commercial decisions. And I started applying those same principles to my own life. I bought my first car. I bought my first home. I built financial independence and opportunities for myself that I genuinely don't know whether I would have had otherwise. So when I say I credit retail with helping me buy my first house, I actually mean it.

That's something I've always wanted people to understand about retail. You get paid while you learn. And beyond the financial opportunities, retail gave me the chance to travel, develop new skills, learn from incredibly talented leaders and make some of my closest lifelong friends.

But when I look back over my career, the thing I'm most proud of isn't a sales result. It's the people. Just recently I attended an event and ran into someone who had previously worked for me as a Store Manager. He spent time telling my family how much I had influenced his career and where he is in life today. And that was pretty special.

Because it reminded me of that manager at Glassons Manukau all those years ago. Someone who saw something in me and took the time to help me develop it. Over the years, I've had the privilege of doing that for so many other people. That's what I'm most proud of.

So why start My Retail Career?

After 30 years, I reached a point where I felt I still had so much more to give. I'd spent my career developing people, building teams and helping one organisation succeed. And I loved it.

But I started thinking about what it would look like to do that on a much bigger scale. Because while I'd been incredibly fortunate in my own career, I knew that wasn't everyone's experience.

I'd seen how difficult it could be for good candidates to get noticed amongst enormous volumes of applications. And I'd experienced the other side too, trying to recruit, train and develop people while balancing the commercial realities and time pressures of running a national retail business. Even when retailers genuinely want to invest in their people, finding the time, resources and right approach isn't always straightforward. I felt there had to be ways to make some of these things easier.

The idea for My Retail Career actually started through conversations with my now business partner and co-founder, Layne. We worked together at Hallenstein Glasson and would have late-night conversations about recruitment, training, developing people and all the things we thought we could do better.

Eventually those conversations became much bigger.

·       What if we could do this for more retailers?

·       What if we could help more people build successful careers in retail?

·       What if we could help lift the standard of retail across New Zealand?

Layne and I approach things quite differently, which is probably why our partnership works so well. I'm the retailer. I see the opportunity, identify the frustration and start coming up with ideas. Layne comes from an HR, legal and systems background. She's the one who starts working out how we could actually make it happen. I'm the starter, the driver and the cheerleader. She's the compliance brain, the tech geek (her own words) and the finisher.

Add in Scott, our other co-founder and creative genius helping us bring our mission to life, and we make a pretty good team!

I want more people to have the opportunity I had

I've met candidates who have applied for dozens of jobs and never heard anything back. People who have attended interviews and been left wondering what happened. And people with enormous potential who simply don't know how to communicate their strengths or get an opportunity to demonstrate what they could bring to a business.

I've seen what repeated rejection and a lack of acknowledgement can do to someone's confidence. And sometimes there's nothing particularly wrong with the candidate. They might just need some guidance, coaching or a better opportunity to demonstrate who they are.

I genuinely believe there's a place for so many different people in retail. You don't have to be the loudest or most naturally confident person in the room. I'm living proof of that! 

That's what I want My Retail Career to help provide.

We want retail to be recognised as a genuine, skilled career pathway. Something young New Zealanders can choose, pursue and be proud of, rather than just a job they do while figuring out what they really want to do.

Because I know firsthand what's possible. Thirty years ago, I was a quiet teenager who ended up in a Glassons stockroom because my mum told me I needed to get a job. I certainly wasn't planning on becoming the General Manager of Hallenstein Brothers. I had no idea retail would give me the career, financial independence, friendships and opportunities that it did.

And I definitely didn't imagine I'd one day be starting a business to help other people do the same. But here we are!

Someone gave me an opportunity, took the time to develop me and helped me discover what I was capable of. If My Retail Career can help create those opportunities for thousands of other New Zealanders, then I'll know we've built something worthwhile.

And that is why I started My Retail Career.