I believe in being as authentic as possible, which means being transparent and honest about who I am! So, if we are going to work together, it’s important that you get to know a little about me, the highs and the lows.

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I came from humble beginnings, and as a child, if you had told me that I would achieve some of the things I have in life, I’d have thought you were mad. I had grand ambitions and ideas, but I always felt stifled, like I was supposed to just take the safest option, earn my money, pay my bills, and that was that.

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I always felt driven to make money. When you grow up in a single-parent household in the 80s, with very little money, you learn how to contribute from an early age. So, I got my first job when I was 11. I was only a paper girl, but I had a route that meant I had a lot of customers, and I collected the money and paid for the papers at the end of the week, keeping the remainder as my wages. That meant some weeks I could earn £20, which was a lot in 1991. I would then pay for my bus pass to go to school, and still have money left over. This was my first taste of working life. I then worked for a Football Club, Coventry City, on match days serving food, and I had a brief stint on the market selling fruit and veg.

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My first ‘proper’ job came at age 15. As soon as I got my National Insurance card, I walked into the city centre, applied for several jobs, and got one as a part-time sales assistant at a place called Stationery Box. Dream job working with pens and paper (who doesn’t love stationery?)

When I was 16/17, I decided that I wanted to stay on at school and go to university to do creative writing or something similar. I left Stationery box and got a part-time job, 30 hours a week in another retailer. I had already left home, and I was attending school. But I was never encouraged at school. I was even told by a teacher not to bother applying to uni because I could never afford it (the year I was going to uni, a new system of uni loans was being introduced), and I ended up giving up my A levels to work full-time.

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So, for the next 6 years, I worked in various retail jobs, but they weren’t challenging me or fulfilling me. I thought I could do more, and I wanted more. During this time, I had my daughter (in 1999), and I was just trying to keep food on the table, not really striving for more. Until I turned 24. I had had enough of retail; I wasn’t getting many opportunities to grow, so I decided to look into a college course. I ended up going back to college full-time for a year to complete a higher diploma in secretarial and admin/finance procedures, plus lots of Microsoft Office courses, which then enabled me to move into ‘office work’.

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It's funny where life takes you! At this point, I ended up working for a financial advisor as an account manager, which was just a fancy title for managing all the admin that comes with insurance policies and other financial stuff! I actually liked the job, I was good at it quite quickly, but then, 6 months in, I had my very first taste of redundancy! It wouldn’t be the last.

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So guess what?! I ended up going to work at a retail head office, Lloydspharmacy! I would end up staying in retail for the next 20-years. The irony of working in retail again was not lost on me.

I worked in category management as an assistant, assisting buyers and marketing managers with all things administrative. It was such a varied role; I got to do everything from raising invoices to briefing marketing POS. I quickly learned the role, and I was good at it, but I wanted more. About 2 years in, I started applying for promotions, and eventually I landed a promotion into the Pharmacy marketing team. I loved this role. I worked on drug and alcohol campaigns; it was so varied. I also launched my very first solo campaign about hearing aids, and I was flying. I was happy, and I loved my colleagues. 6 months into that role, I learned they were putting my position at risk of redundancy, and in July 2009, I was made redundant for a second time. I was so sad.

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I decided at this point to follow a lifelong dream and move to the Isle of Wight with my then-9-year-old daughter. This was something I had wanted since I was about 10 years old, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be (at that time). I couldn’t find steady work, and my daughter wasn’t happy, so we moved back to Coventry, and I started taking temporary roles. One of these roles was at Sainsbury’s store support centre (head office), and in April 2010, I secured a permanent assistant buyer position on the seasonal gifting team.

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THIS is where my true personal development journey really began. Up until this point, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life, and I still didn’t up to 2020! I stayed in the buying role for almost 2 years. During this time, I got a mentor, I didn’t even know what that was supposed to do, and my personal development plan was really being dictated to me by managers, so I didn’t feel too personal. I also realised around this time that I was doing the work of much more senior people, but not being rewarded for it. I thought I'd be promoted for the work I did!

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Not too long after I started working with a mentor, I decided that buying wasn’t really for me. I also realised that I had a large chip on my shoulder. I thought your work was enough on its own to get you where you wanted to be, but it isn’t; it doesn’t work like that. Working with a mentor really helped break that down. From this point onwards, I had healthy self-awareness, and I could navigate my personal development a lot more easily. I had become so good at the buying role that I was taking on activities outside my remit, including a training role and mentoring other assistant buyers as a peer.

 

A role came up in another team, Trading Support, and it would change the course of my life quite significantly. It was a promotion, and I landed it. I was starting to get back to where I had been a couple of years earlier. This role was quite complex and involved a lot of influencing, negotiating, and data analysis, amongst other things. It was also a significant part in shaping the future of logistics. The role ended up moving into supply chain, an area that I loved, and I met some incredible people during this time. I was flying, so much so that 18-months in, a chance for a promotion in a completely different team (one that I will admit I always said I’d never work in) came up, and I was encouraged to go for it. I was still rough around the edges, but I landed it as ‘acting up’ for 6 months, after which it became permanent.

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I began my Business Planning role in 2013 and stayed in it for 3 years. This role challenged me like nothing I had done before. It was a high-level role, essentially another influencing and negotiating role. The first year was hard; I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew, but eventually I settled into it. I also mentored and coached people outside the team at various levels. I loved it, and I was good at it! People sought me out, knowing my journey and progression weren’t linear.

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In 2016, however, an opportunity arose to return to supply chain and logistics and manage a team. I couldn’t not go for it, and this is where I would spend the remainder of my time at Sainsbury's, which was up to September 2025. I have been through more restructures in this role than I care to remember. I have also had so many ups and downs; I’ve had amazing colleagues working in my team, and some not so amazing. All of which I learned from. See, that’s the thing, you always have to look for the lesson in every aspect of life.

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During this period, I became known as someone who excelled at personal development and at helping colleagues advance, and I supported colleagues in securing promotions outside the team. People sought me out to join my team because they saw something in me. I was tough at times, but going through COVID and some personal health issues really softened me as a person. I’ve always been empathetic, but I was so business-focused that I sometimes forgot the person. In 2019, I also set up a support group for parents of children who self-harm, a much-needed service; however, it closed in 2022 due to the pandemic. 

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After my last serious operation in 2021, I decided to steer my career toward greater purpose. I knew I loved mentoring and coaching, and I wanted to lead courses that were simple and easy to follow, helping people progress. There were opportunities to experience some of this beyond my role, and I played a key role in establishing a people squad focused on driving growth among colleagues.

I created some courses and led them with 100s of colleagues, and I always received the same feedback: I had a simple approach, and I often explained things in ways people had never thought about before. Some people had been in the same roles for over 15 years, and realised that they didn’t need to burn their entire world down to make a change, that change didn’t mean promotion, or maybe it did, but it could mean something that is more aligned to who they are and their values. I have seen so many people progress in this manner, some even overtaking me. I didn’t care about that; I just loved to watch people succeed.

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So that brings us to where we are now. I was made redundant in 2025, so I took it as an opportunity I’d likely never get again at 46 (when writing this), and I set up Develop U as a small business.

I am so passionate about nurturing talent. I believe that coming from humble beginnings has profoundly shaped my perspective on personal development and helped me remain authentic and recognise the true potential in everyone! 

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To develop myself further, I’m currently pursuing an MSc in Occupational Psychology, fuelled by a passion for understanding human behaviour in the workplace and beyond. I strongly believe in simplifying personal development methods to make them user-friendly and easily accessible. I'm excited about the prospect of translating my academic insights and lengthy experience into actionable strategies that empower individuals.

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I am very down to earth, sure, everyone says that, but with me, what you see is what you get! So let's connect, get to know each other, and explore ways to make personal development not just a goal but an accessible and enjoyable journey for everyone.