"I am on a mission to inspire, develop & retain talented people within the Retail Industry."
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Founder. The International Retail Academy
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Let us share a story...
At the age of 16, Kayleigh (our Founder) was offered her first part-time job at New Look in a town called Barrow In-Furness, Cumbria.
Earning £3.25 per hour felt like a huge amount of money to her and so she gave maximum effort to serve customers...and loved it!
She quickly fell in love with the service industry and enjoyed talking with people about the products they were trying and just after her 19th birthday was offered a Concession Manager role in Debenhams. Deciding to take a break from studying, Kayleigh pursued a life in retail - which took her to Manchester, Barcelona, Ireland, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and much more.
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Career growth was her ultimate mission and having held positions including Area Manager, Operations Manager, Regional Manager and Head of Franchise she knew that one day, she could take these learnings and apply them to help more retailers and more teams.
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Fast forward to 2020, Covid. Redundancy.
Kayleigh felt out of control and had lost the high salary, company car, health insurance, bonuses but above all else lost a sense of identity. For so long retail was 'who she was' and getting another job simply wasn't an option.
It was time to take control and lean into that greatest ambition!
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Opening the Retail business!
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They say the moment we are faced with crisis, we move forward in two ways. Driven by passion or driven by desperation.
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Passion helped to launch our Retail Academy and serving our retail community is the greatest honour of our lives.
You'll not meet anyone happier in retail than Kayleigh and if you're fortunate enough to be in her inner circle you'll benefit from guidance, humour and an energy that touches your soul.
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The International Retail Academy moves people.
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We inspire your teams
We care about your mission
We serve you...so that you can serve your teams and your customers
TIRA Services
Consulting & Projects
Clients: Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Rituals
Everything from discovery, ideation, design, delivery and sustaining if required. Expertise include all facets of in-store activity. Customer Experience, Operations, Visuals, Communications & more. We can work with you or offer a full 'done for you' package. Projects are often calculated at an hourly rate.
Workshops
Clients: Gap, PVH, Rituals, Skechers, Miccy's
We deliver impactful retail training through signature workshops - to give teams the confidence and competence they need within their roles to convert more clients into more sales. Prices start at £300 per head, per day. For groups larger than 50 we can discuss the fee.
Leadership Coaching
Clients: Under Armour, Skechers, Ferrero, New Balance, Miccy's
Working shoulder to shoulder with your team(s) to elevate their softskills and mindset. For example; trust building with team & customers, confidence in selling high-ticket, problem-solving, building resilience, positive body language, selling skills and more. Day Rate £680 plus expenses.
Recruitment Solutions
Clients: NDA's signed
Unrivalled recruitment process, the first in the world to offer a 3 month on-boarding coaching journey to your newly recruited employee. Retail recruitment at it's finest. Best in market flat fee structure.
Retail Mastery & CX Training
Clients: NDA signed (global furniture business), Byart, Miccys
From as little as 1,997 per month you will receive bespoke video and presentations to educate and inspire your teams. We deliver hardskill training to build competence and softskill training to develop the person; because great training isn't only looking at the how but moving deeper into the person selling to your customer. An ideal solution to save on internal headcount(s).
The International Retail Academy (TIRA) was founded in 2020 to help retail professionals master the art of delivering an outstanding service culture in stores that result in more sales - without the weird feeling of 'selling'
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We believe that retail is a gigantic hub of connection - bringing people and technology together to attract consumers to buy into your PHYGITAL spaces! (Coined that word, we love it)!
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We all saw how the pandemic accelerated online growth and, at the same, quickened the pace of major global brand demise on the high-street.
The future of physical retail is hanging on a knife edge - it is upto leaders to drive innovation, hire and retain the best talent and more importantly, give consumers a reason to come in - and, a reason to come back!
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What we see alot of in the industry is a culture of calculation.
Meaning; we are obsessed with data (sure, data gives us insights to make good decisions)...and therefore the problem that many retail brands have is this: if it can't be measured, it doesn't matter.
Which, is not correct at all.
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It is often the intangible behaviours, attitudes and habits that become actions.
These are where we can help you grow exponentially!
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If you are running a retail kick-off meeting, or a sales conference you might want to book an energetic, thought provoking speaker to help ignite beliefs and passions in your people. Kayleigh has delivered talks at PVH, International Franchise show, The Retail Week Live and The Retail Technology Show in London.
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The International Retail Academy actively champions Retail careers; promoting the positives of working within retail and highlighting the incredible opportunities that people can have within the sector.
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We are the catalyst of positive change in retail.
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We give you a toolset...which becomes a skillset...which improves mindset to build an outstanding service culture!
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The Happiest Retailer on the Planet!
Hi I'm Kayleigh! An international coach in all things retail.
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I have worked on the sales floors of fast-paced lifestyle and premium brands progressed to lead multi-cultural, diverse teams in my operational leadership role across the Middle East and served as a Franchise Retail Leader from an office role in Europe.
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Having 20 years of real ground experience into large format multi-site leadership, I have a holistic view of retail and know first-hand how to understand people, roles and responsibilities to unleash the greatest potential of individuals and teams.
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From store doors to corporate floors - I love the world of retail and the people who drive it!
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Brands I have worked with:
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River Island
Diesel
New Look
Desigual
American Eagle Outfitters (Franchise)
Aerie (Franchise)
Folli Follie
Guess
New Balance
Under Armour (Franchise)
Gap
Tommy Hilfiger
Calvin Klein
Rituals
Ikea
Skechers (Ireland Master Franchise)
Miccys
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I am a Mum, Wife, Wellness and Fitness enthusiast, I was an amateur competitive bodybuilder 'back in the day' and placed 7th in the UK!
Originally from the UK, I currently live in The Netherlands but we serve clients across the globe.
"Your talk has really inspired me. I found myself thinking YES so many times"
- Retail Experience, IKEA
Retail Week Live
Main stage fireside talk on 'How to focus your store teams on what matters the most' together with André Pedersen, COO Intersport Nordics.
A fun, enagaging and down to earth discussion around empowering store teams and approaching workstreams from a bottom-up approach.
Published here
Guest Talk: Presenting with Gravitas
Kayleigh was invited to give a 45minute talk to the OMNI hub at PVH around presenting with gravitas. Here is what was said:
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Wow! What an energy. Kayleigh did this with such passion and professionalism. The group is now armed with simple, practical tips to FLY (first lead yourself) when presenting!
Podcast Guest. Retail Success!
Kayleigh was a guest on BEYOND THE COMPLEX Podcast, March 2022.
During this session, Kayleigh explored retail success through people, shopfloor engagement and how to effectively grow talent into dynamic, agile leaders of the future.
The Spotify Link to listen is here
Main Stage Speaker at Susa Summit
Speaking at this years online SUSA Summit, taking place October 12th-15th on the Hopin platform.
80+ sessions, 20+ workshops, unlimited networking and expos, over 60 hours of special programming #futureproofAfrica
More than 3,000 delegates enjoyed a truly immersive experience for the 2nd year running. Kayleigh is hoping to speak at the summit live, face-to-face once restrictions lift again.
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Co - Author of Women Who Inspire
Women Who Inspire is a book featuring powerful female leaders across the globe. In my chapter I wanted others to be inspired by my journey and how I have overcome adversity through strength and mindset, leading to a successful and fulfilling life.
My chapter was named Embracing Discomfort.
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The book is published across the UK, Middle East and Australia and available on Amazon
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"In Discussion With..." Speaker
"The Discussion with..." event was delivered to 50 people on EventBrite. Through this amazing opportunity I was able to help people, who were either looking to develop in their career or had been impact by the pandemic, get practical advice to get their next role.
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During the event we discussed the construction of a stand out application, and explored interview etiquette that would leave a positive and long-lasting impression on their future employer.
Positivity Summit Speaker 2021
The Positivity Summit is a global event founded and created by Cornell Thomas, the original Positivity guy and incredible thought leader.
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I was invited to speak about the journey of adversity and how we can overcome challenges. I spoke about my corporate role loss and the decisions that followed - decide out of desperation to get another job, or decide out of inspiration to start my business! Well, here I am!
As Seen in...
Modern Retail Published Talk from The Retail Week Live
The Sun Newspaper Print & Online
Biz Community (embracing Un-Retail)
The Telegraph - UK National Newspaper
Womens Own - UK Print Magazine
One Staff - Guest Blog
Love Mondays - Podcast Guest
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