"The Journey Behind Not Just North: Crafting that Aligns with My Values"

Retail has been in my blood ever since I graduated high school. My parents didn't want me to work when I was in school, so my first job started at the age of 18. Since then, almost ALL of my career jobs have been in retail. I held many different positions starting from associate, moving up the ladder to Store Director after about 12 years of being in the business.

I learned so much in all those years, but even with all of the experience I learned in the retail business, I learned the most about myself. I learned that there are so many different folks and different walks of life that have AMAZING stories to tell! My retail experience is partly why I'm here, but my biggest reason is to be able to share what I learned about my true passion in retail: PEOPLE. 

Later in my career is when I started getting a little more involved with people; more than in the usual sense of retail where you are helping customers but instead, I was building friendships. My customers were coming in to see me because of how I treated them (their words, not mine!) Many of them would tell me how they could see the passion behind what I was doing. I hope that my employees saw the same things. That was the lesson I was trying to teach, even before Not Just North came along. I remember always saying at new hire orientations, "I treat my job as serious as a doctor, or teacher, or nurse; while what we do (clothing retail) seems simple or isn't rocket science, we are in the business of people." I would go further and add, "The old adage Clothes don't make the man or woman is VERY true, but feeling that you look nice because your clothes fit you well can really lift people up!" What caused me to feel that way was the clientele I was surrounded by in ALL of my retail experience. People that had lost hundreds of pounds would come in excited with their story and wanted to finish their transformation. People of different ethnicities would come into my stores with questions about how their skin tone would go with an outfit and my response almost all of the time would be "Does that matter? How do you feel in your choice? Do you feel good in what you're wearing? That's what matters the most!"

Those are just a few examples of what led me to think more in terms of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. I didn't realize what an impact thinking in those terms aligned with my OWN values! That way of thinking led myself to deeper feelings about how important community is and how important it is to help lift people up and help them feel like they belong. Not Just North's mission is very clear: lift people up by helping them feel comfortable in their own skin by wearing or owning styles that are representative of themselves, all while feeling comfortable in knowing they also have a community that believes that they belong.

- Justin