Her recent purchase of Good Good has fulfilled a dream of owning her own burger eatery, topped off by it being her all-time favourite burger joint in Dunedin.
“I was having a moment [recently] where I was sitting down, I thought ‘heck I’ve created my absolute dream life and I’m really really proud and happy with it,” she said.
At just 32, Ms Gleeson has packed many achievements into that life, including representing New Zealand in figure skating, publishing a children’s book and being part of Dunedin’s improvised comedy troupe Improsaurus.
Several months ago, she noticed Good Good was advertised for sale and the timing proved perfect for her to buy it. While she has a background in food, she had great staff and so she was continuing to work at Oranga Tamariki. “All I really do is think of fun new burger combos and pay the bills,” she said.
She also worked at Good Good several nights a week and had been on the grill, learning all aspects of the business so she could sub in when needed.
The core aspects of the existing business would stay the same while she had a list of different burger combinations to try. Many of those were inspired by different people in her life in different phases.
In some ways, she has come full circle and returned to the food industry which was where she began a career which has taken a few twists and turns, alongside some interesting hobbies. “I thought I’d be back one day [to food], I didn’t think it would be this soon,” she said.
Growing up on a lifestyle property at Waitati, she discovered a passion for figure skating and countless hours and effort were subsequently invested in the sport.
From waking up at 5am, or sometimes earlier, on school days, and skating for several hours before going to school, and then having a part-time job, it was an “incredibly intense time”.
In 2009, she and Megan Kliegl competed in the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. “We came dead last,” she said, laughing. “But that’s fine. It’s better to come dead last at the world championships than not.”
The sport was dominated by northern hemisphere competitors. It was the first time New Zealand had been represented at the championships — there has only been one other team from here compete — and their inclusion was welcomed.
As skating had dominated so much of her young life, she did not do particularly well at school and a late diagnosis of ADHD last year had probably also contributed to that, she reflected.
She left school at the end of year 12 and, after a stint working at Kmart, she studied to be a chef at Otago Polytechnic and began working at award-winning restaurant Pier 24.
But the demands of studying and working in the food industry were meant she was sometimes working 70-hour weeks, missing out on every possible social event.
So she left cooking and got a job at ACC for a few years and it was while she was there that Good Good opened. “From that moment, I thought this is my favourite burger place ever. If you had told past me I would end up owning it, I would have freaked. It’s always been my favourite burger place.”
While Ms Gleeson loved fine dining and the ability to create and bring various elements together on a plate, everyday food like burgers was her “jam”.
After ACC, she joined the Dunedin City Council and went from claims management to helping in the council property management department.
At that stage, she was performing with Improsaurus and when she gave improvisation away, she replaced that with pole fitness until an injury stopped that. She replaced that hobby with singing lessons — “because why not?” she said, laughing.
She left the DCC and after a brief stint at the Department of Conservation, she was now working at Oranga Tamariki.
Last year, she published a children’s book which reflected her lifelong love of comedy. In 2001, when she was about 8, her family moved to the United States briefly when her father got a job at the University of California.
There were a lot of long road trips in the car, and in the days before iPads or other similar technology, her mother would rattle off improvised stories about the fictional GurgleGeflunkenHausens. Even though Ms Gleeson could not remember the actual stories and just had vague recollections, she put pen to paper to create the book.
While she had missed out on the university experience when she left school, she always had an interest in psychology and she had since embarked on a diploma in psychology.
She was now doing one paper a semester so it was not too overwhelming with her new business.
The Good Good business model was simple and while there were difficult times in the hospitality sector, it was not as “teeth grindingly hard” there as for some businesses, she said.
