But Sharni Bichan has blossomed now. She has just become the first woman to win an award at the Australasian Auctioneering Championships.
Mrs Bichan, who is from Refined Real Estate, based in Milton, claimed the novice title at the championships in Melbourne last week.
She had won the New Zealand championships to get to go to Melbourne and in a field of 13, including another New Zealander, she managed to come out first.
‘‘I was happy with my performance. So either way it went, I didn’t mind. But I was pretty excited when they made the announcement that the trophy was coming over the Ditch. And then it was an awesome moment to hear my name read out.’’
She was the first female given the award in the 35-year history of the event.
It was an accomplishment after only taking up auctioneering three years ago.
‘‘When I was with Harcourts, I went to conference and watched a couple of the competitions there and thought that looked pretty fun. I came back and asked my manager, who was also an auctioneer, if he would like to train me and it just rolled on from there.’’
The mother of five was not a fan of standing up in front of people but knew no-one who was.
‘‘It’s really the nerves. Like we’re training with numbers like every day, whether it’s counting cards, counting number plates when you’re driving.
‘‘You put in a whole lot of training and prep and then it’s still keeping your nerves under control or else it all goes out the window. That coming across confident even if you’re feeling nervous so that it doesn’t come across that way. So there’s a lot of things going on.’’
She admitted a big voice was needed at times.
‘‘You do need to learn how to project your voice and as a woman sometimes when we project our voices they tend to go a little bit higher than the men’s.
‘‘I have undertaken vocal training as well as part of it all. The other thing is probably, you try and have a little bit of off-the-cuff wit because if you can make people smile or have a wee giggle it puts them at ease in this sort of situation as well.’’
Milton is not exactly Millionaire’s Row, but it had made no difference for her, she said.
‘‘Whatever you want to do, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. If you’re prepared to put yourself out of your comfort zone, you’re going to grow.
‘‘I was a very shy, very quiet person at school. If you told me I was going to do what I have done now I would not have believed you.’’
Her career had included dairy farming, being a stock agent and in sales, she said.
Real estate was always in the background of her mind and seven years ago the time came to take the leap.
She said she was keen to use her new auctioneering talents to help out at any charity events in the district.
