Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Adams.
Aaron, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I studied at Morehouse College here in Atlanta and during my freshman year there, I met and became very close friends with a young man by the name of Randall Little. Randall was an entrepreneur who was running multiple businesses on campus and I, coming from my high school in New York City where I was somewhat of a big fish in a little pond, was trying to find my place as a small fish in the ocean of college. Randall needed some assistance keeping himself organized with all the things he had on his plate and asked me if I wanted to be his personal assistant. I gladly accepted his meager offer of $20/week and took on the responsibility of handling assigned tasks that varied day to day and week to week. It gave me so much joy to know that I was helping to make someone else’s life easier in the little ways that I could, and it was then that I knew that personal assistance was a specific niche for me.
Later during my collegiate matriculation, I met a music producer and business owner by the name of Donnie “D-MAJOR” Boynton. D- MAJOR had founded a production company called The Donn Group where I had interned during my junior and senior years at Morehouse. Working at The Donn Group grew me up, quickly. There was much that I didn’t know that I had to learn in order to thrive in the environments that Donnie put me in, but he was always gracious and kind to me, even when I messed up. He showed and taught me things that I needed to learn for my own personal and professional growth. At that time in my life, my mind was made up that I was going to be a singer-songwriter turned performing artist and Donnie was on board to help me make that happen.
He gave me opportunities to write and record music, he taught me how to produce and cut vocals in the studio, how to command an audience with my voice and most importantly, on a personal note, he showed me what would eventually become my functioning definition of manhood. Donnie became so much more than a boss to me, he became my mentor and ultimately, a father-figure. He didn’t know that while interning for him, I was homeless and moving around from place to place on a nightly basis since I couldn’t afford to live on campus and wasn’t making enough money to have my own place. When I eventually told him, without hesitation, he gave me a place to stay, in his home and wouldn’t let me pay rent. He told me all he wanted from me was to finish school, which by God’s grace I ultimately did.
It was also through my work at The Donn Group where I learned that I had a knack for producing events; another area where I had previously had quite limited experience but for whatever reasons, Donnie trusted me with the responsibility to execute a few events for some of his clients and producing these events helped set me up to fall in love with the world of event management. I would then take this new-found passion to work with another Atlanta-based entrepreneur named Rachel James.
Rachel is the founder and owner of Bridge Hooks & Stuff Entertainment, an organization that trains and sources professional background vocalists to clients and opportunities to which most singers would never have direct access. Some of the opportunities filtered through BHS included BGV servicing to award shows including the Trumpet Awards, BET Honors, the Soul Train Awards and others; along with live recordings, major tours, and studio sessions with award-winning producers, songwriters, and artists. I served as Rachel’s assistant, but she trusted me with so much responsibility that I was fortunately able to manage well and as a result, I eventually grew into becoming her partner. Together, we produced several significant events involving singers from around the country and even some from overseas. We hosted award-winning celebrity judges, panelists and clinicians and provided opportunities for aspiring professional singers to find their way to their dream. Working with Rachel was the most ideal situation for me because, with her, I got to exercise my gifts of administration along with my gift and passion of singing on a professional level. Ultimately, circumstances led me to move back home to New York to pursue my own dream of performing professionally full-time; a dream that I would ultimately fall short of due to my own insecurities and poor self-perspective.
Though, I didn’t find what I went back home seeking, I did end up landing a game-changing opportunity to work with BET Networks, supporting the Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility. Working with BET fulfilled me in ways that I didn’t even know I could be fulfilled in and it opened my eyes to just how deep my passion for entertainment ran. It made living in my home of NYC more amazing than it had ever been and it gave me a fresh perspective of my place in the world. And then, without warning, my position with the network was eliminated, just shy of one year from my start. I was devastated.
After a few months of surviving on unemployment and looking for my next opportunity, I’d gotten wind of an audition to perform on tour in Germany for 3 months. I submitted an application, passed the audition and was offered the gig. That first tour opened my world. I knew then that I had to find a way to do more of this. By my second tour, which was in France the following summer, I was promoted to assistant tour manager and by the end of the first leg of that tour, I was promoted to tour manager. By the third tour, back in Germany that next winter, in addition to serving as the tour manager, I simultaneously served as the music director and these jobs combined, was one of the most difficult jobs I’d ever had. Nonetheless, it was on that tour that my dear friend Gwen Henderson (an amazing ATL-based singer and artist) told me that I needed to start a business that provides administrative support to artists and entertainers. So, I did. At first, I was the only one providing services to clients and as they worked with me, they wanted more from me than I was able to give, so I took a step back so that I could figure out how best to proceed.
In February of 2015, Randall got married and I was a groomsman in his wedding. His bride just so happened to be the sister of award-winning rapper Trip Lee. The night before the wedding, there was a snow storm in the city where Trip was so his flight was cancelled. He had to rent a car and drive through the snow storm to make it to the wedding. When he arrived on the day of the wedding, all of the groomsmen were getting dressed in our hotel suite and I overheard Trip telling Randall that he needed to buy a shirt and some other items. Before Ran could even turn around to ask me, I jumped in and made myself available to handle everything Trip needed to help him get ready for the ceremony. I didn’t know it at the time, but Randall knew that Trip was looking to hire a new assistant and when I left to go run the errands, Randall sang my praises to him. Needless to say, Trip hired me to be his assistant and I would eventually become his road manager as well.
Towards the end of last year, I felt a sense of urgency to make some changes in my life and particularly with my business. I reached out to my mentor Paul C. Brunson, with whom I had previously connected through one of his brilliant mastermind sessions for entrepreneurs. I told him that I was looking to make some changes in my life and that one of those changes involved me looking for a full-time position in corporate entertainment, similar to the work and time I spent at BET. Paul earnestly rejected this idea. He reminded me of his experience with me when he came to Atlanta to speak at and host an event where I served as his assistant for the day and told me that he believed I would be the quintessential owner of the company that Accessible is slowly but surely becoming. His words to me were, “I’ve seen many people attempt to provide these services, but you clearly have superior skills in this category. Every event I attend, I’m always thinking about how it would be great (and I would pay) to have someone with me, mostly so that I can better leverage my time to connect with more people and build out my network to be stronger. Perhaps you could train a network of people and source them to clients. I would be the first to contract with you.” It was this conversation that drove the re-launch of Accessible into the model it now has. I took Paul’s advice, ran with it, and several months later, Accessible is now on its way to becoming a force in the spaces of sourcing impeccably-trained personal assistants, event assistants, event managers, and tour managers to its clients.
By no means has my journey been smooth. From the moment I got my acceptance letter to Morehouse to this very day, I struggle with believing in myself and finding adequate support (which is ironic because by nature, I am a support specialist). There has been an incredible amount of opposition at every turn of my development, but each obstacle has forced me to become stronger, smarter and sharper, as I’ve had to continuously find ways to overcome each one. Being homeless for most of my college matriculation, not knowing if or how I was going to eat from day to day, getting my car repossessed while driving to a meeting with the president of the college, the economy being awful at the time of my graduation, thereby forcing my main source of income post-college to be from working at a restaurant – all of these were situations that were far less than ideal but going through it made me the man I am today.
Even to this day, I battle thoughts that I’m not good enough to do what I’m doing. There are also days and moments when I’m insecure about my physical deformity in my hand because of the subconscious messages it periodically communicates, and I battle clinical depression, often triggered by circumstances that I can’t control or prepare for. Every day is a struggle, but I decide with each day, to find the strength to get out of bed and fight. I don’t always win the day but on the days that I lose, I reset and try again. I’m determined to do what I must to see the life I feel like I’m destined to have.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Accessible LLC – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I’m honestly most proud that I started it against my own fears and insecurities. There were so many reasons in my brain why it could never work and never become what it is becoming but I find ways to silence those thoughts and stick with it. It’s not an easy thing to start a business and it’s quite scary to put yourself out there with the hope that people will see it, respect it, and buy into it. With its inception, I’ve become proud that people are paying attention to the work we’re doing and they’re reaching out to express interest in working with us. It’s affirming that anyone can see what we’re trying to do and decide that they want to be a part of it.
Regarding what sets us apart from others, that goes back to what Paul said about me being the expert in this field. What sets us apart is that all of my agents are trained and coached by me throughout their engagement with our clients, which ensures that the expertise I’ve earned over the years is the same expertise clients are getting through my agents. And honestly, the only thing I feel like makes me an expert in this field is my heart and relentless passion to serve the community at large (particularly those in entertainment). This isn’t to suggest that I or my agents are perfect because we are far from it, but at the end of the day, our passion to excellently serve is what drives our success and as long as I am able to continually identify this characteristic and develop it in those with whom I work, we will succeed.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I think we can all agree that the rush hour traffic here is deplorable so that’s one of my least favorite things about the city. I’m also disappointed in the public transportation system here. With the city becoming home to so many people, MARTA needs to undergo a major expansion. I mean, if I’m on the north side and I need to get to the east side, why isn’t there a train that follows I-285 to get me there in half the time that it takes to ride the south-bound train to Five Points, transfer to the east-bound train and ride it for 30 minutes just to get to Decatur? I mean, right?
On a more positive note, I love that ATL is growing into a major metropolis in the south but in that process, it’s not losing its southern charm. There are so many opportunities and so much creativity here and while it’s undergoing its own growth, the people here, natives and transplants alike, help make it feel welcoming and warm; a feeling that is a little harder to come by in my hometown of NYC. Atlanta has become another home and I can see myself being a part of the community here for a very long time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.accessiblellc.com
- Email: info@accessiblellc.com
- Instagram: @AccessibleLLC
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/AccessibleLLC
- Twitter: @AccessibleLLC
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