Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Hammer.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Brooke. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I think the idea of entrepreneurship started with my first job. I was sitting on the floor with 79 other sales employees for the largest privately owned prom dress store in the southeast (dream job when you’re a 16 year old girl). The owner, who is the true definition of a girl boss, held our pre-opening sales meetings before the madness began each weekend during prom season. I sat in plenty of those meetings over the years, but the one thing that always stuck with me was when she said, “I started my first business when I was eighteen. Many of you are that age or very close to it. I know it sounds crazy to imagine yourselves as business owners and entrepreneurs at your current stage of life, but I will tell you there is no better time in your life to start than now.
As you chase your dreams, you will likely be forced to take big risks, and the first few times you may fail. This is something almost impossible to do when you have children, a mortgage, student loans and mouths to feed. The older you get, the harder chasing those dreams actually become. So, my biggest piece of advice to you is to start now; start young.” If I didn’t take anything else away from spending the rest of my high school years at that job, those words definitely resonated with me.
From there, the idea of being a business owner stayed ingrained in the back of my head. As I pursued a degree in sales over the next couple of years, I started working for some amazing clothing lines at the Americas Mart in downtown, during the seasonal apparel shows. Talking to thousands of people from all over the country, being surrounded by fashion, and selling (my second favorite occupation), I absolutely loved every minute of it. Over the years, I established very close relationships with my employers and the other clothing line owners exhibiting during the shows. Many of them began asking me to come work for them, or if I could recommend someone reliable and local. Time and time again, I would hear them complaining about how someone they hired off of craigslist didn’t show up, or they came in hungover. If they did show up, you could often tell they did not actually have any sales experience. So instead of having an equipped sales team to really maximize their revenue, they had dead weight in their booth, that was being paid to just stand there. I watched this problem become so prevalent, and started to obsess over finding a solution. After weeks of brainstorming and pep-talks from my boyfriend (the real entrepreneur), we realized providing the solution was very obtainable and I was the best person to do it.
When I first started out, I thought I knew everything and had all the answers. I didn’t listen to any of the advice from my boyfriend or my mentors, who foresaw almost every obstacle I would eventually run into. That arrogance led to sleepless nights and a constant pit in the bottom of my stomach for the first stages of the company. Although I almost walked away plenty of times, I loved attempting to provide a solution to the problem. There was so much satisfaction in the result, and I just got better and better at it. Once I finally started making some headway, I just kept reinvesting the profits and then people joined my team. They came to fill in the gaps, to make up where I lacked and helped us provide a better solution. *That was the game changer.*
We have just hit our one-year mark, and we are still rapidly growing and progressing. I am so in love with where we are and what we are doing. We have over one-hundred and seventy-five sales reps within the agency and my management team are nine people strong. We are proud, an all-female company, with a mission of empowering other young-aspiring females, to help launch their professional career in the sales and fashion industries. Many of our girls have job offers in LA, made through connections we created. Within the last six months, I have started Atlanta First Look as well, which focuses on marketing content creation for wholesale product and clothing lines. Within the next five years, I plan to have launched branches of the agency in Dallas and in Vegas as well. I am so passionate about what we do and excited to see where we will go.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I honestly don’t know any self-made entrepreneurs who can say it was a smooth ride. The bumps are guaranteed, but I can tell you, it is always worth it in the end.
For me, rock bottom was my first attempt. The first event I ever staffed, I felt like the French government during a coup d’état. I lost all of my original staff and half of my first 10 clients. All due to my lack of structure and my arrogant thinking. I thought I knew what I was doing, and didn’t bother to stop and listen to other people and evaluate. The event was five days long, and I probably slept a total of two nights. My initial reaction was: I am not cut out for this! And once it was over, I was actually relieved.
After spending a few weeks reflecting, and beginning to listen to the people who had “been there and done that,” I realized all of the stress came from me. If I could learn from my mistakes, I could eliminate a majority of the problems I experienced, and even make more money than the first time. Once I committed to that, we actually became a functioning business. I still have to stop and remind myself to listen to other people and find a team that helps me over-compensate for my weaknesses (lack of structure and organization). I don’t think there’s a company out there, that ever stops running into bumps along the way, but we continue the mantra of learning from, instead of running from mistakes, and it is what I attribute our rapid progression too.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into Atlanta First Agency story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a staffing agency for trade shows and promotional events. We specialize in providing attractive, dependable and performing temps for various companies. Our secret sauce lies in our sales training programs and workshops. We spend an immense amount of time training our staff specifically for the jobs they will be performing with a strong emphasis on sales. This is something no one else in the industry is doing. Most of the competitors, just think of filling a position with a live body is enough. We don’t just want staff that shows up, but one that performs and understands the ultimate goal is to impact the bottom line of the company they are representing. We provide a range of options for our clients to choose from for each event, so they can find the best fit for their unique company, within their budget. We really haven’t found another company in our niche, that does it quite like we do and it’s the driving force behind AFA.
Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
Growing up, I was never handed anything. Even though we were well off, my dad made sure I worked for everything, before I was even old enough to drive. When I graduated high school, I remember being told, “If you want to go to college, find a way to make it happen,” both literally and financially. Being forced to become financially independent, in order to go to college, put me into a fight or flight situation. Many people thought I would either find a way to pay my rent but let my GPA suffer or do well in school and starve. But because of the incredible work ethic I developed when I was younger, I was able to provide for myself abundantly and maintain a 4.0 until my junior year. I even got my real-estate license one semester during finals week, and passed the state exam, while getting A’s on all of my college exams. I think because of my upbringing, I have this fierce work ethic inside of me that never lets me become complacent. (A blessing and a curse) I plan to instill the same work ethic in my children one day, making sure they understand that if you want something, you have to go out and make it happen, instead of thinking that one day it will just “come” to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atlantafirstagency.com/
- Phone: 404.488.4349
- Email: bhammer@atlantafirstagency.com
- Instagram: @atlantafirstagency @atlantafirstlook
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaFirstAgency/
Image Credit:
Emma Camfield Photography http://emmacamfield.zenfolio.com/, Turner Zahn Media http://www.turnerzahnmedia.com/
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