Ep 42 | Snowball Effect: Student Success Story

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The only thing I'm thinking about is I could have started this earlier. But you just think like you can have to be older. You know, or a certain way, but you really don't. You make the rules, honestly. You gotta just make your rules, own rules, and go with it.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

I love that. You make your own rules. That's that sounds like a superhero quote if I ever heard one. Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Before your child was born, you imagined what they'd look like. When they were born, you imagined what they'd be like. And as they grew, you imagined what they grew up to be. It's this in-between time that makes most parents lose sleep, especially as their kids straddles teenage years and young adulthood. My next guest is here to give a little hope. He's one half of the Sharp Twins, Pensacola locals who have successfully survived their teenage years and are thriving and reinvesting in their community. They're the owners of BAM Snowballs, a superhero-themed snowball shop and the authors of Unleash Your Inner Superhero. Today he's going to share what launched his ambition and give parents a little bit of hope. West Florida High School graduate, multi-passionate entrepreneur, Marvel enthusiast Jamal Sharp. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

For sure, for sure. Thank you all for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

So, you know, when um parents think about, you know, uh successful businessmen and community entrepreneurs as teenagers, they might imagine them as these motivated, straight A students helping baby ducks across the street. Right. Um is that how it was for you and your brother?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Um I wouldn't say that.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

No.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah. Um, well, my parents, of course, you know, your parents are always gonna believe in you uh and know you're gonna do great. Uh, but we definitely had many bumps in the road um growing up uh to where you know they were probably shaky. What are these kids gonna end up doing? But um luckily and we got on the right path, and uh we're where we at today. Uh they definitely believed in us every step of the way. Um and we made good grades. Um, but I had a we we had an older brother before us, and he was like very quiet, reserved, and we were totally different, me and my brother. So uh yeah, it was definitely a challenge for them. Uh raising my older brother and then raising us.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, because not only do you have the twin component.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

So yeah, double trouble. Whatever I'm doing, he's doing.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So it wasn't just it wasn't about you know not having good grades. It was about just being such out of left field for your parents.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Our grades were always good. Uh my brother, uh I don't did I? My oldest brother graduated Magnum cumulade, I believe, or Summa Cumulade, one of those. And I can't I confused the two out of uh my twin and my older brother. But yes, um grades were never a problem. Um it's more so like behavior-wise.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Like bad behaviors or just talkative?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Uh both. Talkative and you know, middle school, talkative, uh elementary school, talkative, middle school, talkative, high school, talkative, but then just all types of stuff. Getting into it with other people, um maybe some fighting, maybe I like that how you say maybe.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Like this is recorded, so I don't want the you know, on the record official.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

And anything, you know, a high schooler will get into.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

We checked that box.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, we checked that box for sure. Just no kid stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I think every parent wants to know then how it turned around for you because lots of kids can, you know, have good grades, but you know, not be we'll call them the best citizens. Maybe they aren't the best citizens in school.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, uh, I think it's just growing up, honestly. Uh like we were never really bad. We just I guess did some bad stuff, like, but um just growing up. We were just younger, and then we just grown into ourselves, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

How long did that take after you graduated?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Um pretty soon as we graduated, I'm guessing uh we so I went to school. Um my brother went to the military, so you know he started getting disciplined quick. Um, that boot camp, that'll make it turn that switch pretty fast. Yeah, I went to school. Um, and I was, you know, more so by myself. I didn't have my brother, who's usually always with me. Um so I got I guess a little more disciplined, calmer.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Oh, okay. So that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Just and it it it so those are pivotal years. So so it's it's really every year you're growing up. So uh we just started growing up. I guess that's really how you put it.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, and circumstances changed a lot with your brother leaving and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

And you and your brother are really huge on community in general. Can you think of anybody in those important years that really provided uh a mentorship relationship to you or set a good example for you in the community?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Um, so I just grew up playing basketball a lot, and um, we always did fundraisers and um our coaches always gave back uh coach Mike. Um he coached, he was one of our coaches for a very long time, and um he, you know, just always seeing him give back to people and um all the kids we around, that kind of really what did it.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

The team?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, the team, the coaches, really just playing organized sports, really.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

And who do you consider a mentor to you now?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Uh a few people, my brother, my brother's a huge mentor, uh, my mom's a huge mentor. But instead of those cliche answers, um it's so much.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

I don't it's so much um I mean I don't I don't think mom and brother is cliche because no, because I don't honestly, I don't think anybody has ever said my brother is a mentor. Usually when they have adjectives for their brother, they're not complimentary.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, you know I mean all those, all those two within. But at the end of the day, um he's probably who I talk to the most. Um so if he's throwing negative ideas or uh, you know, not a positive person, uh that would reflect a lot on me. So um he definitely helps out a lot. Um, so because I think sometimes uh you know you can get advice and some people younger than you or everybody kind of shapes um your life in different ways. But um, even though my brother is like we're the same age, he still um provides a lot of ins insight. Um when I open before I worked before I opened the snowbar shop, there's a guy, um Jarrett Malloy in Tallahassee. He was a big mentor for me, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

What made him a good mentor?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

No, I just told him kind of what I was trying to do, and he was just there, you know, he um every step of the way. Well, not every step of the way, um, because of course we're in a branch now and then we're doing our own thing, but uh I was working for him, and then when I was working for him, um he would help me out and uh kind of relate information to me a different way than he would to the other employees. Oh he saw something in you, yeah, for sure. And then we would be we would text, I could call him anytime for any type of information.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

So And so what inspired you to open the snowball shop?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Just always, you know, was into entrepreneurship, definitely once I hit college. Um and kind of just thinking of ways uh that didn't have a didn't you have to you didn't have to have in a huge investment and kind of had to make some money. Then my family's from New Orleans, so I grew up going to New Orleans all the time. Um all the time. I was always in New Orleans, and that's where snowballs originated. Uh New Orleans that's why it says bam snow bam snowballs, but New Orleans style snowballs.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

What makes uh it New Orleans style though?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Just the shaved ice, the the the uh the um texture of the ice. It's not a snow cone, it's like it's it's like real refined ice. And New Orleans is big on that. Um you can put ice cream in it, so you can do that, the two flavors on it, and you can get more flavors as well, but just real authentic New Orleans style. That's where it's from. So um anywhere you go, they want their snowball like made in New Orleans. They want to just made it made it made just like it's in New Orleans. And if you close your eyes, you're gonna think you're New Orleans when you come to our snowball shop.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

That's really cool. Yep. And I love so much the superhero theme. Oh, yeah. I love it so deeply. And I and I feel like because of that, we should talk about the origin story. So, like, who got bitten by the radioactive spider and decided, you know, snowball shop?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

My brother is probably a um bigger Marvel fan or superhero fan than I am, but um bam means by all means. So uh growing up, um, we used to always just say, you know, by all means, by all means. It was kind of just a thing amongst us, um, and one of my cousins, Malachi. And then I started up um taking pictures, and then it was called the name of that business is by all means creation. So by all means is something we always just said, and then I was thinking about a snowball shop, and uh, but we couldn't name it by all means snowballs, and then we didn't want to name it Jay Snow. So it was we just was brainstorming a whole bunch of different names, and then we was like, What about the acronym BAM? And then BAM kind of goes into superheroes, and then we just love Marvel, so it just really all fell into place. It's a lot of thinking, a lot of arguing back and forth, seeing what it's gonna be, and then that's we ended up came up come up coming up with BAM. So it worked out.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

I love it. Yeah, well, you could have put it anywhere, why Pensacola?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

That's where we grew up, that's where we're from. Um mentorship is big to us. We know it attracts a lot of kids. Um, a lot of people here are doing negative things. We wanted to do some show people that it's positive things you can do. And even our peers, you know, people our raised growing up and seeing us, we was in the same situation, same predicaments as y'all was in. So if we can do it, y'all can do it. So uh we wanted to bring you back to the city for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

That's incredible. And uh where does that where does the book come into play, The Unleash Your Inner Superhero? Because that obviously has a superhero theme too.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, for sure. So uh and it's actually it's unleash your inner hero. Unleash your inner hero. So our motto for the snowball shop, bam snowballs, is unleash your inner hero. When you come in, our employees might, you know, tell the kids, unleash your inner hero, unleash your inner hero, unleash your inner hero. That's our motto. And we were thinking, um, come let you know more ways to impact the community, um, more ways to get our name out there. Um, let's you know, write a children's book. So me and my brother collectively can't. He, if you ask him, he's gonna say he came up with the idea. Well, he's not here, so you can say however you like. So I came up with the idea.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

It was all you.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And we decided to create a children's book, write a children's book, uh, wrote all the words in it. Um, we wrote um, I guess the theme, what it was gonna be about. Uh, we all came up with that. And it's basically like a uh self-identifying book, uh um self-help book, uh trying to increase kids' confidence and just for them to know that we all have a hero within. So we unleash your inner hero, everyone has a superhero within. You just gotta unleash it. That's uh at the end of the book, that's what what it basically says. So um, yeah, we just wrote it to impact, you know, kids. Our our audiences, uh, more adults come to our shop for sure. I guess because they're the ones who are driving their kids. Wow, yeah. And then they end up trying one and they like it. So uh, but kids is who we really like to reach out to. And what better way than a children's book? And now we can reach um people all over. And then them getting a book they'll see about snowballs as well. And who knows, we might have a snowball shop in their city one day or something.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Oh, okay. I feel like that was a little hint.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

You you alluded to this uh just a second ago, but um, I heard you say in an interview that when people see you next to your storefront, they're surprised that you're the owner because you're young and you're black.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Why is it important to you that people know BAM is black Gen Z owned business?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

It's just we can do it. A lot of people don't think we can do it. And um I more so care less about the people on the out the people on the outside, I more so care more people about that look like me and that are around my age to show them that you can really do it. Sometimes, you know, I may go in there, somebody may look at me like just crazy or something, but um then I go behind the counter and I may be talking to our employees, and then their mood just honestly switches up instantly, like, oh, this guy. They probably still like, does this guy work here? Does he own? Or if I'm in there just taking their order, they may think uh um I maybe just work there. But then it's like, you know, on TV, one of those moments where I guess something happens and say, Can I speak to the manager?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Like undercover boss.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

And then like, I'm the manager, I'm the owner, actually. Like, you know, so uh yeah, so um always get that or sometimes um sometimes people uh maybe not don't know how old you were because when we started this, when we started this, uh we're 22 or 23, I think it was 23. I 22 or 23, but um that would shock people all the time. I would shock people. They'd be like, wow, I didn't know that's how old you were. Now we're doing we're doing business with people that we seen growing up. I used to always see like Levin and Papatonia billboards, like now we're doing business with them, so it's it's crazy. We're just businesses, like we're actually we're real business, and it's just kind of it it brings like I guess joy to me, or uh even just thinking like uh I we definitely know that um there's endless possibilities. It's endless possibilities. A lot of people think uh, you know, Scamia County, you can't do much in it, but you can definitely do a lot in Scamia County.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

And it's a snowball effect. Oh, see what I did there.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Snowball effect for sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Because when people see, oh wow, you don't have to be, you know, 40, 50 years old.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

That's what I thought at first. Yeah. Yeah, don't don't people ask me what people ask us what's the hardest thing, I guess. And I say starting it. But it's really the easiest thing too. Like if if you asked me, I was I mean, I of course we did it at the right time. Um, because you know that's just how the universe works. But the only thing I'm thinking about is I could have started this earlier. But you just think like do it can have to be older, you know, or a certain way, but you really don't. You make the rules, honestly. You gotta just make your rules, own rules and go with it.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I love that. You make your own rules. That's that sounds like a superhero quote if I ever heard one. Where can people find the shop and definitely where can they buy the book?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Okay. So on the book, um, it's on Amazon. If you go on Amazon, if you just type in unleash your inner hero, it'll gonna is gonna pop up on Amazon. Uh Amazon Prime, it'll be delivered to you. That's with the paperback. And then we do have a hardback option. Um, it'll be delivered a little bit later, but you know, more durability for your kids. And then Bam Snowballs, you can find us at 840 West Michigan Avenue, Pensacola, Florida, 32505. Um, so you can find us there. And then we do also have a mobile trailer that um that um we just kind of go to different places sometimes. So if you check our Instagram at Bam Snowballs, B-A-M-S-N-O-B-A-L-L-S. So there's no W at the end of Snowballs, just a little funky way we do it. Um, you can find where our snowball trailer will be at. Um sometimes we're at some huge events, sometimes we just might go to a park one day, you know. Just tell people who haven't tried this yet to come try it. We're constantly giving out free snowballs, we're constantly giving out giveaways. Um every year we do back to school drives, toy drives for Christmas, um, and just random giveaways. We just love doing giveaways. Um, because it's just for the community. Um we plan on having a scholarship come out soon. That's for even high schoolers. I mean high schoolers going to college, trying to have some scholar, college scholarships coming soon. So a lot of stuff just coming soon. Um if you follow us on our social media, you'll be able to see um I guess a lot of what we're doing and how to get the book. We have a link in our bio where you can get the book as well. Really, anyways, you shouldn't have you should not not have the book right now or on the way.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I mean I saw it on Amazon, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so cute. And immediately I was thinking of kids at Christmas. Yeah, it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

We wanted um because we've had it in the vault for a minute, honestly. But just um because we self-published, like it's oh my gosh, that's so hard. Yeah, it uh just everything just takes research, you know, and we just we should have because we wanted to have it out to where people can get it enough for their kids for Christmas, a little Christmas present. Uh uh kids might not like it, but come on, you gotta read books. But uh uh yeah, that's how you wanted to, but then we end up uh doing it a little after, but it all worked out.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Last two questions before we wrap. There is definitely a parent of a struggling teen listening to this right now. What would you want them to know?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Just be patient. Just be patient, honestly. Um, like I said earlier, me and my brother, uh, we were far from the best, the best students. Um whether it's referrals, suspensions, uh, we've been suspended numerous of times in school. We've had plenty of referrals. Um we've gotten tour with principals. Uh Cody Strahl is actually who who invited us to do this interview. Uh we've had multiple run-ins with him. I'm talking about yelling matches, uh just real, real deal arguments. Um uh with the deans, principals, assistant principals. So I would really say just be patient with with your uh with your children, because it could turn out like us or better than us. Um if you if you asked him, Cody Strahl is in in high school, I don't think he'll say we'll we would be uh doing what we're doing now. Um and a lot and probably a lot of people. So um honestly, it's literally just be patient and just pour into them, keep telling them the right things because they listen. They're listening and they're hearing it. They're just they just gotta grow up and then just um bringing them around the right things, make sure they got the right friends in their path. Um and maybe try to introduce them to um older mentors because you know who no one wants to listen to their parents, you know. So uh bring them around some guys like me or my brother, bring them up to the snowball shop, you know. Uh they're gonna be able to receive um information, you know, better that way. That's why, you know, kids like you know, they're coaches and stuff like that, or big brothers.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

So definitely. And a struggling teen is pretending not to listen to this as their parent plays this in the car, I'm sure. What message would you have for the struggling teen?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Man, um you gotta grow up. Um if you're struggling, uh just make sure you know it's gonna get better. Every day is gonna get better. Um, you just gotta keep pushing, listen to your parents, um, because then you can start accomplishing things earlier than later. And trust me, you're gonna regret it if you, you know, keep doing what you're doing, and then you know, years go by quick. Years go by extremely quick. I feel like uh high school was just yesterday, you know. It's just it's just it just goes by quick, but it's gonna go. Um just make sure you listen to your parents and listen to these teachers because they really want the best for you. Um like they they really want the best for you. And going back and thinking back of things that I did or I said, it was all like really pointless. Um so uh yeah, just make sure you're giving everything you're all and kind of doing things the right way. Cause later, I know you hear this all the time, but you're really gonna regret it. Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it, and I'm really excited to hear the stuff that y'all are going to be innovating and doing in the future with scholarships and community events.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Okay, for sure. Yeah, I appreciate y'all and um Escamia County for sure. Um, yeah, we definitely uh we definitely um thankful for being able to be on this platform and talking back to the school district that we came out of.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.