We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sabrina Jenkins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sabrina below.

Sabrina, appreciate you joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

Being in the events/hospitality industry, and working at the Atlanta Braves for 27 years afforded me many opportunities to sharpen my skill set and prepare me to venture into entrepreneurship. Lots of lessons were learned as I went from being an intern within the Ticket Sales Dept. in 1992 to becoming VP of Special Events by the time I left the organization in 2019.

Within every area of business, whether it was me creating marketing materials for the Ticket Sales Department, negotiating concert deals for the Special Events Department, or creating the team’s Supplier Diversity Programs, all the skills learned easily transferred over to my company when I started SJL 26 Event Productions in January of 2020. The strength to survive as COVID hit 2-months after the start of the business, helped to lay the groundwork on how I wanted to run my company.

I live by the 5 P’s in everything I do both in business and within my personal life…Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. I sit down every December and set both business and personal goals to make sure I stay on track regarding what I want to achieve during the upcoming year.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m proud to have built a career creating amazing events for baseball fans in Atlanta, along with corporate leaders, nonprofits, and others looking to bring the WOW factor to their events. I’m excited to now help my roster of clients create their extraordinary experiences.

SJL 26 Event Productions offers corporate, personal, and large-scale event planning. From trade shows to galas & awards ceremonies, to product launches, grand openings, and private concerts. The firm does it all. Services include unique site selection, logistics, food and beverage planning, décor, entertainment and technical planning, and onsite event management.

Bringing over 30 years of hospitality and event planning experience sets SJL above a lot of other entrepreneurs starting out in event production. We’re more than a planner, we produce unique experiences for our clients and eliminate the stresses of putting an event together. I’m most proud of SJL for being able to weather the storm of the pandemic and remain in business. I spent the first 6-months of COVID-19 getting the business certified as an MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) so once we began to emerge from the pandemic, SJL was in a position to go after major contracts. Having great relationships throughout my corporate career also assisted in helping the company grow.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My entire corporate career was one of resilience. I continued to re-create my career within one company, in order, to best position myself to achieve the goals I set out to meet, which was to rise to the ranks of a C-Suite Level Executive. Throughout my corporate career, the company underwent 3 different ownerships. A lot of my co-workers didn’t survive each transition. I truly believe my faith and my tenacity to diversity my skills assisted in me “making the cut” during each sale of the organization.

Learning all of those different skills then transitioned me into becoming the business owner I am today!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Because the Atlanta Braves is such a big brand, it was always important to me to make sure while working for them, I remained my own person. A lot of times people get caught up on the brand that they work for and they lose themselves in that brand. I never looked at myself the way others did. To others, I was always Sabrina Jenkins with the Atlanta Braves. For myself, I made sure that I looked at the Braves as my employer and what I did for a career…it wasn’t who I was as a person.

My reputation was all about how I treated people. How people viewed me when I wasn’t in the room was always at the forefront of my thoughts when conducting business throughout my career. Having high values and integrity is very important to me. I live by a simple rule…treat people the way I want to be treated. That hasn’t always worked in my favor in Corporate America, as I’ve experienced a lot of disappointment. However, I never let those disappointments define my life. I continue to treat people with the utmost respect and 99% of the time, it works out. I believe my success has come because of the strong relationships I formed while working within a corporate organization and maintaining a positive reputation within the business community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sjl-26eventproductions
• Instagram: @sjl26event
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SJL26EventProductions or https://www.facebook.com/sabrinajenkins
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-jenkins-a4a5776/

Image Credits

SJL
Sabrina Jenkins