Unleashing Your Inner Entrepreneur & Author

By Savannah Evanoff

But when the pandemic stalled his business, he fatefully landed a job at a snoball shop with a young business owner.

"I didn't know anybody that had a business, and he was very cool and upfront, and I told him I wanted my own snoball business, that's kind of why I'm working there,'" Jamal said. "He was very upfront, hands-on and helped me out with all things snoball related."

When Jamal was ready to go off on his own, he asked his brother, a U.S. Air Force member, to help him jumpstart the business.

"To be honest, if he wasn't in the military and had more money than me, he probably wouldn't be a part of this thing," Jamal said. "That was a joke by the way."

"It's not really that good of a joke if you have to tell people it's a joke," Jamari said teasingly.

"He was like, 'Let's do it,'" Jamal said. "And we both just believed in each other."

And they couldn't do it without their mom, Sonda Sharp, too.

"I remember, I was graduating from school and I told her, 'I'm not getting a job. I'm going to full entrepreneurship,'" Jamal said. " I told her, 'I'm gonna start a snoball shop.' She said, 'Come on, let's do it.' She was with us every step of the way."

Their small business opened March of 2021, but they have big goals for it, namely more locations.

The brothers behind BAM! Snoballs are something of a dynamic superhero duo, though you'll likely never get the same answer if you ask them who's the sidekick.

From which one of them favorited their Captain America snoball flavor first to who's better looking (they're twins) to who came up with the idea for their children's book "Unleash Your Inner Hero" published December of 2022—Jamal and Jamari Sharp are jokingly at odds.

Their mission, though, is something they can always agree on.

"One of the main reasons for opening BAM! in the first place was something for the youth," Jamari said. "We pour into the youth. We know the youth is the future, so why not invest in them? I would say that's something we wish we had more (of) when we were younger—not even just for us, but for our peers we've seen."

The concept is summed up in the motto and book title, "Unleash Your Inner Hero."

"That has more meaning than just saying it; it is to let every kid know when they walk in the shop, they see us on the wall, they see everything and that this is a locally owned business, they can do it, too; just unleash your inner hero," Jamari said. "Everybody has a hero within; they just gotta bring it out."

The book is available on Amazon, and the brothers have since done book readings and signings at schools, along with other community events.

"You can reach way more people with a book," Jamal said. "The message in it is really just self-help, self-worth and self-identity. A little boy knows who he is, and he unleashes his inner hero. Nothing can stop you. Nothing holds you down. Why not?"

The book aligns perfectly with the superhero slash comic book theme of the snoball shop. Another inspirational motto of theirs is threaded into the name of their shop and printed in small letters on the cup that often go unnoticed—"By all means." (aka BAM!)

"It's basically just, you can achieve anything by all means," Jamal said. "You can do anything. Everybody can just relate to that one statement, three words, 'By all means;' you just want to get it done by that … Another meaning for BAM! is also like the onomatopoeia comic version, so that's how the comic book superhero theme came to be."

The book and shop have garnered attention from a young audience. Jamal remembers once grabbing a burger when a child recognized him from BAM! and treated him like he was famous.

"A lot of kids where we're from can get wrapped into the wrong things," Jamari said. "You're always gonna be influencing, so you might as well turn yourself into a positive influence. We both don't have any kids, but I've always wanted kids—and I'm the younger sibling, so I've always wanted a little brother. I've always been into mentorship. I like to just mentor kids and coach or referee. You can mold them and teach them the right things. I remember when I was younger, I used to always look up to the older guys and people doing stuff I wanted to do."

Jamal's idea snowballed from growing up eating snoballs in New Orleans. He postponed it to start his own production company, By All Means Creations, while in college at Florida A&M University.

"We like to think we're a McDonald's or something," Jamari said. "We want to be everywhere eventually and looking at people franchising and putting us in different places. So whatever we're doing in Pensacola, we can do other places as well—more trucks or mobile units and more actual storefronts. We want everybody to know about By All Means."

They've got big things in store for Pensacola, too. In addition to their favorite flavor—a combination of Bahama Mama, pina colada and Blue Hawaiian stuffed with ice cream—they will soon add more exotic flavors, Jamari said.

"I don't think they have snoballs like this in the entire world," Jamari said. "We're talking about an entire cheesecake shoved on top of a snoball. I don't want to give you too much but just know we're coming with some heat." {in}

BAM! SNOBALLS

WHERE: 840 W. Michigan Ave.

DETAILS: bamsnoballs.com

@bamsnoballs