By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Listen to any life story and you will hear about challenges, obstacles and in many cases, obstacles that hindered someone reaching their goals.
A group of businesswomen in Slidell who have achieved various levels of success has decided they can use their own struggles and victories to help other women who are still trying to climb the ladder to the top.
Pam Breaux, a real estate agent in Slidell, is one of those women who became part of a new group called Slidell Empowering Ladies & Family (SELF), which is in its first year of providing mentors for other women who are still trying to find their formula for success.
The neat thing about SELF is that virtually every businesswoman serving as a mentor is using her own challenges and successes to provide motivation and direction for the women they have been paired with.
Breaux, now enjoying her own success with Helene Team Realty in Slidell, had plenty of struggles to get where she is today. Originally from the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, she was the oldest of seven children who had to step up to almost serve as a parent when her mother died at the age of 48 from diabetes.
“When you go through things at a younger age, you don’t realize how much they mold you and make you the person you later become,” Breaux said. “No doubt, having to be somewhat of a surrogate parent when my mother died so young had a big effect on me.”
Breaux wasn’t able to go to college as she wanted to right out of high school since she had to work to help the family. Then she got married at the age of 23 and had three children before the marriage ended and she was a single mom.
“I was working two jobs, doing what I had to so I could take care of my kids, but I always thought there was something more out there for me,” she said.
Breaux said she wanted to join a local club, but couldn’t afford it, so she offered to be a class instructor, even though she had no experience.
“Staying home with my girls, it was important for me to get a chance to get out and I always wanted to be able to go to the gym, so I went to the club and told them I could be an instructor as a trade for the membership,” she said with a laugh. “They agreed and it was the first time I really found a way to get something I wanted when it seemed out of my reach.”
Breaux continued to show her entrepreneurial spirit working at an insurance claims company, when she started a window treatment business with another woman, and turned it into becoming an interior consultant just by going to a party.
“That showed the power of networking,” she said. “I was invited to a party by a realtor we did some window work for, and that opened the door for someone to hire me as a consultant.”
Her love for real estate was growing and she became an agent in St. Bernard, but it was only months before Katrina hit, and wiped that area off the map. Moving to the North Shore, she had to get back into real estate since she was not established here. However, she continued to manage by getting a job with FEMA after the storm.
Two years later, she found the open door to start her real estate career and has not looked back. Her success led to an invitation to be one of the first SELF mentors, and she was paired with 27-year-old “Keke” Moore.
As a mentor, Breaux said the businesswomen have been trained by Dr. Joan Archer, who has taught them to simply listen to their proteges and guide them through life’s journey.
“Keke will define what she wants to do with her life and I’m only here to listen, maybe tell her my story since I think that can motivate someone else, and then encourage her to find the way to her own success,” she said.
Moore grew up as a military daughter, living in many different states, as well as Italy, where she started school. But she said a traumatic experience in her life came when she had to move with her dad again, just before her sophomore year in high school.
“For a young girl, moving away from your friends after your freshman year is very difficult,” Moore said. “I was bitter to have to move again and had trouble making friends here. I began getting into fights at school and couldn’t keep my emotions from blowing up.”
Before coming to Slidell, Moore lived in Monroe, and she continued to visit friends there on occasion, which led to her becoming pregnant three weeks before she was due to graduate at Northshore High.
She had the baby, but ended up marrying another young man who joined the Air Force and was stationed in Georgia, where Moore also moved to. But two years later, that marriage fell apart and Moore came back to Slidell.
She has shown the ability to find a successful career in the business world after attending Delta College for a medical assistant certification, while she also became a manager for a local McDonalds. But now, Moore wants to go back to school to become a nurse, a challenging proposition since she is a single mother with an eight-year-old son.
Moore said the weekly meetings with Breaux have been invaluable helping her get focused with her goals, and maintain some encouragement about her future.
“Pam is a good support for me, and has given me advice when I needed it,” Moore said. “Right now I’m not unhappy with my life, but I want more, and the SELF group is helping me feel like I can achieve it.”
Moore said her short-term goals are to be living back on her own and begin nursing school.
Anyone interested in more information as a mentor or protégé with SELF can contact Lowrey at 285-6393 or Graham at 646-1603. More information can be found online at selfinitiative@yahoo.com.