Tiarra Brooks

I am a store manager for John Hardy, a fine jewelry boutique, where I've been working since entering retail management in 2018. My day-to-day responsibilities include making sure my team is taken care of and in position to meet our really big sales goals weekly, monthly, and yearly. I make sure everyone has everything they need to sell for the day. I'm also really entailed with the brand, coming up with events that the store can participate in, and I'm always looking to network to see what kind of events we can be part of to promote the brand. I oversee all of our clientele, following up with our top clients and making sure they're taken care of. I also handle scheduling, payroll, and maintenance of the store. On the side, I work as an entrepreneur doing life insurance and mortgage loans, which I do before and after my 9-to-5 and on my days off. I have the flexibility to make it work for me, following up and calling leads on my off time. My journey in luxury retail started in 2017 when I was meant to be just a promo model in a store. One day, the store manager had to get her appendix taken out suddenly, someone quit, someone called out, and it was just me in the store. The district manager came down and needed my help, and even though I said I was just meant to stand there and model and promo for the store, she threw me in there. She saw the way I was able to connect with customers and was getting a lot of sales, so they hired me to come on as part of the team. I worked closely with the store manager, and she gave me a really good recommendation to manage another boutique. That's how I got my start, and I fell in love with it. Working in fine jewelry and watches is the top of the top in the luxury world. I started in retail with just clothes, shoes, and bags, and now I'm working in fine jewelry, which is one of my favorite things. I'm where I want to be in a leadership position that has put me in a position to have exposure, and that's everything I ever wanted. In the next five years, I would love to be retired from retail management and have my own practice or business in retail consulting, specializing within luxury retail, opening new stores, branding new stores, and training sales managers - something more flexible that I can move around and share my opportunity with more people. On the mortgage and life insurance side, having my own brokerage would really be a dream as well.