Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Hebert.
Brittany hasn’t met a challenge she wasn’t up for. Her first challenge was growing up with big life aspirations yet making them happen when living in a small, rural town in South Louisiana. She showed lambs in 4-H and spent majority of her time in the outdoors with her father but she met that challenge head on by entering a beauty contest, which crowned her “Miss Acadiana” at the age of 14. That title offered her the opportunity to visit other states creating new relationships, some with people and places which would have a hand in her next steps in life.
While attending The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she would be faced with her next challenge; applying to law school. As if studying for the LSAT wasn’t enough, she was approached to raise $10,000 for the kids of St. Jude. She remembered visiting St. Jude on a trip to Memphis during her reign as Miss Acadiana. The memory of the children she met that day tugged at her heart and she decided she would accept the challenge to do something bigger than herself.
During the summer of 2007, on the steps of Dupre’ Library at The University of Louisiana, she created Sky High (link below), a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the community together through fundraising for patients and families at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through sporting clay shoots.
With close friends at Edies Restaurant and fellow pageant queens, the magic began. Her goal of the first sporting clay shoot was to raise $10,000, but after pulling in friends and resources to join the cause, she and Sky High earned a net profit of $50,000.
Two weeks after the tournament, one semester shy from graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in English, she was offered a job with oil and gas giant, Pegasus International in Houston. Life has a unique way of throwing you curves but she saw them more as adventures and packed her bags.
At 22 years old, she found herself in a new city, with a new career path, and desire to expand her newly formed non-profit to Texas. Plans soon began for the first Sky High sporting clay shoot in Houston in the Spring of 2008. She called upon several friends and colleagues in the oil and gas business to join her team, including sponsorships from giant corporations like Anadarko Petroleum.
During the summer of 2012, she was offered a sales position for Extreme Energy Services.
“I found a career where I could sell projects in the oil business, and then be able to take an afternoon meeting to run a multi-million-dollar charity,” – Said Brittany.
Never content with “meeting goals” she began looking for new ways to take Sky High to the next level. In 2012 she landed a meeting with Founder and President of The Eric Trump Foundation, Eric F. Trump. Over a handshake and a glass of ice tea at Lavo in New York City, Brittany secured a partnership with The Eric Trump Foundation. Similarly to Sky High, ETF (now named Curetivity) hosts golf tournaments across the country to raise funds for St. Jude.
In 2013, she and Sky High took the tournament to the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio where they hosted over 1,000 shooters and raised a record-breaking $1,000,000 net profit for St. Jude and The Ronald McDonald House of Memphis.
Her career would take a new path in 2014 when she began working with Furmanite America as one of three women on a sales team of 30 professionals that span the Gulf Coast. She was the only female, and the only sales representative to cover both the midstream and upstream sector of pipeline sales.
Along with her career, Sky High is continuously growing and evolving. To date, she and her team at Sky High have raised $6.5 million for pediatric cancer research and they have recently partnered with Texas Children’s Cancer Center. The mission of Sky High is to bring communities together through fundraising events to provide comfort, fund research and save lives of children fighting pediatric cancer and other life-threatening conditions.
She has been named 2016 – Houston Business Journal 40 under 40; 2014 St. Jude Houston Gala Guest of Honor Her current/past board positions include: Ronald McDonald House of Memphis; Eric Trump Foundation (Curetivity); Ladies Night Out – Texas
“Furmanite America laid me off August 26th 2016 during the energy downturn so I took the next 3 months to focus on what I really wanted. I opened BMH Performance Jan 1 2017 and began working as a Sales consultant for Weldfit Energy Group but most of all, I was named CEO of Sky High (holding a part-time contract position for the nonprofit I have built since 2007) Living a “double life” career wise is not easy but, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My definition of success isn’t a shiny red convertible on a freshly tarred road, it’s an old white Chevy Tahoe on a road with sharp curves and potholes.
I started a nonprofit organization with zero nonprofit knowledge much less experience coordinating fundraising events so you can imagine some of the challenges that I faced from the very beginning. For the first seven years, Sky High was purely run by a volunteer group of dynamic women who were all pursuing their own careers in a variety of industries; therefore, studying the ‘nonprofit bible’ wasn’t at the top of our priorities list.
The list is long but some of the moments that have stuck with me are frantically calling in a favor to obtain our gaming license the day of our biggest event and learning it’s illegal to give away a cash prize after we gave away the prize, oops! Overall volunteer coordination hiccups, recruiting new blood into our board against many legacy members disapproval, to learning how to make true business decisions versus emotional impulsive decisions during critical growth times. At a certain point, I felt like no one believed in my vision and I would cry myself to sleep. Still, day after day, I continued because God put a fire inside of me and because I so passionately believe in our mission to provide comfort, fund research and save lives of those fighting childhood cancer and other life- threatening conditions. I am proud to say that ten years later, we are at our best and our Sky High family is headed in a great direction.
In terms of my career in the oil and gas industry, there have been many hurdles – just by being a young female in a male dominated industry let alone one in a sales role. I’m often the only female in the room giving a product presentation to 20 plus men who are very seasoned in the pipeline sector. I had to work very hard to earn the respect and the great reputation I have today. I followed my own strict rules like dressing appropriately (no low-cut shirts or tight skirts or 5” heels), I included spouses on weekend team building trips, I left late night events at appropriate hours, I kept my alcohol consumption to a minimal, I didn’t date direct clients, and frankly, I’ve continuously surrounded myself around people in our industry that have stellar reputations. Most of all, I always do my research and understand my product and the solution I can offer to our clients.
Sky High – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Sky High, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization comprised of staff, board members and an army of volunteers. Our mission is to bring communities together through fundraising events to provide comfort, fund research and save lives of children fighting pediatric cancer and other life-threatening conditions. Since 2007, Sky High has donated over six million dollars to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Texas Children’s Cancer Center and the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis amongst others.
We specialize in fundraising events, primarily sporting clay tournaments combined with golf tournaments and evening banquets that always include patient testimonials, a concert and spectacular live auction. Our events are family friendly and we offer the option to participate in several outdoor activities from sporting clays, face painting, arts and crafts, an archery contest and more! And the food- wow! Our amazing food is prepared onsite by sometimes over twenty different cooking rigs. Picture walking into a fairground and going from booth to booth tasting BBQ, gumbo, fried fish and wild boar tacos! We combine smiles, laughter and a bit of competition all while giving back to childhood cancer but what truly sets us apart is the opportunity to meet the families who are fighting pediatric cancer treatment, right then and there. We provide transportation and lodging to numerous of these families so they can enjoy a weekend away from the hospital and meet the people who are working so hard to support them. You will walk away from our event knowing exactly where your donation is going…and that’s one of the things I am most proud of.
All of our team truly lives our mission through and through. We always go above and beyond no matter how many hours it takes to reach our goals and fulfill our mission. Speaking of goals, we don’t raise money and just write a check – what fun would that be? We love seeing the fruits of our labor at our annual themed carnival at the Ronald McDonald House in Memphis where we host over 250 families that are going through treatment at St. Jude. Over 50 volunteers travel from Texas, Louisiana and New York to dress in costumes! We serve famous Texas BBQ and Louisiana seafood jambalaya to families who have a had a long day at the hospital while their kids enjoy arts & crafts, cotton candy, dancing, a rad wig party, photo booth and craft paint section. We even bring in a gaming truck for the teens. It’s hands down, the most rewarding and special part of our organization! We spend time with the families who are going through the fight of their lives and it reminds us that all the blood, sweat and tears is for them!
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
Because I also work in the oil and gas industry which is Sky High’s primary donor base, we realize that we may experience a shift in funds depending on the price of oil. In 2016, our donations declined by 20% due to oil prices so we created a new Houston based volunteer Development Committee comprised of ten influential leaders across different industries. We love and appreciate the support from the energy sector but we recognize that we must diversify into new markets to grow. We have also nailed down a pretty unique concept called “Sky High Mission Based Events.” I cannot disclose all that information yet, but if your company wants to host an internal employee driven event that gives back to a phenomenal cause, you should call Sky High.
As far as trends, I do not see sporting clays getting old, nor golf or bad to the bone banquets so we want to stick with what we know and what we do best, but make it better each year. We plan to expand into new cities…Dallas, here we come! We work hard to keep overhead costs low and are proud to say that we donate over .70 cents of your dollar back to the cause!
And lastly, one tremendous change for us was hiring full-time staff to support our vision and growth. Once we reached the million-dollar mark, we could not sustain additional growth out of my garage. It’s surreal every time I walk into our corporate office and greet our staff with a smile or a request. Adding staff has allowed us to expand already and has given our Board time to undergo proper nonprofit training. We are hosting out first Midland, TX sporting clay shoot and taking our Ladies Who Brunch event to another level. Whoop!
Pricing:
- There’s a variety of ways to give to Sky High but one of the easiest ways to give is through our Monthly Giving Campaign: $15 per month (.50 cents a day). Your 50 cents a day will go a long way in helping us provide comfort, fund research and save lives of children battling pediatric cancer and other life-threatening conditions. You can find this, our general donations and event specific pricing on our website at www.skyhighshoot.org.
Contact Info:
- Address: 9800 Richmond Ave Ste 335
Houston, TX
77042 - Website: www.skyhighshoot.org
- Phone: 713-714-8587
- Email: admin@skyhighshoot.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/skyhighforkids
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/skyhighforkids
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