Ben Bluemle ’06 Ben Bluemle ’06 had been working in real estate in Atlanta for about three years when he decided to start his own frm in Savannah. He immediately put the skills he’d acquired as an intelligence studies major to work. “I got every piece of data I could get about the Savannah market and ran a ton of analytics to confrm it was the right market for me,” he said. He opened Seaport Real Estate Group – named to honor Savannah’s rich history – in 2010. Seaport was pretty traditional at frst, but soon adopted a creative video marketing strategy that has set the company apart. “I wasn’t the frst to do a real estate video,” Ben explained. “But I worked with a movie production company so I had a level of quality no one had seen before.” As he told South magazine, “In my videos, if the house has a pool, I’m jumping into it. If it has water access, I’m paddleboarding. One seller is a car dealer, so I’m driving up in the video in one of his most premier cars. These videos have allowed us to stand out against other real estate companies because we have pushed Dawn Preske Britt Seventeen is Dawn Britt’s lucky number. That’s one reason the business she created in 2013 is known as the OneSeven Agency. Dawn Preske Britt graduated from Mercyhurst in 1990 with majors in marketing and fashion merchandising. She worked in the beauty and fashion retail industries on the East Coast for several years. Then, ready for a change, she moved west to Las Vegas, where she could advance her career in the hospitality and entertainment industries. From 2002 until 2013, she worked for Sands Corp., rising to become executive corporate director of communications for the Fortune 500 company. She had more than a decade of public relations and marketing experience in Las Vegas, including overseeing the opening of the $1 billion Palazzo property in 2007, before she decided to launch her own company. Dawn had worked with many agencies when she oversaw communications for The Venetian and The Palazzo, but was never completely satisfed. She wanted an agency that understood how to integrate all communication media to create the strongest message possible for a brand.
the limits to sell real estate diferently – and in a more fun way – than it’s ever been done, especially in this market.” He also uses an online video series titled “Port Talk” to position Seaport as the go-to source for real estate information. It’s paid of. His frm is among the most successful in Savannah and he was ranked the No. 201 agent in the United States. He now has 26 agents working for him, with additional ofces in Philadelphia and northeast Georgia, and he’s considering a fourth site in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He advises entrepreneurs to think big. “When you’re dreaming, dream so big that people will look at you and laugh. And then think about it every second of every day.” Anticipate growth, he suggests, and put policies and procedures in place now so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel later. As an entrepreneur, he said, you must be willing to fail and should actually strive to fail at something every day – otherwise, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. Be willing to invest in yourself frst and ensure that
you are growing yourself somehow each day before you focus on the company. And understand that you may have to make some real sacrifces to reach your goal. In Ben’s case, that meant leaving his girlfriend behind in Atlanta for the 2 ½ years it took him to get Seaport going. Megan was completely supportive. Now Ben’s wife, she worked as a Seaport agent for a time, but is now busy at home with Lillian, 4; Anderson, 2; and Cameron, born July 1. Visit seaportrealestategroup.com .
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So she created a business to provide what she had sought when she was the client. OneSeven Agency is a full-service integrated marketing agency – she described it as one source that fuses seven core traditional and non-traditional facets of communications to produce strong, measurable results: marketing, public relations, social media, creative, digital, events, and partnerships. Dawn had the PR and marketing communications background and her business and life partner H Farahi owned a boutique creative agency and printing company. In the beginning, she worked at her dining room table, but seven years later the business has grown to a staf of 15 and a 5,000-square-foot ofce. The client list has grown from just one – Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants – to more than 40, with a focus in hospitality, restaurants, nonprofts, health and wellness, beauty, consumer lifestyle, and entertainment brands. She’s now hired a creative content manager, a social media coordinator, and a vice president for business development, marketing and events. The agency has a presence in the major media markets of Los Angeles and New York, and is looking for possible future expansions in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.
Her advice to potential entrepreneurs? “Just do it. But be ready to work really hard – I’m not kidding 24/7 – the business needs to be your child, your passion, your everything. Don’t be afraid to do it, because you’re never going to be ready, and all the studying in the world won’t make you ready.” She says her focus has always been on building and maintaining relationships with everyone, as you never know when a relationship will become an opportunity. Being an entrepreneur is all about having strong relationships and savvy networking skills. Visit one7communications.com .
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