We were lucky to catch up with Jess Teruel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission for ‘The Jess Teruel Show’ is to give a big shout out to small businesses. When I started the show back in 2020, it was the summer leading into my Senior year of college. I lost an internship with a local news station due to COVID, but I knew I still needed a portfolio and a creative outlet. So one day I decided to grab my camera and a friend and we hit the streets. I walked up and down Main Street downtown Greenville and I interviewed anyone that would be willing to share their thoughts on the pandemic. The video got quite a bit of engagement so I went out another day and covered a Black Lives Matter protest. I wasn’t necessarily trying to feature news so I quickly shifted into featuring small businesses. I fell in love with sharing these stories. Small businesses often get overlooked and perhaps forgotten but they’re what make Greenville the city it is and I’ve made it my mission to give them the attention they deserve! Plus, I have quite the vivacious personality so that allows me to tell the stories of these businesses in a funny and creative way. Whoever said you can’t learn something while laughing? Well ‘The Jess Teruel Show,’ is here to do both. You can find my show on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or Tik Tok at @jessteruelshow

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m the youngest of four kids and easily the craziest. My entire family works in the medical field except my mom and I. They’re absolute brains, let me tell you so that was a little tricky growing up. I didn’t struggle academically, per say, but it was certainly a comparing game with the rest of my siblings. In school, I was always one of the loudest ones in the room, always cracking a joke or making some sort of comedic scene. Most people’s worst fear is the fear of public speaking. I live for it. Anytime I have a chance to get in front of 5 people to 5000 people, I’m there. I guess that makes sense why I studied Broadcast Journalism in university. I went into college thinking I would pursue news. My plan was simple, really. Graduate with a BA in Journalism, move to a remote town, start as a lowly news reporter and work my way up to a big city and produce my own show. My dream job was and honestly still is to be a talk show host but I knew there was a big gap to fill in between college Jess and Talk Show Jess. Sophomore and Junior year of college, I started dipping my toes in Marketing, a field I vowed as a freshman I would never enter. “Never say never” has never felt more real. Senior year, I served as the University Marketing Association president and fell in love with it. Because Senior year also happened to be 2020-2021, running a highly community-centered organization became a challenge. The years prior, the UMA lived and breathed community partnership but due to COVID, any contact with the “outside world” was limited. I pivoted the UMA to act as a creative marketing agency for the school itself. My team and I ran three major campaigns on campus and one did include a partnership with Donate Life SC. I write all this to tell you that I started figuring out how Journalism and Marketing can be the perfect marriage. Throughout Senior year, I put ‘The Jess Teruel Show’ on a back burner but created my own show with our school’s news station called ‘KEEP YOUR DISTANCE: with Jess Teruel’ where I interviewed people at a ridiculous distance to play off of social distancing. After graduating in May 2021, I didn’t have a clear direction of where I wanted to go but I knew I loved marketing and I knew I loved Journalism. My first “real job” out of college was running a small creative marketing agency in Greenville for small businesses. I learned how marketing works in the real world, how to understand the pain points of your clients, and create effective solutions. This past February, I took an Entrepreneurship class for the fun of it to see if ‘The Jess Teruel Show’ was worth pursuing any further. Sure, it was fun, got me out of the house and kept my on-camera skills sharp, but could I really make it a business? In March I said “Screw it. It’s now or never.” So I registered for an LLC and became an official business on April 1, 2022. Time to pop champagne? Well, I still didn’t know what I was doing! I really hadn’t made a dime off my show. I played around with different ways of pitching the shows to businesses and just tried to gauge what would stick. I knew I didn’t have the follower count, or numbers, or really data of any kind to leverage the value I knew I could give to a business so I took a step back. What do I need right now more than money? I need clout. I need sponsors, a partnership, even a friendship with someone that could take me to the next level! So that’s what I did, Long story short, I’m currently partnered with a media company called “Travelers Rest Here’ which supports and advertises for small businesses in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Through that, I’ve gained clout and (a little) more money than what I was making without the partnership. And my motive is not to make a great deal of money, although that would be a nice side benefit. My goal and mission was, is and will continue to be giving a big shout out to small businesses. What I have found so special and rewarding from each episode is that the business owners invite me into their world and let me be “in the business” for the duration of the shoot, feel what they feel, work as they work and that helps me understand the value and beauty of that business. I think the show really brings what they do to life! I edit the show, send it to them, and spread it across my social media channels and advertise for them. Some of my all time favorite comments from viewers are “Wow, that looks amazing! I can’t wait to try that,” because then I know I’ve hooked them. So as I said before, marketing and journalism really does make the perfect marriage.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

This is a fun question. If you read the previous question, then you would know most of my family is “non-creative.” My brother likes to poke fun at me and say “Jess, your life is seemingly a chaotic mess but somehow you’re still doing all this stuff and making things happen.” Well he’s not wrong! My life is a bit of a mess but I think creatives have to embrace that sometimes. I’m learning how to manage my time better, pay closer attention to details and just overall be more organized as a person but at the same time, there is something so raw and beautiful as not knowing what next week holds for the business. It’s also scary as heck. But it keeps you on your toes, keeps your mind sharp, and keeps you humble, because you never know what tomorrow may bring. It’s a dance between being smart about your finances, getting your ducks in a row and creating processes while also not stifling the creative juices that need to continuously flow! I know I’m young into my career so I certainly don’t have it figured out, but I think this is a balance that will forever need to be adjusted and readjusted, and adjusted again because with running a business, you are using the left and right side of brain pretty much at all times. With that being said, non creatives, it’s really ok that you don’t understand how our minds work. I certainly don’t half the time but that’s what makes life exiting!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think a powerful lesson I’m learning early on is success does not equal money!! It’s hard to believe that though when the most “successful” people in life are CEO’s of billion dollar companies or heck, are worth a billion dollars themselves! But when it comes to small businesses, success come many times in small, seemingly insignificant ways. What do I mean? One time I watched a YouTube video from Matt D’avella, who’s a great resource for small business owners, and he was talking about the “three year rule” for businesses. He said if you can look back at your business and see little to no progress in three years, then chances are, you need to move on to another venture. But if you look back over three years and see how you progressed by leaps and bounds, even if you aren’t where you thought you would be, it’s a success! So for me, success with ‘The Jess Teruel Show’ was taking that entrepreneurship class, registering for an LLC, partnering with a local media company. And more than that, success to me is consistently shooting episodes because it means we’re reaching people! It means I’m doing exactly what I set out to do: give a big shout out to small businesses. Success means getting a few more followers each month, finally starting a Tik Tok after months of not wanting to. And yes, getting a little money each episode. Am I where I thought I would be? Honestly, I didn’t have a clear plan so I couldn’t really tell you but I do know I’ve progressed and grown this show more in the last six months than I have the previous two years. Now that’s something to celebrate!

Contact Info:

• Website: Jessicajoyteruel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessteruelshow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessteruelshow
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicateruel/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_pHorT3io8bVpIRQpI456w