We were lucky to catch up with Teela Venice recently and have shared our conversation below.

Teela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

Before I found myself owning and managing three businesses while still picking up other income sources when the opportunities arose, I waited tables. For 13 years, I waited tables. Serving is one of those jobs that you get in high school or college to make quick money and have a flexible schedule. It can be a job that you walk in and out of with little mental investment or care. Or, serving can teach you some of life’s greatest lessons. That’s what it did for me.

I began waiting tables in a local bar the day I was legally allowed to serve alcohol. I was a shy, quiet, tall, leggy blonde. To say the least, the shy, quiet attributes are not the ones most happy hour regulars notice first and it takes a lot of internal callusing before you can put them in their place when need be. Those three years gave me tough skin and the understanding that sometimes you have to raise your voice, in word and sometimes volume, to get things done. I transitioned from the bar scene to an outdoor, seasonal restaurant where I car-hopped. Working 10-12 hour shifts in the Kentucky summer heat and humidity will teach you more about your mental toughness than a lot of other jobs can. Keeping a smile on your face to a less-than-deserving customer while sweat rolls down your back with two trays of food in your hands is a skill that can only be accomplished through years of practice.

Serving food to the public is a seemingly mundane and “easy” task, and it can be if you don’t care about it. However, it can also teach you to have humility, never judge a person by their appearance, how to manage your time, multi-task, stand up for yourself, and successfully walk around a packed room with five full glasses in your hands. I will always be thankful for my years of serving because I truly believe it is the foundation of successfully owning and expanding all of my businesses with confidence.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Remember those activities the first day of elementary school titled “All About Me” and it consisted of all of your favorites that are relevant in elementary school, so essentially food and color? I feel like I need one of those as an adult but with more in-depth “about me” sections. I am a person who struggles to know myself well. Because of this, I have found myself in a plethora of settings over my working years. I was never the kid who knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never had that set passion. I knew I wanted to see interesting things, meet interesting people, and have wild adventures.

I started my first job at 17 working housekeeping for a corporate hotel. I learned quickly that I received fulfillment from doing a thoroughly good job and being praised for the task. That fulfillment became my career path. I’m a classic people pleaser but I prefer to look at it through the lens of service to others. Nearly all of my 20 different jobs over the last 15 years have been in the business of serving customers or clients directly. The few scattered throughout that didn’t serve that underlying goal didn’t have a very long shelf-life.

Today, I find myself in two seemingly unrelated worlds of service: fitness and events. But at the core of both of those industries is helping people create a wonderfully beautiful life. It feels odd at times when someone asks me what I do for a living to answer with a list of businesses that don’t necessarily correlate, but finding your place in life isn’t about fitting in a mold of what other people do with their lives or expect you to do with yours. It’s about finding a way to use the gifts and passions you’ve been given in a way that serves your community as well as your inner self.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I’m a classic case of side hustle turned full-time job.

I had taken fitness classes from a local trainer for 4 years when she asked me to start teaching morning classes for her. What an honor! I obtained my group fitness certification and jumped on the opportunity. At the time, I was working as an instructional assistant for public middle school Special Education and car-hopping at a summer seasonal restaurant. I would not renew my contract with the school at the end of that year and started adding more fitness class times. That fall, the business owner announced that she was pregnant and was expecting the following spring. I was to take over the studio’s class schedule during her maternity leave. I felt the sudden urge to obtain my personal training certification to serve our clients to the best of my ability during her time with her new family. I finished my certification a few weeks before her due date. I immediately began taking one-on-one private clients as well as taking over the entirety of the fitness class load. In hindsight, those two things should not have happened simultaneously. The stress of those first few months was incredible. Trying to launch a new business and brand of my own while managing the in-person aspect of the business that gave me my start was overwhelming at times. But as they say, you can either sink or swim. That season of difficulty forced me to believe in myself, my abilities, and the service I offered.

Now I am a full-time personal trainer and group class instructor, while still maintaining two side hustles in the events industry. What can I say, I just don’t know how to function without more than one task on the table.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I live and conduct my business in a small town in Western Kentucky. It is the type of place where your word means something and people tend to judge you based on who your parents are. Because of this environment, reputation is everything. I am very thankful that I grew up attending, volunteering, and staffing at a Methodist summer camp in West Tennessee: Lakeshore Camp and Retreat Center. Social media was just coming out during my years as a volunteer counselor and staffer and we were cautioned by permanent staff to be mindful of what we were posting online. Granted, a great deal of that warning was to protect their reputation as a religious nonprofit but it truly helped me maintain an extremely positive and “clean” online presence at a time when I was applying to colleges and seeking employment. Not that I was a wild child, but if and when a potential employer or now potential client, looks at my social media platforms, there is very little, if anything, to be disappointed with. That’s not to say I’m everyone’s cup of tea, but I know in my heart that I have put my best foot forward in representing myself.

Aside from a sparkling online presence, keeping your word is an equally important aspect of your reputation. Clients rely on consistency, especially in the fitness industry. Canceling a client’s training session could completely derail their mental state and cause them to lose momentum entirely. Extenuating circumstances arise but overall, you absolutely must be a person that shows up when they say they will to build rapport and trust with each client you serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.teelavenice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teelavenice?igsh=cGMwc2I2eTlhamRq&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teelavenice
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teela-venice-0a4a6a180/

Image Credits
Lindsey Morgan, Tina Sexton, Kendra Jeffords, Lakin Suiter Whitman