We were lucky to catch up with Tesni Phillips recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tesni, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
I honestly won the lottery with my parents, and my business would not exist today if it weren’t for 29 years of their love, support, encouragement, understanding. As I’m an artist myself, people often assume I come from a family of painters, sculptors, art teachers, and so on. On paper, this couldn’t be further from the truth. My parents met while attending the University of Cardiff (Wales, UK), where my dad completed a Bachelor’s degree in Physics followed by an MBA and my mum completed a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology followed by a PhD in Neurochemistry. For two of the smartest “science-brained” people I know to have a daughter who loved nothing more than arts & crafts and felt practically allergic to math and science subjects in school is quite poetic! Growing up I found those aforementioned classes to be particularly challenging, and unfortunately they are typically the ones valued more in the British and American school systems than the arts. As a result, I began to feel pretty unintelligent and couldn’t help but feel frustrated that those around me seemed to find these concepts so much easier to grasp. I vividly remember telling my mum that I wished I got the same brain as everyone else as school would be so much easier, which is when she told me “Tesni, people like your father and I who love science help keep us all alive, but artists like you are the ones that make life actually worth living. You create the things that bring people joy, make life colorful, and frankly life would be far too boring to actually enjoy without those things.”
Day in and day out my parents taught me that my talents were just as important as my science-inclined peers, and that I needed to work just as hard because my contributions mattered too. They found tutors who could teach me these subjects in a way I could actually understand, and they drove me back and forth to countless classes at local art studios so that I could pursue my passions in a way that wasn’t possible within the school system. I am eternally grateful for all of these things they did and continue to do for me, because so many creatives are plagued by feeling left behind in education which is something my parents ensured would not happen to me. The best part of all of it is getting older and seeing this creativity in them too- my dad has developed a hobby in photography and creates some of the most breathtaking photos you could imagine, and my mum started an amazing business and course about the welsh language and a top performing educational podcast on spotify- two things that require an insane amount of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. I’ve come to really enjoy science and math topics as I have learned them through my business, and so all of this makes me really think that empowering someone to feel confident in themselves and their abilities can help them succeed in so many different areas and I can’t thank my parents enough for that confidence they instilled in me.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I design and paint custom shoes and also teach others how to do so in my in-person shoe painting classes right here in Austin, TX. I got into shoe painting a few years ago when someone saw me sketching and asked if it would be possible for me to paint that design on a pair of shoes for his daughter, and the rest is history! Shoe and sneaker painting is growing as a medium which is so exciting to see, and every artist I’ve seen has their own distinct style of painting which allows us all to exist in the same space without it feeling like a constant competition. I follow so many other shoe artists on Instagram, and I love getting to see the incredible designs they come up with too. One of the things I am most proud of is how I have managed to combine my artistic and creative side with my more technical and analytical side to create all of the different elements of my business. From designing my own logo and branding package to building out my own site and marketing this through social media and email marketing, I have taken the time to develop these skills so that the full experience of working with my business is enjoyable for customers :)
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
A few years ago I read the book “Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform our Lives” by Tim Harford and it honestly changed a large part of my creative process for the better. As a person who is messy both physically (my workspace always looks cluttered and messy!) and mentally (my ADHD has contributed to me always having an array of loud thoughts simultaneously which can make me feel a bit disorganized or “all over the place”), I really related to this book and learned how to harness that messiness for the better. After reading this book I feel like my “messy” thinking has become one of my biggest strengths, and I highly encourage others to read this book too and see how it may apply to them and their lives. Some other books I have loved reading that helped with my entrepreneurial journey have been Start With Why by Simon Sinek, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, Atomic Habits by James Clear, and Delivered From Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey. I think books are some of the best and cheapest ways to get invaluable information to help yourself and your business!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
From 2017 to 2020 I was working as a Youth Fitness Coach and climbing up the management ladder at a large fitness/gym chain in the Northeast. I started out as an entry level kids coach making minimum wage, and in those 2.5 years I was promoted up to supervisor of one location, to supervisor of 3 location, to an area manager, to an area program manager of 8 locations before COVID happened and shut every single gym in the Northeast down indefinitely. I was told that even if and when the gyms could open back up again, there would be no guarantee that my position would still exist as businesses would need to cut down to the minimum number of employees they could afford just to keep the doors open. In the coming weeks I sold all of my furniture and clothes so that all remained were two suitcases of clothes, two boxes of sentimental and home items, and my two bunny rabbits. I made the long road trip from Connecticut to Austin, TX, not knowing what would happen next but knowing that my parents raised me to be resilient and resourceful enough to figure it out. I worked morning shifts starting at 4:45 AM at a gym next to my apartment and then evening shifts at a restaurant as a server so that I could afford my rent, and it was during this time that I found shoe painting and fell in love with it. I wouldn’t be where I am today without all of the little odd jobs that kept me going while I searched for my passion, and I learned so much at each and every one of those jobs that has benefitted my current business in one way or another. Refusing to give up after losing my job was the catalyst to finding the career I am truly passionate about and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shoebtch.com
- Instagram: @shoeb_tch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shoeb-tch/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShoeB_tch
