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I want to introduce you to On the Job and host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories
of people finding their lives. Work on the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery talks to a two step and line dancing teacher in Texas.
Welcome back to On the Job. Hope you all are loose and limber, because this week we're going to put on our dance and shoes and head down to Austin, Texas to talk with Vanessa Vaughan, who, as we'll hear, keeps the live music capital of the world, stepping to the beat on pretty much any night of the week. In Austin, Texas, you can find a dance floor full of people in cowboy boots twirling each other around to
live music. The country dance scene, or two stepping as it's referred to in these parts is going strong, and a big reason for that is Vanessa Vaught.
My name's Vanessa Vatt. I am the founder and lead dance instructor at Doublin Nothing two Step, and I currently live in South Austin, Texas.
Well, Vanessa isn't the only person teaching Austin Knights how to boot scoot these days. In just two years, she's become one of the busiest and it really.
Just took off quickly in a way that even immediately I was impressed with and was happy with what it has become. Now literally having thirty events on the books in the next few months is blowing my mind.
Four nights a week, she's teaching social classes at some of the city's oldest surviving hockey talks.
Dance is a language, so there are regional dialects throughout the South, specifically of this style of dance, and we dance a small space style that fits on our little dance floors here, and that's what we call honky tonk two step.
Other nights she's teaching corporate events.
Yeah, so we work with a lot of the major corporations. I mean again, I never thought i'd have like Facebook, Meta, Apple, Bevo Schlektsilet recently hired us to come teach their cast and crew.
That was incredible.
HBO, like my inbox is always interesting, I have to say.
And then there are the bachelorette parties.
Which we do line dancing and it's silly, adorable fun. It's funny because we don't socially line dance in Austin. The two steples will just run you.
Over whether we want to give credit to a post COVID desire to get back out amongst the people again, or the TV show Yellowstone or Beyonce's new album. The country scene is thriving these dates, and Austin, Texas and Vanessa Vought are right at its center.
Well specifically, what's happening here is a massive live music scene, and just the opportunity to go out and see so much live music every week really has created a strong dance scene. There's tons of them, and it's very intimidating for a lot of people to come in and see that. But that's kind of where I step in and encourage them that everybody starts at the beginning, and it's just consistency over time, like anything else, repetition, muscle memory.
Are you still excited about dancing?
I'm always excited about dancing. It's always the thing I want to do the most. It really does change the way you feel. It just feels so good.
Do you think you'll stick with this business for a while.
I think about that a lot. I will definitely probably ride it into the ground.
We'll see.
But I also realize there's so much potential that I've yet to tap, and so I guess yes, I'm at a bit of a point where I'm just trying to figure out what path to take, and also to remind myself that it doesn't have to be perfect, and just allowing myself to kind of play a little more with ideas that I have versus feeling like I constantly need to be booking events and going and working them.
No matter how good of a dancer you are, there's always room for improvement, and the same holds true in business. So this year, despite all her success, Vanessa's really trying to create more of an online presence to reach all those people out there who might be interested in dancing, whether they be near or far. Could you have ever foreseen being where you're at now?
Not even remotely.
No.
I was in freefall during the pandemic, absolute freefall. I was borrowing money from my sister to pay rent. I was looking in my couch cushions for enough money to get a five dollars bill to get into the bar to go dance. I was in absolute freefall. So could I have foreseen this?
No?
So if you want to learn how to two step, come join us down here for on the job. I'm Averrey Thompson.
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