May 14, 2024 • 14 mins
Vanessa Vaught finds serenity, and a brand new livelihood, on a Texas dance floor.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
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 Vaught, 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
(00:25):
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 Vaugh.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Vanessa Vaught.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I'm the founder and lead dance instructor at doublin Nothing
two Step and I currently live in South Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, Vanessa isn't the only person teaching Austin knites how
to boot scoot these days. In just two years, she's
become one of the busiest and it really just.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
On the books in the next few months, is blowing
my mind.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Four nights a week, she's teaching social classes at some
of the city's oldest surviving Honckey talks.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Other nights, she's teaching corporate events.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
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 Schlektslet recently hired us to come teach
their cast and crew.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That was incredible.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
HBO, Like my inbox is always interesting, I have to say.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And then there are the bachelorette parties.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
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. And initially
I had to say, probably the first four or five
requests for line dance lessons.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I got, I was a little bit like, uh, we
don't line dance here.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I'm sorry, and was trying to inform people and correct
them and let them know, you know, we don't line dance.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And then I was like, Vanessa, what are you doing?
Like these people want to pay you to have fun?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And I essentially gave in, still a little reluctantly, and
then I realized how much fun they were having, and
then I was sold.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I was like, all right, fine, we'll line dance.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
There are almost more people wanting Vanessa to teach them
how to dance then she can even manage. So business
is going well, it's going well.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's really wild. Honestly, I feel like I'm holding on
for dear life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm not lying. I struggle from attention deficit disorder and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Organizational skills in general and keeping up. I have so
many systems and checklists just to keep up with all
my clients and how to follow up with all of
them afterward, review requests, getting photos, all the things I'm
doing with the social community.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And to think all this wouldn't have happened if Vanessa
didn't suck at selling houses.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I had got my license in twenty nineteen, so I
was doing real estate the pandemic hit.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And in real estate, it's all about experience.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And how many deals you've done, and just being able
to prove that you have knowledge because it's a risky
it's a risky thing to undertake.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I just wasn't really for me. I'm not a salesperson.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
In fact, I took the disk assessment that compares your
work mode to like your personal mode for lack of
better description, and most people that are good at sales
kind of shift gears and then go into like sales
e mode, right, And my personality pretty much stays the
same within both, and I realize that's perfect for what
I'm doing now.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Was not good for real estate.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Without any money coming in from a real estate ventures, Vanessa,
like a lot of people during the pandemic, tried some
side hustles.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I was looking for another place to pivot and a
form of income. In fact, I was selling vintage. I
was doing all these things, so like really, anything that
seemed viable, I was going to throw my effort at
the vintage.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Thing didn't really work out, though, and no matter how
many open houses she hosted, she couldn't turn them into sales.
But at least she had dancing. Each night, she and
her dance partner would scrounge up enough money to pay
a cover fee. Then they'd get out on the dance floor,
where Vanessa could forget all about her troubles.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Once we're moving, once we were like the bodies are
moving around, it kind of washes it all away.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And the more Vanessa dancer cares away, the more an
idea started to take shape, because she could see that
there were all these great live music venues around town,
and all these great bands to play in them, but
on most nights there weren't a heck of a lot
of people on the dance floors.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We were some of the only people and by only
I mean maybe four people total in the bar dancing
at the Sage Brush, with more people on stage playing
music than we're in the crowd.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So Vanessa started thinking that what Austin needed was a
dance teacher, and why not her. If for nothing else,
she could at least get some more friends out on
the hard work, and then if they wanted to give
her a few bucks for her efforts, that'd be great too.
And right around the same time as COVID regulations started
to ease, the owner of one of those bars that
(05:33):
she was frequenting came up to her.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
He asked me if we would like to host the
social classes and we said yes. That gave me essentially
a goal, and in the six months it took to
actually have that come to be, that's when I really
started laying the foundation for this business, like social media website,
starting to teach private lessons, really starting to just build
(05:57):
awareness that this was something that was.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Going to be a thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And how did that first night go?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We had eighty people at our first social class. It
was overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But Vanessa could see right then and there on that
first night, looking out over that crowded dance floor, that
she'd tapped into something so true to her business name,
Double or Nothing. She didn't leave it at that. She
went to another country bar in town and said, hey,
do you all need someone to teach your customers how
to dance?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And they told me that they were hesitant at first,
but I actually used to go there.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
In my early twenties, so a while ago. Same staff
still there and they knew me.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I think through seeing that I was teaching the classes
at Sam's as well, essentially extended an offer for me
to come and try teaching at dance.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Now we're about to hit the two year mark. I believe.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And we've literally had seven plus people at those classes
and that is not a big dance floor.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We've had them definitely spilling out over the dance floor.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It is. It's been amazing, and they just when I
leave the bar on Wednesdays are like.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Thank you so much. It's just crazy. It makes me
emotional now.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I still feel out a lot, actually, but it's overwhelming
that just the gratitude people had, and somehow it was
attributed to myself and my Ben dance partner. We're not
we're here too, you know, this is awesome for us
to like it felt It just felt odd to be
credited with again what we were so.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Grateful to have as well. It was lovely and it
still is sometimes. I still just like, oh my god,
it gives me emotional.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
When we come back from the break, we'll step out
onto the dance floor. So if you don't already have
your cowboy boots on, go grab them.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Looking for a job is lonely, endless, searching phone calls
that go nowhere, applications that vanish in the thin air.
What if you could link with dozens of local companies
who are hiring right now with just one connection that's
Express Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,
(08:12):
endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express
Employment Professionals expresspros dot com.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Every Wednesday at six pm, Vanessa Vaught separates a crowd
of inexperienced, somewhat nervous dancers into two groups, leaders and followers.
Since founding her dance company Double or Nothing Back in
twenty twenty one, these social classes, which she does four
nights a week across Austin, have become incredibly popular, and
(08:47):
tonight is no exception, with dancers spilling out towards the.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Pool taping's that hart I beget You're here?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Thank it?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Whether we want to give credit to a post COVID
desired get back out amongst the people again, or the
TV show Yellowstone or Beyonce's new album. The country scene
is thriving these days and Austin, Texas and Vanessa Vought
are right at its center.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Fine, I'm not here to make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I want to make you that are the really fun
opportunity to enjoy the city. 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
(09:37):
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. Some of the best dancers I've
been around now for about eight years, some of the
best dancers out there I've saw at the beginning. So
I just try to encourage them that they can do
this too, and it's just consistency over time, like anything else, repetition,
muscle memory.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
The crowd tonight is a wide array of folks, everyone
from twenty somethings and short skirts and skinny jeans on
up to a retired couple who've got to take rests
in between songs, and all of them are trying to
stick to the rhythm of slow, slow, quick, quick, orreas
Vanessa likes to say, I love two steps right.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Another way to need about this is I love.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Wow. Our beginner class is so much fun. It's probably
one of my favorites. I mean, I say that about
all of them. They're amazing in different ways. But the
beginner class is often people that are nervous to be there,
they're trying something new, maybe they're from out of town.
It's generally an introduction to the scene as a whole,
as well as the dance. We start off with the
(10:50):
basic steps so that they understand kind of the difference
between maybe what they've seen on YouTube, Instagram or elsewhere
where they've learned Texas two step, because ours, again is
regionally specific fix style.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
We learn how to do some spins and swing, and
then we learn how to jump back to two steps.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So that is really the foundation for the beginner sequence,
as I call it, and that's always my beginner classes,
that same pattern. My intermediate classes and advanced classes go
from there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Are you still excited about dancing.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
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. Sometimes when I'm on the dance floor
and I'm dancing with someone that's making it very very clear,
and I don't have to think, and I close my eyes.
I close my eyes a lot when I dance. It
is it feels the same as sitting still. It just
(11:38):
feels so good. I love it so much, and I
realize it's not where everybody starts, because it wasn't where
I started. But once I realized, like over time, that
feeling starts to be more and more present because your
muscle memory takes over and you don't have to so
much manage what's happening. Your brain doesn't have to control
(11:59):
what's happening with your body. It really becomes this meditative state.
Is it is my favorite part, to be honest with me,
I can love about this.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
When you were doing the real estate thing, you're sitting
outside of a house that doesn't sell. Could you have
ever foreseen being where you're at now?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Not even remotely.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
No. I was in freefall during the pandemic, absolute free fall.
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.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I was in absolute free fall. So could I have
foreseen this? No? All right, thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I was really cute. We're going to do? Do you
think you'll stick with this business for a while.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I think about that a lot. I will definitely probably
ride it into the ground. We'll see, but I also
realized there's so much potential that I've yet to tap,
and so I guess 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
(13:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I again realize it takes physically connecting with another human
to really learn what it is to partner dance, but
I do think there's a lot to be gained.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
In addition, of course, couples can enjoy this.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
People visiting Austin that maybe want to get a head
start on dancing, learning how to do our regionally specific
dance and then just go out and have a good time.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So I think that there's a market there. I think
that there's a market there.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'm not sure it's directly my social community, but the
internet's a big place, so I'm looking forward to tackling
that next.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So if you want to learn how to two step,
be on the lookout for double or nothing coming to
a computer screen near you, or better yet, just get
on a plane and come join us down here. But
I'd advise you that if you're coming for the beginner class,
you better show up early if you want a spot
on the dance floor for on the job. I'm Avery Thompson.
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 Vaught, 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
(00:25):
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 Vaugh.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
My name is Vanessa Vaught.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I'm the founder and lead dance instructor at doublin Nothing
two Step and I currently live in South Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, Vanessa isn't the only person teaching Austin knites how
to boot scoot these days. In just two years, she's
become one of the busiest and it really just.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
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.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
On the books in the next few months, is blowing
my mind.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Four nights a week, she's teaching social classes at some
of the city's oldest surviving Honckey talks.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Other nights, she's teaching corporate events.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
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 Schlektslet recently hired us to come teach
their cast and crew.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
That was incredible.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
HBO, Like my inbox is always interesting, I have to say.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And then there are the bachelorette parties.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
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. And initially
I had to say, probably the first four or five
requests for line dance lessons.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I got, I was a little bit like, uh, we
don't line dance here.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I'm sorry, and was trying to inform people and correct
them and let them know, you know, we don't line dance.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And then I was like, Vanessa, what are you doing?
Like these people want to pay you to have fun?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And I essentially gave in, still a little reluctantly, and
then I realized how much fun they were having, and
then I was sold.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I was like, all right, fine, we'll line dance.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
There are almost more people wanting Vanessa to teach them
how to dance then she can even manage. So business
is going well, it's going well.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's really wild. Honestly, I feel like I'm holding on
for dear life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm not lying. I struggle from attention deficit disorder and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Organizational skills in general and keeping up. I have so
many systems and checklists just to keep up with all
my clients and how to follow up with all of
them afterward, review requests, getting photos, all the things I'm
doing with the social community.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And to think all this wouldn't have happened if Vanessa
didn't suck at selling houses.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I had got my license in twenty nineteen, so I
was doing real estate the pandemic hit.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And in real estate, it's all about experience.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And how many deals you've done, and just being able
to prove that you have knowledge because it's a risky
it's a risky thing to undertake.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I just wasn't really for me. I'm not a salesperson.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
In fact, I took the disk assessment that compares your
work mode to like your personal mode for lack of
better description, and most people that are good at sales
kind of shift gears and then go into like sales
e mode, right, And my personality pretty much stays the
same within both, and I realize that's perfect for what
I'm doing now.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Was not good for real estate.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Without any money coming in from a real estate ventures, Vanessa,
like a lot of people during the pandemic, tried some
side hustles.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I was looking for another place to pivot and a
form of income. In fact, I was selling vintage. I
was doing all these things, so like really, anything that
seemed viable, I was going to throw my effort at
the vintage.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Thing didn't really work out, though, and no matter how
many open houses she hosted, she couldn't turn them into sales.
But at least she had dancing. Each night, she and
her dance partner would scrounge up enough money to pay
a cover fee. Then they'd get out on the dance floor,
where Vanessa could forget all about her troubles.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Once we're moving, once we were like the bodies are
moving around, it kind of washes it all away.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And the more Vanessa dancer cares away, the more an
idea started to take shape, because she could see that
there were all these great live music venues around town,
and all these great bands to play in them, but
on most nights there weren't a heck of a lot
of people on the dance floors.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We were some of the only people and by only
I mean maybe four people total in the bar dancing
at the Sage Brush, with more people on stage playing
music than we're in the crowd.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So Vanessa started thinking that what Austin needed was a
dance teacher, and why not her. If for nothing else,
she could at least get some more friends out on
the hard work, and then if they wanted to give
her a few bucks for her efforts, that'd be great too.
And right around the same time as COVID regulations started
to ease, the owner of one of those bars that
(05:33):
she was frequenting came up to her.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
He asked me if we would like to host the
social classes and we said yes. That gave me essentially
a goal, and in the six months it took to
actually have that come to be, that's when I really
started laying the foundation for this business, like social media website,
starting to teach private lessons, really starting to just build
(05:57):
awareness that this was something that was.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Going to be a thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And how did that first night go?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We had eighty people at our first social class. It
was overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But Vanessa could see right then and there on that
first night, looking out over that crowded dance floor, that
she'd tapped into something so true to her business name,
Double or Nothing. She didn't leave it at that. She
went to another country bar in town and said, hey,
do you all need someone to teach your customers how
to dance?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
And they told me that they were hesitant at first,
but I actually used to go there.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
In my early twenties, so a while ago. Same staff
still there and they knew me.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I think through seeing that I was teaching the classes
at Sam's as well, essentially extended an offer for me
to come and try teaching at dance.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Now we're about to hit the two year mark. I believe.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And we've literally had seven plus people at those classes
and that is not a big dance floor.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We've had them definitely spilling out over the dance floor.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
It is. It's been amazing, and they just when I
leave the bar on Wednesdays are like.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Thank you so much. It's just crazy. It makes me
emotional now.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I still feel out a lot, actually, but it's overwhelming
that just the gratitude people had, and somehow it was
attributed to myself and my Ben dance partner. We're not
we're here too, you know, this is awesome for us
to like it felt It just felt odd to be
credited with again what we were so.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Grateful to have as well. It was lovely and it
still is sometimes. I still just like, oh my god,
it gives me emotional.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
When we come back from the break, we'll step out
onto the dance floor. So if you don't already have
your cowboy boots on, go grab them.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Looking for a job is lonely, endless, searching phone calls
that go nowhere, applications that vanish in the thin air.
What if you could link with dozens of local companies
who are hiring right now with just one connection that's
Express Employment Professionals. Find us at expresspros dot com. One connection,
(08:12):
endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers Express
Employment Professionals expresspros dot com.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Every Wednesday at six pm, Vanessa Vaught separates a crowd
of inexperienced, somewhat nervous dancers into two groups, leaders and followers.
Since founding her dance company Double or Nothing Back in
twenty twenty one, these social classes, which she does four
nights a week across Austin, have become incredibly popular, and
(08:47):
tonight is no exception, with dancers spilling out towards the.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Pool taping's that hart I beget You're here?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Thank it?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Whether we want to give credit to a post COVID
desired get back out amongst the people again, or the
TV show Yellowstone or Beyonce's new album. The country scene
is thriving these days and Austin, Texas and Vanessa Vought
are right at its center.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Fine, I'm not here to make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I want to make you that are the really fun
opportunity to enjoy the city. 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
(09:37):
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. Some of the best dancers I've
been around now for about eight years, some of the
best dancers out there I've saw at the beginning. So
I just try to encourage them that they can do
this too, and it's just consistency over time, like anything else, repetition,
muscle memory.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
The crowd tonight is a wide array of folks, everyone
from twenty somethings and short skirts and skinny jeans on
up to a retired couple who've got to take rests
in between songs, and all of them are trying to
stick to the rhythm of slow, slow, quick, quick, orreas
Vanessa likes to say, I love two steps right.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Another way to need about this is I love.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Wow. Our beginner class is so much fun. It's probably
one of my favorites. I mean, I say that about
all of them. They're amazing in different ways. But the
beginner class is often people that are nervous to be there,
they're trying something new, maybe they're from out of town.
It's generally an introduction to the scene as a whole,
as well as the dance. We start off with the
(10:50):
basic steps so that they understand kind of the difference
between maybe what they've seen on YouTube, Instagram or elsewhere
where they've learned Texas two step, because ours, again is
regionally specific fix style.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
We learn how to do some spins and swing, and
then we learn how to jump back to two steps.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So that is really the foundation for the beginner sequence,
as I call it, and that's always my beginner classes,
that same pattern. My intermediate classes and advanced classes go
from there.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Are you still excited about dancing.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
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. Sometimes when I'm on the dance floor
and I'm dancing with someone that's making it very very clear,
and I don't have to think, and I close my eyes.
I close my eyes a lot when I dance. It
is it feels the same as sitting still. It just
(11:38):
feels so good. I love it so much, and I
realize it's not where everybody starts, because it wasn't where
I started. But once I realized, like over time, that
feeling starts to be more and more present because your
muscle memory takes over and you don't have to so
much manage what's happening. Your brain doesn't have to control
(11:59):
what's happening with your body. It really becomes this meditative state.
Is it is my favorite part, to be honest with me,
I can love about this.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
When you were doing the real estate thing, you're sitting
outside of a house that doesn't sell. Could you have
ever foreseen being where you're at now?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Not even remotely.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
No. I was in freefall during the pandemic, absolute free fall.
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.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I was in absolute free fall. So could I have
foreseen this? No? All right, thank you for doing that.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I was really cute. We're going to do? Do you
think you'll stick with this business for a while.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I think about that a lot. I will definitely probably
ride it into the ground. We'll see, but I also
realized there's so much potential that I've yet to tap,
and so I guess 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
(13:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
I again realize it takes physically connecting with another human
to really learn what it is to partner dance, but
I do think there's a lot to be gained.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
In addition, of course, couples can enjoy this.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
People visiting Austin that maybe want to get a head
start on dancing, learning how to do our regionally specific
dance and then just go out and have a good time.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So I think that there's a market there. I think
that there's a market there.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'm not sure it's directly my social community, but the
internet's a big place, so I'm looking forward to tackling
that next.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So if you want to learn how to two step,
be on the lookout for double or nothing coming to
a computer screen near you, or better yet, just get
on a plane and come join us down here. But
I'd advise you that if you're coming for the beginner class,
you better show up early if you want a spot
on the dance floor for on the job. I'm Avery Thompson.
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