We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Telece Davis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Telece below.
Telece, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. We’re excited to dive into your story and your work, but first let’s start with a broader topic that might be stopping many of our readers from pursuing their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. How have you managed to persist despite haters and nay-sayers that inevitably follow folks who are doing something unique, special or off the beaten path?
I have a very open and giving heart. I root for people and want to see the people around me win. Because of this, I tend to think that people automatically have the same heart, and would want me to do well in my endeavors. However, unfortunately, in recent years, I had to learn a hard lesson that this is often not true.
When I first started Bossy Bar Babes, I expected the biggest supporters in my business to be my family and friends who were closest to me. However, I was unfortunately quite wrong. Back when I first started, I participated in a lot of “Pop-Up” shops/vendor fairs around Nashville to get my name and business recognition. Before the Pop-Up Shops, I always advertised where and when I would be set up in hopes that some of my family or friends would come out to support me and buy some drinks. Now first, I will say I did receive support from a friend and her wife unexpectedly at one of my events, and that made my day. So I do first want to call out the positive support I did receive. However, unfortunately, I did not receive the support I thought I would from my immediate family or other friends. Matter of fact, to this day, none of my immediate family members have ever bought a cocktail from me, come to support any of the events I participated in, or hired me for any of my bartending services, yet.
The lack of support from certain friends and family opened my eyes and forced me to take off my rose-colored glasses regarding who my biggest supporters would be and who they would not be. I had to realize that sometimes when people in your close circle see you doing well or receive certain opportunities, it brings up their insecurities which makes it hard for them to show you support. I realized that sometimes the people closest to you will be your biggest “naysayers” and not support your business because they don’t see you as legitimized until they see you doing well and making forward progress. Once they see you receiving validation from others, that is when they want to come back and try to work with you and your business. These are the unfortunate truths that I had to learn very quickly as an entrepreneur.
Regardless of the lack of support I received from certain people I thought would and should support me, it just made me have to believe in myself even more. I realized that I had to be my own biggest supporter! I had to be my own biggest fan! The lack of support just made me go even harder for myself and my business. I have some awesome things I have been working on behind the scenes for Bossy Bar Babes; some things that I am not ready to reveal just yet because, well you know, “the haters and naysayers”, but when the time comes for them to be revealed it will shut down a lot of those haters and naysayers and show people that I didn’t just start a hobby, or “little business” to quote, but that Bossy Bar Babes is to be taken seriously as a legitimized mobile bartending company, and so much more!
Going through these processes of business ownership, and seeing who showed up for me, and who didn’t, allowed me to discover that strangers will be your biggest supporters over your close circle in the world of entrepreneurship. For example, I received support from people I did not consider close friends but may have known years prior who saw a post about my business on social media causing them to recommend Bossy Bar Babes to their job to bartend their corporate events. Or receiving support from someone who attended a Pop-Up Shop I was in and recommended me to another friend, and next thing you know I am hired for their event. And so on, and so on. So even though not being supported by the people I thought would and should be my biggest supporters did hurt at first, it was all a part of a series of valuable lessons I needed to learn to grow as a person, and as an entrepreneur. It made me stronger, made me go harder for myself, and essentially is going to make Bossy Bar Babes more successful in the long run.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a business owner who proudly owns Bossy Bar Babes Mobile Bartending. With Bossy Bar Babes Mobile Bartending I not only provide great cocktail service for any event including birthdays, weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties, corporate events, and vendor fairs just to name a few, but I naturally and creatively use my bubbly personality and aesthetic to provide an unforgettable personal experience for my clients.
During my events, I use my cocktail creation knowledge to serve guests classic cocktails from great Martinis, Margaritas, Old Fashioneds, Mojitos, and Lemon Drop Martinis, to delicious innovational custom cocktails such as my “What’s the Tea” Bourbon Peach Punch and “Tropical Boss’cation” Rum Punch handcrafted by yours truly.
One of the things I pride myself in is providing a professional experience that allows me to be able to service clients from corporate settings such as corporate retirement parties, to events such as residential owner’s club events at affluent condominiums here in Nashville. Being professional and personable with my events has allowed me to make repeat, regular clients. One of my regular clients tends to plan their events around my availability, and if I am not available to service them, will reschedule their whole event to fit my schedule!
Another thing that sets me apart is that not only do I specialize in providing great cocktails, but I am now specializing in providing creatively crafted alcohol-free mocktails for those who are sober, sober-curious, or just wanting a break from alcohol and the potentially nasty side effects from consuming alcohol. In my mocktails, I use non-alcoholic mixers and elixirs that contain ingredients such as adaptogenic mushrooms that have a calming effect to mimic the effects of alcohol. Providing non-alcoholic options for my clients allows me to broaden my client base to include almost everyone who is looking for a great drink, whether it be with or without alcohol.
During this past year, I have taken a bit of a step back from participating in as many events as I did in the past to focus on building up my business from behind the scenes. I am currently working on rebranding and improving Bossy Bar Babes by adding more amenities and package options for my clients, and I’m excited to roll out my rebrand soon.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One skill I learned that ended up being very useful for my business was the art of public speaking. In my current day job, I am a corporate trainer where my job is to host training classes with the responsibility of training newly hired employees. Training classes both in person and virtually forced me to have to be comfortable with not only speaking in front of large groups but commanding and keeping the attention of people in the groups while being entertaining enough to engage them in what I am saying. In the world of bartending, this ended up being a very valuable skill! During my events, I make it a point to entertain my bar guests as I craft their cocktails with interesting and witty conversation. I also take the time to educate them on the drink I am crafting, so they can feel like they are a part of the complete cocktail creation experience.
Another valuable skill I learned that every good entrepreneur must know is sales. During the pandemic, I was unfortunately laid off from a training position, and before getting back into my main field of training, I took a couple of jobs in sales. During my short stint in sales, I realized I was good at selling things. My personality being bubbly and open, yet comforting at the same time allowed people to gravitate toward me, and made it easy for me to talk them into buying what I was selling. The only problem was at the time I did not have a passion for what I was selling. However, once I realized the smart thing to do was to put those sales skills to use in my own business, which I am extremely passionate about, I was able to use those skills I had learned in sales to my advantage. When you are a business owner, you are not only selling a product or service to people, but you are essentially selling yourself to people. You are asking people to trust you enough to hire you to service them and pay you for it. When there is a multitude of other people who also have mobile bartending companies in my area, it is my job to convince my potential clients first that they need the skills I offer as an experienced bartender as opposed to just making drinks on their own for their event, and then to chose me to be their bartending service opposed to another company.
A third skill or quality I should say would be having an outgoing, yet nurturing personality. Everyone knows that the bartender behind the bar not only serves drinks but also serves as a makeshift therapist to those who need an ear to talk to. Bartenders know more about some of their bar guests than the guest’s family, spouse, or actual therapist at times. So me having a naturally outgoing personality where one, I am not afraid to talk to people when it is time to talk and entertain my bar guests, and two I can sometimes sit back and listen to my guests when needed in a comforting, nurturing way comes in handy behind the bar and for my business. Having those skills is what has allowed me to gain repeat clients who have planned their events around my availability schedule.
My advice to those reading is to put yourself out there and learn multiple skills even if they aren’t directly related to your business, because they can indirectly help you succeed in ways you may not have originally thought of. Back in school before starting my professional career in corporate training, I was a lot more shy and reserved than I am now. Training gave me the skills to be able to talk to a large number of people, which helped me in my business. If I had remained shy and not gained the confidence to be as outgoing as I am now, I probably would not have had the same effect on people as far as leaving a lasting impression to cause them to hire me for services, and come back as a repeat client.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I think it may be a little bit of both. I think it is good to do something that you are confident and strong in, as people tend to enjoy doing things they are naturally good at, but that does not mean you can’t and shouldn’t improve in other areas directly or indirectly related to what you deem as your strength. For example, what I knew how to do well was create fun cocktails and entertain people while doing so. What I am not as strong in is handling things on the business side such as marketing techniques, building a good tech stack to help me run my business, and just managing the regular administrative parts of running a business. Knowing that, I began to educate myself through YouTube videos, reaching out to others who were more educated in those aspects to network and learn from them, taking business ownership classes, entrepreneurial management classes, etc. so that I could get better at handling the actual “business” part of running Bossy Bar Babes. However, if I had waited until I felt I was educated in all aspects of how to run a business, instead of just taking the leap of faith and starting, I may still be taking classes instead of having started Bossy Bar Babes. Sometimes, it is best to go ahead and get started and put your service or product that you are good at out there, and then focus on learning and improving on the things you are not so good at later down the road; better known as learning as you go. Learning as you go; learning by trial and error; making mistakes then correcting those mistakes, can be a beneficial way to learn. That is the approach I took and am currently taking with my business Bossy Bar Babes.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bossybarbabes,@teleceroshea
- Facebook: @bossybarbabes,@teleceroshea
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/telecedavis/
- Other: TikTok: @teleceroshea
