Jenna Athey
Jenna Athey is a Brand Ambassador with TEAM Enterprises and a seasoned hospitality professional with over 20 years of experience in the service industry. She began her career at a young age working at a custard shop, where she scooped ice cream and helped run a drive-thru serving burgers, which sparked her passion for customer service and hospitality. Over the years, she worked in multiple restaurant environments, gaining experience in both front-of-house and back-of-house operations. After moving to Florida in 2015, Jenna helped open Opal Sands Resort, where she transitioned into a higher-tier bar environment and developed expertise in cocktail programming, premium spirits, and elevated guest experiences. She spent seven years with the company, splitting her time between Clearwater, Florida, and Bar Harbor, Maine, expanding her industry knowledge through diverse resort markets and operational styles.
Jenna’s career naturally evolved toward advocacy and wellness-focused hospitality, influenced by her work as a certified yoga teacher and her passion for supporting service industry professionals. She became involved in organizing wellness initiatives for hospitality workers, including teaching yoga classes designed to provide free, community-centered support for industry employees. This experience ultimately led to her current role when she was recommended for a Brand Ambassador position after demonstrating leadership and community impact. Today, she represents Bacardi portfolio brands, including Angel’s Envy bourbon, working throughout the Tampa Bay region—including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Clearwater Beach—to partner with accounts, provide tools, develop cocktail programs, conduct staff education, and share knowledge about whiskey categories and cocktail history.
In her role, Jenna focuses heavily on relationship-building, industry education, and mentorship within the hospitality community. She works closely with bar staff, owners, and operators to better understand their daily operations and provide consultative support that improves both service quality and brand performance. Jenna is especially passionate about advocating for newer professionals and supporting women entering the hospitality and spirits industries by hosting women-driven events and planning inclusive initiatives, particularly during Women’s History Month. Known for her people-centered expertise, professionalism, and commitment to industry growth, Jenna continues to elevate hospitality experiences while helping develop the next generation of service industry professionals.
• Yoga Teacher Certification
• Most Creative Award
• Free Yoga Classes for Service Industry Professionals
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to consistency. It's what I call the 'see the dogs in the morning mentality.' You've got to get up, you've got to do this, and you've got to do it every morning. That's been true in my hobby world, in yoga with the repeated practice, and especially in my job. I've made the big impacts because I'm there, I'm present, and I stay consistent. That builds trust within the relationships. I don't have to say I'm going to be there, I am there, and I'm there consistently, so those people trust me a lot faster and a lot longer term than I think they trust a lot of other people. It's persistence and showing up every single day that has made the difference for me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Jenna has been influenced by leaders within the hospitality and beverage industry who modeled professionalism, resilience, and advocacy. She values mentorship deeply and strives to pay that forward by guiding newer professionals entering the service industry.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Do things scared. Waiting till you're ready for something is just a really good excuse not to do it. So do it wrong, do it scared, just do it. That's advice I should be taking myself often, but it's okay that I'm not necessarily ready, or maybe this isn't going to be my best go, but it's going to be the first time I do it, and I'm going to learn something. You just have to start, because if you just keep waiting until you're ready to start something, you are literally never going to start anything. Doing things scared is a big one for me.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges in my field right now are around climate, and I mean that in multiple ways. There's the climate of the economy, which has a big effect on the alcohol industry. There's the climate of trends and things happening within different social groups and age groups. It's all just a lot of noise, and you have to stay very tuned in. It's challenging to hear that this entire thing is going to completely shift, that's your whole industry, and you have to figure out what that means for you. One challenge is being able to hear climate changes and understand that they're going to have impact on you, but also you've got to stay focused on what you have control and impact of. The other challenge, if I'm being honest, is that my job is so niche, it's hard to know where to go from here. There's a lot of opportunities, but none of them are really necessarily a direct line to where I am. I need to remember that not everything is a ladder, sometimes it's a lattice, so sometimes you've got to go left and right before you go up. And there's a generational shift happening too. There's a window of people in the Gen Z group who aren't drinking, which is interesting because the group after that are now drinking. It's just one set of a generation that is not drinking, and it's having a significant impact on sales. It's a hard place to be, especially coming from a yoga teacher background where I'm supposed to be excited about people reducing alcohol use, but it's an industry and it's something you're selling. It's very interesting to see the shifts and how much of an effect they're having.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are consistency, courage, authenticity, and balance. Having a young son really challenged me because I've always been a workhorse, somebody who can work a lot. But having a kid forced my hand to focus on what work-life balance really looks like. It's been a great lesson, and I'm happy to be learning it, but it's a consistent reminder about boundaries and understanding that I am still good and working hard if I don't say yes to every single thing that comes towards me. Being selective and intentional about how I move forward, not only in work but in personal life as well, is important to me. Having boundaries is a good thing, and holding boundaries is my job, so the rest of the things can come together the way that they're supposed to. While I'm hoping for progress at work, I'm also hoping my progress is happening on both sides of my life. Right now, what I'm trying to do is hold a boundary without shaking so much. Outside of work, I enjoy paddleboarding with my almost two-year-old son. We're outside most of the time, watching traffic and squirrels. He's a little boy, so he loves dinosaurs and trucks, and we just play outside and spend as much time as we can outside. I'm also a big junkie for the gym and working out. Yoga has been a big part of my life through ebbs and flows and ups and downs since I started teaching in 2012. Movement and overall wellness are very important to me.