I Used to Make $40 a Day in a Strip Club. Now I’m a Global Spiritual Entrepreneur. Here’s What I’ve Learned.

It was 8pm on a Saturday night when I pulled up for the interview in my Ford Focus Station Wagon.

I looked down at my short shorts and my new platform shoes. I adjusted the crop top I’d definitely never worn before.

I was 27 and I’d just quit my job as a Hollywood assistant. Now, two weeks later, I was interviewing to be a bartender at a topless bar.

For the next year and a half I served beer, bad wine, and even worse agave-based cocktails on Sundays and Mondays from 2pm to 8pm.

I was was convinced I was going to be a day shift bartender at the topless bar until I died.?

Slowly it was revealed, however, that the topless bar was exactly where I needed to be.

The skills and lessons I learned while making $40 a day at the strip club gave me the foundation I needed to build the global business I have today.?

Here’s What I Learned:

Setting boundaries always leads to greater respect. Because of the nature of the business, some customers thought that meant they were welcome to spew perverted comments my way. I had nearly a decade of hospitality jobs behind me, and I refused to quietly take it anymore. When customers were rude, I could refuse them service. What shocked me was that every time I set a boundary with a customer they would TIP ME MORE.

I didn’t even really care about the money. It was healing for soul to call out bad behavior; to refuse to accept it. But then to be REWARDED for it?

I learned, in a very tangible way, that respect will follow my courage to set boundaries.        

It might not be comfortable, and if people walk away as a result, let them go. The most important respect you can attain in this lifetime is respect from yourself.

This has been crucial in the building and running of my business. At every new stage of growth, there is a new boundary to be set. No matter what happens, each time I set a new boundary I am demonstrating that I know my worth.

Respecting your money will attract more of it. At the end of the shift the dancers would approach the bar to exchange their dollars for bigger bills. Some of the women would drop a pile of crumpled up ones in front of me. Others would hand me a neat stack of cash.

This small action was always an indication of how the woman was feeling in her life at that time. I learned that how we treat money, even the physical money we handle, affects how money flows in and out of our lives.

Respecting your money will attract more of it.        

Taking the time to appreciate the money I have, has not only manifested more money into my life, but also reminds me of ALL of the divine and beautiful ways abundance manifests in my life.

Everyone has a story. Because I worked the slow dayshifts, I had ample time to talk to the customers. And the dancers. And the DJ. And the bouncer. And the owner. Like the old saying goes, they all had a movie script in them.

This is when I started writing again. I hadn't been expressing myself creatively, but the experiences I was having and stories I was hearing needed to be recorded. I appreciated on a soul level the interesting people I was meeting! Once I started writing I couldn’t stop....every shift was a new chance for something wild to be revealed!

Even during the dayshifts, anything could happen.?        

That expectation is a powerful frequency to move through the world with. If you carry with you a deep knowing that something fun and exciting is going to happen, fun and exciting things will happen for you.

If you believe that people are interesting and surprising, then that will become your experience with people!

My business is all about stories. As a past life healer, I deal with stories not only from this lifetime, but from other lifetimes as well. My favorite part of my work is watching the stories from other lifetimes piece themselves together in my brain, then relaying them and hearing the client inevitably say, “That reminds me of what’s happening in my life now!”

I harbor an innate curiosity within me about what makes people tick. It’s what makes me so invested in my clients, what helps me to create strong collaborative relationships, and what allows me to keep a broad perspective of my own life.

Your uniqueness is your superpower. The biggest night of the year at the strip club was The Annual Stripper Pageant. Yes, you read that correctly. There were categories like Best Lap Dance and Best Pole Routine. The dancers would go ALL OUT. I saw a dancer dress in a full Kiss costume playing a violin with sparks coming out the end. Another dance dressed as a robot and did a robot strip dance to Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys.

The creativity I witnessed was NEXT LEVEL. It was such a delight to see these amazing women lean into their uniqueness. All the dancers wanted to do the pageant because everyone made money that night..... the evening when they were able to show more of themselves and have fun was an abundant night for all!

Being an entrepreneur, especially one like myself whose face and brand IS the face and brand of the business, can only sustain and thrive when everything is aligned with my individuality. I cannot do anything that doesn’t feel like ME. My community appreciates that about me. I don’t fit into a neat box in the spiritual world, and I'm finally okay with that.

All I can do is be myself....So that I can encourage others to be their bright, beautiful selves too.?

At the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want?        

Pretend Confidence is just as good as real confidence. This was a small club. There were no private rooms, and there were dancers of all ages, ethnicities, and body types. How they looked didn’t really matter. The ones who exuded confidence were the ones who did well.?

I knew it was all a performance, but being in that environment encouraged me to dig into my own confidence. Adopting a facade that I was totally confident in the strip club eventually built my true confidence.

Blended with my new “not taking shit” attitude, working at the strip club was definitely where I got my mojo back.

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My journey from the strip club to spiritual entrepreneurship is a testament to the transformative power of resilience, learning, and growth. It has taught me that no experience is wasted if we choose to learn from it. These lessons have not only shaped my career but have guided me in helping others find their path, turning challenges into stepping stones for success!

Cheers to moving forward - one lesson, one boundary, one dollar, and one act of confidence at a time!

Disclaimer: This is a divulgence of my personal experience. I would not declare that any other employee or contractor felt the same. I understand this environment can be controversial - I only ever witnessed ethical behavior from the management, and a full commitment to abide by county and state laws. This was a place that turned out to be healing for me, though I understand that for others it could have been/is/was traumatizing. Thank you for reading with an open mind.

Faith Streng is a 3rd Generation Psychic Healer, Reiki Master Teacher, and Spiritual Mentor with an international cosmic community of seekers, healers, and down-to-earth mystics. She offers private healing + coaching containers, subscription services, and yearly spiritual retreats around the world. Visit www.faithstrenghealing.com for more.