Keeping with my Sports Tourism Theme, my tentative plans are to head up to Philadelphia next week to work the 2009 World Series. To all you Dodger fans…better luck next year.

I have worked the Superbowl. You can re-visit my tongue in cheek review in the Diary of a Superbowl Stripper series of blogs I wrote in February 2008.

I have worked Nascar. In fact that was one of the busiest events in Phoenix for many years. In 2007 I wrote about the declining attendance The 2008 race was fun because I was working at Babe’s in Scottsdale and it drew a better crowd.

I have worked the NBA All Star Game. It was less than stellar, probably because I worked at the upscale Scottsdale club, not the downtown “make it rain” type of club.

Fiesta Bowls always draw sports tourists. Diary of a Fiesta Bowl Stripper is a fun read.

I have never worked a World Series. However, baseball fans tend to travel for their team, even during the regular season.

I will be appearing at Scarlett O’hara’s in Sioux Falls, SD this week.

They have even put my name on their online schedule!  This will be an interesting adventure for me.  I have never been to South Dakota before so I can now add it to my list of states visited (been to 36, 14 to go.)  I was booked through Nakita Kash at Traveling Entertainers, which is a fabulous service for any house entertainer who wants to minimize travel expenses while stripping across the country.

As I was packing, I came across my copy of Strip City by Lily Burana.  I read and reviewed  it on this blog two summers ago.  It is about a stripper who sets out on a cross country strip-trip as a final farewell before she gets married.  I have decided to re-create Ms. Burana’s experiences on this trip.

Also, as my 10 year anniversary approaches this Halloween, I feel it is an appropriate way to celebrate a decade of service in this industry.  I have either worked or patronized many of the clubs Ms. Burana details in the book.  The industry has changed since her late 90s trek, I think it’s time for an update!

The Lodge is unlike any club I have ever experienced. Check out these local commercials.

From a dancer’s perspective, if I lived in Dallas…. I wouldn’t want to work anyplace else! Much of my opinion is due to the positive reinforcement strategies that owner, Dawn Rizos implements throughout the club. For example, there is NO HOUSE FEE for entertainers who arrive to work on time at 6pm. Dayshift entertainers not only pay no house fee, but are also fed a catered lunch by the club’s Five-Star Restaurant. I had the lobster bisque and crab stuffed halibut; it was delicious!

There is also no mandatory required tip-out to support staff.  This concept was difficult for me to wrap my head around at first (social capital is my best friend at Treasures in Las Vegas.)  However, the club is structured a bit differently.  Instead of “bouncers” and “VIP Hosts,” The Lodge hires managers who are paid a nice salary with full benefits.  Before my shift, the night manager sat down with me for a 20 minute interview before I was allowed to approach the customers.

“Do you do this with everyone?” I asked.

“Absolutely, I want to make sure you are an entertainer, not a stripper” he replied.

Entertainers are rewarded for selling club merchandise, champagne, and VIP memberships through an in-house point system.  There is a full service salon upstairs, in addition to the make-up artists and hair stylists who work each shift.  The Lodge also awards a full college scholarship to one lucky entertainer EVERY YEAR!

Ok, enough about the perks!  The club itself is huge.  The main room is decorated like a hunting lodge.  The Library is decorated….like a library of course.  The upstairs VIP lounge is available only to VIP club members and is decorated like the restaurant in Casa Blanca.  The downstairs VIP lounge is just off of the Library.  I like how each room has a distinctly different vibe.  I also like how I can work one room for an hour, then go to another one and customers say, “Where have YOU been?”

Apparently The Lodge is where the celebrities go when they are in Dallas.  Marilyn Manson tipped me $20 while sitting next to the stage in The Library.  I would have never recognized him.  He’s not a bad looking guy once you take off the scary black and white face paint.

At one time or another, we have all asked ourselves: What is THAT girl doing? Why does SHE always make twice as much money as I do? Is there something I should be doing different?? You know who I’m talking about. She is in every club. You see her counting more than what you said was your GOAL for the night and the shift isn’t even close to over yet!! How does she do that?

It’s because she is in The SuperStripper Zone

You’ve even been in the ZONE yourself from time to time. You may not have even realized it. Or maybe you didn’t take credit for it. Have you ever been working during the busy season when you don’t have to work very hard: guys just seem to line up for your dances and you don’t have enough time to get to all of them? You may have attributed this to not enough girls working, or a good dancer to customer ratio…but really…it was YOU.

YOU were in the SuperStripperZone! Do you know how you got there? More importantly, do you know how can you MAKE it happen more often or EVERY TIME you work??

That’s what this week is about…Getting yourself into The SuperStripper Zone!

If you are a subscriber to our newsletter you will receive our FREE ebook about how to get yourself into this money making state. To subscribe, just go to our home page, scroll to the bottom, and enter in your email address. Don’t worry, we won’t sell it to anyone.

Members, the weekly topic of our webinar today  at 1pm Pacific  is a LIVE version of How to Get Yourself into the SuperStripper Zone.  If you can’t make it, don’t worry, the archive version will be available in the Members Section.

We at Strip and Grow Rich want to help you make the most money during this slow summer season.

So, today we are kicking off SuperStripper Summer Secrets: Eight Weeks to hone your Sales Skills.

Components include

1.  FREE weekly DancerWealth supplementary audio.  As you can see, I have attached the introduction. You can download it to your hard drive and rip it into your mp3 player.  It will also soon be available in the StripandGrowRich iTunes Podcast. I am fixing the feed and it will take a few days for the modifications to show up in iTunes.

2. Members-only webinars

3. Free trial webinars

4. Membership drive that will have TONS of bonus freebies like ebooks and CDs.  Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can get these offers in your inbox!  You can sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of our main homepage.

So, did anyone else have a problem answering some of those personality test questions?  I did.

As entertainers, we put a mask on every night.  We wear both a physical mask (hair extensions, fake boobs, fake eyelashes, heavy makeup) and an emotional mask.  For those of you who are relatively new to entertaining, you may still be in the process of developing your Stripper Persona.

I remember talking about Stripper Persona to a newbie one night a few months ago.  She said something to the tune of, “Most guys just don’t seem to like me…that’s just who I am, and I can’t change that”  I told her that she needed to separate her Real Life and her Stripper Persona.  The Stripper Persona isn’t necessarily a whole lot different from the Real Life Persona…it is just amplified.  It’s still you, but it embodies all the qualities that that you want to be….but are too shy to be in your Real Life.

Ironically, after a  while we tend to become more like our Stripper Personas.  I’m not referring to the loud, drunk, and topless aspect; I’m referring to confidence, friendliness, poise, and the ability to socialize with people who aren’t like you.

I first noticed this at the very first Exotic Dancer MBA that I taught with Lia from Starlight Ministries. Lia gave all the participants the Myers-Briggs personality test.  As I was taking the test I had to stop and evaluate some of the simplest questions like: “Do you usually approach and introduce yourself to strangers at a party?”  Avalon would….Rebecca wouldn’t.  “Do you make your decisions quickly by your gut or slowly by anlyzing facts.” Well, Avalon can quickly decide a customer’s personality type and appropriate sale….Rebecca spent YEARS of research to design the system that Avalon uses.

A good friend sent me this link the other day with her results.

The analysis was so accurate I decided to try it myself and posted the results to my Facebook Page:

You Are An ESTJ

The Guardian

You’re a natural leader and a quick, logical decision maker.
Goals are important in your life, and you take many steps to achieve them.
You enjoy interacting with others, mostly through work related activities.
Your high energy level means that you are great at getting things done!

In love, you tend to bring stability to relationships.
You feel comfortable being in charge, and you enjoy being a provider.

At work, you take charge. You thrive in structured environments and don’t mind enforcing the rules.
You would make a great teacher, judge, or police detective.

How you see yourself: Realistic, stable, and pragmatic

When other people don’t get you, they see you as: Rigid, bound to rules, and a bad listener

Although this is a different style of personality profiling than what I teach in DancerWealth, it has similar roots in the early works of Carl Jung and his follower Isabel Myers-Briggs.  If you have time, take the test, you will find out much about yourself.

Why is it important to know this about yourself?  Well, I feel that personal development is an integral part of life.  Unfortunately, many people do not actively work on it.  If you are able to identify your strengths and weaknesses, then you can use that knowledge to make major life decisions better.  If you are married or in a committed relationship, knowing your partner’s strengths and weaknesses can help to temper minor disagreements so they do not escalate into screaming matches.

It can also assist you in finding the right type of work.  for example, as i read deeper into my own ESTJ personality type, I learned that my personality type favors structured environments: which is why I tend to thrive in upscale corporate style clubs that enforce a dress code and other various rules.  To free spirited entertainers who are not ESTJs that environment would completely squash their creativity!

Please, take the test and post your results either here or on Facebook.  You can use the Facebook Connect key to comment on the blog!

As you know, I’ve been at my mom’s house in suburban Philadelphia for the past week.  Although she doesn’t like what I do for a living, she has taken path of unconditional love.  Earlier this week, she hosted her Bible Study group’s pot luck dinner.  Many of these now gray-haired little old ladies remember me from Sunday School and Youth Group….and can’t resist re-telling the story about The Fishers of Men.

If you are familiar with Bible stories and activities for children, there is an activity designed for 3-4 year olds.   They sing a song while acting like fishermen:  simultaneously bend over, grab a fisherman’s net and then throw the net and their arms up in the air.  I can still hear the song in my head “And we will make you” (bend down and grab the net) “Fishers of Men!” (throw it in the air)

I guess it was something we practiced and performed for a few weeks, because all the parents were seated in the Sunday School Classroom watching us perform.

The lady next to my mom says, “Oh I’m so embarrassed, Rachel’s knee socks don’t match…I thought her dress was long enough to cover it but every time she throws her arms up in the air her dress lifts up and you can see they don’t match.”

“That’s okay” Mom replied, “I forgot to put underwear on Avalon…and every time she bends over to pick up the net she flashes everyone.”

Nikita Kash at www.travelingentertainers.com gave me the heads up on the Grand Opening of this club.  I drove by before it opened last week just to scope out the location.  It is actually a brand new building about a mile north of Oasis Gentlemen’s Club.  A few of the Oasis owners are also owners of this club. Here is the blurb from the Philadelphia Inquirer, scroll down to the bottom.

I arrived at 9:30 for the start of my 10-2 shift.  The club is brand new, and yes the tanning bed in the dressing room mentioned in the article is apparently very strong.  The club has a great set-up for the owners and the customers, but it is not optimal from the dancers’ perspective.

The Steakhouse is completely separated from the club with soundproof walls, but has several large windows for the diners to watch the main stage.  The rest of the main seating area is a huge 100 foot long  plus bar.  There are two small nooks each with two tables for seating, otherwise you have to sit at the bar.  After the three song rotation on the main stages, which is basically an island surrounded by the bar, the dancers do a tip walk around the inside of the bar perimeter to collect their dollars.  It reminded me of Mr J’s in Southern California, where after the stage set each entertainer got a dollar from every patron.   I think it gives a very personal touch, since every customer gets to meet every entertainer before the lapdance sale pressure.  From the dancer’s perspective it gives  a chance to pre-screen the guys sitting at the bar before approaching for the lap dance sale.  On each of my tip walks I was told to come back when I was done.

There are no main floor dances.  How can you when there are no chairs?  The bar also made it difficult to approach the customers from the front.  Think about it: when you sit at a bar you sit facing forward, and in this case it’s looking at the stage.  This forces the entertainer to approach EVERY customer in the bar from behind, which is the worst way to approach someone.

All dances are done in either the $20 couch dance room or the half hour and hour champagne rooms.  The club counts how many couch dances each performer sells and takes 25% of all lapdance sales ….and 55% of champagne room time.  I thought the 55% cut was a bit high, especially since the base stage fee was $30. At Delilah’s the stage fee is $65, and I can keep 100% of my lapdance and champagne room earnings.

I’m actually quite surprised at the vast difference in pricing structure for similar clubs in the same city.  Even though Delilahs has (apparently) the highest stage fee in town,  any entertainer who does more than 7 dances in an evening will end up paying more to the house at Christine’s than she will at Delilah’s.

So, this is a no brainer: Panda and Curtis have a business meeting in Philly next week.  Given their tendency to spend multiple hours in the Champagne room…should I meet them at Delilahs where I charge and keep  $400/hour.  Or should I take my generous and loyal clients to Christine’s where the house will charge them $500/hour, and I keep $240?

The How to use Twitter to Market Your Stripping Business video I scripted three weeks ago was a bit outdated when I went to record it yesterday. Despite some reports that Twitter’s growth has suddenly stopped, it’s appearance in Time Magazine and my mom’s announcement that she signed up to follow her church’s mission group work solidify my belief that it is here to stay. Nevertheless, I had to change some of the content. I am glad that Twitter is adding verified accounts. I spent a lot of time setting up satellite email addresses so I could claim all of the Twitter Handles that could be associated with StripandGrowRich (DancerWealth, DancerWise, SuperStripper, etc) I don’t plan on using them all, but in the copycat world of online business I don’t want someone to snatch up my brand name and pretend to be me. Just last week, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter over a bogus account.

Although the step by step process of How to use Twitter to Passively Market your Stripping Business is in the member’s video section, you can see my finished product at http://twitter.com/stripgrowrich I spent a few hours tweaking it today.

Are you on Twitter?