Lexi Lou is a experienced stripper and entrepreneur. The owner and founder of Lexi Ladies Academy, she has grown an empire that started as a sales education course. Now involved in online fitness, webcam courses and much more, this lady is ambitious, driven and unstoppable. We caught up with her to get some pearls of wisdom and find out where she is heading to next…
Strip-Magazine: We always like to start at the beginning here at Strip Magazine. How did you find yourself in the industry?
Lexi Lou: I have a Youtube video that goes into this in real depth (you can watch it here on the Lexi Ladies channel) so feel free to look at that if you want to go into more detail. In short, I got into dancing because I was homeless. I found myself not being able to get a job after I lost a job, I had nowhere to live, and I was sleeping on my sister’s sofa.
It got to the point where I was trying to get employment anywhere. I was so, so desperate to find work or find any kind of source of money, but it wasn’t happening. It’s like when we’re in the club now. If you’re desperate for the cash, it’s like the guys can smell it on you and you never end up making any money. When you’re just having a good time, it doesn’t faze you, and you’ve got loads of money in the bank you become more attractive. It was a very similar scenario.
S-M: The sounds like a really tough period. Sadly, with global events, it will resonate with people even more at the moment. What led to you getting your first audition and how did that go?
L.L: I sort of cheated the time. Initially, I went to Senorita’s in Nottingam and tried to get job there. I auditioned and it was awful. I flopped it completely. The owner, James, who is a very good friend now, advised me I needed some pole dancing lesson which he paid for. They told me to comeback later once I had more training. In the meantime I decided to try Flirtz in Nottingham for a job there but you had to be 21 and I wasn’t old enough. However, I could work in their sister club in Skegness instead. So I gave it a go and went over Thursday to Sunday, and stayed upstairs in their accommodation. For the rest of time I carried on staying on my sister’s sofa and that went on for quite a while.
S-M: One thing that seems to be a common theme, is the leap of faith women take when embarking on a dancing career. Did you do this all alone or did you partner up?
L.L: My best friend. Jessica, has been a dancer for a long time and she’d actually been struggling too as a single mom. She had been trying to get a job as well, and she went off to go do this by herself. She obviously then told me about it and said, ‘Don’t tell anyone!’. I was like, ‘Oh my god, as if you didn’t take me with you! Next time take me with you. So that was what happened the next time and we all used to go together. That was our little routine. She’s gone on to have five kids now. Absolutely amazing mom, amazing woman, is gorgeous. She’s very much in the health and fitness, has a sunbed shop and done really well for herself.
S-M: That’s great that you both forged opportunities for yourselves and both have enjoyed success in different ways. You mention your friend was wanting to keep things quiet but you are now very out a very proud. Was this always the way for you?
L.L: I’m trying to remember as it goes so far back… I think at the start, I was very secretive about it. I told a couple of friends…no in fact no I didn’t actually at the start. It was just me and my friend, we just kept it very low key. After a while, I think I started to tell a couple of friends because they were asking me questions. ‘Where are you going?’. The reaction was very shocked and curious. The more of a more curious everyone was about it, and the more accepting my Friendship Circle, the more I kind of opened up to it.
S-M: Acceptance can make a huge difference. Keeping secrets is incredibly draining and you were really lucky to be in a really supportive network. Did everyone take the news well?
L.L: I think I told my family but I didn’t tell my dad for a while. and then it just kind of grew more and more. The reaction and feedback that I got from it was less judgmental but more supportive than I expected. So I think it just kind of went from there. I was quite surprised about it to be honest. I think a lot think that people are gonna judge them, but it’s become such a thing now.
It just that kind of just grew a bit later. Eventually, I told dad. He’s supportive, just requested I don’t do porn.
S-M: How do you think society has changed in regards to sex work and how has it impacted your life?
L.L: More of society accepts that this is what people do, especially nowadays. It’s very much the norm. Everyone’s doing it OnlyFans at the moment, including celebrities. Of course, this wasn’t the case then, but I think it just kind of grew. The more more and more people I told the more I kind of felt it was okay, and accepted it myself. Following that, my online presence thing now is that came a lot later.
By creating the Lexi Ladies Professional Stripper System, I wanted to empower women to feel confident and enhance their business mindset. The academy has courses for all career stages and we have recently branched out to include courses in webcam, business, OnlyFans and much more…
S-M: How did the online courses start?
L.L: It actually happened when I stopped dancing. I found myself a little bit lost, in between jobs and wasn’t really sure what to do. I was living in Dubai at time with my partner. He was a public speaker, and he was teaching his forte, which was business, mindset, psychology and all that kind of stuff. The way I saw him do what he did, I thought, ‘Well, to be honest, my forte is this. Why not teach people and help people understand this and allow them to realise that it’s not a bad thing?’
S-M: So after identifying your niche, how did you go about setting up?
So in regards to the the setup of Lexi Ladies Academy, I was with my fiance, living in Dubai and was travelling around the world. We had a business where he was teaching business, as well as, quantum alignment and human behaviour. Basically, high levels of consciousness and how to handle these situations for high net worth entrepreneurs. There was an aha moment.
The one industry, he believed, where you needed help, coaching, guidance and support, was business. However, I thought, hang on a minute. It’s not just his industry, it’s my industry! It was that moment where it dawned on me and I thought, ‘Wow, if I could just model everything that he’s doing, take it, replicate it and put it into my industry, I could help so many women. I could also create myself a business, from something that I’m I know so well and I could make money from it, whilst I traveled around and did my other businesses.’
S-M: Really solid thought process. How extensive was your research before taking the plunge?
L.L: So I started researching, looking deeper and talking to all the top, top strippers around the world. I messaged them to find out all the tricks of the trade and what they did. From the answers that everyone gave me, what was it that was a replicating theme and bore the strongest resemblance between everyone around the world, from the people that were earning the most? I then created this course from it. I used the same model of everything that my partner and I did together in the business, put together and that was it, it was just a case of marketing it.
S-M: What challenges did you face when setting up?
L.L: I’m going to be honest, one of the things I did find challenging with was, because I’d grown out of the industry and I was moving around in different circles, my first course was really unrelateable and a lot of people said that to me. I was a bit too on stage, I wasn’t coming across like a stripper sister. I ended up remodelling it, did it everything again and I put myself back in the environment of dancing. It made a massive difference and that’s when it started to boom.
S-M: So what are your plans next?
I had a plan for a while but I just haven’t had the kick up the ass to actually take it to that next level. However, with the COVID-19 and lockdown situation, with the strip clubs being forced to close, I found that I needed to move it even further in the direction of all of the adult entertainment industry. I’m now working with so many other people because obviously I’m not an expert in every area. I’ve never done things like escorting and, honestly, my webcam skills are appalling. My OnlyFans skills are pretty appalling. Stripping was my game but there’s everything else in between.
I’m working with the experts in their fields, all under the umbrella of sex work. I’m creating opportunities to share their gift, make money from it, utilise my database, utilise my platform and the reputation that I’ve created and spent time creating. I want to, not only help them in their businesses, but also help other girls with their platforms in their industries as well. We’re all the same. We’re all in the same network. All the same industry. Everyone’s connected within the umbrella.
S-M: Are you open to further collaboration or are all of your slots filled?
I just felt like it was the natural flow natural course of my business to be expanding and growing. That’s the direction that we’re in now. Still, we’re still open all possibilities. If anyone reading this article is interested in getting in touch with me, they’ve got something that they feel that they could provide, course wise and to my audience, then I’m more than happy to have a chat with them.
S-M: Beyond Lexi Ladies, what else is keeping you busy?
I was looking at setting up an agency app, but after some issues, I’ve had to go back to the drawing board and slightly change things. It’s all going to tie together nicely an things are very positive. The truth is I’m all about just wanting to help everyone in our industry, there’s enough pie to go around. This feels like this is what my passion and what I love. I make money from it, but that’s not the be all and end all. I want to share my gift and share my experiences in order to benefit and help others. ‘Stripper-preneur’ has jsut been trademarked and I now also offer business coaching to like minded women that need a bit of guidance and mentoring on how to start and grow a business from very little, with the right mindset.
S-M: One of the big concerns anyone has, when embarking on a new business, is funding and fear of losing money. What are your thoughts on this?
L.L: When I was travelling around and doing the seminars, I found a lot of people that actually wanted to work with my ex partner, really dying to work with him in our business. I actually utilized those people strategically, putting them in place in my business beforehand as like a trial run. I actually started my business with barely any money. Obviously, it has cost me to grow it and expand it.
You can set up a business with little money, especially if you have passion, and determination. That’s all you need. I was basically pulling favours from connections and people that I’ve known and started off with obviously creating the course. The course itself and just mapping it out was such a big part. After that, the recording of the course I exchanged for other courses, paid half price for things, filmed them and then obviously had to buy the software etc. Having a good strategy helps a lot.
S-M: Agreed, strategy, passion and determination with absolutely take you far… The idea of bartering and trading to get things going is something that’s often overlooked in favour of cash up front.
I think that’s not what business is about. People miss that. People think that in order for you to start a business, you need a lot of money to put down. It’s not the case. So many of my businesses have all been through me utilising connections. One of my gifts is I’m so well connected around the world with very high net worth people. However, highly skilled people are often more valuable than people with money. I value people like that and I treat them well. Therefore, they treat me well and it’s an exchange of value That’s how I went about setting up the business!
S-M: Super resourceful mindset. Finally, what would you tell those women that are on the fence and unsure about if they want to come out?
L.L: It’s not something that we should have to hide and they feel ashamed of, it’s something that actually we should celebrate. We need to realise that we’re out there offering a service, we’re doing what we can and we’re hustling. We’re just business people at the end of the day, business women that are obviously utilising our assets and doing what we feel is best for us. As long as that is what people want to do, obviously. There’s two different types of people in the in this environment. People that feel that they’re doing it because they want to do it and some people that are feeling like they’ve haven’t got an option. Usually the people to stay in it for a long time, are people that should be in it.
Head over to Lexi Ladies Academy to check out a variety of courses and be sure to follow @thereal.lexilou over on Instagram.
