Wall Street banker by day, male stripper by night

[samhexum]

Based in Manhattan, Andrew C. (for privacy, he has asked us to use only his full first name) graduated from an Ivy League university and worked as an engineer for more than six years before going to one of the Top 10 MBA programs in the country.

From there he got a job in finance, developing financial models for traders.

At his day job as a vice president at a Wall Street bank, Andrew currently makes an annual $250,000 base salary with a yearly bonus of as much as $100,000.

Yet since 2007, Andrew has also been an exotic dancer.

“Although I did everything I was supposed to do, I never really felt fulfilled,” Andrew said.

He first started moonlighting as a dancer for fun on the weekends.

“It turned out to be much more enjoyable and I was much more passionate about it than anything else,” he said. “I would fantasize about what it would be like to quit my day job and to start my own show, but I just kept telling myself it wasn’t possible.”

When he had a falling out with his dance employer, he realized he would have to start his own show — that’s how much he wanted to remain in the industry.

Having signed a noncompete, in 2017 he launched a female stripper website, Exotique Girls, to grow his knowledge and experience.

“I had no idea what I was doing. After I built the website I just sat there and did nothing,” he said. “A year and a half later I got my first phone call asking to book a dancer and I was so nervous I just hung up on the guy.”

With time, Andrew gained the chutzpah to stay on the phone and book parties in New York City and other metropolitan areas across the country, and his female stripper agency became profitable.

“I was able to use the profits to invest in the production, development and marketing of a male strip show,” said Andrew, who launched Exotique Men in 2021.

Andrew eventually made the decision to start “quiet-quitting” and began doing only his necessary workload at his Wall Street gig.

“Plus with the option to work from home, I was able to use my free time from my day job to focus on building my side hustle,” he said.

When Andrew dances, he makes up to $1,000 a weekend.

Though some weekends are slow, weddings and bachelorette parties help fill in the gap — he can work at a club and then do private parties afterward.

Running the agency, which hires dancers for private events but also runs a show at Belvedere Lounge in the East Village, also helps keep his dream job lucrative.

While you may be in no hurry to rock your birthday suit in public any time soon, Andrew has some valuable and hard-won insight into how to overhaul your job path.

“There were no number of books, podcasts, self-help seminars, etc., that could have prepared me for [such] a career switch,” he said, while recommending taking “calculated action.”

By that, he means calculating the amount of risk that you find to be comfortable.

“For example, I didn’t borrow a ton of money and quit my day job right away to dive into my side hustle,” he said. “I took the necessary steps without burdening myself with unnecessary risk.”

Working toward that career shift helps, too.

“A lot of people I meet always talk about how they want to do this or that side hustle but they never take action,” he said. “It is important to set a goal and begin.”

Andrew also lives by the ethos that you “treat your life like a business.”

That means embracing the attitude that every waking minute has a return on investment.

“It’s important to identify the things in your life that are providing a positive ROI and those that are causing a negative ROI. Doing extra at your day job and staying late with no intention of moving up in the company would provide a negative ROI because it’s eating into time that you could be spending working on your side business.”

When changing careers, Andrew believes, people tend to give up too early, or to act inconsistently.

“There has to be something driving you to want to make the radical career switch,” said Andrew. “There’s a deeper driving force than just doing it for the money.”

People often create mental blocks similar to the one he had when he thought he couldn’t pursue the adult entertainment industry full-time, said Andrew, “but honestly if you can overcome these mental obstacles and break down your goal into smaller tasks and stay consistent then you should see results.”

To that point, Andrew recommended building on small wins “to keep the momentum going and to remind yourself that what you’re doing is possible.”

Failures along the way can be a hindrance, but they ought to be used as building blocks for future successes.

“Male stripping has taught me to focus on finding solutions instead of honing in on the problem,” he said. “There were nights where we had to do the show in a small cramped room with music that wasn’t loud enough and the girls were complaining about their seats,” Andrew said. “We used whatever resources we had and we made it work.”

Worried about your employer finding your side hustle?

“Form an anonymous LLC,” suggested Andrew.

Anxious about getting phone calls for your blossoming biz while you’re at work? “Get a free Google Voice number and have the calls go to voicemail and return them when you’re off work,” he said.

Basically, find a way to make it work.

“Many people will come up with reasons why their side hustle won’t work or why they can’t do it, but only a few will come up with solutions.”

Andrew started moonlighting as a dancer for fun on the weekends in 2007.

 

https://nypost.com/2023/07/23/wall-street-worker-has-turned-to-stripping-to-fulfill-his-dreams/

Edited July 23, 2023 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ing reason at all!

[56harrisond]

[+ sniper]

Gives up 250-350k per year for "up to" a thousand per weekend? Mmm. Hmm..

[+ friendofsheila]

15 years in the bizness.  so he started when he was 18?