24K Magic In The Air | The $2500 Room

A ride through D.C. turns into a rare, unguarded conversation with a 22-year-old stripclub dancer who’s rewriting the script on what “the club” means for work, money, and personal agency. 

She breaks down the real mechanics of stage money, lap-dance rooms, and why bartop etiquette matters, then opens up about the deeper engine that runs her career: clear boundaries and a judgment-free space where regulars and dancers trade stories, not just dollars.

We trace her path from Alabama to Florida to Brooklyn—stacking three to four jobs, learning that college wasn’t her lane, and discovering that dancing with a W‑4 felt like a step toward structure, not away from it. 

She shares the thrill of a $2,500 night and how it happened, then gets practical about paying off credit card debt, stockpiling savings, and moving toward an IRA and ETF approach that lets compound interest do the heavy lifting. Let's Drive!

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About: Foundation Digital Media | Kuna Video

Transcript

Rolling Through D.C. And Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to another episode of Rideshare Road Talk, Conversations in Motion. A podcast where we create unfiltered talkspace that examines the meaningful lives of my passengers while engaging in personal and topical discussions. I'm your host and driver, John Fodis. And we're cruising the streets of Washington, D.C. Buckle up. Let's drive. You are not shopping at Whole Foods.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

I was not shopping at Whole Foods, correct.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So tell me about you.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Well, I just got off work at a strip club right there.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I remember it fondly.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

As you should, as you should.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Do they still force you to drink five beers an hour, otherwise they throw you out?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Hell no.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

That was like the thing when I was a kid. Like if you weren't power drinking, they would literally tell you to leave.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So they're definitely a lot cooler about drinking now. Okay. On weekend nights, yeah. If you're if you're not drinking, if you're if you're not drinking like substantially, they will be like, get out, get out this table, like we can't have you in here.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Because it's still relatively small, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Yeah, it's it's a very small spot. But during the daytime and like early evening, like basically up until like 10 or 11 p.m. Okay. You're you're pretty much good to go in there and sit and chill and like nurse a drink for maybe like 30 to 45 minutes ordering another one.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

But sitting up front, nursing, probably not a good idea.

Journey From Alabama To New York

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Yeah. Like if you're at the bar nursing though, then you're okay. Okay. You know? As long as the bartenders are okay with you being in there. Okay. And the dancers are okay with you being in there, as long as you're throwing a couple dollars for every girl who goes on stage, for sure. Then everyone's alright with you being in there, especially during the daytime. Because the daytime it's super like low stress, like like very, very chill vibes during the day.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

So how did you get into that uh into that world?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Well, I got into that world because I was I used to actually just move to DC. I moved to DC, I was in New York before. Okay. And I was in New York for a couple years, but I was a trigger baby in New York. So in the city. Yes, in the city.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

And I thought um, it's honestly like a kind of a little bit of a step back for me. Because I feel like stripping is like, I'm like, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta W4 now. I'm paying real taxes on this money, okay?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Are we dumbing it down by saying stripping? Shouldn't it just be dancing?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Entertaining.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah. Okay. As an entertainer, okay. This is this is very legal work.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

And um, I don't know, it's been, it's, it's, was it, it was and has been a very easy transition for myself.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Okay. So are you from New York originally?

SPEAKER_02 2:55

No, I'm actually from Alabama originally.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Oh my god, okay. There's a there's a trajectory here we need to investigate.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yeah, and I was living in Florida for a little bit too.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Okay, so Alabama.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Yeah, Alabama until I was about 12 years old, and then I moved to Florida, and then I was in high school in Florida, then I did a year of college in Florida, and then I moved to New York.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Where did you go to school in Florida?

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Um, I went to um FGCU. It was like this very like a relatively small state school. I was there for a year, and then um I ended up dropping out because I just didn't I didn't love it, you know. It wasn't really speaking to me. I never I always thought school wasn't really for me. And then I did my first year of college and I was like, school's really not for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

It's not for everybody, it really wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

I mean and then I moved to New York with a friend.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Um, because she wanted to move there. She needed a roommate in her budget, and I was like, all right, we're gonna be in the same budget, and that budget is broke. I was in New York for a couple years and I was hustling.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

I was working like three, four jobs at a time, and that was a grind.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

That's a tough place to make it work.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

It really is. Yeah, it really changes you as a person, it really does.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Were you coming into the city or were you in uh in Manhattan proper just trying to get out?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

I actually lived in Brooklyn all four years ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

I lived in Flatbush, and it was an amazing. I loved Flatbush.

Why Entertainment Felt Like A Fit

SPEAKER_00 4:16

My uh my mother's family was from Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Oh, lovely. What neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I don't even remember. Um, but you know, her one side of her family was Italian and they made their way into Brooklyn from Italy.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

So I'm guessing they were in Park Slope, because I feel like that's where all the Italians are from.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Not sure. There was a book with some addresses that she had. Uh 12th Avenue, that's Parkslope.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

You're clairvoyant. So you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Hey, but I I feel like I know when you you know when um someone says, oh, like my parents, my grandparents, they all like they came to this area of Brooklyn and and I know where they're from from. Yeah. Italians all went to Park Slope. It's so easy to guess from there.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

See, you're a historian. Maybe you should have studied history.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

I actually love history. History is like my favorite like subject to like learn about just in free time. Yeah. Like I'm a big documentary fan. Nice, especially history documentaries. Those are so interesting to me. Well, that's really cool. I feel like uh a lived podcast, like that's that's super unique, and that's really cool. Because like you really do get like any and every type of person.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

You can, and you know, some people sorry about the bumpster.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Oh, yeah, no way.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Oh, you know, some people are introverted and don't want to talk. Some people are having a bad day. Some people think I'm like a flea spec and I'm not worth even saying hello to you. And that's fine. But that's the exercise, is that you never quite know who you're riding with or who you're walking past on the street and what their story is and what they've achieved or what struggles they've had. That's the kind of stuff that I'm fascinated by and what I try to get. Um so thank you. Yeah, it's it's been very, it's been rewarding on a multitude of levels.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

That's one reason why I like I like the club that I'm working at right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Because it's very like dive bar feel, you know?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

And I just I love to talk to people. I like love to hear people's stories. It's so fun. Like, I love to go to bars and just talk.

Stories, Regulars, And Safe Spaces

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Well, look, I mean, from my experience, I mean, you know, when I jokingly say, you know, this is like it's like half uh DC tourism and hotspots and half talkspace therapy. I'm not kidding. Like people, if they're comfortable in the backseat, they unload and just tell me all kinds of crazy stuff. And there is a component in your world as well that I'm very well familiar with. Yeah. Or you maybe you have a regular and you never know what's going on in that person's life, and um this is just their uh their outlet, and then you're having conversations and they're telling you everything about themselves.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Fair?

SPEAKER_02 7:12

For real that's that's really how it is. It's like most of our regulars, they've got a lot going on in their lives, and when they come into the club, like that's their space to like really just talk about their lives and not be judged. Right. Like, it is a it's a very like judgment free zone on the on behalf of like dancers, on behalves of the customers as well. Like you can really like I can also share things about my life that I wouldn't necessarily like some things that I wouldn't even share with like some of my friends.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Like I can be like, oh my god, this crazy fucking thing happened.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Like so let me segue into that. What is there a part of your journey that you have regretted? And then what's one thing that you have absolutely enjoyed thoroughly? Give me give me both sides of that.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

The only part of my journey that I've regretted, and I would say my journey, um, I feel like I've had a quite a bit of journeys, but I feel like my main journey has been through sex work from becoming a sugar baby to now being a dancer or entertainer. Okay. I think that the main thing that I I don't know. My main regret has always has always been not sticking to the boundaries that I hold true. I think that any time that anything that I've regretted has happened has just be has happened due to me not having or not sticking to my boundaries in my back.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

A quick fix kind of a thing. I mean that's not a that's not a job reference.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Like talked talked out of my boundaries. Like, oh, I'm gonna go like I'm gonna meet with this person, even though like even though like my my um standards weren't met or certain aspects weren't meant that are my boundaries in life. Yeah, yeah. Not even just with dancing or with with being a sugar baby, like it's been like street markets. There are just certain standards that I'm gonna maintain, and anytime I've break it broken any one of those standards, it's been a regret.

Biggest Night And How Rooms Work

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah. Well, I mean, everyone has that sense of guilt. Just could be a multitude of triggers for for that decisions we make. I mean, we've all made decisions that we regret, right? Or there's aspirations for things that we want that might be more positive for us, or you know, something like that. So I totally get that. Um what's the most you've made in a night?

SPEAKER_02 9:37

What's the most I made in a night? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

I'm always fascinated by that.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

The most I made in a night, and this is kind of a lot, but it was just because I got I got really lucky. So I made the most I made in a night is is uh$2,500.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

And that was because I sold a really big room.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

So we have like what does that mean when you sell a room? What is it?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

So basically we have our our regular dances, that's called our stage money. Okay. So what we get tipped on stage, and then our rooms are the lap dances. So we don't do any we don't do any tape like table dances, so you can't touch any of like the entertainers who are on the floor.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Basically. I I used to go to strip clubs all the time when I was younger. And I for whatever reason I thought you could not do lap dances in DC.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Well, I think they've changed the rules, but they're very strict on it.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Well, sure. Right. We would go up to um up to Baltimore, which was super sketchy. Um, and there's one place that once you got inside, it was fairly comfortable and it was safe and all that. You could do that there. But yeah, I didn't know they did that here.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Um, okay,$2,500. So you had the room and you're just crushing it, basically.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, so basically there is a there's a$3,000 room that you and I sold that one. But this this guy, he was he was dummy drunk and he really liked me.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

He was saying that he was saying I look like it, like his ex-wife. But I and I was like, I was like, I love you for that.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

There's a price to pay for that, I think.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I was like, don't I look just like her? Don't I look just like her?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

But then I had that tool.

Saving, Debt-Free Milestone, And IRAs

SPEAKER_02 11:15

And then we get we get a decent percentage of the room that we're in. Okay. Because like at this club, we don't pay any stage fees, basically. We pay like we don't pay the club anything, we make hourly wages. Yeah, yeah. But our rooms, how much we sell the room for, we get a pretty good percentage of how much a room sells for. Are you so I sold a like the top level room and then I did really well on stage.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

So are you kind of and this is a personal question, but are you churning and burning through the money you're making, or do you have a plan? Are you banking it? Are you investing? Like what are you doing? No, I actually is there a a me, you know, an end to the means that you're I've been I've been saving.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

I actually um just recently paid off every every piece of debt I have. So I have I'm now debt free, which is lovely. Um, it's not like I was like crazy in debt. It was like$3,000 worth of credit card debt that I accrued over like three years.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

But you're checking boxes.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

But just debt free now. Good. Um and I have been saving. So there is I gotta I gotta find I gotta find what my what my girls were telling me. But some of the other girls at the club, they were telling me what um investment account to open.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

And I've been saving a bunch of my cash up basically, because you can only invest like$7,000 a year. I was told.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

In an IRA, correct.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

To invest into that. Um, but I'm planning on investing and I've been saving because I really want to buy like a condo or a house within the next like one to two years.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

You seem pretty young. How old are you?

SPEAKER_02 12:48

I'm 22, so I'm very young.

Time Horizon, Compound Interest, And Risk

SPEAKER_00 12:50

You have your entire life to to make whatever nest egg you have grow. Um, I I have uh 18-year-old son, and I'm sorry, I have an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old. The 20-year-old's in college, and he's studying business, and we have all these conversations about finance and investing, and how every paycheck, 15% like it never happened, goes into your IRA, and that's it. Forget about it. And then on top of that, if you have other investment opportunities, then that's what you do. And when you do that, the simple compound math, where if you take your your maximum contribution,$7,000, in an IRA, and it's in what's called an ETF, which is like a balanced portfolio of all kinds of great companies, right? And you're 22, if you let that sit and forget about it and contribute that seven grand, by the time you're like 50, it's gonna be like 3.5 million.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

And that's with like a conservative rate of return of like 8, 9%.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Which is crazy. And I know it's tough to think about that long-range forecast, but that's literally what compound interest does. And it's staggering.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, I'm sure I I know. Like, I was in school long enough to take finance. And that interest is what is what I'm really going for. Like, I'm not I'm not too educated about exactly what everything does in the space of investing, but I've been given all of the information that I need to be able to reach my goals, which is like stopping. Like, I think I could dance probably until I'm about like 30. I could probably dance a little bit longer than that. But after that, I kind of just want to like start a business. Like, if I can get any one of my side hustles that I pick up over the next 10 years to shake out, give a little bit of income. But I want to make a ton of money now and set myself up so that I can just chill and hang out for the rest of my life.

Future Plans, Business Ideas, And Travel

SPEAKER_00 14:58

You could be a consultant for women who are on the same path that you are, and they can learn from your playbook of bad beats and good choices. Charge a fee, off you go. You never know. Maybe you'll be a manager.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Oh my manager or fancy pimping. That's what that sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

But you have the you have the magic of time in your favor. You know, you're so young. Like someone like me, I just turned 57. So my exposure to high risk is limited because you know I don't have enough time to to recoup it. You know if the market drops 30%. Typically have to wait six or seven years to get that money back. Yeah. I don't have that. You do.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

That's what carries me through life, really. Like I could be fucking up for the next 10 years and still be able to start a whole new career and completely retire from it with no harm done to my retirement or future.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

That's how I feel about life right now. Do you get to travel at all? I like I really want to. I just haven't had like that much of the opportunity to. Yeah. But I have a trip planned. Finally, I'm going to a visa my first time in Europe.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Me and some of my friends from New York, we're all gonna know it's gonna be a girls' trip.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Sell out two or three rooms and go travel around Europe for a while. That that would be fun.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

That's on my list. Like, I want to do like I want to take like the train all the way across Europe. Like get a one big suitcase and be like, I'm gonna be gone for a month and a half, y'all. I'll see y'all in the back end. But thank you for the ride. Hope you have a great rest of your night.

Sign-Off And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, I will, I will. And uh good luck to you there. I can't say I'll stop in, but if I do, I'll say hi.

unknown 16:40

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Thank you for listening to this episode of Rodgehair Road Talk. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, we'd love for you to review the podcast on your favorite listening platform like Apple or Spotify. Your support helps us so much, and don't forget to reach out on Instagram with your feedback or topic suggestions. Until next time, let's drive.