So originally I began my business after going viral and declaring how I was a spoiled girlfriend. I believe that that exact video was titled “I’m a kept girlfriend and I love all of my boyfriends” or something like that. Basically, it was a Facebook post with pictures and videos of me with different guys traveling, having dinner, just living my best life and that was seen and shared over hundreds of thousands of times. This inspired a multitude of women to reach out to me and ask me what was I doing to have men treating me well and spoiling me and to want my help.

So after going viral my sisters decided to make a Facebook group for me because of all of the attention the post received. My sisters made the group on Facebook and I started providing resources, going live, talking to people, sharing my experiences and then offering one to one sessions. I created an official website as well, where I offered spiritual advising and coaching for a small fee. I guess you could say I was a content creator long before content creation became a thing. After a while I found myself kind of stagnant and realized that this was not all I really wanted to do. Plus my niche became saturated with so many self-proclaimed femininity and dating experts and gurus, I just didn’t want to be seen as riding the wave and withdrew from the spotlight. I actually went back to work and became a kindergarten teacher and let my business lie in limbo for a bit.

Fast forward, I’m now teaching kindergarten for BCPS through a program called Teach for America. While teaching my principal and the administration wanted all of the teachers and as many students as possible to return to in person instruction; mind you this was before the vaccine was widely available. Not to mention classroom conditions were less than ideal. It was more about the principals protecting their budgets than it was about protecting the teachers and providing the best education to students. I along with several other teachers gave a PowerPoint presentation approved by the teachers union about the reality of classroom instruction during the pandemic and my parents opted out. Now this pissed my principal off royally. So she actually put me under administrative investigation which could actually result in my termination from teaching. Shortly after this news, I actually took time off of work to nurture my mental health. I was overworked, underpaid and just completely stressed out from the weight of it all so under the advice of my medical doctor, I resigned for mental health reasons.

After leaving, I tried to get unemployment and they denied me unemployment and bills were piling up so a few months later I began dancing at a Gentleman’s club. Yes, I went from teaching to stripping, lol. At the Gentleman’s club, in the beginning I made money quickly and effortlessly and caught up on bills etc. Then we entered a slower season and things got tight around the club. Although, I made money being seductive on and off the stage, I wasn’t pushing patrons to get rooms. The management threatened to fire me because as they said “ I was making money from them but they weren’t making money from me.” Meaning although I was making money and paying them tip out and other fees I wasn’t selling my soul to get rooms aka private dances. The vip rooms were overpriced in my opinion but that’s how they made their money. It was kinda highway robbery, if you ask me. Besides, at these clubs it’s not all just lap dances that go down behind closed doors, and I’m just not one of those girls. So, in the end I left that club and went to another club. I was determined to leave anything that went against my natural equilibrium or made me feel like I was sacrificing parts of myself for a paycheck. Unlike the Gentleman’s club this club was a strip club meaning full nude which was quite the eye-opening experience for me.

After dancing full nude in front of complete strangers for the first time, I knew that I could do anything, be anything and my confidence in myself and self-esteem went through the roof. Being at the club made me super authentic, bold and very unapologetic. It also taught me how to take risks, be a good sales-woman, build rapport and make something out of nothing. Believe it or not stripping was my best lesson in navigating rejection and having a thick skin.

Shortly after being in the spicy club I met a man who was very wealthy and a business owner. In no time he quickly became enchanted by me and wanted to be my boyfriend. I accepted because he was very good to me and we got along quite well. Not long into our relationship he wanted me to give up dancing at the spicy club, and wanted to invest into me and my passions so I left. To add, management regularly discriminated against black dancers so I was ready to move on anyway. Now that I had someone who was investing into my ambitions, I knew that it was a great time to get back into my passions and I also knew that I never wanted to work for anyone else again.

After leaving dancing I felt as though I should brush up on some skill sets and attend one of those women empowerment conferences for women in business, however, of the events I looked up nothing resonated with me. My niche was so unique that I didn’t feel like I had any representation in those kind of environments. Moreover, these kind of events were being dragged through the mud on social media for their lack of authenticity. So I said to myself instead looking for it why not create it and that’s exactly what I did.

Bad Bitches and Business was birthed out of all of these experiences I’ve shared with you from going viral to teaching to being at the spicy club. Bad Bitches and Business began as inspiration for me to share my experiences with other women in a non-traditional but still impactful and empowering way. My journey was full of twists, turns and unexpected circumstances yet I preserved. I knew that there were other women out there like me who were also in unique niches, and I wanted a place for all of us to come together to grow, learn and share with one another.

After my first event which was highly successful albeit small intimate and no at all profitable. I gained more than money could buy- my dream became my reality. I knew then that I was onto something. Interestingly enough, I am actually in the middle of planning for my second event this year as I was contacted to do an interview for this publication and immediately wanted to get my story out there hoping that it will be that spark to ignite the flame in whoever is reading this.