Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Barkus. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Morgan, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for my business was my own life.

I struggled with body confidence for years. Confidence speaking up for myself, confidence in relationships, confidence with money and abundance and believing I could actually build something. It started in my early twenties and it was relentless.
I studied psychology in college because I wanted to understand human behavior, my own included. I was always curious about what made people tick, what made communication work, what made some people magnetic and others invisible. It felt natural to keep going and get my master’s degree in marriage and family therapy. I wanted to help people. I wanted to understand the systems we all live inside and how those systems shape us.

While I was getting that degree I was also stripping on weekends to pay for it. And something unexpected happened. I took a lap dance class at an exotic dance and fitness studio in Minneapolis. I showed up and I was the only one there. The teacher was intimidating and I was hooked. Turns out I was talented. Within a few classes the owner asked me to teach. So there I was, getting a formal education in relational and systems therapy during the week and teaching women how to exotic dance on the weekends. And everything started clicking.

I was coming into my power in real time. Learning about boundaries. Learning to love my body and put it on display. Learning that confidence is not a size or a look. It is a decision. And the women in my classes, some of them a decade or two older than me, kept saying the same thing. I want what you have. Women who had spent years shrinking, hiding, and waiting to feel good enough were watching me show up unapologetically in my own skin and they wanted that for themselves.
That was the moment I knew. My journey was the business.

What I did not have was any idea how to build one. I bought morganbarkus.com in 2013, had a website built, and genuinely believed if I put it out there the clients would come. They did not. I had the education and the life experience but zero business knowledge. It was not until 2024 that everything started to come together. I joined a group coaching program, started a podcast, joined Lori and Chris Harder’s mastermind, and eventually started working one on one with my business coach Jillian Murphy. That is when the clients started coming. Because I finally got clear on my message. I learned how to speak directly to the woman who needed me so she could hear it and say that is me.

What makes my approach different is not the concept. Confidence coaching is not new. What is new is me. I am a formally educated therapist and a former stripper who still teaches exotic dance. I show up with best friend energy and a master’s degree. I am not a weekly session you have to wait for. I am in your pocket. My clients have access to me through calls, voice notes, and text messaging because I want to be there in the moment, not when there happens to be a session on the calendar.

My very first paying client had been in a toxic relationship for three years. She had done two years of talk therapy and three months with a dating coach. Nothing worked. In less than two weeks of working with me she ended the relationship, deleted and blocked his number, and finally felt at peace with moving on. Because she saw her own value. That is what I do. I get women to that place fast.

I am not here to fix anyone. I am here to remind women of who they already are.

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Morgan Barkus, a confidence coach for women. I have a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and about a decade of life experience that no textbook could have given me.

While I was finishing my graduate degree I was also teaching exotic dance and fitness classes at a studio in Minneapolis and dancing professionally on the weekends. I was coming into my own power in real time, learning to love my body, set boundaries, and show up unapologetically as myself. The women in my classes kept saying the same thing: I want what you have. That is where this business was born.

I work with women one on one who are done people pleasing, done obsessing over the wrong men, done going to war with their own bodies, and done waiting to feel ready to become who they already know they are meant to be. My clients are women who have often tried therapy, tried dating coaches, tried every program out there and still feel stuck. Not because those things do not have value but because what they actually needed was someone who has lived it, gets it, and can be there with them in real time.

That is what makes my approach different. I am not a weekly session on a calendar. I am in my clients’ pockets. Through Zoom or telephone calls and unlimited voice notes and texting my clients have access to me whenever they need me. When the guy goes cold and she cannot sleep. When she is in a dressing room ready to cry. When she is about to have a hard conversation and needs someone in her corner. Those are the moments that change everything and I want to be there for them, not three days later at the next scheduled session.

My first paying client had been stuck in a toxic relationship for three years. She had done talk therapy for two years and worked with a dating coach for three months. In less than two weeks of working with me she ended the relationship and finally felt at peace. Because she stopped waiting to be chosen and started choosing herself.
Beyond one on one coaching I also offer exotic dance workshops for women, which are about so much more than dancing. They are about getting back into your body, reclaiming your sensuality, and remembering what it feels like to take up space without apology. I am also building toward live events and retreats, including partnerships with other women’s empowerment providers and potential retreats in Morocco and Italy, bringing women together in transformative spaces to do this work in community.

What I am most proud of is that my clients get results fast. Not because I have a magic formula but because I meet them where they are, speak their language, and stay with them through the moments that actually matter. I am the best friend with the master’s degree and the life experience to back it up.
What I want every woman who finds me to know is this. You are not broken. You are not too much. You do not need to be fixed. You just need someone who has already walked through the fire to show you the way out.

That is what I do.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have always been an early adopter. MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. I showed up on every platform as soon as it existed. Not for business originally. Just because I genuinely liked connecting with people, sharing what I was observing, making people laugh or think differently. I was a girl who liked talking on camera and people seemed to find it helpful or at least entertaining.

For a long time my social media had no real focus. I was posting, people were watching, and nothing was converting into anything because I had no clear message. That changed when I started working with my business coach Jillian Murphy. She pushed me to stop talking about everything and start talking about one thing, and to use my clients’ exact words when I did. That was the shift.

I also made a deliberate decision to clean up my following. I unfollowed anyone who was not an ideal client and removed followers who did not fit either. That changed my algorithm immediately and started putting my content in front of the right women.

Now my entire social media presence is built around one goal. I want a woman to be talking to her friend about something she is struggling with and for that friend to say I know exactly who you need to talk to. You need Morgan. Being known for one specific thing to one specific woman is the whole strategy. Everything else is noise.

My advice for anyone starting out is to get a coach who can help you get micro specific with your messaging before you post another thing. Talking to everyone is talking to no one.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have pivoted more times than I can count. And every single one of them led me exactly where I was supposed to go.

When I graduated with my psychology degree I knew I wanted to be in a service capacity but had no clear path. I tried law school first. One semester in I knew it was not for me. I wanted to help people, not argue with them. Then I got into the school of social work at the University of Minnesota and decided at orientation that was not the life I wanted either. Then I got into a PsyD program and showed up to orientation thinking these people are way too serious for me.

A career counselor literally chased me out of the building and said wait, what about a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy? I asked him one question. Can you own a business with that degree? He said yes. I signed up.

I thought getting the degree was the hard part. Turns out building the business was. I bought morganbarkus.com in 2013, had a website built, and waited for clients that never came. I was still dancing to pay the bills and trying to figure out how to turn my passion into a real business. I got into the fitness industry for a while with a major franchise and realized that was not it either.

Eventually I made a practical pivot into corporate America and medical device sales. I was in my forties and needed to get financially stable and start building toward retirement. It was not my dream but it gave me the foundation to keep investing in that dream on the side.

I never stopped. I kept pouring money and energy into my development, my coaching education, and figuring out my message. And now I am finally here. Building the business I always knew I was meant to build, working with the women I was always meant to serve, and living proof that it is never too late to bet on yourself.

Every pivot felt like a detour. None of them were.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morganbarkus.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganbarkus/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morgan.barkus.2025/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganbarkus/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNSh27vzSXeQ5lshNgJhq9w