The One-Inch Stiletto Sales Strategy When I was a skripper in the 1990s, I was giving this guy a lap dance and I thought, crap, this guy looks so familiar. I hope I don't know him. So, I was like, “Do I know you? And he replied completely nonchalantly, yeah, “I'm your shoe guy. I've been fixing your shoes for the last five years.” Holy shit! It was my shoe guy––the best shoe guy ever. In fact, back when I lived in Seattle on Capitol Hill, I'd bring my shoes to his shop and in under an hour, they would be like new. So, I couldn't be mad about the situation. And even though I felt weird about giving a lap dance to someone I knew in my real life, I didn’t wanna make him feel uncomfortable because he’s been so good to me and I was a professional and all so I just kept dancing. I just kept dancing because I needed the money to pay for my next round of shoe repairs. Speaking of shoes, let's address the stereotypes about skrippers. According to some people's diluted fantasies, skrippers love wearing stilettos for every activity, even doing something like running errands. Honestly, nothing would have made me more excited than to be able to live up to that part of the glamorous image of a skripper’s life. I've been obsessed with high heels since the first time I saw Vogue magazine in the third grade. But by year eight of my stripping career, my feet hurt, my back hurt, my knees hurt. Thousands of hours in heels had left me in constant pain, whether I was doing stage dance or I was catcalling on the stage or giving laugh dances. But what could I do? skrippers had to wear stilettos. It was practically in the rule book. The only exception that I'd ever seen to this was a skripper named Little Darling. She was a super spirited hippie type and she would perform barefoot on stage and she still made money. In desperate need of relief, I needed to rethink the stiletto situation and I needed to come up with a solution that didn't involve me going barefoot because that just wasn't my persona. Exhibit A. Dancers already had to remove their shoes during lap dances to avoid damaging the couches. So why not skip the heels when working the floor? Exhibit B. I'm 5'8", so with six inch stilettos that made me 6'2", and I definitely towered over guys who were shorter and some of them were really insecure and they would say to me, you're too tall. I'm not going to get a dance from you. Exhibit C. The club was so dark that unless I was at the bar or on stage, customers couldn't even see my shoes. Weighing in all the evidence, here's what I did. I alternated between two pairs of shoes. One was a gorgeous, glittery, ultra sexy pair of six inch stilettos for stage performances and then a more practical one inch pair, kind of like a block heel for working the floor. After my first shift in my utility heels, I felt amazing. My feet didn't hurt. My height didn't intimidate anyone and not one single customer noticed my orthopedics. That decision taught me a really important lesson and that is that I don't have to do things the “right” way just because that's what everyone else is doing. I had a problem. I created a solution that worked for me and I still made money. There will always be moments in business where your weaknesses are challenged and that's okay. That's part of the deal, but now you know to put on your one inch stilettos, just work with what you've got and double down on where you shine. If we haven't met before, I'm Erika Learmark and this is an excerpt from my business book, Think Like a Skripper. If you like what you heard, you can grab your copy on Amazon.
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