LAID BARE – What the business leader learnt from the stripper – Book Launch with Paulina Tenner

It was an honour to be part of the Laid Bare launch party last night.

Nestled in the appropriate surrounds of London’s only ‘beach’ the top floor of Metropolis Strip Club in Bethnal Green, I could not help cast my mind back to my debut in burlesque at Tournament of Tease in 2006 at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club and to think how much has happened in my burlesque journey since then.

The Beach – Laid Bare Launch – Metropolis London

It was even more inspiring to meet Paulina Tenner herself who is a force to be reckoned with in the business world and has built a team of 50 and raised over £200m for more than 600 technology start-ups and bigger companies with her own company, GrantTree.

With the launch of my passion project the World Burlesque Academy app on the way, meeting Paulina was an amazing way to conclude the year having also reconnected with burlesque business icon Dita Von Teese. Paulina’s philosophy reminds me of the drive behind my global glittery antics with the Valentine’s YouTube campaign My Heart Belongs To Branson an innovative dedication which combined songs, poetry and showgirls and enabled me to connect with my idol and heartthrob Sir Richard Branson and gain the support of Virgin who had been aligning with the genre of burlesque across their many companies.

It was a meeting of minds to connect with a business trailblazer who is also a burlesque artist. These two worlds so rarely collide, let me tell you!

Paulina most definitely does not fit the mould and is proud to tell the world about it. In her interview with  Wellbeing Magazine she reveals, “Being a stripper taught me more lessons than I could possibly imagine, a lot of which I’ve been able to apply to my business life. It also fed into my development as a leader. It helped me reclaim a different way of relating with my feminine part and therefore a different way of being and acting in the world. I became more open-minded and, at the same time, more whole as an individual”

Paulina goes on to explain, “my approach has shown that it is indeed possible to create a workplace which combines focus on wellbeing of staff with profitability, where you are able to increase retention of staff and attract top candidates to your company because of outstanding culture. Workplaces are changing forever as Gen Z workforce demands more benefits to do with a wholesome company culture, so don’t be left behind!”

Laid Bare : What the Business Leader Learnt from the Stripper (£12.99, John Hunt Publishing) is written by Paulina Tenner. It is available to buy on Amazon and from all good bookstores from 26th November