The HeauXXXcast Host Susan Bartley & Heaux Apparel

Welcome to the first episode of Season 3. I am starting the season off with a solo episode because I needed to be vulnerable with you as we head into 2024.



In this episode I explain:

* My absence and the absence of new episodes at the end of the year



* Share with you some exciting news. (spoiler alert, I bought an Aerial Studio)



* Get super vulnerable about my mental health over the holidays and my fears for the future



* Share my thoughts about the new movie "The Color Purple" (spoiler alert its amazing)



* And give you my new mantra for 2024 (spoiler alert its a song from the movie)



I hope you like this episode and don't mind that I shared some personal shit with you. If you have been feeling overwhelmed, anxious or depressed please reach out and maybe we can help each other.



Always remember I love you...you beautiful HEAUX

Can you be sexy in your golden years? Society tends towards a big "NO!" to that question. Is there a place for the Senior Community inside the wider Aerial Community? If you asked that question you might respond with an "I don't know". The answer to that question was unchartered territory until the beautiful and talented Mica Saunders came along, threw convention to the wind and began teaching Pole Dancing and Chair Dancing at her local Senior Centers in Baltimore, MD. But lets face it, as talented as she is, Mica would not have been successful if there weren't students willing to take her class.



She brought Pole Dancing to the senior community in Baltimore, and that community said "Yes, please". From this the amazing dance troupe "8 Grannies and 1 Grandpa" was born. If you attended PoleCon 2023, you had the awesome opportunity to see these folks perform. They were amazing. I can't like, when the song "Brickhouse" came on, I thought the audience was going to come unglued. It was so much fun.



This episode highlights all the wonderful dancers from the "8 Grannies and 1 Grandpa" troupe. They introduce themselves, tell their story and talk about why and how the decided taking a Pole Dancing class would be a good idea. The conversation is awesome and we laughed a lot. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed interviewing them.

This episode is one for the Entrepreneurs. I met Sky Luna at PoleCon a few years ago and instantly loved her energy. She radiates light and love, and it all makes sense when you start learning about her company Pole to Glow. Pole to Glow is a business centered around events that bring us together as a greater Pole community. Sky Luna’s vision is that we cease to be from different studios, or practicing different apparatuses and instead we just come together, network and learn from each other. She understands that we are stronger when we are working together and supporting each other. This episode is about her personal journey to the pole and the how and why behind Pole to Glow. I know you are going to love her as much as I do.

We all know that Pole is a ton of fun and sometimes can get pretty CRAZY!!! That is why we love it, right? We also know that people find this sport for a bunch of different reasons and some of those reasons aren't very fun at all. Women come to Pole who are sad, lonely, and who are trying to find that inner light and peace. Pole has saved many women, and you have already heard how it saved me.



This episode is how our sport saved my good friend Tamara. Tamara and I met at the USPSF Nationals just a few months ago and it was BFF status from the get go. She is full of light and life and this impish charm that makes you know immediately that you are going to have a ton of fun hanging out with her. And as we do, I asked for your Instagram so I could follow her. I was expecting a bad ass chick doing bad ass things on the pole, but instead I found a lovely Instagram page full of motivational quotes and videos. I asked her why? She told me that she was creating what she felt she had needed during some of her most trying times.



In this episode, Tamara opens up about her struggles with weight, body image and self love, as well as her addiction to online gaming. It is a compelling story, and one I think will resonate with everyone. We have all been there, and some of us probably are still in that dark lonely place. Tamara agreed to tell me her story in the hopes that she can reach women out there who are stuck in the cyclone of self-doubt and let them know that they are not alone. She was very brave in her honesty, and I appreciate her for that.



Enjoy the episode and please pass it along to anyone you know who is struggling and might need a little extra light and understanding.

Heaux Apparel has gotten the opportunity to sponsor some really cool events over the past few years, but when I was approached about sponsoring "Death Becomes Them" I was 100% all in. I was so all in, that I knew I had to get the producer of the show, The Betty Genesis, on an episode of The HeauXXXcast to hype that sh*t up. If you are in Tampa, FL on Friday, October 13th, then you are going to want to be at The Brass Mug for an extravaganza of macabre entertainment.



Buy your in person and virtual tickets NOW at www.deathbecomesthem.com



In this episode we talk about so much, not just this amazing show. We also get into Betty's background as a dancer, what its like being a Burlesque star and raising 5 children (that a huge juggling act that only a Pro could do) and her job as a Doula. We even spend a bit of time talking about my worst nightmare....alligators. But hey, its Florida so alligators are fare game.

This week’s conversations is with Ellie Klein, founder of Jelliebend. I was really excited to get to know Ellie because we have recently picked up her products on Heaux Apparel. Ellie makes a waist warmer that works beautifully to keep your core warm and protected while you stretch, warm-up or practice your skills. I knew the product would be Grade A when I saw that Ellie was also a contortionist, and that she put her skills into making the product that she needed for her own training. As with most of my episodes, we began by talking about Ellie’s background, in her case a long history of top tier ballet starting from when she was just a little girl. From there, we jumped into her career in the world of finance and then ended talking all about Jelliebend. Oh, and we go off on a tangent on Venture Capital, Angel Investors and how Banks basically suck when it comes to offering help to small businesses. I know you will love Ellie’s bubbly personality, and will resonate with the lessons she learned through her time in ballet. I hope you enjoy the episode, and if you do don’t remember to pop over to www.heauxapparel.com and pick up a Jellibend waist warmer.