Liv LaRue's Insightful Pivot from Culinary Expertise to Emotional Intimacy

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 0:05

Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for personal values when dealing with each other and even within ourselves. Where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries and finding belonging. My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are your people. This is why values still hold value. This is Transacting Value.

Liv LaRue: 0:33

That's why I feel like this is a spiritual calling, because the people I've met along the way have guided me in such a way that I have grown immensely as a human that I would not have experienced these experiences had I not met them, and the way I met them was through my work.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 0:50

Today on Transacting Value. How do you communicate with your kids, with your spouse, with strangers, neighbors, friends, in a way that makes them feel the experience is authentic, that you're being vulnerable, more importantly, that you're active listening and maybe even that you actually care? Why do you even need to do that? See this particular conversation.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 1:13

Today we're talking with Olivia LaRue out of Reno, nevada, and what makes Olivia special, among a lot of other things, is she spent the last decade answering those questions how to create experiences for people, fulfill fantasies for them and identify what their motivations are sometimes in only an hour and sometimes only having met them once. Now, if that sounds like something you're interested in, please listen to the whole conversation, but keep in mind this particular conversation. We're talking about Liv and her experience as a legal sex worker and sex therapist and what that actually looks like for her and her experience. Now, we do keep a degree of modesty in the conversation, but be warned if those are topics that you don't want to entertain or listen to, maybe this conversation is one you should read through the transcript before you play the audio. That said, folks, welcome back to the show. I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is Transacting Value Liv, how you doing.

Liv LaRue: 2:15

I'm doing super well. How are you Porter?

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 2:18

I'm good. I'm good. I appreciate you taking some time out of your afternoon to sit down and talk, though I'm sure you got all sorts of things going on. You got two kids, I think I heard you say yes.

Liv LaRue: 2:27

Yes, I do have two children.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 2:29

Yeah, so taking time out of your afternoon, I'm sure, is either precious time that you have to yourself or time that you'd rather be spending with them, but I appreciate it.

Liv LaRue: 2:37

Well, thank you for having me. You're very communicative hosts, which I appreciate because sometimes hosts you never hear from them.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 2:48

Well, I'm glad. I'm glad the system is working. At least it's taken us a couple of seasons to get something functional, so it's always nice to hear that it works out well. But so let's do this for anybody who's new to the show and, obviously, any continuing listeners. I appreciate you guys coming back, but, Liv, since obviously you're new to the show, what right now we're putting out is audio only, and so since nobody else can see you but me, let's just start at the beginning. How about you just take a couple minutes? Who are you? Where are you from? What sort of things have shaped your perspective on life?

Liv LaRue: 3:19

Okay, well, thank you so much for that kind and gracious intro. My name is Liv LaRue, short for Olivia LaRue, and I am a courtesan in Reno Nevada. I've been doing this work for about 10 years now, and a courtesan is just a fancy way of saying sex worker, but not all sex workers identify as courtesans, so it's a little bit of branding there. But my perspective on life as a sex worker and what led me to become one is pretty much wrapped up in these three words, which is love, connection and adventure. So I know that your show is called Transacting Values and I was trying to think of what my values are. And those are my values love, connection and adventure, and from there we can go anywhere. Really, do you want me to keep talking?

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 4:17

Well, I'm curious. I mean, don't get me wrong, as far as industries and career choices are concerned, that's one I'm not familiar with. But what did you do before all that you said? It's only been about 10 years.

Liv LaRue: 4:28

Before I became a sex worker I was a professional master chef for most of my adult life and some of my life as a minor, I guess I started when I was young. I was pretty much a professional partier, you know, and food and sex go great together. They really do. And I used to put my sexual energy into the food that I made for people. I called that my secret ingredient. So it's just kind of a natural progression for me personally.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 5:02

You think, based more on just connection and creating some emotion with other people, or more in a literal sense, like I just like strawberries, whipped cream and sex.

Liv LaRue: 5:14

That's such I love the way you did that. That's such a good question. I think it was when I was a little girl. I was drawn to this work as a sex worker and I just didn't know how to go about doing it, and so I became a chef, which was something I was also drawn to. I like to follow my passions, so passion is another value of mine, I suppose. Yeah.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 5:36

Sure, Well, okay, so this journey is self-discovery. Let's call it you opted to get into cooking. Call it you opted to get into cooking. I don't, I don't understand, I guess, the correlation from one to the other where you're like, well, I want to get into sex work and sex therapy, but I'll be a chef. You know what I mean? What's the, what's the tie?

Liv LaRue: 5:55

Well, I kind of grew up in a in the Midwest Right, and so I don't think sex work was really an option to me and I didn't find it to be like a reality where I was from. And I'm very practical because I'm a tourist. So I just chose food. I'm a really good cook, you know just. I really loved it, I really loved cooking as a chef. And then one day I just got tired of it and I thought to myself now's the time to try something new.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 6:25

It's definitely a career shift. Yeah, so then, creating experiences for people, though, right Like you see, you know you go to whatever themed restaurants, you sit down, you have stories or mariachi band or whatever it is, while you're eating your food all these kinds of things I can't help but wonder. In the process of trying to help other people you know experience life, enjoy the world, however you want to qualify this, I can't help but think you learned a lot about yourself in the process.

Liv LaRue: 6:56

Oh, you're really good at this. You're making me think a lot. Yeah, I guess you're right. Creating experiences is what it boils down to. Creating an experience, creating memories Wow, yeah, that's very astute of you. So, learning about myself, I learned that I have a big capacity to love other people and I'm a very creative person, so I like to bring out love and creativity in others. And healing. You know I'm very into healing and holistic stuff, so sex is perfect for that. So is food.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 7:31

Yeah, yeah, Healing. What do you mean healing? I mean I get it in a literal sense right, Like obviously there's sex, but what do you mean?

Liv LaRue: 7:41

Well, sex is a very healing experience if you can go from like animalistic catharsis over to like your tantra meditation, you know, seeking god and connecting with another person in a way that maybe people have only hurt you before you know. There's all these different avenues.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 8:01

You can use sex as healing I see so not just physical, spiritual, emotional. You say catharsis, right, just processing through things.

Liv LaRue: 8:11

Okay well, you know, like, yeah, primal, very primal, very feral. And yeah, get down to our base instincts and stuff. Stuff people don't really do unless they have a reason to.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 8:25

Why do you think they don't Like? Why is that sort of I don't know call it primal release so taboo it's a good question.

Liv LaRue: 8:34

I think it's because it's so powerful, oh you think it's scary, overwhelming. I think a lot of people are scared. There's a lot of vulnerability involved in it and sometimes people take it way too far, especially nowadays with the internet and everything.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 8:50

Yeah, okay. So I saw on your website that's a great point that you talk about education and advocacy for safeties, you know, risk mitigation and being able to prolong some longevity and, I guess, dignity in your industry, in your entire career, and it's not just for you, I mean like you're advising other people, right.

Liv LaRue: 9:12

Yeah, yes, yes, yes, wow.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 9:14

Thank you for looking Absolutely, and so when you do those things, obviously you focus on sex, because that's, that's the service you're providing in a physical sense, but like all of these other things as a therapy, how do you educate that? How do you teach other workers? How do you I don't know certify other therapists what's the word I'm looking for here? How do you do that?

Liv LaRue: 9:38

Okay, I want to make this kind of clear and draw a little boundary, because I am a sex worker as a business. I also have a sex therapy business that I keep separate from each other. But there's a huge gray area in between, right, because there's therapeutic sex work, which is what we provide, and then there's sexy sex therapy, right. So there's like this huge gray area, but I like to keep them separate. So I'm going to go along the vein of how do I train my quote unquote workers. They don't really work for me, right? I'm their agent. They're all independent. They're all independent workers and I look for the ability to connect.

Liv LaRue: 10:19

And the girls that come to me for my services as their agent, we meet in person. And if they don't have that connection to me for my services as their agent, we meet in person. And if they don't have that connection with me, if I'm not vibing with them the way I'm vibing with you, P orter, then there's really no, we have to start at a different level, okay, and I have to see how passionate they really are. You know, if I have an instant connection with somebody, like the way I'm having it with you, I know that they'll be able to recreate that connection with their clients, which is the service I provide connection right. But if they're having a hard time making that connection, then we have to take another step back and say well, why are you doing this? Why are we talking? Are you desperate or is this something you actually want to do? But we need to work through some of the social stuff first.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 11:05

Alrighty, folks sit tight, We'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Liv LaRue: 11:40

But if they're having a hard time making that connection, then we have to take another step back and say well, why are you doing this? Why are we talking? Are you desperate or is this something you actually want to do? But we need to work through some of the social stuff first. You know what?

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 11:58

I mean Absolutely that there's a fair amount of people that get into sex work as an industry, that you know, the stereotypical I don't know what you'd call it sort of lower end of the pool, right Junkies just trying to get job desperation, like you talked about, and I think so. Let me back up Anybody who's new to the show and obviously live. In your case. I've spent the last 14 years of my career active duty in the Marine Corps infantry and now I'm in the reserves. So in that, a lot of what I do now is I train Marines and sailors. When I'm, you know, filling my drill time, I train Marines and sailors on how to work across cultures and confidence and working with people and communicating and vulnerability to some degrees and humility in most of them, and so I think towards that vein, and then exactly what you're describing align pretty heavily, pretty closely, and so to be able to talk to somebody and train them.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 13:03

In my case, are you doing this because you want a bonus? Are you doing this because you want a promotion? Is there some degree of desperation or loneliness that this job appeals to you? Maybe, and those are all fine things, right, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing it for the right reasons, and so your focus tends to shift off of other people and it becomes a little bit more selfish at least in my experience and I think that makes for an ineffectively or inefficiently placed individual, because there's not, like you said, there's not a connection there that makes sense. On the other hand, some people naturally or, uh, nurturally, are gifted in that they're able to empathize a little bit more. They're able to listen actively and just be present and give people some degree of clarity and focus.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 13:56

In my line of work, I think that carries way more credibility and way more weight than being able to shoot well, and I think the parallel from what you're describing is that carries a lot more weight than being able to perform well. So then, for people who are wanting to learn, want to get into the industry, how do you train those other things? You know the softer skills of being able to build up trust and confidence and nurture a relationship with somebody especially. Let me back up, what if it's one-off, it's not a repeat relationship, you don't have time to to. You know, develop a relationship, how do you recommend people do it? Then it's a one-off thing to build connection and you get one shot. Maybe they're passing through, maybe they're only intending one time.

Liv LaRue: 14:45

Who knows how do you train that Love this, love this. Thank you for the backstory and thank you for your service. Oh, sure and wow. So I'm honored right now. So thank you for that question. How do you train providing an experience of unconditional love, acceptance with a total stranger in an hour ago? That's what you're asking me, that's essentially it yeah.

Liv LaRue: 15:09

Yeah, and it's like you have exactly what you said. You have to take yourself out of it. That's why I always advise people to come up with an alter ego because, okay, Liv LaRue, you know that's my stage name. Like I am Liv LaRue. I am Liv LaRue because I'm Liv LaRue, you know that's my stage name. Like I am Liv LaRue. I am Liv LaRue because I'm Liv LaRue, right.

Liv LaRue: 15:28

When I'm not Liv LaRue, I'm someone else and that person deals with my personal life and Liv LaRue is unconditional in her love to people and accepting and can listen. Because I know why you're here. I'm providing a service, just like anybody who's been a waitress doesn't unload their personal baggage on every table that they serve, right. They are a different personality. They're there to provide a service. So if I can't get through on the accepting love you know those higher level empathetic things I can at least get through on the service thing. It's like most people that wind up doing sex work have done a service industry job before in some capacity, right. So we can kind of lean on that. Be like you don't show up to work in a bad mood. Like, if you're going to be in a bad mood and start unloading your baggage. Maybe you shouldn't be at work today. You know that kind of just basic stuff.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 16:24

Yeah.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 16:24

Maybe it's not so basic, but yeah, maybe, maybe it's a generational thing, I don't know, because there's plenty of places that I go now that almost 20 years ago, when I was in high school, getting similar jobs, there was a different atmosphere than it is now. It was a different degree of I don't know social commentary, I think, than where there is now, and it's definitely different. Now, saying that, though, you got an hour, so what's the process? You know, like I'm not saying there's a quick, easy answer to all of this, but like, for example, when I work with Marines and Sailors. Now the biggest thing that we try to educate them on is getting sort of the science and the art of building human connection right, where the science being a bit more doctrinal, a bit more formulaic and structural, to say, start with an introduction.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 17:16

If you go in with heavy breathing and nobody knows your name, it's not going to work. You know, you gotta. You gotta get past your nerves and get over your anxiety and stand on where you're comfortable, right. And if you can figure out what may be conversational topics in some cases maybe conversational gates and others but if you can talk about where you're comfortable and what you know first, generally, like a lie detector test or anything else. It's going to put you at ease and you're better able to, you know, perform in whatever sense. The art then is how do you create an environment and craft that in a way, the other person reciprocates the same? And for us, we give them plenty of time. We give them, you know, weeks or months or whatever into the training schedule to develop some better habits in their own style and preferences. Do you do that with the ladies you work with as well?

Liv LaRue: 18:14

Absolutely. I love that. Yes, definitely, and there is a formula you know you can follow. Definitely, there's a formula, formula we need to always keep in mind that we are providing an experience. Like you said before, that is a fantasy. It's not like you're going to go get your cup of coffee. You know it's transactional, but it's romance, love, nurturing softness and giggles, and it's like these are the things that make up this fantasy. You know, these are the things that the men that are coming to see us want. Don't go outside of the box, you know. Stay inside the box and practice your art with these things.

Liv LaRue: 18:57

You know, they want somebody who smells good and smiles and is nice and it's just easy and sweet, and or it's another kind of fantasy that they may have. You know, as long as we know what the fantasy is, we can play the game right. As long as we know what the rules are how do you find out?

Liv LaRue: 19:15

you just ask yeah, well, communication is a great way to do it, definitely, definitely, you know, okay. So, like you were saying about your nerves and stuff, yeah, the guys when they come to they come to see us they're very nervous, they're very anxious. So the first thing we need to do is give them a hug and try to have them match our vibe right, because you can always kind of just guide someone into matching your vibe. We have to make sure our vibe is chill and that we're not too anxious and crazy. Unless that's what they want, you know, unless that's what they like, just got to calm them down and then ease on into it. It's like how's your day? You know, back rubs nice things. It's the girlfriend experience, it's not the wife experience, it's not the mom experience, you know, it's the nice one.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 20:04

Yeah, yeah, okay. So I guess I'm curious then. Okay, here's an example. So in business, which is what I majored in in in college and business uh, let's say advertising or marketing, right, branding to a certain degree to try to figure out what your respective audience demographic listens to, where they go, who they talk to, what they wear, all these kinds of things, and figure out what drives them or what motivates them to do certain things. Those are two different categories One's a bit more superficial and one's a bit more I don't know, humanistic right, it's deeper.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 20:38

So in some cases you can say, all right, well, why did you do? Why would you do? What would make you do? Fill in the blank, and you can start grasping somebody's motivations from there, or fantasies, or problems they're trying to satiate, satisfy, whatever right. What if that doesn't work? What if that doesn't work? And you say, oh, you know, what can I do for you? Or however you explain it? And they're like I don't know, I'm just here for a good time. And you're like, well, now that's a dead end. How do you make a connection then?

Liv LaRue: 21:14

That's a very good question, because that happens often, it happens often because people don't really know what they want. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they know what they want, but they don't know how to put in words. Sometimes they say they want one thing, but they actually want another thing.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 21:23

So how do you sift through it? You only got an hour Exactly.

Liv LaRue: 21:27

That's the art. That's the art you're talking about.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 21:29

I see, okay. On the other hand, I think it was Steve Jobs, don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure he said people don't know what they want until I tell them yeah, and that is true. So you just.

Liv LaRue: 21:42

So there.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 21:50

All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Join us for Transacting Value, where we discuss practical applications of personal values, every Monday at 9 am on our website, transactingvaluepodcast. com. Wednesdays at 5 pm and Sundays at noon on WreathsAcrossAmerica. org/ radio.

Liv LaRue: 22:12

You go back to the. Just go back to the script.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 22:19

You go back to the, just go back to the script. Yeah, okay, you set out some options and you say, all right, here's what we can do, here's what we have time for is what you can afford. Whatever. Is there like an intro? Well, you said courtesan. I've never heard that word before, so I assume some intro courtesy of here's how this works, put their mind at ease. They don't just show up, knock on the door and you say hey, let's, let's go to the room. Right, there's some sort of process to bring in clients, I'm guessing.

Liv LaRue: 22:38

Yeah, so the screening screening.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 22:41

Okay.

Liv LaRue: 22:41

Screening process yes, very important.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 22:44

Yeah, okay, so this gives you the opportunity to get to know people before you get to know people.

Liv LaRue: 22:49

Absolutely Right, and a lot of people don't want to be screened and it's like, well, I don't want to give you access to my intimate persona, then, if you don't want to be screened.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 23:00

Well, that's a great point. I'm sure there's a little bit of you and I don't mean this in a literal, physical sense, but I'm sure that, well, that probably applies to you. But I'm sure there's a little bit of you when you make these connections, like there's some authenticity and some vulnerability. It's not all fantasy on your part or the you know your girls right like you're trying to make an authentic connection, so you got to be somewhat authentic, does that?

Liv LaRue: 23:24

take a toll absolutely it can yeah it can.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 23:27

I'm sure it's intentional, but how do you build distance then? How do you safeguard that or how do you prepare for that?

Liv LaRue: 23:36

okay. So when I get a new girl there's and this happened to me too when, when you're new in this industry, usually how it works is we work a lot, you know, we turn a lot of tricks, right, sure, and then we kind of level off and then people go dark and then they come back and they do it again, and it's just kind of a pattern. So in my life I've definitely had to take breaks from it because it's just sometimes it's like it's heavy, it's hard, yeah, yeah, it's hard to go to work. You know, sometimes it's hard to go to work.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 24:13

I think everybody can relate to that. Yeah, and's hard to go to work. You know, sometimes it's hard to go to work. I think everybody can relate to that. Yeah, and so okay. So then what do you do? You take breaks and you go work as a therapist in your break time.

Liv LaRue: 24:24

Therapy work for me is actually harder than sex work.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 24:27

That's what I was going to say. It doesn't seem like a break to me.

Liv LaRue: 24:31

No, I have a full-time day job as a chef, so I still am doing that work, I see.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 24:38

Okay.

Liv LaRue: 24:38

During the day. But the longest time eight years I provided for my family full-time on sex work income, which, if that's your only income, then there's a fine line. You know you have to. If that's how you make your money, whether you like it or not, you got to go to work and that's when it gets dangerous, because that's when we start making desperate decisions that can get us into trouble or we start acting out because we go a little sideways, you know. So I definitely recommend it not being your only source of income, but it has been my only source of income before.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 25:16

Well, that's how you learn. You can't really get that from a book. So you have a normal day job as a chef, you have two kids I think I remember hearing you're also married, and then obviously now you've got two other businesses on top of that. How do you manage your time? Anybody, anybody that has two kids, any semblance of a family and three jobs, has no time. How do you stay sane? How do you manage your time?

Liv LaRue: 25:47

I try to be very disciplined yeah, like you probably are very disciplined if you're in the service. So I get up early, do a prayer, meditation, workout, go to work, get home from work, do a podcast maybe once a week If I got my A game on, then I do some service stuff. I do community stuff. Make dinner, go to bed, repeat Wild. Yeah, if I'm seeing clients, I'm going to be doing that in the afternoon or the evening or on the weekends, and I'm pretty exclusive these days.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 26:23

Wow.

Liv LaRue: 26:23

To be honest.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 26:24

I imagine that makes for a better relationship anyways.

Liv LaRue: 26:27

Absolutely, and you do this work long enough. You cultivate some real serious relationships with people and it's nice.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 26:35

I imagine that helps you in your personal life too. You learn perspectives, you learn different worldviews because it's a deeper connection with people, and not for nothing I'm sure that's got to work pretty well in your favor when it comes to parenting, because you're not just parenting off of your own perspective. You've got other things you can inject into conversations and you can learn as you go to. Yeah, absolutely.

Liv LaRue: 27:00

My clients are mostly men who have kids. You know they're. We have a lot in common. They can give me a lot of advice and stuff when I need it.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 27:07

They like giving advice, I imagine yeah, I imagine, once you get them to a point where they're comfortable with you, everybody just wants to well feel valued. You know, have somebody to talk to you. So it's actually. Yeah, this is actually a pretty good point, I think, in the conversation. This is a segment of the show called developing, character developing character.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 27:27

Now for anybody new to the show Liv, you included and any continuing listeners, you'll recognize this particular segment. But it's two questions, and it's all about the values that you were exposed to and then what that's done for your perspective now, or if all it's ever done is just to get you away from that and deviate from it. That's cool too. But so my first question is Liv, as you were growing up, what sort of values were you exposed to? What type of environment did you grow up in?

Liv LaRue: 27:54

Thank you for asking. Let's see, I grew up in a very service oriented church, community, small town, and that really, really shaped who I was. My work experience is service industry based. I like to help people. You know small town stuff I'm happy. I'm kind of a Luddite in the way. I'm not on the social media, I'm not like tech and that's kind of been not to my advantage in some cases, but mostly I like to just keep it real and keep it down home. Yeah.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 28:31

I like that. It makes it simple. Well, it makes it simpler, I think, when you're working with people I can make. It makes it harder if you want reach but you're going for depth, so I think that changes the dynamic entirely.

Liv LaRue: 28:45

Wow, yeah, I do work on a one-on-one in person.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 28:49

Yeah, yeah, and it's an entirely different industry. I mean, whether it's a job interview So that said, service oriented environment, sort of church town, small town type vibe. What about now? What are some of your values now? You mentioned connection and adventure and passion before, but what else? Anything else?

Liv LaRue: 29:37

Service yeah, I'm pretty service oriented and spirituality family, definitely family, super family, community, just love.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 29:48

How do you pass it on outside the industry? We talked a lot about the girls you work with. We talked about the clients, talked a little bit about your family, but you've mentioned community now four times in the last 30 seconds or something. So how does that translate? You cook food at soup kitchens or what does that actually look like? What do you mean?

Liv LaRue: 30:07

I just volunteer a lot and I put a lot of time into building relationships with the people that I live around that share like minded goals, values and situations.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 30:19

I think it's pretty wild how there's only a few key words that everybody says would help you get to know people better Values, goals, character, perspective and none of those things are physical, none of those things are superficial or based on consumer goods, necessarily None of they may be represented that way. Right, but when you want to, you know, get to know people in an hour I mean, look how long we've been talking and it's a totally different environment when you start trying to get to know people as people. I don't know if your skill set is as widely understood or as well understood as you've articulated it in this conversation on a grand scale.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 31:05

Oh yeah, absolutely, because the connotation and you've got it all over your website too right the connotation is generally more derogatory or, for that matter, totally unknown, and it's just ignorance. Like what do you mean? You can do this legally or absolutely not, I don't want my daughter doing that, no way, or whatever responses might be around it, right?

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 31:24

So if you were talking to those people and very realistically, in my audience there may be some what do you say to them? How do you, you know, not necessarily to recruit, but like, how do you appease that?

Liv LaRue: 31:39

Absolutely Good question. Yeah, well, let's just keep it real. Okay, so sex work is the oldest profession. It's been around for a long time. There must be a reason why. The reason is that it's needed. If someone is providing a service that is needed, one would hope that they enjoy doing it and that they're good at it. Sure, not everybody can do everything. There's a lot of people that can't do what I do. There's a lot of people that can't do what you do. If everybody could do it, we wouldn't have such a need for it, right? Obviously, you're a very unique individual.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 32:14

Right, that's a great point.

Liv LaRue: 32:15

Obviously, you're a very unique individual. You're eloquent, you're driven, you are highly intelligent. Not everybody is like you, so that's why you take your skills and you apply them where the need is, just like I do.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 32:30

All right, folks, stay tight. We'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Liv LaRue: 33:35

So that's why you take your skills and you apply them where the need is, just like I do.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 33:41

Solid, solid answer. Nice, yeah, that was good, all right. Well, so then let me ask you this and this is probably, for the sake of time, one of my last questions, I suppose let's say second to last question. So we wanted to talk a little bit about exploration and travel and discovery and some of these other things, because at the time of this recording, what are we in April? But by the time this actually airs, we're talking some of those other values, and so you can't go everywhere. I mean, this is a job that you can't legally work in every state. So what have you wanted? To move, or have you just effectively caged yourself in Nevada?

Liv LaRue: 34:20

Well, I'm pretty sure people do this work in all 50 states of the union and Puerto Rico. I technically, where I live in Reno Nevada, it is illegal to do this work. It's in the outlying counties that it's legal right.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 34:37

Oh, I see.

Liv LaRue: 34:37

But what I'm doing is providing experience for a fee, and that is perfectly legal. It's all in the semantics. We're all adults here, right? So we have two consenting adults in a room together. The transaction is for the companionship and what we decided to do at that time, and my companionship is between us as adults. It's private, so there's nothing illegal about that.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 35:06

Sure, okay, all right, fair point. Well then, my last question is how has all of these experiences, how have all of these experiences actually instigated your self-worth, your sense of self? How has it helped you as a person?

Liv LaRue: 35:22

Without going into too much detail. I love that question, thank you. In the beginning of this journey it definitely helped with my self-image and my self-worth in a superficial way, like oh, I'm pretty, People like me, I'm accepted, you know, and I was very damaged before. So that helped heal that damaged part of me that needed this validation right. But that only lasts for so long. And then you have to get past, like this ego trip Every girl goes on an ego trip. Now they're the hot shit, whatever. So humility is the next lesson to help me with. And then the people I met along the way. That's why I feel like this is a spiritual calling, because the people I've met along the way have guided me in such a way that I have grown immensely as a human that I would not have experienced these experiences had I not met them. And the way I met them was through my work.

Liv LaRue: 36:16

So, talking about adventure, it's like you meet interesting people, I meet interesting people all the time and they give me little tidbits and I, you know whatever, I go with it and it takes me on this crazy adventure. And I mean I don't want to go into too much detail because we don't have a lot of time, but it's awesome. It's awesome. You know just the kind of people that you meet doing this are very, very interesting. I bet.

Liv LaRue: 36:45

And it's really cool and that's why I recommend it. You know I don't recommend it to every 13 year old. That's a runaway. Now, I'm not trying to advocate for human trafficking or any of this evil shit that does exist. You know I'm talking about again consenting adults.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 37:00

Yeah, and I think there's a lot of that that's misunderstood now because maybe fear, like we said in the beginning I don't know what the reasons are necessarily, maybe it's religious and it's just a total, you know, obstinance, but I think there's a lot of opportunities in getting to know people and communicating and building connection with people. That, all things considered, the industry, in my opinion, is the more minor consideration, where finding ways to relate to people or, in this particular case on the podcast, finding ways to learn more about yourself in that process I think that's the world shift. You look past the color of the container to understand the water is all the same color and it just it changes everything. I think this was, this was a great conversation and it definitely went a lot more directions than I was actually expecting it to. So I appreciate your willingness to do that and get a bit vulnerable on the show and and just talk as people. I appreciate your time, but I also appreciate your insight. So thanks for coming on the show.

Liv LaRue: 38:08

Thank you, porter. I really loved all the questions you asked me. They were very, very thoughtful. Thank you, I'll come back anytime.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 38:16

I'd love to have you back on Now. If anybody wants to get in touch with you for any particular reason, listen to you on other podcasts. Client, I don't know, therapy. Whatever the case is, how do you recommend people get in touch with you or to listen to any of your other content on any other shows?

Liv LaRue: 38:32

You can check out my website. It's wwwlivelaruecom, so L-I-V-L-A-R-U-Ecom. I'm also on LinkedIn. That's my only social I'm really on, so you can connect with me on LinkedIn. All my shows that I've been on are on my website and so are my friends and more information, all that stuff. So just check that out if you get a chance. Thank you.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 38:57

Sweet and for anybody who's new to the show, just like all of our conversations, depending on the streaming platform you're listening to, if you click see more or you click show more, you get a dropdown for all the stuff about this conversation and Liv's links will be in there as well. So if it's an easier way for you to get to her website, you can totally do that. But again, liv, I appreciate your time. Thank you for the opportunity and to everybody listening to the show, thank you. It takes all of your support and all of your downloads and streams and all of those things materialistically to support this show. However, it's your perspectives, it's your insight, it's your comments, it's your emails, it's those things that help drive the direction of the show Because, all things considered, transacting value is more than just a value system. It's about instigating self-worth and creating a sense of self, or an avenue and an outlet for people to identify how other people derive a sense of self as they grow through the world together. So I appreciate everything you guys have contributed to the show and in a perfect value for value sense If there are other things that you want to hear to the show, and in a perfect value for value sense. If there are other things that you want to hear on the show topics, people, contributors, other ways you want to support the show financially, maybe you want to volunteer time, advice, or maybe you just want to check out our new podcast network called JDAM Podcast Network you can do that, too at JDAMPodcastNetworkcom. However, until that point, feel free to keep streaming our show at Transactingampodcastnetworkcom. However, until that point, feel free to keep streaming our show at transactingvaluepodcastcom.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 40:23

Check us out on Odyssey Tune in. Check us out on CastBox, spotify, apple Podcasts. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us on LinkedIn. Guys, follow along, support the network, support the movement, because I don't know about you, but I don't want my son or anybody else's children to grow up in a world where humanity comes second. So let's instigate self-worth together. Thank you to our show partners and folks. Thank you for tuning in and appreciating our value as we all grow through life together, to check out our other conversations, merchandise or even to contribute through feedback, follows, time, money or talent and let us know what you think of the show. Please reach out on our website TransactingValuePodcast. com.