I began my journey in the adult industry in late 2019 while I was still living at home in South Wales, UK and working full time as a carer for the elderly. I loved my job in care, but I barely made enough money to live. Thats when I created my OnlyFans and started posting content. I was probably making around $100 - $200 per month posting non-explicit content and averaged around 10 - 20 fans when I first started. Not gonna lie, I was chuffed with that.
Fast forward to 2020 I was off to Liverpool for Uni to study adult nursing. Since I was moving so far away I had to leave my job in care to begin studying my degree, this is when I started taking OnlyFans more serious since it became my only source of income. I started to diversify my content and when I realised I would make more money creating more explicit content, I took the plunge and began making and posting fully nude and explicit solo content. Eventually this grew to girl/girl content and then boy/girl content. By the time my first year of my degree was up I had fully immersed myself in my industry, I was booking collabs with other creators, going to content and networking events, I'd even started stripping and escorting. When it come to the adult industry, there wasn’t many sectors I hadn’t tried.
Shortly after my second year of Uni had started and after a year of taking the adult industry seriously, I was already making more than I would be if I was a qualified nurse, so I dropped out of my degree and focused on the adult industry full time. My career took off immensely when I was introduced to an Adult Support Networking group called SNAP (Support Networking for Adult Performers), I attended one of their events and met more professional creators in one night than I could have ever imagined, and in an industry that's shrouded in lack of easily accessible information and gatekeeping, everyone was so helpful and friendly, it was insane! I learned about health certificates, porn companies, what to get involved in, what to stay away from, and met some incredible contacts. Shortly after this I started shooting paid shoots for established porn companies and running my content sites more like a business.
"I was probably making around $100 - $200 per month posting non-explicit content and averaged around 10 - 20 fans when I first started. Not gonna lie, I was chuffed with that."
By March 2021, I incorporated my first company with Companies House and I was officially a registered business owner!
I was running an extremely profitable business as a self-employed entrepreneur and honestly, it was amazing. But I couldn't shake the experience I had at SNAP. It had been so difficult to make it to the stage I was at in the Industry, there was little to no reliable and accurate information for anyone looking to get involved in the industry and when it come to trying to contact creators that looked like they were successful, they either didn’t reply or they wouldn’t be overly keen to help, especially if you were a far smaller creator than them. The inner carer and nurse in me wanted to help new people coming into the industry avoid this, so I promised myself that no matter how successful I was, I would never refuse help to anyone, regardless of who they were, how big or small of a creator they were, and whatever they needed help with. This is the mission and vision I run both my businesses and my personal life with.
By late 2022 I started to delve into Content Creator Agencies, my workload was so immense I could hardly keep up with running all my content sites, organising collabs, doing my business admin, and having a life in between.
What I found absolutely appalled me.
"I promised myself that no matter how successful I was, I would never refuse help to anyone, regardless of who they were, how big or small of a creator they were, and whatever they needed help with"
It was like I’d taken a leap backwards to when I first started, every single agency I contacted was shady to say the least.
Firstly, nearly every single one of them was ran by men, now I’m not saying that is strictly an issue, however I couldn’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable at the fact so many girls pages were being managed by these teams of random guys - more so to this, these guys weren’t and never had been in the industry themselves asides from running an adult industry content agency.
Their background was Digital Agencies and Marketing Agencies, not adult ones, normal agencies managing non-explicit clients. I couldn’t wrap my head around how anyone could successfully know the ins and outs of the adult industry if they had never had any first hand experience of being involved in it, especially considering how difficult of an industry it is to navigate as an experienced adult professional, let alone a beginner! Because of how taboo and as a result professionally underdeveloped and unregulated it is, it is nearly impossible to understand without being directly involved and most of the time, from learning from your mistakes and downfalls.
From my small years working in business and working alongside non-explicit Digital and Marketing agencies, and my larger years building myself as an explicit content creator, I can say with confidence that the two are in absolutely no way relatable. The efforts to market an explicit business in comparison to a non-explicit business are completely different, you cannot use standard marketing techniques to build an explicit business and unless you are in the adult industry, how would you know what really works and what doesn’t?
My second biggest point of concern was how much these agencies completely exploit their clients in terms of money. There wasn’t a single agency I could find that charged under 40%, some were as much as 60%, now I know they’re doing all the work for you, and now that I manage my own agency, I can confirm the costs are far higher than I first imagined… But taking 40% of your income for a standard service managing your online presence is still unacceptable and far too high!
My third and final giant concern is probably the most important and should have been first on the list, but cant be because I needed to explain the two points above in order for you to fully understand the issue.
Every single agency that exists in this industry does so to make money, obviously thats not a bad thing. But you have to understand the difference, their first and foremost objective is to make themselves money, they don’t care about their clients, they don’t care about their clients fans.
How do I know this?
3 points…
"I couldn’t wrap my head around how anyone could successfully know the ins and outs of the adult industry if they had never had any first hand experience of being involved in it, especially considering how difficult of an industry it is to navigate as an experienced adult professional, let alone a beginner!"
First up, I gathered as many contracts as I could from enquiring myself and then I gathered as many as I could from my network of friends who were being managed by some of our industries most well known agencies. I passed on everything I found to my solicitors to look over as these contracts were what me and my legal team were going to base my contract around.
ALL of these other agencies contracts, were absolutely fucking obscene.
Every single contract was written to protect the agency and make the creator liable to all sorts of hidden agenda’s.
A quick example of a few of the most concerning things I found in contracts were;
- The agency becomes the owner of the content and is legally allowed to sell the content themselves and retain all profits made
- The agency is responsible for the withdrawal of all of the creators monies (they take their cut and then forward the creator the balance, leaving the creator unbeknown as to if they have been overcharged, which is often the case and can be hard to work out due to fees and exchange rates) - Finally, the agency is not liable for any loss of earnings or liability if their accounts are deleted which is insane because from taking over clients pages previously managed by other agencies, they often advise creators or manage pages not inline with the platforms terms of service.
This can make a lot of fast money but it leaves the creator open to having their account deleted, loosing all their funds and being unable to create another account on the platform, at which point the agency will withdraw its services!
Ive also found agencies tactics surrounding fans to be akin to ‘bullying’ fans out of their money.
Your fans are your most important part of your business, without them, you have nothing. There must be some sort of line between financial gain and treating your fans with a level of respect that will continue you to exploit (for want of a better word) your fans so that you can build a stable and continuous stream of income from them.
For example, on one page we took over from a pervious agency we found the agency in question would use the potential of meeting the content creator to exploit money from the fans. Saying things such as ‘send me more money and we can arrange some time together’ and while this worked for a short amount of time, it didn’t take long for most fans to grow tired of these false promises, to which the agency would push back with something along the lines of ‘well if you’re not serious and aren’t going to send me more money, I’m going to stop replying to you and block you’. I cannot stress enoughh how wrong this is. Not only from the point of view of your fans, but also for the security of your page, it puts you physically in a vulnerable position as you do not know who you are talking to and what length they will go to if you’re implying you’ll meet them, but also because it is massively agains the terms of service of every single content site to arrange to meet your fans - because it puts you in such a vulnerable and dangerous position!
Fans must be treated with respect, they literally provide for your life. You will find far more long term success in nurturing your fans and building long lasting relationships with them where you can gain secure and continuous income. Yes they are there to be gained from, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a correct way to go about it. Funds should be subtly eased out of them, on their terms, not yours. That doesn’t mean you cant prompt them, there’s just a correct way to go about it and from what I’ve seen from other agencies, they don’t even mildly understand this concept.
It goes without saying as a general rule agencies are all about themselves and their practices are incredibly shady.
It had to stop.
"From day one my vision and motives behind this small business has not changed. We do what we do with transparency, and we do it well."
I wanted to create an agency that broke the mould. Agencies will sell you the dream and from the outside looking in, it probably seems great. But if you’re not extremely knowledgeable of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, it can leave you in such a vulnerable position, especially financially.
I wanted a place that was creator ran, for creators, that was transparent and ran by an all female team. A team that understands you and the industry you’re in to the finest detail. I built my career first hand, all on my own. I know what goes into building a successful career as a uk based female content creator. This is the reason I will only take on uk based female content creators. I have had many male creators and overseas creators approach me for help and I’ve had to sadly decline them as their demographic is not my forte and I will not take on a client unless I know with certainty that I can offer the best service to that client and their brand. Other agencies will take on just about anyone. I wanted my agency to be everything that current agencies were not. Most of all, I wanted to help people, I wanted to be there for both the creators and the fans and run an ethical business centred around creating a sustainable business that was profitable because it was good at building relationships, not because it was good at exploiting money.
I distanced myself from the stigma around agencies when I was creating this business by labelling it a bureau, rather than an agency and I can honestly say it has become everything I ever could have dreamed of and more. From day one my vision and motives behind this small business has not changed. We do what we do with transparency, and we do it well.
You can be confident you’ve found an agency that is focused around you. We may not be the biggest or the most profitable, but we are without a doubt the realest and in my opinion that makes us the best. We will never give you bad advice, we will never focus our efforts on success at the detriment of you, your money or your reputation. We know the industry inside and out and we pride ourselves on being upfront and honest. We won’t make you millions, but we will take the pressure off of you and give you the time and freedom to have a life amongst your career whilst doing our best to increase your stats, after all, if you make more, we make more.
We’re all here to make money, but we’re here to do it the right way, and we will hold your hand every step of your journey.
Now that were all done, I want to wrap up by saying thank you for being here! It means the world, so come start a conversation with us. You won’t regret it, I promise.
All my love,
Lacey x
