Financial Domination Is a Purr-fect Side Hustle for This Sex Worker
Some people get off on giving money to a giant furry cat. Don't judge.
WARNING: This post discusses a certain type of sex work and includes references to physical acts, kinks, and anatomy. If any of that makes you uncomfortable, probably best to skip it.
I love a good side hustle and I’m infinitely interested in how people make money outside the mainstream, so I was psyched to talk to this guy, whose main income stream comes from narrating books and audio programs. His other job, which calls on some of the same skills, is a findom—a financial dominant—who earns money from people who get pleasure from giving it, often with an erotic or humiliation component. His findom persona is a large, strong cat named Sev, and he’s been at it for about four years. He keeps about 10 clients at a time, but people come and go, so to speak.
He wanted to make this clear right away: “Because I'm a dude, my experience in findom is going to be entirely my own. I don't want to speak broadly for the community. The scene is pioneered by women, and I learned from women so I don't want to take credit for their stuff.”
I thought that was very gracious. Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes, Sev has a VERY nice voice. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Vanessa McGrady: How did you start your findom side hustle?
Sev: I saw it as a kink in a story or artwork or something. I don't really remember. It's kind of hazy, but it seemed interesting or aligned with my interests. I searched it out, and there was a Discord server that I discovered that was related to fin Dom, specifically with furries. I joined that, and there was a lot of information there, and then I went on Twitter. If you look up, find them on Twitter, it's thousands of people.
VMc: Once you decided you wanted to do it, what was your first step and who was your first client?
Sev: I remember this very vividly. My first person I ever interacted with on the findom level was a furry named Faust. He sent me a DM because I had made some sort of tweet suggesting that I was interested in findom. [He] was interested, and wanted, basically to erotic role play with me and give me money. And I was like, I like money, let's do it. And we did. It was 50 bucks or something, but my brain chemistry changed from that point onward.
VMc: Did it feel like, “I am supposed to be doing this,” or “this is easy” or “this is satisfying something in me as well.”?
Sev: All three of the things that you just said, it really clicked. It felt right. I was able to go into this persona and really, really liked it. And also, at the time, it felt easy, which was a bit of a mistake. Sex work is work, and it's pretty emotionally exhausting once you're doing it for any length of time. But it clicked with me so much. I wanted to do more of this.
But it also has a negative reputation in some circles. I think that maybe it's not understood, or from an outside looking in, can look strictly like people preying on and taking advantage of other people, which I'm sure does actually happen sometimes. I made a separate Twitter account that was just for findom, and then it was like the gloves were off.
VMc: What’s in it for your clients?
Sev: I think that a lot of people who are submissive findom participants have low self esteem or a humiliation kink, or both at the same time. When they're sending me money, they're getting my attention. They're doing a service that has a measurable impact that improves my life. In our modern capitalist society, money is, quite literally, power. They are literally improving my quality of life through their contribution, donation, tribute, whatever you want to call it. I think that in a way, it's kind of comforting for them to have a place, to have a purpose, a function, with some sort of hard metric impact that they can feel. Some people want me to ignore them, someone who engage with me and I have this easy, flirty sort of affect. I think that they get a temporary connection or a form of intimacy that's not so deep that it would be scary or committal, but they can experience a thrill, a rush, having that humiliation kink pushed, and feeling like they've done a good job in having it pushed.
Some [subs] don't like to approach or talk to me directly for whatever reason, but prefer to send over money without any prompting. This is called a 'silent send', because there is no conversation or discussion that happens during it. I use the gift platform [that] includes a feature that automatically tweets to Twitter when someone buys a gift off of your wishlist. A silent sender might like the public recognition that this automatic tweet gives them, as they often use a screen name or alias with their send. I often leave teasy, flirty, or encouraging comments on these autotweets which can encourage someone to continue playing this way within their comfort level. Sometimes people do reach out after silent sending for a more personal and direct connection.
Another form of play directly related to social media is called a 'retweet game'. Findom is closely linked to humiliation, and for some, to exposure. A 'retweet game' is an event where the dom makes a post (sometimes directly calling out the person who wants the game), and the rules are that each interaction with the post (a like, a comment, a retweet) incurs some sort of penalty or fee. For example, each interaction is worth $1. After a short amount of time (5-10 minutes) the total number of interactions becomes a dollar amount that the sub then pays. It can be exciting for a sub because they're not sure what the outcome could be.
There's another type of findom play directly related to chance and surprise, and those are 'wheels'. Imagine a prize wheel at a carnival, where you spin and get whatever is listed on the slice that is picked. A findom wheel is just like this, but instead of winning a prize, each slice has some sort of consequence. It might be a monetary amount the sub then has to send, or might include a task like writing lines (discipline), slapping one's own balls (masochism), or spending a certain amount of time in chastity. Different doms who do wheels have different sorts of things on them, and it relates to their own interests and what they like to do.
For subs who don't like to be degraded, there can often be an element of convenience or worship. For example, by paying for a dom's phone bill each month, the sub is directly making their life easier and more convenient as a form of service and admiration. Most of the submissives who I interact with take this approach. They want to buy Sev/me things, they want to make his/my life easier, and they want to be recognized as a positive influence who has worth and value through the money they are spending.
VMc: Are you doing this over the phone, or is it like a video conference, or is it in person? How does how does that work?
Sev: I've only done it in person once, and that was a little scary. It was a great experience, but it was scary for me because I'd never done it before. Normally, I'll do it through text or through voice calls, because I'm using my furry character as an avatar. I don't generally do video, but why not combine my side work of voice acting with being a pretend muscular cat on the internet?
VMc: What kind of things are you talking about with them?
Sev: It varies. But some people want the experience of having a temporary romantic partner. They want to talk about their interests. They want to be seen and understood. Some of them want me to call them names and brag at them. I'm playing a character, so I will really ham it up about how much better I am than they are, and how they are so much worse than me, how it is their place to be beneath me, to pay me. They really like that.
VMc: How much are you making off these calls?
Sev: It depends on the individual person. Some people are loaded. Some people don't have as much to give. But generally, monthly, it's about two grand. I'd say that maybe I spend 20 hours a week actively engaged with the findom scene, either putting myself out there, making content to show other people, or engaging with a client directly.
VMc: Do you have any overhead like marketing fees or subscriptions? Or do you pay someone to do your social?
Sev: No overhead at all. I run my own Twitter. I post my audio on a free website. There's not even a subscription or a paywall to get to it. It just entices people to come talk to me.
VMc: So it comes out to about $25 an hour. Does it feel like it would be it's easier to do that than go get a job that pays more? It feels low to me for that kind of work.
Sev: I could go get a more stable gig, but sex work is fun. I enjoy it. I feel very empowered by it. It very much aligns with me. And so while I could make more money, it might also be a lot more stressful, or I also probably wouldn't enjoy it as much.
VMc: What are some qualities for a good candidate to do this?
Sev: I've seen a lot of TikToks saying how easy it is to get into findom, and then it's just free, easy money. And that's not true. You need to have good people skills, and you also need to have thick skin, because you're going to get harassed, you're going to get treated like an object. People aren't going to respect your boundaries.
VMc: Who is not respecting your boundaries?
Sev: People will message me. They'll send me unsolicited dick pics or pics of their asshole that I don't want to see. I'll tell them I'm not into something, and they'll push and push and push. This is a tangent, but the scene is pioneered by and mostly led by women, and I have to kind of acknowledge that I'm a dude in a female-centric space. When I was getting started out, these things were happening to me, it's sexual harassment. I looked to female doms in the scene for support and information on how to deal with it, and they're who I learned from.
VMc: What did they say to do?
Sev: Block them. Don't interact. Don't reply to them, don't respond, don't give them attention or validation. Some of them are looking to be degraded by you getting mad at them. Block and move on. Don't even mention them.
VMc: Are there some scenarios you enjoy more than others, and are there some things that you just won't do?
Sev: I will not do intoxicated play, like edibles, poppers or alcohol. Because even if we talk about a scenario and set up limits beforehand, if a client is intoxicated, then they have less ability to consent. If they think they like the idea of something, or they set a limit in the moment, but then realize that maybe they weren't comfortable with that as we get into play—if they're intoxicated, they might not be able to tell me, or they might make a decision and go too far. That hurts them, and I just don't want to interact with that. And I especially don't like poppers, because those are really bad for you. They can cause long-term damage.
VMc: Is there anything else that you draw the line at?
Sev: I personally get triggered by anal sex and anal play, and some people want me to instruct them or tell them to penetrate themselves with a toy, like one of those remote, vibrating ones that they then give me access to. I don't want to do anything like that.
VMc: What do you enjoy doing?
Sev: I really like being someone's guilty pleasure or relief. I like when, even though we're dealing with intense BDSM play and losing cash and being humiliated, when someone comes to me as a sort of indulgence where I'm playing this character of this big, buff, agro, predatory cat man, and they're going to come in, they're going to get comfy. They're going to give me cat snacks. They meow at me for food. We're going to ERP [erotic role play] about how much they like my character’s muscles or other physical qualities. And we're going to get comfy and cozy and sort of darkly indulge.
VMc: You think you'll do it forever? Do you imagine a time when you'll stop?
Sev: I went to school for computer programming and didn't get into the scene, but I'm working on my studies again, and long term, I would like to have a full-time computer science job and do some voice acting on the side. Maybe I’ll do it with a long-term client of mine, or a friend. But I don't think with all those other things I'd want to engage in the hustle of making content, of making new connections, of being connected into the scene, etc, etc. Or, maybe it'll blow up and I'll keep doing it. I don't know. The future could be anything.
VMc: What do you have for the people who are going to naysay and going to try to tear you down because of this work?
Sev: I think that it's easy to look at it from the outside and only see the result and not know any of the groundwork that goes into establishing a healthy, consenting relationship with the people that I work with.
VMc: What else should I ask you about?
Sev: What's the single most memorable or biggest transaction you've ever had? That's kind of a fun one. This was a few years ago. At this point, some dude sent me $10,000. Why? I don't know he really, really liked it. He was super into it. We're still friends. We still talk. He still doesn't regret it today.
VMc: What did he send you $10,000 for exactly?
Sev: We were playing and teasing, and he started with a small amount, and he kept escalating. It kept being bigger than the last one. We were just like, ERPing phone sex kind of thing. I was really hitting his buttons at the time, and he just kept going. I wasn't even really prompting him to. He just wanted to continue. I checked in with him after, but he was like, Oh, that was great. No regrets.
VMc: Do you have any clients who are super conservative in their in their regular life, but then they come to you to satisfy that part of themselves?
Sev: Yes, definitely. So there's another findom, a buddy of mine. I got him into it. He and I have both played with the same person who is this ultra conservative, MAGA patriot—think stereotypical jock, white dude, MAGA hat, all of that. Instead of sending money to him directly, my buddy made him donate to the Trevor Project. I love an act of humiliation.