Me about 8 years ago when I first got into the business…one of the only pics where you can see my braces!
About 8 years ago (about 30 years old) when I started I was already old by industry standards…but you wouldn’t have known it.
The two most common questions I get asked are:
“How did you get into this?” (As in, how did I become Mistress T, a Dominatrix & adult film performer/producer.)
and
“What are you going to do…ya know, after?” (As in, what will you do when you’re too old to do this?)
For the first question I created this blog. If you read it from the beginning you will learn the whole interesting story of how I got here. I still get asked a lot but usually I redirect people to my blog for the full story & just give them the super condensed version.
The older I get, the more frequently I get the second question. At 38 I’m already a dinosaur in the porn biz. I know, I look younger and my audience tends to be drawn to “MILF’s” or more mature women but still, there is an expiry date in this profession unlike those who work as doctors or lawyers who can continue to practice when their 80 if they feel like it. It doesn’t matter how they look.
The short answer to the question is simply that I don’t know…and the hippie response is that we can’t really know. It’s one thing to have a plan, but life can throw all kinds of curve balls, good or bad. If you even consider curve balls to be either good or bad…but then I’m really doubling-down on the hippie talk.
I had a whole different life before I got into the adult biz. 12 years ago I would never have imagined I would be where I am. I seriously had no idea. I thought I would probably continue in the office world, climbing the corporate ladder. Sales/marketing, eventually management. Life threw me a few unexpected curve balls and one thing led to another. Here I am.
I love what I do & I have no plans to stop anytime soon…I’ll do this for as long as I want to & for as long as I make a living doing it. That depends on my looks but it also depends on the market & how much file sharing impacts revenues for producers…and I suppose there are other factors I haven’t even thought of. Remember: curve balls.
Sometimes when people ask about my future I know they’re really asking about finances. It’s a personal question that’s not really anyone’s business. We’ve all heard the sad stories of 40 year old strippers or porn stars who blew all their money & have nothing. Similar stories for football players or rock stars I suppose? The adult industry isn’t the only one that pays the young well because their careers are shorter than most.
The obvious answer is to move into more of a producer role, creating content with other people…and that is possible…but only if file sharing or other factors don’t impact the industry so much that money just can’t be made that way. Or maybe I’ll do something else altogether? I had a whole life before this & as a result of my varied experience I have a whole list of transferable skills. I’d love to do work that felt like it was making a positive difference in the world, to help others or our planet. I’m a little bit hippie.
Even if I am financially able to retire I won’t. I enjoy having structure & purpose. I enjoy accomplishing things & being productive.
So for now, I’m here for the long haul. Fear not. Fear not for yourself as you won’t be losing me anytime soon and fear not for me. I have always done well & I’m sure that will always be the case.
Best,
Mistress T
Members site: http://www.MistressT.net
PPV: http://www.clips4sale.com/23869
Blog: http://www.MistressT.net/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/MistressTdotnet
Another pic from about 8 years ago. Fresh on the scene & no idea that Mistress T would become internationally known in the FemDom community. I just had fun & didn’t worry about the future:-)
Cool 😉
Thanks for this again. – As far as it concerns me, i belive that is what i see in every pic of you: a woman doing her way anyway (not the cheap sinatra-style).
And surely this will attract me a couple of decades ahead – if i was in the chick biz, i was very bored by confusing laughter (ok, some girls can be that serious and have kinda a humour, too – but that’s very hard to find – and then i will back them, getting the guy, they want …).
A good greek wine is at least thirty years old and gets you into the really cool mood …
Hope you get some of really good stuff in Greek and enjoy it.
Cheers
Dirk
You have too much kinky energy as to stop your business in the near future. You are Heaven’s gift to kinky people on Earth, so please keep going. 😉 x
Very well said. In my life, there has only been one other: Bettie Page. Bang on, T.
Have you ever thought about Mistress T-branded merchandise? Maybe specialty lingerie and/or bondage and S/M wares? I think your persona and beautiful smile would make Mistress T brands stand out, even with customers who aren’t familiar with your videos (like the Martha Stewart of the BDSM market). I think you’re uniquely authoritative in these areas, and very accessible and couple-friendly when you want to be. I’d love to see a catalog with 30-second item videos of you discussing a cane with a sweet knowing smile, and giving a quick, unflinching demonstration.
You’d need good suppliers, marketers and/or partners, and it’s hard to estimate potential reach and revenue. But merchandising would let you leverage your persona without such heavy exposure, and of course get you away from the file sharing threat. Just a thought.
Thanks Barry, it’s something I’ve given some thought to…but it’s a whole other can of worms that I know nothing about. I’m well known in niche circles but my reach is probably not big enough…compared to the mainstream porn stars. For example, I do well to have 25K followers on twitter, for Femdom that’s one of the highest, but a newcomer mainstream porn star can easily have 60K without hardly tweeting anything at all…& porn stars that are a little better known typically have 100-300K!
Really, I’m a big fish in a little pond (niche Femdom fetish) but a teeny-tiny fish in the ocean of porn overall.
25K followers sounds like a lot to me, but I get your point. You’d have to market heavily, and that’s expensive. Probably not worth it unless you’re really in love with the business model.
And you should be choosy. I have no doubt you’ll be successful in anything you try. Hell, reading this blog, I can honestly say I think you’d be great as a professional writer.
Who are some of the top male talents that you would love to perform with?
I am quite sure that I am not the only one who thinks that, at 38, you have many years to look forward to before you have to give serious consideration to something else. And I am very honoured to be able to say that with some small degree of knowledge and wholly agree with comfortface
sova x