Protect Your Mental Health and Your Brand

XXX Mental Health

As a community, we face routine bias, stigma, discrimination and near-constant attacks on our  character by those outside our industry. We know how difficult it can be  to find accepting mental health support.

Here are a few resources that may help.

  • Lena Paul

    PERFORMER

    “This job requires heavy self care.”

    It is truly in your best interests to protect your finances more aggressively if you do suffer from mental health issues. This job requires heavy self care.

  • Isiah Maxwell

    PERFORMER, PUBLICIST

    “[Know] how much of yourself to give and when to give it.”

    Pacing yourself off camera will help you maintain the energy to deal with everything on camera. There’s a technique to knowing how much of yourself to give and when to give it. Mental health is important and you want to monitor how you feeling throughout your career. Success may demand a fast-pace lifestyle to keep up and consistency on a level where you’re only given a couple of opportunities to fail.

Setting Up Your Business

Incorporate / LLC

Consider whether you’d like to set up an LLC or incorporate. An LLC has fewer corporate formalities and greater tax flexibility, but is similar to a corporation in that it offers limited liability protections to its  owner.

Research to decide the best option for you, consider whether or not you’ll want a discreet business name, as some banks may choose to decline accounts associated with adult companies.

Trademark

Obtaining a trademark will protect your name from being copied, or used in a way to exploit your business.

Make sure nobody else has a trademark on your name or already operates under the same name. Make sure you don’t choose a name of an already existing brand, you may find yourself with a lawsuit. It’s worth hiring an attorney to assist you in filing your trademark application and protect your brand and income moving forward.

Copyright

Learn more about copyright protection. It frequently comes into use through DMCA Takedown Notices, which can help get your contect removed if it is pirated to a free tube site.

Website

Get your domain registered, attach an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to protect user information and post a privacy policy & terms of service (don’t copy & paste from others, it doesn’t work that way). Check with your attorney about how to comply with foreign data protection laws like GDPR. If you don’t want to operate your own membership site from the get go, at least secure the domain name and have it forward to a social media profile or your work on a clip site, your referral link to your scenes on a paysite, or another income stream.

Social Media

Get your Twitter, Instagram (create a Business Page if you can; it  automatically creates a Facebook Business Page for you, which is very censored, but good to secure), Snapchat, Switter, etc, all registered under the same account name so there’s no confusion between you and  your imposter accounts.

Content Protection

Prevent piracy to avoid lost revenue of your work. Add watermarks with your URL to photos, and work with companies such as Porn Guardian, or register your content with Vobile, Xvideos registry, and StopPiracy video registry, etc. Having your name trademarked can help to verify your online accounts and uploads, protecting your work from piracy and  imposters.

XXX Contracts

Before signing anything, contracts or releases, make sure you read it carefully and GET A COPY. If you cannot get a physical copy, at least take a clear picture of any documents you sign with your phone. If you can, have an attorney review the contract and explain it to you clearly.

ASK QUESTIONS: What is the title? Where will it be published? How or where will it be distributed?

A contract grants the rights to your name and image in perpetuity; this means you cannot ask a director to remove your scene if you decide to quit working in porn. Make sure you understand everything you are legally agreeing to when you sign paperwork.

Protect Your Real Identity

At some point in your career someone may get a hold of your legal or personal name and leak it. Be prepared.  The best way to safeguard your real name is to keep your Performer Name  Email separate from your Legal Name Email.

If you’re worried you might miss an important work email if you have to check a separate email account, just have it forward a copy to your personal email address, and you can then delete it and log into your adult business account and reply from there. There are a lot more ways to set up & manage email addresses and ‘firewalls’ between your  adult accounts on line and your personal ones.

Create a separate phone line. You can do this free and easily using a Google Voice number. Use ID protection, don’t give out your legal name to people, check that IMDB doesn’t publish it, etc.

Only show people what you WANT them to know about you. Just because you’re a public figure does not grant others the right to know everything about you. That also goes for peers within the industry itself.

Quick and Effective

Change the location settings for all social media apps. On iPhone’s Camera app, go to:

Settings >Privacy >Location Services > Camera and select “Never” so your physical location is not revealed when sharing photos.

  • Isiah Maxwell

    PERFORMER, PUBLICIST

    “Keep what you want nobody to know, to yourself.

    In regards to privacy onset, even fully displayed, this is an industry where you CAN separate some things on camera from off camera. Keep what you want nobody to know to yourself. If there are things you like at home but not on camera, keep it that way. I like saving some things for off camera so when I do them they feel special.

    Online, my recommendation is simple, log off. It’ll help your mental health.

    Daily life, continue to self grow by reading and learning something new. Like a plant, if you’re not growing, you’re dead."

  • Chelsea Poe

    PERFORMER, PORN FILMMAKER

    "Avoid making decisions early in your career with marketing that you might not be comfortable with down the road.

    I have some private [social media] accounts for my family and some friends but mostly I’m pretty open with my family and the world about being a sex worker. I think maybe because I have been a bit more in the film festival world I am a bit more accessible than most performers who just perform who may deal with more people trying to find out information about their personal lives. I view my work as my art so its weaved into my life as opposed from me not being “Chelsea Poe” at any given moment. I think when you need space from work, you need to make that space for yourself.

    I think the biggest thing you need to avoid is making decisions early in your career with marketing that you might not be comfortable with down the road. I worked on sites that used transphobic slurs early in my career and I really honestly regret that. I would just say stick to your gut and assume everyone could see any project you do."