On The Whorizon Interviews Nikki Night
Blog Post Written By: MelRose Michaels
Nikki Night is a cam model coach who has been in the sex industry for more than ten years. She helps models develop their shows and on camera presence so that they can make more money.
On the Whorizon sat down with Nikki to talk about somatic sex education, the importance of vulnerability, and how her work impacts her relationship with intimacy.
What are things that really stand out to you about your experience getting into sex worker camming that are skill sets that can take you anywhere, even outside of sex work?
Nikki Night: Every single thing that you're doing is absolutely a business development skill that you're learning, whether it's video editing, whether it's speaking in a certain tone or voice to your fans, whether it's making promos, making deals. It's almost like running your own little business. And even when I was a makeup artist at a makeup counter, my boss at the time told me that this [makeup counter] is a tiny little store. This is its own company, it's its own business, you have to run it like that. So the same thing for you.
Even the silliest things of when you have a contest — making sure that the prize doesn't cost more than the effort put in to run the contest. Are you putting yourself out for nothing? Are you spinning your wheels? It's things like that. Everyone calls this job like, Oh, it's so fun. You just suck D and it's great. Yes, I suck D and it is great. But it's also a lot of work. The skills that you learn are amazing — just unbelievable e-commerce skills that you can absolutely take anywhere.
Let's talk about impostor syndrome. How do you think that you went from having impostor syndrome to knowing your own worth? What do you think the path toward that is?
NN: I think I did have some help in the beginning, only again, from doing makeup freelance. Because as a freelance artist, you still have to charge someone for something that they can wash off at the end of the day. It's not a physical product, right? So having to confront that as an artist, that really did help me as a cam model when I had to do it again because it's uncomfortable. So that right there, I'd gone through that twice.
I’m dyslexic, so I do know that things are harder for me. So I kind of take things on the chin a little bit easier. I thrive on feedback, and I think it took years until I started listening more to just the models. And when they were telling me, like, “Hey, you really helped me here,” and thinking of yourself as an artist or an entertainer or coach. It's actually not waiting for validation. It can be hard, but it stopped when I started listening to other models and them saying, “I've had success with your stuff. I’ve had success with your information.” And then I was like, Okay, so I'm not an idiot. Yeah, it took that long, but it was real…
There's also a huge lack of professional tools for our industry. We don't deserve anything less than anyone else.
You've done a lot of model training. What are some of the top three things that you tell models about running a business?
NN: The number one thing I tell everyone right off the jump is record and watch your own stuff. Watch your own things… You have to listen to your own stuff, watch your own shows, watch your own videos, you need to identify what you're doing so you can expand on that. You can't ask people for money if you haven't seen your own product… and I would say that's number one…
I recommend anytime you're feeling frustrated — like if you're starting to feel frustrated with why am I not getting this? — put yourself in the seat of your viewer, your tip, or your fan. See what they see. Same thing with your social media, same thing with what you're doing. Ask yourself always, Would I follow this person? Is this interesting to me? Would I tip this person? Do I trust this person?...
There's something I like to call tipper trust. Tipper trust is simply that you make yourself known, you are consistent, you show respect to people's money by not just treating [them] like a human ATM. But at the same time, you tell them when you're here, and you're online. So if you're running away, back and forth everywhere, people aren't going to tip you. If you don't follow up with people — if you're not like, oh hi, talking back — they don't think you're real, and they're not going to tip you. No one wants to part with their hard earned money and no one wants to throw their money down a trash basket. And for a lot of people sitting at home, the internet can look like a big trash basket if you're not careful…
The third thing I would say would be upselling. So next time someone is after a private show — You know what? I think you'll really like this video I have of my feet because I can tell how much you like them here. You should go and check this out. Recommend your other channels. You know what? If you really like this, you should check out my fan club. I do this for my fan club, I'm inviting you, I think that'd be great. Just like they taught us all in retail: Use that shit. Same crap applies.
Some parts of the above interview have been condensed or edited for clarity. To hear the full interview with Nikki Night, listen to On The Whorizon: What SWers Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship, Business, & Marketing.
Follow Nikki Night on Twitter @Nikki_Night. You can see her work at nikkinight.com.
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