My First Client

In talking with some of the more established cuddlers, they told me to be careful with members who have no reviews or karma as it’s called on the site.  They recommend meeting in public a time or two before a private session happens.  That makes sense for safety; there isn’t a lot of screening of new clients.  Members can get banned from the site for inappropriate behavior that doesn’t follow the published code of conduct.  However, if they haven’t actually had a chance for any behavior it’s hard to tell what kind of behavior could be encountered.  I figure that I can’t be a professional cuddler if I never meet potential clients, so when I got a kind message from an engineer who was local I figured it was worth the risk.  I was a little hesitant when after I accepted he said that he required certain clothing, and no jewelry, and offered clean sheets or I could bring my own.  That wasn't enough for me to decline though, I still went forward.  The clothing my client wanted clothing was shorts and t-shirt/tank top, which at least was clothing that made sense for cuddling.  More comfortable and less clothing meant maybe more skin to skin contact, and active wear if you sweat in it no big deal. We met by a Subway that was a few blocks from his home, and just sat for a while and chatted about our expectations, and why my client wanted a cuddling session.  It all seems very safe, so I agree to the session.  We drive back to his place, and he puts a visitor parking pass in my car.  We walk in, and he offers me a private area to change.  I set a reminder to return the pass on my phone.  Then we start cuddling.  He doesn’t want music, and just seems to want to move around a lot.  It feels more like contact improv to me then cuddling.  There were new positions about every 2 minutes!  Eventually I say “Gee, it’s hot, can we just relax? And don’t you think some music might be nice?”  He agrees, and gets up to put on some Kelly Clarkson music, and turn up the fan.  Then we just lay still for a while, which was the nicest part of the session.  After about 5 songs have played, I start thinking that maybe my phone didn’t sound an alarm.  Oh no, I was right, we are 30 minutes overtime.  Lesson learned, set an alarm or have a clock that is visible or a tv show playing that you know the length of.  I let him know I won’t charge him for the extra time, since it was partially my fault.  It was my first official session, and I knew I would have a lot to learn.  We walk out together so I can return the parking pass.  Later that day we both give each other 5 star reviews.  And given how review driven the site is, I am grateful for the review.

Connecting with Possible Clients

My account was approved the next step was to fill in my profile, and message with clients.  I immediately got half a dozen messages.  The site alerts users on the homepage when new members have joined.  Many messages were from people who lived far away, but a few were from people who actually lived close by.  The site prefers for the members to communicate primarily with the site’s own messaging interface.  They even include the option to upload pictures with your communications.  I found that most people wanted to move off of communicating on the site quickly.  The site does monitor messaging, mostly so they have an idea of scheduled sessions and when they should expect to get paid.  Part of the user agreement as being listed on as professional cuddler on this platform is that after a session the site gets 15% of the session fee.  I get why they want to see the messages, and since everything is monitored, I get why clients who don’t even post their pictures on the website would want to connect in a different way.  I decide that as long as we confirm our sessions on the site, side conversations with the phone or email or text messages isn’t breaking the rules.  At first I gave my number to a few possible clients.  Then I thought, oh maybe this isn’t the best idea.  So I signed up for a new gmail account and a new google voice number that I can use for this purpose.  The most surprising thing to me about starting this business is how some clients  wanted to pay me just to talk to me.  

Why Cuddling?

I remembered seeing articles and videos about professional cuddlers.  Like this article from the Huffington Post.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cuddlist-professional-cuddler_us_58e652f9e4b06a4cb30fdce6

It blew my mind that people both pay and are paid to cuddle.  I let the idea go to the back burner, and didn't really think about it until I felt like I kept drowning in debt, and was having the hardest time swimming out of the hole I kept digging myself into.  I tried to get a new better job the traditional way, and kept hearing nothing but no thank you.  Then I remembered the professional cuddling, and was like oh this is totally something I could do.

I thought about how lucky I am, that touch is a regular part of my life.  I have a lot of friends who will cuddle and hug.  There are lots of partner dances I do that heavily rely on touch for communication.  Also sometimes I pet sit or visit kittens and puppies, and animals make awesome cuddle buddies.

So I posted the thought to Facebook, I think I need to become a professional cuddler.  Just the idea generated 75 reactions and 45 comments.

Wow, I was blown away by the support of my friends.  They supported this vision in a way I couldn't ever had imagined.  

Then started my research on how does someone actually become a professional cuddler.  

The first site I looked into was Cuddlist.com  

It has a training to become a professional cuddler, and offers a hosting site for a profile for around $40 to advertise your services for potential cuddling.  I signed up for the free webinar on July 3, and I plan to do the training.

I figured that wasn't the only option, so I kept looking and found CuddleComfort.com

This site offers the option to just write an application to be a professional cuddler, no training necessary.  I'm not sure how they decide who gets accepted and who doesn't, but I was grateful to have been accepted.  They have a code of conduct that you follow as a client and as a professional on the site.  They just ask for 15% of the session fees after you have booked session, and to use the site for most of the communication especially setting up bookings so they can keep track if you honoring the contract.  They are really strict about the code of conduct and will kick people off the site who don't follow the code.  

I send in the application and was accepted as a professional cuddler on June 14,2018. I instantly had potential clients contacting me, and my Facebook friends supported this even more than the idea of being a professional cuddler.