Just picture it: I’m just over a year into building my cuddling practice, connecting with another cuddler over our shared work. The topic of where we cuddle comes up, and suddenly, that connection is cut off. The other cuddler turns their nose up at me. Why?  I told them the truth: I was cuddling with clients on my bed, in my bedroom.  (At the time, I remember thinking “Where TF else am I supposed to cuddle? On the fucking floor?”) When I first started my professional cuddling business, that bedroom was also my cuddling “office”. I shared a tiny three-bedroom apartment with two other ..read more

Whenever I talk to someone about professional cuddling who hasn’t heard of it before, there are always lots of questions that come up. Whether I meet them at a networking event or they’re interviewing me directly for an article or podcast, at some point the question comes up: “How much do you make?” I’ll answer when I’m asked, but… I think this question is SUPER FUCKING RUDE! We don’t ask this question of strangers pretty much ever. I literally never got asked this when I worked as an engineer, and I have a theory why that’s the case: Often when I get asked this question, I think what people r ..read more

If cuddling feels like your calling, you might feel tempted to dive in with both feet. But today, I want to talk to you about slowing down: doing professional cuddling part-time before going full-time. You see, I started professional cuddling back in November 2015 part-time around my full-time engineering job. It wasn’t until February 2017 that I decided (read: my job left me few options, I could either leave or take no pay raise for 18 months) to pursue cuddling full-time. I tell you this because I get a lot of people getting started that reach out asking how they can do it full-time RIGHT NO ..read more

I think someone asks me how to be a professional cuddler an average once a week. They’re usually full of curiosity or enthusiasm, and they’re looking to know what they need to do to start off on the right foot. And if I follow up a few weeks after talking with them, they’ve usually done nothing to make it happen since we’ve chatted. Why the delay? What’s holding them back when they were interested enough to find and email me? Usually, they get scared about starting. It’s not like getting started as a professional cuddler is hard. It’s just that the idea of cuddling as a profession is way outsi ..read more

In the 7+ years I’ve done professional cuddling, the question I get asked the most when I tell people I do this work is, “Wait, what’s a professional cuddler?” On the surface, it seems like a pretty simple job, right? You cuddle people and get paid to do it. What’s so difficult to understand about that? Maybe you could start doing it too even. It can’t be that hard, right? Hold on a second there. Sure, the concept of cuddling is easy to understand. You’ve done it before several times, but doing it for pay is very, very different. Many compare cuddling to massage, but cuddling has one key diffe ..read more

I get a lot of emails from people asking me about professional cuddling. Some people ask me talks I’m giving, events I’m presenting at, or resources I trust. Most people, though, get a little more specific– and a little more personal. They tell me about their specific situation, why they’re interested in professional cuddling, then ask for my advice or my help. What most folks are really asking me is if they personally should become professional cuddlers. And that’s not a decision I can make for anyone. Becoming a professional cuddler is a deeply personal decision. There’s so much that goes in ..read more

(Hint: It’s not business cards.) One of the hardest parts of getting started is knowing where to start. Whether it’s a new hobby or a new career, it’s sometimes hard to know the best way to begin. Professional cuddling is no different. I’ve seen so many cuddlers struggle to figure out exactly what they need to get started. For example, I’ve seen new or aspiring cuddlers: Focus most of their effort on physical marketing, like business cards and flyers. Trouble is, those aren’t always the most useful marketing tools in our digital age– and they’ll likely end up in a drawer collecting dust (not ..read more