Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Confession$ of an OnlyFans Creator

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

The internet is split on OnlyFans: is it empowering for women to be able to make money off of their bodies? Or, is it exploitative? And how much money can you make on OnlyFans, anyway? Nicole invites Lauren Urasek, an OnlyFans creator, to answer these questions once and for all. You can find Lauren on Instagram @Loandthecosmos and @sensorydripstudio 

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start, or even too complicated, if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full-time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you.

I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself.

Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. Hey guys, are you ready for some money rehab? Wall Street has been completely upended by an unlikely player, GameStop. Are you ready for some money rehab? Wasting our time. I will take a check. Like an old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. One of the outcomes of the great resignation is that more folks are picking up remote side hustles. Many people are flocking to freelance sites like Upwork and

Fiverr, while others are starting accounts on OnlyFans, a website created where creators can release content to paid subscribers. Immediately, this site earned a reputation as a place for people to post risque content. As far as I can tell, opinions are pretty split on OnlyFans. Is it empowering for women to be able to make money off their bodies? I think so. Or is it exploitative? Some may ask. And how much money can you make off OnlyFans anyway? I wanted to find out. So I invited Lauren Urasik, an OnlyFans creator, to chat. Lauren, welcome to Money Rehab. Thanks for having me. So why did you want to start an OnlyFans page? I think like a lot of

people, I started it at the beginning of the pandemic. I have been a makeup artist for 10 plus years. And like a lot of people, all of our work just went like poof. So a few months into it, I was like seeing, I don't know if you've seen any of these like tick tocks or Instagram, whatever all these people are posting, oh my god, I'm making, you know, a crazy amount of money in like, a few weeks or a month or whatever it might be. And, you know, I was like, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna make one and like, see what happens. And I already had like a small following on Instagram. So I put it up there and immediately you kind of like get feedback or people are starting to like subscribe. So you're immediately making

money. And then it just kind of evolved. So what kind of content do you put on your page? So currently I'm not really doing it that much anymore when I was, when I first started. So I guess I'll preface it with this. I used to, I mean, I still do. I'm like a big camper and nature outdoorsy person. So I would like take nudes out like in the middle of nowhere. And I would post them on Instagram. And I was like, well, if I'm putting this content out for free, like, let me just do the same sort of things

on OnlyFans. So I started just posting like tasteful, like lingerie or like just, you know, whatever. They call them lewd. It's like a kind of a not like totally nude, but, you know, you're still implying. And then it just kind of evolved. Like, honestly, I got more comfortable with my body. So I started doing like solo stuff, um, which is anything from like a strip tease to, um, fetish, like request. Like I literally got paid to send a video of me brushing my hair to this guy. So there's like a lot of directions you can go. And I kind of went in a lot of them.

I did like some dominatrix stuff. And then a lot of it is like chatting with people. So you can like get paid just to talk to people, FaceTime with people. So it's all over the place. So because this is a money show, I really want to follow the money and try to understand where that comes from and how it all works. So how does your income from OnlyFans compare to what you've made working other jobs, like a makeup artist? If you're really putting a lot of effort into OnlyFans, like you can make a lot of money very quickly. I mean, it depends. It could be anywhere from like five, usually like five to $10,000.

Okay. And like I said, as a freelancer and like,'ve always been all over the place, so I have like income coming from a lot of different places. But to have like one platform where you like see the numbers coming in and it was like very gratifying. But it was a lot of work to keep up to that level of income on OnlyFans. And I read, but correct me if I'm wrong, that you have been a sugar baby in the past. Yes. When I was probably in my early 20s, I did that. I'm 32 now, or I'll be 32. I actually wrote, I'm an author author I wrote a book about dating in New York and that was a lot of my experience like dealing with a lot of wealthy men and a lot of it it doesn't have to be like I said OnlyFans can be whatever you want it to be but a lot of it is dealing with those personalities and like knowing how to, you know, just like not be frustrated or upset or burnt out, which eventually I, you know, like succumb to.

So how does OnlyFans compare with sugaring financially? Oh, it was definitely much better. I made a lot more money on OnlyFans with a lot less physical work. I mean, I was sitting in my living room most of the time, just talking to people, taking photos, whatever. And then when I was a sugar baby, I was running around the streets of New York and usually having not the best time with people I didn't really want to be with. So OnlyFans is more of a way to control everything that you're putting out and doing and you have full control, full control over everything, as opposed to being in like a physical situation with someone. And you said the hardest part or one of the hardest parts was gaining an audience. So I guess you have subscribers. How many subscribers do you have on OnlyFans?

Currently, not that many, probably around like 50 or so um at my like peak I had around 600 um and yeah each of those they can either subscribe for a month at a time for 12 months at a time and it's really there's so many different levels I mean there's people that just go on there and just pay for your subscription and then they don't pay for any premium content, which is where you really make the most money. And then there's people, I had a few guys that probably paid for 10 to 20% of everything I was making. So there's people that are like very invested in you. And then there's just, you know, the average person that just wants to like see what's

up or, you know, they're like 18 year old boys with no money. So what would the lowest tier cost? Like a monthly subscription, I guess. My monthly subscription is only $5, which is pretty, I mean, I would say on average people, like I would say five to 10 might be the average. There's kind of different tactics you can take. You can have a lower subscription and then you can charge more for the premium stuff, or you can have a higher subscription and not really put out more paid options. So basically like your feed or when you're sending messages to people,

even if they're subscribed, you can put another like, um, say you put another video in there that's locked and then you have to say, okay have to pay 50 bucks 100 whatever to unlock this video so the the subscription or the five bucks gets you what um it just gets you access to like my main feed which I don't post anything nude it's basically just kind of like another Instagram. The lewds. Yeah, the lewds. Thank you for teaching me new cool words. How much would all the premium stuff be? Or like, what's an example of the premium stuff?

Yeah, I mean, you can, you can choose whatever you want to do. So there would be some things that were like, okay, $5 for this set of three photos, or, you know, 100 $200 for this video. Or I mean, honestly, I made the most money doing personalized things. So people would message you and say, I want, for example, a video of you brushing your hair, and you, you know, just name your price and either they pay it or they don't. So, yeah. And so how do you get the money through Venmo or? It's all done through OnlyFans. So they actually, they take 20%. And, but then you're just, yeah, obviously they are against you taking money outside of the website. Is it all sex content mostly like the premium stuff, I assume for the platform? So when I started, like I said, I've done mostly all solo stuff, whatever you want to call that. I mean, yeah, some of it is

sex stuff. I mean, sex is such a wide, a wide genre. Um, but I would say I made the most from like fetish, uh, fetish requests, like personal stuff. I mean, I literally made videos telling people that they're worthless and like that they're, that's just what people want to hear. Certain people. So you have to definitely have an open mind if you're, you know, open to like becoming a creator. There's a lot of foot fetish stuff, obviously. I think a lot of people. That I know. I was approached to take a picture with my feet in some shoes or something like that. Yeah. So, I mean, I've always been pretty open sexually, so none of that really bothers me. Um, but, but then like I said, there's, there's,

I'm going to post pictures and, you know, cute bikinis or whatever on Instagram. And I don't really see how that's any different than lingerie or, you know, and also we're all sexual beings. Like we all, you know, know what, what, you know, bodies look like. It's just another stereotype. I think that we need to like keep breaking down and I think it's getting better. I'm here for this. You don't have to convince me. I'm just

curious, like if somebody is listening to this, so they know like really what they're getting into. Can they, you know, like you're not signing up for only fans to show cooking videos unless you're maybe naked. Yeah. Some people do. I mean I mean, like I said, there's a lot of fitness people on there. But I tell people, I mean, if they are looking to like create on OnlyFans, you have to do whatever you're comfortable with. Because ultimately, you have to say, I think at the end of the day, if any of this got out, would I be okay with that? And, you know, if you're not okay with it, and I have people tell me all the time oh I would do it if my family didn't care I would do it if whatever and I'm like well it's not for everyone and it doesn't have to be for everyone that's really interesting so has some of the content

you've put out gotten out beyond the platform no No, nothing's gotten out. And honestly, if it did, OnlyFans is pretty open about like they would take legal action against the person if that did happen. So I think there is that boundary. People know you kind of are protected by doing it on their platform. Gotcha. So would somebody listening to this think of OnlyFans as a side hustle, a career, something just for fun, or I suppose have different people done all of the above? Yeah, I think it's definitely all of the above. I mean, I know people, so they kind of gauge it by percentage. They tell you what percentage you're in of how much money you're making. And I was in the top 1% for a while. And, but then they have people that are in the top like 0.01%. And those people make millions of dollars a year just on OnlyFans, but they usually already have large followings. And so they can bring all those people over onto the platform. And then, you know, me now, I still have it up because I have just like running like a running subscription list where there's just money coming in, even though I'm not really

posting anything. So why would I give up free money essentially? And now it's not really making me even nearly what I was making before, but it's fine because I'm busy with other things. So yeah, it can be any variety of income, I feel like. Hold on to your wallets, boys and girls. Money Rehab will be right back. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash. But I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated

if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look

guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. Now for some more money rehab. So at $10,000, you were in the top percentile. Yes. What advice would you give people who are interested in OnlyFans on how to make money? I would say just be, you know, like I said before, be comfortable. Don't do anything that you're not comfortable with. Depending on if you have basically building your network is everything. So whether that's you have to be be comfortable with being open about it. Because if you're posting on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, you have to be public, really that you're on OnlyFans. And I do know people that have created like a whole separate persona. So you could go

that route also. But regardless, you have to be it can't really be a secret. You have to be actively like looking for subscribers and unless you already have a huge following, of course. So that's interesting. You can't just find subscribers on the platform. You have to really hustle the other social networks you're part of to try to recruit people to come yeah and follow you there's no there's no browse function or anything oh okay so there's no discovery like in instagram where i randomly follow people i don't know why but they popped up somehow or like on tiktok where it's the for you page yeah the only way to gain people is through external things or some people like you'll kind of meet other people that are on the platform and you kind of cross, um,

promote. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Uh, I didn't realize that that's, that's something good to know. Uh, what other misconceptions have you heard about OnlyFans? I feel like the main one is kind of like I already touched on, just that, you know, you just kind are folks out there that are critical of sites like OnlyFans and have a whole lot of things to say about women and their bodies and sexuality and making money. What would you say to those people? I think I think those people are on another planet still. planet still. I think there's a lot of hate towards women and women being open about their sexuality and our bodies. And I don't know if there's anything that can necessarily change those people. I just think you have to, you know, if you're not interested, turn the other way. But also they're the same people

they're usually watching porn so it's like you know you can't make any everyone happy um I would just say for anyone that is worried about the judgment or you know just what other what other people might think you shouldn't do it because you have to have a really strong sense of self and confidence to handle that. Because there's also people on there that might be your subscriber and you don't do something that they want and they freak out or, and they send like hateful messages or whatever it might be, because there's, there's still a lot of men that even if they're paying you, they still don't respect you. Um, so yeah. Did that happen to you? Oh yeah. I mean, many,

many times. Yeah. It's, I mean,, but it's just it's just what it is. So really, when you ask, what do I say to those people? I don't really say anything. I just move on and ignore that. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. OnlyFans does have a reputation as a platform for risque content. If you want to build a site where you can post content to paid subscribers and your specialty is G-rated content, I'd recommend opting for sites like Patreon instead of OnlyFans. Even though not every OnlyFans creator posts salacious content, that is the association with the site. So if you're trying to attract a different crowd, choose a different platform. Money Rehab is a production of iHeartRadio.

I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our producers are Morgan Lavoie and Mike Coscarelli. Executive producers are Nikki Etor and Will Pearson. Our mascots are Penny and Mimsy. Huge thanks to OG Money Rehab team Michelle Lanz for her development work, Catherine Law for her production and writing magic, and Brandon Dickert for his editing, engineering, and sound design. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.