Adult Site Broker Talk Episode 181 with Guy Criss of Alternadudes

This is Bruce Friedman of Adult Site Broker and welcome to Adult Site Broker Talk where each week we interview one of the movers and shakers of the adult industry and we give you a tip on buying and selling websites. This week we’ll be speaking with Guy Criss of Alternadudes. At Adult Site Broker we’re proud to announce our latest project, thewaronporn.com. You’ll find articles from industry websites as well as mainstream publications from around the world. It’s designed to raise awareness of our industry’s plight in the war on porn and the numerous attacks on our industry and online free speech by hate groups, the religious right, and politicians. You’ll find all that and more at thewaronporn.com. You’ve probably noticed our new podcast site at adultsidebroker.com. It has a more modern look with easier navigation and more information on our guests including their social media links. For more, go to adultsightbrokertalk.com. And we’ve doubled our affiliate payouts on ASB Cash. Now when you are first sellers or buyers to us, you’re going to receive 20% of our broker commission on any and all sales that result from that referral for life. Check out ASB Cash.com for more details and to sign up. Now let’s feature our property of the week that’s for sale at Adult Site Broker. We’re proud to offer a site that has a comprehensive list of the finest strip clubs in the world. The site has strip club reviews and discussions. It’s been around since 1993. The current owner can provide the new owner with all the information needed to run the site. Members stay on for an average of 3.5 months. There’s a total of 80 to 95 new joins and rebuilds a day. All the traffic is direct or from search and 99% is from North America. No ads have been purchased, which is something the new owner could do to increase revenues. There are several revenue streams that are currently not being implemented including banner ads. These revenue streams could easily double or triple the monthly sales. The owner is selling so he can take advantage of other opportunities. Only $750,000. Now time for this week’s interview. My guest today on Adult Site Broker Talk is Guy Chris of Alternadoods. Guy thanks for being with us today on Adult Site Broker Talk. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. It’s a pleasure. Guy is the owner of Alternadoods.com, Pittsandpubes.com and RealMenfuck.com. Alternadoods is inspired by the existence of the Alt Dude. They bring you the guys that most other studios don’t. The men of Alternadoods are real and off the streets. They’re shaggy, tatted, long-haired, rockers, punks, skaters, goths and more. It’s updated with new exclusive downloadable videos. The site was launched in 2009. It was the first of its kind. Pittsandpubes is inspired by a manly pit and a bushy crotch. These guys jack and lick and play with their hairy parts as they get themselves and each other off. Real Menfuck brings you just that. Real men and real fucking with big dicks, hungry assholes and more cum than all of them can guzzle. Step inside to see 100% real orgy action, twinks fucking daddies, throbbing cocks filling up, gaping holes, and best of all, no pesky storylines. If you’re ready for the hottest man-on-man hardcore fucking, then they’ve got what you need. He has a theater degree from the University of Minnesota. He previously worked for Universal Studios, Universal Music, Sony Pictures Television, and as an assistant to horror novelist and director Clyde Barker. He’s also acted in various commercials and series, most notably, Yes on the Young and the Restless. In addition, he’s directed from numerous studios, including PeterFever.com, DudeTorah.com, JapanBoys.com, and DirtyBoyVideo.com. And guy, that’s all the time we have for today. I’m sorry. So, what made you decide to get into this crazy industry we call porn? So way back in the late 90s, I’m just going to equate it to this. Steven Spielberg had a restaurant called Dive in Century City. And it was like a sub-waste shop or something like that. And on the menu, there was like the little bio and it said, "I started this restaurant simply because I was hungry." And it kind of reminds me of kind of why I started Alternatives. One night I was horny. And I was trying to find content that had guys with long hair, tattoos, all that. So that’s what you’re into? I am, actually. Yeah. Yeah. But they’re the ones that would turn my head at a restaurant or a bar. And I started the site because I went looking and I couldn’t find any of the guys that I wanted to see. So I did some digging and found out that it hadn’t been done and bought a camera and some lights and just kind of started doing it. Hmm. How cool. That was about it. And to this day, there really aren’t a ton of guys represented like that. Although the idea of that particular type of guy is getting more mainstream. So you do see them in bigger studios and things like that, but nothing dedicated exclusively to that. And a lot of the studios still shy away from guys who look like the ones that I represent. That’s all the more reason for you to have them. That is true. So what do you like most about what you do? I think it’s the interaction between people in the industry. It’s the idea of not having a nine to five job. I have my own problems with my own company, but they’re my problems. They’re not sitting at a desk working for a large conglomerate that, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s, I have problems, but they’re my problems and I’m happy to say that, you know. Absolutely. And you’ve lived the corporate existence compared the two. I gave them my 20s. I always say that I gave them my 20s and sometimes I wish I could go back and do this all over. But you know, I wouldn’t have learned what I learned in my 20s doing that. You know, I don’t want to sound down on it or anything like that, like, you know, like, oh, my 20s were destroyed, but God damn having a nine to five job in your 20s when you want to go out and party and drink and have to be up by eight in the morning every day. It just sucked, you know. Yeah. Hey, we’ve all gone through it, right? We’ve all had to go through that. Very few of us are entrepreneurs in our 20s. I mean, most of us have to make a living and work for somebody. And I got out of that a long time ago too. So let’s see, I would have been, I would have been in my 40s when I got out of the rat race as it were. I was working in radio. So I was also in media. And no, I get it, man. I mean, either big corporations or in my case, wannabe corporations, they’re just hard to deal with. They’re just really hard to deal with. So how does that compare with what you do now? I worked in a legal department at Sony Pictures Television. So I learned a lot about contracts and, you know, things like that that are just boring, boring things, I guess, you know, that most people don’t ever want to know about, but it really does help. It’s valuable. It’s valuable information. And I’m glad that I did it. You know, I met some great people and not everything was shitty. It’s one of those things where, too, if you have a, if you have a nine to five job, you can have a great job and be there your whole life. But there’s always someone there that makes it just shitty, just the worst, you know, take a good job and somebody can make it shitty. Oh, I can tell you who that was when I was in radio. Definitely. One of the DJs, guy was a program director and oh, what a dick, what a total dick. I would love to name names of the people I hated, but they’re probably all retired now. Anyway, so they were pretty much in their 40s and 50s when I was, you know, 22. So we’re dead. We’re dead. I’ve actually looked some of them up just to see whatever happened to them and they’re still around. Some are retired. Some are still actually working. Yeah. Well, you got a good gig. Sometimes you do keep working. Yeah. And you need the money, you know, when you’re in your twenties, too, I mean, that’s what kept you there. And I admire some of the people now in their twenties who don’t want to take the shit. They don’t want to do. I just admire people who can, you know, when they’re 22 and they can say, I don’t want to do that and they don’t, but I had to do it for the money. On the other hand, here’s my question. If you don’t want a job, then how are you going to support yourself? See, that’s my problem with that. And I do admire it to a degree, but then I look at it and I go, okay, because I’ve read these articles about all these people who have checked out of the whole job market post COVID. And I think that I think about it and I go, okay, well, how are you paying your rent? How are you coming up with food? You know what I mean? I mean, it’s like, it’s called only fans, don’t you know? For a lot of people, you’re absolutely right. Soon we’re not going to have anybody to run the cash register. Soon there’s going to be nobody working at the drugstore. We’ll just be doing only fans. And there won’t be any customer service people. It will all be AI in bots. Yeah. Well, it’s almost all ready that way. I think a lot of the time when I’m chatting with supposedly a person, it is AI and pretty soon that’s going to be the case. And I don’t know, maybe I’ll just start doing funny things like saying, yeah, so where do you live? Right. It’s like, I do not understand whatever. So what bothers you about the industry? You know, I think, I think what bothers me about the industry is that it’s hard to say without sounding. What bothers me about the industry, I think is, first of all, the gay and straight side don’t really talk. You go to shows and everything and it’s the straight side and the gay side and it’s clicky and they seem not necessarily against each other, but you know, it’s hard to navigate sometimes. Well, for instance, you go to a show and they’ve got one seminar on gay business and one seminar on straight business. It’s like, well, shouldn’t that be one seminar? You would think, but a lot of times to the straight side, if they come in and try to run a gay company or they try to shoot gay stuff, they don’t necessarily know what looks good. I work for a company right now that I direct for and they just had a thing with their editors where the editors are straight. So they were taking out the assholes of the guys fucking because they thought that was unappealing and that’s what we want in it. You know, so they sometimes they just don’t know and there’s no, I don’t know, there’s that. I mean, there’s not a lot that bothers me about the industry. I kind of keep to myself in the industry, you know, I do go to the shows and things like that, but I just found out a long time ago, it’s just best to keep blinders on and do your own thing because if you look at what other people are doing, it’s just going to piss you off or make you jealous or whatever, you know, so I just have a much better life just not dealing with a lot of people. When I talk to people, if somebody’s straight and they want to start a gay side, I ask them why. Generally the answer is, oh, I want to make a lot of money and I’ll say to them, here’s the thing, okay, do you like gay content? And they’ll go no. And I’ll go then you shouldn’t own a gay site because if you don’t like something, you’re not going to do it well and you’re not going to do it right. And the same works the other way. So yeah, I think that people should do what they like and that helps. I’ve always said, shoot what you know. It’s not, you know, I’m not into fetish. I’m not into leather. I’m not into that kind of stuff. So I shy away from shooting it, although I have done it, but I sometimes think that people who are into that know it better. It’s also I shy away from things like feet because the feet people are just they all, you know, if you show the top of their feet, they complain that they didn’t see the bottom. If there’s a sock on the complain that the foot was, you know, it’s they want socks. They want the top. They want the bottom. It’s I can’t shoot something that I don’t know about. Yeah. If you don’t understand it, you don’t try to shoot it and certainly don’t try to own a site about it. And if by some chance I ended up with a site and it fell from the sky and it was a gay site, I would hire people who know what the hell they’re doing to do the work. Exactly. I’ve shot for straight companies before and I’ve shot straight content and the christen I get is there’s too much of the guy. So you know, I’m thinking some I’m shooting something that I think is sexy and then the complaint is well, we wanted to see more of the woman and I was thinking, well, you know, I didn’t mean to do that, but you know, apparently you know, what guy you weren’t supposed to shoot his asshole the whole time he was fucking. That was not the way to go. Yeah. Oh, and one more thing I was going to bring up Morgan summer, who’s not in our industry anymore or at least not at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if he came back. He really brought the B2B people together from the gay and the straight side with the cyber socket parties when he owned cyber socket. And I think that that was really, really good, but I agree with you that there does seem to be kind of a clickiness clickiness. I don’t know if that’s a word. Well, there’s definitely a separation. Yeah. I don’t think I’m running it. Anybody who’s like completely against or homophobic or anything like that at any of the shows, at least not to my face. So it’s not like that. It just is what it is. And going back to what you said about, you know, somebody who thinks that there’s more money on the gay side, which is not because I wouldn’t think there’s more money on the straight side. Who knows? I think there’s more money for anything that you do right. True. That is true. Yeah. It almost doesn’t matter what it is. If you’re doing it well and there’s an audience for it, you’re going to make money. That’s my feeling. So do it well, be unique, and don’t try to do something that you don’t understand. I think that’s kind of what people should have learned from this conversation. Do you feel like you get the recognition you deserve within the adult industry and why? I don’t. I’ve been doing it for almost 17 years. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever been nominated for a director award. I’ve never joined the club. You know, I got my first award. I’ve been in the industry like 23 years. I got my first award nomination last year for community figure of the year and they put congratulations. Oh, thank you. But they put me up against Allison Bowden from Free Speech Coalition and let Lea Tannit from Pineapple Support and God, who else? I mean, it was an amazing roster of people. And I won an ex-biz and I said, yeah, I’d probably vote for one of these people myself. And Allison won and that was great. But yeah, it took me like 23 years to get any kind of a nomination. I’ve been nominated for things, certain scenes or movies or whatever through Peter Fever or whatever. But I’ve never been nominated for actual director. And when I was, you’d actually, I take that back. I’ve been nominated. I haven’t won anything. And to the masses we’re voting, they don’t know, they don’t do any research. It’s not like the Oscars where people watch every movie and be like, oh my God, we’re going to give it to the English patient. It’s one of those things where, you know, you’re up against Mr. Pam and anybody else that is listed and well, they’re just going to mark the one that they know and nothing wrong with that. And I’m not good at self promotion either. So, yeah, I’m getting better at it. And I think the podcast certainly helps. And I think that the nomination might have been a direct result of it. But I mean, I’ve done 165 episodes and by the time this runs all have done, oh, probably close to 180. So it’s a lot of work, but it’s fun. I’ve got an editor now, which is great because that’s the part I like the least. So do you think the fansites are a direct threat to your future as a site owner? I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think they are. I think we have to learn to work with them. I also feel like it’s becoming saturated because I constantly run into people. They’re asking my advice on starting a fan site. I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. I mean, I can see it cutting into profits eventually because these are guys or people, I should say, that don’t have to pay for their content. You can shoot your neighbor, you can go to a bar, you can find anybody you want and shoot and you don’t have to pay for it and they just exchange it. And that’s great for them. But when I have to shoot, I have to come up with the money. I have to do all that stuff and it’s just the nature of the beast. So if it is a threat, it would mean that money’s not coming in and I can no longer pay models. And I also think there’s a dichotomy there of the people who want to work for a studio. They want their bread buttered on both sides. They want their only fan site, but then they want to work for a studio and the more popular there, they get the more money they want and it’s difficult. Difficult situation. Yeah. The cost of talents definitely gone up since only fans hasn’t it? It has and I can’t raise my prices for my websites. Yeah. So that will cut into your profits. Yeah. I can’t do anything about it. No, I’ve heard a lot of pay sign owners tell me that it does affect their profits, but on the other hand, you can actually, it can help you because I’ve got some sites that I’ve listed and sold that where their content cost was almost zero because of content trades. So they didn’t have to pay the talent. The talent used the content on their only fans and the director got to keep the content, which is fantastic. I do offer that too. If somebody comes in and they have a fan site, I give them the option. I’ll say, do you want the content or the money basically? Some take it and a lot of them don’t. Most don’t. What do you think the percentage is to take it? I haven’t done an exact analysis, but I don’t know, one in 10 maybe. Really? Yeah. That’s surprising. A lot of the people I deal with to you are not stars. If you look at alternatives, they’re literally guys up the street there, you know, so if they’re just starting out, but you’d be surprised, some just do. Okay. Where do you see the industry going as a whole? It’s a good question. That’s why I asked it. It’s hard to say. I mean, I’ve been in the business 17 years, almost 20 years, and every couple of years is attack to the left or the right. For a while, it was the tube sites were the big threat. Then they held all the power, even my content, giving them content for free. Then they started demanding more and more and more. Then it was suddenly it went from a one minute clip to three minutes, then they wanted five minutes, and then you couldn’t even have your own branding on it. Then it had to be alternative slash blah, blah, blah porn.com. I say blah, blah, blah, because I don’t want to plug anybody particular on it. I think that things change all the time. Right now, we’re dealing with the fan sites. I don’t know if that’s going to become saturated. I don’t know. Every single week, there’s a new one. How can it not be saturated? I mean, it seems like it anyway. I’ve already got people contacting me saying, "Yeah, we developed this fan site. It’s not making any money and we want to sell it." My answer to them is, "That’s nice," because people generally don’t buy things that aren’t making money. Now, I’ll only entertain it because it’s a fan site, and if it’s a really good one, it could sell. But generally, I don’t sell things that aren’t profitable, and that’s where it’s going. I’m hearing from more and more of those people. So that will tell you. Two or three fan sites that seem to make money. I don’t know the inner workings, but just talking from other models. I know a few models that have just gotten off only fans simply because that seems to be more straight-oriented. Just for fans is really gay-oriented. Dominic does a great job over there. He does. I’ve known him for a long time. I always respect what he does. He’s always on top of things. He’s ahead of the curve. Yeah. He’s extremely bright. If you go to my website, you’ll see a testimonial for me because I helped him get his .com, .net, different variations of Just for Fans and all that. It’s almost like he has a crystal ball somehow. He’s ahead of the curve. When he’s done with something, he has no problem just stopping and moving on to the next thing and just very crafty that way. Yeah. He’s been involved in a lot of projects. If something doesn’t work out too good, one I can think of in particular that was a non-porn about an industry-related one, you’re right. He turns the page and he does a very good job of it. He got into the fan site thing very early. It was one of the first. He did. Yeah. He’s done extremely well. Quite frankly, I think that site has a lot of headroom. I think when the male performers, the gay male performers especially, figure out that they’re better off there as opposed to only fans, I think that he’s really going to skyrocket. They’re starting to do that. A lot of them are just, it’s too much work to keep up their only fans and they go there. I have to admire him for that. He’s a great guy. Oh, you get lost in millions of models. Oh, yeah. Jesus, it’s crazy. I don’t know how many performers they have on there, but it’s just got to be an ungodly amount. That’s just crazy amount. Oh, I know. Yeah. It is unbelievable, the amount of people that are on. So why do you think you’ve had longevity in an industry that seems to have a high turnover rate? I would say that’s the niche stuff that I’m filming. If you’re just filming just any old guy, it doesn’t matter what they look like. You have to have a plan. You have to have a niche. I luckily filled a niche with a couple of different things that hadn’t been going on. You know, Alternative’s one of them and then the armpit thing, even though that’s not as successful as I thought it was going to be, but it’s still around. It still makes money and everything, but it’s definitely the longevity comes from that. You have to fight a niche and you have to do it. Well, and you enjoy it and you enjoy those niches. And they do. It goes back to what we were saying before as I’m filming what I know and I don’t know where the armpit thing came from for me, but it’s one of those things that I don’t know. So it seems to be going well. So what’s your motivation with the subject matter for the sites you own? Do you have an actual fetish for all the things you film or just some of them? Some of them. I do have a sort of fetish for guys with long hair and tattoos, the bad boy types. And I also love an armpit. I visually, yeah, I don’t want anything horribly stinky or anything like that, but I think visually on a guy, they’re just beautiful. And it’s, I was called armpit the window to the pubes. I think that’s maybe, maybe that’s part of it is you see a guy on public with a, you know, a tank top on or something and you can’t necessarily see anything else, but you can see his armpits and it’s kind of a sexual thing. It’s like, well, I can see that with any particular guy on the street. You know, I kind of prefer my women’s armpit shade, but that, hey, that’s just, I’m not French. I’m not French. And if I see a guy with a shaved armpit, I’m kind of like, Oh God, what a disappointment. Oh, I can’t believe he shades his armpits. I used to do that, but it was a long time ago. I ended up getting ingrown hair. So I stopped that right away. I saw a guy at the gym recently that he was hair. He looked like a gorilla. He was hairy everywhere. And he, he took off his towel and he had a little triangle shaved where his pubes would be. Oh God. As if I don’t know what he was trying to accomplish there, but I just had to laugh. That was kind of funny. Yeah. I’ve got a friend who gets a Brazilian done. So interesting. Yeah. And I straight guy and yeah, he gets a Brazilian done. He used to be a performer. So you know, I guess that’s something that he got used to when he was, when he was shooting. And I could see that, you know, like over, over the years, like different trends have happened. I think in, you know, if you watch vintage porn from the, well, from the seventies, they were all hairy. Eighties, everyone was shaved. I think eighties and nineties. And then, you know, it kind of trends back and now it’s kind of a little mix of everything. Yeah. And see, I like women with their tube shave. So there you go. So we, we, we agree to disagree on that. So some would say it’s wrong to perpetuate fetishizing groups of people as a whole. And what are your thoughts on that process and porn? My take on that is everyone’s a fetish. And what is a fetish other than, I mean, if you look at the definition of fetish, I think fetish, it says something to the effect of something that you need to get off sexually every time. So the proper definition of a fetish is I would have to see an armpit or I can’t get off, but that’s really not what we’re talking about here. I think we’re talking about what you’re attracted to. And I think with fetishes, you know, what’s wrong with being attracted to what you’re attracted to. I don’t see any harm in it. This didn’t happen to me, but a friend was telling me a story about how he’s a bigger guy and there was a younger guy who was into him and wanted to take him home. And he was digging in his heels. I don’t want to be somebody else’s fetish. And he looked at his friend and said, so wait a minute, you’re telling me you don’t want to go home with somebody who’s finds you attractive. What’s the problem here? And I don’t, I don’t know the outcome of the story, but that’s kind of it. I just, I feel like fetishes are just what you’re into. And when the bedroom door closes, again, I’m quoting that same friend. If he said this in the same conversation, when the bedroom door closes, all political correctness, affiliation, everything goes out the window because you just are being yourselves, you know? And I think that’s what it’s all about. I just, I don’t know where I was going with that. I do feel like sometimes embrace it. Like I said, everyone’s a fetish. If you’re blonde, you’re fetish. If you’re an old man, you’re a fetish. You’re a daddy, you’re a fetish. It just is what it is. There you go. So do you film in other styles to fit a particular site you’re directing for? I do. You know, for a long time, I think I didn’t get work because people would look at alternative and they thought that they’re just going to get some kind of homemade type thing with the camera, clicking and clacking. And, but that’s the way I shoot that. And I do that on purpose. Why do you do it that way? Because I feel like these guys are alternative. They’re not professionals. Definitely amateurs. Yeah. I want to make it look a little more amateury, but when I shoot for other studios, I have to do the research and figure out the style they want and look at it. And, you know, there’s one company in particular that I shoot for that whenever they give me a shoot, it might they own, I mean, dozens of sites. So whenever I’m assigned to a particular thing, I have to go look it up, research it, figure out the style. Some of them I have a full on studio with three cameras going in different positions. Other studios it’s want like we do one where it’s just in the dark. You got to do your research like I do. Watch porn. Well, exactly. And there’s one we do. It’s called pig bottoms. And we, we turn off all the lights. We put flashlights on the cameras and we have two cameras and it looks like the Blair Witch project and it’s kind of fun. That does sound cool. Almost like a, like a horror movie type of thing. It is kind of, you know, even if they’re not. They’re, they’re, and they’re also very, they’re very aggressive. Yeah. Yeah. It’s more like horror, not horror. Right. Yeah. And I wouldn’t classify this as horror, but it’s, you know, it just looks Blair witchy and we, you know, we’d make sure that the camera is a little more herky jerky and, and it could be, you know, set even though we, we film in studios and stuff, but it could be set in a public restroom or a shower or a warehouse or something. So what’s changed since you got into the industry and do you think it’s for the better or for the worse? What’s changed has been, again, back to the fan sites and I never knew the heyday of the industry. I have friends that talk about, you know, all of that, you know, thousands of thousands of dollars a month they were pulling in and, and they were sponsoring events at, I mean, it’s forum or whatever. I got in after that. So I never knew the heyday. So I never had to consolidate. I never had a big staff or anything like that. So I had to, I never had to consolidate. It’s always just been me. Well, that’s good. You didn’t have to fire people. That is. And I didn’t have to adapt. It’s just always the way I’ve known it. But I think kind of what’s changed it, you know, the dawn of, of the fan sites definitely did make a difference because I used to be able to go out to a bar, hand out cards and people are kind of like, Oh, that’s cool. You know, they might call you back and, you know, I would have a 50, 50 shot and whether or not the guy would call me back and now it’s probably one in a hundred. And you know, they don’t necessarily want to do studio porn or they have their own thing going on and, and that’s fine. It’s just, you know, it’s just different. You just have to pass out more cards. Right. It’s like sales. Well, if your closing ratio is done, you got to make more calls. That’s, it’s real simple. Exactly. Being a sales animal myself from way back, having sold radio advertising, don’t I know. So how did you make the switch from being a site owner, doing your own thing to becoming a director who directs for other studios? Well it became clear at some point that I couldn’t just make a living doing just my sites, you know, because they are niche, niche and there’s only a certain amount of people that are going to be interested in exactly what you’re doing. So I kind of had to go to these shows and network and, you know, find friends and talk to them and be aggressive. I, you know, there was one company a few years ago that I had targeted and I was friends with the owner and she contacted me and wanted to have drinks at one of the shows. So I was like, yeah, sure. And I went in, I was like, oh my God, she wants to hire me as a director. This is amazing. So I went into it and she, we’re having drinks and then I brought it up and she said, oh, oh, that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that. I just wanted to have drinks. So, but I ended up getting a job off of it, you know, so it’s through networking and just the idea that, you know, you can’t do everything on your own and you have to, you have to branch out, you have to diversify. Otherwise, you’re never getting, you know. And that’s the best of both worlds because you can do what you really like doing and have your own expression as an artist. And then on the other hand, you can do the stuff that makes you money. And you can do both. You know, there’s no reason why you can’t express yourself and be an artist with what you’re doing. And I take great pride in that. Everybody’s going to be a little bit different like your Blair Witch thing for sure. Does your family know what you do? Now you told me you come from the Midwest, from Minnesota. And if so, how did you tell them and what was the outcome? Yes, they do know what they do. I don’t know how and they don’t ask questions. They don’t want to know. Like many of my friends don’t want to know anything about the industry. And then there are friends who are like, Oh God, I want to know more. Can I get into a show? It was, you know, so I’ve, I, the youngest of six, my other brothers and sisters all knew what I did. In fact, when I first started, like in the late 2000s, my brother was staying with me and he’s almost 20 years older than I am. And while he was staying there, I got this big delivery and it was, it was my light for my camera and he was like, what is this? So I told him what I was doing. And then he was like, well, whatever you do, don’t tell dad. So I didn’t. And then the rest of the family kind of found out what I was doing and all of them said, don’t tell dad, don’t tell dad. He’s older. He doesn’t need to know. And so one time I was visiting for Christmas or something. And you told dad. Well, he was just sitting there playing solitaire at the table and I, you know, and I was watching TV under a blanket because it’s Minnesota and he’s playing solitaire. And he said, he just all of a sudden, it’s just me and him in the room. And he all of a sudden said, what do you do for money? I don’t, I don’t, I don’t get it. And I said, well, you know, I hemmed in hot and he goes, well, no, tell me, you don’t work at Sony anymore. You can’t be getting unemployment. You can’t tell me your partner’s supporting you. What do you do for money? And I said, well, do you really want to know the answer? And he said, yeah. And he goes, well, is it legal? And I said, of course it is. And he said, well, tell me. So I told him, I told him exactly what he did. And he shut up. He didn’t say a word. He played another game of solitaire. And then he said, he kind of gathered up the cards, you know, cleaned them up and everything. And then he said, I have a couple of questions. And I said, okay. And he goes, so where do you find your guys? So I told him at the time it was, you know, Craigslist and bars and stuff like that. So I told him and he said, okay. And he asked one other question. I don’t remember. And he played another game of solitaire and I thought the conversation was over. And then he said, so I’ve been thinking. And I said, what? And he goes, I just think it’s best you don’t tell your brothers and sisters. Let’s keep this between us. And everyone knew by then. And I said, everyone knows. And he was a labyrinth gas. He was like, why didn’t anybody tell me, you know, like so old that he couldn’t handle it or something. Oh my God. That’s funny. So yeah, that’s a great story. That is just a great story. I love the way you told it. Yeah. I almost fell out of my chair. But yeah, he, you know, throughout the years he would ask how’s business. And I would just tell him, good, good. And people say how’s business. And I just say good. Sounds like an amazing guy. It really does. Yeah. He just passed away a couple months ago. Yeah. You mentioned that to me. That’s right. Yeah. He was 91. And he actually died on the, he died the same day Tina Turner did. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. I’ll always remember which day, what day he died because of that. Wow. Well, rest in peace for sure. What would you tell someone today who wanted to get into the industry guy? I would probably tell them to think long and hard about it. If they’re trying to get money, you know, I always tell people, look, if you’re going to come in and film something, it’s to pay a phone bill. You’re not going to pay your rent. You’re not going to be a, it’s not going to be consistent. You know, even if you’re a big star and you hustle and hustle, you’re not going to make a ton of money every month. You still have to have a side gig. You still have to do something for the most part. Not everybody has to do that. If somebody’s just incredibly good looking and everyone takes to them, then that works in straight porn and gay porn, I’m sure. They don’t even have to be good looking. They just have to have a massive clock. You know, that would only be the men. If you scroll through Twitter, you can find people that have, you know, 100,000 followers that have five posts and all it is is they have a big dig and that’s it. So I mean, that does help. I’ll never have 100,000 posts then. Based on that. The rest of us have to be crafty and interesting. Don’t we though. Hey, I’m Jewish. They cut half of it off at Barrett’s. What’s the reality? Just ask Danny about that. What’s the reality of the porn world versus the perception of our industry? He’s Jewish too, by the way. Yes. I think the perception is that there’s just a ton of money that like we’re all rich, that we’re all, you know, you know, that that is a perception. It’s like, you know, I really have to hustle every day. I always have to worry midway through the month. Like, you know, do I have enough to pay rent to have to, you know, it’s not dire, but it is one of those things where it’s the perception is that and the other perception is, I think that we’re just, it’s just a big party industry. You know, it’s like, oh, you’re out with the models. You’re doing this. You’re doing that. Everybody’s getting high. Everybody’s going out drinking every night. Yeah. The reality is, you know, if I shoot in Vegas and we have a house there, staying at the model house, like a lot of the guys, they have really amazing bodies and they’re a little bit older. They go to the gym, they wake up before the shoot at, you know, 6am, they go to the gym, they don’t eat much, they eat very healthy, they don’t drink, they’re boring people. That’s why they have those bodies. Exactly. The younger ones can eat what they want and do what they want for now. But in reality, you know, everyone’s in bed by 10 or 11 and the house is kind of quiet. They’re not boring, but, you know, it can be. Yeah. I get it. It would be boring to the people who had other expectations. Yes. Or they say, oh my God, your life is so glamorous because I’ve been lucky enough to shoot for Peter Fieber and, you know, we shoot around. We shoot in Asia and Brazil and Mexico and places like that. And it’s great. I’ve been able to do that stuff. But in reality too, it’s work and, you know, there’s not all fun and games and the days can be long and tiring and boring and. Tell me about it. Well, guy, I’d like to thank you for being our guest today on Adult Site Broker Talk and I hope we’ll get a chance to do this again real soon. Well, thank you. I would love to. And it’s been a lot of fun. Absolutely. We’ll make it happen. My broker tip today is part six of how to buy a site. Last week we talked about the sales agreement. So now both you and the seller have signed the agreement. What comes next? There needs to be an escrow setup where you send the money, whether it be a one time payment or a deposit, if you’re going to be making payments. The seller for their part puts the assets of the sale into escrow, namely the domains being sold and any other tangible assets. Your attorney can give you more information on that. We recommend escrow domains for escrows. They’re a firm out of Washington, DC. And no, they’re not paying me to say this. I just use them, trust them and I’m delighted by the work they’ve done for us. Either an escrow agreement will be drawn up by them in the case of a custom escrow or if it’s a simple one, it can be done right on their website. Then you, the buyer, the seller and the broker will be contacted by escrow domains with further instructions such as wiring information. The escrow is opened and either the deal closes within a matter of days or an inspection period is allowed. It all depends on what the agreement calls for. Whether you need an inspection period really depends on whether there’s still some information you need to find out prior to the deal closing. Your broker and your attorney can advise you more on this and it’s on a case by case basis. Then the money is transferred as are the domains and the deal is closed. Now in many cases, in fact, most of the time the seller either stays on board for a period of time to help with the transition or is at least available on an uncalled basis to answer questions. This is something most buyers should ask for. But at this point, you pretty much own the website. What do you do now? We’ll talk about that subject more next week. And next week we’ll be speaking with Michael Gonzalez of Yummy Hub. And that’s it for this week’s Adult Site Broker Talk. I’d once again like to thank my guest, Guy Criss. Talk to you again next week on Adult Site Broker Talk. I’m Bruce Friedman. 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