A version of this feature appears in the November 2020 issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
He works at Costco, and his name is Sean.
Sean is in his late 20s, overweight and addicted to smoking. He struggles with social skills and is battling mental health concerns. One of Sean’s only confidants is a woman he’s never met. When they speak, which is nearly every day, she calls him “degrading, humiliating names.”
Sean’s response?
He sends her money. Sometimes lots of it.
“It just depends on how much I tell him to send,” says Muse Naadia, who once received a $1,600 tip from Sean. “More often than not he sends more than what I ask—nearly double. It makes him happy.”
Muse Naadia is among the growing number of women who are finding success in the world of “findom,” or financial domination. Using AVN Stars as her primary platform, Naadia meets submissive men—and sometimes even women—online, develops relationships with them through talking and texting and eventually becomes a domineering, controlling force in their lives.
Especially financially.
Naadia, who is African-American, says she’s made as much as $15,000 in a single day on tips from her submissives, about 70 percent of whom are white and range in age from 21-62.
Naadia is in a “relationship” with six of her subs, whom she says she “owns.” One is a retired venture capitalist worth millions. Another is an attorney whose Twitter handle is @NaadiasPuppet. A professional dominatrix who is a submissive in her private life recently flew across the country to meet Naadia in LA. And of course there is Sean, who has tipped anywhere from $20-$1,600 every week since meeting Naadia in February.
Thanks to her platform on AVN Stars, as many as 30-40 others will send Naadia money during any given month, with tips ranging anywhere from $10-$20 to $500-$1,000.
“It all depends on your portfolio,” Naadia says. “If you’re a venture capitalist and you send me $500, I’m going to say, ‘Oh, c’mon … send me another $500.”
She laughs.
“And usually they do.”
Naadia, 27, knows a thing or two about money. She graduated from the University of Kansas five years ago with a biology and business degree and then moved to Los Angeles, where she’s a self-employed financial advisor.
“My vanilla job,” she says.
Shortly after arriving in California, Naadia began exploring some of her kinks—particularly the BDSM lifestyle. She started visiting dungeons and found a regular play partner. She discovered she was an exhibitionist. The thought of traditional dating and relationships bored her.
It always had.
“Female domination has always been an overall theme in my life,” Naadia says. “It obviously affects the way I view men. Most women meet someone and think, ‘Hmmm, maybe this is someone I could date. They have an attractive personality.’ That type of stuff never enters my mind.
“I’ve got a very natural type-A personality. I’m very domineering. I really do believe that women are better at everything.”
In August of 2019, Naadia’s life took an unexpected turn. During a road trip to Mexico to celebrate a friend’s birthday, she happened upon podcast called “WHOREible Decisions.”
That week’s topic was financial domination. Naadia was floored.
She listened as the hosts talked about “cash meets,” which is when a sub meets his dom at an ATM machine, hands her his credit card and lets her make a withdrawal of her choosing. Then they part ways.
“That’s insane!” Naadia recalls thinking. She was also struck by the six-figure incomes women claimed to be earning, either as dominatrixes who met clients in person or those who limited their relationships to online.
“At that moment,” Naadia said, “I told myself, ‘This is what I’m supposed to do.’”
Naadia began researching findom on YouTube. She started following accounts of people in the genre who had been successful and, eventually, she used her finance and business background to come up with a plan of her own. She became a professional dominatrix, hosting sessions at a local hotel when she wasn’t busy with her financial advising business. She also created accounts on AVN Stars and other platforms, where she met subs and established virtual relationships that resulted in thousands of dollars in her bank account.
Naadia says about 80 percent of her business was done in-person until late February. But once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it transitioned into solely online.
Naadia says she’s met only one of the six subs she owns in person—the attorney who goes by @naadiaspuppet on twitter. But she’ll be open to seeing all of them once the pandemic ends.
“Half of my subs know my real name and where I live,” Naadia says. “They’ve been on FaceTime with me when I’ve had my friends over here, and my family and friends know about them. There’s really no qualm about my worlds colliding.”
Naadia says she focuses on her financial advising affairs each day from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. before turning her attention to her findom business for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. Still, even when she’s busy with her normal job, Naadia said she is constantly communicating with her subs via text or on social media.
Nudity and sex aren’t part of Naadia’s relationship with her subs. She says they know better than to ask for pictures and videos.
“I have no reservations about nudity. But there’s a time and place to start exposing yourself that really sets the stage as a content creator for you in this industry. It’s definitely on my trajectory and I’m looking forward to it. But it’s about the right place and right time because of how I want to build my business," she said.
Naadia laughs.
“Then again,” she said, “I just had my one-year anniversary (in the industry). Maybe I should flash more of a nipple.”
Whether she chooses to or not, there is certainly reason to celebrate.
After just 14 months, Naadia has been so successful as a findom goddess that she’s planning to shutter her financial planning business so she can focus on her adult work full-time.
“I’m losing money by allocating time to vanilla work,” she said.
Although her subs are the ones having their kinks fulfilled, Naadia said her work brings her personal gratification, too. And not just from a financial standpoint.
One of her subs, the attorney, had visited multiple dominatrixes before finding a perfect connection with Naadia. After their pre-COVID, in-person sessions, he’d write reviews of their time together in a group chat for all of her other subs to read. She said his heartfelt writing brought her to tears.
“A few weeks ago,” Naadia says, “for whatever reason, three of the six subs that I own all messaged me about the impact I’ve had on their lives. I was crying for about three hours. I love what I do. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s life-changing.”
Especially for Sean.
In the past few months, Naadia has noticed significant changes in her favorite Costco employee. He’s told stories about standing up for himself at work. He’s changed his diet and has lost a lot of weight—and he’s quit smoking. One of his recent texts read, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
“I was like, ‘OK, calm down,’” Naadia said. “But I was happy for him. Not everyone runs their business this way, but I think it’s important. We’re all human. Even though I degrade them, they need me to build them back up as individuals.”
She pauses.
“And of course from there,” she said, “I can implement myself into their world—not just in kink, but in everything—and then take over their life, which is the whole goal in the first place.”
Photography by @kodastyles
