It doesn’t take long working within adult entertainment to realize the adult industry isn’t just about performing, creating and marketing content and other, more obvious facets of the industry’s day to day. Just like any other market or business sector, there are scores of services, platforms and products which are crucial to the adult industry’s functioning, but that have little to do with entertainment, adult or otherwise.

While the ability to process charges and accept payment probably immediately comes to mind when thinking about these crucial services, there are other areas to which people often pay less attention, but which are no less important. For example, those who ply their trade in the adult industry without being salaried employees – the circumstance in which most adult performers find themselves – finding health insurance coverage can be a daunting proposition.

This is where Allyson Wonderland and Succexxxful.com come in, answering questions and demystifying the process of getting health insurance for adult performers, with the assistance coming from someone who understands the adult industry and harbors none of the negative preconceptions about adult performers which might skew the perspective of other, ‘mainstream’ service providers.

“I started stripping at 18 and traveled all over the west coast, moved on to webcam after about 6 years when I found online work,” Allyson told YNOT, recounting her start in the adult industry. “I loved the idea of content creation and the marketing that went into it.”

Over time, Allyson found herself fielding a lot of questions from friends and peers, so her focus began to shift from creating and marketing content to thinking about ways she could formalize her burgeoning role as an informal adviser.

“Succexxxful started out as a ‘how to’ of the adult industry and I quickly pivoted once I saw the need for insurance and information around it,” Allyson said. “I noticed nobody was doing this and figured hey, here’s my way to help and give back to the industry!”

As she fleshed out Succexxxful and thought about how to deliver the services she had in mind, Allyson’s thoughts were rooted in her own experience in the industry – and a desire NOT to emulate the kind of relationships she’d seen between management and employees/contractors while working as a dancer.

“I flashed back to my days of being a dancer when in the back rooms there’s a bunch of manager notes and stuff in the dressing rooms, and I just remember them always being really negative and kind of yelling at us – and they never really said anything like ‘Hey, if you need health insurance…’ or ‘if you need someone to talk to…’ or a crisis hotline – it was never anything helpful like that,” Allyson said during her recent appearance on the “Adult Site Broker Talk” podcast.

“It was all ‘Don’t put your heels on the couches, you’re going to put holes in them’ and ‘Don’t give customers your phone number’ – it seemed like your father was scolding you the entire time,” Allyson added. “It didn’t seem like a very positive environment. And I travel a lot, and I noticed this was something that was in every single dressing room. It was the same story, over and over again.”

As much as anything else, Allyson said she wants the services she offers through Succexxxful to make adult performers feel more comfortable and more supported as they tackle practical challenges like obtaining health insurance and ask questions about the process.

“I don’t really look at this company in terms of engagements or benchmarks, I truly just want to change the fear that adult entertainers have around this topic and provide a safe place for them to utilize,” Allyson said. “It would be great if I could get all those annoying manager’s notes around the dressing rooms of strip clubs taken down and replaced with helpful orgs and resources!”

Succexxxful may be an unusual site in the context of the adult industry — or even a unique one, considering that it appears to be the only insurance-related site serving the adult industry, specifically – Wonderland emphasized that as an insurance site, it’s quite conventional.

“Our health exchange works the same as any other insurance website out there,” she said. “You submit your form, or you can call and just speak directly to an agent.”

While a relatively new site, Succexxxful did have time to get its footing before the COVID-19 pandemic set in – which may be one reason why the site hasn’t been significantly impacted by the pandemic and all the economic disruption associated with it.

“I’m lucky that I was established before all of this chaos took place. To be honest, I haven’t noticed any urgency increase or decrease because of COVID,” Allyson said, adding that she could even see some ways in which being locked down might aid in the launch of new projects. “I can imagine it would give someone a decent amount of time to work on concepts, work out bugs, etc. Seems like a decent time to try it out.”

Speaking to Adult Site Broker Talk, Allyson also credited her background in the adult industry with helping her face the challenge of launching Succexxxful.

I feel like (my background) helped me a lot,” she said. “This is a very hard industry. I think we’re all programmed and used to getting a job and then someone sits there and like holds your hand through it and shows you what to do until you’re ready and no one really does this here (in adult), it’s very much a ‘I’m going to throw you into the deep end’ kind of an industry.  I started really young, but I’m happy that I did because it taught me everything I needed to know to be able to be ready now for this venture.”

In other words, Allyson’s background in the adult industry, with its “sink or swim” nature, left her prepared to face the next challenge. Now, her goal for Succexxxful is to help others prepare for uncertainties and next steps of their own.

“No matter what stage you’re at in life right now, one thing you will never look back on and regret is being prepared,” Allyson said. “Health insurance is one of those preparations to all of the unknown and unforeseen. Trust me, if someone told me at age 20 I needed health insurance I would have laughed too, but after this year and all my experiences as an uninsured dancer I can honestly say it isn’t worth the gamble.”

And with Succexxxful there to assist them, adult performers certainly have something better at their disposal than a post-it note in the dressing room telling them to keep their feet off the couches.

“Our agents are available anytime for you,” Allyson said. “Please feel free to give us a call at 833-286-3064 or visit us online at health.succexxxful.com.”