After working as a Sydney escort for the last five years, Samantha X, real name Amanda Goff, has started giving lessons in etiquette, grooming and personal security to prospective sex workers.
Goff, a 41-year-old former journalist, is aiming to teach both male and female wannabe escorts the skills they need in order to be at the top of the industry, which has at least 20,000 sex workers in Australia.
![Sydney escort Samantha X, real name Amanda Goff, has started a school for would-be sex workers.](/web/20170314234350im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/n/s/s/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gp3e00.png/1469871394405.jpg)
Her escort agency, Samantha X Angels, was born when she started getting contacted by women who were interested in leaving their jobs to become sex workers after she went public with her story in 2014 with her autobiography, Hooked – Secrets of a High Class Escort. She also has a male escort agency, Samantha X Heroes.
She handpicked 12 new female recruits recently from what she said were "hundreds of applicants around Australia", including, she said, a doctor, a lawyer and a woman from the Australian Tax Office, and coached them.
![Goff's own sex work has taken a back seat so she can focus on her escort agencies and coaching.](/web/20170314234350im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/h/3/8/k/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gp3e00.png/1469871394405.jpg)
Goff's own sex work, which she charges at $1000 per hour and upwards of $3000 for a dinner date, has taken a back seat so she can focus on her escort agencies and coaching.
For now, only a "select few clients" are on her personal books as she focuses on her businesses.
She makes it clear that the sex industry is not a glamorous one and should not be viewed as such. She spoke candidly about being raped by a client and later having to report the incident to police. Part of her teaching involves lessons in self defence from a trained professional and advice on what do if offered alcohol and drugs by a client.
Her main warning to those starting out: "Once you start, you are hooked. Once you realise it is lucrative, it is a very difficult industry to leave.
"That's why I don't like young girls doing it."
Here are the seven lessons she gives her student escorts:
1. Grooming: "If men are paying top dollar, you need to look the part," she says.
Matching lingerie is a must. So are manicures, but strictly only in the following colours: nude, coral or a French tip.
"Nails are really important, men notice these things. They don't understand black nail polish and no brights, like pink or neons - keep it simple. But on toes you can experiment with red or whatever," she said.
Coloured lingerie is strictly out, think only black or white, and don't even consider putting together any old black bra and black underwear - "they need to be a matching set."
Fake tan is an absolute no. "It stinks, stains sheets, and never can you really get it perfect," Goff explained. "If you're pale, learn to love it."
When it comes to clothing, it's all about quality over quantity.
"Invest in a good pair of shoes, good lingerie, one nice dress, one nice trouser suit, one high-waisted skirt, a white shirt and you'll be set," she said. "The look I get asked for the most, because I always ask clients how they would like me to dress, is corporate.
"Hygiene goes without saying."
2. Compassion: Goff said prospective escorts will meet many different kinds of clients, including those they won't be attracted to. "You really need to have an open mind. You can't judge people on the way they look, you judge them on the way they behave."
3. Listening: "It's not like Tinder. You are there for him and you have to ask questions and seem interested," she explained. "They want to talk about their cars or their marriages or their kids or their cancer, whatever, you have to be able to listen.
"There is nothing worse than appearing distracted because it's rude and the client will pick up on that."
4. Well read: "Know what is happening in the world," she said. "Know a bit about the American election.
"You are often meeting with men who are CEOs, chairmen, top of the industry ... They don't want to talk about reality TV. You need to know how to keep a conversation going at a high level."
5. Discretion: "An escort never talks about names. It is really unclassy," she said.
6. Alcohol and drugs: "You'll be exposed to more alcohol and occasionally drugs, just like real life," she said, but getting drunk or high on the job is unacceptable as you must always have "your wits about you".
"Always monitor your drinking. Three dates a week could equal three bottles of champagne a week, and it's not a good look to be drunk with a client.
"If you lose control, you lose your boundaries."
7. Protection: Goff enlists a security personnel to train her students in self defence. "It is really important," she said.
Knowledge is also power and she recommends finding out as much as possible about the client before meeting.
"Who he is? What he does for work? How old he is? What experience is he looking for? The more you know about the client the safer you will be," she explained.
"Never be complacent and you should always trust your gut feeling. If it doesn't feel right, get out."
Goff, a mother-of-two, who grew up in London where she attended an "elite private school", said she has "no regrets" about revealing her identity as a sex worker in 2014 when she appeared on Channel 7's Sunday Night to promote her book.
"Hopefully I have given a lot of women validation and taken away the shame," she said. "I have not lost any friends.
"Men are also grateful because they longer feel guilty about using escorts."
She said "no comment" when asked about her current relationship with her ex-husband, Sydney-based banker David Basha, who referred to her in the past as "a disgrace". She also added that she is not on speaking terms with her British-based, "conservative" parents.
"My parents and I have yet to re-establish our relationship. I am not going to change who I am, but they are my parents and I love them," she said. Meanwhile, she is very close with her sister who lives in London.
Goff is currently single as she has yet to find her Mr Right, and has recently written about the possibility of becoming a lesbian.
"Working with men so much made me crave the company of women because with women you can have deeper conversation very quickly, whereas with men, and I love them dearly and I am a heterosexual, but with men it's not as natural like it is with a woman ... It's a lot softer energy and I really crave that sometimes," she said.
But she later laughed: "Just because I speak about [relationships] it doesn't mean I am good at them."
She now lives by the beach with her two children and two dogs and is currently writing her second book.
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