Episode Details
Back to EpisodesEP38: Anna Richards, Founder and CEO of FrolicMe, the pioneering female-led ethical erotica platform created for women and couples.
Description
This week Jo sits down with Anna Richards, founder and CEO of FrolicMe, to discuss building a female-led ethical erotica platform in midlife and redefining how adult content can centre female pleasure, consent, and authentic connection. Anna shares how a lack of erotic content reflecting women’s desires led her to start a blog in 2013–14, then launch FrolicMe in 2015 with 20 self-produced films alongside stories and galleries, funded with limited resources and without investors. She explains how she learned production by finding mentors and industry contacts, kept teams small and collaborative, and built growth largely through SEO because advertising options were limited, reaching 1.6 million monthly visitors and breaking even around year three. Anna describes expanding into audio in 2019, banking a year of content post-COVID, navigating age verification requirements, and the challenges of social media bans.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
02:08 Why FrolicMe Began
04:50 Fear and Going Taboo
06:00 Testing the Idea With a Blog
07:23 What Women Want From Erotica
10:20 From Stories to Films
13:34 Breaking Into Production
18:00 First Shoots and Self Funding
22:23 Ethical Erotica and Consent
24:54 Growing With SEO
29:21 Competition and Cultural Pushback
30:50 Early Website Panic
32:04 Organic Growth Milestones
33:24 Breaking Even Without Investors
35:04 Production Costs Evolve
36:45 Location Shoots Aesthetic
37:46 COVID Audio Pivot
39:30 Fantasy Storytelling Details
41:38 Age Verification Challenges
46:13 Marketing and Social Media
48:15 Family Reactions and Normalizing
50:07 Founder 321 Takeaways
55:48 Final Thanks and Wrap
Visit at www.frolicme.com
Follow @frolicme_anna or @frolicme_offical
Edited and produced by Jo Glynn-Smith 2025.
Recorded at Eight Works Podcast Studios, 1 Dysart Street, London, EC2A 2BX
For bookings: eightworks@eightclub.co.uk
Jo Glynn-Smith is an entrepreneur, professional coach, writer, and speaker from London, she is an expert in career transformation and change.
Instagram @jojoglynnsmith and @themidlifeentrepreneur
Contact: enquiries@joglynnsmith.com
www.joglynnsmith.com
MUSIC CREDIT Easy Money by REX BANNER licensed by Artlist.io
PHOTOGRAPHY by JONATHAN GLYNN-SMITH www.jonathanglynnsmith.com