Okay, so most of you know my background and if perchance you don't, you can scroll down all the way to the bottom of yours truly's posts and read it again if you'd like. Briefly, I started out as a shy consumer and now look at me! In 1993, I flew in the face of convention, leaving my high ranking position at Harvard University to sell rubber dicks to girls. I opened Grand Opening! in stodgy Boston and changed the face of sexuality retail in New England. We all have our own stories and I bet lots of you are thinking about how you wound up where you are now.
Now how and why, exactly, did we all wind up in this crazy business? I always like entertaining the person sitting next to me on the plane when they ask "What do you do for work?" I always say "You'll never guess" and, because of my Martha Stewart-ish looks, they want to start with the freakiest job they can think of and they usually say "You're in the sex business." When I respond in the affirmative, their jaw usually drops in the bag o' peanuts and respond with "But you look so NORMAL!"
But that's why it works so well. During my wacky time in this biz, I've come out with the most absurd yet factual information about sex and sex toys, calm people down when they say "I can't believe somebody would USE that!", describe uses of commercially available sex toys to medical professionals (who often seem like they've never had sex themselves - I mean, if you need to go to a sex therapist, at least go to one who looks like they're getting laid), prove to gynecologists that female ejaculation DOES exists (in a hotel room during a conference with a well-placed towel, thankyouverymuch) and most of all, speak from the heart and from experience. I am not shy and like I always say, "I care what you think about but I don't care what you think about me." Those words have carried me through other people's discomfort about their own sexuality and their opinion of mine and have also had people come up to me and say "I wish I were you." Friends... I'm pretty easy, or it's pretty easy... I keep forgetting which is more true.
One of the many hats I've worn in the sex toy biz is that of "Director of Brand Development" and corporate trainer for a now-defunct home party company. Now home party companies are pretty interesting to me. I mean, I seriously wonder how many of these women (predominantly) are getting into the sex toy home party/rep biz because they want to educate and change the world around them and how many of them are getting into it to make a quick buck. Raise your hands! The feeling I gathered as I toured the country training hundreds of reps for this company was that it was about 50/50 split even though the reps were often in agreement that every single time they had a party, someone would come up to them, spill their sexual souls about some aspect of their sex life, halfway hoping that the rep would have something valuable to say to them or offer them advice or products that could help them with their answer.
I'm going to elaborate on that topic in a future blog but the point I want to make is that no matter WHAT you do in this biz, always be on the lookout for that piece of sexual information that you didn't know the moment you woke up this morning. There's things in the media, on the internet (and we know, don't believe EVERYTHING you read on the internet - except for my blog!), books, science, history, research... ask yourself questions, listen to what people ask you and if you don't know the answer, find out. If you're a retailer, home party rep, customer service staff, ANYTHING, find out the answer - you may even surprise yourself.
Now, in the spirit of information sharing, I am going to take a moment to shamelessly plug my long-awaited one woman show that is being staged in the lovely and intimate Elephant Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood on Oct. 7-8-9. It's "Kim Airs' Home Sex Toy Party!" and it will go where no sex toy party has gone before. I mean, when was the last time you saw a rubber fist being presented at a bachelorette party that didn't belong to the hostess? With the same audience participation theme as "Tony and Tina's Wedding," I'll be presenting the wild and wacky side of the adult toy biz with lots of funny personal anecdotes and products that are available from my website www.GrandOpening.com. It's Carrot Top, Lucille Ball, Martha Stewart and Dr. Ruth all rolled into one and if you're in Southern California, I'd love it for you to be there. Here's the scoop for tickets and showtimes - click here: Kim Airs' Home Sex Toy Party! You can also check out the XBIZ article that just appeared on the site.
And I couldn't do the show without the help from a whole bunch of companies in the adult toy biz who not only make wonderful products but are also my friends, too. They are Pipedream Products, Nasstoys, Doc Johnson, Topco, California Exotic Novelties, Westridge Labs/ID Lube, Earthly Body, RodeoH, XBIZ, Sportsheets, El Dorado, and Williams Trading. I offer them my sincere thanks for their support for the show.
So keep learning, read articles, teach yourself, and get your ass to the "Kim Airs' Sex Toy Home Party!" show! See ya there!
This JOTB (joke of the blog) has an academic theme since it's the beginning of the school year. It's one of my favorites...
So a college co-ed goes to her doctor for her physical and he notices a big, maroon "H" on her chest. He asks what it is and she gets all embarrassed and sheepishly admits "Um, I have a boyfriend, and he, um, goes to Harvard and he wears his T shirt all the time, um, so when we have sex, he sweats, and um, the shirt kind of..." and her voice staggers off.
The doctor responds with a "Hmmmm...."
The next co-ed walks in and she has a big "Y" on her chest. The doctor asks her what it is and she starts stumbling and says "I have a boyfriend and he, um, goes to Yale, and he wears his T shirt all the time and..." she continues with the same story.
The doctor nods his head again...
The third woman walks in and the doctor notices a big "M" on the co-eds chest. He figures he knows what's going on and blurts out "I bet you have a boyfriend at Michigan!" and she responds with "No, a girlfriend at Wellesley, why do you ask?"
On that note, I have to study for my show...
