How did you get into the business?
Towards the end of 1998, I was living in the U.K. and married to my late-husband. I was working as a travel agent but my husband was disabled and getting worse. So, I began to try to find a way to make money while working from home so that I could also work as a care giver for him. I was getting increasingly frustrated in my attempts to find something and one night I was venting to a friend from high school. He joked about how on the bottom of all the porn sites he went there was a “click here to make money” link. To this day, when he tells the story he finishes it with “and the woman actually did it!” From following those links, I discovered the TGP world and within a month I was on the review team for JJJ’s TGP (pornno with two Ns) and I did that sort of grunt work for nearly four years,whilst doing own gallery submitting, before I got my first proper job with a company.
I guess any challenges are overcome by just deciding not to let them be challenges. Stick to who you are, be proud of it and let those who disagree pass you by.
What prepared you for what you are doing now?
Many years in the adult industry trenches. My first support job in the industry was for Webinc Designs. So, I got to know a little bit about the sex toy and product sales world through that. Then, after that I spent a solid number of years working for Max Cash. So, I have been lucky to work for some of the trailblazers of this industry and learn how the top and most professional people in it work. Which made going to Fleshlight feel natural as they are the best in what they do. I like being surrounded by people that make you keep your standards high.
What do you see as the challenges of working in the adult online business? How do you overcome them?
The longer I am in the industry, the less I see challenges as specific to the adult business and just see them as basic life challenges that you would meet in any line of work. Perhaps that is just a hardening of the battle armor. When I first got into the industry I was worried about what the neighbors would think and that sort of thing. I suppose to some degree, specifics of what I do for a living are still on a need to know basis. However, I am now very free with the generalities. I think the only way it stays something shameful is if we allow ourselves to be shamed. Plus, now that I work from Fleshlight, I want to shout it from rooftops because the product is so well know. Myself and my fellow Team Fleshlight member, Tofu, have been in bars all around the country where people recognize the Fleshlight logos on our hats or bags. Without exception, total strangers of both genders will start conversations about how much they love the product. Why would I not want people to know I work for such a hot company? So, I guess any challenges are overcome by just deciding not to let them be challenges. Stick to who you are, be proud of it and let those who disagree pass you by.
Does your work life affect your personal life?
I suppose the biggest way it impacts my personal life is that not very many people fully understand that working from home is still working. In fact, I usually point out that working from home also means that I live at work. So, sometimes there are problems with friends and partners understanding that I work all sorts of odd hours. Other than that, I don’t have any real problems with it because I surround myself with people that aren’t going to have problems with the nature of the business.
Do you have any mottos that you live by?
Life is to be lived for joy and personal growth.
Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.