Adult Site Broker Talk Episode 192 with Erika Love

This is Bruce Freeman of Adult Site Broker and welcome to Adult Site Broker Talk where each week we interview one of the movers and shakers of the adult industry and we give you a tip on buying and selling websites. This week we’ll be speaking with performer Erika Love. Would you like an easy way to make a lot of money? Send sellers or buyers to us at Adult Site Broker through our affiliate program, ASB Cash. When you refer business to us, you’ll receive 20% of our broker commission on all sales that result from that referral for life. You can make $100,000 or more on only one sale for some of our listings. Check out ASB Cash.com for more details and to sign up. At Adult Site Broker, we’re proud to announce our latest project, thewaronporn.com. You’ll find articles from industry websites as well as mainstream publications from around the world. It’s designed to raise awareness of our industry’s plight in the war on porn and the numerous attacks on our industry and online free speech by hate groups, the religious right and politicians. You’ll find all that and more at thewaronporn.com. We’ve also added an events section to our website at adultsidebroker.com. Now you can get information on B2B events on our site as well as special discounts reserved for our clients. Go to adultsidebroker.com for more details. Now let’s feature our property the week that’s for sale at Adult Site Broker. We’re proud to offer for sale an innovative marketing agency that specializes in managing the top .01% only fans profiles in the world. It’s just under a year old but is growing very rapidly. They fully manage creators workflow from promotion to monetization. They’ve developed an internal CRM that empowers the sales management, marketing, automation and analytics. This is one of the most relevant advantages of the agency that allows it to drive in-target traffic to profiles and monetize them. The company is already doing over 2 million euros in annual revenue from just over 20 creators. They have a database of over 1 million contacts and 600,000 unique user accounts. This is an outstanding opportunity for anyone to enter the world of only fans management and immediately become one of the top agencies in the world along with its software, processes and know-how which will allow you to bring models up to three times their initial gross monthly revenue. Or established agencies can acquire the company and expand their business. Only 2.59 million euros. Now time for this week’s interview. My guest today on Adult Site Broker Talk is performer, podcaster and entrepreneur Erica Love. Erica, thanks for being with us today on Adult Site Broker Talk. Hi, Bruce. Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure. Erica is an award-nominated content creator, podcast host and consultant. From red carpets to wrestlemania, Love has worked behind the scenes for a decade in entertainment, marketing and public relations. She brings expertise and influence or marketing strategy and fan engagement to the world of adult entertainment. She launched her brand in 2020 during COVID by starting an OnlyFans page and now reaches an amazing 12 million fans and followers monthly. She ranks in the top 1% of OnlyFans creators. In 2022, Erica received over 100 million views on social media and adult sites. She holds an MS degree in integrated marketing from New York University and lives in lovely Austin, Texas. Her TIT Talk podcast, Not to be Confused with TIT Talk, launched in April of 2022 interviewing creators, porn stars and reality TV stars including Kazumi, Brittany Andrews and more. In 23, she expanded the podcast with TIT Talk Live, which is being live streamed. Leveraging 10 years of experience behind the scenes, Erica directs scripts and produces original content. She has been nominated as the Xbiz BBW social media star of the year in both the years 2022 and 2023. She is also an ambassador for Pineapple Support, who adult site broker proudly supports. Learn more about Erica at The Erica Love, that’s Erica with a K, or at Instagram @ReedsBiz. Erica, why did you start an OnlyFans page? Great question. That’s why I asked it. I know. So like many people, I got laid off during the pandemic and found myself sitting at home with not a lot to do. I had always thought it would be great to make money off of my natural assets. Wow. That’s fanatically ass-its. Yes, exactly. And I kept hearing about OnlyFans and I did the research and I was like, you know what? The world is ending anyway. If I was ever going to do this, this seems like the time to do it. And having a background in marketing and entertainment, I felt pretty confident about certain aspects of the job and jumping in right away. And after a couple of months, I really saw the potential for, I’ll say, a career change. I think why a lot of people got into it. They didn’t have jobs. They didn’t have really a lot of prospects at that point. Like you said, the world was coming to an end and the world as we know it did come to an end and the beneficiary were people who went on OnlyFans and OnlyFans itself. Well, I mean, what’s your impression because this has really been amazing. What’s your impression of the OnlyFans phenomenon? I think it’s amazing, I have to say. You know, it was something unique that came along that really figured out how to monetize social media for people who had fan bases. But then I also gave people who had no fan base at all an opportunity to become a creator, to become an influencer. Before doing this, I was like everyone else and had private social media for family and friends. But I did run social media campaigns for major brands and did influencer campaigns. So I knew how it worked in the mainstream world and I was like, "I think I can do this." And I did and it just started taking off. So I joke that I’m a mill fluencer. So if someone like me can do this, you know, anybody can do it, but I will say it is not for everyone. Of course. But, you know, sometimes it bugs me a little bit because any company that does well gets dumped on, whether it be Amazon, whether it be Pornhub, of course they have their own issues that there are reasons to criticize. But certainly not as much as they are being criticized. And I think in the long run, only fans has really been for the good as opposed to not. I think it depends who you ask. You know, there are the people that were nurses and working 60 hours a week and had no life and couldn’t even see their families that left and became only fans creators. And now they make three times as much as they did before. Or someone like me, you know, like I always knew I wanted to leave corporate but never really knew what that was going to be. And this was it. So I think it’s great. I think there are a lot of misperceptions around only fans and what it is and what it isn’t. But I’ve always worked for companies that had misperceptions or, you know, brand challenges. So that has never been something that bothered me about only fans. Yeah. And I mean, look at all the cottage industries that have popped up around it. Only fans, agencies, traffic networks for only fans, a number of support type businesses for the only fans agencies. I mean, there’s some pretty cool stuff that’s come up. Absolutely. And even a couple of years ago, you know, when I was maybe just a year into it and I quickly realized there were all these adjacent services and businesses, even, you know, I had a telegram assistant at one point helping me manage things. And that’s the whole side of the business that nobody was telling the story about. Nobody was telling the story of the economy around only fans and people are only starting to realize now that that’s how it works. As big as only fans is, there’s plenty for everyone. In fact, we’re, as we record this on October 26th, launching only fans agency broker. Oh, interesting. Well, because we’re right now listing two substantial sized only fans agencies and we have others that want to do business with us that we’re talking to. And I got to the point where I was like, look, this has got to happen. It’s not going away. Oh my God, no. If anything, it’s getting bigger. It’s so funny because I sat down with Leo, the primary owner in January of 2020 at AVN and we would get together from time to time at shows and just catch up because we’ve done some business together. Last I saw him, by the way, he’s gone underground, but I had no idea he was involved in this. But I couldn’t be happier for the guy because he got in at just the right time. You know, I mean, a lot of people have negative things to say about the guy, but he’s been nothing but wonderful to me. And I’m just very, very happy that he’s done so well with this. I’m happy for anyone who’s smart, who takes advantage of the market. I’m not a huge fan of Jeff Bezos, but boy, do I respect the guy. And boy, do I buy a lot of shit from him. Oh, we all do. And I think what you’re kind of getting out, which is, you know, one of those key lessons I did learn when I had a mainstream job was a lot of the times the people who help you build something sometimes are not the people to carry it through to the end. Because, you know, you build it and you get out and you go do something else with your life and you hand it over to people who sometimes you’re more capable of carrying it out, who have the passion for it day to day. They were a bookseller for God’s sakes and look at them now. Oh, I bought my college books off of the first site, you know, way back when. I’m sure you did. So before only fans, you were involved in mainstream PR, I guess. Yes, mainstream and PR and marketing and worked for, you know, the 10 years in mainstream entertainment and dabble in nonprofit work a little bit. Very good. I mentioned your degree earlier. What did you do with it? Ah, that’s a great question. So I was working for a major nonprofit in living in New York City and I was going to grad school at night and I had been in a movie company before that and I mean, I’m sure you’ll understand this. I knew I couldn’t do the crazy movie company job and go to grad school at the same time. So that’s what kind of led me to the nonprofit, but I knew I wanted to get back to it and I actually ended up getting a really unique role after I finished that degree at the WWE where I managed their nonprofit partnerships. So it all kind of came full circle for me. What did you do at WWE? That sounds fascinating. I was in charge of nonprofit partnerships. So raising awareness and funds for Susan G. Coleman, Make the Wish, educational programs and really got to do the feel good stuff. When I always joke that I’ve been to WrestleMania, people are like, "No, you haven’t. No, you haven’t." I’m like, "I know way more about wrestling than you would think." But yeah, my job was to create campaigns that would support those organizations and causes. So I brought wrestlers to schools to read to kids. I brought them to hospitals. I would do special events. It was a crazy, crazy place, but I got to make kids smile and make dreams come true. So it was a good job. How long were you there? I was there three years. Wow. Were you a fan before that? I really wasn’t. I knew what most people know about wrestling, the Hulk Hogan, the Rock, those big names. Don’t talk to the Rock, to my wife, because that’s her boyfriend. Oh, really? Oh, she adores that man. Unfortunately, I never got to meet him, but I got to meet his mom, and she was the nicest lady you could ever meet. I’d be shocked if he wasn’t a good dude. I heard nothing but wonderful things. But yeah, it was crazy because you never knew what legend was going to be around. You never knew really what was ever going to happen. You could plan and plan and plan, and then you’d get the call from the big boss, and something was going to change, and be like, "Oh gosh, what are they doing on TV now?" Who are some of the notable wrestlers that non-wrestling fans might have heard of besides Hulk Hogan? So a big part of my job was pretty much following John Cena around with a Sharpie as he granted wishes to SickKids. He is the number one individual wish grantor. He holds the record for that, granting more individual wishes than any other celebrity. Wow. So being, you know, he’s obviously the good guy. So Kidz just, he was the number one wish request from WWE up there with Disney. Wow. That’s so nice. It really is. I mean, honestly, he is probably the most professional celebrity I’ve ever encountered in my life. I was going to ask you who your favorite wrestler is, but I, is that who? Working with, he was definitely one of the favorite ones just because you knew what to expect. He showed up on time. He delivered his lines. He did exactly what he committed to doing. But like wrestling style, I was a fan of the big show. Like the, you know, he was just a big teddy bear backstage. So big show was a personal favorite of mine. And, you know, I got to say there, while Ric Flair was not in the ring, he was always kind of around at events and backstage because his daughter’s a wrestler and like, he’s just the sweetest man. Yeah. You know, I would imagine that just kind of like professional football players, you get these guys who were the toughest and meanest and you meet them off the field and they’re teddy bears. Yeah. It would, you know, it was funny. Some of the, the legends, you know, the older wrestlers who had retired that were around. They always knew what I was coming to them for, but most of them could never remember my name. But they were always sweet and nice. Because they got hit on the head too many times. A few times. Yeah. But it was, you know, they were always pleasant and yeah, that was the craziest three years of my life. And, you know, it’s funny being in adult entertainment now. I’m like, no, these people are just as crazy in both industries. They’re great at their talent and they do it for a reason. I think people in entertainment in general have that controlled lunacy. Sometimes it’s not controlled. That’s a great way to say it. Well, you know, sometimes things come to me. How did the experience help you as an adult content creator? Something I learned there about social media, social media production, TV production, live entertainment, all of that is so relevant to what I do now. That is really where I learned influencer marketing without a doubt. And it’s been so helpful transitioning to the adult world because, you know, from, from creating my own content, I had a high standard of what to create. And I knew how to engage with fans. You know, when I started doing this, I was like, well, I want to be the rock of only fans. You know, that was my goal. You know, I want to be able to control my arena of 100,000 people online. And I think that was really valuable. And the other thing that was very apparent to me very quickly was whatever fans say you are, that’s what you are. So coming into this world, I had never been called a BBW before I started doing this. And I was like, what’s a BBW? And then I was like, okay, this is what the fans say I am. So this is where I am. Yeah, that’s unfortunately actually every type of woman in adult has a title, has a term. I’m not sure that’s good to be honest with you. In my estimation anyway, I can understand that it’s, you know, I mean, people, they need to end the tube sites, they need to classify and not only fans, they need to classify. But I mean, how good do you think that is? I agree with you. I don’t think it’s a great thing. I think labeling us really puts us in a box and it is hard to be creative in a box sometimes. And I think that, you know, in working with other creators outside your genre, really, it can present challenges. Now, you know, for me, personally, it’s, you know, I fit into a couple of categories I’ve realized. And so it’s helped me open up opportunities with certain people. But at the same time, you’re never going to be able to get away from specific labels. But the industry, I would say, labeling me in a certain way is kind of the part that’s the most upsetting. It’s not the fans. It’s not other creators. It’s that the porn gods have decided that there is, you know, two body types out there and that’s it. Yeah, the porn gods, you know, we know who they are. I mean, I have a philosophy about women. Women are beautiful. So why would you say this type of woman is this and this type of woman is that? I don’t know. It just makes sense to me. But the object of object, I can’t even think of the name objectification. Oh, thank you very much. It’s easy for you to say of women continues. It’s always been worse than porn. Absolutely. I mean, essentially what I do now is what I’ve always done in like on dating apps, you know, you match on Tinder, guy wants to start sexting, then he asks you for some nudes. And I’m like, well, I’ve been doing this anyway in my personal life now. I’m just going to do it on only fans. Join my only fan team. You’ll see my nudes. Yeah. So it’s to your point that the objectification is there in our society, no matter what women are now and men are just they’re going for it in a different way. They’re owning it in a way that we haven’t before because of platforms like only fans. Yeah, it’s true. But at least there’s money in them, their hills, which I guess makes it a little easier to take. Do you consider yourself a porn star? And then the question becomes, what’s a porn star? I do not consider myself a porn star. And I know this is kind of tomato tomato. But I have always said that I’m an adult content creator. Only fans is my primary platform. I’ve dabbled a little bit in the other platforms, but that’s where I make my money. That’s where I built my business. And all of my content is either co-produced with other creators, self-produced and created and distributed. I run my own little business on my own. And I’ve only ever shot for one studio, not even a mainstream big studio. And I still have not done a proper boy/girl scene for them. So that is where I’m like, I’m going to say technically I’m not a porn star because I have not made a proper boy/girl video for an adult site yet. Do you plan to? I am open to it. You know, again, as somebody with a certain body type, there are limited opportunities for me. So I am open to it. But, you know, I did solo content for the first year and a half before I even opened up to working with other creators. So I’ve been a little slow to grow in those areas. I get it. I completely get it. So let’s talk about pineapple support. Why did you join them as an ambassador? Pineapple support has been wonderful. They, you know, as you know, provide free and low cost mental health services to the adult industry. And I actually started using them for my own therapy because, you know, there are things that happen in this business that you just, you can’t predict. Even though I’m somebody who keeps their nose clean, does everything by the book, either have been a couple of experiences in the past year, unfortunately, that left me feeling like, oh, wow, you know, a little PTSD from the situations. Can you talk about it? Just a couple of experiences where I’m going to say men behaved badly. Unfortunately. I know, right? That’s shocking to hear. Men behave badly. I’ve never heard. You know, people get a little too aggressive. They get a little too, you know, they think they have a little bit too much ownership over you and your brand. And unfortunately, some lessons have been learned about protecting my content, protecting my brand because of these situations. It’s like, well, this is part of the job that I’ve chosen now. Well, it shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, there was a time in our industry where abuse was baked in. It’s not the case anymore. Well, so here’s the thing, Bruce. I’ve been sexually harassed at every job I’ve ever had. Just being an attractive woman in the world of entertainment, this is a mainstream problem. It’s not a porn problem. So I come to this world with kind of that, I paid my dues, you know, in that sense of being like, you know what, I’m going to keep my mouth shut and keep my job. Like that was my attitude as a young woman living in New York. So I got it. And now, you know, being in this world, I think that I am, because of those experiences, I’m way more direct. I’m way more comfortable saying, no, I’m, I am okay having the uncomfortable conversations and asking the smart questions. And not everyone responds well to that. And you say one thing that someone doesn’t like. And then, you know, the next thing is they’re on Twitter talking about you or they’re putting your content in places where you don’t want your content. Either that or doxing or. Yep. All the things. So because of these experiences, I was like, well, okay, buttoning up my business number one, but number two, I can only talk to my friends in my real life so much about the industry because they only understand so much. So Pineapple support was just ready and waiting. It was great because they’re like, no, you can talk about all this. We hear this stuff all the time. There’s absolutely no shame in talking about being an adult performer. There’s no having to explain what we do. You don’t have to explain to a therapy, a mainstream therapist. You don’t have to explain what you do for a living. They just get it. So that is what attracted me to them. And then when the opportunity to come on and, you know, came up to me an ambassador, I really wanted to jump at it because I’ve done nonprofit work in the past. Like it is something I feel strongly about like helping people. You know, I give away a ton of free advice to people when other people charge. I am all for paying it forward and just putting some good into the world. I agree. A lot of this negative stuff comes from social media and social media is both a blessing and a curse. Do you think it’s more of a blessing or a curse and why? I think it is a powerful tool that you can manipulate however you want. Unfortunately, I don’t want to say it’s a blessing or a curse because I think so much of it. It’s all in control of the person who manages it, right? Again, coming from a corporate background, working for brands that got a lot of social media hate at times. I learned very quickly that you just don’t engage. You have to rise above it. You cannot engage with fans in a negative way online because it will come back to bite you. One question I’ve had from people is like, "How do you not get bothered by negative social media comments? How do you deal with that?" Because of course, I get the fat comments, the "you’re too old" comments, everything you could imagine. I just handle it with love and jokes. I believe in the Dolly Parton brand of feminism where you laugh things off and you make a joke back. That is where I kind of manage social media comments in that way where I either feel bad for this person that they have to make ugly comments or I lean in with a joke and acknowledge if somebody is actually saying something that’s unique and funny. That’s always been my personal approach. Working with PR clients, I’m coaching them on, "Don’t say that on social media because you can’t take it back." If you’re going to say something, let’s soften it and say it in a way that’s less accusatory or is less volatile, to be honest. So I think it is a blessing and a curse. I guess now I’ve talked to myself into answering your question. It is a blessing and a curse. It’s always going to be, but I think the smarter you can be about it, the more you will grow your brand because at the end of the day, we are all selling a fantasy on every single platform. Our fans want to be invited into that world in which you create. If you create a world for your fans where you’re calling people out, you’re bitching about people, you’re complaining, you’re being negative, you can negatively impact your brand in that sense. Of course you could. There’s absolutely no two ways about it. You got to be really careful what you do on social media. I see it every single day. People getting quote unquote canceled because of a comment on social media and I believe social media is way too powerful and as much as I hate the idea of governments getting involved, I’m starting to think maybe there should be some kind of regulation. I don’t know what. I’m not smart enough to make those decisions. Not that they are either unfortunately because nobody knows less about technology than senators and congressmen. God only knows. But I do believe that something needs to be done to make the whole process a lot kindlier and gentler and a lot less toxic. That’s my feeling about it. I would agree with that. Make it less toxic. So getting back to pineapple support. Why is mental health important to you? Oh my goodness. I have made some wonderful friends in this industry. I feel really lucky to have felt a community surrounding myself of just hardworking people who some of them are normal people like me. Some of them are veterans in this industry. But the people that I’m truly connected with are the people who kind of share similar mindset to me about no drama if you’ve got stuff, work on your stuff. And being in this business, I’ve definitely realized there’s a lot of people with a lot of stuff. We all have stuff. We all have stuff. And this just happens to be a business where people wear their stuff on their sleeve more, I think. And I think that while that is important for people to acknowledge that part of their journey, you got to work on your stuff. Pineapple support is here to help you. That’s the whole thing. It is so easy to get started. And all of us should do therapy at one point or another. But when you got stuff, you definitely got to do therapy and you got to do the work. And for a lot of people, it’s free, right? Yeah, exactly. And I’m sure you’ve run into this in this industry, but you meet people and you think things are cool. And then they trauma vomit all over you when the first five minutes of talking to them. And you’re just like, oh, OK, that’s unfortunate that you dealt with that in life. It’s like nice talking to you as well. Yeah. And I understand some people need to provide context or it’s good to know your boundaries. It’s good to know you’re using your don’ts. But what I would love to see for our industry is for people to be more comfortable communicating their boundaries up front instead of after the fact. I think the whole mental health thing has come a long way in an adult. Yeah. This is why it’s here. You know, Pineapple Support has only been around what, five years? Not even, I don’t think. Yeah. So there needs to be more of this because I think it will just create a kinder, more understanding community. It is so important for all of us because this is a stressful job at times. Even dealing with fans can be stressful. Fans push your boundaries. Gosh, the things you hear when you start doing this, you’re like, well, I didn’t know that that was a thing. And you got to go Google it. And then you’re like, oh, wow, I’m not going to do that. You know, everybody’s got boundaries. And I think the things that I see coming up all the time from women mostly in this business are miscommunications with men. And I think if people felt more comfortable having the tough conversations, going over things more thoroughly and setting boundaries in the beginning, so people are on the same page and on the same expectations, there would probably be less drama in our community. And people would just feel better. I agree. I agree. They’d feel safer. Yes, exactly. And that was the thing with Pineapple Support where I was like, okay, I’m going to tell you about this thing. And I don’t feel this is really hard for me to talk about. Well, but don’t they come to you a lot with specific issues, though? Pineapple Support? Yeah. For me to participate as an ambassador? No, but I don’t think people come to Pineapple Support with specific issues as well. Oh, I mean, I mean, there is a client therapist confidentiality there. So I don’t know exactly what people come to them for. I think everybody comes to them for something different. But I think the key there is making people, I’ve even seen this in telegram groups where women have asked for therapist referrals, people who will have sex workers as clients because they don’t want to go to a mainstream therapist and explain why they do what they do. And that is where Pineapple Support is waiting. Yeah, because the therapist all of a sudden will make that the problem. Right. And that is not the problem for these people. It’s that they have anxiety, they have depression, they have ADHD, they have all the normal day-to-day life stresses that everybody has. Just happen to have a very particular job, opens them up to very specific situations. Got it. How do you balance your work and your personal life? Living in Austin really helps because I live in a city that actually doesn’t have a ton of only fans creators, at least in my category. So I get to go to Miami or Vegas. I get to do the big events. I get to do the clubs. And then I get to come home and I have a very normal boring day-to-day life. I get up, I walk my dog, I go to yoga, I get to meditate. I have a very normal life in that sense. And that protecting that part of my life, I think, has helped me to have this work-life balance. And recently actually enrolled in yoga teacher training because that’s always been on the bucket list for me and having that sort of in my repertoire now of things to just be able to, you know, I was at a shoot house in Vegas the other week and I was like, "I’m going to go meditate in the morning outside and sit there and do a little yoga and anchor myself every morning in whatever way I could." Really kind of helps to just, again, it helps me to stay calm in that moment when crazy things do happen and stay committed and focused. So yeah, the work-life balancing has been really important to me. It’s the thing I love the most about adult entertainment is I have more work-life balance now than I ever did before. What do you like best about the industry? What do I like best about the industry? I mean, it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun, Bruce. Definitely has opened me up sexually in certain ways to try new things that I never thought I would try before and learned that I liked. I think that people are genuinely friendly for the most part in this business and, you know, everybody wants to talk and chitchat and get to know each other. The travel is a great perk. Traveling for work is great and I genuinely love making content. I loved working on TV and film and doing all that anyway. So I really do love that aspect of this, like planning the big events and collabs and running the photo shoots and everything. I love doing that. And really, I mean, what I love most is that I make more money and I work part-time. Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Yeah, that was the surprising life change. You never expect that, right? You’re like, "Wow, I make more than I did before and I don’t work nearly as hard." Yeah, definitely. Well, if you like it, then keep doing it. Absolutely. I think I like adult entertainment enough to stick with it. I don’t know if I’ll be in front of the camera forever, but I’ll definitely be behind the camera in some capacity. Well, there’s that. There’s definitely that and there’s definitely a need for good people. What do you like least about our industry? That’s a good question. I will say the drama. The drama is something that, you know, it just gets to you at times because it’s very high school, as you know. I was just going to use those words because I use them all the time, Erica. I say it’s like being back in high school. You see a lot of that and, you know, that’s probably the thing that I like the least overall in the industry. Personally, the thing that I like the least about this job is that if people think you have sex on camera for money, they think you have sex for money and that is not the case for everyone in this business. So the perception around that for me has been a challenge. Fans ask questions and I’m like, "Oh, sorry. I don’t offer that service." And they’re like, "Oh, oh, I’m sorry." I’m like, "No, no, no, no, no, I can understand why you would ask that question, but I don’t do that." But that’s one of the assumptions and I think the misperceptions about this world. Yeah, I think there’s some people who are pretty desperate, so they’ll do anything, but I think most people certainly have their boundaries. Yes. I’ll just share some like inside information, but it’s, you know, when people are like, "I’m like, well, I get $500 for a video call sometimes." And they’re like, "How do you do that?" And I’m like, "Well, I just do. I don’t know what else to tell you." So they kind of, people who are out there doing other things for that amount of money, just, you know, I feel for them. I really do like feel for them and sympathize for them. I like almost want to help them be like, "Let me teach you how to do things the way I do things." But everyone has their own journey and they have their own path in doing this. Are you talking about prostitution? Yes, I’m talking about that. Well, but you know what? Everyone, and you know, here’s my feeling on that, okay? Everyone makes their own choices and whether or not they like what they’re doing, I can’t tell. You can’t tell. I think there’s a certain percentage who don’t like what they’re doing. Unfortunately, there’s too many people who are being forced to do what they’re doing. And I’m not talking about sex trafficking. I’m talking about pimps and the women who are victims of that. I definitely feel bad for. But the ones who are hooking on their own free will, look, it’s a democracy. Right. And I am friends with some of these people. I’m like, "Go get your money, girl. Go do it." Like, I fully support you if you want to do this. I think what I’m trying to get at is more of the perception that men have of women in the business overall. It’s almost like this blanket across all of us. They just assume everybody does this. And the reality is there’s a whole spectrum now because of only fans of people that do different things in different ways. And maybe that was the perception of the adult industry 20, 30 years ago. But it’s definitely not what it is now at all. The perception was there. The perception when you look at sex workers as a whole, the perception was that all strippers hook, not necessarily. The perception that was all porn actresses hook, not necessarily. And I just think that for men, more than anything else, it’s wishful thinking. Right. And that’s where that fan engagement comes in. And it’s like you want to engage your people to a way where you make them feel they have a chance with you. And again, it’s this realistic fantasy that you create for them. And that’s kind of a fantasy that you depend on because what you are to a lot of these guys is your their virtual girlfriend. And if they think that there’s no chance in the world that their virtual girlfriend is ever going to meet them or be with them, then the percentage of these guys who are willing to stick around is going to go down considerably. Of course. And listen, most fans come in for a few months, they get their fill of things and they move on to the next flavor of the month. That’s how it is. There’s, you know, 10% of your fans are going to stick around for the long haul. And yes, they might want to meet you, but they’re also the ones who will send you $1,000 for no reason. Like that’s how those relationships work. I’ve heard about that. I wish some people would send me $1,000 for no reason. It’s because I’m a nice guy, you know. Exactly. How many of your fans have asked to meet you? I would say maybe 20%. Think about this though. It’s only so many of them have the nerve to ask. Only fans is also a platform where you are not allowed to ask those questions. So I am very vocal about how you do not ask me that here. You are violating the lay fans terms and conditions because if they ever look at my account, I want them to see. It could get you banned. It gets me in trouble. So what you know, people come through Twitter, they come through Instagram or they get you on, actually what happens the most is they’ll get me on a video call and they ask me directly on the video call what my, you know, what my rate is. I was like, Oh, don’t do that. I just do this. I just do the calls. I just do the video calls. Oh, somebody calls cold. There’s no way in the hell that, you know, that should be something that you should do. I’ve had to learn a lot as I go here. There is no handbook for the adult industry. That is for sure. No, probably soon, probably soon. But as soon as someone makes it, they’re going to, it’s going to change all over again. Yeah, well, and look, you know, for a fact that some performers are doing that. Yes, of course. And again, go get your money girl. As I’ve said on this show before, I was raised by a woman. So I have, I’m told as much of a feminist male as you’re ever going to meet. So my feeling is, since we’re mainly talking about women here, my feeling is if you got it, flaunt it. And if you got it, profit from it. That’s the way I look for it. I get it. That, you know, like I said, I had always thought it’d be great to make money off my big boobs, but never knew how to do it. There you go. Yeah. Hello, only fans. What advice would you give someone just starting out an adult? Do your research and know your boundaries for sure. Know that this is going to take a lot more hard work than you think going into it. Most women or men that start doing this, it’s even harder for men, I think, actually. I think again, there’s a perception like, oh, you are going to start only fans. You’re going to make like $10,000 your first week doing it. That’s not the reality for most people at all. Just know that going into it. It’s a, it can be a slow climb for a lot of people and quality is definitely important. You’re going to learn as you go and don’t take things too personally. You got to have kind of a tough skin in this business, I think, or any business where you’re putting yourself out there, even if you’re just a regular influencer, you’ve got to have a tough skin to be able to do that. Sure. And anytime you’re dealing with the public, you better have a thick skin. Yeah. Have a thick skin and just, you know, be smart about networking. You’ve got a network in this business. You’ve got to build relationships with people and be respectful of people because those are going to help you down the road in ways that you do not know right in that moment when you meet those people. And I think just have an exit strategy. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you wholeheartedly. What do you think is your greatest accomplishment so far and why? I’d say in the adult world, being recognized by ex-biz as a nominee was a very big deal because I didn’t even know I’d been nominated the first time. I was like, what? What? Like, this is crazy. I didn’t even do the pre-nominations or anything because I didn’t realize at that point that I had, I didn’t know I had made it to that level to be honest and it was, you know, it was a big deal. It was a big moment. Well, I made the top five for a community person of the year and I was up against some really stiff competition. It’s an honor to be nominated by the Academy. Yes, exactly. The other thing was starting my own podcast. You know, that was a big deal. That was something that I really was excited about and I had wanted to do because it opened up opportunities to, you know, work with people who they might not collab with me because we’re in different places and our careers and content styles, but most people are willing to say yes to a podcast and that opened up new opportunities for me and I was so excited by the people that were saying yes to me and sitting down with Playboy models and people like Brittany and Kazumi and I was like, this is amazing that you’re willing to give little me the time of day. Yeah, I agree with you. We at the point we’re at right now, we just dropped episode 176. This will run in 2024. So we’ll be, we’ll be well beyond that at that point and I’ll tell you, it’s really caught on and it’s something that I’m very proud of because as you know, it’s a lot of work, but in the end it’s well worth it. It’s been very good for my business too. Plus being a former radio guy, it’s great to be able to do something again and do something that’s creative. Exactly. I felt the same way. I was like, God, it’s great to use my brain in this other way again. Well, I don’t have one of those anymore, but at least I can talk and sound somewhat intelligent, I think. What would you like to see change in this business? I think more opportunities to break into mainstream. It seems so inaccessible to most of us. It is all about who you know, getting an agent again, certain looks. I would love to see more acceptance and just sort of a broadening of the types of people that are sort of the faces of this industry. I see it happening a little bit with TikTok influencers that are now attracting browsers and things like that. It seems like the business model is sort of changing a little bit and they’re testing out new things to appeal to people and leverage people who are not actually porn stars. I would love to just see more acceptance and again more body shapes and sizes and just more inclusivity across the board and in the mainstream stuff. Absolutely. What porn stars would you like to shoot with and why? Okay, I’m going to go from like personal favorites and satisfaction here. Okay, so I have three, but immediately come to mind. If I could choose the men that I wanted to work with, Johnny Sins and Jay Mac, because apparently I like bald bearded men. Tommy Gunn was the guy that really hit my daddy issues in a way that I was like, "This works for me. This really works for me." Interesting. So those three guys, you know, the opportunity came up to work with them. That’d be awesome. Fantastic. Well, hey, Erica. I’d like to thank you for being our guest today on Adult Site Broker Talk and I hope we’ll get a chance to do this again soon. Thank you. Thank you. My broker tip today is part 10 of what to do to make your site more valuable for when you decide to sell it later. Last week we talked about what information to give a potential buyer and what determines the value of a site. We’ll continue that today. If a site hasn’t been monetized, then it’s all about the amount and the quality of the traffic. If a sale is based on traffic, it will be a multiple of what the traffic would sell for on the open market. What are the sources of traffic? Direct traffic, search engine traffic and review traffic are the most valuable? Tube traffic, the least valuable. Is the traffic reliable and sustainable? What is the traffic history? In a rare case, the valuation will be based upon revenue. The same factors apply to that as a profit, but of course the valuations will be lower than those of profits. How old is the website? Is the domain a dot com or something else? Dot com is still king. How many inbound links are there? How much staff does it take to run the site? How many email addresses do you have? In the case of a dating site, this is very important. Another factor can be the reverse engineering cost. How much would it cost to build a site from scratch and drive the same amount of traffic to it and how much time would be involved? What is the lifetime value of a customer on the site? Next week, how to buy a website. And next week we’ll be speaking with Drew and Michael of Cheeked Up. And that’s it for this week’s Adult Site Broker Talk. And once again, I’d like to thank my guest, Erika Love. Talk to you again next week on Adult Site Broker Talk. I’m Bruce Friedman. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]