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.
Leading business development initiatives for an adult entertainment company usually means taking on new and different roles in dynamic environments.
Everyone who works here has a specific charge to ensure that our models are positioned to be the best in the world.
For Mia Saldarriaga, who runs biz dev for JuanBustos.com, it’s all in a day’s work.
Saldarriaga holds a number of positions at the company, from business relations to the selection of models to social media to writing the company’s blog. Indeed, she’s a busy lady.
XBIZ: I understand you wear a lot of hats at JuanBustos.com. Tell me exactly what you do at the company?
SALDARRIAGA: Yes, it is true. I have served in several positions within the company, gaining knowledge about everything so I can do a little of everything. I am primarily responsible for international relations and business. I attend industry events outside the country to see what new opportunities there are for our models. It is in our interest that the models who work with us are always well represented at the websites and that our relations with the sites bring benefits to them and the company. I have other roles too. I help with audiovisual material for our social networks and I take care of many of the translations. When I’m not traveling I participate in the selection of new models, and sometimes end up acting as an informal psychologist for models, even though we already have one on staff. I was also the official journalist at LALExpo and helped there with everything I could. My duty there was to be one of the friendly faces of the event.
XBIZ: Tell me about how JuanBustos.com got started and where it is today.
SALDARRIAGA: Juan Bustos is a person who began advising webcam models, many of whom became top models in the industry and are known for their beauty and professionalism when working on webcam. With their success, many others started to look to Bustos for help and JuanBustos.com was started. With each step forward, JuanBustos.com offered more help to the models, and more models became great successes, making the brand very coveted in Colombia. The company now has many persons who work to offer models the best chances of success: model advisers and assistants who can help with managing the camera and with English, dance teachers, photographers, designers, a psychologist, lawyers, and accountants to help them organize their finances. Everyone who works here has a specific charge to ensure that our models are positioned to be the best in the world.
XBIZ: What type of cam performer is JuanBustos.com looking for?
SALDARRIAGA: Models committed to the work and who love doing it. We prefer girls who give the best of themselves so that they shine as webcam models. It is important to us, of course, that models are young and beautiful, because we believe that is what customers who visit the websites are mostly looking for at first, but they also need to be nice and fun so that viewers feel comfortable in the room.
XBIZ: You write a blog for JuanBustos.com. What kind of pieces do you publish?
SALDARRIAGA: There are a few areas that the blog addresses. Mainly it is written to provide practical advice to models. Bustos edits all the information and writes about the many questions that we get in our inbox from models and studios, such as how do I do a private? How should I treat a customer? How do I collect tokens on a site? And hundreds more such questions. Bustos also has a social commitment to help the industry grow and gain acceptance, so the blog also addresses some of the social challenges that models face. Many models study and follow his advice, and it is clear that the blog has brought some positive changes to many readers. Sometimes U.S., European, and especially Romanian models write asking for advice, so three months ago we began to translate articles into English — something that I help with — and more recently into Romanian.
XBIZ: How important is social media to JuanBustos.com?
SALDARRIAGA: Very important. Although we use Facebook and Twitter we have noticed that Instagram is where we have the greatest impact, because growth there in recent months has been significant. Instagram has been more modern and dynamic, and the models like it the best. As we speak with many models through our inbox, we realize that only 15 percent of our followers follow us on our social networks. Eighty-five percent “shadow follow” us, always consulting with us privately or anonymously because they fear openly being associated with webcam modeling. Many Colombian girls are webcam models in private, not working openly or publicly.
XBIZ: What’s a typical workday like?
SALDARRIAGA: When I am in Colombia I start the day at 8 a.m. by checking emails and answering questions from studios and models, which takes up around half my day. I go to the office in the afternoon for a couple of hours to attend meetings and sometimes to help interview new models. Once I’m in the office, I check if everything is OK and listen to possible problems with the sites we work with, and help others with anything they need. Other than these couple of hours in the office and two more that I use to do exercise, I work from home. As I’m a workaholic, I eat two of my meals at the computer and I finish work around 10 p.m. every day.
XBIZ: In your spare time, what do you like to do?
SALDARRIAGA: I don’t know what to answer because I’m always working. Not because I have to but because I love my job and really enjoy doing it. I am a little crazy about fitness and cats. I take two hours of my day to go to the gym; never miss a day. I have a small cat shelter with my mother where we help to find new homes for stray cats. So If I have time I go there to help. I also have four cats of my own so I like to spend some time with them too. I love traveling, and am thankful that work offers me an opportunity to see many new places.
