The digital media market has always been ripe for entrepreneurs with the right stuff — courage, ambition and drive to build or lead a thriving business.
The XBIZ Exec Businesswomen of the Year Award celebrates extraordinary individuals who encompass all of the needed traits and demonstrated leadership in going above and beyond in every challenge.
As part of XBIZ World’s “Execs of 2018: The Year in Review,” the digital media market’s most prolific businesswomen share their thoughts on the top trends of the year.
What was your greatest accomplishment as a businesswoman this year?
Missa
AllHerLuv.com/MissaX.com
“I’m the director and owner of taboo playhouse MissaX.com, and our girl/girl only AllHerLuv.com. 2018 has been the best year ever for MissaX.com — we’re growing every year since 2012, and I am so grateful to our loyal members. We started AllHerLuv.com in November 2017, and our customer base slowly snowballed to become not only self-sufficient in 2018 but successful. I can promise the members that we’ve got big plans already in the works for 2019, and I am indescribably grateful for the opportunity to write and work for them.”
Mia Zhu
MobiusPay
“MobiusPay’s success is rooted in our commitment to excellence. When we take care of the person who walks in the door, the rest takes care of itself. Continuing to grow and expand MobiusPay has been one of the most rewarding, and greatest, accomplishments this year. We are particularly proud of our chargeback prevention service which has been received with overwhelming success. My team of dedicated professionals, and their laudable efforts to make each day a success, and better than the day before, fills me with pride and I am honored to receive a nomination from this outstanding community.”
Bella French
ManyVids
“Being an entrepreneur and driven to build organizations is both my passion and a curse simultaneously. In an industry such as ours, leadership has been predominantly male with very few female leaders to network with. This year was a pivotal one in my career as I chose to reveal myself as the CEO and co-founder of ManyVids after avoiding the spotlight for the past four years. Stepping into the public arena and presenting myself as CEO in our documentary #WeAreMany was a watershed moment for me, letting everyone in the adult community know that as a former cam girl I am also one of them. The momentum to revolutionize this business and empower adult workers is growing and I could not be prouder.”
Shirley Lara
Chaturbate.com
“We are breaking down barriers of a taboo industry and created a supportive community where individuals can be themselves. The greatest accomplishment is seeing the positive impact from Chaturbate broadcasters. I have personally seen so many success stories from broke college students graduating debt free, single parents living better, artists releasing their creative energy, to techies funding their own software companies. It really is a pleasure to grow as a company with our brilliant broadcasters.”
Vicky Vette
VNA
“We made it to 40 sites! (Actually, 44 if you count the cam network and archives sites). I’m not sure if any other network has 40 sites, but it was our goal and we surpassed it — so my greatest accomplishment is staying competitive in an extremely competitive field! The only thing that is constant is change. Girls have so many options now it’s mind-boggling. You have to have every-thing — you are building a brand. You have to do it all. Be everywhere. Fans and income come in all forms, shapes, and sizes nowadays. It’s a tangled web and each intersection feeds other intersections. Your website members will join your Snapchat, while your ManyVids and OnlyFans customers will join your website. Your website members will purchase custom videos from you and your custom video customers may buy your panties from your online store. All of them will come to see you feature dance or buy from you at a convention. You have to maintain your social media for all of it to congeal. They will all watch your revenue share and Viewshare videos on the tube sites.”
“It’s so much more complicated than it used to be and that’s where a good webmaster comes in. You can’t possibly do it all alone. You will spread yourself too thin. Having a good webmaster means you can spend more time doing what you like to do — be dirty on camera! This quote by Charles Darwin is my absolute favorite and it holds true in all business, but maybe even more so in our industry because we are the frontrunners when it comes to change: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Megan Stokes
New Media Group
“I jokingly want to say it was getting our Gig fiber line installed at our new office because it was a nightmare! Truthfully, I think it was my ability to reevaluate some of our processes. When we started this company, it was just two of us at home. We have been lucky enough to have very rapid growth in the last few years, including adding a lot more staff, moving into bigger offices and more. Most of our internal processes were put in place at the very start and were slowly becoming inefficient. We decided as a team to take a long hard look at how and why we were doing things in certain ways. We deliver hundreds of media files monthly, with customers and studios all over the world! It’s challenging to change any company’s workflow, but coming out on the other side is glorious!”
Julia Grandi
Julmodels
“This year’s greatest accomplishment I would call “worldwide Julmodels agency recognition.” I and my team changed the strategy of working with performers — building a business with each of them rather just managing their bookings. Teaching them how to earn not only on the shootings but online, working with fanbases and tubes and earning money on already shot content with them as an affiliate. I believe that nowadays it’s an important part of building a name and career for adult performers and my role is to help them to know how. That helped us to get attention worldwide: female and male performers and also companies know that working with us is much more than just a booking, and cooperation will lead to success on all sides.”
Laurel Hertz
ARL Cash
“My greatest achievement this year was signing U.K. super-MILF Lacey Starr to the ARL Cash network. It was a culmination of all the little things that I have done that has really added up to an exciting year for me. Since we brought in our first U.K. production — PascalsSubSluts — ARL has become a truly international operation. It’s been very challenging, but also rewarding to be able to work with so many talented people across the globe from the U.S., U.K., Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria. PSS has been very successful in the U.S. and abroad and I can’t wait to accomplish the same with Lacey Starr.”
