Each month, 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.
Kate Kozlova is capturing hearts and minds like a pleasure industry version of the vintage Bond girl. Her sultry fashion sense, femme fatale-worthy smarts and looks, and an unforgettable Russian accent make Kozlova the woman of the hour in sexual wellness circles everywhere.
Svakom is a great example of teamwork, and communication is a key part of it.
Though YouTube fans will more readily recall her 'In Bed With Kate' DIY sex-ed videos, Kozlova spends her day job heading up Svakom USA’s West Coast sales team.
Equal parts candid sex educator and seasoned businesswoman, Kozlova has fulfilled every possible role in the sexual wellness space over the last seven years. Starting with her first foray into retail sales at Pink Rabbit, Russia's leading chain of adult boutiques, Kozlova quickly found a career home to launch her dreams.
Roughly three years ago, Kozlova moved from her birthplace in Saint Petersburg, Russia to Los Angeles with the goal of breaking into the big-biz sex toy industry. Coincidentally, the team at Svakom shared a similar vision. Kozlova's arrival was perfectly timed with the opening of Svakom's first West Coast American sales hub, where Kozlova was immediately appointed the role of lead territory sales representative.
During last year's quarantine, Kozlova launched “In Bed With Kate,” a YouTube channel aimed at educating consumers and keeping up with product trainings for business clients. This month, Women in Adult recognizes Kozlova for the multi-tasking, multi-faceted Bond girl — or woman — she is, in business and “in bed.”
XBIZ: As the West Coast sales representative for an international company, how do you think business has fared through this wildly unique last year? What's your professional take on how the industry has evolved since COVID detonated last March?
Kozlova: In my opinion, 2020 was a challenging year for all business and all industries. However, our industry got itself together at the very beginning and has adjusted to the new reality successfully.
Despite the fact that most brands were planning to present new products during the trade shows, the cancellation didn’t affect business much. This was because we have managed to deliver our business in other ways through virtual shows and presentations, Zoom and other meeting platforms.
Virtual shows that don’t require traveling and booth expenses attracted more industry members from overseas, opening new business opportunities for international trade and the exchange of professional experience. Of course, for many people, going digital wasn’t easy, but we have learned this skill and now more opportunities have presented themselves. Besides, ecommerce platforms and online retailers held the largest market share with more than 60 percent of turnover in 2020. This was due to the lockdowns and many offline stores — that hadn’t considered online business before the pandemic — started to do it successfully from their first attempt.
The most valuable development in my opinion has been the sense of community that was established by groups on social media, discussions and support of industry members. I have never seen our industry so connected. This really has helped many of us to overcome these hard times, both mentally and emotionally. I feel grateful to XBIZ, [and the] Pleasure Product Professional[s] and SPAM [Sex Professionals and Manufacturers] groups on Facebook for connecting us in such unprecedented times.
XBIZ: For those just now learning about your career, enlighten us with an intro to your role at Svakom and how you interact with the B2B side of the industry.
Kozlova: Svakom is an international company and their products are sold in 70 countries around the world. My current position is West Coast sales representative. The main office and factory are located overseas. By the time I moved to Los Angeles from Russia two-and-a-half years ago, Svakom had just opened a warehouse in California. My main goal then was opening new accounts, learning about the U.S. market and finally getting product into the stores.
To reach my targets in the first years, I was always on the road meeting potential buyers on business trips and at trade shows. Now we have a much larger customer base on the West Coast and my main responsibility is developing business and customer relationships, providing customers with exceptional support, [and] educating about products through calls, training[s] and looking for new sales channels. Besides that, a big part of my job is raising brand awareness, [and] suggesting marketing strategies for the American market and for particular clients in my area. Learning about the U.S. market and exchanging experience[s] with other pleasure professionals is a big part of my work. Maintaining the sense of community is something that has always been extremely important to me, and it has always been a priority from the very first year I started working in the industry.
XBIZ: How did you land in sex toy sales? Did you have a strikingly different career or lifestyle before arriving at Svakom?
Kozlova: I've been working for Svakom for the last two-and-a-half years in the U.S., but I remember myself buying Svakom toys six years ago, a long time before I started working for them. I have been working in the adult industry for over seven years. I started my sex toy journey in my hometown [in] Saint Petersburg, Russia as a salesperson at an adult store. I was 18 and it was my first ever job. Luckily, it was at the biggest Russian adult retail chain at that time, Pink Rabbit, which opened great career opportunities for me.
I was inspired to start a career in this field because I saw how many problems people had because of sex and the lack of communication about it. I always felt that my country was lacking sex education and a rational approach to this topic. When I was a teenager, my views were shaped and inspired by Freud, Larry Flynt and Madonna. After the first months at work, [my] managers realized that I could make sales grow not only at that location, but also regionally, so they offered me a position in the HR department. I had to teach new employees about products and that’s when my career took off. From there I became a buyer and we increased sales volumes and started our OEM project that led to our success in the Russian market. With Pink Rabbit, I attended trade shows in Hanover, Berlin [and] Shanghai and established direct contracts with all major brands. During my work as head of [the] buying department, I organized the first ever professional show for manufacturers and salespeople of our chain in Saint Petersburg. We hosted companies like Doc Johnson, CalExotics, Pipedream, We-Vibe, and Fun Factory in our one-week training marathon.
XBIZ: What do you genuinely adore about working with your team at Svakom?
Kozlova: There are a lot of things to learn from Svakom about productivity and teamwork. In our team there are people from different countries with completely different backgrounds. I truly believe that the diversity of opinions helps us to generate efficient solutions.
I love the fact that, despite the freedom given to remote workers like me, every team member is responsible and doing their best to make something happen in the shortest period of time. At Svakom, nobody ever leaves something for tomorrow. I admire the management and their responsibility to oversee so many markets and being able to find an individual approach and individual solution to every customer and every problem. Svakom is a great example of teamwork, and communication is a key part of it.
To complement this, the company does a lot of team building activities, trips, [and] parties and your opinion is always heard here. Svakom is a company where every idea and suggestion can become reality right away without bureaucracy or wasting time as long as it is a good idea.
Brainstorming is something that Svakom practices a lot and this is a space for free speech and expressing your opinion, no matter if your idea is popular or unpopular.
XBIZ: What goals do you have planned for yourself and your role at Svakom this year?
Kozlova: In the world we live in, it's hard to plan anything these days. However, my goals are clear to me. First of all, taking into account the fact that it’s not possible to travel, I am planning to focus on current clients and developing them and working on strategies to raise sales. There is also more time to communicate directly with salespeople, [and] create and deliver training programs in Zoom and work with the feedback from the [end] customers. This is always great for increasing sales and improving our work.
Svakom is introducing new lines of toys this year and we are working on a big launch together. Another big goal is developing online customers. Offering clients cross-marketing activities on social media is a great way to deliver our message to the [end] customer. That’s why in 2021, it will be another massive part of my work.
I think it’s also a big goal for pretty much everyone to increase productivity while working from home. So, my plans also include learning how to use platforms that provide customer relationship management services and analytics.
There is no doubt that creating content is something that you really need to work on, that’s why I kicked off my YouTube channel, In Bed With Kate, during the first lockdown period. From that time, I started to share the product videos with my salespeople as an alternative to in-store training. This channel is about adult toys, intimate health, sex techniques, psychology and sex education. The main purpose of my channel is to teach people how to talk about sex and improve the quality of your sex life, as well as to provide detailed information about the products for adult store salespeople.
