As an 18-year veteran of the sex toy business, Meghan Dunkel has witnessed plenty of the industry’s ups and downs. One of her big takeaways: Only the most committed end up staying.
“To quote Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz’: ‘People come and go so quickly here!’” says Dunkel. “If this industry is your passion — which it must be for you to be successful — treat it like a career.”
I will continue to keep my foot on the throttle and push Nasstoys to new heights.
She has certainly been following her own advice. Longtime colleagues and friends might remember Dunkel’s early days at Hustler Hollywood in Monroe, Ohio, where she began her professional journey as inventory control manager. Despite the lengthy title, Dunkel was mainly the buyer for that single store. After excelling as a product selector, she was promoted to store manager within a year.
It wasn’t long, however, before her true calling became apparent.
“During my time at Hustler, I had brand reps come in to do training,” Dunkel recalls. “I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
She ended up working for a few different companies of the years, looking for the best fit.
“I learned a lot along the way, by working with some of the best and some of the worst people,” she notes. “I am grateful for both. The companies that didn’t have great people aren’t around anymore. From my experience, a company is only as good as its people.”
Dunkel progressed through various levels of the industry, including working at a home party corporate office, and gaining experience in both distribution and manufacturing before joining Nasstoys as sales manager just over two years ago.
“Sometimes it feels like I’ve been here forever, and sometimes it feels like I’ve just started,” reflects Dunkel. “This position is the culmination of the 16 years I spent in the industry before coming home to Nasstoys.”
These days, she uses everything she learned along the way to support Nasstoys’ distributor partners, retail customers, end users — and especially the sales representatives.
“I may be partial, but I have the best sales representatives around,” Dunkel attests. “I have worked with our team, developing, strengthening and empowering each of them.”
It helps that Dunkel is a people person at heart.
“I have friends all over the world,” she marvels. “Going to shows in different places feels like going to a family reunion.”
No matter how exciting or personal it may feel to travel the world with her best friends, however, Dunkel never takes her work lightly.
“Some people lose sight of that and focus on the wrong things,” she advises. “This is a job, and sometimes it’s a hard job, but it is also very rewarding. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
The fast pace of the changes Dunkel has witnessed becomes apparent when she recalls how different the industry was back when she first started — before sex toy blogging became a nearly full-time job, and when pleasure products were often just add-ons with purchases of porn DVDs.
“When I started, everything felt very taboo,” she remembers. “As an industry, we had the constant air of flying by the seat of our pants. We are so much more structured now.”
The biggest change, Dunkel says, stemmed from customers having information available online, so they could look things up before ever setting foot in a store.
“They came to us armed with just enough information to be dangerous,” she laughs. “Because of this, retailers began asking more from their distributors and manufacturers. We stepped up as an industry. As a result, we now not only sell, but we teach safety, confidence and inclusion, field questions that some doctors don’t know the answers to — and do it all with ease while making customers feel comfortable.”
It’s women like Dunkel, and her many colleagues in retail, manufacturing and distribution, who have made the sex toy space a welcoming place for the folks who, at the end of the day, are the reason every Woman in Adult does what she does: the customers.
“The more professional we are, the more serious the world takes us,” Dunkel affirms. “I believe that has driven a lot of the packaging choices, product ideas, and ultimately the recent mainstream acceptance of our industry.”
This year, Dunkel plans to send her team across the U.S., spreading the vibrating gospel about products that the Nasstoys team worked hard to create for the better part of 2025. Owner Elliot Schwartz, she says, has entrusted her with guiding the brand and the company to the next level.
“We’ve made some great strides since I’ve come aboard, but we still have a lot of room to grow,” she admits. “I am a firm believer that you reap what you sow. So I will continue to keep my foot on the throttle and push Nasstoys to new heights.”
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 businesswomen.
