Image by Brande Jackson via Flickr
When I tell people that I'm an entrepreneur and a webmaster they usually have a lot of questions. I find it extremely hard to tell them about being a webmaster or an entrepreneur without also telling them about my start in adult entertainment. Sometimes I do manage to skip over talking about adult entertainment when explaining although I'd much rather tell it like it is.My interest in computers started in one of the grammer schools I attended in the englewood community. I was placed in "gifted" glasses and we were allowed to use the computers as another way of improving our test scores in whatever areas we needed it most. While I didn't find that I enjoyed the idea of doing math anymore than before I did love the computer. I was in 4th grade when the idea of working with computers begin to grow. Computers weren't booming then facebook and myspace didn't exist. The cell phones weren't in the hand of every man, woman and child. The only way I could use the computer was at school.
I had already been exposed to the art of photography, drawing, and painting. I was attending every craft class they had after school. When asked what did I want to be when I grew up I'd reply a veterinarian, or pediatrician or an artist and sometimes I'd say all three.
By the time I reached the age of twelve years old I had decided I did not want to be a pediatrician. At the age of 14 watching the devastation that death left made me lean towards pursuing a career as a Mortician to eventually buy my own funeral home. I read as much as I could about death, dying and grieving.
So at the age of 18 while taking classes to pursue my career in Mortuary Science I could not stay off the computer. I was so addicted to it ten mins. would turn into one hour and one hour would turn into two. One day one of the staff members asked what I was taking classes for and I replied Mortuary Science and he replied "right" in a sarcastic tone. He paused and said you might want to think about that a little more. I didn't want to hear that of course. Time rolled on and life kept throwing curve balls and road blocks. I moved on working in fast food then the transportation industry before getting a second job which was seasonal and required me to work on a computer.
I was in and out of school determined to be a Mortician until 2004. That's the year I bought my second computer jumped online and begin to embrace the internet as a way of life. I had a page on blackplanet when I begin to experiment with coding before moving on to geocities. After I out grew geocities I moved on to yahoo hosting where I fell in love with phpnuke and bought my first domain lovelyd.com.
My first website was nothing more than a collection of my favorite poems and a few pictures. I didn't know anyone who knew anything about websites. I kept reading and practicing. My site evolved and as I learned more I knew I wanted my own pay site.
In 2005 I came across a website looking for models so I completed the form and got a phone call. The next thing I knew I was outside letting a stranger photograph me. I enjoyed the photoshoot so much that as soon as I got back to my computer I was looking for more websites in need of models.
Modeling and marketing go hand and hand although some really don't make the connection. One thing I can tell you is that the adult entertainment industry has a lot of professional people that get results. They are some of the most hardworking and driven people. I have a tremendous respect for their professionalism. The content producers, webmaster's and administrators you don't see or barely hear about are absolutely wonderful. The thing about adult entertainment is that you don't find a cluster of people who absolutely hate their job. Since i've spread my wings a bit I've found that to be true for other area's of entertainment as well.
I don't know about you but I don't want to work with a bunch of folks who hate their job. I want to work with people who are passionate about what they do. When I talk about websites and social media I get excited because I love this.