We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.

Alright, Erica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I had been workng as a sex educator for a non profit hospital system for seventeen years. I really loved my job- I was doing HIV prevention and sex education work with young people in juvenile detention in Philadelphia. I helped create the program. But after so long, there was no way to move up the way my department was structured, and I kept thinking “I want to leave this job before I turn 40.”

I had a period of six weeks when I was out of work for a few months to recover from a surgery, and during that time I started to dream of making my own hours and running my own business. By then I was doing some writing and training and consulting on the side. I hired a woman who advertised herself as a “dream doula” – meaning she would help you take a business idea and make it a reality. Working with her, I learned how to develop a program based on what people really need, actually get people on sales calls to discuss, and how to ask for money for my services. That was a huge one for me- for my whole career, I received a paycheck from an organization or business. Now I was having to sell myself and ask people to pay me. That was HARD.

Also during this time, I saved as much money as I could. I don’t have generational wealth, and I didn’t have a lot of savings. I knew that if my business didn’t succeed right away, I’d need a few months of living expenses at the ready.

When I finally launched my business in the spring of 2019, I had also put in my notice at my old job. There was really no overlap.

Erica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a sex educator, and I”ve been doing this work since my college days. Sex education isn’t really a career one dreams of or even knows about as a young person, but I knew from a young age that I wanted to do something that would benefit the lives of others. I majored in women’s studies and that’s when I realized I was most interested in reproductive health and sexual health. I graduated college in 2001.

I spent almost 20 years working for nonprofits and small community based organizations, just really in the trenches doing public health work like HIV prevention. In 2019, I left to start my own sex education and consulting business. I began developing sex education programs specifically for adults who were raised in high control religion, who intentionally had sex education kept from them.

This is most often referred to as “purity culture”- a system of control around gender and sexuality that has damaging and far reaching consequences for people.

Lack of basic sex education can cause many difficulties including alienation from your own body and desires, lack of sexual health knowledge, unwanted sexual health outcomes, and relationship difficulties. I call my programs Purity Culture Dropout™ and I trademarked that name.

I’ve been running my business for about six years now and I’ve offered group coaching programs, individual intensive work, support groups, and live webinars. I also do public speaking and started my own private community on MIghty Networks where people can learn and heal together.

When I began focusing on people coming out of purity culture, I was the only sex educator in the landscape at that time who was doing so. One thing that stands out about me is that I did not grow up in purity culture myself. I’ve just observed from the outside through my work over the decades how damaging a lack of shame free sex education can be for people.

I am able to tailor my sex education sensitively to people who grew up in conservative religious atmospheres. I’m really proud of having so many returning clients- people work with me and tell their friends, who also sign up to work with me. Sometimes people will join one of my support groups and then sign on to work with me one-on-one. I work with all genders and ages of people. The oldest client I’ve had in my Purity Culture Dropout™ work was in their seventies.

My work led to a book deal. I’m currently writing the first sex education book that will be specifically tailored for people coming out of purity culture and it should be out later in 2025.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

Here’s the deal: I’m an excellent sex educator, and that’s what I am trained to be. I was never trained to do marketing or sales or anything like that, yet I’ve learned along the way. It’s been a necessary part of running a solo business- developing these other skills that I never needed before.

It’s been trial and error this whole time. I had to do a lot of internal work getting comfortable pricing myself at what I’m worth and asking for money. I had to do a lot of work getting comfortable marketing myself via social media and my newsletter.

The number one thing I do is just be myself no matter what- when I’m feeling like marketing myself is awkward, I tell my social media audience that. I made a post once that was like “Look, selling myself feels so awkward” and people really responded to that. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but I learned along the way.

How did you build your audience on social media?

This is a difficult question to answer because I am a sex educator, and sex education content is often censored on social media. But when I began my account in 2018 on Instagram, that wasn’t really the case. I was able to grow organically just by posting interesting sex education content, letting my audience get to know me personally, and completely being myself. Trends have come and gone and I don’t jump on ones that don’t feel authentic to me. For example, you will never see me on my socials dancing and pointing to words. It’s fine for other people but I would feel awkward as hell. doing that.

I also interact with people and built amazing partnerships with other people in my field and adjacent to my field. I believe in lifting other people up and not viewing them as competition. So when other sex educators appear in my world, I am happy to promote their work as well. They do the same in return. I definitely didn’t build my account alone- it was through this community and partnerships with others. That’s my best advice to someone building a social media following. Befriend others in your field even if they’re technically your competition. Don’t be afraid to promote them. Interact kindly with your audience. Take time to answer DMs and really connect with people. And never try to be something other than your authentic self.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.purityculturedropout.com
• Instagram: @ericasmith.educates
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-smith-sexeducator/
• Twitter: @ericasmith.sex.ed
• Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ericasmithsexed.bsky.social