We were lucky to catch up with Taylor Sparks recently and have shared our conversation below.
Taylor, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Ten years ago I was 7 years into a business that was like a baby that would not get out of the crib. It just kept standing up on the sides, acting as if it was ready to walk the talk! That business was my organic skin care for athletes company. I had developed a line of 16 head to toe care organic products for elite endurance athletes. We sponsored marathoners, triathletes, marathons and triathlons. We sponsored five Olympic athletes, were in featured in Muscle & Fitness Hers, ESPN ESPY awards gift bags, etc.
Eight and a half years ago, after traveling with my husband to adults only resorts, producing our own events and becoming affiliates of one of the largest adults only luxury travel agencies. Pepe and Claudia Aguirre, the owners of Luxury Lifestyle Vacations Club hired me to develop a line of organic sensual massage oils and body washes for their brand. After we launched we realized that we had no place to sell it because I had a skin care for athletes company and they had a travel agency. So with a little bit of love, support and money from them, I launched OrganicLoven.com starting with their four products. I no longer manufacturer as now I am a re-seller (drop shipping) and I sell over 1100 products, representing more than 200 brands and we ship world wide.
After the first year and a half with OrganicLoven.com, I sunsetted (closed) Skin Care For Athletes because Organic Loven was growing faster and it was much easier to be a Sex Goddess than to pretend to be an athlete.
This was a risk because I had put so much time, money and energy into Skin Care for Athletes. I didn’t know much about the sex toy industry…actually, I knew nothing about the sex toy industry. But I did know about skin and organic ingredients. I saw that the vendors on the adults only cruises, hotel takeovers, resorts and sex expos were selling products and toys that were full of chemicals and harmful ingredients and no one was educating the clients…because they did not have the education and 8.5 years ago it wasn’t an area of focus. But I knew that the organic market was on a steady path of growth and it was just a matter of time before it entered the bedroom. So I took a chance and started looking for as many companies as I could find that were developing products that were safer and healthier within the intimate body care market and the sex toy market. I did a lot of googling, just as I had done when I developed my skin care for athletes company. It was very helpful that my certification is in holistic aromatherapy. With my certification in human behavior and 15 years of experience in corporate training, I developed erotic seminars to present the products in a fun, interactive and educational way.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Amongst many things, Taylor (aka Mariposa) Sparks is a passionate erotic educator and sex goddess, certified in both holistic aromatherapy and human behavior. With over twenty years of experience in the natural skin care/cosmetics industry, Ms. Sparks launched OrganicLoven.com, one of the largest BIPOC owned online intimacy shops. Organic Loven specializes in improving adults’ sexual health/wellness and enhancing their sex lives via their organic intimate body products, body-safe sex toy materials, sex-positive books, erotic educational seminars and adults only luxury vacations.
Ms. Sparks’ expertise has contributed to articles in Bustle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Men’s Health, Oprah, Shape, Women’s Health magazines and more. Prior to launching Organic Loven she developed a line of 16 head-to-toe organic body care products for elite endurance athletes, called Skin Care for Athletes Tri-Body Products. These products were featured in Muscle & Fitness Hers and the ESPN Magazines, sponsored numerous triathlons, 5ks and marathons as well as 5 Olympian athletes in both the summer and winter Olympics.
Facilitating adult travel and passionate experiences
As a leading facilitator in the adult travel industry for many years, Taylor has served as an Experience Advisor for thousands of international travelers, bringing joy and happiness to all she encounters. Taylor remains passionate about bringing people to new destinations and providing opportunities for amazing open-living experiences.
An innovative, renowned speaker
While traveling around the globe, Taylor has become renowned in the adult travel industry and is a powerful public speaker both nationally and internationally. Her workshop series: ‘How To Make Good Pussy, Better,’ is extremely popular and focuses on the benefits of organic lubricants, vegan condoms, and Liberator sex pillows.
For more than 15 years before, she was a highly sought after corporate trainer with an expertise in the areas of: Communication & Negotiation, Leadership & Business Management, Customer Service and Team Building with a specialty in DISC Personality Assessments. Taylor is also a published author; her most recent book entitled What’s a Girl To Do In a Big City if She Can’t Dance? When Stripping is Not an Option!
Taylor currently hosts the podcast Sisters of Sexuality: Five Shades of Play that she co-founded with her fellow sex goddesses and now is in it’s third season with more than 100 episodes. The podcast focuses on Educating, Entertaining and Informing adults in all areas of sexuality, sexual health, kink, relationships and the business of sex. It can be heard on all major podcast platforms.
Taylor is socially and environmentally conscious and a strong supporter of all things organic, natural and eco-friendly…including Love. Personally, she has two adult children, and a 25-year marriage that was both ethically monogamous/ethically non-monogamous (12/13 years respectively).
“Give as much love as you want to receive, be it monogamous, non-monogamous, polyamorous, straight, bi, gay or transgender…just LOVE: Boldly, Deeply, Naturally, Organically, Purely”
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
As most of my personal and then business travels were within the adults only (swinger) community, it was a market that I was familiar with. As I was so small in the beginning, I only required a half of a 6 ft table for my products to set up pool side and only a few shelves in the boutique, I knew from my corporate training days that adults learn best with humor. So I developed seminars and seminar titles that would stand out amongst the many others that were being offered. This gave me an opportunity to introduce the products to the clients as I had their full attention for 30-60 minutes, depending on the venue (cruise, hotel takeover, expo). Seminar titles such as: How To Make Good Pussy, Better, Spanking For Lovers: Your Ass Or Mine, The Care And Feeding Of Your Yoni and When Your Hips Don’t Lie: Sex Positions For All Body Types.
I initially called producers for each event, cruise, sex expo, hotel takeover, convention and applied to have a booth AND present my seminars because I knew that the seminars would drive traffic to the booth. After a couple of years, it was too expensive. So I switched my approach and marketed myself as a speaker…first and foremost…that wanted to present her seminars AND needed a both in exchange for my time as an educator/presenter.
Year after year, I presented at more and more events/cruises. By 2019 I was up to 11 events a year, (accumulating 16 cruises over that timeframe) both in and out of the country. I was shipping and selling products all over the world. So I became very well known, especially as one of the few African-American sex educators in the high end swinger community. Plus the only African-American with a sex toy company that focused on organic and eco-friendly products that was presenting/selling at these events.
It was also helpful being ‘more mature’, within a long standing marriage that was both ethically monogamous/non-monogamous and had children, as I could relate to all of the couples and singles as I had…’been there…done that.’
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
Initially when I was presenting on the first few cruises, I was still under the umbrella of LLV Club, so I did not have to pay for my cabin or transportation to and from the ship. But when I went out on my own, I had to find a team, negotiate the price of our cabins and transportation. I also purchased much more product to sell as I was going to be occupying more retail space in the boutique AND needed to stock the tables poolside. In addition, I needed to purchase sexy crop tops with my logo printed on the tops for the ladies to wear and dresses with my logo in crystals for them to wear during the shifts in the boutique and post cards and banners to put around the ship advertising/marketing our presence. The ship had 4,000 people. This came to about $5000.00. There was no more monies left over for marketing on the ship. There was a cost to be within the cruise catalog, a cost to have your banner hanging over the pool, a cost to sponsor one of many bars and a cost to have a commercial on the cruise tv channel.
I had sales of about $7,000. So a small profit was made. The producers of the cruise later told me that I did very well for someone who did not have any advertising or pre-cruise marketing. As they also get a commission of my sales, they decided to support me on future cruises by offering me placement in the magazine, to be on the cruise tv show and social media with no cost to me.
As I couldn’t afford to sponsor the bars, I asked if I could sponsor one of the meet and greets of the many they have on the ship. As there was no monetary value connected to them I began sponsoring the All Ladies meet and greet, giving me an opportunity to speak for 5 minutes and bringing them all sample packs. Free samples can be great marketing to bring people to your table to see what else you have to offer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.organicloven.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/organicloven
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Organicloven
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorsparks/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/organicloven
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Organicloven
- Other: www.anchor.fm/sistersofsexuality
Image Credits
Credit the picture of me in the chair and on the post of my Q&A square is credited to: @tariksparksstudios