Show Notes
She started her career writing about sex and relationships at Australia's biggest women's media company. Then she built the agency she thought should already exist, for the women no one else would represent.In Episode 5 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Emma Gillman, founder of The Siren Group, a 7-figure PR agency representing the top 1% of adult content creators globally, including some of the most famous names on the internet.Emma is sharp, funny, and completely unfazed by a room full of people who don't take her seriously. She built her agency at 21, relocated from Sydney to London to grow it and has spent every year since proving that the business model is serious, the results are real and the criticism is almost always rooted in something much simpler than people admit.She talks about what it actually takes to build credibility in an industry that doesn't want to give it to you, why she'll always ask "do you watch porn?" when someone says they don't respect her work, and why the real conversation we should be having about women's sexuality isn't the one that's actually happening.In this episode:Writing about sex at 19 and deciding it was more interesting than anything elseBuilding The Siren Group at 21 — and why youth and rebellion were the whole point"Women's sexuality has always been monetised. It's just not usually women who are doing that."Sitting next door to a shoot with a cup of tea. What that's actually like.Why being taken seriously is harder when you're a young woman — and harder still when your clients are OnlyFans creatorsHow mainstream media coverage changes everything for adult creators — and why PR is the missing pieceManaging a team of 5 when you desperately want everyone to be happy all the timeNearly accidentally committing tax evasion. A £10k lesson."I want to be known for changing the way people perceive women and sex work."00:00 Coming Up01:02 Meet Emma: Making OnlyFans Creators Famous03:23 From Journalist to Adult Creator PR06:20 Why We Love to Hate Women Online10:19 Building a Business Around OnlyFans13:53 Why Adult Creators Aren’t Taken Seriously19:42 “Do You Watch Porn?” – The Double Standard23:22 Women, Money & Power in the Sex Industry28:51 Working With Lily Phillips & Changing Public Perception35:06 Platform Risk, Business Lessons & Emma’s AdviceFollow Emma Gillman:Instagram: @emma.gillmanBusiness: @thesirengroup.coJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious people doing the real work: thegrowthcollective.comFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod
More from Behind The Growth
Meet Adam, the humble multimillionaire. He started his first business at 18, got his first job because his mum worked at the employment agency and kept his application on file, and has been building global brands ever since, without a single day of formal training.
She’s been asking the questions for ten episodes. This time, she’s answering them. In a special episode of Behind the Growth, producer Abbie Worth turns the tables on host Laura Donadio, founder of The Growth Collective, influencer marketing veteran with 15 years in the industry, and the woman who once had her hands down Dua Lipa’s corset trying to unzip it from the inside.
He started his first business at 12 a clothing brand called Coldest Clothing, selling hats at a market in Iceland. One ended up on Justin Bieber. That's when he realised social media had legs.In Episode 10 of Behind the Growth, host Laura Donadio sits down with Joel Mallinson creator, social media strategist, founder of Coldest Creative, and the man known online as the Weatherman of Marketing. Joel forecasts trends before they happen, advises brands and creators on what's coming next, and has built a business on the back of a cold email he sent to Amelia Dimoldenberg during his A-levels.Joel is sharp, self-aware and refreshingly honest about the gap between the personal brand and the business behind it. He talks about saying yes to everything early on, the invisible cost of distractions, and why content has always been a vehicle for him never the destination.He also gets into why most founders are creating content for other founders instead of their actual customers, why he thinks there's an unspoken shelf life to influencers, and why building something that outlives the algorithm is the only goal worth having.In this episode:* Selling hats at 12 and getting Justin Bieber to wear one the origin story* Cold emailing Amelia Dimoldenberg during his A-levels and what happened next* "Opportunities start looking like distractions" the invisible ceiling every founder hits* Is it going to make you rich, happy or famous? The framework he uses for every decision* Personal brand vs business when your face becomes the ceiling* Why founders are making a massive mistake creating content for other founders* The unspoken shelf life of creators and what happens to the other 50%* US expansion, a book and what comes next for Coldest Creative* "I didn't set out to be an influencer forever" on building beyond the platformsFollow Joel Mallinson:Instagram: @coldestjoelTikTok: @coldestcreativeJoin The Growth Collective: The community for ambitious marketeers thegrowthcollective.appFollow Behind the Growth: Instagram: @behindthegrowthpod
She was 26, struck down with a chronic illness, passed between ten GPs with no answers, and told by Western medicine there was nothing they could do.
He started as a professional poker player. Then built a bootstrapped software company in the northeast of England. Then raised £8M before a single product existed and built Skin + Me into a business with over a million customers and well over £60M in revenue.