ERIKA ICON
FULL VIDEO INTERVIEW ⬇️
Tell us a bit about yourself?
Erika Icon: My name is Erika Icon, I own The Rub Pr, I’ve been in the industry for almost 15 years, many different facets a writer for AVN, XBiz, YNot and Xcitement magazines. I’ve owned my own PR company for almost 11 years now.
How did you start within the PR industry?
Erika Icon: I worked in advertising as a copyright art director for about 6 years, it was just killing me. So I went to look for a new job where do you look for a new job? Craigslist back then we did. I answered this ad to work for a company I didn’t quite know what it was, it was called WantedList, like the Nextflix of porn at the time. So you could rent DVD’s and they hired me ‘because I had the biggest boobs’ that’s what they said at the time, not because I went to UCLA. I was their DVD buyer and when I was working there Megan, who is the vice president of Shane’s World at the time said do I want to do PR for us on a consultant basis?
Can you explain the difference between a PR Agent and an Agent?
Erika Icon: An actual agent gets you work and it’s good to have an agent because you know that you’re not going to meet with someone who has a camera and it’s more of an escorting gig, you know you’re going to be safe, you know you’re going to be paid and you have all of the instructions before you show up.
My job is to make people famous or to promote them, if the agent send you to do a scene the scene comes out I promote that for you wether it’s on DVD or a website, we get people interviews, press releases, so we do something completely different. The only thing that’s similar is this agency we actually get people main steam work which most PR companies don’t.
Why the adult industry?
Erika Icon: I don’t know, I’ve worked in a lot of different industries and had a lot of different jobs I feel like I fit here I don’t have to fit some corporate image, I didn’t like working in the corporate world it was just stifling, people are just stale I guess I don’t know. I like it here we have a lot of different kinds of people I would say 99% of the people in the industry are good people and they’re very nice.
What are the benefits of using a PR agency?
Erika Icon: It’s important for everyone to have one, if you’re brand new no one knows who you are so you need to get your name out there. Established performers you get to the point where things aren’t moving like Ryan Driller he was working almost every day when he started working with us and he still is, he’s been with us for a couple years, he wasn’t winning awards he was being passed over and within a year of working with us he won the Xbiz Male Performer of the Year. And he’s won lots of scene awards and different things from XBiz, AVN and other awards as well.
Do you get called upon 24/7 to resolve PR nightmares?
Erika Icon: For me it is because I actually care I feel like their mum, their physiatrist, their baby sitter, they call me with their problems I think with Mark Speigler, I don’t know Dave so well but with Mark I think he’s very involved with the girls and that would make sense that he would be getting calls. I know that Sandy, form OC Modeling, is very involved really does care about their clients, she’s a client of ours but she’s also a really good agent as well.
Are there ever clashes between agents and PR?
Erika Icon: I get along with most of the agents if you just let them do their job and you let them agent there’s not really a problem, and also I realise that work comes first so if a job comes up and they’re scheduled for an interview or something or some event or something I tell them that work comes first. Because I understand and let the agent do their job I don’t really have any clashes with agents.
What’s the weirdest thing that you’ve been asked to do?
Erika Icon: I’ve been asked multiple times to do movies, I promised that I wouldn’t. (inaudible.) I get a lot of requests every day of how do I get into porn, it’s always guys sending me dick pics, they think it’s so easy to get into porn. Like Ryan Driller says ‘its a Unicorn in a rainbow. those are your chances.’ I don’t really get weird things outside of that kind or request.
What advice would give to someone who wanted to be a porn star?
Erika icon: First of all realise it’s forever wether you do one scene or a hundred scenes you’re out there, if you want to go back to the normal world as we call it the civilian world it’s always going to be there and it’s going to be hard to get certain types of jobs. You know it’s going to be hard to be a nurse, hard to be a teacher. When you get in get an agent right away if you have the money get a publicist and get a lawyer always very important. And save your money!
What would you change about the adult industry?
Erika Icon: I’ve never been asked that (inaudible.) and I think it’s actually a valid point he was suggesting that maybe we not let people in here that are under 21. Because you get people who are 18, 19 who have always lived at home with their parents, they’ve never had a real job, so don’t understand that this is a job. It’s not just like all fun and games yes there’s a lot of parties and events and different things, but it is a job and people need to take it seriously.
Where do you see the future of the adult industry?
Erika Icon: That I worry about, with free porn everywhere it’s kind of a problem I do think that a lot of performers are starting to be entrepreneurs and do stuff themselves with the clips like Clips For sale, which is a client of ours, Onlyfans and premium Snap Chat. I have one girl that’s making close to six figures a month just on premium Snap Chat, a month not a year a month.
Who do you think would be good to interview in the industry?
Erika Icon: All of our clients! Bunny Colby, Brooklyn Chase, Ryan Driller, Sarah Vandella, Kendra James, Lance Heart. That’s not all of them but a lot of them.
If you were interviewing a PR agent what would you ask them?
Erika Icon: I would look at their website and see who their past and current clients were, probably talk to them and see what kind of work they were doing. Because I can give you a sales spiel all day long as a publicist most of our business comes from referral past and current clients and agents as well. I would definitely look at what they’re doing I would look at their press releases I would look at the kind of work they’ve done for their clients and I would look at their level of professionalism.
What do you look for in a potential client?
Erika Icon: Mainly we look at if we can help them that’s the most important thing and I try to work with people that I like, that’s not always the case in the beginning we worked with everyone. But I don’t want to just take peoples money there are people that come to us and they need to do things before we can work with them. They need to revamp their website, they need to have scenes to promote whatever it is and I will suggest that they do this that and the other, some of them come back and they’re like ‘you know what I did what you said, thank you so much for giving me this free advice I’d like to hire you.’
For what reason would a client no longer work with you?
Erika Icon: Usually they run out of money sometimes they’re not working as much or they have some personal issues like taxes or whatever. But usually it’s because they leave the business it’s very rarely tey leave to go to another publicist. We work hard we do more than the other agencies we do produce results, we do care.
Do most of your clients live in L.A or across the States?
Erika Icon: We have a little bit of everything I’ve got a client in Kentucky, yes Kentucky, Florida, I have one starting that lives in England, we have a lot that live here, I’ve got one that’s in Portland, but she’s moving here. Oh a lot of people live in Las Vegas now.
Do you have anything that you’d like to raise?
Erika Icon: The perception of the industry because it is really upsetting that people think that we’re awful people, we have a girl who unfortunately I knew her and I knew her husband was bullied to death. We have people say that they’ve had certain interactions with directors and studios on set. We’ve had people girls accuse male performers of improper behavior on set.
How did you create the name The Rub PR?
Erika Icon: Shakespeare, there lies in within the rub. And also it’s a double entendre and everybody else had star or galaxy in their names. It’s something different.
FULL VIDEO INTERVIEW ⬇️
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