Mary Taylor likes to be noticed. For 20 years she did it by shedding her
clothes. Now, she keeps them on. But she's still getting attention, more than ever, in fact. While companies spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to raise their public profile, Taylor has, in less than a year, turned her expertise in stripping into a marketable commodity and herself into a media darling.
"I just jumped right in,'' says the 43-year-old Toronto native. Taylor began
her low-cost public relations gambit after she retired her feather boas and
started teaching women how to strip for their mates - the primary focus of
her company, Live Girl Productions.
In addition to her libido-charged workshops, Taylor has released a video, is at work on a book and acting as a consultant to strip clubs needing advice. But without money for a publicist, Taylor decided to spread the word herself. She used standard promotional tools such as news releases and some not-so-standard techniques. "I hand-delivered 50 of these to all the media,'' she says, tugging a tiny card from a yellow garter and reading: "The garter's evocative. The lady's seductive. Meet Mary Taylor for a sneak peak at her playful, informative and tantalizing new video, The Art Of Seduction.''
Taylor delivered yellow garters with a tiny card attached to promote her video. The results of Taylor's masterful efforts are impressively compiled in a fat, bound book. It's stuffed with newspaper clippings, summaries of her TV and radio appearances, biographical material, including the paid advertisements from her stripping days as "Ciara Love,'' and it arrived at The Star with a fresh hook. "Just in time for Valentine's Day,'' says a blurb on the red cover page.
There are upbeat articles from the National Post, Toronto Sun, Eye Weekly, Sing Tao Daily News and Choices, a paper for the homeless, and synopses from her electronic media appearances on Breakfast Television, Talk 640, CFRB, Montreal's CJAD, Vancouver's C-FUN and WTN's Jane Hawtin Live, among others. And now this article. "You're added to the list.''
Hours before heading downtown for a workshop - and another interview - the diminutive, dark-haired woman sits in her office/apartment in the basement of her parent's sprawling Agincourt bungalow sharing insights about her powers of persuasion.
"I think a lot of this comes from having to improvise in a way. The guys aren't going to sit there and drool when I'm on stage 'cause I'm not stunning and gorgeous,'' she says. "But with my costumes and my show I was able to manipulate them into liking me, and giving me just as much, if not more, applause.'' Taylor has kept close track of her media coverage.
"She's really a one-woman PR show,'' says Carolyn Kilbourne, partner and vice-president at Media Profile, after taking a look through the book. "In total, she's got a couple of hundred thousand dollars here of media.''
The coverage points to Taylor's "gutsiness,'' drive and effectiveness as a savvy self-promoter, Kilbourne adds. It also highlights how accessible the media can be when the message being peddled is alluring, conveniently packaged and has a visual element. An added bonus in Taylor's case: a life-sized dummy whom she's been known to straddle during her workshops.
"She's got a unique story and it's appealing because it's sex and what journalist can't resist writing or talking about sex.'' But, adds Kilbourne, you also get only "one kick at the can'' to tell your story in the press.
Fortunately, Taylor's affiliation with the Erotic Dancers Alliance, an association that represents strippers' interests, can help keep her in the public eye. As co-chair of the Alliance, Taylor used her fundraising know-how - she used to work at a youth shelter - to secure a $20,000 grant from The United Way. The money is earmarked to help improve
work and health conditions for strippers. She also pushed the Alliance to become incorporated and to get "out in the media.'' "In doing that, she's positioned herself as an expert source on
the whole stripping industry, which is smart because she'll be able to share a voice on those issues,'' says Kilbourne.
Taylor's first media exposure came when a reporter with CITY TV's Breakfast Television did a short segment on an entrepreneurial program she was taking. Taylor was accepted to the YMCA's Self Employment Assistant
Program (S.E.A.) after quitting stripping in 1996. "I couldn't handle it any more.''
When asked on-camera about her new business venture, which took shape in the program, Taylor found she liked the limelight. "I guess I'm camera-friendly, news-friendly.'' Still, she had things to learn.
Her first full-fledged TV appearance - a five-minute interview in the studio at Breakfast Television - was a disaster. "I was really nervous, and wasn't really prepped,'' she says. "I thought, that is never going to happen again. In advance, I always make sure they're well informed about what I do and I'm given the opportunity to talk, and I know when to jump in.'' After that she issued a press release about an upcoming class. The National Post responded and Taylor invited one of the paper's reporters to participate. A "play-by-play with two pictures'' was featured in a cover story of the life section a year ago. "It was fabulous,'' she says. There was a domino effect. "I got a call from a Vancouver radio station . . . and did a telephone interview the next day . . . it was like, wow, I think I'm on to something.'' And she didn't just wait to be contacted. A well-placed call landed her a full hour on the John Oakley show on CFRB.
Not everyone's been a taker.
Shock jock Howard Stern hasn't called back. "I'm going to get on that again,'' she vows. Nor has she had much luck with the talent bookers at Open Mike With Mike Bullard or Bynon. She was told they prefer authors as guests. "That's okay, when my book comes out they'll be knocking on my door.''
Recently, the S.E.A. program invited her back to talk about how I got so much press, and to give them ideas on how to get contacts in the media and get their business out there.'' There was one skeptic. "One of the students actually said, "I sell seafood . . . . How am I going to get my business promoted like yours. It's because of what you do. It's the only reason you got that press.' '' She brushed it aside. "I don't care if you have fish or dollhouses, you've got to find a way of promoting your business the way no one else does, then you stand out from the rest. I think if I was selling fish, I would find an interesting way to promote it.''
Of the financial benefits so far, Taylor, who drives a vintage Mercedes, will only say: "Like any business it takes two, three years to really get going, but it's holding its own, it's paying the bills.''
Now she figures she can help others. "Last year when the Romantic Times (Booklovers) Convention came to town, I could not believe how little publicity they got,'' she says. "I was going Wow, I could just do so much for this.''' Order Books, Videos and CDs Right Here |
