Riley Reid Launches A.S.H Agency

LOS ANGELES—Riley Reid tells AVN she has launched A.S.H, a marketing agency that specializes in managing creators’ content for OnlyFans. The 2016 AVN Female Performer of the Year from Miami wants to help creators earn more, keep more of what they’ve earned and to provide a “safe place” where they can feel confident about their content management. She says the idea for A.S.H—which stands for All Star Hustle—came about because she was becoming “fed up” with various agencies taking large percentages of creators’ revenue. Some of her closest friends have been paying up to 30% of their earnings for someone to run their OnlyFans accounts, according to Reid. “Because they don’t have enough time to manage it all themselves—and with all this I stopped what I was doing and basically figured out a way to start an agency myself,” Reid says. “I want to create a safe place for everyone in the industry to work with a company that’s not trying to take advantage of them. A company run by a woman who is a porn star herself, who’s been in and out of the game, who has built a solid brand, who is a multi-millionaire, who wants to genuinely help them. “I’m not looking at these people like they’re a dollar sign. I’m just fed up with every other company taking advantage of the girls.” Reid says the model doing sex work is the one taking the risks. “We are making the sacrifices when we sell our bodies. We deal with shame in society, dating issues, commercial issues—like not being able to do business with certain types of companies—and having our bank accounts shut down,” she says. “With all that we go through, the last thing we need is a fellow porn entrepreneur to take advantage of us. “That’s why I built my own website, ReidMyLips [in 2015], not giving anyone a percentage besides my payment processor. “With ReidMyLips, I did everything on my own. I felt like a lot of companies that built sites just took advantage of the girls. Every time I heard about a girl joining a website or partnering with an agency they were never happy with what was provided. It always felt like it was the company that was benefiting the most. “So I was always very fearful about putting my content with someone else.” A seasoned executive producer and director for ReidMyLips in addition to being a bankable star, Reid has ascended to the highest level of the industry in the past five years since she captured seven AVN Awards in January 2016, including the top prize for a female performer, and became a Fleshlight Girl. Now one of the most downloaded performers in history with 1.1 billion views and 1.6 million subscribers on Pornhub, two million followers on Twitter and more than 750,000 followers on her latest Instagram page after numerous deletions, Reid wants to share her knowledge about branding with other creators striving for bigger results. As she has grown in stature Reid says many companies and individuals have reached out to her about running her OnlyFans account, but she was reluctant to make a deal. “I had random makeup artists trying to run my OnlyFans account and I never felt comfortable doing that,” says Reid, who has won 21 AVN Awards since her porn debut in 2011. One mainstream company proposed that Reid sign a five-year contract and pay them 20% of her gross revenue. “If I wasn’t an educated woman I could’ve lost so much of what I’ve worked for by joining them,” she says. “I’m not doing this for the money. I make really good money already. I want to provide a happy, safe place for everyone.” Reid, who has had the idea for A.S.H for more than a year, says through a lot of due diligence she assembled a dream team of tech “nerds” that have come into this project armed with track records of success building brands online, using tools such as data analytics and algorithms that track engagement.  “I didn’t want to just hire basic employees,” Reid reasons. “I’m not going to Craigslist to find people. I hired professional data analysts. I found a group of people who have been in the industry for 15 years—web and social media experts who have been growing some of the biggest websites on the internet—to come and work on this idea with me. “I’m very passionate about creating these opportunities. We genuinely feel we can be the best in the game because we know we’re offering the best. We’re genuinely trying to provide a safe place. I want the Spiegler Girl family vibe for this OnlyFans agency.” Represented by the vaunted Spiegler Girls agency for the past eight years for her adult bookings, Reid pointed to how the old school owner, Mark Spiegler, doesn’t ask his models to sign contracts with him. Neither will she. “We’re not doing anything long-term,” she says. “You’re not going to be stuck with us for a year. No Spiegler Girl has a contract. If you want to leave, you can leave and at the same time if Spiegler isn’t happy, he can leave. “This is the same kind of environment. If you’re not happy, you can walk away at any time. This is something that I’ve learned on my own. You don’t want to feel trapped in a contract.” Reid says that understanding between Spiegler and his girls is one of the reasons he has cultivated a “family atmosphere” over the years with his stable of talent. Her initial A.S.H clients include Lena the Plug and rising newcomer Ryan Reid, who is Riley’s protege, with a few high-profile creators on the verge of coming on board. The enterprising owner says she’s been quietly working on her proof of concept for a few months. “We’ve been kind of just doing it under the radar, bringing in some of my close friends like Ryan Reid and Lena the Plug,” Reid reveals. “Both were girls who didn’t have an agency that they were leaving. I didn’t want to encourage anyone if we weren’t something that was fully established. “Through all our testing with every single person, it’s been proven to work, so we’re ready to push our name out there and give people the opportunity to make an educated decision on the agency.” She continues, “I’m so excited and so happy with the results so far. Some of my friends have doubled their revenue. I was maximizing what I thought I could do, but since I’ve brought this team on it has doubled my revenue in two months already, and it’s continuing to grow. My income keeps growing." Reid says that at the moment A.S.H is focused on OnlyFans, but they are looking to expand to help creators manage their presence on other platforms, too. “For example if a model wants to still do private Snapchat, we want to help the girls monetize on every available platform—even their Pornhub,” Riley explains. “We want models to be utilizing every possible opportunity. It’s hard to promise that OnlyFans will last forever. Every stream of revenue is sometimes fleeting. It’s important to have your hands in many pots and I encourage them to be smart with their business.” She says her agency is not intended to replace the mainstream porn representation a performer may have for her scene bookings, though she has not ruled out integrating that aspect of talent management in the future. “I would love to eventually bring that and offer a place to get mainstream bookings,” she says. Reid also says a creator does not have to be doing porn in order to find a home with A.S.H. But she notes that in order to increase your income on OnlyFans, a creator needs to establish a following. “I couldn’t be Riley Reid without all the companies that I have shot for,” she reasons. “Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram or Twitter or shooting mainstream porn or doing YouTube videos, there are so many opportunities. “There are all type of creatives out there, not just porn stars. I’m not trying to manipulate anyone. I’m not looking at dollar signs with anyone. Because I’m so successful already I’m genuinely coming into this from a good place in my heart.” Even though some agencies that manage OnlyFans content take 30%, Reid says that still “some girls will join because they don’t know anything else.” “They’re going to join with them because they’re still going to make more money with them than they will by themselves,” Reid explains. “I think we can do better work for less of a percentage. “OnlyFans is already taking 20% and the agency is taking an additional 30%—that’s insane to me and it honestly disgusts me.” To inquire about joining A.S.H, Reid says to use the submission form on her website.