It is not every day you run into someone that has infiltrated your social media algorithm. Taylor Gunner has been all over my Instagram and TikTok pages for a very long time. By chance, I discovered she would be appearing at EXXXOTICA Chicago as a cute video of her unpacking her table popped into my feed. Oh boy!
Once I calmed my nerves and finalized the duet, I immediately went to work on some questions I would like to ask her should she be kind enough to allow me a quote or two. As a sassy, tough-as-nails content creator, I was thrilled to find that Taylor was also a sweet, personable midwestern gal. Not only did she allow me a few questions, but she and her team specifically blocked out time for us to sit down and chat uninterrupted.
Shortly before EXXOTICA kicked off, the XBIZ CREATOR AWARDS announced Taylor as a nominee for Rising Premium Social Media Star! Be sure to vote for her daily – CLICK HERE – to earn some free surprises in those Twitter inboxes.
JEREMY MORRISON: First, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. What are you here promoting this year at EXXXOTICA 2023?
TAYLOR GUNNER: I’m promoting my brand; I do military and non-military content. And I produce all of my content, so I’m just here promoting myself.
Influencers, and content creators, can often be looked down on somewhat in the online community. How hard is it to fight through and continue to bring forth quality content?
TAYLOR GUNNER: I mean, for me, for every person that doesn’t like my content, I have a really loyal fan that makes me feel loved. Ultimately, I don’t do my content just to make everyone else happy. I do it for myself and my loyal fans. Many of my family and friends, who I thought would always stick around, left my side because of content creation. At the end of the day, that is a reflection on them, a reflection on the haters. The people that are so miserable in their lives that they want everybody else to feel miserable, too, that’s on them, not me. I’m not hurting anyone. I’m very respectful and don’t do this for them, so it doesn’t affect me a bit.
With the floodgates open with technological advancements, everybody can become a content creator. Getting your name out there and finding an audience has never been easier, but it has never been more challenging. What are some of the principles that you hold yourself to to ensure you’re staying true to yourself and your fans.
TAYLOR GUNNER: With the whole supply and demand thing, we all know what it is like to have a surplus of content out there, right? At the end of the day, you can go on to so many websites to get free porn, and here I am selling porn. But the thing is that you don’t get to talk to that pornstar that you’re seeing for free on the internet. You don’t get to say, ‘I like red. I’d love it if you see red more.’ I talk to my fans every single day. I like to know what they like, dislike, and get to know who they are. The world, sometimes, it is such a lonely fucking place, and it doesn’t have to be. Yes, it’s just online, but I’m still here.
And yeah, it’s a flooded market. We all know it’s a flooded fucking market; we all know anybody can start a page, but it’s all about how you market yourself. It’s just like Walmart and Target, there’s always going to be a Walmart and Target, but if you wanna make a brand new mini-mart or a brand new Walmart type of thing, general store, well, nobody is going to know about it unless you advertise yourself. OnlyFans is the same way. Nobody is going to know you have the best content in the world unless you advertise yourself. For me, it’s all about marketing, and I like to show that I’m a real person. I’m very real. I don’t have a character; I don’t have a persona. I’m just myself, which is pretty great because I never have to worry about keeping up with whatever image I put on the internet. I think I’m doing okay.
You’re active on all platforms. OnlyFans, TikTok, Instagram. Do you find it challenging juggling them because what is acceptable on one isn’t on the other? Do you have to block out a lot of time to say, “Okay, today is Instagram.” or “Today is TikTok.”
TAYLOR GUNNER: I have fun with it. I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, so I like to look at and research different algorithms and how they’re changing to make it easier for me, but I spend a lot of time marketing myself. As I say, it’s all about marketing. So I do; I’m on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, OnlyFans, Snapchat, Reddit, everything. They all accept different things, so I take a lot of time with that content, but I’m also a perfectionist. If I don’t like the content, I am not willing to put it out there. I work pretty hard.
And it shows! Your growing fan base and the content you generate show that you care about the work. I think that is what maybe, and I’m trying not to speak for your fan base, but perhaps that’s what they see, and that’s what they grasp on to and say, “Oh shit, I’m gonna be a Taylor fan because of….”
TAYLOR GUNNER: Yeah.I love my fans. I tell all my friends, this whole row (Tati Evans, Celia Steele, KittyD Marie) is my friends, and I tell all of them I love you guys, but I have the best fans in the fucking world. They are amazing to me. They’ve changed my entire life, and I owe all that 100% to my fans.
Let’s take a step back, if you don’t mind.
TAYLOR GUNNER: Sure.
Before you got into the industry, you were ex-military. Where was that progression or jump? What made you decide, ‘I’m going to do this.’
TAYLOR GUNNER: I’ve had a lot of jobs. I’m a very driven person. I like to have things to do. When I was in the Marines, I did Aviation Logistics and Supply. With my job, I had a lot of paperwork and stuff to do. I had a lot of logistics to take care of. I had a lot of people to take care of. Then I got out, and I was a student, so I had a lot of things to do. I worked at the IRS and had a lot of shit to do. Then I was an Internal Auditor, and once again, a bunch of shit to do, but things slowed down.
As far as getting into porn, I was dating a guy that was an asshole, and he posted nudes of me on the internet. He made a whole Twitter page of my nudes without my permission, and then I actually saw people were commenting really nice things, which was shocking because I’m very insecure. It was a really cool, uplifting thing. All these people liked seeing me naked, which was crazy! So I ended up taking over that Twitter page, and I just kept doing it really to boost my self-esteem and talk to cool people. Then I ended up making an OnlyFans because people were asking for it. I was like, “Yeah right. Whatever!’ I’ll make like twenty bucks. It ended up being really successful. I made a goal for myself. I thought, “If I make this much more than my corporate job for x amount of months, then I’ll leave my corporate job.” I’ve been doing this full-time for a year and a half now! I’m thrilled with how it transitioned. A super weird ass way to transition.
That’s pretty awesome, though.
TAYLOR GUNNER: Yeah, I kinda stole my story back!
Let’s say you sit down with somebody that said Taylor, “I want to get into the industry.” What would you shed light on that maybe you wish someone would have done for you when you began?
TAYLOR GUNNER: Don’t take anything that other people are saying personally. It’s so easy to let the world break you down. None of them are doing it. It doesn’t matter what they think about you because you are the only person who knows you. Everything else is content. People make content specifically to get hate comments because sometimes it helps boost their algorithm. So if people are being mean to you, just remember who you are at the end of the day because it doesn’t matter.
Is there anything you want to tell the fans, or maybe somebody just now discovering you?
TAYLOR GUNNER: I have a bunch of stuff coming up. We have a 5-week European tour coming up. I’ll be working with various creators, and some mainstream companies. I’m really excited to release that. I’ll have a lot more military content coming up. Cosplays are coming out. I make new stuff almost every day. There are a lot of things I like to create for my fans. As far as a message to fans — Thank you guys so much. You guys have genuinely changed my life. I’m just a Midwestern Marine, and they’ve changed everything for me, so I’m thankful forever.
Alright, final question. As a midwestern retired Marine, what is your everyday carry?
TAYLOR GUNNER: Mine, I like to carry a Beretta. I also like to carry 1911s because they’re lightweight and they have a good pack to them. Something small. Now that I live in California, it’s a little bit harder. I was surprised at how many protocols there are to buy a firearm there because in Missouri, I can buy liquor and a rifle in the same store on the same day with ammunition and everything. Then I moved to Cali, and I’m like, “Wait, you need this, this, this, and this? Alright.” That’s wild, but Cali is where the work is, so.
Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you. Where can everybody find you at?
TAYLOR GUNNER: You can find all of my socials on ImTaylorGunner.com and onlyfans.com/taylorgunner.
Awesome! Thank you so much!
TAYLOR GUNNER: Thank you!
Be sure to follow Taylor on her socials and vote for her in the upcoming XBIZ CREATOR AWARDS being held in Miami on May 17th. And if you still need to follow me on TikTok, but would like to see me duet Taylor more often than I should, feel free to do that too! — Jeremy L. Morrison
Click here to catch a full rundown of Jeremy’s first trip to EXXXOTICA Chicago!
