Kevin Mirarchi and Danielle Seerley form a potent duo in growing the Thank Me Now brand.
Danielle Seerley has perfected her Monday morning routine: she wakes up, grabs a smoke, plays with her dog Cookie and reads texts that Kevin Mirarchi wrote her at 3 am.
“Sometimes they’ll be product ideas,” says Seerley. “Other times, they’ll just be pictures of fortune cookie fortunes. It’s what he does.”
As a self-professed insomniac, Mirarchi gets his best work done in the small hours.
“There’s a four-hour window after midnight when everything is quiet, there are no interruptions, and I can open the patio door, listen to the ocean in the background and just focus on creative work,” he says.
Mirarchi oversees the operations of Thank Me Now, which currently includes four different brands: Voodoo, Get Lucky, Mini Halo and most recently Gender-Fluid. He and Seerley are launching a fifth brand, ‘Hello, Sexy!’ in early 2023. For each brand, Mirarchi builds a new team to oversee the brand messaging.
“Each brand we build has a distinct character and message, and for each brand we collaborate with a ‘muse’ to hone the brand in on that specific message,” says Mirarchi. “For example, with Gender-Fluid, our mission is to ‘help people fit together, any way they want’. We brought in a spectacular fashion designer from Australia, Jack McGowan, who designed all the fashion and harness pieces you see in the line. These pieces make the brand more fun and accessible. They get curious customers’ attention and are easy to sell.”
Between product idea texts and fortune cookie texts, Mirarchi will usually have a text note for the ‘Chiclets’ — Seerley’s term of affection for her sales squad. Every Monday the team gathers virtually to kibitz and drink coffee.
“The Chiclets are a wonderful and diverse team of talent that have a common love of our company and each other,” says Seerley. “Our special dynamic allows us to be an exceptional team. We have fun!”
The positivity is infectious, and the numbers continue to grow. This is the result of
a unique management style catered to the adult industry, a style that might seem counterintuitive to people used to the old way of doing things.
Seerley’s sales strategy is based on a simple analogy: a garden.
“Everyone has a strategy to sales,” she says. “I like to think of mine as tending a garden. You plant seeds of ideas, products, and strategies. Seeds must be watered, tended to, and loved on to grow. It’s a continuous cycle of growth and development. Nothing feels better than watching your efforts come to fruition.”
Mirarchi is grateful for Seerley’s unorthodox and effective management style.
“She excels in inspiring others to reach their potential. She has a disarming quality; she really listens and wants to hear what you have to say.” This, he says, is the key to the company’s success. “Our job is to support those people on the front lines of the culture war: the retail store employees who interact with, support and teach their community about sexual health. Developing close relationships with our customers is essential to make sure we’re providing them with everything they need to be as successful as they can.”
The Odd Couple originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of STOREROTICA Magazine)