Reality TV star turned lucrative entrepreneur is Stephanie Matto. This gorgeous girl is pushing the limits of social media and using her platforms to create a lavish lifestyle many people emulate. As the CEO and creator of Unfiltrd Stephanie is now using her flagship website to give fellow creators a way to share and create fanbases without the constraints often associated with other sites on the web. Her stint on 90 Day Fiancé and it's subsequent 90 Day Fiancé Strikes back catapulted her to reality TV stardom and helped elevate her social media status. Her sharp marketing and networking skills created a viral fever pitch, which enabled her to make money in some of the most unusual ways. From personalized fan experiences like video chats to exclusive custom content and relatable images, and yes, you are hearing this right, selling farts in jars to followers. This out of the box type of thinking is what led to the creation of her site Unfiltrd. The platform was making enough noise in the web space that she could take it to a new level with a partnership with Déjà vu. Our publisher, Scott Santodonato, had the opportunity to sit down with this marketing guru, two-time published author, content creator, and successful entrepreneur and talk about her journey. How she got here, what she plans moving forward, and how, despite obstacles, she got to where she is today.
STRIPLV: How is it going, Stephanie? MATTO: I'm doing well; it's just a little crazy here. We had insane flooding here in Connecticut; it was on the national news. Part of my driveway got destroyed, so I am just dealing with the craziness and aftermath of all that today. People here are working on the driveway, but I am good now. STRIPLV: I'm so sorry to hear that. MATTO: It's okay; it's just that nothing like that ever happens here. We don't get natural disasters in Connecticut; it's unheard of. People lost their homes. People are missing. I feel like I am in the twilight zone. It's just unbelievable. So it's just a little surreal right now. STRIPLV: Have you lived in Connecticut all your life? MATTO: Yeah, I've lived here on and off. I've moved around a lot in my twenties. I lived in New York. I lived in LA. I lived briefly in the Czech Republic. I bought a home here during COVID during the pandemic, and I stayed here because it's safe and quiet, and I like that lifestyle. I guess no place is immune to crazy shit happening, I guess. STRIPLV: This is the first I've heard of something like that happening there. MATTO: It's wild. We got like ten inches of rain or something in an hour, and I have a home office in New York City, so like, the day it happened, I went to New York, actually, so it was going on and was just like, oh, my god I hope my house is okay. I returned and couldn't even go up my driveway because it was like it had just been stripped away. So I have people working on it right now, but I know some people have been affected way worse than me, so I'm not even complaining that much. STRIPLV: How often do you commute to New York for work? MATTO: I go two to three days a week, and it's usually good because I can network there. There are other creators there that I can work with. And you know, I'm thirty-three and live in a really small town in Connecticut. It's primarily elderly people (laughing), so I'm like, okay, if I stay here too long, I will start feeling like a little old lady. STRIPLV: Do you also do your OnlyFans and Unfiltrd content in your New York City space? MATTO: Yeah, it's a content space. It's in this apartment in Brooklyn, and I use it as a podcast studio. You know, if there is anything creative that I want to do, there is pretty much the spot to do it. STRIPLV: You do much of your Unfiltered stuff at home, correct? MATTO: Yeah, that's the good thing about Unfiltrd; you can do anything from anywhere. You can do it from your car if you want to. So that's like the beauty of it, the freedom of it, and that's why I always recommend it to people who want to make some extra money on the side. Regardless of what you do, you can post your selfies there. You can post your gym pictures; you can go in the shower and take a few photos of yourself and put it on Unfiltrd. STRIPLV: You originally had an Onlyfans page. What made you decide to build your platform with Unfiltered? MATTO: So, I was on Onlyfans for about a year and a half, and then before that, I was on Patreon, and both are just fan subscription platforms, and what I kept running into was the fact that these platforms kept creating new rules, new restrictions, new guidelines and it just became frustrating. And it was in July of 2021 that Onlyfans temporarily said they would ban explicit content. They later reversed that decision, but that was enough for me. At that point, I was like, I have been a content creator for several years. I've been a youtuber for nearly a decade. I've been on reality television. I have a vast network of creators who are different types of people who would follow me on my platform. I have experience on other platforms, and I could build something even better, so that's what sort of catapulted me to start my platform. STRIPLV: So, do you have a computer background? MATTO: That's the one thing I didn't have experience with. I'm don't code. I am tech-savvy but can't build a website from the ground up. So that's where my co-founder (?) comes in. He's someone that I was mutually friends with through a friend in France. I was in contact with him and knew he had experience building an e-commerce website, and I asked him if he could do something like Onlyfans but with different and more unique features. And he was able to help me with that, so it's been him on the backend doing all of the technical work and me being the face of the company and doing all of the marketing. STRIPLV: So you have a solid social media following how did you go about recruiting? MATTO: I was very lucky back in the beginning. I had such a huge network of creators from everything I've done. I was on social media; I was on reality television. The good thing is that people knew me as a content creator through these different media and platforms. They respected me and looked up to me as someone who had made it and made a good living doing it. It took little to get people over to my new platform. They were like, "Hey, Stephanie makes a lot of money. She knows what she is doing. If she has a new platform then I am going to sign up for it too. I am going to do what she's doing." Then, it just snowballs after that. You get word of mouth. People are already getting sick of OnlyFans; they want something new and different and want to make more money and additional money with a different platform. So that was a big thing. I've done a lot of PR stunts. That's one thing that my talent is in marketing. STRIPLV: That's one thing I want to talk about. Tell us about a "Fart in the jar." MATTO: To be honest with you, I was just going through one of my posts, and I forget if it was on Youtube or if it was on Unfiltrd, but somebody had commented do you sell farts. And I thought it was just a joke, and I asked him how much I would pay for it, and he had no budget, like whatever you want. (Laughing) That's when I was really like, this is something I could be doing. So yeah, I sold a fart jar, and I became the first of many and started to get paid for it more and more and started selling these jars. STRIPLV: So are you still doing it? MATTO: I don't sell fart jars anymore, but I do, if I am going, to be honest, have a vault of videos on my Unfiltrd of fart videos that I sell to people. STRIPLV: So tell us about how you get the fart smell to stay in the jar? MATTO: I get asked that a lot. Because people are very intrigued by that, but honestly, you can't keep the fart smell in the jar. It's impossible; the smell will disintegrate. The smell that people really want is the smell of your ass. That's why the best thing to do put like a little bit of cloth, or I would get these synthetic flower petals from Amazon, and then I would just like wipe my butt with it and you then put it inside the jar, and the scent really fuses to that fabric, and it stays basically for forever. That's the secret. That's the big secret. STRIPLV: You've posted about your experiences on reality television and how they affected you negatively. Please tell us more about this. MATTO: I was a villain on my season, and I think people misunderstood me on the show. Because I was very physically awkward on TV, I was not very sexual or intimate with my partner on 90 day fiancé, and I think once people discovered that I am an adult content creator, they had a really hard time placing the two personalities together. And they automatically assumed that I was fake. That I was lying and that I wasn't authentic and that's just not the case. That's what a lot of people have wrong about the industry. Just because I can turn it on for the camera just because I can play a role online as this sexy girl it doesn't mean that is who I am in real life. In real life, I am very reserved. I'm pretty shy, and it takes me a long time to physically open up to people. And I wish more people viewed adult content creators as human beings and not just like sexual props. STRIPLV: It also really affects the way people view having sex especially young men. MATTO: Oh my god, it's so true. That's why I love the homemade content on Unfiltrd; it is as close to real as you can get in that industry. You can connect with a real girl who is showing real enjoyment and feeling sexy. People must realize it's just for the camera; it's a business and a job. A lot of people do this to make ends meet. I remember when I was single, dating would be so hard because I would tell a guy that this is what I do for a living, and then I wouldn't sleep with them, and they would be so confused like, well, why not? Because just because I show my boobs online doesn't mean that I'm going to show you my boobs. If you want to see them, you can subscribe, but now it will be weird. STRIPLV: Are you bi-sexual? MATTO: I am; I've struggled with my sexuality after going on the show just because I had so many people telling me that I am not bi-sexual and I'm just faking it for television, and after the show, I did try dating two women and it just didn't work out. So, I'm with a man right now so I don't think much about my sexuality at all anymore. I know that I have a boyfriend. I'd be open to dating women if I were single, but that's where I am now. STRIPLV: So, is this man you are dating now the guy from France you told us about? And how long have you been in this relationship? MATTO: I have been in this relationship for three years, and that's the thing about my social media. I am very open with what I do about the farts, but I am super, super private when it comes to my personal life. So, I only share a little about my boyfriend. I've never shown him on my social media, and it would be the same if we got married and had children. I would not post that stuff on my social media because my social media, while yes it is authentically me, is also a persona meant for people's entertainment. STRIPLV: So is that something you aspire to? Do you want to be married with children? MATTO: I think, you know, at one point in life, yeah, but it's not something that I would rush into. I have so much going on right now, and I am so busy with Unfiltrd that I don't know when that would fit in. But, you know, never say never. STRIPLV: You were a stripper in LA but had a bad experience? MATTO: Yes, oh my gosh you are good. (laughing) You got all the tea. Yeah, I was a dancer in a club in Signal Hill. It's a part of Long Beach. It was called The Palms. It's not the worst place. I think there are worst places in LA, but I had moved to LA. I had aspirations and dreams of working as an actress in the entertainment industry. I moved out with a set amount of money and quickly ran out. I was working as a waitress and could barely make ends meet. The more I worked, the fewer auditions I could go on. The fewer opportunities I could take. I got frustrated, so I was like, I'm going to go to a strip club and see if they have some cocktail waitressing positions, which somehow turned into me being a dancer instead. Because they were like, you'd make so much money you have the look, and I was like okay. I thought I'm in LA nobody knows me here and no one is going to find out my family is in Connecticut. So I just said this is my one chance in life to try this out and see how it goes. And it went well. I made a lot of money at first, but there were bad parts to the job, too, like there was a lot of drug and alcohol use, and there were some not-so-great people that frequented these places. But overall, I think it was a good learning experience for me, and it taught me that many stereotypes about strippers are wrong. Many are very intelligent, innovative, business-minded women, and I respect them. I did it for about a year. STRIPLV: You wrote the book about it. Was it about your experiences as a stripper? MATTO: I wrote two books. One of them, I talked more about being a dancer and how it was negative for me in some ways. Because I started drinking a lot, being in that environment, you just want to drink and party, and then I met somebody while working at the club who became my boyfriend, but it turns out he was lying, and he ended up being married. So there was like that whole drama. STRIPLV: So this was Mean Boys and Memories, right? So tell our readers what year are we talking about that you were in LA for this year? MATTO: I wrote the book in 2016, at the end of my dance career. I was a dancer from 2015 to 2016, so that's when I wrote the book. That was also when I left Los Angeles and moved to New York City, where I started being a YouTuber full-time. I lived many lives. STRIPLV: So do you think it was being a stripper or being on reality tv that gave you body dysmorphia issues? Matto: You know, I think both but stripping made me more confident with my body. Even if I gained or lost weight at any given time I didn't overthink it. Because I knew that as long as you were charming and you knew how to move, and you just had a way about you, people would tip you and want to talk to you and have your time. I think that reality tv destroyed my self-esteem. It was because fans of reality TV are so ruthless on social media. They will relentlessly bully you, they will shame you, they will call you names, they will tear apart every single flaw on your body, on your face. And they will just say it to you in your face in the comments about it in forums. And that's when you will see so many reality tv stars get tons of plastic surgery because it is really hard to deal with that. STRIPLV: So, do you attribute some of your work to people bullying you and making you feel bad about yourself? MATTO: Yeah, I think coming face to face with those comments after being on TV just motivated me to want to do something about these imperfections, whereas if I had never been on TV, I probably wouldn't have felt the need as much to get these things done. Looking back at every cast member from 90 Day Fiancé, every female cast member has had plastic surgery after going on the show. It's crazy. STRIPLV: So, are you happy with everything that you have done? Are you pro plastic surgery? MATTO: I think that if you can get some work done in moderation to fix some of your flaws and if getting that fixed is going to make you feel a little bit better about yourself every day, that's great. But plastic surgery is so addictive, and it's like meth. You know, can you just do it one time. (laughing) Most people can't. Most people do it once and then focus on the next problem, which is that they see if their arms are too big. Like, maybe I'll get that done, and after that, it's like, maybe my butt is too big. You will always find something wrong and not perfect because nobody is perfect. It's like actually doing the work and accepting yourself the way you are; it's the hardest but biggest challenge. And so many people think its just the easy way out to get tons of plastic surgery. STRIPLV: So, in your head, what is your least favorite part about yourself when you look in the mirror or at your face? MATTO: I don't like my teeth. I hate my teeth. But they are healthy so I should be grateful for that. I don't want my butt very much. I do have some extra weight on me. So, some things aren't perfect about me, but I tell myself this at the end of the day. This is why adult content has helped me gain confidence. I have made so much money with my adult content online. People are paying hundreds of dollars out there because they just want to talk to me. They want a picture of my face or me in lingerie. And so I can't be that ugly. (Laughs) There has to be something about me that attracts people and is charming to people, and I think it is mainly because I am honest. And I think when people see me they see me as a real girl. They don't see me as this real blown-up fake barbie doll. That's okay if someone looks that way. I admire those people and sometimes aspire to look like them. But I am very approachable, which has been my edge in this industry. STRIPLV: Are you still suffering from the plastic anemia disease? MATTO: Yes, I finished treatment for it back in 2018. It took about three years for me to fully recover and go into remission. I am in remission now I still have to go to my hematologist every six months to check my numbers and see how I am doing cause you can always relapse. I'm not fully cured. The only cure for this illness is a bone marrow transplant, which I was not able to get. So, it's something I will always have to keep an eye on. I have to just make sure that I am taking really good care of myself. STRIPLV: Are you currently still looking for a donor? MATTO: I've paused that search because I feel like I am not in any imminent danger. If my health began to deteriorate and if I saw my numbers and my counts going down again I think that that search would then again resume. But, for now, it doesn't feel very good to do or die. STRIPLV: So you are feeling pretty good? Are you not feeling too fatigued or anything? MATTO: I feel really good. I am very active. I work out. I eat healthy. I don't drink. I have a good, decent lifestyle for someone my age, so I think that has also helped me a lot. A lot of my friends drink and smoke; they are out until 4 a.m. I'd rather have some tea and read a book. STRIPLV: So, tell me about a little bit about your second book MATTO: My second book is called Empty Blood, and that book is more about my illness, how I found out about my aplastic anemia, and all about my recovery journey, and also, like, thrown in there some stories of my ex-boyfriends and my failed relationships and also about the fart jars. The last chapter of that book is about how the fart jars started how it went viral, and how I leveraged that into an NFT project which did really well. So, a little bit of everything brings you to my present day. STRIPLV: Do you think you are going to continue writing? Is that something that turns you on? MATTO: I like to read. I have to be in the mood to write. I have to be inspired to write. Unfortunately, when I am inspired to write, something really bad happens in my life. So, I don't want to write another book. (laughing) I don't want anymore bad things to happen to me. STRIPLV: So tell our readers about your strategy program. MATTO: Yes, so stapunka strategy, I get dozens of messages from people later. Saying I just started an account what to do, how to make more money, I'm too scared, I don't know where to start. So, I decided to create a course for all these people asking me how to do this. And give them all of my insight and all of my special strategies. That is what I've learned over my seven-plus years doing this. It's a course for people at any level, so somebody who is just starting out or has already been doing this for a while but is running into many roadblocks. It's meant to be a comprehensive guide to getting set up, getting started, making your page the best it can be, and setting it up for success. And then how to market yourself, and not just market yourself increase your social media presence on twitter, Instagram, reddit, on youtube because those are the places where you are going to get seen and where people are going to fall in love with your personality, and your humor, and then to be intrigued to go to your spicy page and send money. Because there are so many creators nowadays who are so hot. Who can take their clothes off, but you must bring more to the table. It would help if you had a story people need to be able to connect with you. Because if they just want to see a naked person, they can search for all the free porn online. Creating a relatable, engaging social media presence is super important. And I teach people how to do that through the course. STRIPLV: So, what website do people want to go to? MATTO: It's stapunkastrategy.com STRIPLV: How much does the program cost? MATTO: It's one hundred dollars. I offer many discount codes, so sometimes I have big sales where you can get it for seventy-five dollars. STRIPLV: What do they get for that if they buy that program from you? MATTO: So if they buy the program, there are videos, guides, sexting scripts, mass messaging templates, and scripts they can copy and paste into their messages. Messages and scripts that are proven to be effective in encouraging users to purchase and unlock content. There is a course for every single social media platform and how to master it. It takes someone who takes the course a week to complete. It's like a week-long, with hours and hours of written content, guides, and videos. So, there is a lot there. It can feel overwhelming to somebody like, " Oh my god, that is a lot of content. If you complete that course from day 1 to day 7 or however long it takes you, then you will be a better content creator, you will make more money, and that initial investment of seventy-five dollars will pay for itself tenfold. STRIPLV: How do you build your customer base on Unfiltrd? MATTO: A lot of the people who are looking to start my course are people who may not know about Unfiltrd. They might initially feel that they want to go over to Onlyfans. But when they take my course, they quickly realize that Unfiltrd is one of the best places to make money, so the course, in a way, is a recruitment funnel for Unfiltrd, which has been another great benefit of having that course. For many people who are just starting out and don't have a big social media presence, it's smart for them to go on Unfiltrd because we have discovery tools. We have an explore and trending pages, so it is easier for someone without a social media following to make money on that site. On OnlyFans, you have to do all of your own marketing on your social media. STRIPLV: I am going to flip it on you for a minute. How do you get customers for these creators on the platform? MATTO: I think a lot of it has come from creators who are very well known from Unfiltrd and bring in their own traffic. Then that traffic looks around the site and sees what else piques their interest. We've had a huge social media push on Unfiltrd. I have a lot in the press, and that has been through my PR stunts, but I also like a lot of the work the De Ja Vu company has done. They have helped us a lot with that. I also think that rolling out Unfiltrd in the clubs has also brought many more people onto the website. I believe that our game plan for the first year is to launch this in the clubs. Please bring in the dancers and the members of the clubs. We have organized many conventions, which have also helped spread awareness about Unfiltrd to potential fans. Right now, we have relatively good traffic on the platform. And it is growing every single month. STRIPLV: If you could tell me three goals that you want to accomplish in the next few years, what would they be? MATTO: I would love to keep growing Unfiltrd and make it a household name for people for entertainment. But also make it a household name for people looking to monetize their content. Whatever content that might be. Whether it be sexy content, fitness content, or cooking, I just want it to be a place where people can go to connect with others and enjoy themselves and where someplace someone can make a living or extra revenue. My other goal is to keep growing my social media presence because as long as I'm growing on social media, following the trends, and seeing what works and what doesn't work on social media, that's free marketing for Unfiltered. And that is the most meaningful type of marketing. I can do natural, authentic, and organic marketing for the company on social media. And also I enjoy it. I've been a social media influencer for so many years now. I think it is something that I am good at, and I just want to keep doing that and keep growing. I believe that a year or two ago, I lost my TikTok account, and I was devastated because I had put so much work into it. And then, four months ago, I started working on my new account, and I was like, I really want to push this. I want to do this, and I already have almost 140,000 followers, so I was thrilled that I was able to master the algorithm and figure this thing out. And the third thing is to continue giving my dogs the best life possible because they are getting older, and everything I do at the end of the day is for them. I have two dogs. One is a pug, and he is ten years old, and he is my soul mate, the love of my life. And then I have a rescue, and he is a mix of every dog in the world, and he is such an angel. He came to me a little fucked up in the head, and it is so funny because he is sitting next to me right now and is like, what the fuck are you talking about? (laughing) He's like, don't say that about me. I love him so much. I fell in love with him. He looks like a black lab. He's a mix of German shepherd and every other dog. So, I'm like a huge dog lover. I am obsessed with dogs. If I could rescue more dogs, I would. I almost rescued a pigeon off of Facebook last week. I am just like an animal person. If I could open my animal sanctuary, that would be one of my dreams. The mixed breed will be six this year, and it will go by so fast.