“Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” has been good for Taylor and Mayci’s business

Juxtaposed with her other content, such as incest jokes and dance videos with other young Mormon mothers, the candid clip of Paul’s young family resonated with her followers: it has more than 420,000 likes.

Less than three years later, Paul’s life looks very different. First, Tate is now her ex-husband. She has a new boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen, and they welcomed a child together in March 2024. She is also the star of a new hit television series.

Paul, 30, argued with the latter not by continuing to feel good about her perfect family, but by blowing it up. In May 2022, just months after her love story video, she shocked a corner of TikTok by announcing that she and Tate were divorcing. Not only that, but they were divorcing because she overstepped the bounds of a “swinging soft” arrangement they had with other unnamed couples that involved her being part of their friend group when she developed feelings for a friend’s husband. The revelation that some of these TikTokers were swingers blew the lid on MomTok — a group of loosely associated Mormon moms on TikTok — attracting both media attention and controversy.

Scandal may be anathema to content creators who rely on branded deals for a living, but correct some kind of scandal can be a boon. Paul’s decision to go public with the end of her marriage and the messy details of her friends’ romantic lives turned out to be her best business move yet – both for her and for the friends who came along for the ride when reality TV producers came knocking. .

“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which premiered Sept. 6, broke streaming records for Hulu, becoming the most-watched 2024 unscripted season premiere so far. This is already translating into even more followers for Paul and the rest of the show’s influential cast. In the week and change since the series premiere, Paul has gained hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, according to Social Blade data; her TikTok followers now stand at 4.5 million.

The decision to do the show in the wake of her divorce and scandal was an easy yes for Paul. “In 2022, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do it,'” Paul tells me in September over drinks at Cool Sips, a drink stand that brings Utah-style “dirty sodas” — think sweet Dr. Pepper . syrup and cream — in New York. “It was an opportunity to tell more of my story, and at the time, I had nothing else to lose. I lost almost everything.”

However, doing a reality series is a shot, even compared to the demands of managing an influencer career as a mother. Not only is there filming — the “Mormon Wives” cast filmed most of the season over an eight-week period, and Paul and her friend and fellow cast member Mayci Neeley say they were generally on set five days a week. week during that period – but there are also press obligations like this.

Both Paul and Neeley, 29, who are doing a tandem press tour of New York for the show, hope being honest for cameras that don’t belong to them will pay off in the long run.

“The exposure, it’s another level,” Paul says of TV fame. “That’s right: use your name for any business you want to start.”

“Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” began with a controversy hard to overcome

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was born out of controversy: first, Paul’s scandal, and later, her February 2023 arrest following a reported domestic violence incident involving her boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. She took a plea deal in August of that year that included three years of probation.

Paul’s arrest threw a wrench in the production, which had begun filming in 2022. When production approached Paul about continuing to film the show after her arrest, she had to weigh the effect the show would have on her relationship with Mortensen — especially important considering she was pregnant at the time with their son Ever True – with business opportunities. the show could provide.

“I said, ‘I feel like I want to do it, and you can support me or you don’t have to do it,'” she tells BI. “It was totally up to him and I think he wanted to do it to support me as well.”

But reality TV isn’t one of Paul’s TikToks, meaning she had no control over how her arrest – which she describes as the “worst night” of her life – would be portrayed on screen.

The show’s premiere brought Paul into something other than the flattering glow of a ring light, when it used actual body camera footage of the arrest to tell Paul’s story, before returning 11 months later to discuss the aftermath.

For Neeley, trading control of her image for more exposure was more liberating than worrisome. Sure, she sometimes worried that small creative decisions, like the cast’s uniform blue clothes in the show’s opening sequence, would make them look “stupid” (or, in this case, she says, “polygamous”). but overall it was a net. positive.

“I liked it, because I feel like I could show my personality. Just be myself and forget the cameras were there,” she says of filming the series. “With social media, I feel like it’s hard to share my real personality because it’s like setting up your phone. It’s just not the same.”

Submitting to reality TV editors can be risky, but if it works, it’s great for business

Before “Mormon Wives,” Neeley already had her own business: Babymama, a line of nutritional gummies. Although she had been developing the business for several years, she says she kicked things into high gear once she knew the show was an attempt to capitalize on the exposure it would bring. Something she didn’t consider? If the scenes featuring her business will make the final edit.

“When I heard how many things had been cut, I was like, ‘Oh my God, thank God,'” she recalls. “I was so scared, but he made a cut.”

It didn’t hurt that her business ended up being the backdrop for some of the show’s key storylines: first, a photo shoot where Paul and Neeley discuss Neeley’s reservations about Mortensen, and second, a launch party in which the absence of Whitney Leavitt, the actor of the cast. resident friend, serves as the final nail in the coffin for her relationship with the rest of the group.

Even when filled with drama, the show has already been a boon for business, Neeley says. Now, she’s already thinking about how she’ll find ways to keep getting exposure for Babymama on the show in a potential season two.

“If I launch an event, how will I keep it interesting enough to stay in edit?” she says. “That’s what I’m thinking about now that I’ve seen certain things that have been cut. I’m like, “Okay, well, if I’m going to throw something, I’ve got to make it really good.”

Meanwhile, Paul, Neeley and the rest of the cast have millions of followers to contend with on social media – many of whom have just devoured the first season and are curious about where the group’s key relationships, friendships and issues stand today.

Since this is a cast of influencers, they lean towards drama by posting more content. Neeley and Mortensen have beef during the series, but on TikTok, the two of them and Paul make videos mocking her protection. Other cast members promote the season’s drama around Leavitt, while Paul makes tongue-in-cheek videos about how her “questionable life choices” landed her friends a TV series.

“I think it’s a win-win for both of us and Hulu because we’re promoting and we’re also getting the views and attention,” Neeley says.

“At the end of the day, that’s how you get paid. So for our business, I feel that’s how it helps us to work and get branded deals as well,” adds Paul.

Following the success of season one, Paul and Neeley are already making smart plans for a future with multiple streams of income. After all, content creation isn’t forever – Paul is considering getting into real estate and owning more properties.

“We don’t want to have another 40 years making MomTok videos, do we?” says Neeley. “We want to make sure we have business in place so we don’t feel like we have to constantly be on social media.”

As we sip our dirty juices, thousands of miles away from Salt Lake City, Paul makes it clear.

“At the end of the day, you’re only relevant for so long.”