Promotional Models NY is the sister company of Femme Fatale Media, one of the world’s top promotional modelling companies with its home base in Toronto, Canada. The company was started by the indelible Ms. Emily Lyons and her improbable success story has now inspired thousands of people around the world.
From high school dropout to serial entrepreneur, podcaster, author and philanthropist, Emily has travelled the road of hard knocks – keep an eye out for her upcoming book for the full story! Emily is the middle child of three children; both her siblings were born with the terminal disease Cystic Fibrosis and Emily was spared. At 16 she dropped out of school and for a long time lived working multiple minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet. Her life changed when her sister Julia (who sadly passed in 2011) gifted her an entrepreneurial book about turning your passions into a profitable business. It was unusual for Emily to read through the many books her bookworm sister sent her, but she tore through this one. Her one passion? Promotional Modelling. Emily had been working as a promotional model as a side hustle for many years and it was the first job she was passionate about.
Something about the book her sister gave her ignited a fire within her and she decided then and there that she was going to start her own promotional modelling company; the fact that she had $80 to her name, people told her it wouldn’t work and she had no business experience wasn’t going to stop her! What she did was work, and work tirelessly. Through many trials and errors, step by step, Femme Fatale Media was born. The death of her sister occurred when she had just started the business, and the devastating loss near totalled her. Emily’s is a story of perseverance through unthinkable grief and endless hurdles both inner and outer.
The first few years of her business, she doesn’t think she slept – she did all the work herself (website, blogs, gigs, hiring, payroll, you name it) and through her creativity and insanely hard work, the company began to skyrocket and achieve international fame. Now Femme Fatale Media offers not only promo models but brand ambassadors, experiential marketing, event staffing and marketing and public relations.
Realizing she was a born-entrepreneur, through happenstance experiences, she launched her other companies: True Glue Beauty (a completely clean makeup brand), Lyons Elite (an elite matchmaking company), JWLS (a luxury watch company with all proceeds going to a foundation in honour of her sister Julia Lyons), and began a successful podcast all about entrepreneurship and business. On top of all of this, she hosts a wildly popular room on Clubhouse meant to inspire and uplift, often starts campaigns to raise money for cystic fibrosis research and has more businesses in the works. She’s truly unstoppable.
Promotional Models NY and Femme Fatale Media are still her “first children,” and is very active in constantly ensuring they are impeccable. Besides her businesses, her three dogs are her absolute obsession. So find her on her IG, LinkedIn, make a connection and let her work her magic for your upcoming event!
