I just got back from my latest scouting trip to Denmark. We have several models from Denmark in our agency. Actually, our highest concentration of models comes from that country, along with Poland.
We enjoy working with Danish models. As a rule, they’ve got striking, ‘healthy’ good looks and also a very fresh and healthy attitude about them. Positive and easy-going for the most part.
That’s why I was surprised the other day talking to one of the agents in Aarhus. I asked her about Nina–a new model I’d met a year ago during my last trip there. Nina was very beautiful, in a style reminiscent of the painter “Raphael”. And like the subject of a Raphael masterpiece, Nina was also a little full-figured; too much for the market in Paris.
Nina hadn’t really done any modeling to speak of when I met her–she was a college student. In talking with her she said that she didn’t know if she wanted to commit to modeling or not. I told her to think about it–if it’s something she wanted to do it could be fantastic. If she didn’t really want to but made herself do it, it would be miserable. I also told her that to work in Paris she would need to lose a little weight, but that it should be done in a healthy and gradual way. She said she would give serious thought to what she really wanted.
It took several months but her agent did e-mail to say that Nina had lost the weight and would be ready and willing to come to Paris now to model. She sent the mail to one of the bookers rather than to me; I was on a scouting trip at the time so only heard about it when I got back.
The snapshots the agent sent were not particularly flattering and as a result, the booking said no, they didn’t think she would be right for us. But I’ve seen Nina in person and knew she could look better. So before leaving for Denmark I e-mailed the agent asking for her to arrange for me to meet with Nina in person when I came in for the casting to see other models. I wanted to videotape her and take my own snapshots and then present her to the booking. I was pretty confident they would choose her after that.
The day I arrived I saw several models, but no Nina. After thanking and saying good bye to the last model, I asked the agent where she was. She told me, “Well, Nina decided not to come, actually. She was very upset about the bookers’ response to her and said she didn’t want to come in to see you.”
As I said, I was more than a little surprised by this. It sounded like she was pouting. But then I realised that this was acutally a blessing in disguise–not only for me and the agency but above all for Nina. For it spoke volumes about what Nina really wanted and was willing to strive for. She had made the effort to lose the weight, but at the first rebuff, Nina caved in and gave up.
I told the agent in Denmark that if Nina was that miffed by this one ‘no’ from our bookers, then modeling is definitely not the business for her. To be a successful model you must be able to withstand hearing ‘no’ day after day until you finally get to a ‘yes’. It’s totally a numbers game and I talk about this at length in my home study course “The Secret in Modeling”. Understanding this concept will give a model the long view and staying power she needs to make it in this business.
{ 0 comments… add one now }