Well, in case any of you were wondering if Priscilla made it on time to see the client who was waiting for her, I thought I’d fill you in.
Her flight was on time, thankfully, and she got into the agency at about 11.30 a.m. You would never know that she had been on two flights for a total of 14 hours! She was completely fresh, smiling and energetic. (That’s what I’m talkin’ about!)
Priscilla has an infectiously positive attitude and she won the bookers over immediately. But there was one problem. Fred thought that her hair needed some attention. She felt that Priscilla’s blonde color was unnatural looking and wanted to send her to a colorist to bring it back to her own natural dark blonde and also get the ends trimmed.
Fred said to her, “You must be tired, though. You probably want to go to the apartment and take a shower.”
To which Priscilla replied, “I’d love one, but I don’t have to. It can wait if you think I should go to the hairdresser.” (I’m telling you, this girl knows how it goes.)
Impressed, Fred began calling the various hair salons we work with to squeeze Priscilla in before sending her off to see the client.
But after talking with some hairstylists it quickly became clear that there just wasn’t enough time to get her in for a color before the immutable hour of the casting. So we settled on sending her in for a shampoo and trim.
An hour later Priscilla came back to the agency looking fabulous and ready to do her first casting in Paris–a request casting at that!
It’s been a very hectic two days since I got back to the agency. I met so many models who are potentially right for our market that I haven’t even finished showing my photos and videos of them to the booking table yet.
That’s because the agency doesn’t ’stand still’ while we go through all the material, discussing together each girl and then making our decision. No, the phones keep ringing, clients and photographers continue to pass by and our models still come in with questions and needs. Which is very good. Anything to the contrary would be worrisome.
But it does mean that the scouting debriefing process always takes longer than I would like.
One girl, Priscilla, will be arriving tomorrow however. So that’s pretty quick. She’s from Los Angeles. As it turns out she’s half French and half American, but has been living in the States for many years now. She can still speak French though!
A driver will be picking her up at the airport and after coming in to the agency to briefly meet everyone and say hello, she’ll be going directly to see a client who’s waiting for her.
This job is for a major body cream campaign being shot in Mexico next week. The client had already found his girl but our Wunder Booker, Fred (short for Frederique–a woman) told him he should stop the presses before he makes his final decision and see the beautiful Priscilla. To which he has agreed. But the deadline for the meeting is 2.30 p.m. Let’s hope her flight is on time!
After a couple of weeks on the road I was glad to get back to Paris this morning. The flight was a bit delayed due to icy conditions in the New York area last night. Today is a day of recuperation for me, before meeting with the bookers at my agency tomorrow. That’s when I’ll get to tell them all about the models I met on this trip.
Meanwhile I’ve posted a short video containing excerpts from a talk I gave at a modeling convention in LA last week to kick off the New Year. I was honored to speak before a group of aspiring models and in some cases, their parents. I talked to them about getting my own start in modeling, and I really enjoyed meeting with many of these motivated persons afterwards.
(The video, which we put together to promote my Career Model Coaching Program, even contains some scenes from a few of my own shows as a model.) I hope you enjoy it!
She told me that she had only been modeling a few weeks when her Toronto agency arranged for her to go to model in Singapore for three months. She had almost no experience in modeling and had never yet been out of her own country. It was a big leap for her. But even though she was more than a little scared, she did it and did very well. And she stayed on and traveled to other markets in Asia–Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan and worked very well in those markets too, over a period of several months.
I also loved the fact that she told me how she would invest all her free time in learning about and discovering the local culture, wherever she was. She went to numerous local festivals, museums, temples, etc. She was living life large and taking full advantage of her unique opportunity.
Katie told me that before she began modeling she was very timid and insecure. But the experience of going over to Asia, without knowing anyone or very much about the business gave her very valuable insight into herself and her own capabilities. She realised that she could do it and that knowledge gave her a sense of confidence and self-respect that she hadn’t known before.
She told me how grateful she was for that experience and I could tell that she really was grateful and that she took that experience and made it pay off for her many times over by using and applying what she learned about herself.
Katie also told me that she made the difficult decision to postpone her college classes for a year in order to travel throughout Asia as a model. Although she’ll be going back to school next September, she said that she wouldn’t change a thing if she had it to do all over again. In her words, the education she got in that year working and traveling in Asia–about life and herself–was of incomparable value to her.
I was very impressed with this young woman; with her positive attitude towards the unkown and its possibilities. With the ease with which she was able to give herself credit for her accomplishments and re-think the way she saw herself. And with her obvious enjoyment of life and the people she encountered in it.
In this post I want to tell you more about Katie–the model I met in Toronto who wasn’t right for the market I’m scouting for but who will stay with me in my mind for a long time. As I said, she literally had me from ‘hello’. Her energy was unmistakable and compelling. It was a blend of confidence, enthusiasm, friendliness and a ‘joie de vivre’. And it worked like a magnet. Although I could see she wasn’t right for Paris, I wanted to know more about this person.
She told me that she had worked extensively in Asia. That made sense–she looked just right for that market. I asked her my usual questions about how long she’d been modeling, where she had worked, etc. But when I asked her how she liked modeling, her answer was anything but usual.
She said to me, “I absolutely love it!” (Which I have heard often and am gratified every time I do.) But then she went on to say, “Modeling has helped me to totally love and accept myself.” This really made me sit up and take notice. It has been my experience that many models will say to me that modeling has been a source of self-doubt for them. So naturally I asked Katie what she meant.
The New Year is off to a great start for me. I’ve been on an extended scouting trip through the U.S. and Canada starting New Year’s day, and return to Paris this weekend with good news for our agency’s bookers.
That’s because over the past two weeks I’ve found some really great girls for our agency. I think they’ll find plenty of work in Paris, and in other markets too. To a girl they are impressive, both in their dedication to the profession (great attitudes!) and in their decision to really go after their careers in a big way.
So I’m grateful and happy to be returning home, with an overall feeling of a job well done. And excited for the opportunities these wonderful models are about to discover in Paris and beyond.
How about you? Have you put a plan in place to move your modeling career forward this year? Despite the gloomy economic news you may be hearing about, there is still a big demand for models of all kinds. Why not make 2009 your break out year?
If you’re ready to do just that I’ve got some good news for you…
I’ve recently announced a rare opportunity for a select group of models and aspiring models to work personally with me to help jump start their careers. It doesn’t matter where you live, or where you happen to be at in your career right now. It only matters that you want to make it in this business.
Want to know more?
I recommend that you listen to the short (5 minutes) audio I posted for you at Kim Luret’s Career Model Coaching Program. I’ll tell you all about this special opportunity in the audio.
I finally made it to Toronto this afternoon, after being bumped off flights and missing connections from Houston. So rather than arriving last night as planned I arrived this afternoon. Which meant I missed 3 out of 5 of my scheduled appointments for the day. But all’s well that ends well as the saying goes and I’m happy to be here. Of course if I had it my way, it wouldn’t be -17 degrees right now, but other than that it’s all good, as they also say.
Despite the appointments that I wasn’t able to make today, I did see several models. Two stand out–one was an absolutely beautiful girl named Alexandra. She’s 18 years old and has never worked out of the country. Next week she’ll be flying over to Greece to try the market there and plans on staying for 6 weeks. She’s really excited about it and especially because she is of Greek descent. She still has family there in fact. I warned her to be careful about her diet there. For some reason unbeknownst to me, models who go to Greece for any length of time often bring back with them several extra pounds of excess bagagge–on their waist and hips. She said she was aware of that and knows first-hand how good Greek food is but also how fattening some of it can be and promised me that she would be careful about that.
I want to stress here that the plan isn’t not to eat much–the plan is not to eat much in the way of unhealthy and/or highly caloric foods. With the possible exception of Arctic regions where the main diet may be whale blubber, one can eat healthy and nutritious just about anywhere. It’s a matter of opting for lean meats, salads/vegetables and fruits. Very doable in Greece. We’ll know at the end of 6 weeks how focused and determined she is. In other words, just how much she wants this.
The other girl who stands out for me is someone who isn’t right for the market in Paris. But literally two seconds after she walked into the room, I was captivated by her and wanted to know more. It was in the way she looked at me and smiled as she came in. Her sure and firm handshake and the way she said her name (Katie) with such ease and confidence. Her energy was sincere and unmistakable and (as they ALSO say) she had me from “Hello”. The conversation we had was fascinating. I’ll tell you more about it next time.
