Modeling & Acting 101 - A Model/Actor's Diary

Okay, if you know anything about me, you know that I'm professional to a fault. What I love about having my blog, mentoring, coaching and consulting is that it gives me the chance to educate the next wave of models on how to practice the good habits (not develop bad ones) and understand the importance that their polished and professional approach will be to the success of their modeling goals. Technology has taken over our lives and social media, love it or hate it, is a part of our daily routine. This includes doing business. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to network and do business using today's innovations. Just because social media is everywhere and just because it's easy doesn't mean you can be lazy or rely too heavily on it. Failing to exercise proper communication methods, not caring about excessive typos and treating potential clients or professional contacts as some random person in your social media world is a quick way to derail any app...

The wonderful thing about our technology driven world is it has completely changed the face of the modeling industry. From modeling agencies to how clients find new faces, the industry has learned to grow and adapt to the times. This includes magazines. Getting published in a magazine as a model is one of the most coveted goals, as it should be. In the past it was much more challenging to figure out how to get into a magazine, especially for female and male models not represented by an agency and/or didn't meet the physical requirements (aka "the height factor") to be considered for modeling jobs in the fashion category. But that has now all changed thanks to technology and the Internet. There are more magazines out there than you can shake a stick at and that means even more opportunities to get published, both in hard copy and digitally. That being said, where do you begin your journey towards appearing in a magazine? START SEARCHING Facebook - If you do a s...

I believe in not beating around the bush and while you could consider me Paula Abdul on American Idol when it comes to giving reality checks with a smile, the fact of the matter is that the modeling industry as a whole can be harsh. Of course, you probably already knew that but it is important to really understand that getting into modeling eventually puts you in the belly of the beast. And it doesn't matter if you're young or old. In the case of child models and their parents, grasping the reality of the competitive nature that comes with this territory is essential to building the thick skin needed to get through and keep your eyes on the prize. So I wanted to do this post to address the parents of child models--namely, newbies. I have to do these reality checks from time to time as a form of tough love. Oftentimes, it isn't just models who have stars in their eyes. Parents want their kids to succeed in life, and if modeling is one of those goals, what I'm goi...

I had originally put the title of this blog post as, "Branding & Modeling Pt VI: Common Sense + Tips" but decided to change the second half to "Dos & Don'ts" simply because I felt it would be easier to organize the tips I want to share and make it easier for my readers to reference...so here we go! This is the last entry in this latest mini blog post series related to the concept of "Branding" when it comes to the modeling industry. Chances are I'll continue to do new posts in the future related to the subject but hopefully this collection has helped some of you get a better understanding of why Branding continues to be so important, even for models. If you've read the previous 5 posts, the dos and don'ts listed below will make much more sense to you so I encourage that you go back and read those in order first before diving right into this post if you haven't done so already. ***FYI: I'll be adding updated Dos ...

Notice the title of this latest post in the mini blog series is "Quality & Content Creation"? That's because even though it's important to post often and keep creating content, it's also vital to think about what you're posting and what you're trying to communicate to followers. Because this mini blog post series is focused on branding and modeling, it only makes sense that I’ll be talking about creating quality content related to…yep, you guessed it: modeling! But what does that mean? PROFESSIONAL IMAGES Photo of one of the magazines I had an editorial feature in. Digital tearsheet of one of the romance novel covers I've been on. What better way to promote your brand as a model than by sharing the fruit of your labors? Posting images from your latest shoots, tearsheets of published work and other pictures related to your career are the best way to show people, including potential clients, what you’ve done and what you can do. ...

People are always in search of the next new thing. Updated content and info is what many online users crave. The fact that smartphones have grown to become as attached to us as a body part makes it that much more crucial to stay on top of your efforts to enforce your brand. The best way to go about this? By posting and posting often. But remember, there’s also quality of the content you’re putting out into the universe. Let’s tackle the “posting and posting often” part first. This is one area where people who are really serious and dedicated to realizing their goals for modeling separate them from the people who want the results but aren’t willing to put forth the work it takes to get there. Unless you’ve got money at your disposal to hire a social media manager and PR team or have a modeling agency getting you castings and bookings fairly often, chances are you’re going to be solely responsible for whatever end results get generated. And you’re going to have to hustle consta...

You've got a name and you know what you want to do with your modeling career. You've got the ball rolling on this whole "branding" thing. Now what? In Part 2 of this mini blog series , I briefly mentioned applying your brand name across your social media platforms. Unless you hate technology or have been living under a rock somewhere, chances are you have a few or all of the most current social media profiles. But there is method to the madness and it involves a bit more strategy than just posting a bunch of selfies randomly. First off, let's talk about specific social media sites. There's so many out there but I'm only going to touch on the basic ones to start you out, especially if you're diving into all this for the first time: Twitter: it's short and sweet and easy to update followers with on a regular basis with little effort. Instagram: it's a visual-based site, which makes it perfect for models to showcase their day-to-da...