Tactics for being Discovered

Aspiring models, just waiting to “be discovered.” The notion is that they can hang out, doing whatever they do, and someone will come along, spot them in the crowd, pluck them out of their hum-drum day-to-day life and suddenly they will be “discovered” and on their way to modeling success.

The worst of it is that once in a while, once in a very, very long while, something like that really happens. When it does it happens to fashion models, not commercial models, and it is a very rare event. Models aren’t “discovered,” they work their way through the system very much like you do in any other job.

But in another sense, the more successful models are “discovered.”

It is a great benefit to a model’s career if someone (or several someones) takes an interest in them, sponsors them and chooses to give them opportunities in preference to other people who could have gotten those chances. Photographers and art directors like to work with people they know, like and have had pleasant experiences with. Agency staff chooses who to send on jobs, and who to recommend to clients in preference to others in their agency who may be equally qualified. There are lots of models, few jobs by comparison, and choices have to be made. It is human nature in all of business for those choices to go to friends and people we like, and in the subjective world of modeling it is all the more true that personal relationships can make or break a career.

Models should always take advantage of opportunities to gain that kind of sponsorship from people with influence in the industry. Virtually all of the most successful models have used “sponsors” to achieve their success.

Beware the phony talent scout: These are sometimes people representing organizations that promise you jobs in return for some investment. Generally these have mixed results.

Another point: Hang out in places where you will be noticed. Walking red carpets, partying at the Playboy Mansion, and dating rockstars sometimes does benefit. Generally, as a rule, photographers do not have connections either, no matter what many may say.

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What about LOCATION? Where do I need to be

This is the single most important thing needed to be successful as a model. You need to be where the jobs are!

It’s possible (remotely possible, not likely) that you may be flown to a job at client expense some day. It happens. But it only happens after you have been selected for the job – and that takes place where the client and the market are. For "fly to" jobs, that is almost always a major market city like New York or Los Angeles.

Here’s how it typically works:

Clients call agencies and tell them what their requirements are for upcoming jobs. The agency matches those requirements against the people in their files, and selects the models they think are likely to be chosen for the job. The comp cards or portfolios for those people are sent to the client, who then selects the models that he actually wants to see – and those people then go on a “go-see” or “casting”. Sometimes the first part of this process is omitted, and agencies simply have their models “go see” the client. There can be as few as one and as many as hundreds of models at these go-sees, and usually a considerable majority of them sent out by their agencies won’t be selected for the job. This is a competitive business, with lots of competitors and, at any given moment, few winners.

You don’t get paid to go to castings, go-sees or auditions, so a great deal of a model’s time is spent on things like go-sees that don’t actually make them any money. And nobody pays your expenses to get to these things, either. That may be OK for someone that lives in the area and can afford to take time off from whatever else they do for an hour or two. But it is simply impossible for someone who lives in Ohio, Texas or even Maryland to commute to these things hoping that they will get a job. The economics don’t work.

If you are going to be in the commercial or fashion modeling business you have to live within a reasonable commuting distance of the marketplace. We generally advise no more than 50-60 miles away, and even that makes pursuing a modeling career very difficult.

If you want to stay home, and home is more than 100 or so miles from where the work is, an agency can’t do much for you.

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