ASK ADRIANA: How to manage your career

ASK ADRIANA

It is very common for a modelling career to go through plenty of ups and downs.

Yet successful moments can be just as delicate as times of crisis. Here are some tips for managing your career throughout the challenges ahead.

About choosing your agency:

Choose your agency on the basis of its general reputation but also on the attributes of the booker who will look after you: you should aspire to find someone who fully believes in you and with whom you can build a solid relationship on your same wavelength with all the qualities of being, reliable, consistent, sincere, pragmatic, ambitious, hard working and tenacious. Ultimately, your booker is the one who has your career in his or her hands.

About your relationship with the booker:

Some bookers have more commercial clients, others have more editorial ones. Understand which direction you would like your career to take you and discuss this with your agency and booker. Make sure you are both aligned on common goals

In order for your booker to be able to push you for jobs, you need to be reliable: you will always need to be in great shape, radiant (look at my previous post on a model’s lifestyle), on time and professional.

It is important to pop by the agency as often as every day, even just to say hello, chat or brainstorm a little with the bookers or to talk with other models.

Ask your booker for information and advice. Explore their vision of you as a professional and listen to their suggestions on how to develop your career to match with your aspirations, otherwise try to find out why your opinions differ: maybe the booker does not believe enough in you, maybe you have an unrealistic idea of the direction your career is heading? Ask yourself: How does my agency and booker see me and where do they think my potential lies? Is my booker’s opinion about my career consistent with my view? Is it realistic? Is it too ambitious or not ambitious enough? If you can’t answer these questions, it might be interesting to explore and find the answers.

On average a modelling agency represents a very high number of girls and most bookers manage between 50 and 100 models each; so bookers often don’t have time to deal in depth with every model they look after, therefore establishing a privileged human relationship with your booker can improve the quality of your work, career and therefore life.

To be successful you need 3 things:

A strategy: you have to know where you are aiming and how to get there, planning every single step but also being flexible to challenges on the path ahead;

State of mind: You won’t be able to obtain much if your state of mind is in a bad place. You must learn how to create and maintain a constructive state of mind;

Story: What is the story you tell yourself? Is it a negative one such as “I am not good enough” or “I don’t deserve success”? If it is negative, realise you can choose to believe in a more constructive story. Make up your dream story and stick to it;

Dealing with Success:

Success is a delicate time as one can easily lose the sense of reality and risk destroying all that has been built.

Watch your inner dialogue: is there any fear of success, a sense of guilt or unworthiness perhaps? Discover any negative story you tell yourself and change it, allow yourself to be successful and let go of any loyalty agreement with unsuccessful or negative family figures;

Keep your feet on the ground and maintain a humble attitude;

Never lose respect for others;

Work on your ego;

Be ready to face potential failures: remember it’s always a cycle with plenty of ups and downs;

Be ready to face your critics: the more we are exposed, the more we become targets. Learn how to deal with them and don’t take criticism personally. Remember nobody is perfect so welcome constructive criticism but let go of the unconstructive criticism brought about by jealousy which is usually designed to hurt or disempower you;

Become a role model: become aware and take responsibility for the messages you are sending out;

Managing a crisis and delays:

Stick to the positive story;

Develop your patience;

 Develop your tolerance to frustration;

Always persevere because giving up equals defeat (unless you realize that path won’t make you happy);

Flexibility of focus: adjust your strategy and watch for the coincidences in your day. They show you the best path in your life;

Don’t panic. Remind yourself there is always sunshine after rain;

Be honest with yourself and observe what can be improved;

Avoid sitting and waiting for something to happen as that can lead you to feeling miserable. When nothing is happening and you have no jobs, use your time constructively by taking courses, reading, studying, visiting museums, or being in silence and meditating in order to get in touch with your inner self. This may unlock the door for you to move on;

Remove the dark sunglasses. Life is not so bad, after all;

Don’t take things personally, put them into perspective;

Investigate: What can I learn from this crisis? What is it telling me? What triggered it? What could I do to overturn the situation? Where could I improve? Should I change some paths in my strategy? Is this direction the right one for my ultimate happiness? Become clear in your mind, adjust the strategy and take action accordingly when you are ready;

Don’t become obsessed with a specific result, be flexible: have your goal clear in your mind and simply let go, allowing the universe to manifest the opportunities on your path. You just have to be ready to recognize and grasp them. This will allow you to accomplish your potential and adjust your career path according to your destiny. Focus on what is happening right here and now. Having too strict an idea of how our careers should develop could make us lose sight of the present and miss plenty of opportunities, so do keep an open mind and flexible focus; you will be very positively surprised.

Good luck to all of you!

Adriana

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