Friday, September 14, 2012

Do you know what you are worth? Your agent does!

I am sharing an email that I just sent to all of my models today as it may help people better understand what a manager does for their talent. Many of you who know me well, know this to be my philosophy but just as a refresher or for those of you who don't, I want to share this with all of you. My job as your agent is more than just answering the phone and plugging you into a job, collecting a check and taking a cut. My job is to get the best price for your image and your experience. I don't sell models out to the lowest bidder. There are places (and people) you can go to that can get you jobs just to get you a [modeling] job. Facebook has turned into that place among other places, but if you are somewhat serious about this and wish to protect your image long term, you need to be careful what you say YES too. We just received a phone call from a local client who wanted an experienced, attractive spokeswoman for a TV ad. She had to be over 5'6" and deliver lines for a .30 second ad. I gave this client a quote that was quite fair and reasonable, and limited the use to a year (I also said they would have to pay travel for out of town selects). That client came back with a response that said additionally they would like to use that talent for 2 to 3 hours, my quote had to remain in effect for a year (what?!), they would not pay any travel, they wanted a full buy out to use whenever, whereever and however long they would like and that their budget was 125.00 and it was non-negotiable. The very polite response (the one I sent back ;) simply said that I had to respectfully decline as what he wanted in talent did not match up with his budget and I wished him a good weekend. Do I need the 20% so badly that I would sell any of my talent down the river on this job? NO WAY. Will he post this somewhere and get a whole bunch of responses? Probably. Should you respond and make 125.00. That is up to you. The bottom line is if you do get this "plum gig" you could be out of the running for something better that comes up because now this job has you out there on the little screen as this guy's gal precluding you from other [possibly better] things. Do we have jobs that come up that with rates I don't like? - yes. Some of you have replied to them and I have told you I would rather you didn't take it and leave it to someone starting out. (that's me, doing my job) It is also upstate and in a not so great economy and sometimes we have to play ball....but not all the time..... Do you know what you are worth? I do- its my job. :)

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