PART 2 — How I built a model agency right after high school.
The first three years of stumbling.
It's a continuation from PART 1 — How I started my career as a Model Scout and Agent.
Got the job title, what now?
The Skype call was over and I didn’t know what was coming next. Being asked to lead the agency felt like an accomplishment. When I say “agency”, I mean me and three models who signed a contract earlier. Two of them were brought in by me. Who was the third model? I didn’t know until later.
I wasn’t actively involved and didn’t know what was going on. The moment I got involved in management, I received a message.
“I received an offer from another agency and would like to take it,” read the message from Josephine.
As you recall, Josephine signed with me while I was still scouting for Kai. But since nothing happened career-wise for Josephine, I wasn’t surprised that she wanted to leave. I didn’t object.
Not a smooth beginning
The company’s head office was located in Paris, therefore, the only way we held contact was through Skype and email. I quickly learned what I was supposed to do, and also what I needed to look for in the perfect model. I set up my office and started building connections with people. But, as life goes, nothing runs smoothly, and I soon realised that all my tall, skinny and beautiful friends were already signed to one of the 5 model agencies dominating in Estonia.
One of the agencies, EMA Model Management, was one of the few clients who actually paid me for photos I took of their models. So, what else could I do but keep a low profile? I couldn’t stand a chance of losing the little income I was making at the time.
First casting
My family had an office space where they were running language classes. The space was quite big and located in a good area.
Right next to the entrance was a small classroom with holes in the walls and a big desk taking up most of the space. It was that or nothing. My parents gave me permission to use the space and I started doing castings there.
To make it look neat, I put things in front of the wall. The whole process was nerve-wracking; I had to pretend that I knew what I was doing. Luckily, the models were just as nervous as I was, so they didn’t really pay attention to what was going on, or so I hoped!
Using the agency guidelines, I knew how the girls should be dressed, how their makeup should be done and what shots to take to submit for review.
Clear headshots of the girl smiling and not smiling.
Full body shots, front, profile, and back.
Wearing a bikini.
Wearing high heels or sandals/a shot without is good too.
Hair tied up and one with hair down.
Wearing no make-up.
Photos shot with good natural lighting.
Photos shot against a white background, try to avoid the floor line cutting behind the model’s legs.
I learned the description of the company by heart but as soon as the girls came in, I couldn’t tell them anything so nervous was I. So, the best I could do was ask them to read the description page on my laptop.
I could measure them but did not dare ask them to change into a bikini, even though most of the girls who came to the castings were my friends. Some of them even brought their friends. Bottom line, no advertising was done since I was keeping a low profile.
As could be expected, the results from the castings were negative and I didn’t sign a single person. This proved to me once again that scouting was not an easy job.
Street Scouting
Since the casting wasn’t working, I had to find other ways of signing models. Jeremie suggested street scouting. My business cards had arrived, and it is funny how that small piece of paper gave me enough confidence to hit the streets. Although I wasn’t shy, approaching strangers on the streets were quite scary. I headed to the biggest shopping mall and spent hours walking around or sitting in front of clothing shops.
My friends thought I was an Idiot, who was wasting his life.
After a few days, I saw a beautiful girl and approached her.
“Hello, sorry to bother you but I am a model scout. Are you a model?” I asked.
I got a brisk “No” but gave her my business card with shaking hands and walked away.
She never contacted me and that taught me that you can’t just give cards, you need to ask for contact details. Also, presentation matters a lot!
The first model I signed
Almost a week without any results, I started to lose my motivation.
My cousin came by for a quick hello and being desperate, I asked him to phone me if he sees someone good looking. It wasn’t even 30 minutes and my phone rang.
“Aleks, you have to run here quickly, there is a beautiful girl!”
I ran like someone being chased by a serial killer. When I arrived, I saw a stunning young girl. She was around 14 years old and 1.72m tall. Why couldn’t I find someone so beautiful in weeks of trying but my cousin comes across an angel in just 30 minutes? Life is unfair at times, I tell you!
We spoke about the modelling opportunity. I was relaxed and confident because my cousin was there, and she was smiling. She seemed interested and gave me her mother’s contact number.
This time I couldn’t fail — it took me so long to find this one girl — I needed to prove myself.
I asked Woland if I could use his studio for the Skype meeting with the model and Jeremie. Jeremie already liked her from the photos I sent him, but he was blown away by her over Skype. It wasn’t even a day and the contract came back — signed and sealed as they say
That being the best Friday I’ve had in weeks, I went out to celebrate!
Unexpected call.
But, a phone call the next morning spoiled my excitement. I answered the phone and recognised the voice, it was the model’s mother.
“Hello, Aleksandr.”
“We need to meet urgently. I need the contract back.”
My heart stopped for a moment.
“I spoke to her father about it and he was absolutely against her being a model. He got so upset that I signed a contract without speaking to him first. He threw me out of our house. “I’ve been sleeping in the car the whole night. I will be waiting for you next to the studio. Please come.”
The reality of model management hit me square in the face. People are unpredictable.
I wasn’t able to convince her to keep calm, stupid of me to even try, she was thrown out of her own house!
After the rain comes sun
Out of the blue, I receive a Facebook friend request from a girl. Her name was Enly Tammela and Kai was a mutual friend. I remembered Kai telling me of this girl. She was scouted on a social media website called Orkut, got signed, and was supposed to go to Taiwan but her visa got rejected.
Read the message: “I will be passing by Tallinn for a magazine photoshoot I won in a competition. Would it be possible to meet and find out what is happening at the agency?”
I invited her to meet me at the studio. After waiting an hour and calling her several times, I decided she clearly wasn’t coming and left. I was on the tram thinking maybe all of this just is not for me? I didn’t understand why this was happening. I hardly finished the thought when my phone rang; Enly apologized for being late. The shoot took longer than expected
I went back to the studio in a horrible mood, but as soon as she walked in smiling, my mood changed. What a beauty, I thought to myself. I didn’t show my excitement since I had to play the part of a serious and upset agent, whose time wasn’t respected.
We had a chat. It was her dream to become a successful model. We agreed to work on developing her portfolio and getting her started as soon as she graduated school.
This brought back my motivation and drive to continue.
Dropping out of school.
Starting out is always the toughest. Doubtful thoughts can divert you from your true path. That is why it is important to grow solid roots so that you can become more confident and start succeeding.
New models were scouted and more photography projects were coming in. There was just one thing slowing me down: school. It was really difficult to study I just accepted the project of a lifetime!
I decided to drop out in my last year. My parents wanted me to graduate so I didn’t tell them; I didn’t want them to worry. Besides, what was I going to do with the graduation paper, there wasn’t a school in Estonia that could teach more about what I wanted to do: model management and fashion.
As predicted, when everyone eventually found out that I was no longer studying, they got worried. They wanted the best for me and I understand. My grandmother even offered me to go to Denmark to work as a construction helper. That was truly discouraging.
I now understand that whatever was true before, may not apply today. They made their judgments based on their youth experience. I don’t know if I got lucky or foresaw the mindset shift, but the picture on the left gave me the courage to listen to my inner voice.
Three jobs at a time.
Fulfilling my dreams had a cost. Living with my parents didn’t free me from paying bills, buying clothes and spending on the joys of life.
Times were tough. An economic crisis hit my parents really hard and I couldn’t expect them to support my life choices. The only option I had was to hustle. The hustle was divided into three parts — model agency, photography, and body massage. Where did the third come from? Another random coincidence.
Massage
A terrible pain in my back struck me out of nowhere. It was so bad, I could not move. I tried all sorts of creams and none of them seemed to help. In pain, I was ready to accept anything.
I spoke to my good friend Aleksandr Sushko, who was very interested in massage. He suggested going to his friend’s father who does Acupuncture. Something I had only seen in the movies. My expectations were quite low, but the pain was so bad that I was ready to have needles inserted anywhere in my body.
His office was in a clinic. It made things more reassuring. I laid down and started explaining the area of the pain and how it felt. He opened a book, read something and started inserting needles into my ears.
“I will insert a needle now and you will start to sweat and feel like you are fainting. When you can’t take it anymore, let me know,” he said and waited for my OK.
I just nodded.
Suddenly my heart started to beat like crazy. My whole body started to heat up and I could feel the sweat forming. My head started spinning and I was about to faint. I told him I couldn’t take it anymore, and he removed the needle. The pain was gone!
To this day, I can’t believe what happened. It was like magic. Since then, I decided to learn more about the human body. And that is how I ended up studying Swedish classical massage.
Doing massage became my primary source of income. All thanks to a person who goes by the name of Rene Puusep. He randomly approached me at a gym asking if I would like to advertise his clinic. In return, he offered to whiten my teeth for free and that was something I wanted to do. Once again, my thought materialized.
We ended up becoming friends and he supported me by allowing me to use one of his clinic rooms. I was giving free massages to his patients and some of them would, in the future, become my clients.
Photography
Since I was now able to pay for the studio, I had the right to organize commercial shoots.
I always wanted to shoot fashion, but at times when money was short, I accepted anything. Even family shoots. Fortunately, I had my own models and I was shooting a lot. This got me noticed by some local designers and stylists. It led to different collaborations and even getting my work published in a magazine — shooting a campaign for a well-known Estonian designer.
Model Agency
It was almost one year since I started and my first model was going to London. The scouting was going in full swing and I was enjoying life more than ever.
At first, it was a little lonely taking the bus to different cities for a day, sitting in shopping malls, going to festivals looking for new faces, etc.
I established connections all over the country, so every time I would go scouting, I would invite some of the models I discovered along to build a relationship with them
Bonding with models is super important to ensure they feel close to you and, whenever someone would try to poach them, they would remain loyal. Besides that, having tall and beautiful girls next to you when approaching new ones, made life much easier.
The greatest part about working for myself was the freedom of doing when and what I wanted. This allowed me to experiment a lot. Learning from someone would have made the progress much faster and smoother and I might even have avoided a lot of the mistakes I made. But, without the knowledge of having to do things a certain way, I had to freedom to be creative and experiment.
Out of all agencies, I understood the young generation the best. Since the agencies were so established, they had a limited amount of time to scout. I believe they were also quite spoiled because everyone was going directly to them back then.
Scouting on the streets was fine, but you need to go where the young people were.
I started taking 6 AM busses to other cities. I had to be there when they got to school. I wasn’t brave enough to go inside the schools, but I waited outside patiently, looking for beautiful girls when they were entering and leaving. It sounds quite creepy, I know, but I wasn’t there to harass anyone. I was there to give them a life-changing opportunity.
I also started doing more online scouting. With this new approach, the agency grew to over 40 models within the two years!
Our own cult.
The word was out on the street and soon models from other agencies in Tallinn started contacting me. If they joined, they would be part of something bigger. We were building something together and having an awesome time doing it. I was the same age as most of my models. I wasn’t acting as their boss, rather like someone they could go to when they wanted to open their heart or escape from their day-to-day reality.
The local clients were starting to get to know us, so I started giving models paid jobs. The fact that I was helping them make some money on the side was a game changer.
They and their parents didn’t see me as a kid playing games anymore, but actually, someone who was up to something serious. During the day, I organized shoots with different photographers and in the evenings, we would go out and party together. I tried to mimic the culture of the modelling that was happening in the fashion capitals since the Estonian fashion scene was boring. I spent most of the money I was making on creating this experience. I had a blast!
Although most of the models were friends, there was still a taste of competition between them. I was always in the middle, and the fight for my attention was enjoyable.
Models started traveling.
At that time, I hadn’t been to a fashion capital yet and the only connection I had to life over there, was through the eyes of my models and things I found online.
I was on Skype every day with the models who were travelling, trying to give them support and advice. It was really interesting for me to hear everything that was going on over there.
I learned about the industry, the promoter parties and had to deal with all sorts of dramas.
School of Psychology.
One model’s trip to Paris ended up a total disaster. The same day of her arrival, I received a call from the agency.
“The girl wants to go home, she doesn’t want to be in Paris. Why did you send her?”
Day after day this model would forget her dreams and want to retreat into her comfort zone. It’s not like she had a very comfortable life. Her family wasn’t really well-off financially, so she was just getting by. Coming from a small city and going to a big one was tough.
I didn’t end up convincing her to stay. How could I? She was pretending to be sick and said she needed to go home urgently. So, her boyfriend bought her a ticket back.
One of my other models was a true troublemaker. She didn’t speak good English but was so beautiful that the clients booked her for high-paying jobs just from her pictures. She always showed up late. Sometimes so hungover that she wasn’t able to work. Once she disappeared and I later found out she was outside of Milan at some house with a bunch of models and promoters.
Their rebelliousness was fine with me. That’s what you do when you are young. Just as long as they were doing their job, but unfortunately that wasn’t always the case There were just too many temptations they couldn’t resist.
Things would have been different if I was there but I didn’t have the money to go, so the only support I was able to give them was through the computer
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.
There was a girl who could easily have made it big, but she was a victim of sexual harassment from photographers. After that experience, she gained a lot of weight and the agency sent her home. I blame her agency in New York, who did a horribly unprofessional job at managing her. They gave her $150 pocket money, but she had to use 70% of that money for the metro card AND they forced her to buy clothes with money she didn’t have. The only thing she could afford to eat was white bread. No wonder when I tried to convince her to give modelling another try, she refused. Again, was I there I would have been able to avoid the situation. Her boyfriend even blamed me for what happened and tried to attack me! The whole situation was just horrible.
The birth of Raw Studio
My mentor and now a friend, Filippo, left the studio and was preparing to move to London. With time, the studio wasn’t what it used to be anymore, and we decided to go our separate ways.
A little while before the close of the studio, I got contacted by Kertin Vasser. He came from the second largest city in Estonia, Tartu. He was looking at moving to the capital and was knocking on doors seeking opportunities.
He wanted to shoot some professional models. We had a meeting and I quickly saw that he was someone I could partner up with; he was passionate and determined plus he spoke several languages.
The moment, the studio’s closure was announced, I gave him a call and told him that I would like to open a new studio. He was interested. We met the next day for a coffee and discussed the way forward.
Opening a studio wasn’t a cheap thing to do. We quickly realized we would need a third person to make this dream a reality.
I thought about one frequent client I had at the previous studio and decided to give her a call. Mimmi was on board. The stars aligned; we had the money, the location, and the manpower to build it.
And it turned up really well!
Hiring people
As the agency grew to over 60 models, I struggled to manage them all by myself. So, I had to find people to work for me. I started posting job ads and meeting interviewing people to hire.
I wasn’t really able to pay anyone because having plenty of models didn’t mean I was making a ton of money.
Most of the scouted models are young and in school. Maybe 10% of them were full-time. The revenue I was generating was big enough for me to quit doing massages, pay the rent but not big enough to pay people.
I had to convince them to work on commission.
I thought it was OK not to pay people a salary. I worked for free, why should they get paid?
I would teach them everything I knew and in return, they could assist me.
But expecting them to work for free as hard as I, always ended up in a conflictual situation. I wasn’t able to retain the people, they came and left quite quickly. The team in Paris was laughing and crying at the same time.
I would like apologize for my misbehavior. I didn’t know any better. I would like to specifically thank Imre Lehemets, Andres Gallardo Albajar, Gerli Jalakas and Kelli Kõrgemaa for being with me when I was just starting.
I had good people, but I didn’t know how to manage them. Unfortunately, no one was there to guide me, so I failed many times until I finally succeeded.
Meeting Tunc Tuncay
There were several people who shaped me as a person, and Mr Tunc is one of those who had a profound influence on me. I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday.
He entered the agency and I asked him if he would like something to drink.
His answer, beer!
That was something unusual and I really liked it. I went out and bought him a bottle of beer. After the casting, we ended up talking for at least two hours.
I took him to the club I used to work at and it turned into a crazy night. We both still laugh about him asking for a Gin & Tonic and me bringing him a 1L glass Gin & Tonic. We pretended he was an Egyptian king who arrived here looking for another wife.
At the time, his agency was called Joy Models Istanbul.
We became very close business partners.
There was no agency stronger than Joy. All the models were extremely happy. They were shooting for all the magazines and the agency was charging the clients a premium price.
In the evenings the agency would organize different events and get-togethers, so models felt really good about staying in Istanbul.
Tunc regularly booked models from me and it really helped to improve my financial situation. Asides from working closely with me, he was working closely with the whole STARSYSTEM group. We ended up going on a boat trip. It was the trip of a lifetime. We sailed across several Greek and Turkish Islands. We sailed from Bodrum to Cecsme. It was so beautiful! And we definitely drank way too much!
I ended up going to Istanbul quite a lot. This city has a very special place in my heart. A lot of warm memories!
From fun to business.
I was tired of not making money, so I became more aggressive in the market and started not only scouting girls who were available but also approaching models from competitor agencies. They got furious.
The circumstances of my bad decisions
Since all my best girl were really young, out of desperation, I started taking on a lot of models who didn’t really have potential to do more than showroom jobs in Milan.
I didn’t realize that the models I represent were setting the tone for my agency and that the more models I had, the less attention I could give them. My standards were not as high as they were before and that’s why the agency’s talent pool grew so quickly.
But scouting was starting to bore me, I was more into the business side of running the agency.
STARSYSTEM wanted to only operate as a scouting and placement agency but I was suggesting a change to the policy to start booking internationally, but my requests were not taken seriously
I then decided to open a second agency with a friend. The aim of opening this agency was to purely book already scouted models to jobs, at first in Scandinavia and then worldwide.
I was convinced by my partner that it didn’t make sense to share commissions with STARSYSTEM and that I should leave them and we should do everything by ourselves.
And so, I quit after three years of building the agency. The next day, Jeremie Roux the president of the agency, was in Tallinn.
