It looks like most of you are having a wonderful time. I have been procrastinating about writing this blog for weeks now for fear of having a lack of valuable information to share. My fear of facing Katerina if I don't get it done has exceeded that so I have taken the plunge.
Some background information on my organization: Catherine Ruze is a new modeling agency started in Perth in the early months of 2009. The business is grown immensely since then with the amount of models and work increasing by the day, hence the need for my role - MODEL BOOKER!
I have worked at Catherine Ruze part time for three months or so. I have spent most of my time so far filling out data bases and having meetings with models and clients. As an ex-model my self I have had to express the harshness of the industry to all our talent. Subsequently the gym membership of Perth has increased by 50%. MODEL ATTITUDE is also something that comes with the job and it is important to manage expectations as well as keeping the model, agency and client happy.
Communication has been a challenge within our business as the director and I tend to work on different days so for weeks we will communicate via email and phone without seeing each other. This can become difficult as details can be missed leading to a mountain of confusion.
In the last week we have managed to remedy this and I am glad to report if all goes well we will be meeting at least once a week.
Where professionalism and ethical practice is involved I have discovered there is much of that to be desired within the fashion industry in Perth. While most clients are so super we do have the odd one who makes life so difficult they tend to super seed the good ones . To quote Ben Cousins out of context. "Such as life". These things happen in business and it is the strength of your PR skills that pull you through them.
In terms of PR skills one I have found most useful in my job so far at Catherine Ruze is strategy, planning and time management. As a model Booker it is my duty to look after our talent, so once every three months we run development workshops that require a lot of planning and organizing. I have come to realize also that perfection can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a gift in doing these workshops but I feel well equipped to handle them thanks to those skills I have learned so far in my course.
Picking up the phone and calling prospective clients is something else I have had to do and its not easy but once you get the hang of it its not too bad. Networking is also a skill that hasn't gone astray. Lucky for me I get to network at all of Perth's fashion events and its my "JOB", not bad at all.
That's all for now. We have the African Dream Benefit coming up so parades to organize for that, I will let you know how it goes.
1 comment:
Hey Alex,
It's Suesha here from soem of your PR units :) Your placement/job sounds absoulutely fabulous (pun intended). I did some work for Perth Fashion Festival this year and I remember sifting through models from Cathrine Ruze. At that time I was wondering where and when this modelling agency with such excellent models had started. Once again the world proved to be a small place.
Unfortunately I don't get the opportunity to gaze at beautiful women and jaw dropping men for my placement, but I do have some really nice people here that I work under.
I understand what you mean about picking up the phone to call potential clients. There are a lot of phone calls I have to make everyday and I remember at the start I used to write down word for word what I would regurgitate on the phone. I even tried memorising it to make it flow more naturally, but I guess that was just the nerves of being new to a job and my inexperience. As time in the office has progressed and I have gained a lot more knowledge about the message I'm trying to get across, I don't need to memorise or write sentences anymore. I have found that my level of confidence and knowledge about this area of work has exceeded my expectation and I feel like I'm actually giving quality input to my seniors.
Good luck with the rest of the placement,
Suesha :)
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