10 Red Flags of Unreliable Models (and 15 Green Flags!)

Music. Fellow freelance models. Today I have Ayona Gabrielle on the line and we have a massive PSA to help photographers.

Thank you Ayona for being here with me. Of course. Yes so a little disclaimer this episode initially was triggered by I received an email from a photographer that I had plans to shoot with a few months in advance and we were talking about the location he suddenly says oh yeah I was going to get back to you but just want to let you know that I'm going to have to cancel because the last three traveling models that I had booked with canceled at the last minute and it costs him a

lot of money in studio fees and I was like traveling models did this yeah that doesn't sound like traveling models who are professional. Yeah. So it makes me wonder, like, are there a lot of models that say that they're professional full-time traveling models that are misrepresenting themselves? Are these people scamming? Like, what's going on?

I have to agree. I think there's, unfortunately, some people who take advantage of the title, and they definitely make it harder for those of us who do act professionally yeah I can say though that you know after modeling for a long time obviously at the very beginning you know every beginner model has insecurities and like things that come up that you know end up making you want to cancel the shoot like last minute or whatever like I've done it we've all done it right like Yeah, absolutely.

I know in my early years when I was just modeling like TFP and locally in my area, there were times when I just didn't really feel like doing it. And I probably canceled because of that. Yeah.

Let me try to go back in time 18, 19 years to the early days of my modeling and remember there were definitely times like I remember once I booked a shoot on Craigslist and I was like. The photographer last minute told me, oh, you could bring somebody to the shoot shoot, but this is the test shoot. You can't bring somebody. And I was like, whoa, that seems odd. I wasn't going to bring somebody, but now I'm suddenly stashed out. So, yeah, I would definitely be a little wary of that myself.

So I canceled last minute and I didn't feel bad about that one. I guess other times, though, like, I mean, even today, like. I guess this whole episode does have to come with a big disclaimer.

Because shit does happen like you know family members do die even though some people will use that as an excuse to get out of a shoot like my grandma died or whatever like I mean I had to cancel a tour because my grandma died in real life so it happens yeah I have had people use that as an excuse to cancel shoots with me before and then when my grandma died I ended up going to a shoot the following day because I didn't want to cancel and then I showed up

and he was like why didn't you cancel your grandma died last night and I was like but I didn't want you to think that I was unprofessional oh my god yeah and then I just cried so it was it was a bad shoot I felt really terrible about it later yeah when my grandma died and I had to cancel a whole tour I felt so insecure for canceling the tour that I sent a photo of our whole family standing around my grandma's deathbed to prove that I wasn't lying.

And then later I was like, damn, I feel stupid. Like I didn't have to do that. Well, last year, my great grandmother died and I had a photographer who was, it was like in pre-planning for an upcoming tour.

Like trying to blow up my phone he ended up being like on the day that she died and I was like hey like my great-grandmother died today like I'm not really like I can't respond and he wasn't understanding and then the following week when I was at her funeral he was like blowing me up again and I was like do I just need to like send you a picture of her obituary because I'm, Like, I have no reason to lie about this. I understand some people would,

but our shoot's not even for, it was like another month or two. Oh my God, dude. And he just, he was like, no, you're just blowing me off. Oh my God. So crazy. That is definitely not cool. Just like, give somebody time to respond. You know, like, that was definitely one of the key, like, flags that people talked about.

I had prompted i guess i need to go back a little bit in preparation for this episode yesterday i posted a prompt on facebook asking photographers what their most common red flags when they were scheduling with a model for a shoot that would indicate that that model might not be reliable and over a hundred comments like resulted from that posting mostly from photographers and I have narrowed down, I've got a list of the top 10 red flags that a model may flake,

and then there's 15 green flags that indicate a reliable model. And we are going to get into that. I just kind of wanted to talk about reasons from my perspective and your perspective why, you know, maybe we've had to cancel on things in the past, just to try to, you know, identify with what is seen to be a flaky model, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. And there's always going to be legitimate reasons. Like, you had a legitimate family member pass away.

And I understand somebody wanting, you know, like, proof of it because so many people.

Use that as an excuse or i had to cancel an entire tour because my car broke down on the tour and was not repairable oh my god that it was terrible or i had another tour get canceled halfway through it because covid happened oh shit right so there's there's always going to be reasons like you may get sick or something if you're upfront and honest and you try to be reasonable about either like rescheduling or refunding a deposit I've even refunded

people for their studio time before yeah when something happened just to show the respect that you're not trying to disrespect like their time their money their energy that typically goes a long way yeah it contributes to your reputation too being understanding for sure all.

Right well want to tackle this list together yes okay let's i've i've got it pulled up i have it on my end too perfect cool all right so here are red flags that a model may flake number one poor communication delayed or inconsistent responses not confirming details vague communication so this was the number one thing that photographers were bringing up in that 100 comment plus thread yesterday was poor communication and this one's kind of

tricky though it absolutely is because when you're touring. It can become really difficult to stay on track of messages for future tours and to respond, you know, within 28 or even sometimes 48 hours because you're tired, you're working.

All day long and when you're not working you're eating you're showering you're sleeping you're driving so even though you may have what somebody sees as like time in your day you really do not have the mental capacity always I would say that as a good rule of thumb if your shoot's within a week you should try to always respond as quickly as possible because it's the most important essentially but if it's more than a week out typically you

can give it a day two days maybe three days and get back to them and it should be fine yeah I agree I agree like most of the time when i'm scheduling tours i'm initiating messages around three months in advance sometimes more, and so like if we're talking about a shoot that's going to happen three months in advance.

Once we've where you've decided on a date and a time like all the other details can come together organically that that's how i feel i know that there are people that need an answer because they're anxious and they think you're gonna be flaky i guess yeah and and for us like that can be really tricky because we're trying to juggle everything else we're also trying to juggle every single person that we are planning to do a shoot with which if you're touring a lot that That could be, you know.

5 to 30 photographers, depending on how busy you are, per month. That's a lot of people wanting your attention and a response immediately. And it's not always realistic, fortunately, to get to every single person. Yeah. But this came up so much during that Facebook thread that it made me wonder, like, is an autoresponder?

A good solution or having like an assistant respond to your messages for you like I honestly like I feel like a photographer blocked me once when I had an autoresponder on my Facebook fan page so probably not a good I know it was kind of weird really weird I feel like it's a fine line because it's it's hard like financially it's not always feasible to hire an assistant yeah But then so many people are put off by something like an autoresponder.

So you're always going to end up pissing somebody off or making somebody else happy with the same exact thing. Yeah. And people, like, it's not realistic to expect photographers to understand that you're on tour. Right. Even if you have your tour dates on your bio and, like, you've posted flyers and they can see that the dates, if they were to look at the flyer, they can see, oh, she's in Boston for two days and then New York for three days and then Washington U.H.C. for two days.

Like, I wonder if she's going to get any sleep. Yeah.

There's not really the thought process there. to for most photographers to think about like how busy the model is and i don't think it's anything against them it's just when you haven't lived it yeah and you haven't lived where you're traveling almost non-stop and then you're working you're trying to get around a city that you don't know yeah it's hard to comprehend the mental bandwidth yeah yeah that's a good way of describing it however even with us all

being said and like describing how challenging it is to juggle everything while you're on tour the message has been said like it's it's better customer service to try to be able to get to those messages within 48 hours so it's just you know either i guess i gotta get an assistant or i just gotta be on top of it but fortunately for me my tours aren't as long as they used to be so mine either and even when I've been on tour recently I

try to pick like a day or a morning or an evening after I'm done with everything and then I try to go back through all my messages respond to everybody and it's been what I feel like might have been a little too long, I do say, hey, I'm sorry, I've been super busy shooting the last few days. And then I respond to whatever question may have been asked. Yeah, right. That's the best you can do. Best you can do. All right, well, let's move on to the next bullet point.

Do you want to read the next one? Yeah, absolutely. So the next one is low quality portfolio, which would be a predominance of lower quality photos or selfies, it's going to be a lack of professional quality images. This is not necessarily an indicator that the model is going to flake, but it definitely is probably a common denominator in models who don't show up. Yeah, it shows at the very least, typically...

The model may be inexperienced, which could mean that they don't always have the professional skills yet. Or it could mean that they are Instagram models. They're in a lot of models. Yeah, yeah. Because if they don't have a lot of professional images, that indicates that they haven't shown up to the photo shoots. Right. And when you're starting out, it is really important to build relationships with people and get some quality images into your portfolio so that later on

other photographers will be willing to hire you. Yeah. So this number two, the low quality portfolio red flag kind of also ties in with number three, inexperienced models. Higher flakiness with newcomers, especially if they overstate their experience. And that is definitely something that I've seen models like lying about how many years of experience they have or lying about their publications. I see it all the time. Yeah. All of the time.

And I've had experiences where I have seen models who had been modeling for, say, like less than a year start trying to tour. And they're posting online that they've been modeling for three or four years and that they have experience in all these genres when in reality they've been modeling for maybe six months and they don't have experience and then they show up to these shoots and the photographer is expecting a highly experienced model.

But they don't feel comfortable doing those genres because they've never done them before. Yeah. So I'm trying to think of if I was a photographer and I was looking at a model's page and she claimed to have a bunch of experience, what would the indicators be by looking at their profile that they might be overstating their experience? The number of tagged photographers. So if you see a model and they've only worked with maybe two or three photographers, that could be a sign of inexperience. Yeah.

Typically, when you've been modeling for years and years, you've worked with hundreds of photographers. Yeah, for sure. yeah and so to only have a few people you've ever worked with that does not typically show experience and one of the biggest things of experience of experience with modeling is that you have to be experienced in shooting with different personality types of photographers and different styles of shooting. Some people like to shoot slow. Some people like to shoot fast.

When you're inexperienced, that can really throw you for a loop. Yeah, right. This also kind of melds into red flag number four. Do you want to read that one? Yes. So it is misrepresentation. So it would be claiming that you have the skills or experience that you don't and your portfolio is going to show this. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we've kind of already gone over that. Yeah. So I guess we can move on to the next one. This was an interesting one.

So interesting hearing all of these perspectives from photographers because we can only see things from our personal experience and then the other professional models that we already communicate with but we don't really get to be exposed very frequently to like what it's like to work with complete newcomers or very flaky people like that's just not in our little world so so this next one is entourage insisting on bringing multiple people to the shoot indicating

a lack of professionalism and this should not be confused with having an escort. I agree. There's a difference between bringing a safe, reliable, trusted, industry-vetted escort. I know several models who do travel full-time with an escort, and their escort is just as recommended as they are. But... To insist to bring somebody or multiple people who were not necessarily always agreed upon or even the number of people was not agreed upon.

Yeah. That can be really scary to somebody in a studio with thousands of dollars worth of equipment that could potentially be stolen. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think I remember a photographer, this has probably actually happened with lots of photographers that I've talked to, said that the model brought like different people that had like BTS video cameras that they wanted to use at the shoot and like, you know, their boyfriend and like their dog and like their kid.

It was like a whole party of people that they did not consent to being on set in advance. Yeah, and I always find that crazy. I understand sometimes things happen and you have to maybe bring somebody last minute, but it should always be talked about if possible. It's really not necessary to bring more than one person. Yeah. Because they're just there to keep you safe. You don't necessarily need three or four people with you to keep you safe. That does become a distraction.

No. obviously also like most people that i know that do this full-time that are full-time traveling models most of them don't have an escort they're like you mentioned a few of them do travel with their partners who are their escorts but like could you imagine just like bringing five people with you to every shoot and having two or three shoots a day for like a month like that's crazy like that's like a full-time job for all those people it also seems so boring for all those people yeah right

you're just gonna sit there and watch like i would want to do anything else with my life personally unless you're filming a whole tv show or a documentary or something it doesn't make sense right and as far as like filming bts some photographers are gonna be okay with that and some are not but as a model that's something you have to ask respectfully and if they say no i'm not comfortable with that you need to respect that because they're paying for your time Yes. Agreed.

Agreed. Okay, this next one's a doozy. Oh, I know. I was just looking at it. I can read this one. Negative social media presence, constant drama, aggressive posts, or poor grammar in post. Oh, yeah. We have all seen that. I can think of a few people. Yeah. Immediately. Unfortunately, I have tried to advise newer models. It typically happens with newer models, not always, but typically with newer models. I have tried to advise them before when I've seen them post things online that were...

Very drama-filled or very like passive-aggressive towards other models or photographers that it's making them look really unprofessional. Yeah. A lot of photographers that are hiring us are doing this for fun. They're doing this as a hobby. They don't want somebody to show up who is going to make it not fun for them. Right.

So if you're complaining about your boyfriend or your husband or your significant other or you've always got some kind of like drama going on like I was asking in that thread yesterday on Facebook like because a few people a few people mentioned negative social media posts and I was like okay well can we get some specific examples and one person said like always seeming hard up and like asking for money on Facebook there's always something happening with their family or the world owes

them or like something just never like bringing anything positive there's a lot of people out there that complain a lot like it's it's always like oh i have this horrible thing going on right now and could you send me money or oh this is going on with my my boyfriend and i want every single person within the industry to know about it yeah and you know we all go through things oh yeah but there's like a time and

a place for it sometimes it is nice to have support from other people within the community.

But when you're asking for it more than you're not people will start to look at you differently to associate you with a negative like vibe then they don't want to work with you because they're afraid that you're going to make the shoot a not enjoyable experience yeah and i would say in addition to the drama grammar issues and the aggressive posts posting like you know getting drunk or high or like posting you're really hungover or like partying a lot i think that would definitely like be added.

Yeah, for sure. Or like posting videos of you crying.

That's that's usually not something that you should do on a professional level send that to your friends yeah call your therapist please yeah it's just no it's not professional and you wouldn't be able to do that in any other professional environment not in the okay yeah right you're like we're kind of like when we are being hired by photographers like we are we need to be mentally sound and they need to at least subconsciously trust in us that we're not going to have a mental breakdown

at the shoot like you know like with anything shit happens you know like shit can happen but like it shouldn't be an everyday thing yeah it shouldn't be what's like something that you're known for yeah for sure like there's definitely a difference like you're going through a hard time something really terrible happened and you're like I'm sorry like I'm just going through a lot right now versus you're going through a lot all the time for years yeah and

I would say that this negative social media presence.

This is maybe one of the easiest things to like to notice if you're looking at possibly hiring a model go to their Facebook or i don't know their snapchat or whatever you're using and like just see what they're posting like on their on their social media if you know if you could find their yeah just scroll for a little bit read some things let's do some photos see the captions and if it doesn't make you feel like it's going to be a positive experience just move on

don't you don't have to work with that person yeah I will say though like being minorly being the devil's advocate on this there's also and I mean I do this all the time not all the time but I do do this I do post things that are going on in my life that I struggle with not to try to make people feel bad for me but like to try to relate to other people like you know major life events happen or you know one thing that I'm like about is sobriety or whatever like.

I think that's normal, though. That's not, it's not like, it's not filled with like, oh, please send me like attention and validation that I'm going through something horrible. It's more of a like, hey, like this is my life right now. Yeah, there's definitely, I'm sure there's a fine line. I don't think that I cross into this negative social media presence realm, but there's definitely a fine line.

Agreed. Agreed. yeah all right let's move on to the next one okay the next one is reputation so if a photographer is hearing bad word of mouth about a model from other photographers or models that could be an indication that you might you know not be showing up for the shoot i guess yeah showing up or.

You're canceling last minute or maybe you acted in a way on this shoot that made the photographer.

Feel uncomfortable or like they couldn't recommend you to other people yeah photographers really communicate with other models that they're working with when they've had a not good experience with a model sometimes just to ask if like hey do you know if this has happened with this model with other people or sometimes like hey like I want to warn you so that you can tell other photographers that they may want to launch out yeah and I want to add to this that models are really

good at word of mouth with each other but photographers to my knowledge aren't frequently as good at communicating with each other about the models that they've shot with like to my knowledge there's not like facebook or instagram like private chats of photographers they're like oh did you work with so and so what were they like, and there should be yeah for our safety we reference check photographers but photographers should be reference checking models as well with other photographers

if you see a model has worked with you know these five or ten other photographers just send a quick message say hey, I'm potentially going to work with said model could you give me a review of what it was like to work with her? Yeah.

Usually, you'll get a response from some people. There were a few photographers on that Facebook post yesterday that did say they do seek references, which is, I was happy to see that because as far as I know, like within the photographer realm, that has not been as common.

So hopefully it's something that becomes more common because you know like people are shooting in the dark and sometimes they hire a model or they're seeking to hire a model because they have a look that they want to shoot but like perhaps like their idea of this shoot happening.

Is superseding their desire to like check references and they're just crossing their fingers that this model is going to show up and i think you might have seen this post from a photographer that's well known in our arena posted i don't know a week or two ago that a model he had paid in advance like four hundred dollars and she totally flaked out on him and he requested the deposit back and she wouldn't even respond so he had a screenshot of her profile up and like

i didn't recognize her like I don't I don't think anybody in the comment thread like knew who she was it seemed like she had just totally scammed him I did not see that but that's something I hear all the time and there are some people who are well known for doing that I do hear about some people doing it pretty frequently and I do try to warn others like hey you should be reference checking and please reach out to photographers or even reach out to myself or another pro

model that you trust almost all of us are more than happy to give you a quick reference check on another model yeah because we're chatting with each other pretty frequently and we know you. Know like if if they're a model that's known in the industry we more or less have an idea of what they're like. I will put a caveat on this, however, because I know of at least one model in my world who had intentionally talked smack about me to a photographer who was in the booking process with me.

And he told me, you know, he didn't want to shoot with me. He canceled in advance because some model for some reason was offended at some videos that I posted on YouTube or something and decided that she wanted to like try and keep me from getting hired or so.

That sucks i'm sorry that happened yeah oh well i mean honestly it was just a two-hour shoot so and that was the only time that i know of that happening but people could talk shit just because they hate you for some reason you don't even know about it so which you should even with like asking a model for a reference check on another model don't ask just one less like if you're gonna for a photographer's recommendation of a model ask and a couple that you trust and if

you've never heard something bad about somebody and you've only heard good things but one person said something that seems completely different than what everybody else's review is like maybe take that the grain of salt why because it's sometimes there are things that go on between models behind the scenes that photographers don't know about yeah but most of the time we are pretty nice to each other yeah if you hear the same negative reputation information from

multiple different people it's probably true especially if it's those multiple different people did not know that you had asked right of them oh yeah definitely okay and the next one This one is definitely one that needs to be taken. Situationally. So red flag number eight is if the model asks for advance payment close to the shoot date for a reason that is something like, oh, I have a sudden financial burden. You need to pay me in advance right now, like the day before the shoot.

This is not to be confused with like arranging a deposit to secure the shoot date. Right. A deposit typically is 25% of the fee. And most models who ask for deposits do have it in part of their cancellation, a policy that they'll refund you if they have to cancel and other like stipulations that go along with the deposit.

But why somebody is asking you to pay them in full prior to you even doing or even arriving at the shoot that should make you question if they are really who they say they are and large deposits are also something that should make you question if that's somebody who has your best interests in mind as well.

Also, in addition to this, a model who maybe doesn't have as great of a portfolio asking for a higher than industry standard hourly rate, that would also be a red flag that wasn't exactly in this list yet. Yes, I would agree. If somebody is new to the industry And they're asking for, you know, 50 or 100 or more dollars per hour higher than... Your pro-tabble models who have been doing this for, you know, 5, 10, 15 years, that's not normal.

That's not a normal rate at all. And that's potentially somebody trying to either scam you or take advantage of you. Yeah. So if it seems like, you know, outlandish, it's probably an indicator that, you know, you shouldn't be working with this person.

And on the flip side, as a model, when a photographer emails me and they say hey I'm gonna pay you a thousand dollars for a two-hour shoot that's a red flag to me too you know I'm like well that's kind of an unusual rate like why are you offering so much money it seems unusual like there there's not really a reason for that and it always sketches me out so if a model wants three hundred dollars an hour and she doesn't have a very established,

highly unique reason for charging that much, it's probably a scam. Yes. Then do you want to go to the next one? Sure. Okay. Lack of preparedness, not engaging with pre-shoot details or instructions.

This kind of goes hand in hand with the poor communication, but it kind of goes a step further like when the model arrives she has to you know have read the email and like pack the outfits that were discussed or requested or but i have heard i've heard from lots of photographers that like just having a conversation about the shoot in general or like having them look at an inspo pinterest board like if they won't even do that it's like what's the point yeah and what can

also fall into that is like not showing up with hair and makeup done that's requested a certain way or saying oh I I do have that item and I can bring it and then either you don't really have it or you don't care to bring it sometimes people forget stuff yeah it happens but most of the time At least when I'm planning, I make a list of the things that people have specifically requested. You know, a black pair of heels or a specific dress.

And then when I'm packing my travel bag, I try to make sure that I consult my list and pack everything. Now, something always still gets forgotten somehow. Yeah. But it's usually not something that's important or very, very specific for a shoot. Yeah. But having the conversation back and forth, you know, planning the shoot and all of that stuff, it definitely shows whether or not you care about the creative process. Agreed. And if you don't look at it and then you show up and they're wanting

specific poses that they already sent you, it's kind of frustrating. Yeah. As a photographer, because from a photographer's standpoint, I've already shown you what I want. Yeah, you should be able to do it if you've agreed to it. Exactly. So what do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about? Right, you do not read the email. And this is something that might happen if you have an assistant that doesn't communicate very well with you.

And I have heard of this happening like a model's significant other is the one that responds to their emails and books their shoots. But a photographer doesn't know that they're not talking directly to the model.

The model shows up and they're like all right we're doing this now and the model's like what and isn't prepared because the communication between them and their assistant wasn't good so like if you want like good quality responses just wait that maybe 48 hours for the actual model to reapply so that we're not pressured to hire an assistant that might not be good well and if you do have an assistant i do think it would be smart to at least like go through all of your messages again

read over them yourself so that you're familiar and you know you can make sure that nothing is missed nothing's agreed upon that you wouldn't want to do and that can avoid a lot of potential fuck-ups in the future. Yeah.

Definitely. All right. And so with all of that being said, red flag number 10 that a model might flake is ghosting. The most obvious of the model might flake, if they have flaked, have not shown up, no communication. They also sometimes will cancel like 10 minutes before a shoot.

Oh, yeah. That's just as bad. yeah with an excuse of like oh i didn't set my alarm this morning so i over slow yeah and no i don't want to reschedule yeah and this is just like a message to all the models out there that might be listening to this especially if you're newer ghosting is the worst thing that you could possibly do for your career i didn't think that's any career but like in freelance modeling in my opinion being reliable and showing up on time is more important than even looking

good like you you show up when you say you're gonna show up I'd honestly say it's 90 percent of having a. Like a good professional reputation is just showing up on time or even show up early so many photographers are so shocked when I show up early to shoot because so many models either just don't come or they show up late and not within like a reasonable amount of time of late of like maybe five minutes they hit some traffic no i've heard

stories of models showing up 30 minutes late an hour late trying to show up two hours late yeah you know you have to respect other people's time and energy just as you would expect them to do for you absolutely yeah and this i think can be applied or a lot of these points can also be applied to any aspect of life especially a career yeah absolutely it with modeling you have to treat it just like you would any other job you can't not show up for a job and

expect to still have a job right exactly you're gonna be fired yep people are not gonna hire you anymore when they can't rely on you and they have a whole set set up and maybe they've bought wardrobe or a new backdrop or a new camera lens specifically for the shoot and then the shoot doesn't even happen so they've lost money or like in your case where the photographer. Canceled because of other models like he lost money on studio time yeah and.

Then And his reputation was affected even though it wasn't his fault. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. So all of these points being said, I think it's time that we move on to the green flags that indicate reliable models. And for any models listening, especially newer models, this list of green flags could be your roadmap to success. And a lot of these could make or break you. Oh, yeah.

In the long run, as a model. yes all right how about you read the first one this time okay the first one is prompt and clear communication so you're going to be responding to messages in a timely manner and then you're going to answer questions clearly with detailed responses so try to not leave out important details you want to include anything that the photographer might need on an information level yeah honestly like the less back and forth like in individual questions and the

more like dense amounts of information that are passed back and forth between emails the better because like if you can tackle the date location like wardrobe like basic vibe within like one or two emails then all you have to do after that is just touch base every few weeks leading up until your shoot right yeah absolutely you want to be able to save the time first of all for both people of, you know. Going back and forth and, like, dragging it out.

But it shows respect, and it also shows that you take modeling very seriously and. And that you don't just kind of play around or you don't care because you have all of the information provided as soon as possible. Yes. Yes. And communicating professionally in advance is going to ensure that you are also, I mean, not always ensure, but like it's going to contribute to you being treated professionally also. Yes, absolutely.

And this kind of also leads into green flag number two, consistent engagement. So as your shoot is approaching, even if it's a few months in advance, what I like to do and what I recommend other freelance models do is like, even if your shoot's not for three months, like every at least two weeks, just shoot a message. Hey, just wanted to let you know, I'm still excited for a shoot on March 15th.

And what I like to do, so it doesn't seem like I'm just like poking them to remind them to put it on their calendar, I try to include another question like, hey, like, is there a specific hairstyling that you would like me to have when I arrive? So that makes it because honestly, like if you schedule something and then the shoot's three months down the road, sometimes the photographer forgets to put it in their schedule when it's that far in advance.

So it's good to regularly check in. you can also on your calendar invite the photographer with like their email to attend the event yes so like on on google calendar you can invite via email people and then they can confirm and that i have found helps photographers also feel like okay she's taking this seriously. And I know for a fact it's on her calendar and then as a model I know for a fact that they have it on their calendar as well.

Good yes and if you're not into Google Calendar and if a tire sends you a Google Calendar invite.

Respond to it it would just get your thing and a lot of photographers will send them and they'll put shoot details in the google calendar which i love that because i can quickly reference it okay this is the hair this is the makeup this is the address this is the time this is the agreed upon rate there's no questions the only thing about google calendar that i want to like notify everybody of is this happened to me i set dates on my google calendar for like an upcoming trip

in australia like six or seven years ago went to australia and then all of the time and dates on my google calendar shifted so then all of the times and dates that were set in my google calendar were changed and i had to manually modify them all because it like changed per the times that actually happened to me as well when i first started touring and what i do now is i i put it in based off of the time zone that it's in you can go in to

the time settings and pick the time zone i didn't know you could do that and also in the parentheses of like the name of the event I put the shoot time yes so if I'm if I'm shooting from 8 to 10 p.m. I put in the parentheses 8 to 10 p.m. That way there's no question later of oh my god am I gonna be there is this right yeah right yeah if you've manually typed out the time then you'll know that you're going to be there at the proper time.

And that really helps with traveling, like you said, throughout time zones and in areas that you're not familiar with. Yes. Good tips. Let's see. The next one is a professional portfolio. So this would be a well-maintained portfolio with high quality images and a variety of work styles. You want to be consistently updating your portfolio to show that you're still actively modeling and that the photos are not maybe from 10 years ago.

And you might look completely different. Maybe your hair is a wildly different color or maybe you've lost weight or maybe you've gained weight which those are both fine but you have to present yourself authentically yeah otherwise people will be very upset when you show up and you don't look like what they're anticipating you to look like Yes, agreed. And this has been a challenge for me lately because I've changed my hair quite a bit over the last few years. I was blonde, now I'm a redhead.

So what I like to do on my social media, I mean in addition to having my portfolio always updated, is I like to pin a photo or at least a few photos of my current look to the top of my Instagram page.

And i state in the caption of the photo that this is my current look you know pinned to the top of my profile like this is what i look like recently so that that helps i'm i never want to show up and have a photographer surprised that i look the way i look i also break my albums of photos down on like model mayhem into the year that the photos were taken that way the photographer can see a progression of work a variety of work from many years

but also they can look at you know now 2025 this is going to be the most recent work the most recent appearance.

Yeah versus them thinking oh well this photo from 2019 is great but does she still look like this yeah yep and that will contribute to your reputation as well if you consistently show up and don't have accurate images that show what you look like then photographers are going to start talking to each other about that yeah and I've heard about it before where models are using photos that are two or three years old and they look nothing like that anymore and there were some beautiful women.

They were misrepresenting who they currently were, and it made the photographers hiring them feel like they were being taken advantage of. Yeah, that's the last thing you want.

Yeah, you never want to do that. Yeah. Yeah. All right, moving on to the next green flag is that the model tags the photographers that shot the photos consistently and credits the photographers on their social media posts indicating collaborative work. So this is definitely one of the things that I hear a lot from photographers. I shot with so-and-so. We had a great shoot. But then she didn't tag me when she shared some of our work. Like, always tag.

Like, come on. Like, not only is it respectful to tag them, but it also makes it easier for photographers when they're going through and they're wanting to do a reference check on you.

They can see okay she's worked with these photographers I can quickly reach out to them ask their experience and it's the same for us with photographers like we go through okay so he's worked with these models let me send them a quick message real quick but if I have no reference point of who the models are I don't know if I can trust them because I don't know who to ask, as well as, did you even take these photos? Are they stolen off the internet?

Mm-hmm, yeah. Also, if a model's not tagging the photos from another photographer, like... I think that if there's not a nefarious reason, that reason should be stated in the caption of the photo. I have seen models say photographer wishes to remain anonymous. Maybe they don't want their photography public. Maybe they're just a private shooter and they're still working on their skills or whatever reason is. But if there is a legitimate reason to not tag the photographer, state that.

Because other photographers are looking at your profile and they're like, oh I see all these nice photos but who shot them was it her boyfriend or these self-portraits or is she actually working with photographers exactly and I have had people in the past ask me to post photos anonymously since they didn't want to be tagged for whatever their personal reasons were and then there's also been photographers that I've worked with who I later found out or I later had an experience where they were

unsafe to continue working with and I may still like the work and really appreciate the work but I don't want to credit them in a way that deems them as safe so I will credit it as like anonymous due to safety yeah then it gives the other photographers looking at it a notion of okay so she worried about the safety of other models potentially working with who took this yeah that's another reason why some models wouldn't tag in the photo but always indicate a reason for not tagging

and like for any self-portraits just indicate that it's a self-portrait in the caption so if somebody doesn't think it's like an uncredited image exactly or even if like your friend that. You know, came over and took a couple shots for you with your camera. Just say, you know, photo by anonymous. Yeah. All right. I think we covered that. Okay.

Next is positive references. So good feedback from other photographers and models indicating reliability and professionalism. Which goes right back into reference checking models with photographers and other models. If models are speaking highly of each other, most of the time that means that that model's never heard anything about the model being unprofessional, unreliable, hard to work with. Which a large majority of us, I would assume, falls into this category.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, you know, I've heard people mention that it would be great if photographers and models had, like, a Yelp website. But sadly, that's never really been a thing. But the closest thing that's come to, like, a model photographer Yelp had been model mayhem with the verified credit system. That's tough, though, because... You can only leave a positive review. Yeah.

Unfortunately, you don't always have a positive review, but you want other models or other photographers to be able to see that you worked with this person so that they could reach out and ask for. Yes.

Yeah. so if you had a negative experience with somebody and like was prompted to leave a verified credit whether you're a photographer verifying a model or a model verifying a photographer if it was negative just post something in the in the text that says yeah we shot contact me for details, Yeah, or I remember I saw one model, I think you've seen this as well, where when she credited the photographer, she said, he took 1,500 photos of me in two hours. Need I say more? Yes.

It says a lot. It does. It does. From a model's perspective, it does say entirely too much. Yeah. We talked a lot about references also in the red flag, so I'm going to move on to the next green flag. That the model posts their tour schedule updates. So you can see on their social media, on their website, or on their modeling portfolio site that they've posted their tour dates for what cities they're going to be in, on what dates, and they regularly update their availability.

So that way you know that they are actively traveling. So if you're willing. And it's also beneficial because a lot of times you don't always know that somebody wants to work with you yet, but they see, oh, she's coming to my city. Let me reach out. Yeah. Never hurts to ask. No, never ever.

Yeah and if they're posting if they're regularly posting like a tour schedule then it's obvious if you're a photographer looking to hire a traveling model that they are a traveling model and not just somebody that says hey i'm a traveling model like kind of going back to the beginning of this episode when this photographer said that three traveling models in a row flaked out on him i don't know who those people were that flaked out but i do question whether or not they were

actually full-time traveling models it does make you question like okay do they have a posted schedule are they really traveling was this like a a random trip for them oh well don't really absolutely travel all the time but they're just saying that because they're traveling on this one specific trip yeah and you can tell like if you go to their social media all of us traveling models everywhere we go there's always something interesting

to take a snap of and post on our story you know like whether there's cows or like you know you're like going over a cool bridge or you can see that they're traveling like not everybody is very into posting on their stories on facebook and instagram but a lot of us are. That and like even I will sometimes take a snap of like the studio and I'll caption it with like, oh, I'm shooting with and then I'll tag the photographer today and just to, you know, show proof of life.

Yeah it is i mean social media is it's a blessing and a curse because it gives us this whole additional like layer to our job but it's good to be able to provide that proof that you are actually working like the you know bts shots or like the in-between photo shoot on the way grabbing a starbucks in a city that i've never been in before or whatever you know right absolutely all right next is polite and respectful communication using professional language and showing respect in

conversations this goes so far yeah i cannot tell you how many times i have been on shoots and i have have photographers show me messages from unprofessional models, speaking to them in really disrespectful, really aggressive manners, while also trying to get this photographer to hire them.

Yeah, it's kind of counterintuitive, right? Yeah, you can't expect somebody to want to work with you when... You're bullying them or you're trying to cuss them out. Yeah, there's so many instances, unfortunately, that I can think of where model just really berated photographers for maybe not being able to work with them in that moment. Or maybe just not being interested in working together and being polite about it, but then the model has not been polite in return.

Yeah, I had an example of this. I'm not going to say the names of the people, but a photographer that I work with the other day, who I've known since almost the beginning of my career. You know, we were on a meme and real sending basis. So we'll send each other funny videos on Instagram. And I guess he does that to a lot of the people that he works with frequently. And there's another model that, you know, sometimes her life is kind of a mess, but that's fine.

They had been working together on and off for the last 10 years. And he was occasionally sending her funny videos from TikTok and Instagram. And, you know, she would respond and it was cordial and just like a fun back and forth. He sent her one that was like slightly political in a way that she didn't agree with. And he showed me a screenshot of her text. So I got to read it. And she blew the fuck up on him.

And mind you, he sent me the same video. I was just kind of like, eh, but like she was ripping him apart and calling him a rapist and like all this fucked up shit. And like, yeah, just because he sent her a video that indicated that he had like a certain political leaning, which is like, OK, yeah, I don't I don't align with like a lot of people on their politics.

Okay but she was literally like saying like awful shit to him and then trying to throw other models under the bus that he had also worked with and she's like this is why so-and-so doesn't want to work with you and just like saying like i can't repeat the whole thing but it was like the most fucked up horrible message like we're not friends anymore fuck you you asshole rapist living in your mom's basement i was like dude you guys have shot together for 10 years you've already been passing each

other funny videos back and forth and this one like i saw the video it wasn't offensive it just had a political leaning in a slight way like dude like anyway so she flew off the handle like complete bipolar episode. So that kind of stuff, it shows, you know, that you're on a level where the photographer may not want to work with you again because they don't feel comfortable. I would also like to add it's typically best to keep politics out of modeling.

Yeah, agreed. or any projection. Yes. Unless it's directly affecting modeling, there's just too many opinions, few points, and like different walks of life that we all come from. And so we're all going to vary. We're all going to be different about it. Yeah. But we can still make beautiful work together. Yeah. That's like a fine one to dance on because there are a lot of people that want to tell you their opinions or they want to have small talk during the shoot and then it's...

Ends up into a political conversation just don't do that well a good way to like avoid that is just to try to steer the conversation in a different direction or something i've done in the past i'm like hey i'm not really comfortable talking about politics with people outside of my home.

So could we please talk about anything else yeah i would say in most cases in a professional setting especially if you have like a specific amount of time to get your shots done like you know that that could escalate you know if the person that you're working with seems like they legitimately want to have like you know mono e mono conversation and they and they seem like they really like want to respectfully engage on something and then they're just throwing some like borderline

offensive statement that they're trying to trigger you trigger you with you know I guess everything's taken her situation, you know, so I have had times where the photographer was saying stuff that, you know, they were indicating things that I didn't agree with, and I didn't want to get into it with them. So I was just like, my God, like, I don't agree, but I don't want to get into it. Okay, like, I'm,

I've had that happen a lot where I just I'm like, OK, let's talk about something else, please. Yeah. I want to continue being able to respect you and vice versa. Yeah. It's a tough one, though, because it's like you want to stand up for what you believe in. But there's there is a time and place for that. And honestly, if somebody is set in their beliefs and they're not actually looking for an outside perspective, your perspective is not going to change their mind.

No. And most people are set in their beliefs. The next one is acknowledgement of shoot details. So you're actively engaging in pre-shoot discussions. You're asking questions. You're confirming details. I think we pretty much covered this one with the red flags for people who don't do that. So just do do that. And then you will be known to be a reliable or at least acknowledging model. Yeah, absolutely. Let's see. The next one after that one is social media presence.

So you're maintaining professional organized social media profile with minimal personal life drama.

Yeah. A good way to maintain this too is to have separate accounts for your personal and your professional life. So I personally have a personal account that my friends and my family have access to. Yeah. And I share memes and I, you know, post my normal life stuff. And then on my professional accounts, I post modeling related stuff. I might put something that's personal enough that doesn't really matter. Like I like to cook. So sometimes I post pictures of the food I make.

Yeah, but I'm not posting like my personal life drama of what's going on outside of modeling 98% of the time. Yeah, I'm like, you know, I mix it up a little bit. I have a problem. I don't really have personal social media. And anytime I have, it's always been like either abandoned or like become a personal slash modeling. but it always ends up at least 75% like modeling related stuff. I think that's fine as long as like you're still...

For keeping in mind, like, you are using this on a professional level, and so there is a certain appearance to be upheld that is to be expected for your reputation to continue to be in good standing. Yeah, and that kind of falls back into the red flags about the negative social media presence. You don't want to do that. All right. So green flag number 10 is proactive problem solving.

So if you encounter an issue during the shoot planning or perhaps at the shoot, such as travel delays or personal emergencies, how are you handling that situation? So you're not breaking down, freaking out, asking for payment info and then ghosting. You are dealing with the situation in the most professional way possible.

And a good way to do this like for example if you have to cancel and you know you have to cancel because something has come up something's happened let the photographer know as soon as you know yeah just an option for a refunded deposit give them an option for rescheduling if that is something that would work out, offer suggestions for maybe another model to fill the time slot.

Yeah, there are always options. Yeah. When I started modeling back when I was, not when I started modeling, but when I started traveling for modeling, at the time I was not able to rent cars.

So I had to proactively problem solve how I was going to get to and from each shoot having two or three shoots a day for like two weeks in a row in like multiple cities so that required lots of communication in advance either I had to figure out an uber a bus or ask a photographer to pick me up somewhere and drop me off somewhere else that sounds like a mess it was a mess I did it though i did it like that for five years that's amazing and it really goes to show that if

you want to yeah be organized and if you want to get it done there's there's always a way it may not be the easiest thing or the most convenient yeah but there's always a way if you want to keep a good standing and you want to. Keep modeling where people want to keep working with you. Yeah. Having a car is so much better than bombing rides and taking a bus.

Oh, my God. Like, we don't have to get into that. I don't know how other models like Uber around town because that would stress me out personally so much. If I fly, I rent a car and I just, yeah, cry on the inside a little bit about, yeah, the cost. Public transportation, though, any time that I felt like I was in danger when I was touring, it wasn't because of photographers. It was people on public transportation. You can't control who you're in the presence of.

You might be in the presence of somebody who's having their day that they were going to go postal. You don't know. Anyway, I kind of segwayed. I kind of bankrolled on that one. No, it's fine. I understand. And the majority of times that I have felt unsafe while traveling have been sketchy hotels that I probably shouldn't have booked or sketchy gas stations that I definitely shouldn't have stopped at. Yeah. So it's mostly the normal people.

Yeah. What are the next one? Yeah, consistency in posting, regularly updating your social media with recent work, and indicating ongoing engagement in the industry. This goes right hand in hand with updating your portfolio, and you're showing that people are still wanting to work with you, that you're still working, that you still look in the image that they're expecting you to look like. Yeah.

And if you just cross over into just posting selfies in your bedroom all the time, then it might not look like you're actively modeling. Like you got to post those photos from the shoots to like, you know, show that you're actively working. And it also, if you're posting, you know, bedroom selfies all the time, people may not think that you're a legitimate model. Because they're wondering, okay, so where is her professional work?

If I'm going to hire her as a professional, I expect to see a professional quality portfolio. Okay, this next one is, this is a good one for me to hear because I do try to do this, but I feel like I don't do it enough. The model acknowledges their collaborations. So this means that you're showing enthusiasm for the projects you've collaborated on with photographers.

That shows that you're not just in it for the money that you actually enjoy the process of the photo shoot i feel like that could be tough with some really boring concepts yeah but overall yes you should be excited you if you don't love to model. At your core and your main goal is your main goal from day one is just how can I make as much money as possible? That's not good. It's kind of unethical. Yeah. And you're going to burn out too. Oh, so quickly.

And also, you will likely put yourself in a situation that you may not be comfortable in or that you may later regret because you were thinking about money over maybe safety or money over artistic value. And while, yes, we do all need money to survive.

Yeah. there's a line there's a line and it's different for everyone but yeah you have to have some sort of a line at some point yeah now honestly like sometimes my enthusiasm for the shoot is even more excitement towards working just with that actual person because I like their personality not always the photos that necessarily result just when it comes to like what you said boring shoots like you know posing on a hotel bed we've all done it 10,000 times right like you

know like but I can at least say that I really enjoyed working with that person it was great to see them again like I really hope that you're happy with the photos like the ones with the red lingerie were my favorite you know like it's good to at least show some kind of engagement and enthusiasm him at all. I mean, I have a photographer I work with pretty frequently, and I love to work with him. He's a very nice guy.

But he always shoots on a wrinkled white backdrop. Y'all, please, please see in your backdrops, please. I am begging you. He's hitting it like at 14, right? So you can see all the... And so like creatively, sometimes it's tough. Because I'm thinking about the backdrop being wrinkled the whole time. But I'm also enjoying catching up with somebody that I'm building a working friendship with.

Yeah and so i'm excited to see my friend again i'm excited to to catch up i may not necessarily be excited that day about the white backdrop but yeah and honestly if they're always shooting on the same wrinkly white backdrop they're probably more excited about seeing you and interacting with you than they are about the actual photos as well so maybe like double bar thing i just want them to steam it yeah hey i hope you're listening wrinkly backdrop photographer you and it's him you're a nice

guy but steam that he nice i i feel so bad saying anything but it's like every time i walk in and i'm like oh maybe i should buy you a steamer for christmas he probably he know i don't i don't know who you're talking about but he he, Just what Team probably knows. He probably knows. I know him very well. He's a very kind human. But it kills me every time. And every time I go in and I'm like, maybe today. It's so funny. It'll all be steamed, but it's never steamed.

You gotta come. Invested steamers. Do it. Maybe you do it like a sexy mage shoot where you steam the backdrop during. I'm going to suggest that actually. Go. And now we're using us. we're using.

Proactive problem solving from green flag number two the next one is positive public interactions so engaging positively with your followers and peers avoiding public conflicts or drama this is pretty easy you know when somebody is commenting and they're just saying oh i love your work just say thank you or like just hit the little heart yeah you know just acknowledge it if somebody comments something rude or hateful as much as you may want to go off on them it's probably not wise it's

just delete the comment oh my god I mean this is the reason why I deleted my Facebook in 2020 and I wasn't on Facebook at all for almost two years is because like when I saw like negativity or conflict that triggered me had to jump in and it was just bad i was like i shouldn't be doing this i had a hard time with this for a while i still struggle sometimes what i have begun to do is i just log out good and like i don't i and i won't look at whatever platform it was on again until the next

day yeah because by then i've forgotten about it yeah maybe and i probably won't scroll and see it again that's good that's probably i i should do that more just ask yourself is this. The hill that i want to die in before hitting send and if it's like a public. Safety concern or something you probably should comment yeah i hit something. That imports yeah but if it's really like not that big of a deal yeah it's not going to change anything for anyone yeah,

Do you really want to keep yourself up, stressed out about it? Probably not. Yeah.

Okay. Green flag number 14 is good organization. So the model keeps track of their bookings, responds to inquiries efficiently. This kind of ties back into prompt and clear communication, but it is also incorporating, you know, how you have your shit together and you can show that you have your shit together.

You show up, you're prepared for the shoot, you have the certain shoes the photographer requested two months ago via email because you wrote it down in your booking sheet or however you organize your shoots. And this is definitely, when you first get into touring or full-time traveling, a skill that you have to build. Because when I started, it just felt like chaos until I came up with a system for myself.

Yes, and I think another thing to add to this that's really important for good organization is planning enough time in between shoots to not only account for potential travel time. Google Maps it. See how far it is? Oh, yeah. Add 30 minutes to an hour to that drive time. Yeah. And there's no traffic in that city. Traffic. Also, you almost never leave a chute like directly on time.

Yeah. So that gives you the buffer of being able to pack up without rushing, sign the release, not have to worry about traffic. If you're hungry, if you need gas, you can stop and grab something. Yeah. and you're not running late all of the time yeah a good rule of thumb that I personally have for booking shoots is I plan typically two hours between all shoots and, Unless the drive time is more than an hour, and then I add an hour to whatever the drive time is.

Wow, that's pretty good. That's more time in between than I put, but I guess it really depends on how far away it is on the map, too. And if I should get hungry. If I know that the two chutes are going to be very close and very easy to navigate in between, I will do a shorter time period. I'll do maybe an hour or an hour and a half. Yeah. But two hours is my general rule of thumb for most cities that can almost always get me from one place to another in the perfect amount of time.

That's good. Okay. We are finally approaching green flag number 15, which is reliable cancellation policy communicates any changes or cancellations while in advance with valid reasoning.

Yeah and the cancellation policy in general is definitely something that should be communicated when you're first putting the shoot together let them know hey by the way have a cancellation policy and an easy way to do this is like include it in maybe your bio on model mayhem or model society include it in your cold call have it accessible on your website in your booking information you want people to be able to access as much information as possible.

Regarding working with you before they agree to it that way there's no surprises for anyone yeah yeah you don't want to assume that like they understand if if the photographer cancels on you last minute that they still owe you a certain amount of the shoot fee because it's pretty common if you're especially if you're a full-time traveling model that you do have a cancellation policy and you should communicate it,

Yes, absolutely. And when we're traveling, of course, like, it's really hard to rebook something last minute, which is why some of us have cancellation policies. But if you're not informing people or giving them the access to find the cancellation policy, then that can really make them feel like they're being taken advantage of.

Yeah right yeah if it's on your website and they cancel on your last minute you could say it's been on my website the whole time but it's still always i'm sorry go ahead i was just gonna say it still is good to like at least mention it when you're booking a shoot yeah i i try to send mine out in my cold calls and then I also will send if somebody messages me I'll send them like a short little message just like hey I see that you're interested in working with me if you would like to look at more

of my work before we continue to speak here's a link to my portfolio you can also find information on my website about my current tour dates, my booking information, my cancellation policies, etc. And here's the link to. The website as well as I will individually link the booking page. And at that point, if something goes wrong and they didn't read your policy page, it's on them because you told them about it. Yeah. They had the opportunity to look at it. Yep.

Wow. This has been a really good, I feel very thorough and organized episode. I was just feeling like this might sound.

Weird to somebody that's like not a photographer or a model but I'm just gonna say it I felt like as we were going through all of the points and like contributing to each other's like responses felt like I was at a photo shoot with you and we're posing together and you are like you're complimenting my shapes when I change my leg you're pointing your toe you know what I mean like because we naturally do that oh I missed yes absolutely do you think we missed anything I feel like everything

that comes to mind is covered. I'm sure we may have still missed one or two things. Yeah, you know, so. I mean, there are definitely like when I was privately messaging with some people, they were like suggesting some things that like I didn't agree with as far as, you know, indicating that a model might be flaky. I won't say who it was, but he said that almost any time he tried to book with a goth model, they always flake. I'm like, I don't think that all goth models flake.

I mean, maybe that's just like the region that you're in or that's like a local model thing. But that just goes back to make sure you're reference checking people. Make sure you're checking them out. What's their reputation? Yeah. It really doesn't matter the genre of model. Oh, actually, I did think of one thing we didn't cover. Okay. Open models portfolio...

And I saw this on your post. Somebody mentioned this. If a model's portfolio has a lot of photos that look heavily edited to where you're not really sure that that's what they may show up looking like. I've had photographers I've worked with before show me examples of models they've worked with that this has happened. There was one where all of her photos were very heavily.

Photoshopped they were beautiful photos but they did not correctly represent who she was and they made her look about 20 years younger than she is and so he was very very shocked when she showed up and not only was much older than she was claiming to be yeah but she also didn't look like she did in her portfolio because everything was heavily edited it was so happy yes so like a facetune on selfies that's a red flag heavily photoshopped where every single photo is heavily photoshopped that

i would question that yeah and honestly the the photographer that i mentioned who had posted a few weeks ago that the model requested a 400 deposit in advance and then she ghosted the screenshot that he shared in her avatar picture she looked heavily photoshopped she looked like she had very heavy instagram influencer style makeup you know what i mean with like the eyebrows and all of that it looked very like you know lost in blue suisse maybe,

Yeah, somebody who's maybe a faith account or maybe an influencer account, but not a travel model. Yeah. So... And I don't know if we talked, we didn't talk in depth about this, but like obvious drug use or obvious addiction problems.

I suppose that kind of goes in with negative social media presence, but like even outside of social media presence, if a person has a reputation for, you know, having drug and alcohol problems, then it might indicate that they might, I mean, this used to be me okay I'm not throwing people under the bus I literally did this where I would get wasted black out book shoots while blacked out and then not show up because I didn't remember booking a shoot because I was blacked out when I booked it so

well well I what I think is actually worse than that scenario is there's been models I've heard of who show up drunk to the shoot yeah and then And it's to the point where, like, you can smell it coming off of them. Don't do that. Please arrive sober. It's just like any other club. Like, you can't go to work drunk. You can't go to work high. Yeah. It's so unprofessional. And a lot of people don't appreciate when models show up and they're not fully aware of what they're doing. Yeah.

Absolutely it's a recipe for disaster also brush your hair yes i can i can say that i there have been times when in my early in my career when my depression was really bad and i may have also failed at doing that as properly as i should have but brush your hair. Yes that's good advice yes, Okay, I think that we actually have covered everything that I could possibly think of.

And if anybody thinks of anything else that could contribute to these lists of red flags or green flags, go ahead and shoot me a message, social media, or shoot Ayona a message, whatever.

We're all about this. The main reason I want to compile this information is to be a tool that can help photographers avoid those negative experiences where models get flake or they scam you or they get a deposit and then don't show up like that's fucked up it hurts us as experienced traveling models so we're trying to help you which also helps us absolutely i i like to advocate for not only the safety of models because i do feel like that's really important but the safety of

photographers and their time because the only way to make the industry a better community and environment for all of us is to put work into it and to try to make it better for each other and try to hold each other accountable if we're not holding each other accountable then it's going to just continue to be issue after issue and then.

It could get to the point where photographers stop hiring models entirely and none of us want that to happen like we really love to do this yeah yeah so hopefully there's people out there that have been burned you know like it's hard to learn from like negative experiences but there is a silver lining. There are many of us who will show up, we promise. I promise I'll show up even if I'm like nearly dying. Yeah. And your grandma just died last night. You'll still show up because you

don't want to see it. I'll be sorry. I cannot believe I did that. I look back at it and the photos from that shoot were so bad. I feel so bad. And it was someone I knew like, well, I could have been like, hey, but I just, I, I really did not want him to think I was flaking. Yeah. And making something up. Yeah. And COVID made that tough, too, because if you were suspected to have COVID, like, even if you had a runny nose, like, oh, my God, should I cancel? Do I have COVID?

If you're sick, please cancel. Please do not get us sick. For real. Because then we're on tour, you know. And not only are we then sick and canceling shoots, but in the days before we know that we're sick, we're potentially getting other photographers sick.

Some of those may be high risk for their health. I've had a photographer give me COVID knowingly and I was very upset about it because I met my six-week-old goddaughter on that trip oh my god and thankfully I did not give it to her but that could have been so dangerous for her getting a model sick is worse than rubbing poison ivy on their face because you're not just affecting that model and her bookings but you're potentially affecting everybody that that model interacts with and

you don't know the immunity level of other people that you're working with always you just be conscious be aware and if you wouldn't go to work like that please don't do a shoot like that most of us are pretty understanding a lot of times we can reschedule it's not worth it i promise it's just photos yeah agreed all right i think that we've done a really good job we've i feel like i've taken up enough of your time and yeah so thank you for doing this with

me again this has been great yes thank you so much i really enjoyed doing this. Music.