Venance Chiepodeu Models Leadership
One of the first things I learned when I recently started my own business is that I have a lot to learn. So when I found a solicitation for a personal assistant to the executive producer and founder of a global advertising and brand marketing firm, I knew that the smartest thing I could do for myself was to get this individual to hire me.
My business, Model to Modelpreneur, is a model and influencer coaching and branding platform.
Let me introduce myself: I am Venance Chiepiedu - I love to model and there is nothing more exhilarating than the spark between model and photographer on a great shoot, or the sense of self-possession you get to feel with all eyes on you, in perfect hair and makeup, wearing something beautiful or hip or edgy, and walking down a long runway knowing your image could be shared all around the world.
And yet, I always knew that I was also meant to be a businesswoman. Even though I am still in a model’s prime, for some time I kept trying to think of a way to integrate my desire to own a business with the glamour and privilege of being in the limelight of the fashion world, one of the most exciting industry’s imaginable.
At some point, I started noticing how many other girls who were just as beautiful as I just weren’t making it. Sometimes my peers and I would discuss someone who was rising fast and how it was that they seemed to fall out of favor just as suddenly. Sustaining your relevance in an industry as fickle a fashion is the real talent of modeling. You don’t get to be someone like Naomi Campbell just for being good-looking. And you don’t get to have the business reputation of someone like Tyra Banks, who now lectures personal branding classes at Stanford University, by waiting for age and decline to get serious about your post-runway life.
I wanted to get started on a business so that I already had something when this is all over. That’s when I realized that I wanted to coach models and influencers who were struggling to stay “booked and busy,” as the saying goes. So I started my company, Model to Modelpreneur, built my website, and began successfully coaching and guiding aspiring models. I teach them how to build their brand, how to use social media to promote themselves, and I encourage them to remain true to themselves in a competitive industry with a lot of psychological triggers that already vulnerable young women can become consumed by.
I thought that because I knew the industry so well, and because I knew social media so well, and that because I knew myself so well, that I was ready to do this. But as my roster of clients started to grow, it occurred to me that I needed some coaching of my own about how to sustain my relevance in the business world, a world that isn’t based on gifts like looks or luck. In business, you must be savvy, decisive and ahead of the curve. You have to be as administratively proficient as you must be creative. Unlike modeling, there is no on-the-job training. When you have a business, you have to know what you’re doing.
It was the law of attraction that five or six months ago led me to Universal Admedia, the personal and corporate brand marketing and management agency. When I responded to the advertisement for their personal assistant position, they were perplexed by the notion that someone with their own business would want to be the assistant of someone else with their own business.
I was honest: I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn about the business side of running a business, if you will. I had the passion part. The knowledge of the industry that was my content. But I needed to know business. I also wanted to be immersed in an active agency environment whose expertise was branding. I couldn’t think of a better place to be.
Fortunately, the team at UA are outside-of-the-box thinkers and so they were intrigued enough to give me a shot. And I am so grateful for this opportunity. In the last several months since working for Universal Admedia, I have learned what amounts to a graduate course in branding and marketing. Three things in particular come to mind:
1.The power of organization and being tech savvy. I have mastered the latest tech software for both administrative and creative purposes and I will never fall behind in this lane. You absolutely must know the most efficient tools to run your business and you must be proficient at them. And they are updated often.
2. I had to break up with myself. I had one Instagram account for what amounts to three handles: myself as Miss Cameroon, the model and beauty pageant winner; the Model to Modelpreneur business owner; and my own personal IG. Universal Admedia helped me understand how that diluted all three of these distinct brands. Essentially, I needed three different IG handles. My Miss Cameroon IG is what Nlii Addo, Executive Producer at Universal Admedia, calls my “success” brand for it’s self-referential aspect: that I can accomplish the very things I wish to teach others.
3. Peerage. Learning to position myself better with other CEOs was new to me. Basically, if I wanted to be in business, I needed a peer group, an executive squad, so to speak. So I started Coffee and Zoom, a casual video conference meet-up, to create an opportunity to meet and interact with other CEOs. I invite my own guests, most recently Cyndee Schneidau, the CEO of Rodan and Fields, the cosmetics company.
Now I genuinely know my business inside and out. Which, you might wonder, entails what exactly? Teaching models to preen and walk with an attitude, you wonder?
No. I don’t just talk about walks and poses with my models, I also integrate personal development skills, the ways of thinking, and the attitudes, behaviors, and visualization techniques that make or break careers — and spirits. I encourage my clients to build their confidence by being authentic. I teach them to avoid mirroring other models, influencers or celebrities. There’s a very fine but firm distinction between being inspired by someone and mirroring them. You have to know which one you’re experiencing. You have to know who you are and what you stand for in order to be your best self, otherwise you can just get lost in all of this.
I teach my clients how to implement self-promotion skills to get signed and to keep getting booked. You have to put in the work and be consistent. You also have to be willing to be uncomfortable. If you’re serious about change — and models have to be flexible and change their looks and styles regularly — you have to go through uncomfortable situations. A good model’s chameleon-like ability to be different people is a great metaphor to me about how successful people are really just great adaptors. They rebound from failure and they decisively recoup form unexpected missteps. I teach my clients to stop trying to dodge the process. It’s the only way to grow.
A lot of model coaches are great at showing you how to look your best in front of the camera, how to hold a pose, how to catch the right light, et cetera, et cetera. That’s all very important, of course, but I also teach my girls the behind the scenes elements, like how to grow, build your brand, and meet your goals on social media.
For example, we all want to be selective about who we interact with, but you have to make your IG public in order to get discovered, for obvious reasons. The stage before you get signed is not the time to be aloof. You can create an intrigue by being accessible also. Being intriguing is not the same as being remote and inaccessible.
And lastly, I remind them to remind themselves that IG and fashion are not the real world. To be serious, but not to take one’s virtual self too seriously. You have to know when you’re modeling and when you’re being. There’s a big difference between the two.