BEWARE My Image Was Stolen Here's How I Got Paid

Beware, my image was stolen and here's how I got paid. Hey, if you watch this to the end, I've got a great bonus video for you. It's this unbelievably bizarre modeling casting, or go-see, actually happened to me. Okay, let's get started. Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. I don't know if this has ever happened to you, and if it has, please share it here on the channel so we can learn from you. But I had my image stolen. It was so unbelievable to me just how brazen someone can be. So here's what happened. Oh, hey, before I forget, really quickly, I've got a new website. howtoactandmodel.com. Hey, don't forget, go there, subscribe, it's all free, and I'm going to send you a great bonus video. It's the 6 Secrets for Mastering Self-Tapes. I have over 500 thumbnails up on my YouTube channel, and every week, you know, I upload a new one. And there was an actor who I didn't even know. This guy was so nice, really kind and generous, and he contacted me. And, and he— it took him a little while to actually find me, but he did. And he said, Aaron, I just want to let you know, in case you don't know about this, but there's an image of you holding a check. Looks like a residual check. And it's in an ad campaign for some energy company. And, and I, I knew about the, the photo with me holding a check. It was part of a thumbnail, uh, for a quick tip video that I created. And I said, I didn't do anything for an energy company. And so he sent it to me. And, and by the way, on a little bit of a side note, this guy was so incredibly generous. And, and that's, that's why I love sharing information with fellow actors, just so we can help each other, like in this situation. So I contacted the energy company and I called them and I said Do you do your own advertising or do you contract it out? I said, because there's an image of me that is being used for an online ad that I didn't do. Basically, this is very illegal. You stole my image and we need to talk about this. So the guy told me, he said, he goes, look, I really apologize. No, we had nothing to do. with creating the ad. We just pay a company and they're doing an ad for us, and it goes into like a 3 or 4 state area of where they're located. So I said, please send me the name of this company. I need to talk with somebody. So before I reached out to the company, I contacted an attorney, somebody who I know, and I explained the situation and I said, If I'm able to reach someone, certainly I need them to stop immediately with this advertising, number one. And number two, I need to be compensated for this. And I said, what do you suggest? And he gave me a number. And that— he said, look, he said, this is very reasonable. I'm not trying to gouge anybody. This would be a regular fee. And actually, I don't mind telling you, he said, look, why don't you ask for $500, assuming that they actually stop? Because if they continue to do it, then our number is going to go up tremendously. But $500 for the mistake. Mistake. So got in touch with the company that did the ads, and it took me a while because, you know, I was trying to find the company on all different kinds of social media platforms. It really did take me a while, but I did detective work. And finally I reached the company, called the company, and look, I didn't go in guns blasting. I wasn't screaming, I'm going to sue you. I just said, look, I need to speak to the owner of this company. I said, we have a problem because my image was stolen. And it's being used illegally without my permission. And this, this is an issue. So they put me in touch with the owner and once again explained the situation. And he never really super apologized. He said, oh, I'm not sure how my graphic artist grabbed that. Certainly it was a mistake. And I told him what I needed. Both financially, and it needs to stop immediately. And he agreed, and they did send me a check. So everything got worked out. But let me just tell you, if it wasn't for this really kind actor, I never would have known. And so number one, that's one of the reasons why it's so great to have this acting family, even just here. And so Hopefully, you know, you subscribe to this, this channel. If you didn't, please click the subscription, you know, subscribe here, click the notification bell so you always know when I upload a new video. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up, that's helpful. But most importantly, I want to continue growing this, this acting community so we can help each other, like in situations like this. So please be careful. Out there. And if somebody does take— finally got something in my eye here. There we go. Okay, that feels better. Hey, if somebody did use your image illegally, you've got legal recourse, and you should, you know, you should take care of that immediately because besides the fact that it's illegal, that could really wind up hurting you. Let's say I had a possible TV commercial for an energy company, and they say, well, do you have any, any other ads? Running for competing companies. And I would say, no, don't. Well, I did, you know, potentially. So take care of yourself, be very, very careful. And if you see something that might be unusual— and the reason why the guy contacted me, he said, I just want to let you know, in this residual check, if you zoom in, you can actually see your name, you can see your address. I didn't realize it was that clear in there. So he helped me with that as well. I did promise a bonus video. You can see it right up here. It was such a bizarre go-see, an audition, you know, casting for models that I've ever experienced, and I think you're going to enjoy it. And look, hey, have you ever experienced a weird audition or go-see? Once again, share that with us as well, just so we can learn from you. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.