Aaron Marcus, a modeling career coach, shares what to do after an agent rejects you. Verify they got your submission, include a pre-stamped postcard with your materials, don't take it personally, follow up in a few months, and keep looking for other representation.
Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus, America's premier acting and commercial modeling career coach, the founder of HowToModel.com, the author of How to Become a Successful Commercial Model, now in its 5th edition. And I've been making my living as an actor and a commercial model for over 26 years. When people ask me about, uh, what do you do if you submit yourself to an agent and, uh, they reject you? What's the next step? So here are a couple of things to keep in mind. Number one, make sure they really are rejecting you. Make sure that they really don't want to work with you. It's possible that you've submitted yourself, you haven't heard back from them, and you're just assuming that they aren't interested in working with you. That might not be the case. Maybe your email that had your headshot and resume, maybe it got lost. Maybe it accidentally got deleted. Maybe you sent it to the wrong address and it didn't bounce back. Maybe you sent a hard copy They haven't looked at it yet. Maybe it got lost in the mail. So here's one thing that I would definitely do when you are submitting, especially with a hard copy. Just type up a little letter or postcard and place it in a pre-stamped return envelope that has your information on it. And on the letter, just have it say, yes, I've received your package, and there can be a checkmark. We are not interested in working with you at this time. Or, yes, we are interested in talking with you further. Contact us as soon as possible. And hopefully they will at least put the postcard in the mail or put the envelope in the mail after they've checked off that information. And then you'll know, did they get it? Are they interested? Are they not interested? And to me, I've always found that to be much more helpful than the unknown of just wondering, well, what's going on? So let's just, let's just say that you did receive some information stating that they are not interested in working with you. You gotta understand that it's not any kind of personal statement about you, and also it has no meaning at all as to what you might be able to do in this industry. For whatever reason, they— this one particular agent or 2 or 3 agents— are not interested in working with you. Maybe they already work with somebody in your category and they don't want to bring somebody else on. Maybe they don't do the kinds of things that would be best for you. Maybe it's a large agency and they work only with very, very experienced people and you're not at that stage. There are so many reasons why somebody would be interested in working with you or not interested in working with you. So the key thing is, if you really want to pursue the industry, don't give up just because an agent or a couple agents say no. So what? Look, I've done I'm getting closer to 1,200 jobs. I'm in the 1,800 job range right now. And I've got, I think, a great headshot. I've got a very strong composite sheet. And I sent it to a smaller agency up in New England. And honestly, I was kind of shocked, but they said that they weren't interested in working with me at this time. They already have people in my category. Now, I did go to their website. Yeah, I mean, there are people that are somewhat in my type, that are my type, my age category, but I mean, I bring some very interesting things to the table that very few people do. And I'm not trying to boast or anything. I've just had a lot of experience and I'm really good at what I do and I get rehired a lot after jobs. So I was really surprised by their response. Didn't want to fight, didn't you know, didn't want to write back and say, "Well, it's your loss." You take it and you move on and you find somebody else. That's all. And the crazy thing is there are times you are going to find that somebody might say no to you today, and in one month, two months, three months from now, all of a sudden they want you. And that can happen for a lot of reasons. Or maybe the person who said no to you today left the agency, and they moved on to some other place, another agency. And now the new agent there. wants to have you immediately. So just because somebody says no for right now, maybe wait 2, 3 months and you can always go after them again, or look and continue to try to search for other people in the market that you want to work in. So the key thing is don't let it get you down. I'm not saying that you might not want to go out and throw a party because you got rejected from somebody, but— It's like anything else in this world. A no isn't necessarily a no for life, and if it doesn't work out there, you'll find somebody else to represent you who will be able to utilize your skills, make money with you, and that you will enjoy working with. So anyway, I hope this was helpful to you. My name is Aaron Marcus. If you have any questions at all, always feel free to email me at aaron@howtomodel.com, and also you can always sign up on my Website, howtomodel.com. I send out great acting and modeling information to everybody on my list. And join my Facebook page, facebook.com/howtomodel. There's great information there. You can ask questions. I will answer it for you. Other people in the industry will answer them for you as well. So anyhow, I hope you get to join us soon, and I look forward to talking with you very, very soon. I'm Aaron Marcus. Thank you.
