Ann Baker

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Patience! Patience! Patience! "P" #2

2024-03-09 14:41:12

Hello to one and all of you beautiful souls. I hope today finds you well and prosperous. I’d like to talk a little bit about Patience. The second “P” we need to walk the model walk. We already talked about Practice. Patience is the second P. The third is Persistence which will be discussed in a future blog post. Patience is a funny thing. We all need it. None of us want it. It’s hard to hold in our hands, yet, if we have the strength and maturity to manage it wonderful things can happen. I believe one of my lessons to learn in this life is patience. After five decades on this planet and all the barriers hurdled, I still struggle with it. This week, I had a reminder that patience pays off. When paired with endurance, hard work and belief in yourself; and, when that nagging voice says to you every morning, “You have something incredible to achieve”, I think patient becomes easier. At least this is my human experience. It’s the validation that makes it feel real and by real, I mean it’s part of the process and therefore something we need to cherish, develop, honor and share. Before Monday of this week, it had been four months since I’d been booked on anything I did not create myself. By that, I mean creating my own commercial shoots in my studio, organizing my own photo ops to shoot & edit by me with my own equipment. 4 months since a contract for work crossed my desk. I was growing a bit impatient. I had let go of the part of the job with regard to submittals on major casting sites as I now have representation and my job frequency dipped. (More on this later, please do not think badly of my agents. This too is a process). I had many conversations in prayer with our Father and my guides & angels. I bug them a lot. Here’s the deal with this type of career choice. Modeling is more than smiling for a camera. Sure, it all sounds glamorous. It is mostly a lot of hard work and hustle. When you catch a win, you feel good. The life of a model means we spend about half our time sending submittals (and following up) to CD’s, Agencies, Journals, Magazines, etc., anyone who will lend an ear, eye or thought. A large portion of what is left of your week is then backing up those submittals with continuous postings on social media, acting and modeling profiles and a website (mine is www.Ann-Baker.com) as well as updating agents with new material. Then, we self-submit to casting sites where agents do not work. A couple hours in the evenings or early mornings is spend daily applying for commercials. Many of my jobs are mine to fulfill meaning I do my own hair, makeup, and wardrobe so I factor in shopping & prep time for shows and shoots and attending the actual job. Moreover, there is skill development, coaching sessions, record keeping, workouts, equipment purchases, technical learning and playing with my at-home-recording studio so that I have the tools to be ready when a job hits. I also must factor in managing Mast Cell Disease as I have weekly doctor appointments too. Folks, I’ve said this before: Modeling is a 24/7 job, and I am the CEO of a biz. The Biz of Ann Baker and her affiliates (Ann Baker Model, Ann Baker Actress, Annabelle), This industry is not for the faint of heart. No one will give you anything. If anyone asks you to give them something for nothing, stand your boundaries. I do not work for free and neither should you. Know your value. I work my tail off and then must wait…. then wait…. then wait more. All the while I keep hustling and working on the plan outlined above. The phrase 'Blood Sweat & Tears' is true. There must be self-belief to make this plan work. This is where the patience comes in. I believe in me. I believe in Ann Baker, the actress, the model and in the Annabelle Character. When no one else on this planet believes in me, I believe this is my destiny. If I did not, I would have found an easy way out which is not my style. So, Patience it is! This is the attitude you must enhearten. In working with my business coaches in the past months, I worked 7 days a week to update my website, improve my social media presence, engage more with the blog, etc.... everything I could think of to get somebody to notice me. My voice shouting so somebody can hear me say “Hey world! I’m here and I’m ready to work!”. And, you know, after four months of no feedback and communication and no contracts, you really do start to doubt yourself. I am reminded of my kickboxing coach about 15 years ago who used a phrase every time he saw I was ready to stop in a workout. He would get into my ear and whisper “This is where you DIG DEEP! It’s in you! Pull it out! “I did nearly every time. So, with that, I give you the same advice (as well as remind myself) this is where you must push that doubt away and you must get going and you must keep going no matter what. I realized belief in myself is stronger than the words that come at me or don’t in this case. If you can’t withstand long bouts of seclusion and silence, then modeling/acting isn’t for you. If you aren’t willing to stay the course even though you can no longer see the path through the mist, then this isn’t your deal. How do I stay on the path? I pushed through it all with faith and belief - and patience was a big part of that. Patience is the belief that your success will come. It is forming. It will come to you at the right moment. I see some fruit from my seed plantings. This week I received two bookings! The first came early in the week with a notice that I will be walking a runway fashion show in June. The second was an email from a casting director informing I will be shooting a very cool commercial next week. I needed this validation. Not to keep going, because I would have anyway (Back to that belief in my destiny) but because I am sure God was getting tired of hearing me inquire of “when” a contract would cross my desk. We all want to know what we do matters and will lead somewhere. This is validation I had. Hard work pays off. Talent only gets you so far and hard work pays off. When you have those days, you feel nothing is working and nothing will ever improve. You have three options you can sit there and succumb to it. That’s an option. We call that doing nothing although you’re never really doing nothing. You can make changes to what you’re doing. Shift gears a bit or shake it up a little and see what happens. Or you can stand up and fight back and say “Shut up Satan!” and keep walking your path. I choose the latter. It is my hope this is encouragement for you. Keep walking your path. If you need to tweak things, tweak them and if you need to take a turn or zigzag somewhere, take the zigzag because life is an adventure. No matter what, stay on your path. It may feel like an abyss at times. I promise it is leading somewhere greater than you imagine. There is a plan for you and a purpose, and it is marvelous! Keep walking your path to see how marvelous it can be. It only gets better from here. I wish you all an incredibly wonderful weekend no matter what you’re doing and no matter who you see. Remember to send love to everyone and I mean everyone and that includes yourself. I’ll talk to you next week. With all the love I can muster, Ann Baker. Find me on Instagram @AnnBakerModel www.Ann-Baker.com photographer: Pat Ventrello, Estero, FL