Always Simmering - TalentSoup Blog
Who’s Making Soup | Blog
Here’s the latest on what’s cooking. You’ll find business thoughts, inspiring ideas and of course castings. Note: Most clients don’t announce their castings publicly, so this is a fraction of actual projects for which Talent Chefs are being booked!
Image Fire Is Under Control - Thanks For Being Patient
Tuesday March 09, 2010
So our resident brainiac, Tech Chef, fixed the image issue. Sorry for the hold up. Please go back to your Profile and upload your images if you experienced any problems. Welcome to the Soup Fresh Faces! Permalink
Our Talent Are So Hot You Broke The Server!
Tuesday March 09, 2010
If you've attempted to sign up on TalentSoup for the last 3 hours or so (starting around 5:45 EST), you may have had problems uploading your pictures. We got flooded with new talent and that broke something so our crazy-smart Technology Chef is in there right now working it out. Sorry for the delay and rest assured once it's fixed, you'll get your images in and we will submit you for the current projects. Thanks for your patience!!! >>Rad Permalink
Hotel Chain Casting - Pays Minimum $1900 If Selected
Tuesday March 09, 2010
TalentSoup is now online casting models, actors and real people for a Print Photo Shoot. If chosen, pays minimum of $1900. If you are part of TalentSoup you'll be automatically submitted if you match the requirements. If you'd like to be submitted, you MUST BE SIGNED UP IN TALENTSOUP.COM BY 3/10 @ 3 PM. No emails or calls please. TalentSoup.com is fast to sign up and always a free service for our talent. If you are not in the Soup, just click on Sign Up on this page! Be sure you have some digital images ready to upload. Talent must be signed up by 3/10 @ 3 PM to be submitted. Here are the details- Client: National Hotel Chain What: Atlanta Photo Shoot Demographics: Caucasian, Hispanic and African American Men and Women, Age 30-40 y.o. Area: The client is searching for talent within 75 miles of Atlanta Payment: $200 an hour, $1500 usage Usage: 1 year, National Consumer, Unlimited Print / Collateral and Web/ Electronic Media There is a Closed Casting that will take place on Thursday. Talent will be preselected by the client to attend, and then contacted directly with studio information, but you must be signed up in TalentSoup to be considered. Permalink
About That Contest...How To Vote
Saturday March 06, 2010
Our talent are extraordinary. Seriously. Your response has been amazing, your comments humbling, and all of our confusion on how to vote, consistent! The voting site is pretty hard to figure out so I thought to put this up and hopefully help their bad "User Interface". To vote, 1. Follow the link the post below / 2. Search for TalentSoup / 3. CLICK ON THE STARS NEXT TO OUR NAME - You do not need to register to vote, simply click on the stars. Registration is only needed if you want to leave a comment. I'm really sorry for the confusion... That is it! The site moderator emailed me asking our talent to NOT NOMINATE US AGAIN, JUST USE THE EXISTING ENTRY. So for all of you that added us again, they deleted those posts. Permalink
Vote? Squandering Good Will
Saturday March 06, 2010
BUT WHY SHOULD I HELP TALENTSOUP WHEN THEY HAVEN'T HELPED ME? A few talent have emailed me to share their frustration with us, and explain how it wasn't fair for me to ask for your vote when you don't see the value of belonging to our community. Well, you've got a great point... We have done a terrible job, over the first 2 years of our existence, of keeping up with our talent, explaining what we are doing, and asking for your patience with us. So for all of the poor communication and mis-managed expectations, I'm truly sorry and hope we've not squandered your good will toward us. My request is simple; Hang in there! We are now investing extraordinary resources (time, energy and our hard saved dollars) to expand the services and features that serve our talent, focusing on putting you to work. This blog, the Forum and the whole new site, are all the first steps we are taking toward better serving you, our talent (you are our customer too, just as our clients are). Know that we are dedicated to the success of you, our individual talent, our community of talent, and great advertising for our clients. Thanks to all of our great talent that have continued to partner with us. We so appreciate your loyalty! Permalink
Help Us, Help You - Vote For TalentSoup And Spread The Love Around!
Thursday March 04, 2010
@TalentSoup needs your vote! Nominate us as an innovative company outside Silicon Valley! Search for TalentSoup @ http://bit.ly/aO0RmO The greater our community the more exposure we get which gets you more projects to be submitted for. Take 2 minutes and vote for TalentSoup! Thanks! Permalink
Your Face Value...Finding Out What It's Worth
Wednesday March 03, 2010
Have you ever read a news article about supermodels that make $25000 a day (or some such amazing number) and wonder "Are they really that good looking?"? No? Oh, well, I have. And given that we are in the business of matching great faces to great advertising media projects, it's a subject I think about a lot and the subject of this post. TalentSoup has the widest range of talent you can imagine. Babies, grandparents and all stops in between. Our community is rich with folks of all ethnicities, shapes, experience levels, tattoos..well, the list goes on, and all this variety means we've made clients consistently very happy. Our clients, which are national and global brands, keep coming back because we provide what they need; the perfect face that represents their brand. That is, we have a great selection of willing, dedicated people behind the faces. So what makes some of our faces more expensive than others? As you might guess, we have lots of full time models that look, well, model-y. Beautiful people for sure. They typically command $1500 a day plus "usage" fees, which really adds up to a great payday. Now you might make the assumption that only models land the big dollar jobs. Well, we all know what assuming can do to you and in this case, I fell victim too. I was tempted to start guessing who clients would select for their projects and after booking hundreds and hundreds of talent, here's what I've learned: Everyone has a Face Value and it varies from client to client. What I've realized is that you have a Face Value and that the market is the best determinate of what that value is (in the talent sense of the word, of course!). Because we have thousands of talent in our national community, we monitor trends in who our clients are booking for various types of projects and I must say, we've all been pleasantly surprised. There is a market for just about every "look" imaginable. So, be encouraged and don't give up. Never, ever, never give up (inspired by Churchill)! You have a marketable look, it's just a matter of reaching that market. TalentSoup should be one tool in your toolbox for landing work but stay focused on your goals and we'll find your Face Value together. Permalink
Building a Great Front Door....And Including A Back Door too.
Sunday February 28, 2010
Most businesses work really hard to get people in their Front Door but often make it hard to escape, or use the back door. Of course, like other businesses, we don't like to focus on the people leaving via the back door but we think it's important to at least be paying attention, and include an easy way to leave. Happily, very, very few talent leave. TalentSoup has garnered a lot of loyalty in the last 2 years, which really humbles us, by simply treating people (talent and clients) the way we want to be treated. The proverbial Golden Rule. That does not prevent people from leaving us however and so, we try to learn a little bit about why people leave the Soup before they go. We've learned a lot from some of the folks that have chosen career paths that don't include TalentSoup and I always appreciate their feedback but we know, through maturity and knowing the value of our service, that you can't please everyone. I'm pointing this out now, because we are growing really fast, and I never want to lose sight of the Golden Rule. Our Forums are a new feature that let you, our incredible talent, offer your voice about the good, the bad and the great here in the Soup. We are listening. What lays ahead are more features to support and grow our community, that ultimately put our talent to work. So think about the businesses you support through your money or your time. Do they make it easy to leave? Do you feel valued? Your input matters and we are counting on it to keep us on track. Rad, Head Talent Chef Permalink
Model Releases - Protecting Your Rights, too
Saturday February 27, 2010
As we continue to refine our processes, an important part of booking models is the Rights Agreement, or Release. If you've been working in this business for a while, you probably know how important the Release is to both you and the client paying you to use your likeness. Most new models, actors and real people don't fully understand the terms but it's important you familiarize yourself with the parts of a Release. After all, they protect both parties involved! Here's a bit of info if you are interested http://bit.ly/d0cllA Permalink
Projects Continue In Spite Of Our "UnPacking"!
Thursday February 25, 2010
As you might have noticed, we are still dealing with the quirks of moving into our "new space" (our new software). We've gotten all of the image bugs worked out, we think, and now we're tackling some of the behind the scenes stuff that helps us serve up such great talent to our advertiser Clients. While we are "unpacking" and setting up the new digs, Clients continue to keep us busy. We've been bidding jobs for a large hospital group and a national cellular network. That's just the last 24 hours. Because most of our projects are not announced publicly, its really important you keep your Profile updated with great images and recent contact info. We'll do the rest! Have a great finish to your week! Rad TalentChef Permalink