Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Douglas.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always had a creative element to my personality – artist, musician, writer, photographer. I owned a graphic design firm for about ten years, and it did pretty well. One of the things that I did was magazine ads for various national magazines. Although I didn’t know it at the time, that experience taught me a lot about how to get things published and what it is looked for and so on. I started doing photography as a hobby. I had a middle school-aged daughter at the time, and she and her friends wanted to do photoshoots, so I was their photographer. I would shoot prom pics, senior photos, and just random themed shoots just for the fun of it. When my daughter was graduating from high school and about to move away, this wave of anxiety hit me. I was so used to spending time with her every day, and soon, she was going to be gone. The house would be quiet, Nothing keeping me busy at night or on the weekends. I told my wife that I had to find something to keep me busy so I wouldn’t just sit there and miss her non-stop. I told her that I thought I was good enough at photography that people might pay me now to do shoots, and she encouraged me to try. My personality is not one that eases into things. I attack it and go as hard as I can at it. I created a logo, a website, social media accounts, and started advertising, and very quickly, I had bookings. The first two were pretty cheesy shoots – things I thought everyone was supposed to do. But then I realized that I had to be me. I needed to be unique and find my own style. By my third shoot, I changed things up and created a unique look, and when I posted the pics – everyone went crazy over it and I’ve been busy ever since. Once I began to have a bit of a following, I started adding Spokesmodels to my team. They would talk to their friends about shooting with me, post pics from our shoots, and I would give them a percentage of the income that came in from the bookings they referred to me.
This accomplished two big things for me: 1) It drove sales for me; and 2) I’m an older guy so is reassured people that I was a good guy because they could speak with people who knew me. A really unusual thing happened too. 99% of the people that I was doing shoots with had never done one before. However, after their first or second shoot, they looked like pro models who were seasoned and experienced. Highly uncommon, especially when it was consistently that way with everyone who was shooting…not just a small number of people. Something very unique and special was occurring. Around that same time, the Spokesmodels were talking and saying how much they were loving this and how they wanted to look into modeling as a career option. So we all sat down and had a really important discussion. The decision was made to begin a model development program and a modeling agency. We started with five clients who gave us an opportunity to prove ourselves, and they never left us. Five years later, we have 40 current models – on purpose. DX2 Model Management’s philosophy was that we would scout a small number of models, train them, coach them, give them opportunities to work with fashion designers, get them published, and prepare them to grab the attention of the biggest modeling agencies around the world in the hopes that they would be interested enough to sign them. By keeping our total number of models to 40, each model gets individual attention and development, consistent opportunities to shoot, and when clients are selecting their models – being selected as 1 of 40 models are much better odds than being 1 of 4000 models. These larger agencies sign models, put them under contract, and then do nothing to develop them or help them improve, then drop them when their contracts expire. It’s a waste of the model’s time and morally questionable, in my opinion. Scouts from the major agencies know that if I submit a model to them, that model is ready on Day 1 to go walk any runway in the world, and can do a print campaign for any designer/brand on the planet. There is no need for further development…. they are ready to go or those scouts do not receive their packets.
We have been published in Vogue, Maxim, Elle, and tons of other fashion magazines. We have walked in Miami Swim Week. We have been the exclusive models for Fashion Week shows. This summer alone, we had one of our models signed by a major agency in Europe, and her first assignment was to walk for Gucci in London Fashion Week. That is what our goal is. That is what we work toward. We take chances on people with no modeling experience, and sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it fails. The models always improve, but sometimes models break our rules, or they become impatient because they haven’t sign with a major agency after three photoshoots… hahaha. We cut a lot of models as a result. We turn away a lot of applicants. We are selective about not so much the look or size of the model, but about the character, integrity, work ethic, and personality of the model.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Absolutely not. We turn away a lot of applicants, and this often makes the applicant upset. We cut people who aren’t committed enough or who break our rules and this often upsets the models. We live in a “cancel culture” now, so every time I turn away someone, or every time I cut someone, I know there is a good chance that I’m going to get labeled this or that or some outrageous comment will be made. To combat that, all I can do is try to live my life in such a way so that when someone makes an accusation, no one will believe it. Add to that the character of the models on my team. When you know them, and you see how some of them have been with me for years, it also lends credibility to the things that I focus on and the manner in which we do things. As we look back at 2020, this was a challenge to every model, every photographer, videographer, event planner, casting agencies, modeling agencies, designers all over the world. A world wide pandemic has a way of changing every plan that you have set.
As we were ending 2019, we were so excited about 2020 and the possibilities that were coming our way. We felt like this would be a major year for us where we pushed our brand, our methodologies, our audience to a completely different level, but by February – everything was in chaos and things never really recovered. We are thankful for the virtual events that we were a part of, the few designers that scheduled work with us, but it was such a big shift from where we thought we would be. What little work that did come in, I often went without pay so the models could have something coming in financially. Just a really tough year. The ongoing challenge for us has been my approach, my methodology. Why start a company if you are going to do everything the same way everyone else does it? If you’re going to start something new, have something new to start. I don’t really want to share openly all of the things that we do that are unique and different from others, but I can say – five years later – they absolutely work. Our models advance and progress so much faster than other models because of our approach – as well as just having the drive, work ethic, and passion for making things happen. So other “industry experts” don’t know what we do, haven’t asked about what we do, know nothing about it, yet they label it as unconventional, different, out of the ordinary. I’ll take all of those things as compliments! My models are getting the jobs!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have two companies: CapturedMePhoto.com is my photography company, but it is also my modeling agency’s developmental arm. The developmental team is CMP Elite Models and falls under this umbrella. I also own DX2 Model Management and this is the more traditional modeling agency with experienced, proven, highly requested, and highly talented models. Our team routinely walks in larger fashion shows, does print campaigns for designers and brands, provides event models. We’ve even had some of our models appear in music videos. The two tiers of models are CMP Elite Models and DX2 Models. The Elite model team works exclusively with me, meaning I do all of their photoshoots for their portfolios, coaching shoots, client shoots, etc. This time is invaluable as I can guide them through the show/shoot and watch them and how they interact with designers, executives, other models, crew, etc. It provides the opportunity to coach them on presentation and communication skills further and being a professional on set. The DX2 Models have the freedom to work with other creatives, although most often, the clients have me as the photographer for that event. Offering a package deal is easy and efficient for our clients – they don’t have to coordinate everything with the models. They contact me, and I handle all of that for them.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Oh, tricky question. It varies a bit by situation and person. Smaller successes lead to bigger ones, and they shouldn’t be ignored along the way. Recognize progress and use it as motivation to go further next time. I’ve had models who had a great deal of trouble expressing emotions. They’ve been hurt often. They come from tough environments. Emotion = weakness to some. So getting them to a point where they can be expressive and you can read the vibe of the shot from a look on their face, that’s a huge success for some. Others though, come in, and they easily show emotion and are extremely expressive, so it’s not as big of a success for them to do something that took little effort on their part. As a whole, though, our objective is to scout, develop, and give models the opportunities that enable them to grab the attention of scouts and agency owners of major global agencies. We know every model won’t get signed. We promise to do the things necessary to get them noticed. The decision to move beyond that falls on the major agency and what they want to do with what is served up to them.
Pricing:
- Photography – $100/hr
Contact Info:
- Email: doug@dx2modelmanagement.com
- Website: DX2ModelManagement.com
- Instagram: @dx2model / @capturedmephoto
Image Credits
Model Photographs: Addison Christopher, Clara Bartels, Caroline Adams, Lexy Knell, Mikayla Seeliger, Emma Crow, Josylin Jones, Brittney Elzy, Jessie Barnard.
