No two people have the same agency experience
Every now and again I hear through the grapevine that someone is complaining about their current or former agency. Most of the time it’s common to hear a person saying “ such and such agency is terrible they never booked my kid” or “ such and such agency only books certain kids and the rest get nothing “. I cannot tell you enough how much I hear this about my fellow agents and I’m sure I’m not excluded from these types of comments. So I figured it might be good to touch upon the fact that no two people have the same experience with the same agency.
An agent typically represents a few hundred kids. We all consider our children unique in their own way. With that uniqueness comes unique experiences. For example , I can represent two children that are very similar in appearance. They might both have tan skin, dark straight hair, brown eyes. However, each child has their own unique personality. One child might be more outgoing and personable than the other. Or one might be more suited for a serious type role. Either way one child’s booking experience might be completely different from the others. That doesn’t make that agent a terrible agent because he/she didn’t book your child as much as the other child. It just means your child had different qualities than the other child which provided different booking experiences.
I would like to remind all of you that AGENTS DO NOT PICK THE CHILDREN WHO BOOK JOBS. Clients always have and always do pick the children for their campaigns. Agents only have the power to submit your child to a client, they do not have the power to book the children. I see so many parents bitter at their former representation because their child didn’t book a lot of jobs. I understand it can hurt if you tried something out for your child and it didn’t turn out as expected but remember your agent roots for you! We would love every single child in our system to book weekly but unfortunately that’s not a reality. It doesn’t do an agent any good putting a child in their system who they are not going to submit. If it didn’t work out don’t blame or badmouth your former representation, booking your child was out of their control. I can also tell you that if I personally meet a new talent that was represented by someone else in the past and is speaking negatively about their former representation I typically see that as a red flag and choose to not represent that family.
Every child has a very different experience with the same agency. Your friends child can book jobs on a weekly biases . Where your child might book 1-2 jobs a year. That doesn’t make that agency bad because you didn’t have the same experience as your friend. It just means your friends child has a quality that clients find bookable. If you are not happy with your current representation leave with dignity and class . Thank your agent for their time and effort with your child and keep any negative opinions to yourself. The grass might not be greener and you might wish to return to your former representation. If you burn a bridge it might be hard to mend that relationship.