Tag: entrepreneur

  • Allow me to reintroduce myself…

    Allow me to reintroduce myself…

    My name is Hov, (Oh) H-to-the-O-V.……..
    But not really tho! Lol

    Hi I'm Alean

    If you haven’t figured it out by the domain name of the site, my name is

    Alean Elston

    (AL-leen ELS-ten)

    and welcome to my digital space!

    I’ve been modeling for 12 years now (and still getting stronger) and as I’ve gone about in my career I’ve come across some awesome people and learned a lot about business and a ton about myself. What I’ve realized is that I learned the most when I shared with others and when they shared with me. It enabled me to grow and I hope that I’ve enabled others to grow as well. With that being said, my goal is to connect with the aspiring models, the professional models, the drinks and business enthusiast, and the beverage and modeling/entertainment industry folks who want to follow along with me in our journey with my blog. I believe that if you are one of those people, then we have a few things in common.

     

    I love modeling, modeling led me to start my own business, starting my own business enabled me to work with various beverage brands and sparked the passion of me working within the beverage industry. All of these things are very connected in my life and if you have a passion for any one of those things, there is where we share our connection. I’ve been in your shoes as the inexperienced model, looking to find out how to get started and how to start booking shoots, shows, and getting paid. I’ve been the business owner that struggled (sometimes I still struggle) to get the first client and develop the momentum to continue to build a customer base. I am the person passionate about cocktails and wine and beers and wanted to learn all I can about the business of it, I’m also the blogger that lives life just like you but my goal is to share my experiences and ideas and to connect with those who share the same sentiment, and build and grow.
    The one thing that I hope that you take away from my blog is that you can have multiple goals but they mean nothing if you don’t pursue them. All it takes is a few baby steps towards your goals for them to gain traction and watch it grow faster than the speed of light. I’ve watched it happen to a number of my peers, and now it’s my turn.

    Watch me work.
    If you need to reach out to me with any questions, or you would like to work together please don’t hesitate to email me – alean@aleanelston.com

  • Blog Giveaway Sponsored by U.G.L.Y Tees!!!! [ENDED]

    Blog Giveaway Sponsored by U.G.L.Y Tees!!!! [ENDED]

    Ive been talking about doing a giveaway on my blog for the longest and I finally got the chance to do one! A special thank you to U.G.L.Y Tees who agreed to do an instagram contest with me and giveaway 3 shirts to some lick followers.

    In the video at the top of the page I’m wearing the “Makeup is my Caffeine” Off the shoulder shirt in grey. If you’d like one without entering the contest you can get it here.

    If you would like to possibly win a shirt, just follow the simple rules below! Good luck and see you on the gram!

    To be eligible to #win, All you have to do is:

    1. Repost this image or any image on the @uglytees instagram page
    2. Include #uglygiveaway AND #iwearugly anywhere in the caption of your repost
    3. Follow and tag @uglytees & @completebeauty

    The winners of this giveaway will be announced via the @uglytees instagram page on June 17th.

    Good Luck! and remember, “U Gotta Live Young”

    ***Wanna shout out from @uglytees? Tag us in your U.G.L.Y Apparel gear and we’ll repost it! Dont have any U.G.L.Y Apparel? be sure to get yours from uglytees.bigcartel.com***

  • #Goals…Let’s just say I’m setting some more…

    #Goals…Let’s just say I’m setting some more…

    Welp, summer is over according to the calendar. Labor Day marks the unofficial end of fun in the sun. For me, today marks the start of a fresh new month. What I usually do at the start of a month is plan out my bookings and figure out how to fill it a bit more or if its packed, how I’m going to survive such busi-ness! Lol I also take the time to review goals that I have set for myself in the past and think about new ones or keep the old ones and try my best to achieve them all. Some of my past goals have included:

    If you have been following my blogging habits (or lack thereof), that first goal that I mentioned was a failure lol but it only failed because I became busy with more client and model bookings. Even though it was a failure other goals were a great success and there’s more time for me this month for me to modify that goal, among others, and of course set new ones to achieve.

    With that being said, I wanted to take a different approach to my goals. I’m a firm believer in “The Secret” and I noticed that a few people that I follow on social media following the law of attraction and I’ve been watching their goals come to pass. The way I see it, if they can bravely put their goals out there and I can watch it unfold, I should have no problem doing the same. So here I go, my goals for September 2014:

    1. Acquire a booking or contract that builds upon my strategy for financial and career growth
    2. Do 3 photoshoots with various phenomenal photographers and clients
    3. Consistently blog EVERYDAY
    4. Vlog at least 2 times a month
    5. Continue to develop my ‘jumping’ skills
    6. Reach and maintain a new account threshold

    So now that it’s out there, I’m going to work on making it all come my way!

    Be sure to follow me on social media to watch it all unfold!

    Facebook – facebook.com/AleanElston

    Instagram – instagram.com/completebeauty

    Twitter – twitter.com/completebeauty

    Pinterest – pinterest.com/AleanElston

  • Want Success? “You gotta Jump off that cliff…” according to #SteveHarvey [VIDEO]

    Want Success? “You gotta Jump off that cliff…” according to #SteveHarvey [VIDEO]

    Sometimes it can be a bit hard to make it in business, but Steve has a point when he tells you you have to jump…

    It can be a bit scary and I experience this everyday. Sometimes I don’t jump and I remain safe, but then I realize I’m missing out on soaring. So with that I’m learning to take more jumps…I’ll tell you how that all works out for me.

     

    What are some of the things that you need to jump for?

  • Success: Its All About Your Perspective and the Progression of Time

    Success: Its All About Your Perspective and the Progression of Time

    “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

    Recently I was afforded the opportunity to work with a new client for their company’s promotion for Alexis Bittar at Neiman Marcus and it was pretty interesting. It was for a company called PaintAPic.com and what they offer is a custom paint by number painting that you complete based on any photo that you submit. So what happens is you send them a picture, it could be a picture of your dog, a picture of you, a picture of whatever! and they flatten out that picture and turn it into a paint by number picture. With your picture they also send you the paint you need to complete the artwork and the canvas &  paint brushes so you’ll have everything you need to complete your art project.

    (But back to the point of this blog post, lol) For this particular promotion we were asked to do a paint by number version of Alexis’s latest advertisement for his FINE collection pictured here:

    alexis_bittar_ad_fall_winter_2013_2014

    Before we started to paint I wasn’t told exactly what it was that we were going to be painting. To see the Paint-A-Pic before its completed, I thought it was mountains and rivers and all that jazz. Basically I thought we were going to be painting a picture of a landscape. See the picture below and tell me its not a mountain scene! lol:

    Alexis-Bittar-PaintAPic-Neiman-Marcus

    Ok so if you don’t think its a mountain scene its okay, I see it as that because that’s how it appeared to me upon my first sight of the work ahead, its just my perception. As we started to paint, I still couldn’t see how this was going to become a version of the ad, but we pressed on, section by section. As we continued on in our work, people were walking by wondering what it was we were working so hard on. My job was supposed to be paint the picture and try to get others involved in painting it with us and talk about the product. For me it was a bit difficult, ONLY because doing this painting in a high traffic area caused me to tune everything out and focus. That’s rare for me! lol I was so into this painting I missed the chance to engage with potential consumers. eventually I forced myself to multitask and draw people in but my main thought was, I gotta finish this I want to see how this is all going to look completed. But like all work that has to be done, this painting was taking more time than I thought. We painted and painted and being that I was so close on the work I still didn’t see what it was supposed to be, but everyone that walked by could see it.

     

    Why?

     

    Because they were looking at it from a different perspective. Because they were able to see it from a distance, they could see that all the small pieces we were painting and the time an energy and effort we were putting into the painting, was building itself into becoming a great piece of art work.

     

    See where I’m going with this? Check out this picture of the painting mid-way through:

    2013-12-06 17.51.52

    It was in the moments after the painting was finished, when I stepped back and looked at the finished product, I realized how much this painting experience is a story of my life. I take on projects knowing that there is going to be a lot of work involved and often times as I get a little deep into a project, especially when its taking a long time, I can get a little frustrated wondering if this is going to turn out as great as I originally thought it could be. I have people that see what I’m working on and I get compliments or people that want to be a part of what I’m working on, and personally sometimes I cant see exactly what or how things are going to turn out, even  though I know it is going to be great in the end, because I’m too busy focusing on what i’m doing up close and not in the scheme of the big picture. And even though I know things will come together if I stick with it and do the little things in order to build it into bigger things in time, I have to learn that there are little steps in order to get to the big vision. With this experience though I have learned that in order for me to keep focus on the big picture at hand and not get discouraged or frustrated or any other emotions that don’t help the work/project positively, time to time while I work on things I need to step back and see that the little things that I have been doing are shaping to be a vision of success that can only be obtained if I complete the smaller components that make it all come together.

     

    And with that Success is obtained through your perception of progress through time.

    Thanks for checking out a bit of whats in my mind 🙂

     

    Oh yea, here’s a finished picture of the paining:

    Alexis-Bittar-PaintAPic-Completed

    Pretty cool right?!

     

    Be sure to check out PaintaPic.com to get your custom paint by number canvas and Neiman Marcus for the latest Alexis Bittar Jewlery. Tag me in your instagram pic if you get either, I’d love to see it. Follow me on IG – @completebeauty

  • Taking on projects/clients ONLY because you need the money… #Scandal

    Taking on projects/clients ONLY because you need the money… #Scandal

    For those that follow me on Twitter you know that Thursday nights I’m usually tweeting up a storm during Scandal. This week’s episode “Say Hello to My Little Friends” started out with Olivia Pope and Associates needing money since her client base had dried up after her scandal being outed on being with the president. With that they began to take on a client that they didn’t seem to happy to take on and justified taking it solely because they needed the money.

    I’ve been there before, at slow time in my business where bills needed to be paid and there were no clients to pay me or funds had come in late. There comes a time where things get down to the wire where you worry about paying staff and keeping the lights on etc. etc. and then someone comes along that wants your services but you aren’t really willing to take it on because either its not what you like to do or its not an industry or area that you would like to work in, or you don’t see how this type of client can take your business to another level. But, they have something you need… and that of course is money. What do you do? Do you take on the project and try to get over it as quickly as possible so you can pay those bills and move forward or do you refuse the project and move on to another that may not come along for another few weeks or months?

     

    Decisions, decisions…

    When I think about this, I sometimes think, you gotta do what you gotta do, do the work and move on. But for some reason when I took on clients that I normally wouldn’t during these times, they were the worst clients for me to have, they always seemed to cause me more stress than the projects and clients that I wanted to work on. Maybe its because I didn’t want to work on those projects but I just sucked it up and got the bills paid so I could keep on moving.

    Usually after a lot of those projects were over it seemed like more of the same type of work came along. I would get tons of the type of work that I didn’t want to do, and for a while I would take it on, then I realized there comes a time where you have to draw a line where you won’t do things that don’t have anything to do with where you are trying to go with your company. You have to enjoy what you are doing in order for it to be great and make sure it aligns with your brand.

     

    What about you? What do you do when you have tons of the types of clients you don’t want, that want your services but the types of clients you do want seem to be coming to you in a slow drip? Do you take projects that don’t align with your company in order to pay the bills or do you refer them to someone else? How do you deal with those projects/clients?

  • Ask an Entrepreneur: Lara Georgine on How to Obtain GOOD Clients

    Throughout the start of my blog, one of my main missions is to share information about the business of business so that others may gain knowledge and insight on how I do things. Recently, I thought it would be interesting to gain the insight of other entrepreneurs like myself who would be willing to share their insight on business as well. Throughout my search I have found Lara Georgine through the popular networking site LinkedIN. I asked her if she could share how she obtains good clients and avoids the problem clients. Check out her response below and be sure to check out her blog, www.larageorgine.com/blog for even more insight on Lara and her business!

    As an entrepreneur, I gain the most customers through LinkedIn. I have joined many different groups and I post my different websites as well as my blog (which I try to keep updated weekly). I also do artwork specifically to post on other blogs to receive ping backs and/or as trade for a listing on their site(s).

    I also attend trade shows that are of interest to me and I place advertisements with Google ads, which can be great as I have received a good amount of free advertising dollars by searching the internet. I have joined some local groups which offer a link to my blog, and I respond to ads from different listing sites.

    I have been very fortunate with my clients so far, and have had few problems (knock on wood!) but I make sure that all parties are comfortable with the contract I provide. I did have to learn the hard way to make sure to have the contract there in the first place, as I had sent art work without more than a vague email, which does not hold up as a contract. I lost both my art and my client on that one.

    I have found that the most important thing is to be up front and to make sure that the client is aware of when I am available and when I am away. Not that I need to tweet them my working hours, but if there is a holiday or a long break, they must be aware as early as possible.

    Best of luck to all who are out there!

    Website: www.larageorgine.com

    Blog: www.larageorgine.com/blog

    Contact Lara via email at: lara@larageorgine.com

     

    LaraGeorgine is a Philadelphia and New York City-based fine arts professional with more than a decade of experience in art direction, graphic and textile design, illustration, and corporate identity management. Her work has been lauded by major apparel and design firms around the country, and her creative, solutions-based approach has built LaraGeorgine’s reputation as a leading independent creative professional in a diverse scope of capabilities. In addition to her portfolio at www.larageorgine.com, and her fabric line at www.spoonflower/larageorgine.com, her designs have appeared on the sales floors of some of the world’s major retailers, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Target, Sears, Walmart, Kohl’s and others. (Taken from http://larageorgine.com)