August 22, 2024 • 50 mins
In this episode, we delve into the fascinating journey of Laetitia Channel, an accomplished ballerina and aerialist who transitioned into the world of fine art nude modeling. Letitia shares her unique experiences, from her unexpected start in modeling to the supportive role her family played in her career. We explore her rigorous travel schedule, the challenges she faces, and the incredible lengths photographers go to capture her stunning poses.
Laetitia also discusses her recent hip replacement surgery, a common occurrence among professional ballerinas, and how it impacted her modeling career. She shares the silver linings she found during her recovery, including the development of a new passion for fashion shoots and the creation of a comprehensive model training course to help aspiring models succeed in the industry.
Tune in to hear Laetitia's inspiring stories, her dedication to her craft, and the valuable lessons she's learned along the way. Whether you're a fellow model or just curious about the world of fine art photography, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration.
Here are all the links for Laetitia and her work! Check her out!
https://www.patreon.com/laetitiamodel
https://laetitiamodel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laetitia_channel_model/
https://twitter.com/laetitia_model
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fansoflaetitiamodel/
FOR BOOKING & QUESTIONS: info@laetitiachannel.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1kgU9yNpCyuXaCTHtPhGkQ
Art model Academy:
https://artmodelacademy.com/
https://www.instagram.com/artmodelacademy/
One on one call: https://laetitiamodel.com/product/consulting-social-media/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Before we get with our regularly scheduled podcast, I just wanted to thank you
so, so much from the bottom of my heart for listening to the Sunrise Life podcast.
I am so grateful every time somebody comments or sends me a DM saying that they love the show.
If you would like to help other people find out about the Sunrise Life podcast,
(00:20):
it would be immensely helpful if you could subscribe on whatever platform that
you regularly listen to Sunrise Life on.
And if you could leave a rating, that would make me smile so hard.
Thanks for listening, and here's back to your regularly scheduled show.
Music.
(00:43):
Welcome to Sunrise Life, the podcast where we have deep conversations with fellow freelance models.
And today I have Letitia Chanel on the line. Say hello. Hello.
So happy that we were both able to make this work. I know that you are on the
other side of the world. You're in France?
(01:04):
Yes, I'm right now touring in South of France.
Yeah, that's amazing. And so they've got the Olympics happening out there right
now. Is that affecting your travels?
Not really. I landed in Marseille yesterday where some of the Olympics are happening,
but it didn't affect anything.
That's good. Cool. Yeah, I've been loving watching snippets that I see online
(01:28):
from the gymnastics and stuff.
Yeah, those amazing women, right? They're so powerful.
Yeah. When it comes to the Olympics, the two sports that I enjoy watching the
most are the gymnastics and ice skating. Same.
Yeah. Everything else is like, pretty cool. So for our audience,
(01:48):
I would like to hear how you first got into modeling.
Okay. So it came, to be honest, by mistake.
It was nothing planned. It's nothing I ever had in my mind.
Actually, when I had to take random pictures at the beach, I always felt really
uncomfortable posing. I never knew what to do.
(02:09):
So I started, I had an Instagram account for yoga and fitness,
where I used to pose also on some photos of my performing acts.
When I used to be an artist, I had an Ariel Hoop app.
And one day, one photographer reached out to me, to that Instagram account,
(02:33):
and asked me if I could be interested to do
an aerial hoop photo shoot that for such a
long time he's been looking for a performer which
had body abilities and lines like I had he wanted to do an aerial hoop photo
shoot but it had to be nude okay and then he saw within my Instagram that I I also did ballet,
(02:59):
and he told me that you could also be interested to do some ballet photos,
but they would also be nude, because he was a fine art nude photographer.
And I have looked through his account, and I loved, loved, loved so much his photos.
They were so artistic, so aesthetic, powerful.
(03:22):
And I thought to myself, I really want to do it. I was also in that time,
like probably the best shape of my life physically.
And I talked to my dad and I talked to my boyfriend about it and asked them how they would feel.
And they both gave me a yes.
(03:43):
So, yeah, I decided to go ahead and do the clutch.
That's how it started. Wow, that's amazing that your dad and your boyfriend
were both supportive right away.
Yeah, very. Are you concerned at all when you first started about having nude
images of yourself online?
So yeah, at first when the photographer told me that when he would start publishing
(04:10):
photos, there would already be other photographers reaching out.
But then when I got the photos, I was a bit anxious posting them.
I didn't know what to do with them at first.
And then finally I decided to start publishing some of them.
They were all faceless, so technically you couldn't really know it was me.
(04:30):
So the Morag body parts, and it was all about the body and line.
And when I published them, people just read all of them.
And I got so many feedback. I was like, okay, well, I'm going to keep posting
them. Because people like that.
But I had a bit of, like, know-and-of in the yoga community,
(04:52):
which followed me on my Instagram account.
They couldn't understand the nudity. They couldn't understand all that.
So I was like, well, I need a new account for that because the yoga people are not happy.
And that's when I decided to open the Let It Zip Channel model account and I
split my yoga and fitness from modeling.
(05:15):
And then it was fine. Nobody complained about nudity.
That's good. In the yoga community of people that were giving you a hard time
about it, were these any people that you knew in person?
No. They were just those random, you know, the Indian guys, like the yogi yogis
from India, which were very conservative and very...
(05:40):
It kind of actually really shocked me because yoga should be about connection
with the body and the mind and purity of everything.
And I guess when you post a nude photo, they got really... Yeah.
They didn't like it. even though there were
some yoga positions in those nude photos yeah that
(06:02):
is i mean i do find it a little bit hypocritical that
it is supposed to be about connecting with your true self but that i find that
if somebody has an issue with nudity it's probably their own insecurities or
conditioning and not not anything that has to do with you or with yoga, I suppose.
(06:24):
Yeah, exactly. I think I have some concerns.
So I kept, I stopped posting nude photos on my yoga account and that's fine.
That's great. And then how quickly did your modeling career progress once you
started that new Instagram account?
(06:44):
Extremely quick, like so quick.
Well, he, he, well, I'm going to say his name. It was Andre Brito from Porto, Portugal.
And he had an amazing community of fine art photographers following him.
So when he started publishing me, all those photographers straight away kind
(07:05):
of jumped at me and was like, I want you, I want you.
So I got a lot, a lot, a lot of requests straight away, even though I had maybe
nine photos on my Instagram.
Yeah, and then it did a bit of a snowball effect because then I started touring
a bit, the new countries, new cities.
(07:26):
And so now another photographer will start publishing. It made,
you know, the snowball effect of reaching a new country, a new city.
Yeah, it went on really, really fast. There were a lot of photographers.
That's amazing. So before you even got into modeling, you were already an experienced
(07:47):
ballerina and aerialist.
So you already had a lot of the skills that so many photographers are looking for. So that's amazing.
Yeah, I guess there were a lot of photographers looking for nude ballet.
The thing with nude ballet photography is that a lot of really good ballerinas,
(08:11):
are employed in national theaters and national theaters.
It's the image of a theater. Even though they could be hired,
they can't take those kind of agreements.
Agreements and the second is like that ballerina one
or the other so it's not that easy to find a good ballerina and would post nude
(08:34):
and did you have anything in your career at the time that was affecting your
ability to do nude posing or were you somehow not bound to those types of contracts,
no i was freelancing as an acrobat and i could do whatever i wanted that was good That's amazing.
(08:55):
So you were already freelancing. Had you ever had a job prior to that that required
you to comply with some kind of schedule?
Well, I freelanced, but in a way, I was contracted for another show.
So I was entitled to be every day at the same time at the theater and perform,
(09:16):
but in a freelance way, meaning free.
I was hired as an extra into the show, not like, let's say, like dancers,
which are really contacted by the show.
Yeah. So I traveled all over the world as an acrobat, as a freelance acrobat.
That's amazing. Prior to photography. Most of the people that I've interviewed
(09:40):
on the show aren't also ballerinas.
There have been a lot of people that I've interviewed that have had experience
in dance and in gymnastics,
but I've always wondered what the life of a person who does ballet and dance
professionally is like.
And because the nudity is kind of a stigma, it does make sense that some ballerinas
(10:07):
are contracted to not do that kind of photography.
But I suppose that does make it a really niche thing.
Yeah, it is a very niche type of photography.
And it also has nothing to
do like the real academic ballet posing and the ballet posing for photos are
(10:30):
so opposite to each other it's just so because yeah you have to kind of do by the ballet.
I think I understand what I'm saying, but that's fine.
If you're at the wrong angle, then turn out your feet in different ways so they
(10:52):
look good on the photos, but you would never dance properly that way.
In a way, I can kind of relate to that with yoga, because a lot of yoga poses
require balance and you to be standing flat-footed.
And there are times where I've posed for a photographer and they're asking me
(11:13):
to stand on a toe instead of flat footed. And I know that it's wrong.
Wrong in them. The public, they like the photo for the lines.
So I see what you're doing.
Yeah. Same with ballet posing. You have to do it wrong.
Huh. That's interesting. And there are only a couple other models that I've met in person that...
(11:37):
Do nude modeling and i've heard from them
that there are certain like ways
of capturing the ballet poses where
if it's not captured at the the proper
moment for for like a a jump or
a kick then it looks improper in
(11:57):
the photo for the ballet community has that affected you
this is a major this is
a major point I speak with photographers pre-communication
before agreeing even to shoot
with photographers is that even the best photographer in the world doesn't have
(12:18):
knowledge about ballet even really good ballet photographers some have never
done a ballet club they're just really good at capturing it but But I always tell them, like,
I have a special condition when people shoot me that I have to approve all my photos.
(12:39):
Because sadly, photographers can't understand what is a good or a bad pose when it comes to ballet.
So for branding purpose, I do ask to go through the photos before they are published.
So only the proper poses are published because if not it's out of control they
will publish everything and
(13:00):
anything for you we're not awful and has that surprising sometimes what
photographer like which are like completely
not ready not the end of the pose not pointed
feet not and they love it and you're
like no so has has
(13:21):
yacht interaction caused you any grief
in pre-communication or at the shoot well not at the shoot because i'm always
very clear speak about that prior to the issue yeah but yes sometimes i sometimes
some shoots don't go happen because of that but i'm completely fine with it,
(13:44):
I think my branding is more important than the shoot.
And having a bad pose published, I'm not interested.
Yeah, it makes sense. You're not just bringing posing to the table.
You're bringing in a very, very specialized skill.
And you don't want to be misrepresented. Exactly.
(14:06):
Yeah, and I totally resonate with the whole
issue of photographers posting photos where
you're like i wasn't ready that wasn't it
but like yeah this
is a very common thing where i remember a
photographer sent me a photo and i swear i was
blinking or something in the photo and he said i've never seen you make this
(14:29):
facial expression before and i was like am i sneezing or blinking like what's
going on that this is you might think it looks good but to everybody else Or
at least to me, it looked not right.
Yeah, that happens a lot. Do you have an online forum or do you usually just
(14:50):
have these conversations back and forth over email or Messenger?
No, I have a full-on contract about that. That's amazing.
So how long ago was it that you started modeling and then started traveling full-time?
So the first photo shoot was in June 2018 and then on that time I was still
(15:12):
performing and I did a bit of,
I did five shows a week and then on my two days off I would do photos.
And I've done that for almost a year and a half.
So yeah, for a year and a half I had no days off whatsoever.
Wow and then the full-on
(15:35):
full full-time i started like end
of 2020 and so now
almost four years full-time wow so
you started traveling at the end of 2020 what was that challenging because i
mean i was already traveling during my days off like when i did have my days
(15:56):
off i was not shooting I was traveling to the shoot in Europe.
But yeah, the longer, I did actually once, I had vacations from a show and I
did a longer, like two, three weeks tour in 2019. Oh, wow.
Yeah. Like seriously, less than six months after I started, I was already able
(16:22):
to manage like a two, three week tour.
That's amazing. You had already so much request. with.
So these days, the scheduling of your trips, how long are you on the road at
a time in between being at home?
Yeah, that's something I had to work on because at first when I got so many
(16:43):
of the requests, I got crazy and I went on for like six weeks, seven weeks.
And then I burned out when I did that.
And now I found a good balance for myself.
Three weeks is the maximum. I don't like to be away from home for more than
three weeks. And then always having a week home per month.
(17:04):
It's like my grounding.
I need to feel human. That's good.
That's good. It's good to know what your limits are. And I've definitely experienced similar.
Three weeks, I feel to me would still be a
really long time to be on the road though yeah i like
to keep it under three weeks it's amazing so
(17:27):
as far as places that you've traveled you mentioned that you've
traveled all around europe where else have
you traveled for photography yeah for modeling
yeah for modeling I've done a
lot of US and I've done
Mexico and I've went
to Turkey also and that's
(17:49):
it the rest was Europe awesome and you're based in France in Spain in Spain
okay so you're traveling right now yeah I'm now on I left home yesterday and I'll be back.
And about to an odd place okay right
(18:12):
on awesome so over the
course your modeling career i'm sure that you've
had some crazy and or interesting experiences and i ask everybody on the show
to share one or more of their crazy stories what is one of your crazy photo
(18:33):
shoot stories it could It could be crazy good,
crazy bad, funny, interesting.
What's something that sticks out in your mind? I think one photo shoot I can't
forget and was so crazy and unique. It was in Switzerland.
In a city which is called Ticino, so we got closer to the Italian border.
(18:56):
And they have those amazing rock formations with rivers and really cold water,
because the water comes from the mountains, and this photographer booked me for two full days,
and he had the most crazy idea, I might, which It was rigging a silk in front of the waterfall,
(19:22):
which he grew up in that area, and this waterfall for him was something very special.
And he really wanted me to do aerial silk photos in front of that waterfall.
But that waterfall was so, so, so remote and really, really hard access.
(19:43):
And he prepared that shoot for like two weeks before I arrived.
He prepared, he actually made a rigging point over the waterfall,
in front of the waterfall, like a full-on wire anchored in the rocks.
(20:04):
Then he did a special rigging for his camera into the rocks.
He rigged flashes in in that in that forest and rocks area like he was there
for two weeks just bringing stuff and rigging whoa and then he bought me he
bought me those massive fishing boats.
(20:25):
And he also had the whole trail prepared for me to be able to walk through it
like he added rope So, yeah, I did plenty of things to be easier to get to this waterfall.
Yeah, it was about a two-hour walk to get there.
And then, yeah, we did a photo shoot.
And he had like any extra, he had like pro photo flashes. He had like Hasselblad camera.
(20:52):
Like he was crazy what he brought there.
And every time he had to walk this two hours in and out to bring all the equipment. Wow.
Yeah. And I had to, well, I walked there once back and forth.
But this was, it was crazy. And the photos are crazy good. People think that
(21:13):
actually I'm photoshopped behind a waterfall, but it was all real.
Wow. And then the next day, he brought me to another place and he had bought
this 30 feet fire department ladder.
Like just for that shoot, he bought that ladder.
So I could access to a location and he rigged me like with a harness.
(21:41):
This and and he like
like ropes and he he yeah like crazy rigging just to bring me down to that it
was not accessible in a different way and there also he had done a whole rigging
for his light setup and for his camera setup had always tried for the rigged
(22:02):
into the rocks and I mean,
just as black as it was,
these politicians did have time.
Wow. He was a lot of logistic from his side. And after the Deshota shit was
done, he had to unrig everything.
So he stayed another three, four days just to unrig it.
(22:23):
Wow. That's a lot. And did the photos come out how he wanted them to?
I only edited three, though. Dang. Wow. That's a lot of work for three photos.
Did he have any assistants?
Nope. No, it was just him and me. Wow. He was just carrying a crazy amount of gear.
(22:46):
That's a lot of work. But, I mean, I admire that dedication.
It's very admirable. I was like, okay, if that's your dream photo,
okay, I'm going to make it happen for you.
It's like, I don't know any other model that are so experienced to be high on
the silk and in this dangerous condition in front of a waterfall.
(23:07):
And I was like, I do it.
Did you feel like there was a lot of pressure on you to get this right?
No, because in that time I was right
out of performing and I was very comfortable on silk and very strong.
So I had no problem with climbing up and just being up there to pose.
(23:27):
Wow so I like that
that's great wow that's
it's amazing to have that level of skill and strength to be confident in any
situation like that have you ever been at a shoot where the conditions were
too dangerous for you to perform the kind of posing that the photographer
(23:51):
wanted yeah okay and then it happens you know like you're outdoor and that even
i think i had it this morning i yeah i i and it was like no.
Like oh it shows work on a not really
even platform and was like pretty close
(24:12):
to the ocean so if i see yeah it's just possible wow
yeah it happens a lot yeah or
if you're on a cliff edge and the rocks look like
they might be unstable yeah yeah
yeah there's definitely a limit to what
i will do when it comes to
(24:34):
like the potential for safety like especially if
it's windy and stuff like that yeah i
also have limit i have also temperature limit this
is something i do yeah i like i
won't do it no i don't do the cold are
there like a specific numbers of temperature that you'll let photographers know
(24:55):
if it gets below a certain temperature that you know you're gonna have to call
it off yeah that's also part of my pre-shoot communication right yeah i had
I don't know if in Fahrenheit,
I think it's 62 Fahrenheit.
No, I don't know. 17 degrees Celsius.
Below that i i know i can't
(25:17):
do it because i'm not posing and
my pose is like my posing is just hard to
be mean so this is better to be away from
me when i'm cold yeah yeah i don't want to shoot with me if i'm cold especially
if it's windy i want to take a short little break to tell you about model society
(25:38):
modelsociety.com is a website dedicated to featuring figurative fine art photography
for models and photographers.
What makes them different than other portfolio hosting websites is that some
of those other websites will still host kind of tacky photography or exploitative photos.
Model Society screens all of their contributors for quality and authenticity,
(26:03):
so you only get the best of the best on there.
If you're not a photographer or model, you can still enjoy and appreciate Model
Society because they also have newsletters and magazines featuring their best
work and new articles each week.
Check it out, modelsociety.com.
I will also include a link to Model Society in the show notes.
(26:25):
All right, now back to our show.
So there's another question that I like to ask everybody on the show,
and I call it the rising phoenix era of your life.
Can you describe a situation where
you were faced with a challenge that
you had to overcome and it could be related to your modeling or something outside
(26:48):
of your modeling if you want so actually it happened last year i i had a really
bad news from after an x-ray exam.
After performing as a professional ballerina and acrobat, I had overused all
(27:09):
the cartilage in my left hip.
And I had no other solution than having a full hip replacement.
And yeah, I was like in tremendous pain.
I couldn't walk, couldn't sit, couldn't even clip. No stairs.
Not even talking about posing or working out.
(27:31):
So I had no choice. I had to go through it. I've done it.
And it was just like a huge question mark when I went to the operation.
I had no idea what would be my physical run.
And, of course, the surgeons always give you the more dark options,
and you won't be able to do anything.
(27:52):
Wow. So that's something I had to, yeah, go over, and the recovery and the strength training.
And the music.
I must have all my range back.
(28:14):
Almost never to do everything I used to do. I had to go through recently,
and I'm still doing better, to be honest.
So how long was your recovery time? Well, I guess I'm still going through it. Yeah.
I'm technically not still working on strength training.
But I had to stop for, I had to stop.
(28:39):
Wow.
Damn. So is this something that you were able to plan for, like financially,
to be able to take that long of a time where you couldn't travel?
Well, I have to say, like, I have a pretty good online and online fund.
So it didn't affect me too much. and my fans were royal and kept supporting me.
(29:05):
And so this was a good thing, yeah. Yeah, besides not being able to travel.
That's amazing. That's good to have multiple streams of income.
And, you know, during the pandemic, my Patreon and OnlyFans definitely kept me afloat too.
So that's good. Same.
Wow. That's amazing. But wow, so young to have a hip replacement.
(29:30):
Is that, is it made of titanium? Yes.
But it's a common thing for professional ballerinas.
If you go professionally, you kind of know that around my age,
you would go through it. Wow.
I didn't know that. That's intense. Wow.
All my teachers have hip replacement. Oh, wow.
(29:55):
Do you think you'll have to get your other hip replaced also so far so good
i'm preventing it now that i know what i have to do to prevent yeah i won't
have to i'm also i have stopped doing,
impact movement so i'm not impacting any of my other hip due to the to the protect now so,
(30:17):
yeah i guess i'm maybe i can say that yeah wow so impact that would be like
jumping and stuff like that jumping running yeah so i'm no no more jumps on my shirt wow finished.
But that's fine i haven't done a lot
in my life i took great jump photos and
(30:39):
wow that is insane
i'm still kind of like blown away by
i guess i didn't know that it was common
and in the ballerina community to have
to get a hip replaced at a certain age like that do
they tell you that when you first get into ballet well
you know that your teachers have them ah so you're kind of like okay yeah i
(31:06):
mean they do everything to train you to avoid having it but But after you do
the moves and the moves, that's what the moves are.
Yeah. And doing the hips, it's just using the cartilage in such a way that it's
using twice the speed as a normal person.
(31:26):
Yeah, that makes sense. Are there certain supplements that you take that help
with cartilage and stuff?
Yeah, I've been taking everything since I'm like 20 years old.
I've been taking like I said to my surgeon I can't,
And I've done everything to prevent. So I can't blame myself for not doing it
(31:50):
because I, yeah, I take like glucosamine and triplex and collagen.
Yeah. Wow. That's great.
Well, I'm so glad to hear that the surgery that you had to go through is something
that you're able to get back to work on eventually with your modeling.
(32:13):
That sounds like, that sounds so intense.
But I'm glad that you're working through it and that it's a positive thing for you in the long run.
It is. I've learned a lot through the process and I also had to,
in a way, try to adapt my modeling while I was recovering.
(32:34):
So it brought me to do some shoots which I would probably not do.
And it also had to find new ways to pose and this was a really interesting process
which I actually enjoyed.
That's really interesting actually can you elaborate on that like what kind
(32:57):
of shoots did you accept that you normally wouldn't have accepted in the past?
I started I started more exploring fashion shoots, which wasn't something which
I really had in mind while I was, like, full on physically healthy.
And I loved them. I really, really enjoyed them.
(33:19):
It got me out of my comfort zone with my dance and acrobatic posing.
I had to explore no ways to pose for photographers.
And actually, the photographers really liked shooting that way, too.
So I kind of started building a new portfolio with fashion because of that.
(33:42):
And I shot much more projects, too. Yeah, a good process.
That's cool. So there was a silver lining to the cloud. Yes. Rad.
I wanted to kind of segue a little bit because I saw on your Instagram bio that
you have a book and that you have a model course.
(34:05):
So you've been working to teach other models?
Tell me more about that. Yeah, actually came kind of organically in the way
that a lot of models were watching my Instagram and my work.
And a lot of them contacted me in my private messages asking,
how do I manage to travel the world this way and to shoot with so many good photographers?
(34:31):
How do I handle traveling? How I market myself?
How did I manage to grow my Instagram so quickly? the engagements on my post,
like all those questions.
So I felt like at the beginning, I kind of just answered to the girls one by
one. I tried to help them.
But then like last year, when I actually had this problem with my hip.
(34:56):
I felt like maybe this was the moment for me to start sharing my knowledge and
help aspiring models with the industry,
with what I've learned through the process and also an important part of the
business which is online marketing,
where I felt like a lot of girls have lacked knowledge.
(35:21):
And in some way, that's kind of one of my second passions.
I really enjoy marketing and online marketing, especially.
So I do read a lot about ads. I do a lot of research.
So kind of on top of the game when it comes to what's happening in this industry too.
Wow. So yeah, I started creating a course, which is still in the process of creation.
(35:49):
But at the moment, I am helping actually aspiring models, but also models which
are already on the market.
Helping them with, let's say, creating, like, optimizing their Instagram account,
optimizing their post, their image, their brand image, their websites.
(36:11):
Also, communication with photographers, writing, shooting agreement.
And all the business side of the photography.
Wow, that's inspiring. So the moment that you had all that time available after your surgery,
(36:32):
you utilized that time not just to diversify your portfolio with different genres,
but also to dive into creating this course,
and train other models in how to do it.
I think that is very inspiring.
And I'm so glad to learn that you did that.
(36:53):
Sometimes when people have a hardship like that, some people could fall into
the woe is me or whatever, but you really took that as an opportunity and like,
I mean, do you ever wonder what would have happened if you didn't have to go
through that surgery? Like, where would you be now? I'd probably be where I was.
(37:14):
Just doing probably the same type of photos and maybe join your team.
Yeah, everything happened for a reason. That's what they say, right? Yeah.
So you have the course that people can take online, but you also do one-on-one coaching?
Actually, at the moment, the course is, like I said, not yet online.
(37:37):
Because I decided to first work with models one-on-one to really understand
what they need because I had plenty of ideas about the online course,
but I felt like maybe those were my ideas and maybe they were not exactly fitting
the needs of the aspiring models.
(37:57):
So I'm more in the process now of taking one-on-one calls where I feel like
I'm kind of really helping with the issues.
And I can see right now there are recurring issues.
So I guess those things are going to be part of my course because I can see
(38:19):
some things are just coming back.
But yeah, it's very interesting. And I really enjoy sharing my knowledge and
seeing how they apply it, how it works.
So it's pretty high.
Would you say that marketing and social media is one of the biggest challenges for aspiring models?
(38:42):
It's one of them, but the other one, the huge one, is communication with photographers
because those communications are leading to bookings.
Yeah. And the process of communication to lead to a booking,
there is a kind of a strategy to get there.
And they don't really follow the step-by-step. the right straight-pass-step
(39:05):
strategy to manage to get bookings.
And that's the main problem when girls are like, oh, nobody books me,
I don't understand why, da-da-da.
Usually when you go back to the source, the issue is the communication.
Can you summarize in a shorter form than you would normally elaborate on if
(39:26):
you were doing a training session with an aspiring model,
What sort of things that you would suggest a model might say and what not to
say when communicating with a photographer to try and get a booking?
Well, yeah, the big no, which many are doing is...
(39:46):
Like straight away say hi i'm coming to
your city this is my fee yeah okay and
then they're expecting to get paid where we can't
forget that photographers are human and it's kind
of you need to put on a conversation before speaking about money yes like yeah
to have what's the artistic vision of the photographer was speaking about ideas
(40:12):
concept well then when all of that That kind of works from both sides,
and both sides are on the same page, and you can make as big of a money.
Yeah. But the big mistake is usually the cold messages, which are not personalized,
and straight to my face is the whole artistic process of a Photoshop.
(40:37):
Exactly. Yeah, that's why nobody wants to get a copy and paste spam message.
Exactly that that's what
most are doing yeah yeah well
i mean it really makes sense that like all of these little nuanced things are
what leads to a successful career versus a not successful one so things like
(41:00):
treating photographers like humans it sounds like it should be obvious but but
you're You're right, it's not obvious to everybody.
No, it's not.
How frequent do you do these trainings? Approximately how often?
(41:20):
Do you have multiple students at a time that you're working with?
Yeah, I have multiple girls at the moment.
After all, they're on different stages.
No, I have one girl, for example, we did like a set of like six goals and then
so the whole process, we go through everything, branding,
(41:42):
her whole online branding, her social, her,
posts, and then we go through the process of monetizing with Patreon and OnlyFans,
helping helping her with all of that, creating tiers and how her tiers could be set up,
(42:04):
communications with photographers.
Then we went through the whole process of writing her shooting agreement contracts with photographers.
And then a whole section of another call is going to be about traveling, how to organize a trip.
Yeah, so the whole process is very interesting. and then going to be also a
(42:24):
section about posing and.
That's awesome. Wow. So you're really helping them go step-by-step through all
of the things that you've already had to learn on your own. That's great. Yeah.
And you have a book? Are you working on it or it's out? Oh, well,
I had four books in total so far. Four, at least. Yes.
(42:48):
But two of them were limited edition and are already sold out.
And one of them is with one photographer and is currently still for sale,
but it's not that many copies left.
And then one is my baby, how I call it, it's called Stameless.
I've done it all on my own. It's
(43:11):
a 420-page book, which features 86 photographers, black and white only.
And yeah, it weighs almost eight pounds.
Wow. It's like a New York Bible type of book. It's massive.
(43:32):
Awesome. Yeah.
So it's a good book. I have produced it. I self-published it.
I marketed, shipping it, and all by me.
That's amazing. So did you order a bulk amount of them to be shipped to you,
and then you're personally shipping them?
I pre-printed all the copies. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's not a print-on-demand.
(44:00):
I printed it up front. That's amazing. Amazing.
That's probably expensive to order that many books with that many pages.
Yeah, it was a big investment, but I had that in mind for a long time.
I've done it, and the sales went really well.
(44:21):
Actually, I have my last box of it. Oh, bittersweet.
Wow. Is there a reason that you preferred to do this instead?
Instead of doing the print-to-order method, I had a really good print shop where I live, which I trust.
(44:42):
And yeah, I wanted to also support the business in my area and print with them.
So, why not? Big reasons. Wow. And yeah, and so far I had no complaints.
Everybody loved the quality of the print, of said print.
Really high quality paper.
(45:06):
I'm going to keep them. It's a good print shop. Awesome. That's way better than
utilizing Amazon or some major corporation. I love that. Yeah.
Do you autograph them? Yes, there is an option to buy a personalized signed version.
Perfect. And that does create a more personal touch than just print order online, for sure.
(45:31):
That's right. so with all of your traveling is it challenging to juggle the
on the calls with the aspiring models as well as the shipping of your book like
in between your travels yeah well for the girls i,
go like with my schedule i just we find a time that works for them and for me
(45:53):
yeah and then the books if they need to be personalized then i always email the person and then say,
well, I'm currently traveling, so if you want it signed and personalized,
you're going to have to wait until I get home to do it. Yeah.
Which these people understand because they usually know that I have that lifestyle.
(46:15):
Yeah, understandably. Yeah.
Have you ever done annual calendars? Oh, yeah, I did. I did. I do one since 2019.
Oh, wow. Every year. Yeah.
I did even two last year. Oh, really? Yeah. Because I had a phone request.
(46:35):
I usually do an implied calendar.
Uh-huh. But then my closer friends requested me to do a more intimate calendar.
Yeah. And I was like, okay, well, let me try.
And I have done two versions. I had my implied one and I had my intimate one.
And it works really well because a lot
(46:56):
of people finally got to instead of at
our age it was a good
move a good idea from my friends well hearing about all of your projects is
very inspiring for me and i'm really glad that i've been able to talk to you
about all this because like i haven't made an annual calendar since the pandemic
(47:17):
and i thought about it and every year i'm I'm like, should I make a calendar? Nah.
Because it's a lot of work, but people do enjoy it.
It is a lot of work. It is, but it's also a way, I find it's a way to keep connected to my community.
So every month they have to flip that page and they have me in their home.
(47:41):
It's a way to have a physical item which you use.
Yes, and it is. what i've
and i like prints and i like prints i like
things to be tangible and print it so
yeah that's good and i mean photography
is not meant to just be on like social media on our phones like it makes me
(48:05):
sad that a lot of these exactly how it also we make are like reduced to that
now yeah that was the idea of timeless is i've got actually i got mad web web digital digital,
of watching my photo digitally.
And that's why I wanted to print a book.
A big one. This was the idea. And many people asked if there was a PDF version
(48:29):
of it. And I was like, no way.
That is existing only in a physical way.
Take the time with a cup of tea and actually look at touch photos.
Yes, there's something beautiful in that. and then the format also you know like a fun format yeah.
(48:53):
Yeah, that's great. As for calendars, since I haven't been making one,
my partner and I bought a calendar of another model.
That's nice. Yeah, we did. And she's up on our wall and I've never met her in
person, but I think about her every day.
She's on my wall. I thought I was like, anybody that buys my calendar is going
(49:16):
to think about me every time they look at it.
So in that way, it's a really good marketing for like
generating fans and it is
and they like it the ones which are getting it they every
month they send me photo they're flipping the
page and yeah that's cool how that inspires me to do one this year thank you
(49:37):
for that do do one do one no way don't worry that's really well well leticia
it's been really great getting to know you a little bit more over the course
of this podcast podcast.
Yeah, thank you for inviting me. Yeah, I'll definitely include links to your
socials and your website and to where people can sign up for the model training
(50:01):
that you do. Yeah, absolutely.
All right. Well, thank you again so much for taking the time to be a part of the podcast.
And I will reach out to you shortly after this to follow up.
Music.
Before we get with our regularly scheduled podcast, I just wanted to thank you
so, so much from the bottom of my heart for listening to the Sunrise Life podcast.
I am so grateful every time somebody comments or sends me a DM saying that they love the show.
If you would like to help other people find out about the Sunrise Life podcast,
(00:20):
it would be immensely helpful if you could subscribe on whatever platform that
you regularly listen to Sunrise Life on.
And if you could leave a rating, that would make me smile so hard.
Thanks for listening, and here's back to your regularly scheduled show.
Music.
(00:43):
Welcome to Sunrise Life, the podcast where we have deep conversations with fellow freelance models.
And today I have Letitia Chanel on the line. Say hello. Hello.
So happy that we were both able to make this work. I know that you are on the
other side of the world. You're in France?
(01:04):
Yes, I'm right now touring in South of France.
Yeah, that's amazing. And so they've got the Olympics happening out there right
now. Is that affecting your travels?
Not really. I landed in Marseille yesterday where some of the Olympics are happening,
but it didn't affect anything.
That's good. Cool. Yeah, I've been loving watching snippets that I see online
(01:28):
from the gymnastics and stuff.
Yeah, those amazing women, right? They're so powerful.
Yeah. When it comes to the Olympics, the two sports that I enjoy watching the
most are the gymnastics and ice skating. Same.
Yeah. Everything else is like, pretty cool. So for our audience,
(01:48):
I would like to hear how you first got into modeling.
Okay. So it came, to be honest, by mistake.
It was nothing planned. It's nothing I ever had in my mind.
Actually, when I had to take random pictures at the beach, I always felt really
uncomfortable posing. I never knew what to do.
(02:09):
So I started, I had an Instagram account for yoga and fitness,
where I used to pose also on some photos of my performing acts.
When I used to be an artist, I had an Ariel Hoop app.
And one day, one photographer reached out to me, to that Instagram account,
(02:33):
and asked me if I could be interested to do
an aerial hoop photo shoot that for such a
long time he's been looking for a performer which
had body abilities and lines like I had he wanted to do an aerial hoop photo
shoot but it had to be nude okay and then he saw within my Instagram that I I also did ballet,
(02:59):
and he told me that you could also be interested to do some ballet photos,
but they would also be nude, because he was a fine art nude photographer.
And I have looked through his account, and I loved, loved, loved so much his photos.
They were so artistic, so aesthetic, powerful.
(03:22):
And I thought to myself, I really want to do it. I was also in that time,
like probably the best shape of my life physically.
And I talked to my dad and I talked to my boyfriend about it and asked them how they would feel.
And they both gave me a yes.
(03:43):
So, yeah, I decided to go ahead and do the clutch.
That's how it started. Wow, that's amazing that your dad and your boyfriend
were both supportive right away.
Yeah, very. Are you concerned at all when you first started about having nude
images of yourself online?
So yeah, at first when the photographer told me that when he would start publishing
(04:10):
photos, there would already be other photographers reaching out.
But then when I got the photos, I was a bit anxious posting them.
I didn't know what to do with them at first.
And then finally I decided to start publishing some of them.
They were all faceless, so technically you couldn't really know it was me.
(04:30):
So the Morag body parts, and it was all about the body and line.
And when I published them, people just read all of them.
And I got so many feedback. I was like, okay, well, I'm going to keep posting
them. Because people like that.
But I had a bit of, like, know-and-of in the yoga community,
(04:52):
which followed me on my Instagram account.
They couldn't understand the nudity. They couldn't understand all that.
So I was like, well, I need a new account for that because the yoga people are not happy.
And that's when I decided to open the Let It Zip Channel model account and I
split my yoga and fitness from modeling.
(05:15):
And then it was fine. Nobody complained about nudity.
That's good. In the yoga community of people that were giving you a hard time
about it, were these any people that you knew in person?
No. They were just those random, you know, the Indian guys, like the yogi yogis
from India, which were very conservative and very...
(05:40):
It kind of actually really shocked me because yoga should be about connection
with the body and the mind and purity of everything.
And I guess when you post a nude photo, they got really... Yeah.
They didn't like it. even though there were
some yoga positions in those nude photos yeah that
(06:02):
is i mean i do find it a little bit hypocritical that
it is supposed to be about connecting with your true self but that i find that
if somebody has an issue with nudity it's probably their own insecurities or
conditioning and not not anything that has to do with you or with yoga, I suppose.
(06:24):
Yeah, exactly. I think I have some concerns.
So I kept, I stopped posting nude photos on my yoga account and that's fine.
That's great. And then how quickly did your modeling career progress once you
started that new Instagram account?
(06:44):
Extremely quick, like so quick.
Well, he, he, well, I'm going to say his name. It was Andre Brito from Porto, Portugal.
And he had an amazing community of fine art photographers following him.
So when he started publishing me, all those photographers straight away kind
(07:05):
of jumped at me and was like, I want you, I want you.
So I got a lot, a lot, a lot of requests straight away, even though I had maybe
nine photos on my Instagram.
Yeah, and then it did a bit of a snowball effect because then I started touring
a bit, the new countries, new cities.
(07:26):
And so now another photographer will start publishing. It made,
you know, the snowball effect of reaching a new country, a new city.
Yeah, it went on really, really fast. There were a lot of photographers.
That's amazing. So before you even got into modeling, you were already an experienced
(07:47):
ballerina and aerialist.
So you already had a lot of the skills that so many photographers are looking for. So that's amazing.
Yeah, I guess there were a lot of photographers looking for nude ballet.
The thing with nude ballet photography is that a lot of really good ballerinas,
(08:11):
are employed in national theaters and national theaters.
It's the image of a theater. Even though they could be hired,
they can't take those kind of agreements.
Agreements and the second is like that ballerina one
or the other so it's not that easy to find a good ballerina and would post nude
(08:34):
and did you have anything in your career at the time that was affecting your
ability to do nude posing or were you somehow not bound to those types of contracts,
no i was freelancing as an acrobat and i could do whatever i wanted that was good That's amazing.
(08:55):
So you were already freelancing. Had you ever had a job prior to that that required
you to comply with some kind of schedule?
Well, I freelanced, but in a way, I was contracted for another show.
So I was entitled to be every day at the same time at the theater and perform,
(09:16):
but in a freelance way, meaning free.
I was hired as an extra into the show, not like, let's say, like dancers,
which are really contacted by the show.
Yeah. So I traveled all over the world as an acrobat, as a freelance acrobat.
That's amazing. Prior to photography. Most of the people that I've interviewed
(09:40):
on the show aren't also ballerinas.
There have been a lot of people that I've interviewed that have had experience
in dance and in gymnastics,
but I've always wondered what the life of a person who does ballet and dance
professionally is like.
And because the nudity is kind of a stigma, it does make sense that some ballerinas
(10:07):
are contracted to not do that kind of photography.
But I suppose that does make it a really niche thing.
Yeah, it is a very niche type of photography.
And it also has nothing to
do like the real academic ballet posing and the ballet posing for photos are
(10:30):
so opposite to each other it's just so because yeah you have to kind of do by the ballet.
I think I understand what I'm saying, but that's fine.
If you're at the wrong angle, then turn out your feet in different ways so they
(10:52):
look good on the photos, but you would never dance properly that way.
In a way, I can kind of relate to that with yoga, because a lot of yoga poses
require balance and you to be standing flat-footed.
And there are times where I've posed for a photographer and they're asking me
(11:13):
to stand on a toe instead of flat footed. And I know that it's wrong.
Wrong in them. The public, they like the photo for the lines.
So I see what you're doing.
Yeah. Same with ballet posing. You have to do it wrong.
Huh. That's interesting. And there are only a couple other models that I've met in person that...
(11:37):
Do nude modeling and i've heard from them
that there are certain like ways
of capturing the ballet poses where
if it's not captured at the the proper
moment for for like a a jump or
a kick then it looks improper in
(11:57):
the photo for the ballet community has that affected you
this is a major this is
a major point I speak with photographers pre-communication
before agreeing even to shoot
with photographers is that even the best photographer in the world doesn't have
(12:18):
knowledge about ballet even really good ballet photographers some have never
done a ballet club they're just really good at capturing it but But I always tell them, like,
I have a special condition when people shoot me that I have to approve all my photos.
(12:39):
Because sadly, photographers can't understand what is a good or a bad pose when it comes to ballet.
So for branding purpose, I do ask to go through the photos before they are published.
So only the proper poses are published because if not it's out of control they
will publish everything and
(13:00):
anything for you we're not awful and has that surprising sometimes what
photographer like which are like completely
not ready not the end of the pose not pointed
feet not and they love it and you're
like no so has has
(13:21):
yacht interaction caused you any grief
in pre-communication or at the shoot well not at the shoot because i'm always
very clear speak about that prior to the issue yeah but yes sometimes i sometimes
some shoots don't go happen because of that but i'm completely fine with it,
(13:44):
I think my branding is more important than the shoot.
And having a bad pose published, I'm not interested.
Yeah, it makes sense. You're not just bringing posing to the table.
You're bringing in a very, very specialized skill.
And you don't want to be misrepresented. Exactly.
(14:06):
Yeah, and I totally resonate with the whole
issue of photographers posting photos where
you're like i wasn't ready that wasn't it
but like yeah this
is a very common thing where i remember a
photographer sent me a photo and i swear i was
blinking or something in the photo and he said i've never seen you make this
(14:29):
facial expression before and i was like am i sneezing or blinking like what's
going on that this is you might think it looks good but to everybody else Or
at least to me, it looked not right.
Yeah, that happens a lot. Do you have an online forum or do you usually just
(14:50):
have these conversations back and forth over email or Messenger?
No, I have a full-on contract about that. That's amazing.
So how long ago was it that you started modeling and then started traveling full-time?
So the first photo shoot was in June 2018 and then on that time I was still
(15:12):
performing and I did a bit of,
I did five shows a week and then on my two days off I would do photos.
And I've done that for almost a year and a half.
So yeah, for a year and a half I had no days off whatsoever.
Wow and then the full-on
(15:35):
full full-time i started like end
of 2020 and so now
almost four years full-time wow so
you started traveling at the end of 2020 what was that challenging because i
mean i was already traveling during my days off like when i did have my days
(15:56):
off i was not shooting I was traveling to the shoot in Europe.
But yeah, the longer, I did actually once, I had vacations from a show and I
did a longer, like two, three weeks tour in 2019. Oh, wow.
Yeah. Like seriously, less than six months after I started, I was already able
(16:22):
to manage like a two, three week tour.
That's amazing. You had already so much request. with.
So these days, the scheduling of your trips, how long are you on the road at
a time in between being at home?
Yeah, that's something I had to work on because at first when I got so many
(16:43):
of the requests, I got crazy and I went on for like six weeks, seven weeks.
And then I burned out when I did that.
And now I found a good balance for myself.
Three weeks is the maximum. I don't like to be away from home for more than
three weeks. And then always having a week home per month.
(17:04):
It's like my grounding.
I need to feel human. That's good.
That's good. It's good to know what your limits are. And I've definitely experienced similar.
Three weeks, I feel to me would still be a
really long time to be on the road though yeah i like
to keep it under three weeks it's amazing so
(17:27):
as far as places that you've traveled you mentioned that you've
traveled all around europe where else have
you traveled for photography yeah for modeling
yeah for modeling I've done a
lot of US and I've done
Mexico and I've went
to Turkey also and that's
(17:49):
it the rest was Europe awesome and you're based in France in Spain in Spain
okay so you're traveling right now yeah I'm now on I left home yesterday and I'll be back.
And about to an odd place okay right
(18:12):
on awesome so over the
course your modeling career i'm sure that you've
had some crazy and or interesting experiences and i ask everybody on the show
to share one or more of their crazy stories what is one of your crazy photo
(18:33):
shoot stories it could It could be crazy good,
crazy bad, funny, interesting.
What's something that sticks out in your mind? I think one photo shoot I can't
forget and was so crazy and unique. It was in Switzerland.
In a city which is called Ticino, so we got closer to the Italian border.
(18:56):
And they have those amazing rock formations with rivers and really cold water,
because the water comes from the mountains, and this photographer booked me for two full days,
and he had the most crazy idea, I might, which It was rigging a silk in front of the waterfall,
(19:22):
which he grew up in that area, and this waterfall for him was something very special.
And he really wanted me to do aerial silk photos in front of that waterfall.
But that waterfall was so, so, so remote and really, really hard access.
(19:43):
And he prepared that shoot for like two weeks before I arrived.
He prepared, he actually made a rigging point over the waterfall,
in front of the waterfall, like a full-on wire anchored in the rocks.
(20:04):
Then he did a special rigging for his camera into the rocks.
He rigged flashes in in that in that forest and rocks area like he was there
for two weeks just bringing stuff and rigging whoa and then he bought me he
bought me those massive fishing boats.
(20:25):
And he also had the whole trail prepared for me to be able to walk through it
like he added rope So, yeah, I did plenty of things to be easier to get to this waterfall.
Yeah, it was about a two-hour walk to get there.
And then, yeah, we did a photo shoot.
And he had like any extra, he had like pro photo flashes. He had like Hasselblad camera.
(20:52):
Like he was crazy what he brought there.
And every time he had to walk this two hours in and out to bring all the equipment. Wow.
Yeah. And I had to, well, I walked there once back and forth.
But this was, it was crazy. And the photos are crazy good. People think that
(21:13):
actually I'm photoshopped behind a waterfall, but it was all real.
Wow. And then the next day, he brought me to another place and he had bought
this 30 feet fire department ladder.
Like just for that shoot, he bought that ladder.
So I could access to a location and he rigged me like with a harness.
(21:41):
This and and he like
like ropes and he he yeah like crazy rigging just to bring me down to that it
was not accessible in a different way and there also he had done a whole rigging
for his light setup and for his camera setup had always tried for the rigged
(22:02):
into the rocks and I mean,
just as black as it was,
these politicians did have time.
Wow. He was a lot of logistic from his side. And after the Deshota shit was
done, he had to unrig everything.
So he stayed another three, four days just to unrig it.
(22:23):
Wow. That's a lot. And did the photos come out how he wanted them to?
I only edited three, though. Dang. Wow. That's a lot of work for three photos.
Did he have any assistants?
Nope. No, it was just him and me. Wow. He was just carrying a crazy amount of gear.
(22:46):
That's a lot of work. But, I mean, I admire that dedication.
It's very admirable. I was like, okay, if that's your dream photo,
okay, I'm going to make it happen for you.
It's like, I don't know any other model that are so experienced to be high on
the silk and in this dangerous condition in front of a waterfall.
(23:07):
And I was like, I do it.
Did you feel like there was a lot of pressure on you to get this right?
No, because in that time I was right
out of performing and I was very comfortable on silk and very strong.
So I had no problem with climbing up and just being up there to pose.
(23:27):
Wow so I like that
that's great wow that's
it's amazing to have that level of skill and strength to be confident in any
situation like that have you ever been at a shoot where the conditions were
too dangerous for you to perform the kind of posing that the photographer
(23:51):
wanted yeah okay and then it happens you know like you're outdoor and that even
i think i had it this morning i yeah i i and it was like no.
Like oh it shows work on a not really
even platform and was like pretty close
(24:12):
to the ocean so if i see yeah it's just possible wow
yeah it happens a lot yeah or
if you're on a cliff edge and the rocks look like
they might be unstable yeah yeah
yeah there's definitely a limit to what
i will do when it comes to
(24:34):
like the potential for safety like especially if
it's windy and stuff like that yeah i
also have limit i have also temperature limit this
is something i do yeah i like i
won't do it no i don't do the cold are
there like a specific numbers of temperature that you'll let photographers know
(24:55):
if it gets below a certain temperature that you know you're gonna have to call
it off yeah that's also part of my pre-shoot communication right yeah i had
I don't know if in Fahrenheit,
I think it's 62 Fahrenheit.
No, I don't know. 17 degrees Celsius.
Below that i i know i can't
(25:17):
do it because i'm not posing and
my pose is like my posing is just hard to
be mean so this is better to be away from
me when i'm cold yeah yeah i don't want to shoot with me if i'm cold especially
if it's windy i want to take a short little break to tell you about model society
(25:38):
modelsociety.com is a website dedicated to featuring figurative fine art photography
for models and photographers.
What makes them different than other portfolio hosting websites is that some
of those other websites will still host kind of tacky photography or exploitative photos.
Model Society screens all of their contributors for quality and authenticity,
(26:03):
so you only get the best of the best on there.
If you're not a photographer or model, you can still enjoy and appreciate Model
Society because they also have newsletters and magazines featuring their best
work and new articles each week.
Check it out, modelsociety.com.
I will also include a link to Model Society in the show notes.
(26:25):
All right, now back to our show.
So there's another question that I like to ask everybody on the show,
and I call it the rising phoenix era of your life.
Can you describe a situation where
you were faced with a challenge that
you had to overcome and it could be related to your modeling or something outside
(26:48):
of your modeling if you want so actually it happened last year i i had a really
bad news from after an x-ray exam.
After performing as a professional ballerina and acrobat, I had overused all
(27:09):
the cartilage in my left hip.
And I had no other solution than having a full hip replacement.
And yeah, I was like in tremendous pain.
I couldn't walk, couldn't sit, couldn't even clip. No stairs.
Not even talking about posing or working out.
(27:31):
So I had no choice. I had to go through it. I've done it.
And it was just like a huge question mark when I went to the operation.
I had no idea what would be my physical run.
And, of course, the surgeons always give you the more dark options,
and you won't be able to do anything.
(27:52):
Wow. So that's something I had to, yeah, go over, and the recovery and the strength training.
And the music.
I must have all my range back.
(28:14):
Almost never to do everything I used to do. I had to go through recently,
and I'm still doing better, to be honest.
So how long was your recovery time? Well, I guess I'm still going through it. Yeah.
I'm technically not still working on strength training.
But I had to stop for, I had to stop.
(28:39):
Wow.
Damn. So is this something that you were able to plan for, like financially,
to be able to take that long of a time where you couldn't travel?
Well, I have to say, like, I have a pretty good online and online fund.
So it didn't affect me too much. and my fans were royal and kept supporting me.
(29:05):
And so this was a good thing, yeah. Yeah, besides not being able to travel.
That's amazing. That's good to have multiple streams of income.
And, you know, during the pandemic, my Patreon and OnlyFans definitely kept me afloat too.
So that's good. Same.
Wow. That's amazing. But wow, so young to have a hip replacement.
(29:30):
Is that, is it made of titanium? Yes.
But it's a common thing for professional ballerinas.
If you go professionally, you kind of know that around my age,
you would go through it. Wow.
I didn't know that. That's intense. Wow.
All my teachers have hip replacement. Oh, wow.
(29:55):
Do you think you'll have to get your other hip replaced also so far so good
i'm preventing it now that i know what i have to do to prevent yeah i won't
have to i'm also i have stopped doing,
impact movement so i'm not impacting any of my other hip due to the to the protect now so,
(30:17):
yeah i guess i'm maybe i can say that yeah wow so impact that would be like
jumping and stuff like that jumping running yeah so i'm no no more jumps on my shirt wow finished.
But that's fine i haven't done a lot
in my life i took great jump photos and
(30:39):
wow that is insane
i'm still kind of like blown away by
i guess i didn't know that it was common
and in the ballerina community to have
to get a hip replaced at a certain age like that do
they tell you that when you first get into ballet well
you know that your teachers have them ah so you're kind of like okay yeah i
(31:06):
mean they do everything to train you to avoid having it but But after you do
the moves and the moves, that's what the moves are.
Yeah. And doing the hips, it's just using the cartilage in such a way that it's
using twice the speed as a normal person.
(31:26):
Yeah, that makes sense. Are there certain supplements that you take that help
with cartilage and stuff?
Yeah, I've been taking everything since I'm like 20 years old.
I've been taking like I said to my surgeon I can't,
And I've done everything to prevent. So I can't blame myself for not doing it
(31:50):
because I, yeah, I take like glucosamine and triplex and collagen.
Yeah. Wow. That's great.
Well, I'm so glad to hear that the surgery that you had to go through is something
that you're able to get back to work on eventually with your modeling.
(32:13):
That sounds like, that sounds so intense.
But I'm glad that you're working through it and that it's a positive thing for you in the long run.
It is. I've learned a lot through the process and I also had to,
in a way, try to adapt my modeling while I was recovering.
(32:34):
So it brought me to do some shoots which I would probably not do.
And it also had to find new ways to pose and this was a really interesting process
which I actually enjoyed.
That's really interesting actually can you elaborate on that like what kind
(32:57):
of shoots did you accept that you normally wouldn't have accepted in the past?
I started I started more exploring fashion shoots, which wasn't something which
I really had in mind while I was, like, full on physically healthy.
And I loved them. I really, really enjoyed them.
(33:19):
It got me out of my comfort zone with my dance and acrobatic posing.
I had to explore no ways to pose for photographers.
And actually, the photographers really liked shooting that way, too.
So I kind of started building a new portfolio with fashion because of that.
(33:42):
And I shot much more projects, too. Yeah, a good process.
That's cool. So there was a silver lining to the cloud. Yes. Rad.
I wanted to kind of segue a little bit because I saw on your Instagram bio that
you have a book and that you have a model course.
(34:05):
So you've been working to teach other models?
Tell me more about that. Yeah, actually came kind of organically in the way
that a lot of models were watching my Instagram and my work.
And a lot of them contacted me in my private messages asking,
how do I manage to travel the world this way and to shoot with so many good photographers?
(34:31):
How do I handle traveling? How I market myself?
How did I manage to grow my Instagram so quickly? the engagements on my post,
like all those questions.
So I felt like at the beginning, I kind of just answered to the girls one by
one. I tried to help them.
But then like last year, when I actually had this problem with my hip.
(34:56):
I felt like maybe this was the moment for me to start sharing my knowledge and
help aspiring models with the industry,
with what I've learned through the process and also an important part of the
business which is online marketing,
where I felt like a lot of girls have lacked knowledge.
(35:21):
And in some way, that's kind of one of my second passions.
I really enjoy marketing and online marketing, especially.
So I do read a lot about ads. I do a lot of research.
So kind of on top of the game when it comes to what's happening in this industry too.
Wow. So yeah, I started creating a course, which is still in the process of creation.
(35:49):
But at the moment, I am helping actually aspiring models, but also models which
are already on the market.
Helping them with, let's say, creating, like, optimizing their Instagram account,
optimizing their post, their image, their brand image, their websites.
(36:11):
Also, communication with photographers, writing, shooting agreement.
And all the business side of the photography.
Wow, that's inspiring. So the moment that you had all that time available after your surgery,
(36:32):
you utilized that time not just to diversify your portfolio with different genres,
but also to dive into creating this course,
and train other models in how to do it.
I think that is very inspiring.
And I'm so glad to learn that you did that.
(36:53):
Sometimes when people have a hardship like that, some people could fall into
the woe is me or whatever, but you really took that as an opportunity and like,
I mean, do you ever wonder what would have happened if you didn't have to go
through that surgery? Like, where would you be now? I'd probably be where I was.
(37:14):
Just doing probably the same type of photos and maybe join your team.
Yeah, everything happened for a reason. That's what they say, right? Yeah.
So you have the course that people can take online, but you also do one-on-one coaching?
Actually, at the moment, the course is, like I said, not yet online.
(37:37):
Because I decided to first work with models one-on-one to really understand
what they need because I had plenty of ideas about the online course,
but I felt like maybe those were my ideas and maybe they were not exactly fitting
the needs of the aspiring models.
(37:57):
So I'm more in the process now of taking one-on-one calls where I feel like
I'm kind of really helping with the issues.
And I can see right now there are recurring issues.
So I guess those things are going to be part of my course because I can see
(38:19):
some things are just coming back.
But yeah, it's very interesting. And I really enjoy sharing my knowledge and
seeing how they apply it, how it works.
So it's pretty high.
Would you say that marketing and social media is one of the biggest challenges for aspiring models?
(38:42):
It's one of them, but the other one, the huge one, is communication with photographers
because those communications are leading to bookings.
Yeah. And the process of communication to lead to a booking,
there is a kind of a strategy to get there.
And they don't really follow the step-by-step. the right straight-pass-step
(39:05):
strategy to manage to get bookings.
And that's the main problem when girls are like, oh, nobody books me,
I don't understand why, da-da-da.
Usually when you go back to the source, the issue is the communication.
Can you summarize in a shorter form than you would normally elaborate on if
(39:26):
you were doing a training session with an aspiring model,
What sort of things that you would suggest a model might say and what not to
say when communicating with a photographer to try and get a booking?
Well, yeah, the big no, which many are doing is...
(39:46):
Like straight away say hi i'm coming to
your city this is my fee yeah okay and
then they're expecting to get paid where we can't
forget that photographers are human and it's kind
of you need to put on a conversation before speaking about money yes like yeah
to have what's the artistic vision of the photographer was speaking about ideas
(40:12):
concept well then when all of that That kind of works from both sides,
and both sides are on the same page, and you can make as big of a money.
Yeah. But the big mistake is usually the cold messages, which are not personalized,
and straight to my face is the whole artistic process of a Photoshop.
(40:37):
Exactly. Yeah, that's why nobody wants to get a copy and paste spam message.
Exactly that that's what
most are doing yeah yeah well
i mean it really makes sense that like all of these little nuanced things are
what leads to a successful career versus a not successful one so things like
(41:00):
treating photographers like humans it sounds like it should be obvious but but
you're You're right, it's not obvious to everybody.
No, it's not.
How frequent do you do these trainings? Approximately how often?
(41:20):
Do you have multiple students at a time that you're working with?
Yeah, I have multiple girls at the moment.
After all, they're on different stages.
No, I have one girl, for example, we did like a set of like six goals and then
so the whole process, we go through everything, branding,
(41:42):
her whole online branding, her social, her,
posts, and then we go through the process of monetizing with Patreon and OnlyFans,
helping helping her with all of that, creating tiers and how her tiers could be set up,
(42:04):
communications with photographers.
Then we went through the whole process of writing her shooting agreement contracts with photographers.
And then a whole section of another call is going to be about traveling, how to organize a trip.
Yeah, so the whole process is very interesting. and then going to be also a
(42:24):
section about posing and.
That's awesome. Wow. So you're really helping them go step-by-step through all
of the things that you've already had to learn on your own. That's great. Yeah.
And you have a book? Are you working on it or it's out? Oh, well,
I had four books in total so far. Four, at least. Yes.
(42:48):
But two of them were limited edition and are already sold out.
And one of them is with one photographer and is currently still for sale,
but it's not that many copies left.
And then one is my baby, how I call it, it's called Stameless.
I've done it all on my own. It's
(43:11):
a 420-page book, which features 86 photographers, black and white only.
And yeah, it weighs almost eight pounds.
Wow. It's like a New York Bible type of book. It's massive.
(43:32):
Awesome. Yeah.
So it's a good book. I have produced it. I self-published it.
I marketed, shipping it, and all by me.
That's amazing. So did you order a bulk amount of them to be shipped to you,
and then you're personally shipping them?
I pre-printed all the copies. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's not a print-on-demand.
(44:00):
I printed it up front. That's amazing. Amazing.
That's probably expensive to order that many books with that many pages.
Yeah, it was a big investment, but I had that in mind for a long time.
I've done it, and the sales went really well.
(44:21):
Actually, I have my last box of it. Oh, bittersweet.
Wow. Is there a reason that you preferred to do this instead?
Instead of doing the print-to-order method, I had a really good print shop where I live, which I trust.
(44:42):
And yeah, I wanted to also support the business in my area and print with them.
So, why not? Big reasons. Wow. And yeah, and so far I had no complaints.
Everybody loved the quality of the print, of said print.
Really high quality paper.
(45:06):
I'm going to keep them. It's a good print shop. Awesome. That's way better than
utilizing Amazon or some major corporation. I love that. Yeah.
Do you autograph them? Yes, there is an option to buy a personalized signed version.
Perfect. And that does create a more personal touch than just print order online, for sure.
(45:31):
That's right. so with all of your traveling is it challenging to juggle the
on the calls with the aspiring models as well as the shipping of your book like
in between your travels yeah well for the girls i,
go like with my schedule i just we find a time that works for them and for me
(45:53):
yeah and then the books if they need to be personalized then i always email the person and then say,
well, I'm currently traveling, so if you want it signed and personalized,
you're going to have to wait until I get home to do it. Yeah.
Which these people understand because they usually know that I have that lifestyle.
(46:15):
Yeah, understandably. Yeah.
Have you ever done annual calendars? Oh, yeah, I did. I did. I do one since 2019.
Oh, wow. Every year. Yeah.
I did even two last year. Oh, really? Yeah. Because I had a phone request.
(46:35):
I usually do an implied calendar.
Uh-huh. But then my closer friends requested me to do a more intimate calendar.
Yeah. And I was like, okay, well, let me try.
And I have done two versions. I had my implied one and I had my intimate one.
And it works really well because a lot
(46:56):
of people finally got to instead of at
our age it was a good
move a good idea from my friends well hearing about all of your projects is
very inspiring for me and i'm really glad that i've been able to talk to you
about all this because like i haven't made an annual calendar since the pandemic
(47:17):
and i thought about it and every year i'm I'm like, should I make a calendar? Nah.
Because it's a lot of work, but people do enjoy it.
It is a lot of work. It is, but it's also a way, I find it's a way to keep connected to my community.
So every month they have to flip that page and they have me in their home.
(47:41):
It's a way to have a physical item which you use.
Yes, and it is. what i've
and i like prints and i like prints i like
things to be tangible and print it so
yeah that's good and i mean photography
is not meant to just be on like social media on our phones like it makes me
(48:05):
sad that a lot of these exactly how it also we make are like reduced to that
now yeah that was the idea of timeless is i've got actually i got mad web web digital digital,
of watching my photo digitally.
And that's why I wanted to print a book.
A big one. This was the idea. And many people asked if there was a PDF version
(48:29):
of it. And I was like, no way.
That is existing only in a physical way.
Take the time with a cup of tea and actually look at touch photos.
Yes, there's something beautiful in that. and then the format also you know like a fun format yeah.
(48:53):
Yeah, that's great. As for calendars, since I haven't been making one,
my partner and I bought a calendar of another model.
That's nice. Yeah, we did. And she's up on our wall and I've never met her in
person, but I think about her every day.
She's on my wall. I thought I was like, anybody that buys my calendar is going
(49:16):
to think about me every time they look at it.
So in that way, it's a really good marketing for like
generating fans and it is
and they like it the ones which are getting it they every
month they send me photo they're flipping the
page and yeah that's cool how that inspires me to do one this year thank you
(49:37):
for that do do one do one no way don't worry that's really well well leticia
it's been really great getting to know you a little bit more over the course
of this podcast podcast.
Yeah, thank you for inviting me. Yeah, I'll definitely include links to your
socials and your website and to where people can sign up for the model training
(50:01):
that you do. Yeah, absolutely.
All right. Well, thank you again so much for taking the time to be a part of the podcast.
And I will reach out to you shortly after this to follow up.
Music.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.