In the modelling industry, you build what they call a portfolio and a Z-card. Basically, these are photo albums featuring examples of your work and they are regularly updated so that you have something to show prospective clients. You want to give them an idea of how well you pull off a certain look or trend when you attend a casting. If you want to land toothpaste adverts, for example, you ensure that you have loads of photos showcasing your fantastic smile early on in your portfolio. If you’re really into fitness and have very defined muscles, this would feature heavily in your portfolio.
Models, like influencers, can choose to actively position themselves in the market. Alternatively, you can leave it up to the industry to choose where they think you fit in, and then you will have to accept what you get. But I’ve never been a “take-what-you-get” girl.
For me, modelling was a shortcut to help me pay my university fees, but I quickly realised that I felt uncomfortable doing work that I would not still want to do in a decade or two. I wanted to build a business for myself that could be sustainable, and modelling was never the goal – it was a means to an end. I wanted to be able to look back at the work I had done when I was 20 years old and not cringe too much.
Then, when I graduated to working as a music TV presenter and radio DJ at 5FM in my early 20s, magazines like Sports Illustrated and FHM (For Him Monthly) featured the most prominent young actresses, models, musicians and TV presenters as cover girls. In a world before Instagram, I cannot overstate how important it used to be to feature in a magazine. Of course, these publications mostly featured cover girls clad in bikinis or lingerie. It was part of the deal. It was a case of “we give you a great big magazine cover to be on, and you show us what you’ve got”.
While I didn’t take any issue with my peers who successfully leveraged this platform to launch themselves into greater and more lucrative opportunities (and no, you don’t get paid for appearing on a magazine cover), it simply wasn’t something I was interested in doing. I was asked by both the music and the sports channels for whom I worked to consider doing features like this because they would yield good exposure for them. But I always replied that I wanted people to hear what I was saying and be less concerned with how I look. I’ve always been a total nerd in this way and I’m sure some might say that it was short-sighted. Either way, it’s my body and the decisions I took then serve me well today. I wouldn’t change a thing.
For Bouwer Bosch, his unique position has always been a focus on reconciliation through his work.
My true passion is reconciliation ... I try to be the Afrikaner in the entertainment industry who also cares about things that don’t only concern entertainment ... I need to be able to leave here and do business with everyone – not only Afrikaners. I cannot hide out in this Voortrekker laager. I was walking around Melville in one of my Steve Biko “Dis hoe dit is met Steve” T-shirts the other day. [Dis Hoe Dit Is Met Steve was a talk show hosted by Steve Hofmeyr, which ran for a decade from 2001 on the Afrikaans-language, pay-TV channel, kykNET.] Two black guys stopped me and started chatting to me about the message, the meaning of the Afrikaans words, the reference to Steve Biko, and it was great. I’m sure some Afrikaans people don’t appreciate what I’m doing, I’ll probably take a hit for it, but when I die one day this is the kind of work I want to be remembered for. For the fact that not many people had these difficult and important conversations.
The thing with being an influencer is that the Internet never forgets. Yes, people probably won’t scroll back to what you posted five years ago – no one cares that much, and if they do, they’re weirdos. (Block the weirdos!) However, your audience will notice if you try to sell them a version of yourself that doesn’t echo your true values or that switches according to what is trendy. People will call you out on it or, even worse, they’ll leave. You don’t need to be everything to everybody. In fact, it’s better not to be – that’s just bland. Make a list, draw that outline and list the stuff outside it. Check yourself against this and evaluate why you feel this way. The space that is left over might crystallise into a bit more brand awareness.
But what if I have chosen the wrong thing – or I change?
Take heart in the knowledge that nothing is set in stone. Pay real attention when selecting your niche, your topic, in determining who you want to be and who you want to reach. But take the same care in consistently re-evaluating that decision.
You are always going to grow and develop and so will your audience – this is actually the only thing we know for sure. Change is the only thing you can really bank on. Some of your tribe will migrate with you, others will not. If you’re not completely immersed or inspired any longer, if you realise that you have been climbing that ladder with all you have, but it’s actually leaning against the wrong wall, then stop. Be honest – with yourself and then with your audience.
If you’re a wedding blogger who gets a divorce or a vegan influencer who goes back to eating meat (both of these have actually happened), as difficult as
