Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stevan Miladinovic. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stevan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

One thing I always wanted to talk about when it comes to the modeling industry is that many people that are successful in the industry will unfortunately use their position and power to approach models not only for jobs, opportunities and engagements but also for some sort of sexual and other similar desires. I have no problem if a photographer, casting director, modeling agent, hair or make up artist, stylist or designer will reach out to me and ask me for a drink or something similar. I have a problem when they will approach you with questions regarding your work, but then when you start responding or when you meet them they change the topic and never talk about job again. That happened to me many times. I blamed myself for a very long time because I thought that every time I give them some sign to go forward but then I realized that from the start they never really were interested to work with me – only to have me as an object. That is sad and rough. It affects your self-respect and self-love. You don’t feel valued and you stop valuing yourself. Models need to set very high and strong boundaries and always keep it professional. However, successful modeling career is often based on strong network and connections so you have to keep it very friendly also and you have to be nice to everybody so that’s why it it difficult to solve this problem.

Stevan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I like to say that first of all I am an industrial engineer with a master’s degree. I am originally from Serbia, I did my degree over there at University of Belgrade. Last year I moved to Miami for work and now I end up being in Thailand and South-East Asia for some time focusing on my modeling career. I started modeling the same year I started my college. I was travelling and working all over Asia, Europe and the USA. I fall in love with the USA and always wanted to move there. However, since I am not a citizen there things got a bit complicated so I decided to keep travelling and keep looking for my base. Sometimes it is very difficult to decide what you wanna do and where you wanna be (especially if you have way too many options) and I am still trying to find the right balance between my modeling and corporate career. There are a few things that I love to do (such as self and skin care and fashion) so I am thinking about starting my own business in the near future. Besides that I would like to dive more into tech industry so that is another possibility. I am all over the place all the time and I would call myself a free bird!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Freedom. It is always freedom for me. That is one of the most important things in my life. Being a model gave me an opportunity to travel the world, get out of the box, get out of the capitalism as the way of living, do what I love, make money and be happy. However, society as it is will always try to keep you back on the track because living differently than most of the people confuse them I guess. That’s why I always get a question when will I calm down and settle down for a bit. I am not sure that I will ever be able to be at one place for years working 9-5. It kills the freedom, it kills the creativity and it kills the soul. I have to and I am still trying to find the right balance and I would also mention that one good thing that Covid brought us is definitely remote and hybrid work. I think those two things helped people get some more focus on themselves, more time and more FREEDOM.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I think that nowadays, people love to see videos more than photos. From my personal experience, you have to be super active everywhere. TikTok and Reels and then Instagram posts. Twitter as well. In order to keep your profile active you have to be consistent, stubborn and persistent. There is a huge competition on social medias now. People pay to boost their posts, get more likes and followers. If you wanna keep up with that you have to bring the quality and you have to be brave to step forward and bring something different to the world to see. Being different, being unique and special will always get more attention than being just as usual as any other person. Again, it also depends on who you niche is. You have to know who you are talking to and who is you audience. You have to follow the trends but also create your own brand. Collaboration are the huge thing in my opinion. I am getting a lot of followers and likes by collaborating with photographers, brand and other content creators.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @stevanmiladino
• Facebook: Stevan Miladinovic
• Twitter: @stevanmiladino
• Other: TikTok: @stevanmiladinovic

Image Credits
Joel Enamorado Corey Mayers Jury Krajcik Ty Chen Gato River Leonardo Holand Stevan Reyes Ian Jay Logan Ko