We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lavonne Adkison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lavonne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Lavonne’s The Agency takes a personal interest in all talent represented by the company.

All talent has met with their agent in person and receives personal feedback and guidance on what it will take to advance their acting career.
Some talent comes into our office without knowing anything about the entertainment industry. Some of them have never even been on an audition. We take a special interest in talent, guiding them and teaching them every step of the way.

Most agents expect that you come into the industry already knowing how to book from auditions and do not guide talent to be successful. Additionally, many talent have never even met their agent in person.

This is where Lavonne’s The Agency is different.

Where most agents say that they do not do hand holding, Lavonne’s The Agency will hold your hand all the way into the booking.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Lavonne’s The Agency started because saw a need for agencies willing to guide their talent to be successful.
We also saw a need for agencies who are willing to sign on diverse talent and represent them as top tier.

We saw that there was great talent who do not have the experience or knowledge that is takes to get booked. Hollywood is very cagey and acting is a very challenging industry to get into if you do not already know someone in the industry. We wanted to bridge this gap and give talent who know nothing other that that they have great talent an opportunity to get break into this industry. We come across talent all the time who have a great look, great skills, a great personality, etc.., but they may not know how to go on an audition, provide proper marketing materials to clients, or how the booking process works. They have everything that clients are looking for, but lack the knowledge that it takes to get in front of these clients.
We wanted to give this kind of talent the exposure that they deserve to book in this industry. We also want to give clients the opportunity to see this type of talent where otherwise they never would have.

We also specialize in booking minorities, in this industry we feel that there is a lack thereof. Many minorities have a hard time breaking into this industry because of stereotypes and agencies unwillingness to provide them with a shot or an opportunity. That is part of the reason why we established Lavonne’s The Agency and have made this our specialty. To give talent a shot that they may have never had a chance to experience this industry otherwise.

Our goal is that every talent who walks into our office leaves better off than when they came in because they met us.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This business if very tough to break into.

However, we have always known that if we sign the best talent and equip them with the proper knowledge, it would lead to bookings.

It took time to build a reputation with production companies and casting companies for the agency with the best kids. However, we kept submitting, kept sending talent to auditions and kept having talent show up who nail every booking. In time, more and more clients have returned to book our talent and told others about how our talent performs. Now, we have a reputation for top tier talent who is good looking, reliable, and great to be around.

Additionally, when we first started, almost none of our talent knew how to audition. This was a huge learning curve for everyone because we spent immense amounts of time having talent redo self tapes until they met client standards. We also had to prep talent for every in person audition, and debrief them afterwards to tell them what is working and what is not working. We had to explain to talent for every single audition how to get to callback and booking from auditions. We had to teach talent how to behave on set, what to expect and how to make the clients fall in love with you. Now, we have many talent who understand this process so they are able to book consistently from auditions that we send them to. However, we still do have to go through this process with new talent that we sign that have no experience in this industry.

Lastly, the internet has a lot of information out there that is inaccurate about how it works to get booked in this industry. It is hard for new talent to decipher what is legitimate knowledge and what is false and misleading. We are constantly having to educate our talent on what is accurate and what it takes to be successful in this industry. We are able to show them with bookings as proof of what works to get talent booked.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What build our reputation is signing the best kids and getting them in front of the best corporations.

We have always strived to treat our talent well and give everyone the best opportunity on the market to get booked. Not only do we advise our talent in the professional advancement of their careers, we show them with bookings as proof. Once talent is able to see the guidance pay off by being booked on jobs with corporate companies like Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Nike, etc. they trust you. This builds your reputation not only with trust from the talent, but also with all of the people who they tell what you have done for them.

We have built our reputation, with clients by always providing them with talent who delivers. This comes from presenting talent who is adequately prepared for the opportunities that are in front of them. Our talent never cancels for shoots, they never show up to shoots looking different from their marketing materials, they never become overwhelmed from the pressure of a shoot, they are always on time and they always deliver material to clients that sells their products. That is why clients call us over and over again when they need the best kids.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lavonnestheagency.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lavonnesagency/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavonnesagency/