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

Alexis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learned essentially “modeling” by hands on doing collabs and test shoots with other upcoming photographers at the time, as well as working with local boutiques and taking notes from other models who had been in the industry longer than me on how to move and change poses up and just making them look natural that was the biggest struggle at first for me. Also a big thing that goes into modeling is just knowing the do’s and don’ts of the industry, I feel like knowing what I do now I definitely could have just pushed the envelope more from the beginning pose wise/creative wise and I could have just studied what is out here on the internet to get ahead, given that the internet is still fairly new to the modeling world it wasn’t that big of thing when I first started so I enecourage everyone to use it to their advantage! The most essential skills for a model would be listening and taking direction well, being prepared, endurance to stand for long periods of time in heels usually, networking and being social, being creative and just confident in all you do. Many obstacles stood in my way along my journey mainly what stood in my way of learning more was just not having the access to a source to learn from until I met my manager who helped groom me on the industry knowledge and etc.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a full time model and actress and have been signed to multiple agencies but I am now currently in Dallas, Tx signed with the Campbell Agency and as well as a modeling instructor at Bella Modeling School. I got into my industry by trial and error pretty much going out on my own as a freelance model and collaborating with other local photographers and boutiques to build my portfolio and establish myself as a local and aspiring model. I sent out so many emails to all the agencies in Dallas when I first moved to the city and got rejected by every single one being told to lose inches off my hips and other things, which briefly discouraged me but that’s why I decided to go out on my own and create a lane for myself in the industry. Then eventually I met my current mother agent and he helped develop me and groom my skills to be able to get signed to agencies and even my current one. I believe I am unique as a model because I truly love my craft and treat it as an art, I learned to live and breath it to make it my career and reality which not many people know how to do or are not willing to sacrifice to do so. I make lasting connections with my clients and treat them professionally yet still as friends which I feel is a big factor to reoccurring bookings for me. I get compliments on being able to go with the flow and keeping a calm temper in stressful situations as well as taking direction well so I feel I just make my clients jobs easier for the day by not needing a lot of direction and not being too high maintenance. Something I am most proud of currently is being on national commercials for a hair campaign and getting a role in a feature film that will be airing sometime in the late year. I am a very versatile model and I do so many different jobs which I feel makes me love the work I do.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I get asked this quite often especially when people first follow me on Instagram it’s always “How did you get so many followers?!” And I do understand how it can seem impossible to grow your following sometimes in the fashion and modeling industry. Some of the major keys to success on social media and growing your following is to stay active and interactive by posting often enough for your audience to remember you and grow your fan base, also by commenting on peoples posts and replying to comments on your posts within a timely manner, the sooner the better! Me personally I joined Instagram when it first came out and was very much into it and the culture of sharing each other’s profiles to gain following, and I also was able to get different pages to share my posts, which is much easier now because we have reels and tik tok and resharing content is a lot more common. So creativity quality content that people want to share and save is a major component to gaining and keeping your followers interested, the more people sharing your posts the more traction your page will be getting and new people will be discovering you and will be able to follow! Just make sure to keep your content based around the type of image you’re creating on social media and make sure it’s going to be something that your audience is interested in.

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

My whole modeling career up until the point of being full time was a long journey of trial and error and taking leaps of faith. I submitted myself to so many agencies when I first wanted to start modeling and was told no and told to lose weight and even the agency I’m currently signed to at the time did not see my potential so it was a struggle to really push forward and break into the industry and get signed. I went out and did it on my own I went to every casting I saw, I was up every morning early sending out emails and submitting myself as much as I could to anything I could. I was reaching out to locals to do time for print jobs and driving hours to shoot with photographers for free just to have photos and be able to promote myself and keep submitting. I remember doing my makeup in the car after school to rush to boutique shoots in downtown Dallas and doing my own hair and makeup, styling myself— pretty much a one woman team then. I had to do a lot of self marketing and then I finally met my manager and he was able to take a lot of the load off of me and promote me better than I was able to do, but if you trust the process and stay loyal to the people that can help you it is not as long of a road as it has to be.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/_ilikelexx/
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/iLikeLexx/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/alexis-king-aa24b016b
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/_iLikeLexx/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCtgsWiWiBAwAQ_1oxcgLhLw

Image Credits
Deon Casey, Mo Storyteller, Cyndi B., Laura Eddy