When you first read the question in this article's title, you might think: "Looks". However, as we keep mentioning on this blog, looks are not enough when you are targeting a model job at Studio 20. Actually, the most important quality you could ever possess is being a skillful active listener. But first, let's see what an active listener is.
As you can imagine, to achieve this status, you have to do more than just listen. Most people think that listening is a passive activity, with the active one being talking. However, as you will see below, listening takes far more skills than talking because more processes happen in the meanwhile.
Talking just means communicating what you think or how you feel in a certain moment, both through words and non-verbal language, such as hand gestures or grimaces. It is assumed that you think before you talk, therefore the thought process has to take place while you are listening.
So, basically, when you listen to the other talking, you have to do two things: understand what he is saying and think of a meaningful reply. On the other hand, while talking, you only have to express yourself, which is much easier. This is why we say that listening is much harder than talking.
But what does active listening actually mean? Well, in short, it means not only offering a reply for the conversation's sake, but showing that you care about the other's opinion and moving the dialogue forward. As a model at Studio 20, your most important job is to keep members hooked. However, since we are a non-adult studio, you can't do that simply by removing your clothes, you have to be more creative than that. A certain way to make that happen is by making members feel listened to, appreciated and important.
Most of the people who look for models' company are feeling lonely or broken and it's your job to change that. Whatever the topic of discussion might be, show interest in it or, if you feel that the dialogue is stagnating, skillfully shift it towards a more interesting subject.
For this, you must understand the main four roles of listening: obtaining information, understanding, enjoying, and learning. Actually, the first two roles lead to the next ones since the purpose of any discussion is either learning something or simply enjoying it and feeling well (or why not both?).
In order to be a skillful active listener, you have to check the following points: paying attention, showing the other that you are listening to him, providing quality feedback, and responding appropriately. Another very important aspect is not to interrupt the other since this can be really frustrating and doesn't bring any added value to the table. Of course, as in any other activity, you get better at active listening by doing it more and more.
One last thought: in your activity, you will meet people with different communication levels and skills. Your job is to adapt your language and tone to each and everyone of these, so nobody feels looked down on.
