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The Model Mayhem Interview: Jessi June

Jessi June is a professional glamour model that has been featured in Playboy, Maxim, FHM and many more publications. Jessi’s story is an inspiration for aspiring models as she overcame many challenges new models face but was rewarded for her hard work and great attitude. Add to that a business degree from Florida State University and it’s really no surprise to see her enjoying such success.

Jessi has worked with more than 1,000 photographers on Model Mayhem and is currently on tour, with stops in coming up in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Canada.

MM EDU: How did you get started as a model?

Jessi June: Well, when I first started off, let me tell you, I had to tie a steak around my neck just to get a dog to play with me! It was rough. My first time in front of the camera was my senior portraits and I used one of those looks for some “modeling” photos (read: horrific) and those were what I first posted on here. Hell, my mom was in one of them!  I worked my ass off, but as a broke freshman in dual enrolled college who just turned 18, every photographer in Miami gave me their rates and laughed me out the door. The first person who finally agreed to shoot me was Gil Purcil, and he is still to this day a good friend of mine. He took his time and taught me what I’m supposed to do as a model. I mean, I would have made a better uncle to a monkey than a model at that point. I must have gone through 50-60 TF shoots down in Miami before I finally got a paying gig, which was a workshop for 50 bucks. I spent more in gas getting there than it made me, but it was a paying gig and that meant I was making progress, so I took it!


Photographer: Glamour Scott; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: At what point did you realize modeling could be a career?

Jessi: It wasn’t until I was jettisoned from Miami, landed in California, and started trying to work out there that things even started rolling. But it was still nowhere near enough and things were looking bleak for our hero. I traveled back home to Miami that Christmas and I booked shoots along the way. I loved it! After Christmas, I had about 700 bucks to my name and I needed to make some tough choices. I looked at life, asked myself what I really wanted, and decided to take the leap. I jumped off a cliff and hoped I would learn to fly before I hit the bottom. I Left home with nothing and worked my butt off to book enough shoots to live. It all started taking off soon after, not from being discovered or being the best-looking girl, but from sheer hard work—12 hours a day on the computer, non-stop messaging and casting replies. There was a time I was posting to the main page so much a mod thought I must have been using a bot because I had an alarm that would go off every five minutes for me to post.

MM EDU: Did you have a backup plan? What would your career be if you weren’t a model?

Jessi: I wish I could say I had a back-up plan, but I really didn’t. I have a degree in business from Florida State University now, but since I was 19 my life has been modeling. During these years of life where most people are working different jobs and finding what they like to do, I’ve been on the road trucking 60,000 miles annually, modeling 350 days per year. I shoot a ton and between camera time, getting ready, maintenance (read: gym), messages, plus the driving and normal human stuff like eating and bathing, I don’t even get time to keep up with TV shows, not to mention hobbies. I watch football when possible (Da Bears!) and basketball when I can (Go Heat!), but besides that it’s pretty much all work for me, especially when you factor in my workshop series and my social media business. I guess if I wasn’t doing this I would still have tried to find a way to be an entrepreneur either way, but who knows. I guess I’ll find out one day!


Photographer: Holly Randall Prod; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: You’re best known as a glamour model but you’ve worked with over 1,000 photographers from Model Mayhem alone. Tell us about some of the other genres your work covers and how they compare.

Jessi: Well, let’s start with the bad. I’m a bad fashion model! I look around and some girls I know can pull it off without being sky scrapers, but with this round face and curvy body I just don’t look good doing it. I’ve accepted it, and I’m on step 6 of the 12-step process. I enjoy artistic stuff here and there. I’ve done lots of artsy stuff from being sculpted, molded, painted, bedazzled, and drawn. I’ve even done motion capture stuff. But honestly, like every other naive young girl who gets into this world, I was like, “I’m going to try to be a Victoria’s Secret model! I’ll show them you don’t have to be able to dunk to do it!” At 5’5” and I think 130 at the time, I couldn’t sell them on me. Go figure! Everyone told me my niche would end up in nude modeling, and eventually I made it there. When the gigs started rolling in, a magazine in New York contacted me, Jacques, and I went up there to shoot with them.  I worked with Playboy in a few different capacities since I was the campus marketer for my school, and when I finished second in the Playboy College Coed of the Year contest (Yup, always a bridesmaid, never a bride), I figured this must be where I belong! I do still enjoy the artistic side of our little world, but my bread and butter has become the glam.


Photographer: Zhen Images; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: What career achievement are you most proud of?

Jessi: You know, I think the obvious answer here would be my poster. I’ve been in all the big glam magazines now, and I even wrote for Maxim for a year-long contract. But now I have a poster being sold in every mall in America and online. I was told it’s in the top ten in sales at Spencer’s right now! I’m not sure if I should take credit for it, or if it’s just the naked girl staring at you that does it, but I’ll take it either way! To be honest, the thing I’m most proud of is the fact that I even have a career in this. I mean, at the age of 16 I was 150 lbs (some girls look great at that weight, but I did not!), a “C” student at best, and my future was looking to become employee of the month for up-selling the shake over the fries! I got my head turned on straight by someone I’ll never forget and I became a straight-A student, learned what a workout was, stopped eating like Joey Chestnut on the 4th of July, and got myself into college a year early. The fact that I had no one and nothing to lean on or go to for help in those formative years, but came out stronger from it, is probably my proudest achievement. When you’re 16 and have nothing and you still find a way to do the right thing over the easy thing –I think that’s much greater an accomplishment than convincing an editor to pick your boobs over someone else’s boobs.


Photographer: Rich Cutrone; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: How much does your business degree help you and do you have any business tips for new models?

Jessi: Well, let’s start with the tips for the new models. I don’t try to act like a know-it-all because I’m still learning every day, but one thing I will say is that looking back on it, I went through a good 50-60 TF shoots starting out before I even had 20 acceptable pics to show as a portfolio. For the amount of time and money I wasted, I would have much rather found the best photographer in the area and paid him to shoot me and build a portfolio to save all that time, and I probably STILL would have saved money. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that choice at the time, but if you do and you seriously want to try to make a business out of this, I would do that. Find the guy you think would never shoot with you whose work you’d kill to be in, and hire them. You’ll thank me a few months down the road when those same guys you would have been working with for free are now hoping to book you.

As for the work involved once you’ve gotten your feet wet, I’ll tell you that time spent in front of the camera is probably 25% of the job –maybe even less. I shoot almost every day of the year on average, and even then, I still spend more time on the computer messaging, emailing, and networking than I do actually shooting. I mean, the law of sales tells you, “Speak to 100 people –10 will listen, 1 will buy.” So if you apply that to your business (because ultimately you are your own marketing firm and agent and therefore in sales), the more people you talk to the more people will shoot you. It’s as simple as that.

Every communication should be in letter form, properly addressed, and written like you were being graded on it. If all people have to judge you on is the words on the screen, then make sure they reflect how you want them to view you.

And finally, it’s a big world but this is a relatively small community. If you waste one person’s time by flaking, you better believe at least 10 people will hear about it. I’ve made two mistakes in my career where I looked like the flake, and I can guarantee that those two people have probably told multiple others and cost me money. Be careful what you say and how you act around everyone because they all talk. Your reputation is important. Once you’re popular enough you can get away with stuff, like stealing T.H. Taylor’s cashews, but until then make sure you take plenty of your daily act-right!


Photographer: T H Taylor; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: You’re also a writer and run a successful series of workshops all over the United States.

Jessi: Yeah, I got my start in writing from an interview, believe it or not! I filled out my interview for Coed magazine and they loved it so much they asked if I would like to write for them. I became a paid blogger! Then about a month into that, I was featured in Mexico’s Revista Maxim. I kept in contact with the editor and when the previous writer’s contract ran up, they offered me the gig as the sex and relationship columnist. I got my own email and everything!  After that year was up, I did some small projects here and there and received job offers, but I really haven’t had the time to write lately because of my workshop series, The Muse Masters, which I run with my trusty, dusty friend T.H. Taylor and all of my girlfriends around the country. We’ve had a bunch of successful events and we’re planning something pretty huge right now for this fall. Let’s just say I’m talking with close to 70 models about it as we speak. Stay tuned for that!


Photographer: ANTHONY NESTE; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: How important is social media for models?

Jessi: These days it’s everything! A large following can get you gigs. I was once paid 500 dollars to mention a product on my Google+ page, where I have 2.5 million followers. Not to plug it, just to mention it. That felt pretty cool. People equate large followings with popularity, and popularity is valuable with models. That focus is starting to change now from just a following, which is easily manipulated these days, to engagement and quality of engagement, but it’s all still focused around social media. My one rule for a model’s social media is to always keep it positive. No one goes on their pages to see the drama the hot girl they’re following is going through. We all go through it, we all have problems. But that’s your personal life, so keep your modeling social media pages professional.

A lesser-known business I currently run is the social media empire I’m building. I run the social media for 3 different companies, and I’m working on landing a contract with a Toyota dealership soon, which could be awesome! I’m also in talks with a few start-up companies to go from the modeling side of the camera to the corporate side and bringing a few friends with me for the ride. I keep expanding and finding new niches to explore business-wise, and hopefully I can get one to blow up enough that Zuckerberg or my friends over in Mountain View at the Goog will pick up the bill!


Photographer: Zhen Images; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: You’re currently traveling around the country on your 2014 tour. Can you describe life on the road as a traveling model?

Jessi: Well, most girls who do this have a home base. I don’t. I’m a fully mobile business and mini studio. I don’t go home because home is the next hotel I book, all year long. This has its advantages and its disadvantages, of course. The advantages are that I can make it to shoots lots of other girls can’t, like the middle of nowhere Oklahoma where I shot in a 100-year-old barn or places up in the mountains other girls don’t go. It also means my schedule is exponentially more flexible because I have no other responsibilities besides where to work next. Also, since I drive everywhere, I get to do some cool stuff you can’t do when you’re in and out of airports, like hit the Ben and Jerry’s factory, or take side trips up mountain passes (that almost kill me), or even go to Disney World on a whim with a girlfriend. I know this country’s highway system inside and out. I’ve traveled the entirety of interstates 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 40, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, and 95. I’ve even ridden the entire length of the PCH (which takes forever so you better love your car). The disadvantages are there as well though, like forgetting what it’s like to have a couch, kitchen, or your own stuff. I mean, I don’t spend more than 3 days on the same bed but a few times a year. Sure, I never have to clean up after myself, but you’d be surprised how much of the home feeling you take for granted until it doesn’t exist. Right now, I’m sitting on my bed here in Memphis writing this in a Marriott. Tomorrow, I’ll head to New Orleans and in three days I’ll be in Houston, seven days Austin, and a few days after that Dallas. Like Bon Jovi said, “I’ve seen a million faces and I’ve …” Well, he rocked them all. I generally just drive by unnoticed with my Starbucks.


Photographer: Duke Morse; Model: Jessi June; Makeup Artist: MickeyMUA

MM EDU: What does Model Mayhem mean to you?

Jessi: My livelihood! I mean, I was a product of this site! When I started all this, the market was oversaturated in every form from photographers to models and artists. I’ll be the first person to tell you I’m not the hottest girl on the block. But I took advantage of the flood and knew if I worked my ass off, I had a chance to make it out of it. I found a few girls I admired and looked up to for what they had done, and I worked every day to get to that point. I worked my ass off until my idols became my rivals. Now, I’m lucky to call most of those girls friends. But I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without Model Mayhem! I’m a complete product of this site and still make the majority of my bookings and non-commercial gigs on this site. I’m on every other model networking site as well, and none produce the results this one does. It’s still the top dog around and without it, I might have ended up doing who knows what?

MM EDU: Do you have any crazy behind the scenes stories you can share?

 Jessi: Well, there was this time with a catapult, a midget, three scoops of flour and four monkey wrenches, but I was sworn to secrecy. I guess the first one that comes to mind is kind of gross, but anyone who knows me knows nothing is all cute and clean around me. One fine morning in sunny Salt Lake City, I woke up with a wicked case of food poisoning. I don’t know what did it, but I was a mess. I had a full-day shoot and I don’t cancel, ever! So I took some Pepto, ate crackers and ginger ale, did my makeup and went. Well, the Pepto didn’t help and the moment I walked on set, I had to run to the bathroom as apparently the pink stuff was not strong enough to combat those demons within me. For the first hour of the shoot I would pose, get through a few shots, run to the bathroom, puke, run back out (in heels and lingerie) and continue shooting. Everyone kept asking if I was OK and if they should stop the shoot but I said, “No, all this puking is making my abs look GREAT!” That photographer has never worked with me again because they still believe I was hung over, but it was the worst case of food poisoning I ever had. It finally eased up about midway through the shoot and we finished strong.


Photographer: T H Taylor; Model: Jessi June

MM EDU: Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Jessi: I’d like to address the issue of world hunger! No, but I do want to thank all the people on this site and those reading this. Now, I’m not going to sit here and act like I just got an Oscar and make some big speech, but seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. For a girl who started with a 1992 Corolla with 300,000 miles that would need water and oil after every stop (which my Miami photographers still remember, I guarantee it), and who was turned down by most of the good photographers on this site and even quoted rates by other models for advice (which is why I answer every model message I get), I’ve never forgotten where I came from. I’ve never forgotten all the people who put in their time in those TF shoots when I didn’t know my ass from my elbow in the beginning, or the models who were kind enough to show me things when I first started. I mean, I’m never going to think I’ve made it, or I’m there, or any of that because I still remember the grind and the crawling through the mud just to be able to stand here.

This interview itself means a ton to me because I’m doing it for the site that gave me everything I have. The people whom I’ve been surrounded by on here, even on Shoutbox, and all the photographers I’ve shot with for the past three years –you’re the closest thing this little nomad has to family, and as weird as that sounds, I just want to say thank you! I couldn’t have done any of this without all of you, my MM family! You all know who you are, too! I don’t know where this crazy ride is going to take me or where it’s going to end, but I know I learned to fly before I hit the bottom, and now I’m just trying to see how high I can actually go before it’s time to come back down to Earth. Hopefully when this is all over, I’ll still be lucky enough to call this community home. Until then, thanks for taking the time to read this long-winded thing, and I love ya!

MM Edu

MM Edu brings you tips, advice, and knowledge in modeling, photography, post-production, style/makeup, and Using MM. The expertise comes from our beautiful and brilliant members!

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11 Responses to “The Model Mayhem Interview: Jessi June”

  1. February 11, 2016 at 6:36 pm, Don Christian said:

    Be positive, any good looking woman can model, you just have to work hard, and put all your energy into it, I been doing photography for years and the great models put everything they got into it, they work so hard..
    Even if you got a shoot with a photographer where your not going to make the $$ you really want, still put all your energy into it as if it was the $100,000.00 shoot.
    The reason for this is, because it’s going to get out there in the public, and you don’t want to be lazy on the lower paying jobs and have the results show in the images..
    Also, do your research on what makes you look best, find your best poses and know them, some of the great models i worked with have there one ideas and bring them to me on a shoot, and even some times when i contact a model and tell them i want to do a photo shoot with you, a nude one on location at a specific place, nice background all that.
    Do your research of where the shoot is going to take place, if you can go there before the shoot and look around, come up with your own ideas that you think might make a hot image, then bring it up to the photographer , 99% of the time he will go for it..
    I know i do, very few models will throw ideas at me i have to come up with them myself, but some come up with great stuff and i’m not too proud to take advice from a model and go with something that could possibly be awesome..
    in fact when they do, i thank them for it..
    doing something like that could make the difference between some ordinary pictures and some extraordinary pictures. I have learned that in my 20 years in photography..
    90% of the models out there don’t put a hell of a lot of effort in a photo gig and that is why models are a dime a dozen and only a very low % of them get out of it what they expected..
    Just like photography, they are a million photographers out there, and if i was to go out and want to work for some publishing firms why would they hire me over the other 999,000 photographers out there, what makes me so special for them to have an interest in me, some people think it’s all Skill and how good you are, well #1 what makes you good, your skill in how to take good pictures? NO!! it’s your skill on how you create and your uniqueness..
    Having the skill and know how to take good pictures is just the basics you need, the the other stuff is what mode lack and what makes the difference. That goes for models they are millions of beautiful girls out there with great tits and nice ass and nice curvy body and a beautiful face, but like anything else, it’s not all of what you got, it’s knowing what to do with it and how to do it,,

    Just like sex all women can perform sex with thier partner, but what makes one better then the other? it’s what she puts into it and how much she wants to please..
    Just like anything else.

    The models what want to please for the camera are the ones who get the exposure to get work, and turn heads and make clients want you over the other girls..

    A good friend of mine use to be a photographer for playboy, he was a good friend, he did this up until the year 2003, then retired..
    From what he told me and what i know, Playboy pays the models well, but not what most would expect, Not every model who posed for playboy made a lifetime living off it.
    the small % made a carrier from it and made millions, but it was not from the published shoots in the magazine, that was just a small amount of the money they made, most of the money came from doing add shoots, and playboy was the place where 90% of Hollywoods producers went to, to find beautiful girls, Hugh Hefner was friends with most of them and hooked them up with the girls,
    so the ones who worked hard got parts in movies and that is where they made the $$$ Some became new actresses, because of playboy, Pamela Anderson for example did some photo shoots with playboy

    and then a producer saw her at the playboy mansion and talked with her for a bit and asked her if she wanted a part in a tv sitcom that man was the producer for the sitcom “Home improvement” that launched her the big brake for tv. because she lasted 2 seasons , then moved to the TV show “Baywatch”.

    Any way many models got there big brake from modeling, in fact believe it or not, Models are the menu for tv and movie producers to find talent.. Specifically if they are looking for hot girls….

    And when it comes to Tv and moves of course talent is needed, but it still goes with out saying Sex sells.. Where do movie makers make thier money? from people watching them, what is one of the ways they get viewers? sex? beauty, women yup..
    same goes with Advertisement, sex sells….

    Work hard and reap the rewards of your hard work you can do it..

    Donny

    Reply

  2. May 01, 2014 at 10:04 pm, rachelhammgertz said:

    Jessi, It’s been fun and inspiring to watch you grow from a kid who didn’t know how to do a smoky eye, to a full fledged glamour icon. I wish you nothing but continued success, drop me a line next time you’re in Miami. 😉 -R

    Reply

  3. April 12, 2014 at 8:36 am, Scott Miron said:

    Jessi is amazing! I’m very lucky to call her a friend 🙂 Love ya Jessi!

    Reply

  4. April 10, 2014 at 11:47 am, Brittany Leonard said:

    Wow this is so inspiring!! I’m a starting model and I can relate to how you felt as well. In May is going to be my very first paid shoot and i’m super excited!! This is an amazing interview.

    Reply

  5. April 08, 2014 at 8:11 pm, Raymond Truitt said:

    Good interview. I think you have a lot to offer and I hope you reach all of your stars…

    Reply

  6. April 03, 2014 at 10:42 pm, Nick said:

    Og post, thoughtful, articulate, dig it, sometimes you forget models are humans, not statues

    Reply

  7. March 22, 2014 at 9:33 pm, savannah said:

    Gorgeous girl and great talent!

    Reply

  8. March 16, 2014 at 4:59 pm, Gary Kilgore said:

    Nice!

    Reply

  9. March 14, 2014 at 10:43 pm, Julian James Wilde said:

    Glad I had the chance to work with you. Never regretted it!! -XO

    Reply

  10. March 14, 2014 at 7:54 pm, Terry Moore said:

    Wow, I mean just wow! I am glad that I had the opportunity to meet you and work with you before I read this. I realized then you are something special, but now, this really puts it into context. Honored and thankful, and happy to have your photos in my portfolio.

    Reply

  11. March 14, 2014 at 12:57 pm, Alan Stephens said:

    I am psych’d to know that I will be working with Jessi in a couple of weeks. If you haven’t checked her travel schedule out and booked some time you’ll be sorry later !

    Reply

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