Interview with Sasha Benz
All My Friends Are Models is a well recognised publication. Can you tell us a little more about how it all started?
In 2014, I was doing the guest list for my wedding, and I realized quite literally that, "all my friends are models" - and not just your average run of the mill models, I had four Victorias Secret Angels sitting at one of the tables alone - and I too was actually marrying a model. And right then it occurred to me that so often people had asked me, isn't it hard being friends with these amazonian goddesses, and I realized that it was quite the opposite.
I had seen the raw honest side of their lives, which involved financial struggles, heavy insecurities, body shaming, and the list goes on. I was so privy to the real world that they lived in that it made them so human and fragile. It was an epiphany. Here were a group of models – including Sara Sampaio, Hailey Baldwin, Ruby Rose, Catherine McNeil, Jessica Hart, and Cheyenne Tozzi – my friends. I could call on them to help out on a quest to launch a blog that could offer up real insight into their lives and discuss issues the media generally tiptoes around.
The website has a mix of fashion editorials, beauty advice, a Pinterest-style page of current obsessions and health guides, created by a mix of models and non-model contributors. With headlines such as 'Dating someone who is better looking than you', 'Becoming a model ruined me' and 'Flat broke but famous', the site really cuts through model stereotypes and treads on the territory you won't find on your average dot-com.
The first event I threw was really the fireworks launch that I had dreamed about. I called on eight of my closest and highest profile friends in New York, and styled them in gowns and had them shot by a world-renowned photographer for a concept called Dining in the Spotlight, where they sat around the proverbial round table and we had this interactive photoshoot bringing attention to some really prevalent issues and using their power in the media to give light to that. With the mixture of the press, social media and public manner we did this - the blog took off from day one with an influx of followers and inquisitive eyes on what we were doing. The rest is history.
What's so attractive about the blog, and why do your customers stay with you?
Something that I would always focus on in the early days was to bring on a loyal readership, and I think that was really key to a consistent and steady growth. Then mixing in unique content was the final key ingredient. The blog showcases a side of the industry that has very rarely been touched upon, and its honest and refreshing. It appeals to both ends of the modelling industry, those who are spectators and those who are actually involved (i.e., models and agents). The models have found it so appealing to finally have a platform to have a voice to tell their story which is normally so misunderstood, and the audience really feeds off finally understanding the human side to beauty - and I believe the reason our followers stay with us, is because we have never strayed from our original message.
We have also kept things interesting by branching out into different areas like social events linked to relevant charities and focusing on topics like travel, beauty and health - which all has the same gut message but gives the readers a broader spectrum to read about and connect to in other areas of their life.
A company like this is reliant on a team of fantastic marketers, designers and writers. How is the team structured?
Up until this point we have been really fortunate in that most of these really talented creative minds have all come to us as the brand is so inviting as a creative outlet. The original team was just myself and my partner, and friends who would contribute, and very quickly we had a flood of emails from writers wanting to finally write about these issues, and models who really wanted to tell their story.
We also were very strategic in the earlier months of finding unique influencers to interview, which would really drive our traffic, and that would just open up a whole new audience and more interest from people to collaborate with the brand.
However the core team now is just people who have been with the brand from day one, and really believe in what we are doing, which means they are passionate about working on the magazine and its less of a job, and something they wake up and are excited to work on.
You are moving on to a new passion project. Why are you leaving such a great business and what are the opportunities for accelerated growth?
The truth is, AMFAM was always my first real baby and project as a founder and CEO and I never wanted or planned to move onto anything else - I really envisaged working on this till it was an empire beyond comprehensions - the problem was, the brand got so much publicity and growth very early on, which resulted in me being offered some wildly undeniable opportunities very quickly after launch. While the job I was offered always complimented AMFAM, every year that passed more and more landed on my plate (children, a home renovation, launching an app, etc) so my time was compromised and I got less and less available.
I never wanted to give any part of AMFAM away, but I had to swallow the fact that if I didn't sell or bring on a partner, the flame could go out if I didn't keep fueling it and I just simply don't have enough time.
Although the company is very well known and has been beautifully maintained, in my eyes it's just a seed and we have barely even begun to water and see what it could grow into. I am only looking for a buyer who see's that potential and I would love to be involved in watching my original dream come to life.
In terms of the actual opportunities, I always planned to use our platform to create an online community for people in the fashion community to connect which I think is something we have created but not entirely tapped into. (A possibly community app connecting the dots of creatives pending geo-fence).
The magazine could also become a hub for so many different avenues and revenue streams (editorials, advertising, fast news, events, model support). And then on the glitzier side, we also want to publish some high-end coffee table books, consider the prospect of print magazines and start an AMFAM TV segment, which also could brand into opening an own interactive studio here in New York.
I could map out in two minutes what I think this could become in the longer term as a bigger entity, and in the short term, it requires very minimal effort to drive the traffic and generate ad sales and sponsored posts.
You were mostly dependent on high profile models in your inner circles to generate revenue. What kind of risk is there in such a dependency?
In the earlier days, the risks that we took to generate revenue were mammoth as it was all dependant on having these big names/models attending our events and posting for us as favors - in order to get sponsors and brands involved that was something we entirely relied on - and it was tough because sometimes a model wouldn't show up last minute, or we couldn't get a particular model to attend that we promised we could.
The brand required this dependency on having my friends involved in order to create a hype, but every year that passed and the more events we threw, I saw that becoming less of a prerequisite.
In the last event, I noticed that the brand had already grown bigger than me and my relationship, and we realized that we had a cult following which is something that was more about the concept and being unified on what we stood for. We would throw sold out ticketed events, and I wouldn't even reach into my personal contact book anymore, and as a result, it has become a lot easier to get brands to invest in our events and sponsors to throw dollars at what we do. And simultaneously most of the opportunities over the past year have come to us, as opposed to us searching for opportunities to drive growth and sales, so I believe with a team working on this full time, it could become a very low maintenance revenue machine once the wheels are oiled up.
With a business like this, what does your competition look like? Where do you see your biggest threats?
To be really honest there has never been anything that comes close to what we are doing. Many different companies work in parallel (like modelling agencies who manage the models) and print publications produce content with models (but never publish any content actually about models lives). The only thing mildly competitive would be the gossip blogs or fast news (like Daily Mail) - but again they are the antithesis of what we are doing in terms of content.
There are definitely similar online publications that we aspire to, like Refinery 29, and Vice Mag (but again I would use those as models for what we could grow to in our own sphere). Revolve is also a company that has had massive growth and funding behind them, and probably works in a similar way in that they use these big name bloggers to attend events and travel - but again - they run an eCommerce website. All of these could be good models to keep in mind when expanding the company
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