I would like to explain an experience I have recently gone through with a company called TransContinental Talent,Inc. -AKA- E-Models,Options, and Edge Talent. I was hired as an independent contractor with this company in the capacity of scout for models, actors, and musicians. The company bills itself as the largest talent scouting company in the world. From the onset they talk of keeping a positive attitude, becoming part of the family, and most importantly keeping personal goals out of one's train of thought in order to succeed with the company. Those who ask about compensation during the interview are not hired. This is stated clearly during the day long orientation which takes place directly before one on one interviews are held. Once hired scouts are again told on a constant basis to suspend their disbelief if they plan to succeed with the company. There is a great deal of exclusivity placed on the position by the office director. Only the people who were good enough and strong enough mentally as well as emotionally for the company were hired. In the first week of the 30 day training session it is mandatory that scouts attend every scheduled meeting and every "open call". This means that end total one spends aproximately 12 hours per day in the office in which they attend two group meetings and three "open calls". They also require a minimum of five appointments set per day in order to maintain the position, which means that after spending those twelve hours in the office you are then expected to go out to the streets and scout. This leaves no time for anything else but sleep. It becomes so a scout is literally eating, breathing, and sleeping the job. At the end of my first week I was able to comfortably direct new scouts through all of the various positions of the office. When they would ask how long I had been there I would tell them a week and all of them would respond with surprise and say that they thought that I had been there at least a year for all of my extensive knowledge. The meetings continued after the first week as well and it was made mandatory that all scouts attend. In these meetings we were being fed love and acceptance by our office director. The office director was a corporate guru of sorts in that he could make or break a scout's day with the level of treatment they received from him. He is a highly charismatic, highly attractive, well dressed and spoken, young man. Having him like you meansd everything to a scout. In my case I can quote him as saying things like, "you are a superscout and i love you" and "i feel like you are my son." He could also take it away just as easily with dissaproving looks and gestures and harsh tones to project dissatisfaction with a scout whenever questioned or challenged regarding business practice. He is also known to threaten disgruntled scouts with police action and lawsuits when unable to quiet them down. There seems to be an element of protectiveness that comes from the scouts as well. While in the thick of it I can swear to the fact that if asked to I would have physically defended the company. I found myself vehemently defending them on a verbal scale to everyone who ever made a disparaging comment about them. They drum a conditioned response into scouts heads for every frequently asked question that there is regarding legitimacy. I have recently discovered that most of these responses are lies. I had an experience in where I left an important household emergency unattended in order to go back to work after already having been there all day. My roommate who was the only thing between me and homelessness at the time sat me down and told me that she felt the job was making me crazy and ordered me to slow down. When I informed a few of the major players at the office about the exchange they said to ignore her even though they knew that I had no home without her. We scouts were told to ignore our own family and friends for the love of our TCT family. It was referred yto as a family. We were never to allow negative influences to come between us and our family. If a scout seemed to be having difficulty on the job we were pushed to encourage them and help them along. There were people called senior scouts or "mentors" put in place for this very purpose. A major goal for the average scout is to reach this status. Most of them just want the oppertunity to help better their fellow scouts for the company. I left the company after having taken a day off in the beginning of my third week and finding all of my thoughts regarding their business practices flooding into my brain. I then received a call from a fellow scout who inforemed me that she had seen a very negative news report about the company while out of state. I began my own investigation and found them to have negative ratings with the BBB as well as numerous sights dedicated to exposing their many fraudulant activities. Once awakened to a problem with their integrity I wrote in and quit via e-mail. I was afraid to call or go in directly as I was sure that even after all I had seen and heard I would be tempted to stay. As soon as I left I became inundated with e-mails and phone calls from the office director and fellow scouts begging me to come back to the fold. I found out later from two seperate scouts that even after I asked the office director that they stop as it was genuinely affecting me emotionally he continued to anounce in the daily meetings that everyone should call me and e-mail me so that I would return. I was very good at the work. He has only recently stopped this due to the fact that I have been asking questions regarding compensation. I was able to stop tyhem from using a picture of me to advertise scouts sticking together by taking it with me when I left the office the last time but they got another and are now using that. I was very popular with the other scouts and I think they had trouble trying to make me look bad to them. On a regular basis when a scout leaves they simply chaulk it up to that person being emotionally or mentally unfit. All I can say is that when I left and people asked how I was about leaving I would ften make mention of a deprogrammer and a shower. For weeks after having left by choice I was left with two things an almost manic energy that I was calling "love adrenalin" and a sence of loss for something that I knew was corrupt. I feel that I have gone on too long already so I will end this and say that I feel these people operate much like a religious cult and that I feel they must be stopped.

Wow!!! Thanks for posting about your experience. I replied to a posting by EModels for a talent scout position listed on a major job search web site back in September. All their replies were auto-replies and computer-generated phone messages. They made it clear the interview would take all day, but they were not forthcoming with info about the job, compensation, etc. I did a little research on the net but only found accolades, no personal accounts. My husband then replied just for kicks and got the same emails and phone messages. The BBB in my state had no reports on them but they said they didn't hold a license here. A model friend said that's not uncommon, but the lack of info overall kept me from going to the interview.

I wonder how they treat their models. I hope you are doing well in the aftermath of being manipulated. It takes a while to clear one's head after an experience like that. Landmark Forum, which runs its show in a similar way to EModels, still affects me over year later and that was one weekend.

Hope

Hi everyone,

This is my first post.After reading so many messages about the experience people all over the country had with groups like Equinox,Trek Alliance,Rick,Omitrition and a few others,I thought I'd mentioned the experience I had with "Dare To Be Great" scheme which was created by Glenn Turner who still lives in Orlando,Fla.
During the early 70's,I was going through a bitter divorce and was feeling depressed when I was approched by a character about the same age as me at the YMCA in New Orleans (Dick Egle) ,asking if I would be interested in making money part time in a business that had hardly no competitors.I guess I must have been a little vulnerable.He said I would have to go with him to their next siminar at the White House Hotel in Baton Rouge that following week-end in order to get a full understanding about the business.I figure I 'd check it out to see what it was about and it became one of the worse mistakes I made in my life.
That's how I got involved with Dare To Be Great.Men the same age as me and younger wearing expensive suits,women wearing expensive dresses and jewelry,all of them flashing $ioo.oo bills to all the marks.They was all jumping up and down as though they was really excited about being in DTBG,and I fell for it line,hook and sinker.
It cost me $2500.00 to join DTBG and was told I would get a $1000.00 commission from everyone I bough into the pyramid.Well,it just so happend I got four people into DTBG and never collected a penny commission.That's because Glenn Turner was a little slow when it came to paying commission.All the people in the higher echelon got their checks without any problem.I guess Turner knew if he tried to jerk those characters around,his pyramid would fall apart.
DTBG also had that saying "fake it till you make it" and "a lump on the hip puts a smile on the lip".A lot of people had to file bankruptcy for trying to fake it by buying expensive cars,eating at expensive restaurants and leaving $30.00 tips,paying for their marks lodging,food and transportation to Baton Rouge and back to New Orleans.Plus,not every mark was interested in DTBG.If you was able to get your mark in,then you had the problem of collecting your commission.
They would get the people in the lower level of the pyramid to parade around on stage wearing jewerly and expensive clothes,trying to impress all the marks that's the results for getting involved in DTBG,and the marks not knowing the people wearing all that expensive stuff was in hock up to their ears.
They would always have meeting,meetings and more meetings.Training siminars after training siminars.Everytime there was a gathering,they was always hitting you for money for one reason or another,such as books,tapes,breakfast siminars,dinner siminars.Even if you didn't have a mark for the following siminar in Baton Rouge,they still wanted you to commit for at least two bookings.If you had other plans,that's no excuse.Find somebody and get them on the bus with you.
I went see my young cousin at that time to see if he was a possible mark.As I was going into my routine about how great Turner was and all the good things he did,plus all money that could be made working for him when his eighteen year old wife interrupted me and said "these people told you all these things about this feller Turner and you believed them at face value without proving anything they say about him?" When she said that,it was like a door opened a little head. As time passed,that door began to open more and more until it was completly opened and my nostrils cleared and I was able to smell all the stink that was around me.
I left DTBG and looked upon my experience as a lesson in life and that's "beware of wolves in sheep clothing".

The cult-like activites of the never ending model/talent scouting scam will be unveiled in detail at [www.transconscam.com]

If you have been a victim either as an Employee or consumer, there is help available on that site.