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Cindy Kauanui: creating a top modeling agency from scratch
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Cindy Kauanui has an eye for beautiful people and an extraordinary sense for business. Relying on her combined talents, she created one of the most successful modeling agencies in the world – the Jet Set modeling agency, based in La Jolla, California. She is the first to admit that her road to success was a rough one.Born in California, Kauanui was raised and had her three sons in Hawaii, where she says her heart and spirit still belong. A former model herself, she opened a casting production company in Kauai with a friend in the early ‘90’s. “We were so successful, we became the go-to agency for film and television,” she recalls. Everything came to an abrupt halt on September 11, 1992, when Hurricane Iniki hit the islands. “Jurassic Park had been filming at the time, and I remember Spielberg was shooting his last day. We knew the storm was coming, but we didn’t realize how devastating it would be,” she says. They lost everything.
A single mother with three boys at the time, Kauanui had to make a choice-- stay on Kauai and make do or leave. They ended up taking advantage of the free flights out of Hawaii offered by Hawaiian airlines and headed to California.
“We initially stayed with my sister, so I could look for work. I had no license, no references, everything was back in Kauai. Doors seemed to be closing everywhere, especially in Los Angeles,” she says. So Kauanui decided to return to her roots and to her core talents.
“I have an eye for talent and a knack for fashion,” she remembers. “A Kauai friend told me that there were these low interest SBA loans for people who lost their businesses during Iniki, so I got in touch with different sources through the Red Cross. I put together a five year business plan, and I got approved. That's how I got started with a $10,000 loan. We got a little place of our own in the San Diego area. I started out with a fax machine, a computer and a phone."
In our next article, we'll discover how Kauanui paved the way to discovering top talent and creating a top agency.
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women and business ·
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couture ·
beauty ·
confidence ·
children ·
talent ·
modeling
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