Ford Models

So my mom was like, after this, I can't believe the hands come off.

And she waltzes me over to Ford Modeling Agency and she walks in and she's like, I'm here to see the children's division.

And they said, well, do you have an appointment? And she's like, well, no, but this is Miss Pee Wee Hemisphere.

And if you're going to meet her, you're going to need to meet her now because we're leaving tomorrow.

Probably had some cred in that.

But what happened is Ford Models had a models reunion in Beverly Hills, even though they're based in New York.

They had a models reunion in Beverly Hills.

My agent, Joey Hunter.

yeah.

And I started working with like Next Models, Ford Models, just all these different modeling agencies, all these different fashion brands.

And I just started to work the industry a lot.

But I think for me at the time, I wasn't able to handle the backlash.

Now, did you get when it all came to a head, right? So you're potentially going to be a cast on a reality TV show.

Now you're, you signed with Ford Modeling in 2024.

ABC, Hulu's knocking on your door.

I think if I remember right, the first real like TV appearance in the ABC, Hulu world was when you guys were on Dancing with the Stars.

Well, you have so much going on now in your independent brand.

Let's talk about entertainment, and then we'll go into the finance independent brand.

On the entertainment side of the business, where do you want to take your career from here? You signed with the Ford Modeling Agency in 2024.

You're working with Babydoll.

And, uh, they said, "Well, uh, why don't you come to our office?" Uh, the ladies were Nina Blanchard and Eileen Ford.

Eileen Ford's form- famous for the Ford Modeling Agency in New York.

And so they said, "Show up tomorrow at 11:00," or something like that, "with a swimsuit," and, uh, "for this audition." So I did, and I was surrounded by, uh, you know, all these attractive girls in swimsuits.

I got the job, and they paid me $250 for the day, uh, working with these cute girls in a swimsuit.

I go, "This is it, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The ugly side of beau- [laughs] the ugly side of beauty, so to speak." First documentary that I ever did.

And how I got that is the Ford Modeling Agency had a models' reunion in Beverly Hills, and they knew that I was a film director and asked me to film that.

And I was interviewing all these former models that were big models back, supermodels in the '80s, and it was, it was fascinating.

Well, I stuck with it for many years, probably until I was about 35 was my last time that I modeled.

And then when I was 47 living in Chicago, I met with Ford agency, Ford models.

That's crazy.

Amazing.

What was known about Melissa Halstead was that she was a rebellious young woman who dated John Sweeney in the late 1980s.

She was beautiful, so much so that she was signed to the very prestigious Ford Modeling Agency in New York City.

Having finished with that, she moved to London and took up photography.

When she dated Sweeney, their relationship was frequently beset by very heated and violent arguments.

Hoyt was born and raised outside Philadelphia, and he graduated from Princeton University with a BA in economics, where he also competed as a scholar-athlete.

In the mid-1980s, he was discovered by Ford Models, and he went on to a 15-year modeling career that made him one of the most recognizable faces in fashion, earning him the designation of the world's first male supermodel.

He worked alongside contemporaries such as Cindy Crawford and Fabio and appeared in hundreds of campaigns and was photographed by the great photographers of the time, including Bruce Weber and Richard Avedon.

What no one knew during those years was that Hoyt was simultaneously embedded in a high-control religious group called Eternal Values, led by Frederick von Miers, to which he surrendered the majority

And somewhere along the way, he gained a partner in every sense of the word.

Nicole Friday, Howard University alum, former Ford Models agent, radio producer, culinary-trained force of nature, came on board during the festival's second year and has been with Jeff through every up and every down ever since.

Together, they co-founded Nice Crowd, the live events company behind not just ABFF, but an entire universe of cultural experiences.

Together, they have built a stage where names like Halle Berry, Nia Long, Regina King, and Anthony Hamilton didn't just perform, they came home, and together they have done something that even the most powerful partnerships rarely manage.

She, I think she was-

Jeff

... she was an agent at Ford Models-

Mm-hmm