Leadership Lessons from the World of Fashion and Live Events

My first major corporate role was as an event coordinator at a leading model agency in Jamaica, the largest in the Caribbean at the time.

I wasn’t just planning events, I was helping to produce culture. From Miss Universe Jamaica to Caribbean Model Search (including Petite Fashion Model, Fashion Model of Jamaica, Male Face of the Caribbean, and Supermodel of Jamaica), from Reggae Superjam to Caribbean Fashion Week, my world lived somewhere between vision and execution.

At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I thought it was just helping to coordinate things for the model agency, bookings, castings etc. I believed my job was logistics, timelines, run-of-show documents and making sure the lights came on and the models walked on cue.

I thought excellence meant flawless execution. What I didn’t realize then is that I was learning leadership under pressure.

I learned that:

• Chaos is inevitable but composure is a choice

• People perform best when they feel seen, not managed

• Creativity needs structure to thrive

• Your credibility is built long before the spotlight hits

When things went wrong, and they always did, I learned how to stay calm, redirect energy, and make decisions in real time…with hundreds or thousands of eyes watching.

Looking back, this role quietly built skills I still rely on today:

• Stakeholder management – designers, sponsors, talent, media, production crews

• Emotional intelligence – egos, nerves, expectations, disappointment

• Systems thinking – how one delay ripples across an entire experience

• Influence without authority – leading teams I didn’t formally “manage”

I had no executive title, but I was already leading.

Today, whether I’m coaching leaders, building brands, or advising organizations, the foundation is the same, clarity before execution, people before process, presence under pressure.

Those early days taught me that leadership is not about control, it’s about coordination, trust, and timing.

Where in your career were you already leading, before anyone gave you permission to call it leadership?