Ashley Graham's TOP 10 Career RULES!

And I had an old agent telling me, "You're not a CoverGirl. You are only gonna be a My Money catalog girl, and you're just gonna be under the radar." I think that just speaking your mind and making yourself different than everybody else is really what's going to get you on the map. You're as good as your last job, and so every job I treated as if it were my last job.

Need motivation? Watch a top 10 with Believe Nation. What's up, it's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. So let's get your motivation to a 10 and get you believing in you. Grab a snack and chew on today's lessons from a woman who went from growing up with ADHD and dyslexia to becoming a successful model and entrepreneur. She's Ashley Graham, and here's my take on her top 10 rules of success. Enjoy! All right, let's kick things off with rule number 1, my personal favorite: take control.

There was a moment in my career, actually right before I started my lingerie line, and I had an old agent telling me, "You're not a cover girl. You are only gonna be my money catalog girl, and you're just gonna be under the radar." I waited on him to build a career for me, and I waited on him to kind of guide me into success. And the moment that I let him just kind of step to the sideline and I took control over my own career is the moment that I started to skyrocket. And I could have had it earlier, I really believe.

Rule number 2 is fake it till you make it.

I wake up some days and I feel like I'm going to take over the world and conquer everything in life. And then the next day I feel like the most insecure person in the world. And I really think those low days are the days that you have to give yourself affirmations, that you have to talk yourself out of that funk, that you have to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people who aren't going to take you down. I mean, like, I had a boyfriend who, you know, was a negative person in my life. And did I realize it early enough? No, it took me 2 years to understand that. And it was perpetual negativity. And I think that if you have the tools to make that bad day a good day, you fake it till you make it, you use those affirmations, you too can have a good day. But it's really just about making a conscious effort. Yeah, absolutely. Fake it till you make it.

I'm—

That's how I got here. Yeah.

Rule number 3, ignore the haters.

Ah, let's see, let's see. Do, do, do, do, do. Usually, like, if I have a little bit of cellulite hanging out, people freak out. Stop making fat cool. You're gonna kill somebody. You cannot be a model. Oh my God, you are not Adriana Lima, obviously. It's called go to the gym. At the end of the day, you know what happens? I read these comments and I just kind of like brush it off my shoulder. Women of all shapes and sizes ages and ethnicities are beautiful.

Rule number 4 is be authentic.

Authenticity is key in my brand, and I feel like part of my success has been me just being me. And I really want women to understand, and men to understand, if you are just you and you don't conform to what everybody else is doing in the beauty world and the business world, whatever it may be, that's really what's going to make you successful. I think that just speaking your mind and making yourself different than everybody else is really what's going to get you on the map. I was in a commercial that was banned from television, and I took that and turned it into something that could really be eye-opening for women. And I started a platform, the lingerie line, and I started talking to women about being comfortable in their own skin. And then it led to the TED Talk, and then it led to a cover of Sports Illustrated.

Rule number 5 is be a boss.

There's a part in your book where you're talking about your lingerie show. Yes. And about the hair and makeup and about, um, there was something with the makeup that you weren't really vibing with, and you told them, but you told them with your laugh and in a way that made it feel like you were just being very nice about it, right? Yes. I'm 29 years old, and I've had to really make a lot of hard decisions up until this point, a lot of big business decisions as well. And in that moment, I was like, how do I tell them I don't like this makeup but not tell them in a way that's going to take away all the creative that they even thought to put together. And I just basically said it, and I was like, I don't want to sound like a bitch because you always are a bitch if you say it the wrong way. Which, like, we need to get rid of, squash that. Right? It's not a bitch if you want something the way you want it. Exactly. So I just did it, and they were like, cool, let's do it. Because I don't think you will never know the answer unless if you ask. And that's what my father always taught me. He's like, you're never gonna know if you don't ask, so ask. And that's what I do, and that's kind of how I I also am communi— I communicate with my team. We know we're a team, but also we know that we can talk very directly to each other because that's how we set it up from the beginning. And whoever the boss is, you set the tone. You know, this is your arena, so however you set the tone is the way things are going to go. So I always set the tone with kindness first, and then let's get ish done, baby.

Rule number 6: Don't let others define what is possible.

I believe beauty is beyond size. With so much emphasis on the body and external, it's no wonder that suffer so much internally. But you know, people in the fashion industry actually told me that I would never be in magazines, let alone the covers of them. Well, I guess we've proven them wrong. 5 covers in a little over a year, and I was one of the very first curvy models to be featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Thank you. Never let anybody tell you that you can't. I have achieved and I'm still achieving what was seemingly impossible.

Rule number 7: Learn to deal with criticism.

How did you learn to not take rejection personally? I have taken a lot of criticism seriously and it really eats at you. And the moment you say, you know what, I'm gonna take everything with a grain of salt and whatever somebody says to me, maybe I'll take it in, I'll chew on it a little bit and then we'll see really like, is this person coming from a good place or is this person coming from a jealous or a negative place? I like constructive criticism. I'm always asking my team for it. I feel like it makes you a better model or a better employee, a better boss. So I think it's important to take in constructive criticism. But at the end of the day, you are the one who's supposed to know who you are and not let anybody tell you who you are.

Rule number 8: Stop comparing yourself to others.

Compare myself to other women. Desiring their butt, their hair, their skin color, their shape of their eyes, their boyfriends. I think that the moment that I stopped comparing myself to other women is the moment that I actually became really successful and happy with all of myself. All, honey.

Rule number 9: treat every job as your last. I wanted to know, what was the best piece of advice that was given to you when you started your modeling career?

Aye, aye, aye. Best piece of advice that I was given when I started my modeling career was make sure that you under— okay, so there was a lot of things that were given to me because, you know, everybody likes to give you advice. Um, One thing that stayed with me is, "You're as good as your last job." And so every job I treated as if it were my last job. And I think that that kind of gave me a reputation of hardworking, ready to do whatever it takes to get the shot. And I think that that's very important in any industry.

And rule number 10, the last one before the bonus clips, love yourself.

As a young model, my confidence was tugged at and pulled in all different directions. I struggled to achieve true confidence. I would go home and look in front of the mirror and only hate what I saw. And to fill the void on the inside, I began to cave to all the vices being thrown my way. Between the parties, the men, the alcohol. I was looking for self-love, for affirmation from somebody, when in reality, I didn't love who I was, and I couldn't seem to get a handle on regulating my own weight. I began to— I began to face my insecurities head-on. And instead, I was filling my life with temporary fixes. I, like so many young women, have struggled to love who I am. And Dove's global report on attitudes towards beauty actually did a survey with thousands of women in 10 different countries. And you know what the most striking result was? That only 2% of women find themselves beautiful. 2%! We need to work together to redefine the global vision of beauty. And it starts with becoming your own role model. Be you. Be real. Be authentic. Be your favorite kind of woman. Don't let anybody else take that job. And remember, this is the generation of body diversity.

Now, I've got a special Ashley Graham bonus clip, but before that, my question of the day for you guys is around her rule number 2, fake it till you make it. What do you think about that? Are you faking it till you make it? Do you buy into that strategy or not? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave it down in the comments below. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon and enjoy the bonus clip.

And something I did, um, uh, when I was announced as one of the rookies for some, uh, Sports Illustrated is I started reading the comments after after they had announced me. Oh, no. And I literally started hysterically crying because there were men who were like, "Who is this fat cow who now is in Sports Illustrated? How dare she come in?" There was women that were saying, "Oh, I work out every single day of my life, and then this heifer can come in and be in a magazine?" And reading that at first really just made me feel like I've ruined the magazine. They took a chance on a big girl, and now I ruined it for them. And then, I don't know why, but I kept reading because you get into a black hole. It's like a car crash. Seriously, Instagram is like a black hole. You can just be like, "Next page, next page. Ooh, new comments. Oh, it's crazy." And then all of a sudden, people started standing up for me and saying, "No, this is what we need. This is where the industry should be going." And I really think that from that moment, I'm like, "Nah, I can't just be like about the haters." like feed into what they're saying about me. I have to know that there's so many other men and women out there who need representation like this, who need representation on a whole other scale that we still don't see in social media, in fashion. So it made me really excited after that when I was like, you know what, let the haters be the haters and let them be your motivators. And, you know, I'm so excited when I get to talk to my fans on social media. I will always go in and kind of like read the comments and say what's up, or, you know, if they have a question about like what's sizing my bras are. I'll be like, make sure you, you know, size down or size up, you know, all of that stuff. So it's fun. It's actually— I like to engage with them. When you're changing an industry, you're going to hear negative stuff constantly. And I have, and I've been told no, and I've been told you can't and you won't and you will never. But here I am. And you did. Boom. Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core values is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.

Hey, Believe Nation, if you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules of success, I have a very special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.