How to Stand OUT in Modeling | Tyra Banks' Advice in 10 Minutes

She's a former top model, television personality, TV show host, and entrepreneur. She began her career as a model at age 15 and rose to fame as becoming the first African American woman to be on the COVID of GQ and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine. By the early 2000s, she was one of the highest paid models in the world. She's Tyra Banks, and here are her top 10 rules for success.

Even as a model, back in my modeling days, I'd say almost every single day I heard, "You can't do this fashion show because you're black." "You can't do that magazine spread because you're black." "You can't have this contract, modeling contract, because you're black." "You can't be on the COVID of a magazine because you're black." And of course that gets you down, but for some reason there's something inside of me that goes, You say I can't? Really? Watch me. So it's very important for me to find that white space and to be different. And everybody that works on my team knows it, so they don't ever bring something to me that's like the same. It's like, we call it zagging, not zigging. So I encourage everyone to zag, or else you won't break through the clutter. There's so much noise. There's social media and ads and just craziness. And whether you're a consumer, you know, speaking to women, or whether it's a business-to-business business that you have, there's just so much clutter. So how can you How do you see it happening? That's a good question. I feel like my career and my business has gotten to where it is because of my gut. So that's just something, a combination of, you know, my parents and what they've instilled, as well as, you know, some education that I've had and life experience. But again, that all goes to me. It's still gut, gut, gut. In order to take my business to the next level, for it to scale, for it to be truly I really want to leave a true legacy. I think that expanding the definition of beauty is bigger than me and more important than me. And in order to reach more people and to grow my business, I needed the book smarts. I needed the minds of those professors. I needed the education to get there. I do not think that I could do it without the education. Now I'm sitting with my accountants and we're talking, you know, all net present value and we're talking about, you know, depreciation and just so much that had I not gone to school, I don't think that I would have focused on it enough, and I would have been just this girl that's doing creative and maybe getting robbed blind or not being sustainable. What I do is I try to make a negative into a positive a lot. Like, in my career, on a daily basis, as a producer, I am constantly on America's Next Top Model, on The Talk. So there's always a, oh, that person fell out. They're not going to show up. Oh, this model's doing this, or oh, Oh, our budget is this, or we just got cut, like 30% of our budget got cut. I'm always trying to figure out a way to make it work, and there always is a way. It's going to be this. Well, a lot of it is passion. I could have my name on bedsheets, and I could be like, this couch I bring you people on is brought to you by the Tyra Banks Home Collection. It is actually. It's not a name. It's not. I've never been interested in slapping my name on things. I've left a lot of money on the table and left a lot of people very frustrated with me as a businesswoman. But to me, it is brand, brand, brand first, what I say first, what I stand for first. In 2014, you will see things coming from me, but it is so organic and so natural, it's going to be like, "Damn, it's about time she did that. That's so obvious." So that's what it's about for me, just being, you know, what I'm passionate about and also what is organic. The smartest business decision I ever made was retiring from modeling and doing it in a big way. So I was a Victoria's Secret Angel. One of the first angels, and I retired really big. Tyra's last walk. Do, do, do, do. You know, tomorrow night. Do, do, do, do. 8:00 PM. Do, do, do, do. And I walked away in a really big way. And I did that so that I wouldn't be tempted to go back. But I realized, yeah, not sure if that was the smartest thing to do because I had a new talk show back in the day, Tyra Show. It had not been renewed yet. America's Next Top Model was brand new, had not been renewed yet. So here I am putting all of my eggs into this basket not knowing if I had, you know, a true future with this new television production and producing and hosting. So good decision, but I look back, I'm like, hmm, very risky. Very risky, but sometimes those are the decisions that pay off the most. High risk, high reward. Yeah. No, I mean, I had people like just going, you're a model and what the heck, you're gonna have a talk show, it's gonna be canceled, you're just a model, nobody cares. So, you know, I've always had that over me. Oh, you're a black girl, you're not gonna be successful as a model. So I feel very taken seriously now. When I walk in a meeting and it's like 10 men in there in suits, I don't feel like I have to prove myself anymore. I feel like I've proven myself. What are my ambitions for? I really want a business that is bigger than me, that means a lot more than me as a person. I look up to Walt Disney, who's no longer with us. And when young kids go to Disneyland, They think that Disney is just a name. They don't understand that was a human being. And that's what I want. I could care less if young girls, you know, 30 years from now don't know that the Tyra Banks Company or Tyra Banks Venture was a person. Just as long as they're there understanding about unique beauty, that they don't have to be a cookie cutter to be beautiful, and that this place or this business, these things that they participate in, make them feel better. That's what I want. To this day, I have to talk to myself when I am walking on the stage of an award show because I didn't know this, but for years I would walk out on that stage and I would do this. I would hunch. And one day I was talking to my mom and she's like, why do you do that? And for some reason, it's at an award show or if you're in front of a big crowd of people, like you don't You don't model like that. You don't host your talk show like that. You don't do Top Model like that. Why, when you're in front of a big, big crowd, like thousands of people or millions watching at an award show type of thing, do you hunch? And then I was struggling and I didn't understand why. And I realized it's because I did not want to look like, yo, here I am and I'm all that. And I don't know why on award shows it I can't even say it happened. It happens still. So I have to work on that myself to say I've worked hard. I'm successful, you know, and work my butt off. Stand up straight. Stand up proud. And that's something that I still struggle with. Stop breaking my back. Can you guys stand in front of me? I just want to say one more thing to you. Rebecca, I admire your emotion right now. It shows to me that this was something that's very important to you. Tiffany, I'm extremely disappointed disappointed in you. This is a joke to you? You've been through anger management. You've been through your grandmother getting her lights turned off to buy you a swimsuit for this competition, and you go over there and you joke and you laugh? This is serious to these girls. This should be serious to you. Looks can be deceiving. I'm hurt. I am. But I can't change it, Tyra. I, I've been— Yes, you can. No, you can't change what? I'm sick of crying about stuff that I cannot Change. I'm sick of being disappointed. I'm sick of all of it. I'm not. Thank you. I'm sick of being disappointed. Yeah, Tiffany. Obviously I am. No, you're not. If you were sick of being disappointed, you would stand up and you would take control of your destiny. Do you know that you had a possibility to win? Do you know that all of America is rooting for you? Do you know that? And then you come in here and you treat this like a joke? You come in here and look at that and say, I can't read that. You read 10 times better than half of those girls over there. You did. You did. And you come in here with a defeatist attitude. I don't have a bad attitude. Maybe I am angry inside. I've been through stuff, so I'm angry. Yes, but this is not— this is not— be quiet! Be quiet! That's what is wrong with you. Stop it! I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this. When my mother yells at this, it's because she loves me. I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you. How dare you? Learn something from this. You go to bed at night, you lay there, and you take responsibility for yourself. 'Cause nobody's gonna take responsibility for you. You roll in your eyes and you act like this 'cause you've heard it all before. You've heard it all before. You don't know where the hell I come from. You have no idea what I've been through. But I'm not a victim. I grow from it and I learn. Take responsibility for yourself.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because one of our hardcore fans, Lucy, asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Tyra Banks' top 10 rules had the greatest impact and meaning for you. Leave it in the comments. I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.