Erica Collins, co-author of The Better Business Book and former plus-size model, won her school's presidential election in 7th grade as the first female and African-American president. She entered plus-size modeling in 1992 and built her career on competing against herself, prioritizing enjoyment over money, and her mantra: flip the script.
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¡Hola! All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Erica Collins with us. She is a co-author of The Better Business Book, a former plus-size model and beauty queen, and former executive producer of America's Enterprise. So welcome to the show, Erica. So we will dive in. The first question—
Thank you, Tyler Wagner Wagner.
Of course. So we'll dive in. The first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I think the best message is trust your own instincts. There was an article written about me about a year or two ago called Unbuttoned with Plus Size Model Erica Collins. You can Google that. And I tell the story of when I was in 7th grade and I won the presidential election, which was a big deal at the time in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, because I was the first female and the first African American and the first African American female. So I was a barrier breaker for 3 different positions. Everyone was against me, but I trusted my own instinct and won the election. Bringing that up to plus, I started in plus-size modeling in 1992. So people who see Ashley Graham now, who's one of the top plus models, you know, it's, it's been almost 20-some years, and now plus-size is one of the hottest industries.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
The best part, particularly for ladies, particularly in entertainment, media, modeling, etc., is simply to compete against yourself. You need to focus on your brand for your own longevity and kind of visualize what your legacy or what you want your legacy to be, because there's always going to be challenges, there's always going to be issues. But if you just focus on competing yourself, you'll be able to achieve those goals smoothly.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, and not necessarily industry-specific?
Enjoy what you do. Do not chase the money. Money will come, money will go, you'll need more, there'll never be enough. A lot of people think, I'm gonna get into business, I'm going to be my own boss, I'm gonna make all this— no, I think it's very disappointing. So most importantly, whatever it is that you choose to do, whatever business or entrepreneurship, you want to make sure you enjoy what you do. So on those bad days, that's what you're gonna reflect.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Take care of your health. I think I wrote a lot about this in Better Business Book 2, which you guys should also check out as well as Better Business Book 3. When I was in my, I guess it's been almost about 7, 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I remember reflecting in my 20s coming back from work from New York to New Jersey, going to a doctor's appointment just to look at allergies. And I remember the nurse with her eyes real wide, like, do you see what her blood pressure is? And the doctor at that time didn't feel like it was concerned because I was so young. But here we are, you know, 10 years later from that time period. So I would simply say, take care of your health and wellness, relax. And you know, what you're going to find is that everything will come full circle.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I think your— the next question is, uh, yeah, would be the answer would be building on your purpose. Um, sometimes you might start off in your entrepreneurship with one goal that you achieve. You might win an award or you might hit a milestone mark, and then later on when you go revisit that, you're not hitting that milestone mark or you're not getting the same type of reward. So it simply, it doesn't mean that you've failed. It means that your purpose in that space, in that time, in that moment is over and you need to move on and build on the purpose for you, which is going to create that longevity and legacy. I reflect back on— I went back to a pageant that I won't name, but when I went back, I won. I won all these awards. It was a big deal. It was fulfilling. But when I came back to do some marketing, etc., for them, I found out that a lot of the new ladies were intimidated. And the director actually said, "They don't want you to participate because they're afraid you're going to take the limelight." I was shocked, a little hurt, but after I got over what was being said, I just realized that, you know what, it's not your purpose anymore. You already achieved that goal. So it's time to move on.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
A friend of mine was actually going to the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania and they were doing the executive MBA program. And I was talking about some issues I had at a news network And they had suggested to read Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, which a lot of people know, it's very popular. So I really like in general the Robert Greene series, Law of Attraction, so on and so forth. But I also noticed that those books are geared towards physical environments, your physical workspace, your physical interactions. I've been listening to a lot of Simon Sinek's I think it would be cool if they created a book that kind of has the 48 Laws or the Robert Greene mantra, but also relating it to social media and this new social world, because a lot of your interactions to achieve now are not physical. They're in a social media space.
I think that would be really cool as well. And the next question I have for you is, what's your favorite quote and why?
A lot of people pick a quote from somebody else that inspired them. I like my own quote, which is, "Flip the script," because, you know, this world was not necessarily— or "Make America Great" slogan that's going around wasn't necessarily made for a plus-size African-American female when I was coming through. So I reflected a lot on my Angelou poems, like "Phenomenal Woman." So an entire poem was empowering and inspirational, but my own personal quote is flip the script.
Yes, I love it. Thank you so much for coming on, Erica. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
It's going to be I-amErica.com. We're redoing the site, so that'll be up in about 15 days. And you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and just Google the name.
Perfect. Thanks again, Erica. We appreciate you coming on.
Thank you. Have a great day.
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