It takes a lot more than a great app or product to lead your tech startup to success. Most startups are thinking of everything else other than branding in their early, lean days, but experts agree that branding should begin from the moment you start looking for funding. Your brand is imperative in an age where standing out from the crowd can mean the difference between success and failure.
I had the opportunity recently to interview Tyra Banks, one of the world’s best and most recognizable models, and also one of the world’s most successful brand marketers. Banks has led a long, lucrative career as an actress, talk-show host, author, TV personality and producer, and, most importantly, CEO.
Two years ago, Banks graduated from Harvard Business School’s three-year Owner/President Management Program, and has thrived as founder and CEO of TYRA Beauty, her social-selling makeup startup launched in 2015. Though you’d think this would be enough for any CEO to manage, in August, Banks accepted a guest lecturer position at Stanford University, teaching personal branding, a subject in which she obviously has years upon years of experience and success.
Banks was kind enough to tell me some of the lessons she has learned from launching her latest startup, and her advice to CEOs who struggle with defining their brand.
Tell me about your class at Stanford. What are you going to be teaching there?
My focus is on personal branding: how to create, protect, and sustain a personal brand. I like to think there are two kinds of entrepreneurs in business. The first is where you are truly connected to your brand, and your brand is you, like Richard Branson and Virgin Airlines. Then there are brands where the person is a serial entrepreneur and continues to do different things with different brands, and the thing that carries them through is a personal brand not connected to a company. I’m going to identify in my class which of these two categories my students fall into, and then teach them how to create, protect, and sustain.
What have you learned from launching the many companies that you have?
I've learned to sit my ass down and focus on only what I can do rather than doing everything. TYRA Beauty was self-funded so I felt like I had to do everything: HR, finance, accounting and all the operations. I just had my head in everything, and it diluted my strengths, which are in strategy, leadership and the creative understanding of where we’re going and how to pivot. I can be like a bloodhound sniffing, saying, “Okay, time to pivot or this will cannibalize us. Should we do it or not?” It was taking my strength because I was doing way too much -- and still am -- but I’m on the path to doing what only I can do.
You’re an expert at creating a popular brand in today’s age. What can other startups learn from what you’ve done in creating that brand?
Well, I’m obsessed with the white space. I think a lot of tech companies like to think they are, but are actually me-too. However, there is a lot of strategy with me-too. There's some people that can come second and win. I’ve heard that Nike was second, and Coca-Cola was second, and their market domination is stratospheric. Everybody has their own strategy. I like to be first, and if I can’t be first, I like to be best. If I can’t be best, I like to be unique.
How do you create a unique brand in an age where there are so many brands, and so much ?
A lot of it is gut, but a lot of it is being really obsessive with your research: Googling, researching, being out-and-about. Being on your computer so much that the carpal tunnel goes up both arms into your elbows; being on the ground and having strong connections; being so connected that you’re always analyzing: what is out there, and how can I do it differently if it does exist?
A lot of brands suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome. You’re a mega-brand, so you must have a million opportunities to sift through. How do you decide what’s for you?
I definitely suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome! I think it was Steve Jobs that said he got to where he was, not because of what he said “yes” to, but what he said “no” to. Early on as a model doing catalog work for department stores, even though that was paying me tons of money, I decided to stop doing it. I felt that it diluted my brand and made me too dispensable. I stopped doing that. As a model I would continue to say “no,” and my agents would get so upset, because they said, “You’re turning down money,” and I said, “No, I’m turning up a brand, honey.” It was understanding where I wanted to go and knowing that this might be money now, but it won’t be money tomorrow. My “no” was an investment in the future for something bigger.
Where is your brand headed, and why are you teaching this class? That’s a huge commitment.
My brand right now is moving towards “modeling for the masses.” I don’t mean that in terms of everyone being signed to Elite, Ford, or IMG models. I’m talking about taking women of all ages at every stage of their life and seeing the model in them, whether it is giving them an experience of transformation, or saying, “Yes, your body isn’t cookie-cutter perfection, but I’m going to show you how to correct what you don't like, and live with and love what you can’t change.” That’s the heart behind everything, and then there are monetizable businesses for myself and for others that will be created out of that “modeling for the masses” message and vision.
Your creative vision creates the fan base and the movement, and then you build your businesses through that?
Yes. I had a talk show for five years, and I had different advisors who were so frustrated with me because I had this platform and I wasn’t selling anything. But I really wanted to just build a message and build trust. I told them, “I’ve been a model since I was 15 years old, and hawking other people’s products as ‘the face of . . . ’ until I was 29 years old. I need to stop doing that, stop being for sale and being able to be purchased.” I knew I needed to quiet that noise and have people listen to opinion, thought, me helping others -- it wasn’t all about me. I sacrificed a lot then, but now I’ve created TYRA Beauty, a social selling company. We have our Beauty trainers that sell our products all over the country. For many years I’ve told people to be their own CEO, be their own boss. I wasn’t just spouting words; now I truly can give people the power to do that by selling TYRA Beauty, getting a percentage and getting paid.
What are the causes that you're truly passionate about?
I’m really passionate about girls: their self-esteem and how they feel about themselves. I do know that when a girl reaches middle school, there’s a fork in the road: you either develop and become strong, proud, and confident, or you have self-doubt that will be there the rest of your life until there is some kind of intervention where someone can possibly change it.
Another passion is women in business: women starting and owning businesses, and women being the CEO of businesses. That’s a huge passion of mine.
Conclusion
Running a tech company you tend to focus on that you know and the people you know, and less on what your brand’s message will be. It’s clear from Banks’ brand success, and her continual focus on her brand from such an early age, that branding matters, for all businesses. Branding early and clearly will help your tech startup stand out from the masses and grow to the success you know it can be.
