The class won't start until April, but if you're a student at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, you should probably start practicing your smize right now. If there's one thing we've learned from America's Next Top Model, it's that disappointing Tyra Banks has dire consequences.
Banks, identified by Stanford's online course catalog as a "Supermodel/Entrepreneur/Television Executive/Business CEO," will be coaching 25 lucky MBA candidates through an eight-week spring semester class called "Project You: Building and Extending Your Personal Brand."
Among other coursework, would-be mini-Tyras will be asked to consider the following: "What is a personal brand and how can it be unleashed as a valuable, competitive advantage? Why do you need a personal brand? How do you differentiate yourself and create a brand identity and strategy? How do you use social and traditional media to enhance your brand effectively as well as measure the metrics of social media responses? And how do you know when to pivot and evolve your brand for sustainability?"
The class final will see students sharing "their honed personal brand to the public via three viable platforms (Facebook Live, local television, YouTube) to jump-start their personal brand extension." If you're a Stanford MBA and you're still on the fence, know that this probably shouldn't be your first entrepreneurial/self-branding rodeo: A 90-second video stating "Who you are, what your personal brand is, and what you want it to be" is a requirement before you even show up to class.