The multifaceted Professional Todd Anthony Tyler talks life, art, fitness and creating. A Fashion and Advertisement  Photographer ,TV personality (Asia’s Next Top Model Judge, season one and Fit for Fashion TV Director) , Style expert, and apparel company owner. A professional for approximately 20 years, a big part of why Todd chose a career in photography is that” it is a real outlet for expression”. Part of what he does involves teaching “which is another area that enables me to express myself - how I dress is also a place that I express myself” exclaims Tyler. “ My definition of success has always been adjusted as I go through life -also my ideas of success are somewhat time lined success for this hour - success for this day- this week and so on -overall success for me is taking care of my family and providing them with the best life I can as that gives me happiness - after that success for me is when I have seen a project through and executed it at the top of my current game - your game can always get better - in fact I believe it can't help but get better with time and experience.”

Several things contribute to Tyler’s success as he goes onto describe “as having any sort of success means overcoming several set backs - I have heard no and that can't be done a number of times” which are moments that you could just quit “but I don't - doing business also has you face failed deals or sudden financial changes that you need to overcome or just lose everything. very time I overcome something it is a true moment of putting another brick into the life you are building - all of those times have taught me perseverance - the value of focused work ( and I say focused because hard work doesn't always mean you are working in the right direction ) and also trusting yourself - advice can be valuable but others advice should not dictate 100% your actions - you need to believe in what you are doing.

In the early years it for Tyler was graduating from University “accomplishing things like triathlons, marathons - now it is success with working with good people on photo shoots - success with TV shows - success with the clothing business - success in doing style talks that bring real value to people developing the life they want.”

“I experience real happiness when I am outdoors in the forest hiking - when I am in the gym having a great workout - when I am on a long run on a beach that goes forever - when my wife smiles at me and I can feel she feels loved and safe. Art has been the entire bases of why I have chosen the overall career path that I have - I majored in sciences as I had a keen interest in that and at the time that felt like the best path to a stable line of work but it is art that has always been the passion - question always was how is art going to pay the bills and give me the balance for a stable, relatively secure life and feed my desire to create. I feel like I have found that on several levels. Signs of creativity came at a very young age for me - before 5 I was a very avid drawer - at 5 I was given my first camera which had me taking photos every since - through my childhood and me teens I painted, sculpted, draw, carved and was into building. My creative super power with photography is a natural ability to compose instantaneously and the energy to work the angles - for over all creativity it would be my sense of colours, patterns, textures and being able to come up with endless ideas until I hit on the right one”

We ask Tyler what he would be doing if he were not in the creative field his response “ I wouldn't be doing anything else but what I am doing now - the only thing I perhaps would like to explore more is acting as that is an amazing outlet to let yourself be free”

Let’s talk culture… what is culture to you? “culture to me has a beautiful and an ugly side - I suppose culture is like people. The beauty can come in the cultural history, in garments, in traditional practises, in literature and language but then the flip side can be that culture can cage people and ideas, culture can be a limiting factor in development socially, in art and design and the overall expanding of our minds in how we see the world. Culture can bind people together in a positive way but it can also divide people, which in a world that becomes more and more integrated the idea that we could be not understanding or excepting each other because of cultural differences is a scary thought. have had the fortunate life to live and travel to about 30 countries - as part of my studies I minored in anthropology and cultural anthropology was one of the courses that most fascinated me, I have always had a keen interest in cultures globally and in part draw from different cultural ideas/practises in my work. So I would say culture is very important to me - would just say as I mentioned earlier that we should not let culture block our minds or divide us - I think culture is to be shared, experienced and understood - there is always something we can learn

My thoughts on diversity and unification follow my general thoughts on culture. I feel like we all start out with ourselves as individuals who need to strive to not judge others and ideas that we perhaps don't understand - it is easy to isolate yourself with maybe uninformed opinions combined with fear then follow that by finding comfort and safety by surrounding ourselves with other like minded individuals. I have worked and interacted with people from all walks of life, all preference and from many different countries. It is somewhat natural for people to have biases and create groups- as a society on a whole though I believe development means being unified and diversity be not such a hot topic as it would be normal that we are all different and simply live in harmony with mutual understanding.”

Now that we have picked your brain tells us more about Todd Anthony Tyler’s everyday life.

“music is in my every day - I wake up with music - I work with music in the office, I work with music in the studio, I work out to music, I run to music - I day don'ts go by that doesn't include music for me. It sounds like a cop out to say my music tastes are eclectic but I really don't identify with one genre - really depends on my mood or what I am doing - I listen to rock, heavy metal, rap, hip hop, top 40 - even the occasional country song. I listen to some Drake - Kanye West - Post Malone - Kendrick Lamar - Ed Sheeran -Nicki Minaj - Rihanna - Eminem -  U2 - BonJovi - KISS- Rammstein”

Who is your favorite"?

“thats a tough one to narrow down to one. “

Favorite color?” Favourite color is blue - though red is close and even though technically not a color I do like black - blue means freedom to me - hope - high spirits “

Three most influential people and why?

“my grandfather - my mother - my wife

my grandfather taught me about being a gentleman and having patience - my mother for teaching me to never stop striving for my goals and my wife for the support and belief in me”

Out of our core values- love, culture, distinction, expression, creativity , artistry, and influence which are the most important to you and why?

“culture interests me but I have some problems with blindly following for cultural sake - love is important but rarely understood and most times not rational - to have distinction is a compliment but not most important - artistry always raises the bar when applied to any subject but can be a luxury - which I would also apply to expression so I would personally say a combination of creativity and influence are most important. Creativity because often being able to think and react in a creative way can be a key to success and ultimately you would want to feel with your success you would like to influence others to to succeed as well. Creativity can lead to development and change and influence gives development an change a chance to fully occur.

Three things to remain positive “1  feed yourself with quality, healthy, clean food 2 be aware of your spiritual self there is a strong mind/body connection so take some time to meditate to be in tune with your mind and also exercise  3 be aware of the core people you surround yourself with and how they think Growing and evolving is why I wake up everyday. Best advice to my former self is to calm down a bit - not to stress and worry as much - to remain focused but to realize a lot of things I worried about or spent mental energy on were really not that important ( of course something easier said on hindsight . Remain focused but also realize when you need to pivot - a big part of succeeding in your dreams is also realizing when you need to adjust and move on - one mantra I often tell myself is to adapt or die.”

What is one thing you could never live without?

“Hope. Be true to yourself - make choices that are right for you but don't be self centred and selfish take advice into consideration but live your own life not the life you think others are expecting from you. I would say I live a pretty different lifestyle than most so in that sense I would say I feel different. I am today conglomeration of a multitude choices that tend to not be conventional. Being different is absolutely ok - maybe not easy and you need to realize you have some level of choice in being different and you need to live with that. What inspires me to move through difficult times is a vision of what I want my families future to look like - what I want to accomplish and a hope that the hard times lead to extra ordinary successes. I feel good about how I have grown and the person I am today and who I should continue to grow to be. Confidence comes with experience - for myself personally I draw a lot from all of my traveling - different people I have met - different situations I have been in and internal belief in myself that I can endure, will endure and will”

How do you foster positive thoughts about yourself and the world we live in? What impact do you want to leave on the world? What are some things that you have accomplished that you once thought were impossible?
”remain positive I focus on the positive - I try to stay away from the sensationalism of news - I don't become drawn down by others potentially negative attitudes or talk -  I wake up every day grateful to be healthy and alive and I go to sleep each night thinking of things that I am thankful for occurring during that day. That I was a good son - good brother - good uncle - good husband - good friend and that being around me was a positive experience that left people feeling good.  I honestly never thought about impossibilities - I also set out goals and ideas and went about each day working to achieve them. Hard work - at times sacrifice - planning - being able to adjust and read a room

What motivates you? What is the first thing you do when you wake up? What is the last thing you do before you sleep?

The dream of what I want to give my family. Give thanks for life - a moment of mediation - black coffee - then start answering emails and messages. Review the positive things that happened to me that day - kiss my wife

In what direction do you see society moving?

I see with the younger generation more integration and understanding as well as more direct concern and action for our environment - at least I hope this is what I am seeing. Sometimes it appears globally that with each step forward we do the proverbial two steps back. My hope is that society is moving in a direction where we stop labeling each other and just see each other as a person and who that person is internally - wouldn't it me nice if we were a community without divisions of any kind ? It is much more important who we are as an individual - how we engage with others - how we contribute to a better world rather than who we love or what genetic background we have. We will be better - but history has been somewhat cyclic - lets not forget history and make better choices