Nice job on the fire. I think you learned as I did that pre-building a textbook-perfect tepee is conterproductive, especially for the beginner.

Gather your wood and sort it into piles by size (diameter). Have your smallest twigs ready in a random pile. Get your tinder flaming, lift the pile and tuck it under there. Now start adding the next size larger sticks, one or two at a time in a random criss-cross pattern. Keep working your way up in size, fast enough that the underlying wood doesn't burn out before the larger wood catches, slow enough that you don't crush and smother the fire.

If the fire starts to get smaller instead of bigger, go back to adding smaller wood. As my #2 son stated it: "When the fire is small, add small sticks. When the fire is big, add big sticks."