How Kris Jenner went from flight attendant to billionaire through manifestation

0:00I'm Kris Jenner, and this is The Burnouts.

0:06hi chris and welcome to the burnouts we are so honored to have you here this is a show about figuring it out in your 20s when you're just starting off in your career so where did we come up with burnouts because that's a cute name you guys oh my god well you're the branding expert so we appreciate it but honestly we were trying to figure out like how do we encapsulate how hard it is to figure it out in your 20s when you're trying to juggle everything without burning out And then Phoebe was like, well, we should just call ourselves the burnouts. FIO, figure it out. Yes. One of my mottos, actually, just making it work instead of an MBA and M.I.O.

0:41I love that so much. Figure it out. Figure it out, which has been the kind of the theme of my life. I've had so many different chapters in my life, but I didn't really figure it out like on a business level until I was probably 35 or so because I had had kids and then I had to figure out how to make a living and pay the bills after I got divorced and then got remarried and had another set of kids. And I think that you do what you need to do and you learn a lot along the way and you don't even realize you're learning it. Like in my 20s, I learned so much when I was young. And those experiences led me to a lot of other learnings when I was older.

1:33And by the way, a lot of failures. Yeah, because I mean, we're obviously in our early 20s. We just started our careers and everything feels so important and hard. And I know we read that you actually were a flight attendant in your 20s. What was that like? Are there any lessons you learned that you still use? Every single lesson that I learned that I really appreciate, I think I learned from that year and a half or two years of being a flight attendant. I was the youngest person at the time, I think, in their entire lineup of flight attendants because these flight attendants had had such great seniority in the company.

2:09And I was, you know, just a rookie. And it really made me grow up really fast. and I think being responsible for a whole, not only for yourself, but for other people. And I think that it also is kind of where if someone says, no, you're talking to the wrong person, one of my life mottos kind of was born when I was a flight attendant because I was so disappointed when I got my kind of marching orders from American Airlines. When you graduate, they tell you where you're going to be based. And I was really hoping for Los Angeles. And they kind of looked at me like, you're never going to Los Angeles.

2:50That would take you years to be able to build up that kind of seniority where you can go to Los Angeles. So that taught me a lot about disappointment. And I was miserable because I was like not giving it the right mindset. I didn't lean into it. So it taught me about how to deal with things that, you know, you don't want to deal with or that you're disappointed in and how to, you know, turn it around and lean into it. That was, those were huge lessons for me. And I was homesick and I missed my boyfriend who I was then got engaged to and then married and had four kids with. So I thought, okay, there's another way to get around this.

3:30And that taught me a lot because that taught me don't accept the first answer that somebody gives you, try to figure out and pivot to another way of dealing with something. And so I started talking to everybody I could about how can I get on these flights that just go LA, New York, New York, LA. That'll solve everything instead of going to all these other cities that were on the East Coast that they wanted me to fly to. And they said, that'll never happen either. These women have decades of seniority. This is their life. They go New York, LA, LA, and they're on 747s and DC 10s. That's it. And I went, there's got to be another way around this.

4:11So I just randomly walked into the scheduling office that nobody probably dares to do back in the 70s. Oh, I love this so much. And I said, listen, I've got a problem. This is what I need. And this is what I know you have the power to do. How can we meet in the middle? What can I do to accomplish this? And they said, well, what we can do is we can put you on a list so that you're scheduled to be the substitute for the person who calls in sick. And I figured out how to make the system work for me in the best of ways because then I had, you know, maybe once or twice I walked into the scheduling room with brownies, you know, I don't know, or, you know, something like that.

4:59But I think just, you know, really trying to figure out how to make the system work for me. And it was one of the first things that I actually negotiated for myself and all the things I was learning along the way from how to, and then be a boss. I was walking onto a 747 full of people that were professionals and knew exactly what they were doing. And I had to be the one in charge. And I was 20, telling everybody what to do. And those were the days where people were, you know, we would do full-blown carving roast beef and making hot fudge sundaes and making baked potatoes in the aisle and orchestrating this whole meal service.

5:47So it was like running a restaurant at 30 ,000, 40 ,000 feet in the air. Where did you get that confidence? Because I think for us, obviously we're young women, we're just starting our careers. And I mean, we moved to New York City very recently and we didn't know anyone. And Phoebe was like, we need to go out there. We need to meet people. This was at the time when everyone was talking about you need to go out and riz. Oh, charisma. Charisma. Yeah. People were like, you need to go out and you need charisma, like go out and Riz people. And I was like, I have no idea how to do that. Like you need to have business Riz apparently.

6:20And I think when we look at you, obviously I would say you're like the CEO of having business Riz, like you're the Riz master. And I want to know - Riz master, I like it. Definitely the Riz master. We'll give you a sign. Okay, thank you. But where did you develop that confidence like so early on to go into that room and be like, I want this, like this is my schedule. How can we make this work? Right. Well, I think you have to leave your ego at the door. I was scared. And I think fear can be very paralyzing. And I think if you can get over fear and that idea that you're going to be judged or, you know, and just like look deep within yourself and think, how bad do I want this?

7:00And I don't think that performing and doing something specifically so that you fit into the Riz generation, for example, is also, I think you just have to be yourself. And I think that you have to do what feels good and that you follow a little bit about what's in your heart. And how do you stay part of like the cultural zeitgeist? I feel like obviously you guys have launched so many businesses like Skims, Kylie Cosmetics. And every time you guys have a launch, it's like all over my feed. It's a cultural moment. Yeah. Like everyone who is anyone is like wearing it or talking about it. Like, how do you do that?

7:41How do you make things go viral? I think identifying what each one of the girls really loves to do. I think people can feel what's real and what's not. And I think, for example, Kim with Skims, that was based completely out of her desire to have shapewear. Started with shapewear and her not having enough styles and colors and the range of colors for different skin types and all of it. It was just perfect. And Chloe now with her podcast, it's just so genuinely Chloe. Or Kylie with her makeup. Kylie absolutely sort of created this cultural moment, if you will, and disrupted an entire beauty industry showing people that you could buy something without having a lot of marketing around it and launching makeup online.

8:40I mean, that was incredible. And then that's when it really exploded for everyone else. She was the first one to really, you know, do that in such a big way when she came to me and said, I know exactly what I want to do. I know exactly what I want it to look like. I know exactly what the product should be. And she was 17. Wow. And I said, oh, wow. Okay. And then, you know, a couple weeks before she launched, I was like, well, where's the marketing materials? Where are we? You know, are we doing billboards? Like I'm like we're so far behind. She goes, are you okay? We're not doing it. We're not doing any of that.

9:16We're just going to announce it the day of. And I'm thinking, are you okay? It doesn't work this way. Well, guess what? I learn something new every day from these girls. I am not the creative person. I am the business person. And when we get into a creative meeting, listen, I'm the first person that gets shown the door. And then they're like, when it's time to review the contract, mom is coming in to redline that thing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So we all have, you know, it's a great relationship because we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Sophia and I started, you know, we met at Stanford as roommates and we're best friends.

9:52And then we're like, OK, let's start a business together. And then obviously now, you know, we have disagreements daily where we're like, no, it should look like this or we should do this for marketing. Right. And we've had to have tough conversations. How do you deal with that when there's like a clash, when you're like, OK, Kylie, we need to do billboards. And she's like, we really should just go, you know, direct to consumer. Right. Everybody has their definite strong opinions about different things but listen there's nobody that you would trust and and depend on more than a best friend I feel like you guys have been so raw about it too yeah you know sisters fight like and seeing that on the show I feel like America got to follow along and for people who you know either have a big family they kind of see themselves in it or people don't have a big family want that it becomes like the dream a little bit I will say that it's harder with friendships than it is with family.

10:42And a lot of people would say the opposite. But I think we, if you can sort of know your territory, have your boundaries and get through those disagreements early on and kind of establish how you're going to work together, then it's definitely a good start. Working with friends can be really interesting. And I'll tell you why, because it's either going to go really south really fast if you don't know each other well. But if you're lifelong, you guys are like family. And I think you have a really great, you know, amazing relationship. But my mother-in-law used to say, show me who your friends are and I'll show you who you are.

11:27I know you've talked about too, like the importance of obviously you have an incredible team here, but like hiring the right people and letting them soar. Yeah. If you're like the youngest person in the workplace and you're coming in and you want your boss to notice you or you want to be seen as trying hard and stuff. What do you say to that young girl who might be even the youngest person in her company or on the office floor who's coming to work? It's funny. I was always judged at a really young age for being the youngest always amongst my friends and colleagues and everybody. I had babies young.

11:58I did everything really young and I was always with a group of people that were 10 to 20 years older than me. And so I really don't think they say age is just a number. I think it's not only your experience that you bring to the table, but sometimes you really don't know how talented somebody can be. I like to work with finding a team, like the girls that work with me here. I don't micromanage them, you know, as far as they let it, you know, they know what they're doing they're really intelligent they're really smart and they're going to tell me what to do sometimes you know especially with um the kylie cosmetics and the kai teams and the skims team and the you know all the different teams that you know we have going it's they have great great intelligent smart you know creative people working on on those teams every single day.

13:09So one time I was asked to speak to a group of kids that were graduating from high school and it was spontaneous. And my girlfriend put me on like a FaceTime and they said, what advice do you have for these young girls? And I said, keep your car clean. And they were like, what? And I said, have you ever noticed that people with a really messy car, like french fries mushed into them, you know, paper cups and drinks thrown around and clothes from last week and an old hoodie and everything's dirty. And I could not think or be in a car like that. I would have to have, I don't care what kind of a car it is.

13:48I remember I had a red Mazda was my first car and it was a little hatchback and I love this car. And I used to treat this car like it was, you know, my most prized possession. It was, I washed it once or twice a week myself. I vacuumed it out. The car was perfect. The carpets were always clean. And if they wore out, I would buy a new, save my money and buy a new like little mat for the, for the bottom. I think having a clean car, I wish that it was legal if I was interviewing somebody to have somebody sneak down and look at the inside. Go look at the inside of the car and how does that look? Because it just kind of represents organizational skills and discipline and, you know, just the way that you feel about yourself and that you, you know, it's like, you know, going out into the world.

14:40How do you want to present yourself when you go out into the world? Like you girls look so amazing today and so beautiful. We don't always look like this. We got some cool tracing photos of us at the office. Well, I just think that it really matters. I remember Karl Lagerfeld, the designer, said when women start to wear sweats, that it's a sign that they've given up. Wow. And so I looked at that and I went, well, gee, Karl, that worked 30 years ago, but we're selling sweats now. So it's like, wait a second. I love to wear sweats. I wear sweats all the time. But I think it's just feeling like my mother and my grandmother were so fashionable.

15:21And no matter how much money they had or where they were going, they were going to the kitchen or from their bedroom or they were going to work. My mom had several jobs. My grandmother always worked until she was 80 years old. And same with my mom, worked until she was 82. and now she's 91. This woman gets up every day and dresses head to toe in a cute outfit. I love that. And has her little wig on and just has her lipstick and the whole thing. What's her signature look? Well, now it's a little bit different. It was a little, a cute, like, pantsuit, pants and a cute top. She worked in La Jolla, was kind of a beachy town and she dressed like she was on vacation at all times.

16:06Just putting yourself together so that, you know, somebody else might look at you and think, wow, that's an inspiration. You know, so my mom just, that's what I was taught. Just do, like, give everything you do your very best effort. And, you know, that's the way I was brought up. But I was also brought up in a time, I feel like a dinosaur again. No. Where we didn't have technology like that. We didn't have a cell phone. Or a computer or a tablet or anything. We didn't have to compare ourselves to anyone else other than what we saw in a magazine or what we saw on barely color TV on three stations, three networks at the time.

16:55I mean, it was a much different time. And I think some of those learnings and teachings that I got when I was really young, as I got older and I was a mom and it was, you know, now I'm 35 and I'm listening to Martha Stewart, who I was so inspired by. And I couldn't wait till the new Martha Stewart magazine came out so I could learn about baking and cooking. I love to cook and I love to create and I love to give parties and all of that. And I used to love listening to anything I could that Martha Stewart had to offer because it inspired me to go out in the garden and plant fresh petunia. I mean, I did all of it because we didn't have, you know, I didn't know how to do it otherwise because Martha was showing me how to do it.

17:45If Martha told you to buy crows at Halloween, you bought crows at Halloween. If I bought two crows because that's what I could do, I did what she said. And so that, you know, that was really fun for me those years. And I love this topic of like taking really good care of the things you own, like you taking really good care of your car. Because I think it also ties into fashion, like buying really good things, taking care of them, wearing them for longer. And I love that you have, I think what we all like bonded over in the very beginning when we met you was Kardashian closet. It's so cool and trendy to dress in vintage now, but I feel like you were really ahead of your time in establishing this.

18:23So I'd love if you could tell us more about Kardashian Closet. Kardashian Closet is something that we started in 2019. Right, Matt? Was it 2019? My encyclopedia over there. And my cousin Cece runs Kardashian Closet. And it's really her baby. And it was really such a gift because she is a fashionista. And she's like an encyclopedia on fashion. You could give her any item of clothing and she'll tell me what year, who's the designer. You know, you don't have to guess. But we were talking and I said these beautiful things that we've had. The jacket I have on today is 1982 Chanel. It's funny. And it's something that when Kendall was cleaning my closet last week, we went through my whole closet because I decided that I really wanted to do a whole purge.

19:20Have you ever done that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. so Kendall was going through my stuff I ended up with racks of stuff that went straight to Kardashian closet because she goes mom please and you know when you get that look from Kendall it's a no-no and this jacket she pulled out and said this is my favorite jacket that you have in your whole closet and I was like Kendall that's from the 80s yeah she was like stop so I love vintage because I think that it definitely gives new life to something that has been so enjoyed. It's great for the planet. I think every woman should be doing it. Funny story. So about a week ago, I saw something online.

20:01I think one of my kids sent it to me and we were laughing because it said, the Kardashians are going broke. They're selling their clothes. And I'm like, really? we're going broke because I guess I don't know which one of my daughters somebody put maybe some pajamas on there I wasn't sure if they were Balenciaga or or if they were just random but it was it was kind of funny I thought oh my goodness so I just thought that was silly but I think that just to be able to share some of the just the beautiful things is fun and then to have it have another life it makes me happy and I vintage shop all the time and I love what you guys are doing.

20:41Well, we're so honored to have you as an investor as well and an advisor to FIA. We couldn't be more thrilled. It was a no brainer. I mean, I love being able to be a part of your journey and your story. It's exciting. I think you girls are super smart. And I don't even think, you know, I think you're so on the right track. You certainly, I love that you're asking for advice from people. I think that's really part of being smart. And not only do you learn how to put up the boundaries and kind of not listen to the noise of people that would, you know, give you the wrong information, but just that you go out and you seek advice from business owners or founders that could add to your story and that you could learn from.

21:29Because that's part of being successful. I like to ask people all the time that have done it before me and that I consider a lot smarter than I am because you don't always want to be the smartest person in the room either. Who are those people that you go to for advice? I'm lucky enough to sit in rooms with people that I have nurtured these relationships and friendships since I was very, very young and watched other people do amazing things. And I'm very grateful for that. So I think you just have to explore, like I said, about friendship and the people that you surround yourself with. I think you keep your circle tight and you listen and you pay attention.

22:15And I think listening is and learning how to communicate from these people is one of the best things you can do. And you never know when that's going to happen. It's not like you can. You can certainly make a vision board or a wish list for people that you would like to meet. Do you manifest? Like, do you do any of that? I think I have manifested my entire life without realizing what the word meant or that I'm going to manifest this. I never specifically said that, but I've done that exact thing without realizing. I also have a very spiritual side. And that's probably one of the most important things I do every day is I pray about everything.

22:55Wow. And that's my way of manifesting because I make it, I, I pray about my family. I pray about my friends and I pray about my everything, health and business and, you know, love and, you know, you lead with love and anything can happen.

23:28The one thing I was going to talk to you guys about was the thing I think is really important is just to talk about the passion of your business and the businesses that I know that me and my family create and you guys will be creating. I can tell you're entrepreneurs and you're great businesswomen already. You've got the rest of your lives in front of you. And I think that just to have that real passion for what you do and do things that mean something to you, you don't need to fit a square peg into a round hole at all times. Like you asked me the question about viral moments. I mean, I remember when the first time Kim launched a fragrance back in 2007 or whenever it was, I think she was one of the first people in the world, maybe the first, to launch a fragrance and people bought it, you know, it sold out in seconds and nobody could even smell it.

24:23Think about that. And the same with Kylie selling lip kits online and being the first person to do that. You're buying lipstick and you can't even try it on. So those moments and the way that the shift that has happened virally in our culture with these different moments because of the passion and how someone feels about something and figuring out a way to communicate that passion through a new way of marketing something. And by the way, there'll be another new way. You know, think about that too. Like all these things that we say disrupted an industry or created a new way of doing something, there's going to be a lot more of those moments to come for the next generation and the one after that and the one after that.

25:16So it's just keeping your eyes and ears open and really being true to who you guys are. I don't need to make TikToks every day. We need to make content for the business. It's so important. I think Kylie would agree with me. Yeah, for sure. I mean, she's very specific and picky about what she posts. She posts every single thing on her Kylie Jenner, you know, platform, wherever it is, whatever platform it's on herself. Wow. I love how regimented you are, though. Something Phoebe like always gets on me for is I'm really bad at waking up early. I know you talked about. You are. I'm horrible at waking up because I stay, to be fair, I am sending her late working black messages at 2 a.m.

26:02Like I'm up late working. I feel like I work really well when I'm alone and it's quiet. So I think It's been hard for me to learn how to wake up early. How important do you think that is? It's essential for me. Wow. Essential. I learned that at a very young age and it has served me well my entire life. I feel like when I was younger, I felt like that was, I was getting ahead of the game all day long. I felt like I had extra hours in a day that nobody else had, that nobody had figured this out. That if you get up at four or five o 'clock in the morning, my circadian rhythm changed when I was a very young girl.

26:38And I think part of it was what I learned when I was a flight attendant. You learned how to put structure into your life and discipline and focus. And I'm mentally much more aware in the morning than I am at any other time during the day. And that's when I work the best. Do you intermittent fast or anything? I love to eat. Love that. I love to eat. But I'll have a shake in the morning. I'll work out. I like to either do Pilates or work out. But that would never work. That just would never work for me. I have to get up. Like this morning, I got up about 4.30. 4.30. Wow. I'm going to try it. I'm going to do it.

27:18If it goes badly, I'm calling you though. Okay. When I'm really grumpy after that. Well, coffee is involved. What else is important to getting up early is having something to do right away. I could also probably go back to sleep if I just laid there. Yeah. But I have my coffee, watch a little news, which is probably a bad idea because that just gets you in another space. But I have a little coffee, watch a little news, and then I work out with a trainer or I get on a treadmill or I do Pilates and then I start my whole day. So I have it lined up and I'm just in action, action mode. But I also read or heard, I think I watched your dad's documentary.

28:03Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And didn't he start it out by saying that he goes to like a cabin in the woods for three weeks every year? He goes for like a week every year. Yeah. He goes to our cabin in the woods and just like thinks. And I heard that you do something similar. I go to Palm Springs. Okay. And I just hibernate there. If I could have even a week there, in my mind, I'm still going to say that your dad goes for three weeks because I love that. I just love that. Just tell your dad I'm changing his history of that for him. I like the narrative better. Yeah. My narrative. And I would love, it's very important for me to do some thinking and get organized.