Why I Cried Myself to Sleep Running a Billion-Dollar Brand

26:03When stores all over Austin were shuttering, I signed a lease for a store with an office above it. So you'd walk through our retail store to get to our offices. I was like, this is going to be our laboratory. This is how we're going to learn about our customer. We're all going to work in that store. We're going to ask her what she loves, what she hates, what she wants more of. She's the boss. We have got to know what she needs and wants so that we can build the best company we can build. Not knowing that what we were actually doing was going to have this huge retail company. Because I said, if we're going to do it, I hate jewelry stores.

26:39I hate the way they are. I hate everything's under glass. I hate how judgy everyone is when you walk in. Snobby, snooty. I said, I want to take all that away. We're going to have jewelry freely displayed on the tables where our customers can touch and feel them and try them on. We're going to create a real color bar where they can sit at the bar and drink champagne and eat a cupcake and watch their jewelry be made in front of them. Wow. We're going to be totally disruptive in a space that I did not personally like as a consumer. And I remember people saying, Kendra, that's not going to work. You know how much you're going to lose, how many shoplifters are going to just take that jewelry.

27:15And I looked at them and I said, I believe that 98 % of people are good. so I'm not going to build a business for the two percent of people that are bad right and it worked wow we had lines around the block to come into this little store no it was like it was like one red oak or whatever in Las Vegas like we had to get stanchions it would be like five in five out it was unbelievable it was this energy and community in the store we were hosting community events with Kendra Gives Back events for local charities and color bar parties for birthdays. And it was unbelievable. And we realized that this is the missing link.

27:57But it all came from a shake the snow globe moment of the recession for us to think differently. Because we were doing okay. We weren't making any big headlines, but we were paying the rent and I was being able to put my kids through school and things were good, right? But that recession was the greatest gift Kendra Scott ever got. And you would think, that sounds crazy, but I say it's a ribbon wrapped in yellow, was our future was because it forced me to think differently. What is this, what looks like recession forcing you to think differently about the next evolution? Well, we don't know for sure if we're in a recession yet, Louis.

28:37You know, look. It looks like. Let's just call it this economic challenge. I get excited now, which seems really weird. What is the thing that, what's your blind spot that you haven't yet looked at within your business that if you really start to peel back or lean into in a different way could explode it to the next level? When you think about when I started my company, it was, Cade was born two months after 9-11. I started at one of the most unstable times in our history, I started a business. Crazy. Here we are. 2008. One of the biggest economic crisis that we faced in our lifetime happens. My business becomes lightning in a bottle growth afterwards because of that shakeup.

29:22The pandemic, scary, closing stores. It made me think about how we relate to our customer differently. Where is she and how do I meet her there? Does she need curbside? Does we need to make mobile access better? Does she need virtual styling? Things that we weren't doing, we're doing now as every day as part of our business because the pandemic had us thinking about where our customer was. So when you think about these things that are happening, it is, fear is good. Fear's normal, but usually on the other side of fear, something great. Yeah, of course. And if you can get through that scary phase, that uncomfortable phase and go, how am I going to make my business better today?

30:01How am I going to make my customer happier today? How am I going to understand where they are so that I can be there for them in this moment of whatever it is we're going through? Those are the businesses that are not only going to make it through this period, but they're going to absolutely thrive. So how many stores, you started with one in Austin. How many stores did it get to before 2020? We were at just about 100. 100 stores around the country? Around the country. Yes, around the country. Outside of the U.S. or just U.S.? Nope, all in the United States. That's a lot of stores. Yeah. 100 of your own stores, not like other brands?

30:33No, no. Kendra Scott. Kendra Scott stores. 100 stores. Now we are over 120. 120. Did you have to close any you said, though? Well, we closed them temporarily during the pandemic, but we were really creative in - 120. 120. It's incredible. March 16th, I closed those stores. It's my birthday. Is it? Yeah. That was like the week of the pandemic. Yeah. It hit, and I was like, happy birthday to me. Well, I was up at midnight for your birthday because I didn't sleep the night before. You know, I mean, it was. I got all these stores. If people can't come in, what am I going to do? Well, and I had all these employees that I love.

31:04They're my family. You know, at Kendra Scott, family is one of our core values. And thinking about how are we going to keep our family in a good place? How are we going to be there for our customer family? You know, we have the sister rule at Kendra Scott. We treat her like our sister. So it was, I'm like, girls, get on the phone. Start calling our customers. We had elderly customers that instead of us asking them what they wanted to buy in jewelry, we were delivering food to their doorsteps. We really started to reach out and just say, we've built a connection with our customer. And I think for anybody that sells anything, it's doing anything with a retail service mind, make a connection first and the transaction will follow.

31:45But when you're so focused on transaction, you lose the connection and you don't have that, especially when bad things happen. Our connection with our customer was so strong over the last 20 years. We were there in hospitals, 31 hospitals, with our Kendra Cares program for pediatric cancer. We were there in oncology centers the month of October for our Buy One, Give One program, giving a woman battling breast cancer a gift and letting her try to have a little piece of joy. We show up when we aren't expecting to all the time, every single day. So when something bad happened to the world, our customer showed up for us.

32:22And they had this loyalty to our brand that wasn't fake. It was authentic and real. And I say this to companies all the time. Being an authentic brand, you have to be authentic. It's not something that you can just create. It has to come from doing it consistently, day in and day out, and leading by example. Right. Man, this is inspiring. I didn't know this whole story. It's really inspiring. I'm curious. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that watch and listen that have small businesses. You started as a small business. What's the difference between a few hundred thousand dollar a year or a million dollar business and a billion dollar business?

33:01What does it take emotionally, mentally, and psychologically to really excel to get there? And then what are a few of the things that take in terms of strategy and execution to get there? Well, no small business is small. because, first of all, to have the courage to start a business is real big and really amazing. So I always say that, you know, the smallest ideas can turn into things that you can't even imagine. But I think the biggest thing for me as an entrepreneur is knowing my weaknesses. And I think you think, whoa, wait, why would you want to know that? We try as entrepreneurs to be like, we can do it all.

33:38We're like magical unicorns, right? And that is the biggest failure we can make as an entrepreneur. We've got to know what we're good at. Very important. Because if you can focus on the things you're great at, awesome. But more importantly, know what you're not good at. And hire and create a team of people that are awesome at the things that you suck at. Because when you create this magical team, that is how you go from$200 ,000 a year to a billion-dollar brand. is identifying the places, the gaps, where you need to bring in others that have that expertise, that knowledge, that maybe have gone down that road before and can help avoid some of those pitfalls.

34:20And that is how you get there. No single human founder on the planet has done it themselves. And if they have, they're lying to you again. They're arrogant and they're lying because it's not true. So I'm hearing you say the awareness to know what your weaknesses are and then the execution and strategy to find the right people. Team and expand the team. And expand the team. And then having trust and faith in that team and being collaborative. Knowing that you may not always have the greatest idea in the room. You know, you can be a leader and a visionary, but you also have to be able to absorb these awesome people around you.

34:54And more importantly, listen to your customers. Listen to them every single day. I read every comment on my Instagram to my marketing teams. They're like, Kendra, please don't read all these comments. I want to know. I'm like, has somebody gotten back to her? I literally said that on the way here. There was somebody who had a question about something. I go, I didn't see a reply on Instagram. I mean, I'm doing a lot of things, but every day I want to hear from our customer. And I think from entrepreneurs, you've got to get out of your office, whether it's in a store, whether it's on your customer service calls, listening in, taking those calls yourself, being engaged with the person that matters the most.

35:33And that is the person that is signing your check. It is not you signing your checks. Even though your name might be on the building, it is not you. It is your customer signing your checks. She's the boss. She's the boss. He's the boss. Now we've got a men's line. So he and she are the boss. So I'm wearing a, you know. Scott Brothers. It's funny because Matt was just saying that I never wore jewelry until a couple months ago. My girlfriend got me a chain and some rings. And then you put on a bunch of cool stuff. Why did you start a men's line? For 18 years, it was a women's line only line? And we had so many men, first of all, like Kendra, you know, and I never quite like got it.

36:10My boys became men. Right. They never wore jewelry as a 12-year-old. Yes. So Cade, the three-month-old, is now 20. Right, right. So every year my business has become a year older. So has my oldest son. Crazy. And when we were in the pandemic together, I would be having all my design meetings around my dining table because we weren't really in the office. so you know a few of my designers six feet apart masks on we would be designing collections and my boys were home with me and they'd be walking in the dining room they're like mom that is so cool you need to make that for me or can you make that in a bigger size and I started talking about and I was watching kind of what they were wearing they were kind of layering cool bracelets and you know and and really kind of seeing their style come out and I said wait maybe we should do like a little line together you know and it kind of just became kind of a fun project for us.

36:59We launched Scott Brothers and it was, I think we exceeded by 70 % or something crazy of our expectations for launch. But it was a line that came from a genuine place and the boys love being engaged and involved in it. And it's been something fun for us to do, but we had 36 % customer base that were male prior to Scott Brothers. Because they were buying for their girlfriend, wives. So now they can come in and buy for their girlfriend and wives and leave with something for themselves. And the women are probably the main buyers. They're going to buy for their guys. Yes. If they're going to be there, they might as well get a gift for them too.

37:33So it's been really fun and it's growing. I mean, it keeps expanding. Interesting. Yeah. You're like the Lululemon of jewelry now. Right? It's like only women's clothes and now they have like a small men's section and now it's like, okay, it's bigger and bigger. Now it's more men are in there shopping. That's pretty cool. So do you have like a, I got to go to one of your stores and check it out. Please. We have one here. It must be a cool experience. Century City. You can go here in L.A. It's here in Century City? Yeah. At the mall? At the mall. Come on. Yes. Right when you come up the escalator, like where you go to valet, which I'm sure is that what you do because you're fancy, Louis.

38:03Which, but what's the next two? I'm trying to see because I'm over there all the time. We're near Nordstrom area. Okay. Yeah. Let's check it out. Yeah. I'm going to go in and look at the men's section. Please. Make sure it's good. Yeah. Now, okay, what was the biggest, you talked about the business challenge, what was the biggest personal challenge you've had to overcome and face and the lesson you learned from that personal challenge in the last 20 years? I mean, I think, you know, divorce is really hard, right? And nobody walks down the aisle saying, I do forever and ever, and expecting it to not work out that way.

38:34And, you know, it's such a devastating thing, no matter what, but then when you bring little kids, so my boys were one in three, and I had a very young business that was just, you know, getting started. And it was, you know, it was a really, I think for me, that was, I felt like the biggest personal failure because I can do things like closing the business and it's on me, right? That's me. But when you have two little lives that you're responsible for, it's much bigger than that. And so you take those failures differently, right? Because it's affecting these little humans that you love. And so that was for me really, really hard.

39:14But But at the same time, I look at it now and I think, and I have a chapter in my book called The Average Family. There is no average family anymore. People go through marriages and divorces. I remarried. I had a little, a younger son, so now I have three sons. My boy's got a little brother that they adore. He has these older brothers that he loves. My ex-husband and I are great friends. We get along wonderful. He's remarried as two little girls, so they have sisters through him. And this is our family has evolved into this really amazing, you know, thing for everybody. And but when you're in it, it doesn't feel like that's going to be the outcome.

39:51But for me at the time, it was and still is hard, you know, because it's not what you plan on happening. But life throws you curveballs, Lewis. And you just got to figure out how to catch it. It was just easy. Yeah, it was just simple. Everything happens in a perfect way. I've made every mistake in the book in relationships and suffered for many years and struggled and did a lot of therapy to just kind of help myself heal and unwind and realize why I was making certain decisions and things like that. Yes. And that's part of that personal growth that we're talking about. And I think a lot of times we're judged, especially if you've gone through divorce.

40:27We can have monogamous relationships and break up. And for some reason, that's okay for people. When you say I do and you commit. Commit. And then that doesn't work out. People are like, oh, she's a divorcee. Yeah. You know, oh. So it becomes harder. But I love love and I believe in love and, you know, I haven't given up on it. And yeah, it didn't always work out the way I planned, but that doesn't mean that I don't deserve love and that I can't be in a relationship that's a committed relationship. Was there ever a time where you didn't love yourself? Oh, sure. Really? Yes. You know, I think I've been hard on myself throughout my life.

41:11And I think in 2020 was a year where I just felt like I lost that ability to overcome obstacles like I had before. Because there were so many. there was so many coming at me all at once that I would try to and I was trying to be positive from everybody else because I didn't want my team at work or my kids to think mom was you know not okay so I would be putting on this like mask of physically hi yeah hey great I'm great and then I'd go in my room at night and just sob and cry myself to sleep and feel like I didn't have it altogether and that I was a fake. Like the world thought I did. And that's when I started journaling and writing this down to say I knew I needed people to know that I wasn't okay because I had a feeling there are other people that weren't okay too and that we're going to overcome this.

42:13And I knew in my heart I was still going to overcome it. I mean, I wasn't at a point where I I was like, I'm not, I'm giving up. But I was at a point where I was just like, yeah, this is, this is, and I didn't feel like myself. And I had to change the way I was doing things. In 2020? In 2020. And personally. But you'd made a ton of money. Your business is everywhere. You're this big success. You've got, you know, your kids, you're healthy. I mean, you're healthier-ish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you've got stability in life, but you didn't feel like you were yourself. No. I felt like a shadow of myself at that point.

42:50And money does not make you happy. And that success is different for everybody. And I think that's a really important thing to remember. What is success for you? So I realized that success for me was just having more time, more quiet time, more time with the people that I loved. And in 2020, I think with my father being ill, going through another divorce in my life, that separation of another failure, COVID, the pandemic hitting the world and my business. There was just so many things out of my control that I felt out of control in a way, but I had to keep everybody thinking I was in control, which is the worst.

43:31And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And being able to finally just say, okay, I'm struggling and I need a break. And writing down what I saw my next three years of my life look like. Because I had been going at a pace that was so intense and trying to be superwoman for everybody. My kids, my business, my Kendra Scott family members, everybody. My own family. And finally just saying, I've got to focus on me a little bit. And taking a different role within the organization as a company, stepping down as CEO and becoming just chairwoman, head of design, and I'm the customer advocate, so queen of customer experience.

44:15So this happened in the last two years. Last two years. So you stepped down in two years. I did. And said, I know I can do more for the business and for myself and for everybody else if I just focus on the things that I know I need to focus on. Interesting. I created this school for women's entrepreneurship so I could help and inspire other young women. I wanted to spend more time with my kids, which we were getting to do during COVID. And I realized what a gift this was, spending more time with my father, who I almost lost, realizing I wasn't spending as much time as I wanted to before. And even having a choir life like gardening and animals and being outside and hiking and and taking care of myself, even physically doing yoga every morning.

45:02I'd never done yoga. Started doing yoga in 2020, changed my life. I mean, if I don't do yoga every day, I feel like I'm missing something now, but it was making priorities. And what happened is, is those contributions to my company have caused the company to even grow and succeed more. When I was killing myself, right? You think you're working so hard, but you're not working effectively and efficiently. And so having that reflection and that time to do that was what inspired the book because it really was something that was important for me to put out there for others to realize that, you know, even when you don't feel it, there's this light inside of you still flickering away and surrounding yourself with people that help you find that light when you don't necessarily see it.

45:47And then it is going to come out. It's going to shine brighter than ever before. Yeah. I like you, Kendra. I like you, Lewis. I like this story. This is really inspiring. What was your biggest fear then? Was it failure or success? That's a good question because I felt it both at different times in my life. For a long time, it was failure because I failed, right? And I didn't want to – I wanted to take away the failure cloak that I felt like was like – The monkey on your back. Yeah, the monkey on my back. And wanted to prove that I could be successful. That I wasn't going to let that shadow follow me anymore.

46:28Then once you have this success and people all of a sudden look at you different, they talk to you a little different, they take you seriously more. They act differently around you. You're like, whoa. But then you kind of feel that some people are talking to you for different reasons. Not because they genuinely care about you or love you. Right, right, right. Or maybe they want something. or they're, and then. You don't know why, the agenda. Yeah, and that became scarier for me because I'm very like open and giving and generous. And you got to a point where I started to question some of the people, things in my life that were happening, why they were happening.

47:07So then that kind of scared me a little bit. And that trust of just wanting to trust everyone. I know, I had that for so long. Became, I actually hated that feeling. But knowing that I'm not going to let it change me, that, yeah, I'm going to, that I ended up, that I had some things happen that were hurtful or things that happened. But if I allowed that person or that event to change my heart, to change who I am, then they won. So I'm not going to let them win. I'm still going to be the person I'm going to be. Am I cautious? Yeah. Am I a little more thoughtful about things I do? Of course I am.

47:46But at the end of the day, I'm still going to be the person I am. And that is a person that looks for the good in somebody first. What would you say you're more afraid of now, fear or failure or success moving forward after this kind of transformation in the last couple of years? You know, I'm doing things that I haven't done before. So writing a book and starting a school, a college dropout has an institute at the University of Texas. I'm a professor. They call me Professor Scott on campus, which is crazy. So that's what I'm saying. Anything is possible, folks. You don't believe it. I'm a professor at a college dropout, at a university, a top university in the country.

48:24So anything is possible. But I want to do so well now for this legacy that I want, that all of these things have led me to this point. It's given me the opportunity to have a voice to help others succeed in their own life. And I want to see them succeed. and that would be for me that's what I'm fearful of is that I want to make sure I can figure out how to do this in a way that they have great success because I don't want them to fail right I want them to have success so it's a cool place to be beautiful what's the part of your voice that is yet to be heard my singing voice you don't want to hear on the show but no is there anything you've wanted to say that you haven't really fully said yet you feel like it's still inside of you?

49:09I know you've written a lot of these things, these stories in your book, but is there something you feel like you still want to get out there? I think the biggest thing I want to say is don't ever judge a book by its cover. And I think it's so easy for us to dismiss someone's success as a fluke, you know, to just be like, oh, they got lucky. Or, you know, and especially women, Lewis, we can be vicious. And I see women tearing other women down so much, especially if they see success, there's got to be a reason. And then if a woman fails, oh, they celebrate the failures. Oh yeah, this is happening.

49:45Women celebrate, other women fail. Yeah, but we've got to change that dialogue. Why do they do that? Because we have our own impersonal insecurity. So if we see someone else doing something, it could be jealousy. It could come from a place of insecurity. And we've got to stop that, right? Because if we can stop that and start celebrating each other's successes and put your hand down when somebody else has fallen and lift them out of that place, you will become more successful, more great. Your light is going to shine so bright and that will attract so many great things in your life. That is what I want people to hear is let's not judge a book by the cover.

50:25Let's start to hold hands, lift each other up, support one another instead of tear each other down. And this would be an amazing world we could live in. Men and women. I think men do it too, right? I'm just a woman and I feel it. But in our company, we don't allow that. We hire people on heart before resume and we celebrate each other. Somebody gets a promotion, you'll see a hundred emails going, way to go. You so deserve this, Maggie, or whoever it is, rooting for one another. And that environment is infectious. It's contagious in a good way. And I think that is a message I want to get out there is like find ourselves when you're at that dinner table and it's like, oh, so-and-so got a promotion.

51:11See the tone? Or so-and-so got a promotion. How awesome is that? You have the power to change that conversation in that moment. And we all have that ability. Sure. Yeah. I'm curious about the mindset you developed around making money. because you were in a hat business before and it wasn't thriving, right? No, not at all. So how did you learn? Because a lot of people kind of have this ceiling about how much they think they deserve to earn or make and they kind of get stuck. It's from what I've seen. It's hard for them to break through to the next level. So how did you, in your mind, psychologically, know that you were deserving to earn more and to be able to build a business that had the potential to earn more And how did you not have a ceiling at the different levels from$100 ,000 in sales to a million to$10 million to$100 million to a billion?

52:05How did you continue to break through that financial ceiling? I think for me, I've had a different relationship with money. Really? Being a single mom, starting this business very bootstrapped, not having investors, it was survival for me. was always like, I can pay my rent, help my kids go to this school. It was very much survival mode for a long time. And even hiring my first COO, which was like my partner in crime for many years, Lon, I couldn't afford him. But I couldn't not afford him. So what did I do? I cut my payback because I was investing in the future of our business, it was always this bigger idea of building something that was bigger than just my paycheck.

52:57I wasn't thinking about it as much as that. I felt like this business was this almost, you know, I always say all the time that Kendra Scott, the company, is the DNA of all the people that are part of it. And we've created this, like, I think now he's, he is a tween, maybe. You know, we've still got a lot of growth to go with that brand. but it was the DNA of all the people. And so each thought about it was how are we going to continue to grow and do more? And success for us was also on our three core values, which was family, fashion, and philanthropy. We were always giving back, even from the very beginning.

53:34And the bigger we grew, the more we were doing and making an impact. So it was like we were able to have this fashion brand, but also seeing how we could affect people's lives in a positive way. and that was our fuel source because it was like yeah we're paying you have to pay your bills but it was also seeing something else that we were building and growing that was really cool I think the first time I had an investor when I had those words said to me I want to invest in you Kendra I was first like wait that's really weird did you say what you know I couldn't believe it and it was an advisor I had built up an advisory board because I didn't have a typical board.

54:13And I wanted to get other people's thoughts about my business. I wanted to be a sponge and learn from them. So I sought out people that I really respected in a very different fields, but that could help contribute to what I was trying to build. And one of my advisors ended up being my first investor and saying, what you're building is phenomenal. Can I please invest? That's cool. And that in and of itself was the first time I took money off the table. What year is this? 2012. Okay. So 10 years in. It took some money off. Silence. Right, right. 10 years in. But it wasn't a lot. I mean, but for me, I never had money just in a bank account.

54:57Sure. I had a float, a personal float and a business float. You'd have money so you could buy inventory and the whole thing. And it was always this chess game I was playing. that was the first time I actually felt like I could breathe a little easier. And then three years later, we brought in a private equity firm for 20 % of the business. So you had a little more cash. And I got a little more. And then that was for me, I would have been fine. I was fine. I was happy. And what it did for me is I didn't have to worry about money anymore. I didn't have to worry about my float. I didn't have to worry about rent.

55:29I could pay for my kid's school. I mean, we were fine. I was fine. I had everything I wanted. So I could really start to be kind of a little more aggressive on the business side. I could take more risks with the business because it wasn't like, if this doesn't work, I'm out. I'm living with my mom again. I don't think people realize how challenging it is to run a business. Like I think they see Shark Tank, which you're on and you've been on. And I think they see like people on Instagram or social media talk about their successful business, but I don't think they understand how stressful it can be to manage overhead, to manage your monthly payments, to manage people, to manage all the softwares you're paying for, all the logistics.

56:13There's so many things happening. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. You don't go into entrepreneurship because you think, oh, I want to just have my own business and be my own boss. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. Oh, honey, you everyone will tell you what you do everyone's your boss and you are going to be working so much harder than you've ever in your life but if you're working for something that you're passionate about you're excited about i mean for me i would get up and still get up every morning and i cannot wait to be part of my business i love designing i love my customers so much i love their stories i love meeting them i love my my family at kendra scott that we've built uh you know i i love it and if you don't love it, you can't do it.

56:56And if you're just doing it for money, stop right now, because that's not going to get you through and you will never become successful. Because for 10 years, you weren't really thriving financially. I mean, the business was growing and you were making a good salary, but you weren't like, I've got all this money in the world now for me. No, no. After 10 years. No. After 10 years, it was still so hard every day. So hard. But then, you know you start to see and like again the recession hit things changed my business was changing and we were starting to see and it was then it was lightning in a bottle that's cool it was 5 million to 25 million in sale 25 million to 75 million the next year i mean we weren't just doing we were growing at this unbelievable rate but that 10 years of authentic dedication love of standing by our core values, really just creating something and listening to our customer and being agile and pivoting when we needed to, not being so laser focused on it has to be this way.

58:04If the pandemic hasn't taught us that, I don't know what it is. I always say, you know, if you looked at my plan in 2020, I wish I had a piece of paper. I ripped it in half. Yes, I ripped in half. You have to be able to be agile and shift, okay, with this upcoming recession that might be happening. We don't know. Be agile. Your plan that you have today may not be the plan that's going to look like it as you go down and traverse this next year or two or three years or whatever it might be. Be flexible. So where you're at now is completely different than the plan you had two years ago. Totally. what do you think was the the factor that got you from the 25 to 75 million like that fast was it what were the couple of shifts that you did that allowed for that growth yeah so within you and then tactically yeah so with within myself you know i felt like i had the confidence to okay my family's going to be okay yeah we're not going to be on the streets like we're gonna be okay?

59:03I could really start to think outside of the box. Take some risks. And I was seeing this magic happening in our store that we were walking into every day and the lines. That's crazy. My office sat right above that store and I could just hear the roar. That's got to be amazing. Laughter and people having fun and the energy that the store was creating. And I knew that this was magic. And so we started opening stores. So you just had one then and then you said one Opening stores and opening stores. And each of those stores were creating this little ecosystem within that community. And we had a philanthropy outreach manager in every store.

59:40So we were building within the community all of our philanthropy projects. And it was like we just saw it. And we were learning. Every one, I was learning something and making the next one better. Never being complacent. Today, I'm never complacent. People think, oh, you have a billion-dollar brand. You can now just take a break. Are you kidding? This is when I really have to work. I know. I can never be complacent. I wake up every day and I say, how am I going to surprise and delight my customer today? Wow, that's beautiful. How am I going to surprise and delight them? You can't just go on yesterday's wins.

1:00:17You've got to think differently every day. Today I'm going to do better than we did yesterday. I'm going to make a bigger impact for her today. Surprise and delight. Because there's always, I mean, there's always boutique brands coming out too, right? There's all these, an influencer is launching a brand. There's all these different people that are coming out with retail and all these cool different things. And if you stay the same, people are going to move on to some other brand. Oh, let me check this out. And oh, this is really cool. And become more of a customer over here than with you, right?

1:00:46Right. So you have to constantly be innovating in sales. Innovating. And, you know, we've grown. I mean, we started, we were a fashion jewelry brand. Now we have sterling silver, which is like demi-fine. and we have fine jewelry, diamonds, engagement rings, you know, 14, we have all three, you know, categories of jewelry. We have a men's line, you know, we're, we're doing so many different things. I mean, we have customers are layering their diamonds with our fashion brand that we bring out seasonally for spring or summer, you know, but we've grown with our customer. We have three generations of customers shopping in our store.

1:01:18We'll have the daughter, the mother and the grandmother, and they all leave with a little yellow bag and a smile on their face. There's not a lot of brands that can be generational like that as well. And that little girl grows with us. Maybe then she goes to college and she's wearing us on game day. Then she's getting married and she's getting our engagement ring. Then she's on her honeymoon. Then she has kids and now she's getting teacher's gifts. And, you know, and so we see our customers over 20 years who, and we've built such a connection with her and him now that it's this, it's such a, it's such a cool thing to see as a brand.

1:01:55So how do you, I mean, with someone, I'm not in this industry, obviously, I don't understand, but with, let's say, a brand that only focuses on the high-end jewelry, the engagement rings and the more expensive jewelry, and that's all they obsess about. They don't have the other two lines, the generations of lines, I guess. How do you compete as a brand with a specialist brand that just does that? Well, first of all, I always tell everybody if you're doing what everybody else is doing you're already failed it's one of my favorite things to say you got to be disruptive so if you're doing high-end fine jewelry you have to have your own unique fingerprint on it you are what makes it great your personal brand who you are your aesthetic your so be you don't try to be all the jewelry brands that are you know out there you have to be you and you have to be doing something different unique and bringing something to a customer that nobody else is offering her.

1:02:52So that's the most important thing, whether that's through experience, whether that's through product, whatever it might be. It could be a combination. For us, it's a combination of all those things. Like the experience has to be amazing on wherever she's shopping. The product has to be amazing. So the only, I don't know the jewelry world. So I know I've heard Tiffany's, right? So it's like, how do you, just an example, how would you compare yourself or how do you say, okay, we're going to try to draw in some of the audience that would normally go for a brand like Tiffany's and have them have one of our engagement rings?

1:03:25Yes. How would, how do you think about that? So I think about it from a customer perspective. I think about the shopping experience at Tiffany's. I love Tiffany's. I mean, who doesn't? Okay. Um, but I think it's, you know, it's a very high end. It can be intimidating. It's under the glass. And you can go in there and you can feel, right. And you know, and in any store and I'm not, because I'm not saying it's Tiffany's, but I've gone into stores as Kendra Scott in my workout clothes, my hair in a ponytail, sweaty after the gym. And they don't really want to talk to me, right? Kendra Scott's totally different vibe.

1:03:56You know, it's a more casual, more relaxed. We want your husband to come in and have fun. We're going to give him a beer. We're going to give you a glass of champagne. He can just try on some rings. Y 'all can have fun. We're not, you know, it's a very relaxed experience, right? I'm about to go check it out now. And it's fun, right? And And you want to, like, it's a place you want to come hang out. And, again, we're not here to, you want to just try on rings and try on rings and have fun today? Great. Because if you left with a smile on your face and you had a great time, we've succeeded at Kendra Scott because we made a connection.

1:04:27Wow. We made a connection. That's cool. And you're going to share that even if you never buy something. Right. You're going to share. We went into Kendra Scott's store today. Oh, my God. It was great. They had a local beer. I got, you know, my girlfriend, she got to try a bunch of rings. We had so much fun. They gave us cupcakes and champagne. I mean, this is great. I'm going over there right now. Hey, you can make any sale happen with cupcakes. Okay? That's your lesson that you can take from those. When did you start adding, I guess, beer, champagne, and food to the store? Right away. Really?

1:04:57From day one, I wanted it to feel like you were coming into my house. So my house, you know, we'd have a big thing of lemonade, and I'd have cookies out on a tray or little sweet treats. It was always like you were coming into my house. Like if you came into my house, I'd be like, hey, can I get you something to drink? Do you want a little treat? Thanks for being here. So I wanted to create this environment of a warmth, of welcoming, of community. And it'd feel like, hey, we're glad you're here. I'm curious if you would have had it for two years without the food and drinks, and then you would have brought it, and if it would have increased sales or how that conversion would have been.

1:05:35You know, I couldn't have imagined it without it. Now we have a store in Austin. Our flagship store is in this really cool old house. If you go down on South Congress, and we have a little cafe called Sips and Sweets. Come on. Because that's what we used to call it in our advertising is come in for Kendra Scott for Kendra Goes Back event, shop, and have Sips and Sweets. So we named our little cafe Sips and Sweets. So you have an actual cafe now. A little cafe. So it's coffee shop, wine. We have frosé all day, which is, yeah, on tap. So it's an actual standalone coffee shop, cafe. Inside our store, yes.

1:06:10It's inside the store. Yeah, but you can get to it outside too. We have a little window. You can just go up and get your coffee. That's cool. We have a patio where we have live music some days. On game days, we have big TVs so the men can sit out there. We have local beers, wine, champagne. That's pretty cool. So fun. And then all of the pastries and cookies are from local female bakers. That's cool. So they bring in all these amazing treats and we're celebrating other entrepreneurs within the community. So it's really cool. So we're hoping to open more of those because that's been a huge hit in Austin.

1:06:42That's a lot of fun. Yeah. But that's the never be complacent. That's the surprise and delight. It was taking a small thing and growing it into something even more exciting and fun instead of just being like, well, this works. We'll just keep doing that. And I think that's where, as an entrepreneur, you're the visionary, always trying to think. Some things aren't going to always work. And that's okay, too. But if you don't try, you won't know. Absolutely. I'm curious about relationships. And I ask men this question a lot about, I really admire the men who have built an incredible business and who have a relationship also.

1:07:23So not just, oh, I'm this single guy and I've made millions, but a guy who's kind of stood the test of time in business and in relationships. Not saying they have to have the perfect one and not saying they don't have to have failed ones and new relationships, but where do you think you'd be if you were, let's say, single for the last 20 years versus having relationships that had their ups and downs, but also had connection in them? Where would you be if you were single versus being in relationships? I think being in relationships has helped me be able to become the success I am today. I am so thankful that I was a young mother.

1:08:03My boys drove me so much because I wanted to succeed for them. So they were such a driver of even not wanting to give up when there are times when I felt like it'd just be easier to throw in the towel. I'd look at their little faces and be like, no, I'm not giving up. I'm not giving up because of them. And so having those relationships led me to all of those things that gave me the drive and, you know, and that just, oh, I want to make this work. Like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to make this work. And I think for any successful person, to have a person that they can be their most vulnerable self with, where they don't have to be the rock star and the know every answer.

1:08:46And if you can have a person in your life that just allows you to be you, the messy, ugly, whatever, insecure times, you know, person, and they love you for that and they're there for you, every strong person needs a rock too. You know, we need a rock. We need somebody that we can tether to every once in a while because we're flying high. But you need that person sometimes in your life that can tether you in a good way, not keeping you from doing things, but know that you're safe. that you've got a place to come home to, a chest to lie on, someone to cry to, and know that they're not going to judge you.

1:09:24So I think when you can find a person in your life that brings you that type of peace, and that's, I think, the key. Peace is like the highest level of currency for me in my life right now. Because I had so much lack of peace for so many years in different relationships. I take responsibility for a lot of it. But like right now, to have peace is incredible. And it's the greatest feeling. And you want to say, like, you want, oh, it's fireworks. It's this and it's that. It's all this. You know. And I now go in my life and I go, I want to breathe easy and free. I want to, I think about coming home.

1:09:59Being accepted. And yes, and just knowing it's like a warm blanket. Like when you're in your comfiest sweats and you're at home and you've ordered in takeout and you're with this person that just makes you, like, breathe. that's when you found the right person. What would you do if you could go back and speak to 20-year-old Kendra? What would you say to her about love? I would tell her it's going to be okay and that on those days we know you go through a breakup. It is. And I see my sons in relationships now and that young love. Oh my God. And I just know. I know how hard it is because I remember that you just feel like you're going to die.

1:10:41I mean, you really do. I mean, when you go through some breakups. It is not easy. But I think you're going to be okay. And that think about the things that you loved about this person. And think about the things that maybe didn't work so good. And then next time when you start dating somebody, you're going to see some of those things that you loved in the person that you had this relationship with. But you may not see some of those things that you didn't. Or you're going to identify the things that you didn't. And if we can start even with business and other failures, think about it with relationships the same way.

1:11:13This person may be the reason to get you to that next person. I know that seems horrible to think about because we want every love to be like the love. But there's a lesson in every relationship, even friendships that we have, the friends that make us feel so good when we're around them and bring out the best in us and the friends that make us feel bad about ourselves or bring out the worst in us. You start to see those in people, right? And as you start to grow in your own life, and some people are lucky. I mean, one of my best friends, they met at 14. They're married. They have grandkids. I mean, they have kids and grandkids.

1:11:47They're madly in love with each other. I look at them all the time and think, wow, that is a beautiful, amazing thing. And not that they haven't gone through ups and downs over all these years together. But that's okay if your life doesn't turn out like that. Every person in our lives has come to our lives for a reason, and there's a lesson that we can learn from them, good and sometimes bad, that's going to get us to this next beautiful place to hopefully find peace and happiness. I've got a couple final questions for you. I'm curious about if you could go back and tell her to learn three specific skills.

1:12:23It could be personal skills, emotional skills, business skills. What skills do you wish you would have been able to learn faster at 20? At 20, I would have told myself, Kendra, you are you. And you are a unique, amazing, beautiful human being that was put on this earth for a reason. And even though right now you don't think you're good enough, you are. You are good enough. and you are going to do great things. And I believe in you. I believe in you. And I see you. I see that light in you. And giving her that confidence that I think I lacked earlier and knowing that I don't have to be anybody but me.

1:13:09Right, self-confidence, that skill. Self-confidence, that skill of just owning who you are. And I think today in a world of so many filters and social media where we're projecting, I just want us all to feel like we can be vulnerable and be us and know that that's awesome because there's no one else like you. You're the only you out there. How cool is that? So let's not try to be like anybody else. Just be you. I think the other thing I'd tell her is that, yeah, there's going to come times when you're going to want to give up. You're going to want to throw in the towel. You're going to want to say, this is too hard.

1:13:47And that's the time when you've got to pick yourself up the bathroom floor and say, now it's our time to really go. And you're going to hear a lot of notes. You're going to have lots of doors shoved in your face. But I want you to look at that no as what it says in a mirror. It says on. And that means you've got to go. Because sometimes that no is going to lead you to ask more questions about why they said no. What do you need that I'm not showing you? And it's actually the conversation is just getting started. when you get that no sometimes. So don't be afraid of no's, embrace them and get excited when you hear them.

1:14:24Yes, okay, the third skill, was that the third? I felt like it was three, but I can give you another one. One more skill. Sure, one more skill. I think the last skill I would tell myself is failure is a gift and you hear it all the time, but we are so afraid of it that it sometimes immobilizes us. And I think my company would have grown quicker than it had even. Not that it needed to. It all worked out okay. But I was so afraid of failure that I was too cautious at times. I was so afraid to fail that I wasn't moving forward. And I was stuck in the mud and just sitting there. And that failure is a gift.

1:15:08And that when it happens to us, if we can go, ooh, okay, that stung a little. but if I hadn't done this, I wouldn't have gotten these three great, amazing nuggets that now I'm going to use because, wow, that led me to this next cool thing I'm doing. So knowing that then and not being so afraid of it, that it was such a scary, awful thing, and realizing that it actually could be the greatest thing that could ever have happened to me. You're inspiring, Kendra. I've got a couple final questions for you, but I want people to get your book, Born to Shine. Do good, find your joy, and build a life you love.

1:15:47Make sure you guys get a few copies of this, give it to your friends, spread the message out. Very inspiring message, story, life, and lessons in here as well. So make sure you guys get Born to Shine. I asked you about the three skills you would tell yourself when you're 20, but this is a question I ask everyone towards the end called the three truths. So it's a hypothetical question. Imagine you live as long as you want to live, but it's your last day, eventually, far in the future. And you get to accomplish everything you want, personally, professionally, impact-wise, service-wise. It all happens, which I believe it will for you.

1:16:25And for whatever reason, everything you've ever created has to go to the next place with you. So we don't have access to your book or this interview or anything you've ever done, for whatever reason, has gone from this earth. But you get to leave behind three lessons to the world. three things you know to be true, and this is all we have to remember you by, what would be those three truths that you would share to the world? I would say, first and foremost, try to live your life with an optimistic lens. I think it's easy to have a lot of self-doubt, but when we can look at things from an optimistic mindset, where you see possibility, even in the impossible, um that's when amazing things can happen so having an optimistic mindset really can change anyone's life and it doesn't mean that you just see things like butterflies and rainbows all the time but you're looking for possibility in something um i would say the second is be kind you don't have to be a aggressive mean you know to be like taken seriously and strong leader entrepreneur, be a kind, loving, compassionate human.

1:17:37Try to be empathetic and put yourself in someone else's shoes and give them the benefit of the doubt before you just jump to, why did you do that? Maybe they did that because something else is going on, right? So I just, I think having a kind heart and thinking of your day each day of spreading joy for me is how I would love that lesson is, is I don't just wake up and think, well, what could I do today to, you know, grow my business? I think about when I'm walking in the coffee shop, how can I make that person feel good today? How can I make them smile? How can I compliment them on something so that they know that they're seen?

1:18:18Because one small moment of joy that you impact is it will spread like wildfire. So live a life that doesn't just with kindness, but live a life that you want to spread joy. Okay, cool. I love this. I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Kendra, for your joy. I mean, when the first moment I met you, you shined, you brought the joy and the positivity and I could feel it right away. And I know why you've become so successful in your business. And I think it's because you want to see others shine. You want to see your customers shine. You want to see every person that comes in the store be treated like their home.

1:19:00Yes. Thank you for the gifts. I appreciate the gifts you got me. You made me feel like I'm home. No, you look so cool. You know, now I can be like the trendy, cool guy over here. But I really acknowledge you for it because I think it's really hard for people to be successful in business for two decades, almost two decades. and for you to go through the different challenges you had personally in relationships. A divorce can break someone in a business, and you were able to get through that and shine even more. A recession can break someone. You know, there's so many different things. Health challenges and family can break someone.

1:19:32And for it to be something that builds you and not breaks you and just makes you stronger and opens your heart even more to being giving and joyful and loving I think is really beautiful. Thank you. I acknowledge you for the gift that you are, Kendra. Thank you so much. For writing this book and starting to open up even more and give back even more with your voice now to the world. Is there anything else we can do to serve you before our final question? No. I mean, first of all, thank you for saying that. But, you know, I appreciate it. And I do agree. All I want from this book, from everything, is that everyone is born to shine.

1:20:07So on this book, it says Kendra Scott, born to shine. I'm not talking about myself. I really am talking about all of us. have this unbelievable light and an ability to do something great, whatever that is. It doesn't mean you have to build a business, but whatever is going to bring you joy and happiness and make an impact in a positive way, we all have that light inside of us. So I'm hopeful that my story, along with so many other inspiring folks that you've interviewed and so many people around the world, being vulnerable and sharing that and allowing us to help find that within one another is really something that I hope we can do.

1:20:47That's beautiful. They can get the book anywhere online, KendraScott.com. They can learn more about the jewelry. Anywhere where books are sold, Amazon, you can get it anywhere. Kendra Scott on social media, that's with two Ts. Okay, Kendra, this is the final question. What's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness. My definition of greatness is pretty easy for me. It is, it's yellow, first of all. When I think of greatness, I think of bright. You know my color is yellow, but it's sunshine. It's light. It's shining a light in the dark places. It's bringing joy to those who need it on a bad day.

1:21:27That, for me, is greatness. Is when you can shine a light where there needs to be a light shine. Shined? Sean? Shown? Shown on. Shown on. I think that for me is greatness. Kendra, thanks so much. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thanks for having me. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

1:22:08Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I wanna remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great. Bye.