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

Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Louis Howe's former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. In each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. But how did you overcome all these obstacles in the last few years and how long did that stress or pain last for? Well you know you look at 2020 and obviously the whole world was suffering you know and you turn on the TV you couldn't escape it and you're stuck in your house just right dealing with all this but in the midst of all that my father who is my rock in my book you'll just see he and I have this unbelievable bond had suffered two major heart attacks I had to go pick him up in Wisconsin on New Year's Eve of 2019 going into 2020 so New Year's Eve welcoming in this new year I was on a plane flying from Colorado to Kenosha Wisconsin because he wasn't getting the medical care he needed and brought him to Austin where I lived. And ambulances at the you know on the airport waiting to take him to the hospital and where he spent until March almost March 12th from you know December 31st so ringing in that year was already starting out stressful going through a divorce you know I had some old my own personal health issues happen I ended up being in the same hospital that my dad was in. During that time period it was one of those years where but on the outside everyone thought Kendra Scott was fine. The Instagrams are great she's smiling things are good and I just felt so you know like this isn't real and I'm suffering and why am I so afraid to say I'm suffering so I started writing a journal and just keeping track of what was going on personally emotionally and wanting to share that the struggle is what makes us stronger and now coming out on the other side of that really scary year for my business for my family myself personally is actually I had to go through that to get to this next most beautiful place I'm at in my life but when we're in the middle of it sometimes it can feel hopeless and that you're alone and that you're the only one that is feeling like this and so sharing it and I think there's so much power in being vulnerable and I realize that my journal notes I needed to make into a book simply because I wanted anyone out there who might be struggling in their own place in life to know this is part of their journey and own it and to know this is their unique amazing life and they're going through this for a reason and something great is going to wait for them it's waiting around the corner take a breath this is only a moment in time and it's to show past yeah of course you know and I think people see you and they see everything you've accomplished in the last 20 years of your brand 20 years with your brand right and overnight success I was like oh this is over it says I'm like well 20 years yeah of course but when they see the success of in 20 years they see you on Shark Tank they see you at the book they see you as this inspiring leader in the business world as well yeah what is the thing that most people don't see what is the biggest insecurity shame or fear that you never share that people if they knew you were working on overcoming yeah would see you differently you know I think one of the things that's so important that we're not no one is super woman and yet we try so hard in our life to make people think that we're Superman or superwoman that we are these just we've got it all together you know and I think it's you know as a mom I'm always struggling like oh how do you balance it all Kendra that is a myth no if anyone tells you they've got it figured out they are lying okay that is a total myth we I work every day to be like okay how do I make sure that I'm there for my kids when they need me or if I forgot is it a big sale oh my gosh you know I'm racing to the store picking up cookies and trying to package them in a Tupperware so I don't feel like my kid doesn't think I actually bitch the cookie you know we do things right because we are doing the best that we can every day and I think for us to say to one another and have these open conversations of I've got this thank you for helping me are reaching out and asking for help I now have a group of moms at school where we are all working together it's like I can't do this today can you help yeah I can do that or and instead of being critical of one another oh she didn't make her own cookies it's like we support one another and and that is what I think is I think what you know for me is I've stopped trying to be perfect because no one's perfect and I've started to laugh at myself more and be vulnerable and to just be like you know I don't have it all together today and be okay with that you know and I think that has taken time because in the early days of my business I felt like I was always being judged as this girl from Texas who you know in Austin where it was very tech savvy you know environment I'm starting a fashion brand where you know I was laughed out of boardrooms asking for you know investment funding unless it's cowboy boots and hats and it's like what are you doing well not now I mean it also it's just it was it was just a different world they wanted me to be a tech company and I'm not a tech company I was a jewelry designer and you know I think then I felt like well I can't let anybody think that I'm not super smart I don't have this I had to I was afraid of somebody who'd asked me where I graduated from college because I was a dropout I was afraid for people to learn where my education from come because it came from my first failed business so that's not always a conversation starter you want to start with and so I was trying to build up my own like I want them to think I'm this person because if they know who I really am then I'm really out of luck who were you really I was scared I was scared that they would see that I wasn't all the things I thought I should be to be in that room and get their attention or get the check for my business and that insecurity of trying to be someone I wasn't was the worst thing I could have done really being my authentic self being vulnerable and saying I'm a single mom I didn't finish college but I'm a heart worker and I'm the first one there in the morning and I am not going I mean if you give me money for my company I'm going to make sure you get a return I will not let you down but I was too scared to say that how long did it take you until you said you to start stepping into being a hundred percent authentic is opposed to controlling an identity or an image that you want others to see you know I think it took a while I love to say that it didn't but I think it took a it didn't around the people around me right I had a very small team of amazing women that I like to call the super seven and we were very vulnerable with each other we were a lot of us were new moms we had young children we'd bring them to the office we had packed in place in our office we'd be passing around babies in between calls with buyers and we were this village of support where we could just be ourselves we could come in and talk about our day being difficult or you know and it was amazing but I think you know on the outside I felt like I had to be because I remember going to market in New York City for example and setting up my little trade show booth and you know and these buyers coming in be like oh where are you from and I'm like Austin Texas this is now you have to remember probably 18 years ago when we were you know doing our first this isn't a hub of design and fashion no it's not what now people know of Austin and they're like oh well you can't make it as a designer if you're not on the coasts you need to be in New York or LA or San Francisco and San Francisco but in my heart of hearts I knew that Austin was this special place it was part of the DNA of our brand so even though I had insecurities about some things I had total dedication to others like we are in Austin Texas brand we have our own voice and when you walked through market all these buyers would be attracted to our booth because we didn't look like everybody else we weren't trying to do it everybody else was doing we had our own unique personality and that own unique personality was part of me and so as I started to see people loving us for who we were I started to have more confidence to just say yourself yeah just be myself interesting when would you say that was though 10 years in 5 years in 20 years in I think it was an evolution you know I don't think one day you wake up and you're like today I'm just gonna be me you know it was it was you'd get a win you get a little win and you go okay that gave me confidence or someone else believed in me you know I remember my first office what a big deal it was like renting an office space and not working out of the extra big deal my house and it's a big deal and my landlord was this great guy he had a sub company still has a subway like it's not subway but it's a sub company and he was from Wisconsin where I'm from and I would sometimes give him my rent check his name's Mike and I'd say Mike you know could you just hold it for a few days right I've got some other you know payments coming in from different you know companies and he'd be like absolutely Kendra you just let me know when I should take to the bank his confidence me gave me confidence and it's those little interactions that people don't realize how powerful they are because of his faith and belief in me it gave me belief in myself and I wanted to show him that I was good on my word because my word is everything I tell somebody I'm gonna do something I do it right and I think over time those interactions buyers Nordstrom ordering from you right it was like more more confidence confidence and I started to not be afraid and and I remember the first time I had to say I actually went to an entrepreneurial masters course through entrepreneurs and EO which is an fantastic organization any young entrepreneur out there I say join an organization like EO because you start to meet other people who have their same insecurities and worries that you have and you're in this safe environment where you can talk about those things and you realize I'm not alone in this anymore and once you're opening up to someone else they open up to you and that's why I say there is such power invulnerability where you think it's the opposite but when you can actually say to somebody this is something that always bothers me then they feel like they can share that about themselves and all of a sudden you're having a real conversation you're not having a conversation anymore of I did this and I'm this and I'm all my business is having you know and then they're just puffing back up and it's this whole and there's nothing real happening where you go God the first time I walked in this room with you all I was so intimidated I felt like I didn't belong here you know you have got Harvard grads in the room and and I'm a college dropout and then all of a sudden there this welcoming force right of are you kidding me Kendra when you walked in the room and you had you know and it was this it changes perspective and I think if we could all embrace that it's a dynamic amazing thing to be part of if you could go back 20 years ago when you started and been the 100% authentic you public facing where do you think it'd be today or do you think it worked out perfectly the lessons you need to learn from that journey I think everyone our story is our story for a reason and I had to go through those aches and pains and not semi-stomach and feeling uncomfortable to become comfortable within myself it wasn't like I could just wake up one day and have that it's the failures that build the next success in your life and I always say these things we go through the heartache divorce breakups relationships business failures they're the bridge to get us to the next place we're going in our life no one can experience that for you but you and even as a parent you want to take those heartaches away and those steps or falls away from your kids but they've got to scratch their knees they've got to touch a hot surface to know not to do it again you can only protect them from so much but we need those lessons to build the person we're becoming and we're always evolving I'm not there yet I've got you're not finished yet no I've got so much more I want to do and I know so much I'm learning about myself still every day which is a really cool place to be that's cool what would you say was the biggest pain personally and professionally you've gone through in the last 20 years we only have an hour no you know look the biggest challenge or pain or what seemed like oh this is a big letdown or breakdown or failure potentially in your personal life and in your your business but also what's the lesson you learned from each one of those experiences yeah you know my first business was a hat company I started it because my stepfather had brain cancer and I was meeting a lot of men and women undergoing chemotherapy who had lost their hair and I had loved fashion since I was a little girl and I so I started sewing in cotton linings into hats and created a hat business at age 19 dropped out of college and I think seeing this person that I love struggling wanting to save his life really and at 19 you're kind of an idealist this was my way I could do something right I felt so helpless in that moment and after five years of trying to run this little hat company and it not working wanting hats to be the next big thing again like it was 1940 I had these big grand plans for this business and it just failing day in and day after five years knowing I had to close it and now I already just lost my stepfather to cancer so the person I had done this for I had lost the business I had started is failing the thing he was so proud of me to do I'm now a dropout so all of my friends have graduated from college now are getting job so I have no degree yeah no degree I have a failed business I lost my stepfather and I remember just thinking it wow like I'm a complete loser I'm a loser I really did and now what am I gonna do well I've got to go get a job I'm gonna get an entry-level job somewhere because I don't have a college degree and I was able to get a job at a travel company that did a travel magazine in their marketing department and I still have customers calling me from the hat store and they weren't calling for hats I was making jewelry in that little store and I put it on the counter and the day that it would go out it would sell no way but I was so focused on the hat's mission of the hat yeah that I couldn't see what was working interesting and so this was this was like a little side project yeah it was just like and I enjoyed making jewelry and I loved making jewelry and I loved some high-precious stones and I wanted to make jewelry that people could afford that was beautiful quality and so but it was just a side thing I made hat pins to and other things just by hand but customers would call and say Kendra I want to pair earrings to match the necklace I bought in your store or my sister loves that necklace I bought I want to get her one for a birthday could you make one so I'm going home from my day job now that I had to get after my business failed and I'm making jewelry for my old customers and so it really was this like all of those things happen but when you're in that moment when you're closing the store for the last time and you're sitting on the step and it literally starts to rain and you look at your life and you think this a movie yeah it's a movie no it starts to rain it was like a joke like I started laughing at the sky like wow and I had one of those signs Lewis that on the door it's a sorry we're closed and on the other sides yes we're open I mean obviously our marketing budget wasn't big so I bought it at like home deep or low or something and I remember trying you know thinking about closing it and when I was sitting on the step crying and rain and I moved everything out I looked and I saw the sign still said yes we're open and I was pissed because I was like I have to go back in now and turn and go through this whole emotional deal and but then I looked at it and I was like this is a sign this is an actual sign and it was yes we're open and I talk about it a lot because I it was being open to the next thing that's gonna happen next possibility the next possibility and sometimes it is actual signs that you have to kind of pay attention to 100 but you have to be open to it and so even me taking this job because I had to I was open to my customers calling me going well make there's something to this jewelry maybe there's something there that I wasn't seeing and that led into Kendra Scott's jewelry when when did you say from that moment of closing that business doing this side thing of the jewelry when did you say okay I'm going all in on jewelry and leaving this job and actually going yeah so I was traveling it was a travel magazine and travel company so I was traveling to all these remote places doing marketing selling ad space negotiating contracts like all these things and I met I met my future you know husband during this time and I would be gone sometimes four to six weeks at a time so we got married and you know it was not a job that you really can have as a married person and no and so I was like okay I this isn't gonna be good for our marriage for me to do this so then I started doing PR and marketing for small businesses on the side while still making jewelry and I just that entrepreneurial spirit in me was huge so you're working the job or you left the job the job I left the job and I started doing PR myself it was called glitter yeah it was JLo was big back then you know if she still is but it was sequenced glitter it was all about the bling back in the back in the day early to you know 92 2,000 and so I did glitter PR and advertising and I was still doing my jewelry just for customers and we got pregnant and I remember you know thinking okay what am I gonna do next and I made a little collection of jewelry while I was on you know basically pregnant with Kate I went to jewelry making classes at a local beach shop to learn how to do even you know make things a little bit more intricate or different and when he was three months old I decided you know let's see if we can sell this so I didn't have any proper collection and I we had a wooden t-box like that you take out each little section of tea and I put each you know color mixed collection in each of the little boxes in the t-box and I put Kate in a baby Bjorn and we started to go to local boutiques in Austin Texas and I showed my collection and didn't want to really tell anyone I was starting a business I don't want to fail no they already know that I'm a failure okay so I'm not in this but world no no so yeah I took Kate and thought if I can create a business that allows me to be a present mom for this little unbelievable human and make some money on the weekends and yeah and bring money and help our family and you know that would be success sure I didn't write the plan like I did for the hat box of opening stores all over the country and this being a huge thing I started with it let's just small small yeah and it I'd sell into a store and I make my little orders where you don't know where you doing you're doing so I would write orders you know down and I show my collection this is the first day is kind of an amazing day because I went to five boutiques four out of the five ended up placing orders in Austin in Austin that's a buying orders like wholesale and then yes exactly exactly so I would go in and they'd write orders based on my sample set well the last store I went into they were doing a fashion show like in two days and she's like can I buy your samples for the show and you don't even sold them didn't you well no I had the samples I had written orders I was gonna go produce those more of those yes and so I was kind of like this is great because I didn't know how I was gonna get more money to buy the materials so I sold my sample set for $1200 I took me $500 and you know to make to make and I remember coming home with that check and like show even Kate by three month old I'm like baby we have a business like this is real and I know it seems so silly but that $1200 led to the next ability to so I was just kind of putting money in and I mean this is as bootstrap my mom brought over a card table I had a bead board in our little spare room is maybe a 10 by 11 bedroom and was fulfilling my orders I had them up on a board and I remember just thinking like I four orders at one time and like this is like things are happening and it just started to grow I mean they would sell out I would go to the stores I'd help them merchandise if something wasn't selling I'd go back in and replace it for them nobody had done that when I had my hat store so I thought I want to be a designer that is supportive of these retailers I'll go in and do trunk shows I'll meet their customers I mean I was like I'm gonna do everything I wished would have been done for me when I owned my hat store and it worked and our stores were selling like crazy and the customers were happy and it just grew from there one store grew into 10 stores 10 stores grew into 100 stores 100 stores grew into a thousand this is where you have placement not your own stores right yes you have placement distribution and that's how I did it for 10 years of my business and then you decided well eight years eight years eight years and then you said I want to have my own store no I didn't say that at all the this wonderful thing happened called the recession I don't know if you know about it yeah 2008 this was from 2000 to 2008 2002 2008 yeah yeah yeah two years more full-time a two years kind of decided sounds like right well so 2008 the world yes changed and all of my eggs were in one basket the power of my future was with the buyers at the department stores with the store store owners I had no direct connection to my consumer my customer you never audience I didn't have an audience audience through through exactly and so when the recession hit all that power was going away because buyers I had built relationships with we're getting laid off so they weren't buying anymore they know they the lot of them were going direct and creating their own private label store owners that I loved were shuttering every day I'd find out another store was closing how many stores we ended that time before 2008 we were probably in about 600 stores across the country yeah and then after 2009 10 how many stores we in probably four hundred oh four hundred yeah four hundred yeah but it's a two hundred stores is a lot right so I'm going through this and I'm thinking I mean I remember I shipping one huge order to a company that had been in business a hundred years Lewis filed for bankruptcy two days after I shipped a order yes what happens never got never got the money again no no you get the product back no no that's what I'm saying so it was a scary time and here I have a line of credit I have no investment capital nobody would invest in me I've gone and pitched my idea really doors closed million times had you already raised money or you just get credit no I just had a line of credit I had signed everything I owned up for collateral I used credit card debt it was all on debt my entire business to this you never raised any money right I could nobody would invent I wanted to early on no one I remember going to this one store yes no I promise you and I'm a good salesperson can you see that no I would walk in and they'd be like yeah no retail yeah you don't have a college degree when I'm trust you right I'm going to go in sometimes I'd be I remember going to this one networking group and they're like well Kendra you just need to get an angel I was like I need an angel yeah where are these angels hang out I've loved to meet an angel angel investor there it wasn't even the access that you had today if you think about social media wasn't there it wasn't there weren't groups that you could see you know people were a trending thing either as far to get in old boys club type of thing yeah so yeah all of this was happening and I realized I had to change my business model otherwise we were going to fail I was going to have another failure under my belt and so I remember walking into my office and saying to my team if you guys are with me it's kind of like the alamo where you draw the line in the sand you know Texans we all know that story well but it's like if caught cross the line if you're with me if you're not I totally understand and it was like I we're gonna change our business model we're gonna still have our wholesale customers we love them but we are gonna focus on direct to consumer we are gonna build a website that is actually not just information but e-commerce not just publicity right actually any commerce website we're gonna create which we had color bar which was this customization tool where you could pick the stones you wanted and put it in any setting we're gonna create that tool online and we're gonna open a retail store when stores all over Austin we're shuttering I sign a lease first store with an office above it so you'd walk through our retail store to get to our offices I was like this is gonna be our laboratory this is how we're gonna learn about our customer we're all gonna work in that store we're gonna 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 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 so if we're gonna do it I hate jewelry stores I hate the way they are I hate everything's under glass I hate how judgy everyone is when you walk in I said I want to take all that away we're gonna have jewelry freely displayed on the tables where our customers can touch and feel and try them on we're gonna create a real color bar where they consider the bar and drink champagne and eat a cupcake and watch their jewelry be made in front of them wow we're gonna be totally disruptive in a space that I did not personally like as a consumer and I remember people saying Kendra that's not gonna work you know how much you're gonna lose how many shop lifters are gonna just take that jewelry and I looked at them and I said I believe that 98% of people are good so I'm not gonna build a business for the 2% right of people that are bad right and it worked wow we had lines around the block to come into this little store lock 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 of five 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 it was unbelievable and we realized that this is the missing link but it all came from a shake the snow globe moment of the recession right for us to think differently because we were doing okay we weren't you know 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 it was the 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 for your session yet well you know look it looks like but I also just called 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 into a nice level when you think about when I started my company it was Cade was born two months after 911 well 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 shake up the 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 to she need curbside just we need to make mobile access better does she need virtual styling things that we weren't doing we're doing now is 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 fears normal but usually on the other side of fear something great yeah of course and if you can get through that scary that scary phase that uncomfortable phase and go how am I going to make my business better today how 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 they're 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 a hundred hundred stores around the country or country yes around the country no all the United States yeah yeah hundred of your own stores not like other no no can you Scott can you Scott stores yes now we are over 120 120 you have to close any you said though we just we close in temporarily during the pandemic but we were really creative in 120 it's incredible March 16th I closed those stores and my birthday is it yeah that was like the week of the pandemic yeah yeah and I was like having 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 you're saying I got all these stores if people can't come in what am I going to do well and I had all these employees and I love they'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 talking asking them what they want 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 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 when you're so focused on transaction you lose the connection and you don't have that especially when bad things happen right our connection with our customer was so strong over the last 20 years we were there in you know 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 given 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 are expecting to all the time every single day so when something bad happened to the world our customer showed up for us and they had this loyalty to our brand that wasn't fake it was authentic and real and you know I say this because companies all the time being an authentic brand you have to be authentic it's not something that you can just create sure and has to come from doing it consistently day in and day out and leading by example right man it's 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 are small businesses you started as a small business what's the difference between you know a few hundred thousand or a year or a million dollar business and a billion dollar business what does it take emotionally mentally and psychologically to really excel to get there and then what are some 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 they have the courage to start a business is real big right 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 you why would you want to know that we try as entrepreneurs to be like we can do it all we are we're like magical unicorns right we are just have all 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 higher 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 and that is how you get there no single human founder on the planet is done at themselves and if they have their lion team they're arrogant and they're lying because it's not true so I'm here you say the the awareness to know what your weaknesses are and then the execution and strategy to find the right people yes 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 in a visionary but you also have to be able to absorb these awesome people around you and more importantly listen to your customers listen to them every single day I read every comment on my Instagram to my marketing teams like 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 then the way here there was somebody 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 on 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 and 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 brothers it's funny because Matt was just saying that I never wore jewelry until a couple a couple of 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 and we had so many men first of all like Kendra you know we're new and I never quite like got it my boys became men so I know what jewelry is up yes okay the three-month-old is now 20 okay so every year my business has become a year older so has my oldest son 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 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 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 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 we launched Scott brothers and it was I think we exceeded by 70% or something crazy of our expectations for launch but it's 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're a buying for their girlfriend wives so now they can come in and buy for their girlfriend wives and leave with something for themselves the women are probably the main buyers they're gonna buy for their guys yes yes they're gonna be there they might as we get a different yeah so it's been really fun and and it's growing I mean keeps expanding so yeah you're like the Lulu them in a jewelry now right it's like only women's clothes and now they're like a small men's sex and now it's like it's big air now it's exactly more men are in there yeah shopping that's pretty cool so you have like a I gotta go to one of your stores and check it out please we have one it must be a cool experience century city you can go here in LA yeah yeah at the mall at the mall come on yes right when you come up the escalator like when you where you go to valet which I'm sure is that what you do it's your face which but where what's the next two trying to see because I'm going over there all we're near Nordstrom area yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm gonna go on and look at the men's section make sure it's good yeah now okay what was the biggest you talked about the business challenge was the biggest personal challenge you've had to overcome in 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 yeah and you know it's such a devastating thing no matter what but then when you're a 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 but at the same time you know 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 get go through marriages and divorces I remarried I had a little you know a younger son so now I have three sons my boys got a little brother that they adore he has these older brothers that he loves my ex-husband and I are great friends you know we get a long wonderful he's remarried his two little girls so they have sisters through him this is our families evolved into this really amazing you know thing for everybody and but when you're in it doesn't feel like that's gonna be the outcome but for me at the time it was and and still is hard you know because it's not what you plan on happening but life throws you curveballs Lewis you just got to figure out how to catch just easy yeah there's a simple thing that happens in a perfect way I've made every mistake in the book in relationships and and and suffered for many years and struggled and did a lot of therapy to just kind of help myself healing on wine and realize why I was making certain decisions and things like that and and that's part of that personal growth that we're talking about you know and and I think a lot of times we're judged especially if you've gone through divorce we can have monogamous relationships and break up and for some reason that's okay when you say I do you commit commit and then that doesn't work out people are like especially like the religious so it's it's 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 then I can't be in a in a relationship that's a committed relationship was there for a time where you didn't love yourself oh sure I you know I think I've been hard on myself throughout my life and I and I think in 2020 was a year where I just felt like I lost that ability to overcome obstacles really 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 for everybody else because I didn't want my team at work where my kids to think mom was you know not okay so I would be putting on this like mask of physically yeah great I'm great and then I'd go in my room at night and just stop and cry myself to sleep and feel like I didn't have it all together and that I was a fake like the world thought I did and I you know that's when I started journaling and 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 were okay too and that we're gonna overcome this and I knew in my heart I was still gonna overcome it I mean I wasn't at a point where 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 and personally but you made a ton of money or businesses everywhere you're this big success you've got you know your kids you're healthy I mean yeah yeah yeah you know you've got stability in life but you didn't feel like you were yourself no I you know I felt like a shadow of myself at that point and you know money does not make you happy and that success is different for everybody and I think that's a really important thing to remember 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 you know 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 right which is the worst and 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 to I need a break and writing down what I saw my next three years of my life look like because I been going at a pace that was so intense and being trying to be superwoman for everybody my kids my business my you know 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 lead of head of design and I'm the customer advocate so you know queen of customer experience this happened the last two years last two years you stepped down and 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 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 acquired life like gardening and animals and being outside and hiking and taking care of myself even physically doing yoga every morning I never done yoga started doing yoga in 2020 changed my life I mean I 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 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 that 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 and 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 the story this is really inspiring what was your biggest fear then was it failure or success that's a good question because I felt I felt that both at different times in my life for a long time it was failure because I failed right and I didn't want it I wanted to take away the failure cloak yes yes yes the monkey on the back yeah the monkey on my back and wanted to prove that I could be successful yeah that I wasn't going to let that shadow follow me anymore then once you have the success and people all of sudden look at you different they talk to you a little different they take you seriously more you know they're actively around you you're like whoa but then you've kind of feel that some people are talking to you for different reasons not because they genuinely care about you right right maybe they they want something or they're and you don't know that you don't know why the agenda yeah and that became scarier for me because I'm very like open 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 so then that kind of scared me a little bit and that trust of just wanting to trust everyone 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 gonna that I ended up that I got some things happen that were hurtful or things that happen 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 gonna let them win I'm still gonna be the person gonna be I'm cautious yeah am I a little more thoughtful about things I do dessert of course I am but at the end of the day I'm still gonna be the person I am and 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 years you know I 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 and a college dropout at a university a top university in the country so anything is possible but I want to do so well now for this legacy that I want to that all of these things have led me to this point has 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 say that you haven't really fully said yet you feel like it's still inside of you I 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 just 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 or you know and then if some a woman fails oh they celebrate the failure really oh yeah this is happening women celebrate other women fail yeah but we where you've got to change that dialogue and I think why do they do that because it's we're have our own in-person in security so if we see someone else doing something it could be jealousy could come from a place of insecurity you know and we've got to stop that right because if we can stop that and start celebrating each other's successes and pick up put your hand down when somebody else is 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 let'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 and men and women I mean I don't I'm not I think men do it too right I'm just a woman I feel it right but in our company we don't allow that yeah you know we hire people on heart before resume and we celebrate each other somebody gets promotion you'll see a hundred emails going way to go you so deserve this Maggie or whoever it is rooting for one another cool 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 see 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 the mindset you developed around making money because you're in a hot 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 from the breakthrough to the next level so how did you in your mind psychologically know that you were deserving to earn more and to build a build a business that had the potential to earn more and how did you not have a ceiling at the different levels from a hundred thousand dollars and sales to a million to 10 million to a hundred million to a billion how did you continue to break through that financial ceiling I think for me I've had a different relationship with money really I 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 you know it was very much survival mode for a long time and you know and even hiring my first COO which you know was like my partner in crime for many years lawn you know 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 I 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 she he is a tween maybe you know there we've still got a lot of 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 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 and the bigger we grew the more we were doing and making an impact so it's like we were able to have this fashion brand but also seeing how we could affect people's lives in a positive 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 was 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 where 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 and 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 about itself was the first time I took money off the table what year is this 2012 okay so 10 years in there's some money I'll silence but it wasn't a lot I mean but for me I never had money just in a bank account sure I had a float a personal float and a business float you'd have money so you could buy inventory and it was always this like 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 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 right I'm to worry about my float and have to worry about rent my compare my kids 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 isn't worth I have no money right right out I'm living with my mom again I think people realize how challenging it is to run a business like I think they see Shark Tank what you're on and you've been on and I think 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 you know monthly payments to manage people to manage all the software you're paying for all the logistics this show many things 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 boss nobody's gonna tell me what to do oh honey you everyone what you do everyone your boss and you are gonna be working so much harder than you 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 you know I I love it and if you don't love it you can't do it and if you're just doing it for money stop right now because that's not gonna get you through and you will never become successful because we're 10 years you weren't really thriving financially I mean the business was growing you were making good salary but you weren't like I've got all this money in the world now no no no I mean the 10 years 10 you know 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 had things changed my business was changing and we were starting to see and it was then it was lightning in a bottle 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 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 if the pandemic hasn't taught us that I don't know what it is I always say you know if you looked at my my plan in 2020 I wish I had a piece of paper I wrote it in half yes I didn't have you have to be able to be agile and 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's 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 over the couple of shifts that you did that allowed for that growth yeah so within you and then tacked 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 I could really start to like think outside of the box and I was seeing this magic happening in our store that we were walking into every day and the lines and the the my office set right above that store and I just here the roar that's gonna be amazing laughter and people having fun and the energy that this store was creating and I knew that this was magic and so we started opening stores these are one that and then we're opening stores 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 so we were building within the community all of our philanthropy projects and it was like we just saw it and we were learning everyone I was learning something and making the next one better never being complacent today I'm never complacent you know people think oh you have a billion dollar brand you can now just take a break I have 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 you got to think differently every day today I'm gonna do better than we did yesterday I'm gonna 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 up with retail and all these cool different things and if you stay the same people are gonna move on to some other brand let me track this out and oh this is really cool and become more of a customer over here and then with you right so you have to constantly be innovating it sounds innovating and you know we've grown and we started we were fashion jewelry brand now we have sterling silver which is like demy fine and we have fine jewelry diamonds engagement rings you know 14 here we have all three you know categories of jewelry high-end men's life 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 sorry you know but we've grown with our customer we have three generations of customers shopping in our store we'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 so how do you I mean with someone I'm not in this 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 in the more expensive jewelry and that's all the obsess about they don't have the other two lines right 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 you're 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 so that's the most important thing whether that's to experience whether that's to product whatever it might be it could be a combination for us as 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 give me a so the only I don't know the jewelry world so I know I've heard Tiffany's right 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 yes how would how do you think about that so I think about it from a customer perspective I think about the shopping experience Tiffany's I love Tiffany's I'm hella who doesn't okay but I think it's you know it's a very high-end it can be intimidating it's under the glass you can go in there and you can feel right people yeah 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 and a ponytail sweaty after the day they don't really want to talk to me right Kendra Scott's totally different vibe you know it's a more casual more relaxed we want your husband to come in and have fun we're gonna give him a beer we're gonna give you a glass of champagne you can he can just try on some rings you all can have fun we're not you know it's a very relaxed experience right not to go check it out now and it's fun right and you want to like it's a place you want to come hang out and again we're not here you want to just try on rings trying to have fun today great because if you left with a smile on your face you had a great time we've succeeded at Kendra Scott because we made a connection we made a connection and you're gonna share that even if you never buy something right you're gonna share we went into Kendra Scott's for today oh my god I got you know my my girlfriend she got to try a bunch of rings we had so much fun they gave us cupcakes and champagne I mean you can make any sale happen with cupcakes okay that's their lesson that you can take from the one that you start adding I guess beer champagne and food to the store right away really from 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 have cookies out on a tray or little sweet treats it was always like you're coming into my house like if you came in my house it'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 feel like hey we're glad you're here I'm curious what the 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 would have that conversion would have been you know I you know I couldn't have imagined it without it right 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 Suites come on because that's what we used to call it in our advertising is coming for Kendra Scott for Kendra goes back event shop and have Sips and Suites so we named our little cafe so my actual cafe little cafe so coffee shop wine we have frozen all day which is yep on on tap so it's an actual standalone coffee shop cafe inside our store yes inside well yeah you can get to it outside too we have a little window you can just go and get your coffee we have a patio where we have live music some days on game days we have big TV so the men can sit out there we have local beers wine champagne so fun and then all of the pastries and cookies are from local female makers 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 yeah but that's the never be complacent that's a 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 that's cool as an entrepreneur you're the visionary always trying to think and something's not going to always work that's okay too but if you don't try you won't know absolutely I'm curious about relationships and I asked men this question a lot about I really admire the men who have built an incredible business and who have a relationship also not just all this single guy and I've made millions but you know a guy who's kind of stood the test of time in business and 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 have 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 really I am so thankful that I was a young mother my 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 they're times when I felt like it 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 no-every answer and 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 right 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 and and know that they're not going to judge you so I think when you can find a person in your life that brings you that type of peace and that's I think the 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 and people and you want to say like you want oh it's fireworks and it's sad it's all this you know and I now go in my life and I go I want to breathe easy relax free I want it I think about coming home big accepted yes and just knowing it's like a warm blanket like when you're in your comfy sweats yes and you're at home and you've ordered and take out 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 Kenra what would you say to her about love I would tell her it's gonna be okay and that on those days we know you go through a breakup it is and you know I see my sons in relationships now and like that young love oh my kind of I just know I like know how hard it is because I remember that oh you just feel like you're gonna die I mean you really do I mean you and you go through some breakups it is not easy but I think it you're gonna 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 the next time when you start dating somebody you're gonna see some of those things that you loved in the person that you had this relationship with you may not see some of those things that you didn't I'm gonna 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 this 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 a love yes 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 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 oh my god kids and grandkids they're madly in love with each other and 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 gonna 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 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 lighten you and giving her that confidence that I think I lacked earlier and knowing that I don't have to be anybody but me right self confidence that skill of just owning who you are and I think today in a world of so many filters and you know social media where we're projecting I just want to solve the 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 you know I think the other thing I tell her is that yeah there's gonna come times when you're gonna want to give up you're gonna want to throw in the towel you're gonna want to say this is too hard and that's time when you've got to pick yourself up the bathroom floor and say now it's our time to really go right and you're going to hear a lot of notes you're gonna have lots of doors shoved in your face but I want you to look at that know is what it says in a mirror it says on and that means you got to go because sometimes that know is gonna 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 know sometimes so don't be afraid of know is embrace them and get excited when you hear yes we got the third third skill was that I felt like I was three but I can give you another one one more skill I think you know 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 and that when it happens to us if we can go oh okay that's not a little but if I hadn't done this I didn't wouldn't have gotten these three great amazing nuggets that now I'm gonna 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 of 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 make 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 in your 20 but this is a a question asked 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 and 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 buy 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 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 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 and something I would say the second is be kind you don't have to be a aggressive mean you know to be like taken seriously in strong leader entrepreneur be a kind loving compassionate human try 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 or 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 because 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 your joy I mean you when the first moment I I met you you brought you shine you brought the joy in 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 know you want to see your customer shine you want to see every person that comes in the store be treated like their home yes thank you for the gifts I appreciate the gifts you got me you made me feel like a home no you look so cool you know now I can do like the trendy cool you know that over here but I really know you for it because I think it's been 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 and shine even more a recession can break someone you know there's so many different things health challenges and family can break someone and for it to be something that 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 it's really beautiful so I acknowledge you for the gift that you are Kendra thank you 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 I you know I appreciate it and I do agree I all I want from this book from everything is that everyone is born to shine so 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 right but whatever is going to bring you joy and happiness and and make an impact in a positive way we all have that light inside of us so you know I'm hopeful that my story along with so many other inspiring folks that you've interviewed so many people around the world being vulnerable and sharing that and allowing us to help find that one and what and within one another is really something that I hope we we can do that's beautiful they can get the book anywhere online Kendra Scott calm they can learn more about the jewelry anywhere where books are sold Amazon you can get it anywhere Kendra Scott and social media with two teas 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 colors yellow but it's 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 that for me is greatness is when you can shine a light where there needs to be a light shine shine shine shine shine I think that that for me is greatness thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you 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 share 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 want to remind you of 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