Well, she's a multi $1,000,000
business mogul and Austin Knight,
a mother and now author Kendra Scott is
getting ready to launch a book tour,
debuting her memoir Born to Shine,
coming Up on September 20th.
The entrepreneur,
fashion designer and philanthropist
joins us now live on midday.
Kendra Scott, welcome to midday.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thrilled to be here.
Absolutely. We are thrilled as well.
So let's get right to it.
Kendra, what was the purpose
of writing this book? You
know, for me, I wanted to write, you know,
part memoir and part love letter to all of
the people that helped me along my way.
And to really realize that to show
and be vulnerable, that there's power
and vulnerability to talk about not
just the success of building a brand,
but all the peaks and valleys along the way.
And that all of us are not just looking
for the shining with ourselves,
but how do we help others find
the shine within them? And.
And it was a book that I hoped would
bring people hope and inspire them,
I mean. Speaking of wedge,
your story of how can your Scott LLC
was started in 2002 is quite remarkable.
I've heard you talk about making
jewelry at home with just $500.00,
and this wasn't even your first business.
What's the lesson here for those
trying to start their own businesses?
You know, starting a business is hard, right?
It's not an easy task, but I think you know,
so many things that we go through my
first business that I had for five years,
a little hat company here in Austin,
it failed. And you know,
I talk about my book that failing forward,
that there are so many lessons
that we learn in these moments of
both success but also in failure.
Things that I did write,
things I learned from that then allowed
me to build and have a strong foundation
for the business that did work,
my jewelry company.
A few years later.
So, you know,
I think for all of us to know that our
journey is unique and special to us.
We own our own story.
Nobody else can own the story of you but you.
And that that's what makes
you special and unique.
And so using those things to make a
positive impact on the world and to
live the life that you love and be
proud of your story and not feel like
you have to be anybody else but you.
Absolutely, Kendra. And can you
share maybe one of those things you
learned as far as failure goes?
You know, I've learned so much, Jenny.
I know we don't have a long time,
but every single time I always say those
failures there's with bridge to get us
or to get me to the next place I'm going.
A great example is even in the
2008 recession I was selling
strictly to other retail stores.
I did not have my own retail
stores at the time.
I did not have ecommerce website and
I realized how important it was to be
able to have a direct connection to our
customer if it wasn't for that scary 2008.
Financial crisis.
I may never have gone into opening my own
retail stores or changing my business model,
but that uncertain,
scary time forced me to look
at my business differently.
So as we look at a possible
upcoming recession or in our past,
overcoming this pandemic pandemic,
many times those things can actually
be gifts to make us think differently,
to actually create something
better than we were doing before.
Another perspective, Kendra,
Speaking of your first retail shop,
in 2010 you opened the first retail shop.
South Congress or flagship in 2019 you
had more than 100 and several countries.
How many stores do you actually
have right now? Kendra,
we have over 120 stores across the country.
We have actually been opening
stores up since the pandemic.
I remember when a lot of people were saying,
oh it, brick and mortar is over and
we did not see that in our stores.
Our customers love human touch,
they want to be around each other.
Our stores are a place for community
where we do Kendrick gives back events.
And our customers came out and
supported us and it's really been
allowing us to continue to grow and
open those stores where we can all
meet and connect with one another.
It's certainly a place to go and
shop and and and just be a sensitive
part of the community for sure.
Well, last year you stepped down
as CEO of Kendra Scott LLC. Why?
You know, 20 years as CEO, wonderful.
But we, I have the most amazing team,
I have the most amazing folks and the CEO,
Tom Nolan, had been with me for
seven years and we had seven years
to really grow that relationship.
And I knew that our team
could do such a good,
great job running the day-to-day,
but allowing me to do the things
that I can really support and do,
which was our philanthropy pillar.
I opened the University of Texas women's
entrepreneurial and Leadership institute,
you know, in 2019.
I was able to write this memoir and book,
which is something I really wanted to
do and really focus on our customer.
I spend a lot of time in stores now really
meeting our customers day in and day out.
And it's allowing us to actually
let me focus on the things that
are going to grow our company even
further in the future and allow my
amazing team to take some of the
pieces that I had done for the last
20 years and absolutely crush it,
which they do every single day.
Speaking of the future,
what is next for you and what
can we expect from Kendra? Dot LC
well, you know, I really believe even though
we're 2 decades in which went by so fast,
I can't even believe this. It does.
I really believe that we're just scratched
the surface of what we want to accomplish.
You know, for us, giving back is how we
really measure success at Kendra Scott.
Since 2010, we've been able to give
over $50 million to women's and
children's charities and I think for
all of us that is our North Star,
it keeps driving us to want to continue
to grow and build this beautiful brand.
That does not making people,
only making products that make
people feel good,
but actually making a difference
in our communities around us.
So we're super excited.
We launched Scott Brothers,
which is our new men's line.
We've launched a beautiful watches recently
and even our engagement collection.
So now you know we can we've
kind of can continuing to grow
in jewelry and and like I said,
we have a lot more we we
want to do and accomplish.
Your
passion is evident and we
love having you on the show.
Kendra Scott would be signing her
brand new memoir Born to Shine.
At her South Congress flagship
store this coming Saturday
from 11:00 o'clock to 1:00 PM.
So, Kendra, thank you so much
for joining us here on midday.
Please come back with any
updates that you may have.
Thank you. That'll be a full day
of celebration at that store.
So even after the signing, come on in,
there'll be signed copies still available.
If you didn't make the event,
we'd love to see you out there.