She Started a Jewelry Business With $500 and a 3-Month Old | Kendra Scott

This is the story of a mom who was running out of options and had a 3 month old baby. She needed to make some additional income while her husband was in between jobs and she didn't have the luxury or time to casually pursue a hobby. 

She noticed a gap in the jewelry market where you could buy really expensive jewelry for a lot or really cheap jewelry that didn't last. So after taking a few jewelry making classes and having friends ask her to make them custom pieces, she decided that she had a market. 

This is the story of a mom entrepreneur who faced failure, death in the family, lost businesses, failed marriages, the challenge of raising three children while building her company and so much more. We are studying this successful mom's story to see where she pivoted when most other people would have quit. We're taking her lessons and seeing how we can use them in our own pursuit of raising kids while raising a business. 

Join us, leave a comment, share your stories, your success, your failure and we'll all feel a little less alone on this journey of motherhood in business. 

We Are FIDI (Fine I'll Do It) 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Before I knew that, I want you to think about this number, 19. That's a good number. It's a good number. It was a good time. Yeah, that's a good time. That was actually the last year that I wanted to start counting my birthdays. Really? Yeah. Already at that age. Yeah, I know. What is wrong with me? She started her b first business at 19 years old, no degree, no money, no business plan. Just a girl who watched someone she loved suffer and decided to do something about it. And then the business failed. And then she started another one. And then she started another one. And that's the one that we're gonna talk about. Or maybe it's the one after that. She sounds like my kind of girl. Yeah. I was actually, yeah, I like her a lot. And she started that one when she was 28. Three months after having a baby with $500. Oof. And that's why I chose this story because I can very much feel how close to how close postpartum she was since I did that last year. And I can't imagine starting a business three months after having a baby. With $500. With $500. Exactly. I mean, we're doing it, but uh oh true. Less than $500. No. Um, so her name is Kendra Scott. Ooh. And I'm excited to tell you about her. I've been thinking, I've been like wanting to text you things like about her this week. No, not the same thing. Okay. So, hi, welcome to Fine. I'll do it. I'm Jen and I'm Kate. And every episode we study successful women who we can learn from. So we're both deep diving into uh mom entrepreneur and we're sharing the actual story and not the highlight reels with the online. And we're going to do a bit of stories and yeah. Let's case study more.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Let's interview more case study.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Okay. Okay, so we had a little bit of technical difficulties for our episode where we dropped the audio a couple times. We'll get better at it. So I'm going to fill in a little bit of the missing blanks that we did. So this is the story of Kendra Scott. She is known, she's widely known for a jewelry company, a jewelry brand named Kendra Scott, where she started from her spare bedroom with $500 and a three-month-old baby. We chose this story because she has gone through so many failures. She had failed businesses, she had failed marriages, she had two children in the middle of building. Her first son was three months old when she started making the jewelry by hand. So I think that this is such a great story to start with because of all the failures and the hardships and the personal difficulties that she went through where most people would have quit, she kept going. So that's why we are here today. We're going to be talking about the pain points, how how she moved on, what led, what failures led to the next step, how she got through them, and hope that you feel a little less alone in your journey with your family, with your children, and the thing that you're trying to build. So uh Kendra Scott's beginning, she started in Wisconsin, which I thought I'm already very related to her. My whole family is in Wisconsin. So Jinsa wisconsin girly. Uh kind of. I my family's Wisconsin based. I only spent a couple years there, like in between high school. Okay, we won't get into the full history of the street. Yeah, yeah, let's not do that. That's way too much. Okay, so, anyways, she's from Wisconsin. Um, farm family, hardworking. Um, so at 16, that's her that's the backstory of Wisconsin. That's it. So at 16, the family moves to Houston. She goes to high school in Texas, she's now a Texas girl. Um, she goes to college for one year and then drops out at 19. So relatable. Drop out? Oh, I dropped out. Oh, really? Yeah, nice. I feel like people who do things drop out. Yeah. That's uh okay, cool. So she didn't drop out because she failed. She just had a chat with her dad and was like, I this this college thing is not for me. Oh, she dropped out of college. Yeah. Oh, not relatable. Wait, who did you think is I dropped out of high school? Oh, high school? That's impressive. Okay. Okay. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, we're gonna find out probably a lot about each other actually doing this podcast. Yes. Okay, so she dropped out of college after one year, and she wants to move in with her mom and stepdad because her stepdad has brain cancer. And so she's like, I want to go spend time with them, kind of help her mom. Um, and so this is very honorable of her.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

So she's like, she talks a lot about how family is like her number one thing. So yeah, so that's where she is today. Not today in the story. She has today. Oh, I missed all of this. Okay, so Rob, her stepdad is going through chemo. Um, he loses all his hair, and Kendra keeps noticing that he cannot find a hat that is comfortable and actually looks good. Um, and they keep bothering him. So she's like, I'm gonna make hats for cancer patients so they can wear something well. I I love a woman who solves a social issue. Yeah. So she was like, Yeah, I'm gonna do this. And it I thought it was so like honorable, like such a nice why. Yes. Um I wish that this had a good outcome. So she's 19 at this point. This is this is her first business. Yeah, so she starts the hat comp the called uh the company called the Hat Box. Um, and she's selling stylish, comfortable hats designed specifically for chemo patients. And um, on opening day, her little shop, the only people that show up are her stepdad, Rob, and her mom. Nobody else.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Gotta love those parents, Mia.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I know. Love them or hate 'em. Well, she needed them because no one else came. And her best day in the five years of running this store was three orders. So times are rough. This this business has not been born out of the water. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I feel like we all have. If we're doing anything, something has failed. Yeah. Um, so she moved locations three times three times trying to save it, trying to get to a better location, a better leasing option. She knew, I mean, I don't even know how she stayed open for five years, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Most people would have given up for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Yeah. So this girl has stamina. Yeah. So she did this from 19 to 24. Um, and around that time is when Rob actually died. It was really sad. And in reading the book, I actually cried at the part. I was, it was, yeah, really, really sad. And he's only 47 years old. So that was her stepdad. Um his last words to her were do good. So I guess he's kind of were was losing his speech throughout the progression of the disease. And he like wanted to say like she was doing good, but all he could get out was like, do good. And she like uses that kind of like as a mantra and is really sweet and sad.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

And yeah, I can relate. I lost my dad to cancer at 59. He was 59. He gave me a lot of advice before he passed in the 32 days that we had. So I get it. The story will be good. Yeah. Oh man. We're not gonna cry.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah. Um, so she closed the hat box um after five years, and it happened to be like downpouring rain, like kind of movie-esque, of course. And as she like shut down everything, it's pouring rain. She's walking away from her first business that was for her dad, um, or her stepdad, and she turns around to have like one last look at the business that she closed down, and the sign on the door says open. And instead of going back and turning the sign off, she just like left it and like walked away from this closed thing. I'm okay. I was like, Oh, that's really kind of I don't know, like felt like a mindset thing that she was just like she closed it, but like she wasn't letting that destroy her entrepreneurial spirit, spirit. So yeah, I thought that was that was really cool. Okay, okay. So here's what she said about that experience later. She called that failure her MBA and her college degree combined. Everything she learned about customers, about operations, about what didn't work and why she learned there on real money on real time. So the hat box didn't fail her, it educated her. And yeah, so that's what she she calls that her education. I was like, that's that's pretty good. Take your failure and be like, no.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, people have told me that before when I wanted to start my business. They were like, at the minimum, you're gonna learn a lot. And then there's they also said there's no way you can lose all your money in a year. That's encouraging. I like that. Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Um, okay, so um, so the hat box is closed. She's 24 years old, no degree, a failed business on her resume. She needs income, so she gets a job selling ad space at a local magazine. Not glamorous, but she turns out she's good at it. Um, she's obviously a hustler. She kept a business open for five years on like nothing. Um yeah, she's hustling.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

What was she eating?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

I don't know. She I think she was living with the parents. She was still living with her parents at that time. They were so yes, so she's she's living. This is where she is after the hat store. So she doesn't have credentials, she has reps, she has years of them. Yeah, um, and then this is the part that I keep coming back to that I felt like a lot of other places glossed over. So she launches her own uh public relations company called Glitter PR. And this is her second business that she launched as a consulting business with the experience of failing a business. I was like, wait, what? I mean, delusional, but amazing. The best people are delusional. Yeah, I mean, I feel like you kind of have to be in business a little bit, like you have to psych yourself up or just like not let the negative the negative vibes anything.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

You would never make it if you weren't a little delusional. Everybody's always telling you no, you're not you can't do that in one way or the other. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Well, that was that was like really something that was something that I needed to to find in the story because I tend to be like, well, this is the steps, and she's running her own PR firm and it's a temporary thing. She went into it because she wanted the flexibility to uh build her own schedule while she's pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Which is which is a lot of force foresight on her on her part.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

And just how many moms do you know that would want to that flexibility while pregnant? Every single time. I knew that I when I got pregnant, I was in the ER and I wanted to quit immediately.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I was like, I honestly don't know how pregnant women are working.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I didn't. I'm very privileged, I'll say it right now. That is nice. I feel like I I was a mediocre nurse, and then when I was pregnant, I was I was becoming less than mediocre.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

I'm impressed by all pregnant women working, and I am privileged. You do what you gotta do, but I love I mean wait, wait, I want to say for everybody, I was working, but not in the capacity that I was before, and it was a complicated situation. I worked for family, so I could get away with a lot. Gotcha. I was working so there.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Anyways, okay. A quote in the book she talked about said negative voices are always the loudest, but are they true? Hell no. And I think that's really important because yeah, we all have negative voices, and she just didn't let hers get in the way, even though she failed. She like straight up failed. And oh, I was looking back. So when her first business, the hat box, yeah, I'm like curious how people fund their businesses, especially when they're first starting. And when she dropped out of college, her dad gave her $20,000. Her stepdad or her dad? Her dad, biological dad, because he had saved money for her to go to college. And when she told him she this was not for her, she was also wanted to move to be with her mom and stepdad to take care of the stepdad while he was in going through chemo. Her dad, biological dad, was like, totally fine, that's what you're gonna do. Let me give you the money.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

20 grand for a hat company for cancer pain.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

I have been saving for you to go to college. Here's your college fund. So it was even more painful and more of an embarrassment when she failed because she blew the money that her dad gave her. So that's that's the money she used for the first company. Yeah, the hat box. The hat box. So rest in peace, the hat box.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah, and God bless Mr. Scott. Yeah, Rob. Rob Scott. Yes, is the last name Scott? See, or maybe she got married, our name changed. God bless Kendra's father.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yes, both of them. Both of them. Okay, so we talked about then she went into the PR glitter company. She wanted the flexibility. Um, so now she's so she's pregnant with her first son at 28. Baby boy is born. Her husband, it sounds like I had to kind of dig for this a little bit. Her husband is in between jobs. So the PR company was it sounds like kind of like floating her, but also not doing amazing. So in this kind of like in-between time, she takes a class, a jewelry-making class. And so she was kind of making jewelry as she's running her little PR firm, and people are noticing her jewelry and like asking her about it. And can you make me some? And she's like, Oh, maybe I can make you some jewelry. So in her spare bedroom of their place, she takes five hundred dollars another five hundred dollar investment. Yes, so that was her the beginning of the jewelry company. She had $500 and didn't really have the luxury to just to do this as like a side hustle. It sounded like she needed she needed something to work because again, her husband was like sounds like in-between jobs, so they needed something more than what her PR company was doing. And she can't just blow 500 bucks, she's got a kid, and she's got a kid already. Yeah, they're so a little, yeah, stressful beginnings. Yeah, so she realized that she might have something with the jewelry as people are kind of noticing the stuff that she's making for herself, and she she goes for it. So she has her son in a pack strapped to her. She has a little box of jewelry that she's made, and um, she actually didn't even have like this beautiful little display jewelry, whatever you display jewelry on. I don't know. But she went around her house and she's like, What could I take to stores? Like, what could I present my jewelry in? And she's she had a wooden tea box, and she's like, Oh, this would be perfect. It smells nice when you open it. I don't need to spend any money on it. Like, let's go. So she packs up her jewelry and then goes to all these little boutiques in Austin and she's trying to get people to get make orders and then she'll fill them. And she talked about how she didn't know if people like felt bad for her, like if they wanted to buy from her because they like the jewelry, or if they just felt bad for her because she like is clearly needing some help because she's bringing her baby along on these pitches.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

I want to say that they didn't feel bad for her because I have people approach me all the time about carrying things in my store, and I'm like, no, sorry, I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Unless it's good.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

You know, that's how I feel. That's just me personally. So she was turned down many times on this first day where she's walking around trying to sell her her jewelry with baby Cade. Cade? Yeah, baby Cade on her chest. Uh in the last place of the day, she stops this boutique, and this woman likes her jewelry. And not only that does she place an order, she also wanted to buy her sample box. So she wrote her a check and she was right there.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Cash on delivery. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

So she was like, Okay, I think I have something here.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

You know, there's a girl who is my friend who I know is going to watch this episode, and I think she'll be inspired by Miss Kendra.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

I'm inspired on Miss Kendra. I okay, now I have to find where I am. Okay, so we're past this part. Okay, so I just want to preference like the the timeline and like age because I feel like that's yeah relatable. So she's 28 at this point when she has $500 to throw into jewelry making, and she has her first child, so she's 28, and she is building um wholesale business, so she's selling to the boutiques, the boutiques sell to customers, and she's doing everything. She's designing, she's selling, invoicing, managing, and her boys are growing up in the office. So now she has she has two boys now. She's like has a second one at 30. Wow. So she's got both boys like relatable. Yeah, I know exactly your with your two boys. So like the kids are just there. They she's has the pack and play in the office. She's like the coloring on print paper. Um, when they're a little bit older, they're sorting gemstones by color, they're like helping out a little bit with stuff, but like, and then they're in school, they're doing homework in there. So the boys are there. She's doing better than I am, like as a mom. Like she's holding it down. She's she was holding it down, which I feel like a lot of this also kind of depends on like the kids that you have. Because I'm trying to think of like Ozzy, yeah, having him in here. I've tried. After I was reading this story, I was like, I just seem to be more like Kendra. I need to have the baby in here. Let me try to do nap time so I can get some work done in the office and he'll be better because he's around me.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

He just screamed and screamed, and I was like, Yeah, uh, and so he could be there, but he would be in charge, he would be running the business. Yeah, it wouldn't be me.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

So I mean, I love that like in the situation, she had to make things work and she had the kids that like allowed her to make things work. That is not always the case, it's not yeah. I mean, everybody has their own journey, and I guess you just kind of figure it out. But I love that her kids like let her fit, like they were a part of it, and it was it somehow worked because that's the part that I'm always curious about. Like, we have little kids. I'm sure she had rough days. I'm sure she had rough days.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Please come get my children, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

And I really wanted to read that in the book, but her book just didn't talk about some editor edited that out. I was like, wait, tell me more about how you did how you put them down for a nap in the office, and everyone's still there working. Like, I need to know. Were you like blackout curtains in the office? All right, yeah, yeah. So uh she did it, and that's all that we know.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Okay, so we can extrapolate, yeah. We're gonna have to.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

So okay, now she's 32. Uh her marriage, unfortunately, is kind of falling apart. So she's got young boys, yeah, goes through a divorce, but the company is kind of building, it's exploding a little bit. She hits a million dollars in revenue at 32 years old. We're so good.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

She hits a million dollars in revenue off her jewelry company that she started out of a T box. Yeah, I know. 32 million dollars.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Yeah, how long did it take? So she started at 28 and she's 32 now. So, like four or five years, she already is hitting a million. There is hope.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I do need to know more about that because I feel like somebody must have came in and and invested in not yet. No, no, not yet.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Just 32 million dollars out of a tea box. So I around this time she starts getting publicity because there was a spring fashion show and somebody famous wore her stuff, and I I the name is in my notes. We'll put that in the comments, okay. Yeah, the yes, I'm forgetting the exact person who wore her stuff. So now she's kind of recognized, her her brand is recognized. This is when she hits a million. So she got some notoriety from this person wearing her jewelry. Okay, so yeah, because I was like, wait a minute, yeah, yeah. So people know her now, she she's national. Um and here's something um about wholesaling, oh, about the business side of things that I think is wild. So she's invoicing um on what's called like net 60 and net 90, which means that she delivers jewelry to boot boutiques, so everything is like wholesale, and she waits six that means she wakes 60 to 90 days to get paid or two to three months. So while she still needs to buy supplies and operate today, she's waiting for these invoices to come through and get paid. Cash flow is hard. So the business looks successful on paper, and she's still scrambling every month. Yes, cash flow. That part I was like, relatable. Oh man, that is so relatable. We're doing real estate and we're buying, we're investing in mobile home parks. And I am like asking that question, I feel like every month because you have such large expenses and you have infill and all the septic and all these like major projects, but then you're collecting like for us mobile home parks, it's like a couple hundred bucks per lot, and it's I'm like the bills keep coming. It's crazy, yeah. So the cash flow, like the the successful business on paper, and then the cash flow, yeah, not always not always meeting up. You think it should. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of terms in business, like even so going back to like when she hits a million dollar in revenue, like in my mind, and a few years ago when I heard that, I'm thinking she's got a million dollar a million dollar business. That's incredible. You could have a million dollar company and be cash flowing nothing.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yeah, because her product is probably expensive. Met metals are expensive, precious jewels. I'm assuming she's using like gold and silver and precious jewels.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

And labor and like a leasing expense, like there's operational expenses. So there's a lot of things in business that sound incredible. And then on paper, it's like, well, I want a million dollars in the bank.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Did you see me at the bank this morning with my profit and loss on a post-it note?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Yes. Okay. So that was something that I I really resonated with. And I was like, I feel that pain. Oh, here's in the notes. Oscar Della Renta.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Is that name?

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Oh, yeah. Okay. My mom loves Oscar Della Renta. Okay. So that's who wore her jewelry.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Oh. Easy. I don't know about back then, but like now he's well known. Beautiful, beautiful. Okay. I just close in a fashion idiot. I don't know. If we have some editing skills, we'll drop a picture of my mom in an Oscar. Oh, yeah. Cool. That would be really cool. Yeah, have some visuals.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

I like that. Okay. So this is all happening. She's 34. Things are like going up, going up. She's making some money. She's figuring out the cash flow stuff. 20 2008, the financial crash hits. I remember that. I was not that old, but I remember. I am like, where was I?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

I was 18 and I have no recollection of this. My dad said, We're not going out to eat and we're not going shopping anymore. He's like, I looked at my receipts. Yeah. We're not going. And that's all we did.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

My dad is in healthcare. So I feel like healthcare, it just like they didn't really fill in.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

My dad did. He was CEO of a hospital at that time.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Okay. So her wholesale accounts, she's doing the boat, she's selling to the boutiques. Department stores carry her jewelry line. And overnight the crash happens, things kind of go dark. Phone numbers are disconnected, stores are closing. She is a hundred percent wholesale, and now nobody can pay their bills. Nobody can pay them, so they're not buying her jewelry. So every single dollar she earns are flowing through those people's accounts. Yeah. Which her accounts are now going bankrupt. Yeah. So they're all gone. So she goes to investors, she gets told no over and over and over. And as a woman in Texas, in a fashion company, like nobody's trying to invest in that when things are going south. So she's on the kitchen floor crying. She thinks that that is it. She's now been building for 12 years and everything's falling apart. She thinks she's done. Yeah. So we're at the point where she's tried to get investors and not happening. She finally gets a meeting with the president of her bank, and the bank president is a woman, and she is a Kendra Scott customer.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

And how lucky to get with the president of the bank.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yes. So this is after she's been turned down and she thinks she's closing. So this person already knows this woman already knows her brand. She's wearing her jewelry. So that matters more than any pitch deck she could have walked in with. This woman's worn the jewelry. She understood the brand. She understood what it felt like to be a piece of Kendra Scott and feeling something already.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

And when Kendra walked in and laid out her plan, I need to stop being wholesale. I need to go direct to my customer. I have an idea that and it didn't exist yet. So the banker banker like had this relationship with her, having been through her product line, and she listened. And she gave her or they agreed like a $700,000 line of credit. Wow. And in the book, it did not say a number, it just said she got a line of credit. Yeah. No, and she had to pay it back or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

But I've always heard whenever you're going to get investors, it's always best to look in your in your close-knit group or people who already know who you are. So good call on her part. Yeah, going to her bank.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Yeah, the Forbes interview, she did an interview with Forbes, and they were the ones that said it was 700. So I don't know if it's I I guess I guess we're gonna go with 700. We're gonna trust Forbes. Yeah, we're gonna set trust Forbes. So so that line of credit is helping her cash. Helping her stay away stay awake, stay in business. Yeah. Because oh, I don't know if I said this before. My storytelling will get better. When the crash happened, like she was using um a line of credit from her bank, but they called the note. Oh and the crash. And so that's why everything was kind of going under. First of all, like her customer was not buying from her, and the bank called the note.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah. So she needed her line of credit. Yeah. Because they were because the bank was going under or what?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

I guess we'll never think they couldn't afford her investment. Like, yeah. So that I think your FDIC approved.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

This one is 2008 when the FDIC like happened. What is that? Uh it's the FDIC backs banks up to $250,000 if you were to like get back to your account. But I don't know if it applies to loans. So that could just I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

We needed further research. All I know is that the bank called her note, she did not have the funding to keep her alive in between her all the invoices that are paid later. They could be like, sorry, um calling it. I'm looking into this. Pretty sure. Don't quote me, I'm pretty sure. No, I'm not expecting you to know, but I'm looking into it. I'm not a banker. I just I'm trying to tell a story here. Sorry. I have questions. No, you're supposed to have questions. Okay, the point is she found a woman who related to her, who knew her story. Now she's got a line of credit to keep her open and like back her new idea. So she was needing to pivot. This crash happened. She needed to pivot. So, lesson to draw from this, and I think it's one of the more important ones from the book, is that the relationship was the asset, not the pitch, not the financials. The relationship she had spent years building with the women who wore her jewelry. That was what saved her company. Yeah, it was the relationship. She didn't know she was building a safety net when she was taking care of her customers.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, customer service first, always. Um so she was filling orders. I I that just tells me that she's probably filling orders when she probably couldn't, and she was doing everything that she could to fill these orders. Oh, absolutely, yeah. So that other businesses could stay open, yeah. And so that other customers could buy their jewelry.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yep. So I keep hearing this. Apparently, relationships are important. Yeah, they are. Okay, so now we're getting another era. So this is another pivot. She said each time that like basically a huge monumental thing would happen, like the crash, she would pivot, and then the business would do even better. So she mentioned like don't let fear get in the don't let fear like ground you because every time she ran into this massive obstacle, this is when her company exploded. So the next chapter of her story, she's 36. Um, she's been in business for almost 10 years. And with that line of credit, she makes a move that nobody around her fully understands. She finds a space in South or South Congress Avenue in Austin. Apparently, this is like where you want to be in Austin, and she gets this spot because of the crash. Everybody's moved out, not doing well. So now she gets some prime real estate.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Yes, and the $700,000 in the bank guaranteed help that.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yes, yeah. Keeping money in the bank for opportunities. So at a time when every other business was leaving, leaving retail, leaving Austin, pulling back, she is moving in and she starts her first brick and mortar store.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Just wow. She was because she was doing all online, it was all wholesale. It was wholesale.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

So she's selling to a sales rep, they're selling to a boutique store owner, the store owner for like online shopping almost. Yeah, yeah. And then the store owners, yeah. So she's like very disconnected actually from her actual customer. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So she sets up what she calls a color bar, a space where women come in, they choose their own stones, choose their own metal, design their own piece of jewelry right there in the store. And when she launches this, like on her opening day, she has champagne for everyone and a muffin. She's like, she's so into the whole experience thing, which is cool because now everyone's into experience. And she like yes, she was like, original story. So the whole thing is built around the experience. She's terrified, but she has champagne and a muffin ready. So she's like, This can't hurt, and she doesn't know if anybody's coming. She does she opens up and there's a line around the block. That's so crazy. Yeah. And she does this for she stays for three months, and she does this color bar, and she's just like it's like a pop-up. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So she's doing great. So she does this for three months, and then that same year she launches um an e-commerce site. So her team builds the website from scratch before we had all these easy click and drop website stuff. Amazon. What? So this was kind of a feat because nobody was it doesn't sound like this was, yeah, this was like a whole project and they're building it out from scratch.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Um from this point, she never goes back to being a hundred percent wholesale. She's now selling directly to her customer. Yeah, because she has an e-commerce website. Yeah. So I'm sure she surely she kept some wholesale. She does she kept some wholesale, but it was like up until the crash, it was a hundred percent wholesale. So 25 years, so this is like jumps forward. So 25 years later into her business, she's 85% direct to customer. So she keeps the wholesale portion, but it's small. Yeah, for like Dillard's or like Nordistroom. Yeah. So at this point, she's 10 years into business, she's 36 years old, and this is the moment the business becomes what it was always supposed to be. This is yes. So she said the recession was the greatest gift wrapped in a yellow bow. There's dope for us. Yes, but we don't need a recession, so thank you. Keep that one.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I don't feel like already there with that.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Okay, so takeaways.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

I mean, that was a great ending. She survived the recession. She survived the recession. She got $700,000. She went direct to consumer.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

She started an e-commerce website for anybody else. So I guess my notes kind of end from end there because that's when things like kind of exploded when she went direct to customer. And then a couple years later, she had an investor. What are they called? What are they called? The investment groups. Yes, bought it like um, oh, private equity. Private equity. So they they somebody I need to find my notes. Only one person though, like invested, but it was like a huge investment. So they were able to open up more stores. Yeah. And um, she eventually got a second um investor, Berkshire, okay, invested for another like minority stake. And at that point, in like 2016, I believe it was, her company was valued at one billion when this happens. And did she ever sell? No, no, she didn't sell. She's majority owner, she's still owned. She's still owned. She still owns majority of her company. So she did give away some equity, but for these investors to inject all this capital. So now she exploded. She's got with the first investor, she opened like 75 stores. With the second one, she opened all these other ones. So she has over a hundred actual stores with Kendra Scott jewelry. That's amazing. She was CEO up until a couple years ago, where she stepped down from being CEO, and now she's like just living the life, but she still works in the company, she's still designing, which is like so fun. She's like doing the fun parts. And she's an artist. It sounds like she is an artist. Yeah. And she even like talks about in her book how like people like to say like artists don't make good business women or business whatever. And she's like, I would have to disagree.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Like, yeah, I think they are really the bread and butter of business.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

So I love, I love that because I feel like in my heart, I'm definitely an artist. And I kind of got roped into the real estate thing because my brother and husband were doing that, and I saw some gaps in our company, some opportunities. So I kind of stepped in to fill those gaps. But it it it it's like s slightly drains my soul, yeah, just a little bit. I I I need lean towards the creative things, so I'm still doing my own creative side hustles. She came up with the phone. Oh yeah, I did I did just do our branding branding for our podcast, and I think it was so fun. I love branding. I like it. I will rebrand like as many times as people allow me. I feel that we're not gonna do that, but anyway, so there's so many takeaways from from Kendra Stott Scott, and at I know we're not all trying to build a billion-dollar company, we're just like trying to support the family, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Are you trying to build a billion-dollar company? I want a billion dollars, but I mean, I'm not gonna say no.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Oh no, I would never obviously like if that's where things go, love it. But that is not my goal in life, is to be a billionaire. I just want to live comfortably with my family. I'm gonna support other people. I think that would be yeah. So her story blew up, and I think there's some takeaways that we can grab from her story that do not mean we're being gonna be billionaires, but like let's let's just take the next step. Tell me, tell me what they are. Okay, so first one, you don't need credentials, you need reps. Yeah. So that one, that one really lands with me because she launched her PR company with no credentials, basically, basically. A fail, like failed credentials, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

You have me as a rep.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Let's go. I'll sing your praises in every room. But that's that's kind of like people also don't want to hear that. That you need yeah, you need people on your side that believe in you. Yeah, you need people on your side, but you also like kind of need the hard work. Like, even though she didn't, you know, blow it out of the gates or the water, whatever the expression is on the first time, like she was doing the work and she took away all this information she learned she had got her MBA from her failed business. Yes, so that was the rep.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah, that's the credentials. Actually doing it. I know tons of people who went to college and got all these business degrees, and like they're still I'm not saying anything wrong about people working at the grocery store, but I'm saying is you don't always need to go to college, you don't always need an MBA.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah, just fail a business, just fail a business, just fail a business, move on, don't let it hold you down. The second one is a skill that runs through everything is the same skill. Yeah, she walked into boutiques for the hat box, she sold ads at a magazine, she built the PR clients, walked into boutiques again with a T-box of jewelry. Every single chapter runs on the same ability. Walking into the room, connecting with another human, handling the no and coming back. Yeah, whatever the skill is for you, find it because it will work in every business you try. A skill is a skill, a skill is a skill, no matter where you take it. Yeah, and uh and then being able to handle the no. Like sometimes that can be painful and like whatever, be mad about it, cry about it, be embarrassed, and then get up and keep going. Yes, telling myself that not you. I love a good no.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Please tell me no.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Well, she also says that in her book that like no motivated her when people were like, No, you can't do that. That was like her fuel. Like, yes, I can. I also note for anybody who cares that she's an Aries, I think that's important.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

My mother was an Aries, and we'll talk more about her one day.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

But yeah, I get it. Like, she's a strong person, and yeah, I mean, aren't we all just trying to be stronger? Especially in business, you you gotta be strong, be tough.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

I tell I I tell that to the girl that works for me all the time. Quit thinking as if you are you, think as if you are the business, respond as if you are the business. Be you, but if somebody's criticizing you, they're not criticizing you, they're just criticizing and respond as if you are the most hospitable business you've ever seen in in the world, and just say the most hospitable, but yes, you're right. I'm so sorry. We'll try to do better.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Yeah. And then just do it. The failure is not a detour, it is the path. We kind of touched on that. The hat box failed. The glitter company or the glitter PR was responsible for that, was the response to that failure. The jewelry was born during the glitter PR, the crash forced the color bar, like each kind of fail or whatever mishap pushed her into the next step, like the next era. Yeah, failure is super important. Yep. So the building and the failing are the same thing. She said, like fail forward. Yes, I agree. So I like that. I know it's easier said than done, but basically it's fine. It's fine to feel embarrassed, to feel bad, feel sad. She cried, but then it was like put a timer on yourself. Like, okay, then that's it.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Yeah, I feel like I've mastered the skill of failure personally. It just doesn't bother me that much anymore. I wish I could say the same.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

I'm still trying to get over my perfectionism.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

You are perfectionist, but it makes you an amazing artist. I do believe that. Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

It does. You're gonna show me how to just not to just like keep going because I we talk about this all the time. I'll like obsess over some small things, and you're like 10 steps ahead because you just went for it.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Yeah, and I'm sure that there are some things to be said about both sides. I think we need a little bit of both. I think that but we all there's no such thing as balance. Be you, do you, and find what works for you. But you're gonna fail at being my perfectionist, and you're gonna learn how to be pressed about it, and you're gonna be pissed, and you're gonna figure it out, and you're gonna learn from it, and perfectionism will become your whatever projects you forward because that'll be your failure. Hopefully not.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

I don't know if I said that the right way, but I think you got what I meant. Yes, I got I got what you meant, but I'm gonna try not to fail. Just okay though. Okay, and the last point is one relationship can change everything. She got told by many investors, and it was the one woman, the banker, who related to her, to her product, who the relationship she didn't even know that she had been building that kept her company alive and was able to pivot and make it what it is today.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

So the relationships are not separate from the business, they are the business.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Absolutely. And I think the first thing I'm gonna do if we ever make money off of this podcast is go buy a piece of Kendra Scott jewelry.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

I actually wanted to have a piece for this for this episode, but I just did not get it together enough. I I was actually on her site several times looking, but there were so many beautiful pieces I couldn't decide which one.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

What's your price point?

SPEAKER_00 40:30

It's affordable. Oh, it's that that that's why So it's not like oh my gosh, I should have led with that. Are we still recording? By the way, so I should have led with that. I okay, I'm just gonna have to like stitch this episode together in randomness. So that's why she started this company. Is the jewelry in the first place is because there was expensive jewelry, the luxury stuff, and then there's really cheap stuff. And she saw the gap in the market that you couldn't buy decent stuff that wasn't crazy expensive. So that's what so yes, her her jewelry is exactly what I need to buy today.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah, and a a gap is super important in business. If you go find a gap and a niche, yeah, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

And that's like part part of the reason why she stuck it out all those years because she believed in it. Her small team absolutely believed in it. They they were like, even though all these different setbacks that they were having, they were like, but this is a good idea that like we have a product people like, so keep going. Yeah, I love it. And that's it. So before we go, I want to leave you with this. It's from her book, and it's the line that I really, really love. Okay, women are expected to be superheroes, to do it all, look good doing it, and assure everyone, and assure everyone it was no problem, really. The narrative that narrative tears us apart and creates a false standard.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

So that's kind of one thing that I felt like drew us together is because we felt like there's like this like underserved, this underserved, like group of people. Yeah, because we are all expected to like have it together, have the home together, work and have that together, and parent. And like she's saying, yeah, and like be a good wife, be a good I mean, we're all trying, but the narrative is that we're supposed to do all of this and like look good doing it, and that's just not really realistic. You can still look good doing it. You can still look good, but we can also be you can also have my C Bun, okay? We need to help each other out, like we're community. Yes. Like I feel like the more we can get together, the less lonely this feels.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Because I feel like we're all on our own and we're just like heads down, we're trying to hold things together. Um, we're the glue of the family, really. I'm gonna I'm just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Yeah, well, I I think I used to feel very isolated and alone in business, and because I ran my mom's business for almost 10 10 years by myself, very isolated. Nobody understood what I did. They just saw that I got paid and then I took care of my kids, and it was a really, really, really, really sad time in my life. Yeah, but then I started my business and I build a community, and that changed everything for me. Like, every step back is like, who cares? This person just told me I was amazing. I don't care. I don't care if I just fail. Somebody's like, here, I have your back. Don't worry about it. Yeah, like that's what's best about community is that if you do feel like you are failing, you can always reach out to these people in your community who know you and know what you're going through, or maybe they've had similar experiences, and I can do it actually. There's a part of that.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Mom, we got this. We know somebody. Yeah. So find us on Instagram at We Are Fitty. You also have a website, We Are Fitty, that faith made expertly. Looks incredible. So I mean, find us, we'll find you. See you next time. Okay, bye. I also want to note the resource resources that I got all of my information from. Uh the main source was Kendra's book, Born to Share. It was such a fun read, so so many tips. It goes into a lot of her personal history. Um, but we tried to kind of pull out the facts that were more related to business and the story of that. So if you want to get way more into her story and get into the details, you should definitely read her book, Born to Shine.