YouSaid · the spoken record

Kendra Scott

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57
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2017-03-20
most recent
2017-03-20
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1
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  1. “And that came from my business card. But I love it. I always go up to people. I'm like, you look so great. Thank you so much for wearing our jewelry. It never, ever, ever gets old, ever.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Oh my god, I get so excited. I still get excited. I mean, I see people all the time, and I used to carry my business cards around, and I used to get, like, I'd see somebody and I'd write 15% off and I'd sign my name. And I'd be like, go into the store, show them, like, I loved you. You know, you're wearing your Kendra. You look so beautiful. And so now we have caught you in your Kendra cards or like a gold ticket. And we give them to all of our employees. And so if you are wearing Kendra Scott and one of our Kendra Scott employees see you, they like literally will run up to you and be like, we caught you and your Kendra. You look so great and we give you this golden ticket.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “There's no luck. I mean, I don't really believe in luck. This has been very hard. You know, there were a lot of days I didn't think that I would keep this business. I think. Part of it is drive, right? And I saw where we needed to go. Giving up was not an option. I was going to figure this out. And I think I learned so much from the hat box. That was my education. I mean, I learned business from A to Z, from open to close, literally closed. You can't teach that in a book. You can't learn that in a classroom.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “That work for us, so it's their responsible for their families. So those things keep you up at night. There's always something, right, that keeps you up at night. But in the early days, it was also, it's exciting too, because you've got this idea and you have this thing and you just, I would wake up more just like anxious because I just wanted to get up and I wanted the sun to rise so I could just go do it. And I still am that way. I mean, I wake up at 3, 4 in the morning and I have ideas and I have a sketchpad next to me and I'm writing things down and tearing things out of magazines. I still have that giddy excitement. Every day. And that's what keeps you going. You have to like love it. Love it, love it. Like your children love it”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “I still have sleepless nights. Yeah, of course. I mean, you know, running a business isn't easy. If it was, everybody would do it, right? I mean, you're always worrying about things. I mean, now I have 2,000 people.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Yeah, Nordstrom, Neema Marcus, Bloomingdales. I think if you would have asked me in the extra bedroom if I would have ever thought this business would be as big as it is today, I would have no way could I have dreamt that big. But now I see it.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Know we are all green, right? We were young, we were hardworking, we definitely were passionate and excited, but I needed to get some gray hair in the building, so to speak. And in order to do that, we needed to also have money to do that. And so we brought in a COO who is fantastic and with me to this day. And I stopped paying myself actually when I hired him because I knew we had to have him. I knew I needed that expertise and I remember going to our controller who's now my VP of HR and saying, you know, Christine, like we got to hire this guy. And she's like, Kendra, we can't afford him. And I was like, we can't not afford him. I said, stop paying me. We're hiring him. And they did. And then finally, you know, my COO, Lon, who is with me still, he laughed one day. He realized that I wasn't getting paid. Because I was like,”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “So, not with the second store or the third store. So we didn't bring in investment capital until 2012, very small amount. I mean, I was running a business every day that was bigger than it was the night before. I didn't know what I was doing. And I knew I needed to bring in a more qualified team. So, you know, in 2010, we still only had seven people.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “It's scary. It's intimidating. And sometimes there's big burly guards at the gate, you know, the door. It's not exactly your warm and fuzzy feeling when you walk in. And so we wanted to take all the scary out of it. And so the cases were open. Jewelry was freely displaced on tables and you could touch and feel it. And we had signs that said, have fun, try on. You know, we had the color bar where you could sit at the bar and customize your own piece of jewelry and pick the stones that would go in the setting. And then our girls right in front of you would set the stones while you're drinking a glass of champagne. It was fun. It was fun. And it was fresh and it was the jewelry was attainable. And I think in the recession, it was refreshing for people because it was something that they could afford to do. And it made them feel good.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “I don't want to just open a jewelry store. I don't know if you've been into a jewelry store, but it's kind of a scary place sometimes. There's like cases and you have to ask people to see things, right?”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “So, a great thing happened. I was with this bigger bank, we're not going to name any names, but when they were about to call our line, we had a local Texas bank who loved me, loved our brand, and took our line of credit on, gave us some extension in addition to the line of credit that they took on, which was phenomenal, and really helped us. Fortunately, because of the recession, all these stores were shuddering. So I was, you know, South Congress, which was now the hottest hippest place in Austin. In 2008, 2009, it was almost a ghost town. And so negotiating a great lease and getting space was actually pretty easy, right? But I thought, you know, if we're going to do it, I want to do it totally different than everybody else.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “Before we could get to our offices so that we were forced to really have to see what was going on and look at the product in a fresh new production.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “Well, what my answer was is that for all these years I've been worrying about what buyers the buyers wanted. I wasn't thinking much about the customer. And I realized I had to refocus all of my attention had to go on the customer. I had to know what she wanted more of. I had to engage with her personally. And so our complete focus went from business to business to business to consumer. And that meant an amazing web experience. It meant being innovative and creative with creating a customization opportunity for our customers. And the store really was meant to be our laboratory. And so we moved our office to above a store in South Congress, in Austin, Texas. So all of us would have to walk through the retail store every day.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “And so, all these things were happening, and I was like, you know, literally on my kitchen floor, sobbing, like I'm going to lose all of this, you know. And I've got these boys I have to raise. That was like a very scary time. And it made me have to make a decision like in that moment. I was either going to give up. And just say, I can't do this, and it's over, party's over, or I was going to have to throw all my chips on the table, and we were going to have to do something like radical. And that's what we decided to do.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “Yeah. So here we are. We're going along. I'm just selling my little orders to all these wholesale accounts in this amazing, wonderful thing happens called the recession, which turns out to be the greatest gift. Kendra Scott, the company ever received, which sounds really crazy, but it really was the greatest gift because I was playing it safe. I was so scared to go outside of my comfort zone, you know, seeing what happened with my first business. But then the recession hit and every day I'd walk in and stores I'd been working with for years were shuddering. One after another, buyers that I had been working with and built these great relationships with were getting laid off from their jobs. I mean, the whole world changed. And my line of credit gets called by the bank because I'm a high risk being fashion and jewelry.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “Yeah, I mean, I brought Kate. My oldest I would bring. He had $75,000 frequent flyer miles when he was three and a half. I mean, that poor kid. I mean, I look back now and I don't even know who this person is and how I did it because I don't think I could do it now. But again, the asking for help. I mean, I had some friends in New York who would help with my son when I was there doing the shows. I mean, I surrounded myself with these amazing, wonderful people who had big hearts, who believed in me. And, you know, I'm so thankful because I couldn't have done this without the people around me to support me during this time”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “Yes, Becca, my little one, he was one and the older one was three. So they were little, little, little. So they would, you know, they'd come to the attic with me. And I'd to pack and play and toys. And to me, those are just magical days, quite honestly. It was a very special time for me and the boys. It was hard. But it was like there was that determination. Like I couldn't fail them. I had to make this work.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “So, do you remember I said I was never going to retail again after the hat box Those are like famous last words, but I didn't for a long time. I was honestly really scared, really, really scared. And I thought this is much better. I can design, we're manufacturing, and I'm selling to these wholesale partners. They have the product and they have to sell it, right? Like it was safe. And we were growing, but we weren't growing dramatically. It was like we were at about a million, million five a year, you know, at this point now I was a single mom. So, you know, I was able to pay our rent and do the things I needed to do.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “Well, in the very first line of credit I got, I think it was about $25,000. And then I got it moved up to 50. And I had a $50,000 line of credit for a while. And then I remember it went to $75, and that was like a big milestone that we got it up to $75,000. Like then, I didn't know how you go out and raise money or bring in equity. I didn't know how you do that. I was just worried about fulfilling the orders that I had to fulfill.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “And I bootstrapped it. I mean, at this point, I didn't bring any investment capital in, so I had a line of credit with the bank against my inventory and my purchase orders.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, there were lots of times when I didn't, I didn't pay myself. I had to pay everybody else. I mean, I remember telling my landlord on several occasions, I'd go down and be the first of the month and I'd be like, Mike, so Nordstrom's check is running a little late. Could I have like two more days? And he just smile at me and be like, no problem. He was an entrepreneur. He was just so wonderful. And so thankfully I had a cool landlord. And, you know, we were floating constantly. I think I had about a $10,000 float that I was always in my mind of like when things were coming in and when I could pay things and how I was going to pay rent and pay payroll. And, you know, pushing people off to figure out who I could. I mean, it was awful.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “Note I was designing every piece. They were producing. Yeah, in the early days, I was designing every single piece. Now I still lead the design for the entire collection.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “Yeah, we were on fire, guy. So I had a lot of production assistance at that point literally helping make all the samples, create all the samples in-house. I had a graphics designer I really believed early on like I wanted to control the brand and I think working in the magazine for a while I just saw the power of having an authentic brand that we really controlled.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “It was in Austin. It was a little Victorian house that had a subway office below, like subway shop office below it. And it was”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “Yeah, so we were able to start working with a sourcing company who started helping us diversify our manufacturing and give us more resources. And so when we got the first Nordstrom order, at this point, I was still in the extra bedroom. So we actually did ship Nordstrom out of the dining room again. And then we shortly moved to our first corporate headquarters, which was an attic.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  26. “I didn't, guy. I mean, come on. I kind of learned as I went along. Then when we went overseas, we were able to buy better through volume. We were going direct to stone manufacturers versus going through importers and exporters and, you know, all these other middlemen. So it worked out that we were able to actually really price smartly. And for me, the more direct I could go, I could pass that value on to our customer and she could get the most beautiful stone quality, handcrafted jewelry, but under a hundred dollars for a pair of earrings. And it really was about... Like getting out there and trying to source, you know, uh, the manufacturers and the stone cutters to do it.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  27. “I think that look, he wouldn't have carried it if the design wasn't good. He sees a lot of things. So I think, you know, the design was good. I think he was excited about the price point. I think he saw that there was value and there was that would be exciting for customers to be able to have that. And it was something that he didn't have to show. And again, like we were filling a void. And that was the reason that we got his attention.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  28. “And again, not too big, so I felt like I wouldn't get lost. And he was a tough New York guy. And he wasn't kidding about the 20 minutes. And I went in and showed him my collection and tried to explain to him what my goal and vision was for the brand. And he said, you know, look, I'll look it over. I'll talk to the rest of the folks that work with me and we'll get back to you kind of thing. And, you know, 22 minutes later, I walked down kind of deflated thinking, you know, I don't think he's going to like, I don't think that went as great as I wanted it to. And it was about three days later, and I was driving on loop one in Austin, Texas, and, you know, my cell phone rang, and he said, Kendra, we want to carry your line. And I had to pull over on the highway, which is not safe. But yeah, it was, so then that we got a New York showroom. And we really, we sold into Nordstrom the next market.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  29. “Yes, so this is a wholesale showroom. So they'll carry multi-lines. Some carry multiple lines of jewelry. Some would carry handbags, jewelry, other accessories, footwear, whatever. And this is where buyers, so the buyers of department stores, buyers of boutiques would go in. So this isn't direct to consumer. This is not a store. This is an actual showroom for wholesale, right? And so this was a really great one.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  30. “He's like, I will talk to you, but you have 20 minutes and you need to come to New York. And I'm like, okay, I'm in. I'm coming.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  31. “No. And I'd be told I get 20 calls a day like this. What's going to make you special? Know how many jewelry designers there are out there or want to be jewelry designers? I can't tell you how many times I got told no and basically kind of laughed at and told, oh, you're from Austin, Texas. What are you selling Southwest jewelry? I'm like, no, hello. I'm selling very fashion forward, trend-based, blah, blah, blah. You know, I mean, they want to put you in a box, right? And it was really deflating, but you just have to like have it. Like, I'm not going to let this fail. And I remember one showroom out of like the 20 or 15 that I was courting finally called me back. And he's like, well, you just like stop Calling me”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  32. “And I started calling them and sending them samples, and nobody would call me back. I would send cupcakes. I don't know, it's a southern thing here. We eat a lot of cupcakes. Anything I could get to try to get a response out of these showrooms”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  33. “Just made somebody's business happen, and we're still friends. And she says, like, she still remembers that moment because I was so emotional. I couldn't believe it. But we did it. So we actually called a friend who had worked as a CEO of a very large retail chain. He had some production resources overseas. They have the stone capability there too, which was great. So it was all natural stones. I remember it. He, as a friend called and said, can you help my friend out? And literally thanks to him, that first order was produced on time. And we shipped it out, ticketed and carted it on my dining room table. And UPS picked it up on my front doorstep. It's the biggest lesson I could ever have given any entrepreneur is don't be afraid to ask for help. It is not a sign of weakness. It is the greatest sign of strength.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  34. “You fake it till you make it, right? Because they had no idea I was in my extra bedroom. And that was when I was like, oh my God, I have to outsource production. I clearly can't make all these. And they wanted it delivered in like eight weeks. And I said yes to everything because I didn't know. You know, I was like, okay, yeah, we'll do that. And I remember on the buyer, you know, when she gave me the order, I started crying on the phone to her. And I just said,”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  35. “Kendra, I need more. And I was like, what? You know, and she's like, how quick can I get more? And I'm like, you know, and it was just kind of like, oh my gosh. And it was exciting. It was really exciting because people loved it. And it was fun because, you know, here I'm in Austin. I'm just selling to these stores and then another store and like Dallas would hear about it and I'd, you know, do for them. And, you know, all of a sudden I got a call one day from this showroom in Dallas. And she's like, is this Kendra Scott? And I said, yeah. Well, who are you? And I said, Kendra Scott? And she said, well, you know, some of my stores in Austin, they're not buying my line. They're talking about this local girl from Austin. I want to see what you've got. And so I went up to Dallas and she said, well, you know what? I might as well be selling it. And so she really helped me kind of start to build the brand and get further exposure, you know, in the South through wholesale accounts. And that was a great break.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  36. “Completely, and I remember like I put a bulletin board up on the wall and I had my four orders pinned. Like it was so big time. Like what was in production? And I ended up getting one of my friends to come over and taught her how to wire wrap. And she like helped me make a new sample set. And then also produce these orders and delivered them. And I remember the day after I delivered to one of the stores, she called and she's like, I'm out.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  37. “So that I would have enough money to buy the materials I needed to produce the orders I wrote that day. I came home with a check for $1,200. And I remember walking in and telling my husband, I'm like, we got a business”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  38. “And they bought it, and so they wrote orders, and I, you know, literally the last store I went to that day, I had to sell my entire sample set.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  39. “So I had a very basic line sheet and an order form that I printed off of Word and went in and I said, hey, I'm Kendra Scott and I've got a jewelry collection and I always joke that, you know, I don't know if they love the jewelry or they just felt really sorry for me.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  40. “Oh my gosh, yes. I remember sitting in my car outside of the first store for probably 20 minutes, just figuring out what I was going to say and if they were going to kick me out, like if, you know, they'd call security or something on me. But I thought I did have a baby, so I felt like I was in better shape. But I was so passionate about it. And I think when I walked through that passion shine through.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  41. “I went out and I put this jewelry in a tea box, a wooden tea box actually that we had gotten as a wedding gift and took my little sun cade in a baby Bjorn and we went store to store in Austin, Texas.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  42. “We did bracelets, we did necklaces, but I was known for my earrings, like chandelier earrings and really pretty drippy stone earrings and long shoulder dusters. And so yeah, I put those little pieces that I made and I literally took $500 to get all the supplies I needed to create this collection, which was a big deal for us. Our mortgage, I remembered at the time being around $1,500. So $500 is a lot. And we, you know, we have a newborn baby. And it was like here's Kendrin, one of her crazy ideas. You know, the hat box had failed. My husband's probably like, what is she doing? But I was like, I promise I'm going to bring home a thousand dollars.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  43. “It was colorful, you know, I love color. So I was trying to mix color in a unique way. So putting stones together that might not typically be put together and create really pretty colorways. It was hand beating, hand knotted, wire wrap silhouettes with some chain.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  44. “I literally started just making jewelry. And when I was finished, I remember looking at it and going, you know what, this isn't half bad. You know, I think people would like this.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  45. “So I took some very simple jewelry making classes here in Austin. There was a local bead shop that had some classes that I took on wire wrapping. And then I would look at things and I literally would break them apart to try to figure out how they were made. And I set up shop in the extra bedroom of our house. I had some fold-out tables that my mom gave me, bead board, pliers, and some wire. And that's what the first collection was made out of.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  46. “And I just felt like there was this white space in the jewelry industry that for women like me who wanted beautiful quality product but needed it in a more attainable price point. And that's really kind of what I set out to do when I created my first line.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  47. “You know, I could make it with my own two hands. I can't sew to save my life So, you know, I loved all that facets of fashion and design. But jewelry was always like the icing. It was that extra sparkle. It always fit too. So when you're pregnant, believe me, jewelry is very important because you're wearing potato sacks. So if you can put on a great statement necklace, you all of a sudden feel glamorous. So I think being pregnant, I was looking for beautiful gemstone jewelry that I could afford. And it wasn't out there. It was either inexpensive plastic glass. I would fall apart after one time wearing it or semi precious jewelry that was so far out of my reach. It was unattainable for me.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  48. “Yes, got married in 2000. So about the time that was all going bad, I did have that one bright light of getting married. And then in 2001, having our first son. So that was really a catalyst for me because the job that I was doing at the magazine required me to travel a lot. So I really knew at that point that I needed to figure out something else. And I realized that, you know, what I loved was I love fashion. I love design. And with the hat box, I saw what a difference, what I loved could do to help other people with, you know, the hats for women undergoing chemotherapy. And I thought, God, if I create a company that could also do something really good, that that would be success for me. And that literally was the foundation of Kendra Scott.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  49. “I remember when I closed the hat box saying I would never go into retail again. It was just too hard. You know, here my store closed. My stepfather now passed away from cancer. You know, it was just a very dark and sad time. And, you know, I failed. I completely failed at something that he was one so proud of. So I really felt like I had let down him in so many ways. I think at that time I was like, okay, go get a job. And so, you know, I went and I was able to get a job at a local. And I was able to do some really creative things with building this magazine for them. And it was fun, but I wanted to do my own thing again.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  50. “There wasn't the demand for hats that I really had dreamt that there would be. We tried a lot of really creative out of the box marketing tactics, but at the end of the day, we'd sell some hats, but it was tough. I mean, I remember a lot of days call my dad just crying and being like, Dad, I sold one hat today. And I had been there like 12 hours and I sold a hat. So determined to make this hat business work, which I didn't. I mean, five years after eating top ramen and like struggling and working seven days a week and open to close and I couldn't really afford to have anybody, I had to shut it down. And I mean, I failed.”

    2017-03-20 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT