Kendra Scott on Building a Billion Dollar Brand

Summary

Making Space with Hoda Kotb: Kendra Scott on Building a Billion Dollar Brand

Podcast Information:

• Title: Making Space with Hoda Kotb
• Host: Hoda Kotb, TODAY
• Episode: Kendra Scott on Building a Billion Dollar Brand
• Release Date: December 4, 2024

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In this inspiring episode of Making Space with Hoda Kotb, Hoda engages in a heartfelt conversation with Kendra Scott, the visionary founder behind the billion-dollar jewelry empire, Kendra Scott Jewelry. The episode delves deep into Kendra’s journey of resilience, her unwavering commitment to family, fashion, and philanthropy, and the core values that have propelled her brand to unprecedented heights.

Early Beginnings and Personal Challenges

Kendra Scott opens up about her early life and the pivotal moments that shaped her entrepreneurial spirit. Moving from Wisconsin to Texas at the tender age of 16, Kendra describes her transition as a foundational experience that instilled in her a strong work ethic and resilience.

"I was raised by my dad from 10 to 16, and then I moved in with my mom at 16... He always said, if you want those Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, you can earn them."
— Kendra Scott [17:34]

A significant turning point in Kendra’s life was her stepfather’s battle with brain cancer. His encouragement, encapsulated in three powerful words, became her guiding principle.

"You do good."
— Kendra Scott [10:48]

These words not only motivated her to persevere through personal grief but also ignited her passion to create something meaningful that would make a difference in others' lives.

The Birth of Kendra Scott Jewelry

Kendra recounts the humble beginnings of her brand, starting with a mere $500 and a tea box to carry her initial collection of jewelry. Her first venture into the business world was a hat store aimed at supporting cancer patients, which ultimately did not succeed. However, it was this experience that led her to discover her true calling—jewelry making.

"When the hat box closed, I felt like such a failure... But then I remembered those words in my head. You do good."
— Kendra Scott [12:00]

This pivotal moment shifted her focus to jewelry, where she found her true passion and began to receive encouraging feedback from customers, reigniting her entrepreneurial spirit.

Building a Brand with Heart

Kendra emphasizes that the success of Kendra Scott Jewelry is not just measured by its billion-dollar valuation but by the foundational values of family, fashion, and philanthropy that it upholds.

"Those three words—family, fashion, and philanthropy—are at the foundation of Kendra Scott Jewelry, but more importantly, at the core of Kendra Scott the woman."
— Hoda Kotb [01:15]

Her leadership style is deeply rooted in empathy and kindness, fostering a company culture that resembles a close-knit family. Kendra introduces the concept of the "sister rule," which dictates how employees interact with each other and with customers.

"How would you treat your sister? That answers. That's your return policy. That's your every policy."
— Kendra Scott [19:54]

This philosophy ensures that every team member feels valued and supported, creating a harmonious and productive work environment.

Overcoming Adversity and Embracing Growth

Throughout her journey, Kendra has faced numerous challenges, including the loss of her stepfather and the initial failure of her hat business. However, her steadfast belief in doing good and her ability to stay open to new possibilities enabled her to transform setbacks into stepping stones.

"Every valley there's a higher peak. You'll get through and you'll look in your rear view window and you're gonna go, aha. That's why that happened."
— Kendra Scott [09:48]

Kendra attributes her resilience to the support system around her, including mentors, advisors, and a dedicated team who share her vision and values.

Vision for the Future

Looking ahead, Kendra remains focused on expanding her brand while maintaining the core values that have defined her success. She draws parallels with iconic brands like Ralph Lauren, expressing her ambition to explore new territories and innovate within the fashion industry.

"We haven't even dipped our toes in international waters yet... We're just getting started."
— Kendra Scott [26:31]

Her commitment to growth is matched by her dedication to giving back, emphasizing that the larger her business becomes, the greater the positive impact she can make in the world.

Closing Thoughts

Kendra Scott’s story is a testament to the power of perseverance, the importance of maintaining core values, and the impact of leading with empathy and kindness. Her journey from a small-town entrepreneur to the helm of a billion-dollar brand exemplifies the essence of making space for growth, change, and meaningful contributions to society.

"My name is on this brand, but it is the DNA of all the people that have worked with me... That is why I'm sitting here today."
— Kendra Scott [19:11]

Hoda Kotb and Kendra Scott wrap up the episode by celebrating the milestones achieved and expressing optimism for the future, leaving listeners inspired to pursue their own paths of growth and positive change.

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Notable Quotes:

• "You do good." — Kendra Scott [10:48]
• "How would you treat your sister? That answers. That's your return policy." — Kendra Scott [19:54]
• "Every valley there's a higher peak. You'll get through and you'll look in your rear view window and you're gonna go, aha." — Kendra Scott [09:48]
• "We haven't even dipped our toes in international waters yet... We're just getting started." — Kendra Scott [26:31]

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This episode serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of staying true to one’s values in the face of adversity. Kendra Scott’s journey is not only a blueprint for business success but also an inspiring narrative of personal growth and unwavering dedication to making a positive impact.

Transcript

[Hoda Kotb]

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[Kendra Scott]

It was late past midnight when they broke into the farmhouse.

[Unknown]

Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents house taped off by that yellow tape.

[Kendra Scott]

Wrong. And they said you remembered being killed.

[Unknown]

They left behind a wall of blood.

[Kendra Scott]

And a clue that took a case.

[Hoda Kotb]

Of double murder on a long, strange trip. She looked at me and she said I'm screwed. Murder in the Moonlight A new podcast from Dateline. All episodes of Murder in the moonlight are available now.

[Unknown]

To listen ad free, subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Dateline.

[Hoda Kotb]

Premium.Com.

[Unknown]

What if you were tasked with describing your life's work in just three words? Okay, my guest today did just that and and she landed on family, fashion and philanthropy. Those three pillars are at the foundation of Kendra Scott Jewelry, but more importantly, at the core of Kendra Scott the woman. Kendra has a story you're going to have to hear to believe. She started her company 22 years ago, just three months after her son was born. She launched her line with $500 and a tee box to carry her collection and Today she has 142 stores all across the nation. I sat down with Kendra for a very special episode of Making Space Live in Austin, Texas, which is exactly where her billion dollar jewelry brand is based. That's right, $1 billion. But what amazes me most is not the value of Kendra's brand, but instead the values at her core, the way she values her customers and the magnitude of her philanthropy. Kendra Scott guys, is the real deal. She is a force. She started from the ground up and is paving the way for women and youth to come. I continue to be floored by what Kendra has built and the manner in which she built it. I know you will be too. I'm Hoda Kotb. Welcome to a special episode of my podcast Making Space Live from Austin, Texas. When you walked in here, everyone went wild because you Are the homegirl. This is your place. We are in your house. Tell me about Austin, first of all, and how you are here and why you have. Well, there's a million reasons why you.

[Kendra Scott]

Stayed, obviously, but explain, you know, this city. The minute I landed here, I was 19 years old, and I had grown up in Wisconsin. My family were farmers and coal miners, and my mom had moved to Texas, moved to Houston first, got remarried, and I came to visit. And it was chilly in Wisconsin when I came. And it was right around, like, this time of year, November, and people were putting Christmas decorations up in their swimsuits. And I'm like, ooh, I like this place. I like Texas. I mean, we were Houston then, but I like Texas. And so I ended up moving at 16 to Texas. Finished high school in Houston at Klein High School. And then my mom moved to Austin with my stepfather, and I came here. And the minute my little feet landed on this city, I was like, this is home.

[Unknown]

You knew it.

[Kendra Scott]

I knew I was home. I love the people. I love the diversity. I love the music. I love the hippies. I love that we have the University of Texas here. I love everything this city had to offer. But it's the people. Like, it's an accepting, loving kind. It has so much soul. And everyone supports each other here. I mean, as a business owner, I started my first little business here, which was a hat business at 19 years old. And locals just really support locals. And, you know, with this Kendra Scott business, started out of my extra bedroom, went boutique to boutique with my jewelry in a little tea box and my son and a baby Bjorn.

[Unknown]

You're so good.

[Kendra Scott]

That was, you know, almost 23 years ago. And every boutique owner would just open their doors and I'd be like. They'd be like, give me that baby. And, you know, let me look at your jewelry. You know, they were so loving. And if I had walked into, you know, stores in New York City, I don't think that's probably they would have come security or something. I don't know. Right. But, like, here, they just opened their arms and they lifted me up and they gave me my wings to fly.

[Unknown]

I want to talk about a young girl who had a hat store because she really wanted to help out people who had cancer.

[Kendra Scott]

Yes.

[Unknown]

That was the thought behind, was all goodness was why you opened that store. You were there seven days a week, around the clock, all the time. And no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears you put into it, that was not going to be successful for whatever reason.

[Kendra Scott]

Well, I wanted it to be like, 1940 again. We would all wear hats, you know, and we were all going to wear hats everywhere. And I thought I could just create that out of my little, you know, 900 square foot hat store. It didn't work out that way, but. No, I mean, I did. I started it. My stepfather, who I talk about a lot, he was a two tour Vietnam veteran. He spoke five languages fluently. He was so handsome. I mean, tan and big, bright smile. I mean, he'd walk into a room and he just lit it up, you know, just had that energy. And he really was such a big reason of, you know, why I love Texas. He greeted me at the airport when I came to move in with my mom and my stepdad with a dozen yellow roses.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Kendra Scott]

And he said, welcome to Texas, sweetheart. And from day one, I just felt like, you know, this was my home. Shortly after I moved, we had found out that he had brain cancer. And it was devastating because he was this, you know, larger than life character with the biggest heart you could imagine. I mean, a literally, Purple Heart recipient. He would run with me in the mornings and kick my butt. I mean, he would beat me every morning. I'd be like, you know, and it just seemed like, how in the world could this man have cancer? It just didn't seem right. And we were told that he may only have months to live. And I was 16, and my whole world changed in that moment. I mean, everything that I thought was important was not important. And our whole focus, really, as a family was, one, how can we give him the most time possible? But two, just, I wanted to do something. Like, I wanted to help, and I didn't know how to help.

[Unknown]

So.

[Kendra Scott]

So my mom and I would go to MD Anderson in Houston, and he'd be getting radiation or surgeries, which would take hours. And I would go visit with some of the women and men undergoing treatment as well. And I just saw a lot of women who were experiencing hair loss because of chemotherapy and how, as women especially, it's hard for men, too, but women, it is part of our identity. And I just saw that this was something that really, they struggled with. And so I loved hats. And I went home and I picked up some of my hats, and I brought them back to MD Anderson, and I gifted them, and they loved them, but they were itchy. So then I took them back and I went to Joann Fabrics, and I found the softest cotton fabric I could. And I, you know, had basic sewing, but I sewed in a cotton lining inside of the wool Hat or the straw hat so they'd be more comfortable. And then I brought them back, and they loved them. And I thought, why aren't there more hat options that are pretty but comfortable? And so that started my little journey on the hat box. And I love that.

[Unknown]

I feel like what you do is with good intention. I think the reason that you're sitting here with a billion dollar business with a B.

[Kendra Scott]

With a B.

[Unknown]

With a B.

[Kendra Scott]

And it's not the B. Bankruptcy, which was the other option for a while there, I thought could be an option.

[Unknown]

But I do think when you do things with the right intention, which I feel like has been your path, you aren't doing things because you're like, oh, everyone tells you, do it like this or do it like that. You follow kind of your own path. And when you have a business that with all good intentions doesn't succeed, how do you pick up after that? Because everybody in this room has been on their knees at some point. You've been on your knees. You described your stepfather, the business, all these different things. What do you do to get up when something like that happens?

[Kendra Scott]

So before Rob passed away, which eventually he lost his battle to brain cancer, I opened my store. And by the point that I had opened my store at 19, that's three years later, he was in a wheelchair, and he had difficulty putting together full sentences. The brain cancer here. And can you imagine a man who spoke five languages fluently not to be able to string together a sentence was so. And he was a marine. You know, he. Or, sorry, Army. God, if I said that, I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that wrong. He was in the army. He was in the army. And, you know, he sat there and I roll. I pushed him into my store, and he was just beaming. And I showed him the private dressing room that people could go and, you know, try these hats on in privacy. And he was just smiling in tears, and he wanted to tell me something, and I said, it's okay, Rob. I know you're proud. He said, I want to tell you something. He's like, no, like I'm telling you. And he held my hand, and he said three words, and they were, you do good. And those three words, if you look up, youdogood, you're going to see they have stuck with me every single day of my life. And I knew what he meant in those words is that use the gifts you were given. Because he had talked about this to me a lot to do something good and that you have a very short Time on this earth, Kendra. And you've got to make it count, honey.

[Unknown]

And.

[Kendra Scott]

And doing what you love and what you're passionate about. But if you can do that and make a difference, that will be success for you. And so those three words have been my North Star. They've been my guiding light. They're in every single decision I make, Every partner I decide to partner with, every person I hire in my company, they have to embody that. And when the hat box closed, I felt like such a failure. And I had lost him at this point. So the reason I had done this was for him and to sit there and to close this business and to now be a college dropout. Because I dropped out of college, I lost all money. I'm like, I might have to move back in with my mother. And you know, you know, it was really hard, okay? And I'm sitting there and I'm just like sad and crying and, you know, and thinking. And I just remembered those words in my head. You do good. You do good. Something. And I remember him telling me, kendra, every time in your life, there are going to be peaks and valleys. And during the valleys, you're not going to be able to always see where you're going yet. But I promise you, if you keep yourself open, open to possibility, open that this valley you're going through is here for a reason. And you are going to learn such important lessons from it to take you to a higher pe. And of course I was sad. And I had to go through those emotions of feeling awful and miserable and like a failure. I didn't wake up the next day and like, oh, there's a reason I had to shut my whole life down. You know, it took a minute, okay, and I grieved. But then I did. I was like, stay open. And what happened was my phone was ringing and people, my customers were calling me from, from the hat box. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. They were not calling for hats, Hoda. I was making jewelry in that store. Hand beading, necklaces and earrings. Customers were calling cause they wanted a necklace to match their earrings or their friend loved the earrings that they had. She had, and she wanted to buy a pair for her birthday. The answer to my future was sitting right in front of me for five years. But I couldn't see it because I thought the hats were the thing that had to work and it was the jewelry that was actually working. But I was. You know, you get into a tunnel sometimes and we can't. Like, we get inside. You can't see above. So I was in a job. I had to go get a real job. Like, I'm not a Rockefeller. I had to go pay my rent and I didn't want to move back in with my mom. So I got a corporate job. But my side hustle was making jewelry.

[Unknown]

I think that is such a profound thing you just said because it's like the girl who says, I'm looking to meet a new guy, but she's whispering with her ex boyfriend on the side here, so there's no room for the new guy. Something's occupying the space.

[Kendra Scott]

Yes.

[Unknown]

Sounds like that's what was going on. Something was occupying your space and you couldn't see what was waiting for you.

[Kendra Scott]

I know. It's so true. And what was so funny is I wouldn't have known that if not that few calls that somebody saw something they believed in me. And then I'd take that little tee box and I'd go to a boutique and there were some that said no, and then there were many that said yes. And that person, that store owner, which I talk about a lot in Born to Shine, my book, she believed in me. And that gave me like fuel in my tank to start to believe in myself again, to believe that maybe I could try again, maybe this next thing wouldn't fail. And I was afraid to announce that I had started another business because I thought people would laugh at me, like, oh, here she goes again, you know, trying to do something. And, and I just, I. But it was, it's amazing what that does for you when you see that belief in someone else. What it can do. I think relit my flame more with.

[Unknown]

Kendra Scott when we come back.

[Hoda Kotb]

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[Kendra Scott]

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[Hoda Kotb]

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[Unknown]

Devices early, the kids are still at practice and I have no idea what's for dinner. You can get a rotisserie chicken and two sides for just $15 in as fast with Walmart express delivery. Who Said that.

[Kendra Scott]

Who's in my house?

[Unknown]

Don't play with me. Cause I'm not the one. It's just your friendly Walmart announcer. This is a commercial. Oh, okay. You were saying dinner for a family was just $15? Yep. It'll be at your door by the time you get the kids home from practice. Order now. Welcome to your Walmart. Subject to availability restrictions and fees apply. Now that was a helpful commercial.

[Kendra Scott]

Hi, Georgia. Hi, David. What do you think the world needs more of?

[Hoda Kotb]

Well, the world always needs more podcasts.

[Unknown]

Didn't you used to have a podcast?

[Kendra Scott]

Not only did I used to have a podcast, Georgia, it's coming back. David Tennant does a podcast with season three. It's coming at you. Okay. And who are your guests? Who are my guests? What about Russell T. Davis? What about Jamila Jamil? What about Stanley the Tooch Tucci? So it's really just you hanging out.

[Unknown]

With your mates then? Yeah.

[Kendra Scott]

Come join me. David Tennant does a podcast with.

[Unknown]

Bye. I think people who don't quit. And you're one of those, there's something there. So let me just ask you, just quickly. Cause I like to know about, like, were you in sports in school? Did you. What were you like back then? Because a lot of foundation is set then for those people who keep saying, I'm gonna do it. Next.

[Kendra Scott]

I was not in sports. Okay. I was in deca, which was a business program. Distributive Education Clubs of America. I was a nerd. You were a nerd. I was a nerd. And I was in apparel and accessories was my division.

[Unknown]

So you won?

[Kendra Scott]

I won state twice. State of Texas. I won state for DECA in high school. And I loved it. Like, I was like, I love this so much. And I worked. I mean, I worked at Randall's as a checker during high school. I worked at the Gap. I mean, I always had a job. Always working. I always had a job. I started working in jobs at 13. I was a mascot for the Kenosha Twins. I dressed in a suit.

[Unknown]

Did you work because you wanted to earn money or did you work because.

[Kendra Scott]

I liked working. But even as the mascot, I would dance on the dugout. And I love to make people happy. So when I worked in retail, it was the same thing. I love to see people come in and, like, I just loved it. And I loved having my own money. I wanted. I mean, I was raised. My dad raised me from 10 to 16, and then I moved in with my mom at 16, and my dad was a single dad. And he was like, honey, you know, he used to always be like you. I want you to be independent. You can do anything. And everything I had, I had to earn. Like, he didn't give me anything. It was like, if you want those Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, you can earn them, you know? And it just gave me a really strong work ethic.

[Unknown]

Yeah, that's really cool. How does one go from tea boxes with jewelry, walking into places to this insane company that you have built brick by brick that is again, worth a billion dollars?

[Kendra Scott]

I know every time you say it, I'm still like, wowie. You know, I always just keep my head down. And every day I wake up and I'm never complacent. I wanna be better than I was yesterday. I wanna learn something new. I wanna surprise and delight. So driven by the ability now that the bigger we've gotten, the more good we could do in the world. And so that's my purpose. Like, I'm so purpose driven.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Kendra Scott]

And it's just. And I've also, I haven't done it alone. I've had great mentors. I've had great advisors. I've had great friends who have believed in me and babysat and, you know, all this village, no one can do it alone.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Kendra Scott]

And I say often, I'm. My name is on this brand, but it is the DNA of all the people that have worked with me, work with me, that have believed in me, that have been there for me. That is why I'm sitting here today.

[Unknown]

A leader of a company. I'm so interested in how people lead. I feel like some leaders lead from the front of the ship. They want everyone to see them. Look at me up front. Look at some people lead from the back of the boat. They watch their. Their people work. Everyone's got their own style.

[Kendra Scott]

You're clear.

[Unknown]

You're doing something right. What is your leadership style?

[Kendra Scott]

Well, first of all, we're a family. And we have one very simple thing. And it's called the sister rule. We do this for our customers. How we treat our customers, but also how we treat each other.

[Unknown]

It's.

[Kendra Scott]

How would you treat your sister? That answers. That's your return policy. That's your every policy, is how would you treat your sister? Answer that question. Unless you don't like your sister. There's that. So let's pretend you have a great sister. But how would you treat your sister? And we are a sisterhood. We lift each other and we have brothers now. We're over 93% women at Kendra Scott. We are A female army of amazing women over around 3,000 employees.

[Unknown]

Wow.

[Kendra Scott]

But we do have some brave men, very brave men that sit beside us, and they're our brothers. But we are a sisterhood. We lift each other up, we hold hands, we root for one another. We celebrate each other's successes. We help each other during our hard times. And they know, like, in my company, I have so many moms. I'm a mom of six now three I birthed, three I got as bonus children. We put family first. I want them to put their family first. And I trust and believe them that they'll do their job, whatever that looks like. And if they're there for their families, I know they're going to be much happier in their work. Right? And so many times we separate work and family. And at Kendra Scott, it is one thing. Family is part of work. Work is part of family. Work together. It doesn't have to be this separate thing. I mean, when somebody is pregnant at Kendra Scott, I'm usually the first person they call. I don't know how many companies they call the founder first, because I just get so giddy, like another Kendra Scott baby. And they call me Mama K. My employees. And so when we. In the early days, everybody was getting eng. And we were, you know, now everybody's having babies. And I said, I don't want to be Grandma Kay. So I'm like, Oprah. She's Auntie. Yo. I'm Auntie K. Auntie K. Auntie K.

[Unknown]

What about when you have to make difficult decisions at work? Because any leader has to. Sometimes there's an employee with great intentions who doesn't.

[Kendra Scott]

That's why you hire people, Hoda, to do that stuff for you. No, I hate giving bad news. No, I do. You have to make hard decisions. I mean, look, I'm on Shark Tank, okay? You can't go in the Shark Tank and be a minnow. You gotta have some teeth in ya. But you can do it with kindness. You can do it with empathy. You can do it from a good place. You can give this as an opportunity for growth and learning in whatever that might look like. And I think when I look at obstacles or difficulties, I now, in a way, get excited. Cause I think after 23 years of running this business, there has been so many. The recession, the pandemic. I mean, who would have thunk in 2020, you know, that was gonna happen? So, you know, when we look at this. But our business became better every time we've gone through one of these things. Just like Rob said. Every valley there's a higher peak. You'll get through and you'll look in your rear view window and you're gonna go, aha. That's why that happened. That's why I dated him and didn't marry him. Unfortunately for me, I married a few too many. But you know, that's another thing. I love love.

[Unknown]

I love love. I think a lot of female leaders have a different touch when it comes to things like you can have the efficiency but you can do it in a way that keeps everything tight. You've got a happy group and you realize you don't have to choose between whether you're a hard worker or whether you're a family person.

[Kendra Scott]

Well, and I mean we hire on heart at Kendra Scott. You can have a gold plated resume, but if you don't share my core values of family first mentality of wanting to have a giving and give back to our community and love the brand. Like I don't want you working for me if you're not into like the brand. Right. Yeah, love the brand and but like those are our core values and so we hire on heart first and I have to make sure that those hiring others are right where we're birds of a feather flock together. They have to have those qualities because then you can hire like minded people. And when you're interviewing, I tell them it's not going down their list of you've done this and you graduated here. I want you to ask yourself how do they make you feel while you're interviewing them?

[Unknown]

That's good.

[Kendra Scott]

Do you want the conversation to never stop? Do you just want to keep this going? Do you want to go and have lunch with this person? Are they making you feel happy inside? Like that's the kind of employees we want at Kendra Scott. If they're making you go, oh God, when is this going to be okay? You know, that's probably a good sign. They may not be the right fit. So thinking about how they make you feel more than.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Reading down the resume.

[Kendra Scott]

What are you going to do? What do you want to do? What is exciting to you?

[Unknown]

More ahead with Kendra Scott. Stay with us.

[Hoda Kotb]

If you love your phone but not your carrier, just switch to T mobile. You can keep your phone, keep your number and we'll help pay it off up to 800 per line. You can also use our savings calculator to compare our plans and streaming benefits against Verizon and AT&T. So switch and keep your phone, keep your number and keep more of your moolah. @t mobile.com up to 4 lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service ported 90 plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required card has no cash access and expires in six months.

[Unknown]

Every morning we choose how to begin our day.

[Kendra Scott]

This is today.

[Unknown]

I think about the people at home. They tune in because they are curious, they care about their world and they care about each other.

[Kendra Scott]

There's always something new to learn, whether a news event or a new recipe.

[Unknown]

And when we step through the morning together, it makes the rest of the day better. We come here to make the most of today. We are family. We are today.

[Hoda Kotb]

Watch the Today show with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin. Weekdays at 7am on NBC.

[Unknown]

Hey everyone, it's Jenna Bush Hager from Today with Jenna and Friends reminding you to check out my podcast Open Book with Jenna. On this week's episode, I sit down with best selling author Rebecca Yarros to talk about how she drew on her experience with chronic illness and life in a military family to write 4th Wing and her process to plot out five books in the series. You can listen to the full conversation now by searching Open Book with Jenna. Wherever you get your podcasts, you're at the mountaintop of the business world and the mountaintop of giving back.

[Kendra Scott]

We're on the top of the hills of the Texas hill country. We haven't hit the mountains yet.

[Unknown]

You haven't hit the mountains yet?

[Kendra Scott]

No. We're getting there, though. We're just getting started.

[Unknown]

Is that right?

[Kendra Scott]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

That's how you feel?

[Kendra Scott]

Yes. I am more excited today. You know, you think about Ralph Lauren and I just, I love following his story because I think it's amazing. He did men's ties and pocket squares. That's what he first started out with. He didn't go into other categories or other things into 25 years into his business and brand. I'm at 23 years. So we've built a strong foundation. We have this incredible loyal customer base. We're now able, we've put our stake in the ground of like, let's now, how can we expand this? We haven't even ducked our toes in international waters yet. Hoda girl. We're just getting started. We're just getting started.

[Unknown]

Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Kendra Scott. You are awesome.

[Kendra Scott]

Thank you.

[Unknown]

Thank you.

[Kendra Scott]

I love you guys.

[Unknown]

Love you too. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening and for coming on this journey with me. If you like what you heard and I hope that you do, please give Making Space a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and make sure you tell your friends. Follow us on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. Making Space with Hoda Kotb is produced by Allison Berger and Alexa Casavecchia, along with Kate Saunders. Our associate audio engineer is Juliana Masterilli. Our audio engineer is Katie Lau. Original music by John Estes. Bryson Barnes is our head of audio production. Missy Dunlop Parsons is our executive producer. Libby Least is the executive vice president of Today and Lifestyle.

[Hoda Kotb]

This week only on Meet the Press. As President Trump's tariffs spark economic jitters and the country reacts to federal government cuts, Kristen Welker sits down with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Senator Alyssa Slotkin only on Meet the Press. Listen to the full episode now. Wherever you get your podcasts.