“You ARE the brand. People want to connect with people, so the more transparent you are online, the easier it is for other business owners and customers to relate to you.”
Kendra Hill, EMBA is an Atlanta-based, and globally engaged, people-centric business consultant who has lived all over the world, from Washington DC to Cali to Mexico and Toronto. Her professional background includes the U.S. House of Representatives, UNCF, Google, and the San Antonio Spurs. She has also produced international television and is proud to say that she is “God-made”.
An entrepreneur since the age of 23, Kendra has been serving small businesses and corporations for over a decade. On this entrepreneurial journey, Kendra has done a few different things. She started off doing brand management when branding was just a buzzword. After 6 years of success with building better brands, she branched out into her true love of styling and creative direction, and now God has brought her back into the world of consulting with a different outlook.
Kendra founded Kendra, Scale My Business (KSMB) in January 2020, and in less than 7-months, she and her team hit $1M in revenue. Since its inception, they have made nearly $4M.
Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Kendra Hill: Although Kendra, Scale My Business (KSMB) has only been around since January 2020, we’ve had extremely rapid growth and success. Less than 7 months in, we hit the $1M mark, and now, just 20 months old, we’ve made nearly $4M. People often ask how, but the secret sauce is in our work – it’s actually why we started the business. We help corporations, creators, and small businesses develop systems, generate revenue, and position themselves to scale. We have spent the energy doing it for ourselves to prove that we could do it for others.
Aside from running our business, we also have The Milli Club – a community of faith-based entrepreneurs rapidly growing their businesses, and The Millionaire Project – a year-long mentorship program for entrepreneurs already making 6-figures. We’re rounding out our inaugural year of The Millionaire Project with two entrepreneurs who have successfully increased their monthly revenue by at least 47%. Our 5-month-old Milli Club boasts over 50 dedicated members who have all seen increases in their monthly revenue as well.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Kendra Hill: I started out as an entrepreneur nearly 11 years ago at the age of 23, so yes, I have had MANY times where I wanted to quit. I can’t even count the number of times in the past I had gone on Indeed and applied for jobs to no avail. Every rejection was just proof to me that I was supposed to stay in my business. I sold my first business after 6 years and thought I was just going to be a fashion stylist for the rest of my life, but I kept feeling the pull to go back into business consulting yet did everything to ignore it.
Honestly. I was burnt out and very distracted. I was the only person in my friend group who was running a business and I missed having the time and energy to go out to a happy hour or on a shopping trip with my girls. I had already been working full-time and going to school for 4 years in order to take care of myself. Aside from the economic independence I needed, I was struggling with a lot of childhood trauma from sexual assault to abandonment, so I was over it.
Somehow, I was able to put myself through undergrad, maintain an apartment and run my first business. I remember walking home from the bus with holes in the bottom of my shoes. I used to cover them with socks and just accept the callouses that formed. I’ve literally walked all 10 miles of Washington DC just because I had to get from an office back to my place and didn’t even have the money to take a bus or train. So yes, I have wanted to quit so many times – thank God I didn’t!
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Kendra Hill: I watch people make all types of mistakes every single day in their businesses. Here are my top 3:
Not Having Systems – It’s impossible for you to run an effective business without some sort of system in place. Start small by just outlining every function of your business in a document (even the small things like how you put meetings on your calendar). These will become your standard operating procedures (SOPs). Using your SOPs will not only help you stay on track but will also make it easy to onboard new team members.
Not Asking for Help – Chile…you will learn. Even if you aren’t in the position to hire someone on your team or get full-time assistance, asking your network for help will make a world of difference, YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING ALONE. The sooner you learn this, the better. Delegation is a skill set that every entrepreneur needs, so even if you just bring on a contractor who can help you a few hours a week, or you barter with a business bestie, you need help to accomplish your goals.
Not Developing Leadership Skills – I see this one a lot and it boggles me. How can you run a business and have a team with no leadership skills? If you can’t identify your areas of weakness on your own, hire a coach to help you figure out where you need some development – then get the coaching you need! If you have issues talking about money, there’s a coach for that. If you don’t have the confidence to show up online, there’s a coach for that. If you are scared to have difficult conversations, there’s…you get the point.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Kendra Hill: To me, resilience is simple – don’t give up. A leader who is resilient will come up with 5,000 ways to pivot and shift before they quit. They will weather the storm, take a licking and keep on ticking.
Specifically, in the economic climate, we’re living in, it’s crucial for entrepreneurs to be able to continually pivot and shift. You may need to change your business model, redefine your goals or just hire new people, but whatever it is, your ability to hold on and keep going is the true definition of resilience. As New Edition would say, “Can you stand the rain?”
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Kendra Hill: We are true to our 7 unique core values:
Ownership – We take every business on as if it’s our own. We are selfless and accountable. We are committed to working responsibly and independently.
Transparency – We believe in honest, clear communication. We share personal information when it impacts our work. We’re real and use reality to develop healthy relationships with our clients and team.
Spiritual – We approach every project with an open mind. We are open to spirituality being a topic for discussion both internally and externally. We respect the spiritual beliefs and practices of others.
Impact – We strive to be impactful in everything we do. We are people-centric. We work PROactively, not REactively.
Innovation – We stay READY to accommodate ever-evolving business needs. We assess situations from unique, modern perspectives. We are ahead of the curve in ALL things, ALWAYS.
Flexible – We stay QUICK. We stay NIMBLE. We are always ready to PIVOT and ADAPT.
Communication – We are timely and responsive in all communication. We are quick to listen and slow to speak. We ensure that others understand what we are saying and we are sure that they are understood.
Most companies use generic words like “integrity, success, caring” when honestly, we should ALL be those things if we are running a business. Our approach for every client is based on these 7 traits and it definitely shows.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Kendra Hill: Though there are a bunch of character traits that made me successful, I would say my top three are transparency, compassion, and humility.
Transparency is actually one of my company’s core values. I learned early on that being transparent is a step above being honest. Honesty is just telling the truth while transparency is telling YOUR truth. It’s so important to me that one of the first team members I hired actually got the job because she was transparent in her interview. I asked her about the most difficult thing she ever had to overcome and she shared that she had a miscarriage years before. That single moment told me that she could be trusted with my truths over time. Using reality to develop healthy relationships has been vital in my career.
That same transparency has helped me to be more compassionate as well. This same employee went through a number of trials while at my company from her grandmother falling and breaking her hip to her boyfriend breaking up with her. I’ve been there. When I worked for other companies, I had many personal things that unfortunately impacted my work – also, unfortunately, I had some employers who didn’t empathize with me. I know the difference compassion makes for my clients and team members; at the end of the day, we’re all human.
While it may sound weird to call yourself humble, my own humility is something I’ve just recently become aware of. I spend a lot of time in person and virtually with a number of my mentees and the one thing they also comment on is that I’m such a cool person. I believe firmly in community and servant leadership first and it shows up in everything I do.
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his own brand?
Kendra Hill: You ARE the brand. People want to connect with people, so the more transparent you are online, the easier it is for other business owners and customers to relate to you. There IS such a thing as too much, but transparency can take you a long way. Also, the more time and effort you invest in your personal brand, the higher the profile becomes for your business.
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Kendra Hill: I like a mix between servant and coaching leadership. As a people-centric leader, servant leadership allows me to hear the concerns of the people who work with me and move toward finding solutions. I believe that I am a natural problem solver, so it’s in me to want to remove any barrier to my team member’s greatness. As a coach, I believe that motivating your team to accomplish goals helps them feel valued but also supported in the long haul.
What would you say is the main difference between starting a business at the time you started yours and starting the business in today’s age?
Kendra Hill: Technology! Even 11ish years ago, we didn’t have the type of tech we have now. Back then, if you wanted to film a video message to send out in an eblast, you had to either own a camera or hire a crew. Now, it’s as easy as using your iPhone on a small tripod. Obviously, with tech developments, we’ve seen better SEO and even social media marketing as a prevalent resource to share our messaging.
Overall, it’s just easier to market and sell. You don’t need a bunch of people skills like back in the day – all you need is a great message, good visuals, and a little time.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Kendra Hill: My favorite life lesson quote is, “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become” – Jim Rohn.
It’s my favorite because we think that we have to chase being successful, but the fact of the matter is you have to work on your character, your spirit, and yourself internally. Success will just show up!
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.