How Kris Jenner Made The Kardashians Famous, Rich And Insanely Influential | Forbes

Here in New York, and I was sitting with Martha Stewart, and every time I see her, I'm inspired. I'm impressed. It gives me hope that in a couple years when I'm her age, that I'm still going to be doing what she's doing. She's sitting there at this show, multitasking. We're talking about Christmas trees and what she's doing for the holidays and her business. It just made me so happy, and it gives me another breath of fresh air. You know what I mean? She's always starting new businesses and getting new ideas, and there's no stop to it. If I had known the reaction I was going to get from my daughters, I would have begged for this interview a lot earlier. They're very excited. Here we are. Girls, I did it. Thanks, girls, for the support. Right. I think, well, from my generation, there was always a clock ticking about having a baby, getting married, starting a family, and you were sort of considered an old maid if you weren't married and pregnant by 30. Absolutely. It really is. You know what? It gives a lot of other people hope that there is no rush. I started doing my show, imagine, when I was 51 years old, 52 years old, by the time it got on the air, and it's been one of the most rewarding chapters of my life. People often say, well, what are you doing this for? Well, guess what? I get to get up every single day and work with my family and create something new every time that we get together, and the creation of all the content, like everybody calls it now, it's joyful at this point. It's a lot of work, and you have to know what you're doing, and eventually we figure it out, but it's been a great journey. Did you have any idea that the show would be the success it is today? You know, you always hope that anything you're putting your hard work and heart and soul into, that it's successful, and I think that it was always the hope that we would even get picked up for season two. So, when we were in the middle of filming season one, and we got the call from the network that we had been picked up for season two, and we hadn't even finished, and then got the news that there would be no break, we're just going to keep filming. We kind of took a deep breath and went, okay, you know, this is what this is like, because it was foreign territory. So, you coined the term momager, and you've said that you're the family CEO, right? I am. Okay, and you're paid a 10% manager's fee on the gross income from your family's deals. That's pretty good, Chris. Well, you know, when we started working together, there was no formal agreement per se, and we were trying to figure things out. And I knew by talking to everybody in town, and I knew so many people, and I have a network of friends and family that are in the business, and most managers and those type of people, agents, are getting between 20 and 25%, sometimes 30. Of the gross, I know. And so, I said to my kids, look, I'm going to put my heart and soul into this. I'm going to work hard, and I'll take 10%, because that'll make it worth my while. I'm not going to charge you the industry standard, which I thought was super fair. And then I knew that in order to get anything, I knew how hard I was going to have to work, and just wanted to make sure that I didn't need to get a day job. So, you were like, kids, I'm giving you a deal. Here we go, 10%. That's a deal. What a deal. What a deal. That's right. I'm interested in knowing when you realized you were the head of a business enterprise, and not just a family. The first time I really started building an infrastructure, and got the right people in the right positions, and in-house counsel, and just all of the necessary folks and team members to make the machine work. Whether or not you're there making every single decision, we needed to first build the infrastructure, and make sure that we were doing all the things that the girls wanted out of a business. And there's a lot of them, and then me and my son. So, there's seven of us that we had to sort of structure a business. And you start throwing spaghetti against the wall. Like in the beginning, we were like, oh, let's try this, or let's try that. And you finally figure out that really what was working was the things that the girls were most passionate about. And creating those kind of businesses really was very successful for us, and really resonated in how much joy and fun you're getting out of it, too. Because it can't just be a grind constantly. That's just not healthy. It's so much work. And you guys have gotten to the point where you have so much power and so much influence. And I think it's safe to say that much of the American public, and a lot of women of all ages, actually, look at your family as a model. Like what to wear, what kind of makeup to use, how to use it, how to present yourselves. And a lot of that influence happens on social media, which is something that we've all kind of evolved with it over the past decade, for better or for worse. And the data has shown now, we're learning, that a lot of time on social media for young girls has been linked to depression, body image issues, self-esteem issues. How do you view the family business responsibility in this ecosystem as we are learning so much? Well, so that's a really big question. I think that, I'll start with this. I think that when we first started our show, there was no Instagram, there was no Snapchat, there was no TikTok, there was barely Twitter. And Kim was really the first one who got on Twitter and taught the rest of us how to navigate the community and everything that was going on. And she was really the first one that I knew about that learned how to communicate with the followers and the fans and the people that watch the show. And really use it as a tool, like a marketing tool, but also to find out what they were really interested in. And so in the early days, she would go on and ask, I'm going to do this fragrance packaging, what color should I do? And they would give a lot of input and she would actually follow their advice and it became this really successful tool for us. And as Instagram evolved and as it got more, you know, the more millions, hundreds of millions of followers, you know, you started as a family. We have over a billion followers right now. And with that comes a lot of responsibility because people do look up to the girls and they really do follow their advice, whether it be fashion or, you know, whatever else that we're doing and just the creative aspect of what the girls love to put out there. But we feel very, you know, responsible, but also pay attention to what we're posting and when we're posting it. You know, we've learned a lot of lessons along the way. Yeah. In real time. In real time. And we learned don't post where you are. But also, you know, we have to, we like to post really aspirational things and things that make people feel good and things that show people, you know, fun experiences that we've had. Show people our respect when something, there's a world global event that happens, like when the Queen has just passed away and we were able to pay our respects to that and able to celebrate holidays online and show happiness and some funny things. And, you know, I think it's a blend and it's a mix. And I think if you start to get, I know a lot of people, you know, the social media platforms have become dangerous. And for young people, I have 12 grandchildren and I worry about that. And what I worry about is how negative and dark and nasty people can be. And it can really be very upsetting. I can be on social media and get 5,000 messages about, you know, how fabulous somebody might think you look or act or whatever, like positive messages about anything. And then one person says, you know, you're awful or, you know, I won't, you know, say it here. Something worse. Yeah. Like really bad. And it cuts you to the core. And it does. It's nasty. And I grew up in a generation where my grandmother always taught us, you know, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. That's how I was raised. So to have people that you've never met, you know, that they can just say whatever they want. And I think I have, we have really thick skin as a family. We're used to it and we can handle it. But there's a lot of people out there that are really affected by nasty messages. And it's very powerful in the worst way. And that's what I worry about for my children, my grandchildren, other people, the world's children. Because people do have, there's been a history of, you know, mental health problems and suicides and, you know, just horrible things going on for people that don't really, people don't realize how powerful their words can be. And they really have to think before they post. Do you have, I have a, you know, my Know Your Value platform teaches women to know their value and communicate it effectively. It has a lot to do with negotiating. Any keys, any tips that you have to negotiating effectively? Like how do you do it? Well, if somebody says no, you're talking to the wrong person. That's always my motto. But I think in a negotiation, a great negotiation is when both sides win. If you can give a little and they can give a little and you can come to terms. You know, it's interesting you asked me this question. Because I had a meeting this morning with somebody that we were negotiating with for one of my daughters about a year and a half ago. And it didn't go great because both sides were unhappy. And we had a meeting this morning and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both just said, that didn't go well, did it? Let's start over. And we both said. Pressed reset. And we pressed reset today on something that was really special and that meant a lot to one of my girls. So that taught me a lesson. Like, you know, I wasn't willing to back down. He wasn't willing to back down. But then we both came to the table today and said, you know what? I can live with that if you can live with this. And so when you, you know, can do that with somebody, I think you really have to take a deep breath if it gets heated and be rational. And I think that I have learned not to be so impatient these days. The older I get. Let it play out a little bit. Yeah, that song my granddaughter sings. Patience, patience. I need some. Yeah. You've been described as one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Do you feel that you're at the peak of your power? Is there more to come? I hope so. I never want to think that, you know, you've exercised everything that you have. I think that to feel like there's a lot more to come and there's more chapters is very exciting for me. And it inspires me. That's why I love listening to other people's stories. I love to watch the Masterclass series. I love to watch documentaries. I love to hear about people's journeys because I think that we, as women, can not only empower each other and inspire each other, but I feel like I have a responsibility to show my grandkids and my children what getting older looks like. You know, in some days I don't feel like showing anybody what getting older looks like because I'm tired or, you know, it's a Sunday and I want to do nothing. So you have to learn how to give yourself that gift of relaxing once in a while. But also I think that it rejuvenates me. Like it gives me a little bit more energy to go out and try something new. And I love trying new things and learning new stuff. And my kids keep me inspired. And I think that the advice that I would give to anybody over 50 is to say, if you don't have 300 kids like I do and you have to keep going, is like the friends that you make. Like look around and look at who your circle is and try to surround yourself with people that you can learn from and you can, you know, be a buddy with. Whatever it is. You know, whatever it is that you love to do, find somebody else in your life, make a new friend, find some new people around you that like to do the same kind of thing. And it makes life more interesting and more joyful, more exciting. And you can do anything that you set your heart to. You just never give up. So with everything, the products, the new ventures, the shows, the lines, for Kris Jenner, what's it all about? What's it for? What do you want your legacy to be? I think my legacy is that at this age, I was a great mom and I'm a good grandmother. That's all that really matters. I mean, let's face it. It's just family's first to us always. And I think that that will always be why we do what we do. My goal in life when I had kids and they became teenagers and young adults was that every single one of them had something that they found they were passionate about. That's great. And that I could help them achieve that as something that could be their life and their own legacy and something that they could make a living at so that they could be on their own, sustain their lifestyle, whatever they wanted to do, whatever their dream was. And so one by one, that's the dream for me. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.