Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner Discuss Their Family’s Legacy, the Dangers of Social Media, and More

Trying to do this together and it is thrilling to have you here We got to spend some time listening to that song with Kanye just a couple weeks ago And I loved it so much. I said we got to play it one more time for everybody You guys both of you have created a remarkable Empire That's why I wanted to talk to you because I think you have changed culture. You've changed social media You changed marketing and you changed the way we all think about so much of this Just to give everybody a little bit of some some stats here Chris Has trademarked momager as in manager Between Kim Chloe Courtney Kylie and Kendall. There are 600 million Instagram followers for this family Kylie's business is worth a billion dollars. You just started skims and I'm told Sold two million dollars of product in literally in the first couple minutes of it going live and it's just an extraordinary thing that has happened Over these past close to 20 years that we so many of us have watched you grow up Frankly on TV and now social media and so where I wanted to start with you in terms of how you built this and it's not just you've done it once you've done it now many many times as the momager of this family and With so many things that you've been doing is what the plan was or was there ever a plan for this to happen? Well, I think you know I think it's important to remember that when we first got started and started filming our show back in the early 2000s There was barely Twitter and I remember Ryan Seacrest calling me up and saying, you know You got to tell Kim about this little thing called Twitter because she might find it really helpful and you know some business stuff and Kim really was the first one in my family that really taught the rest of us how to navigate That platform and then all the other ones that were out at the time and and we were just my kids were barely off this thing called a two-way that was the phone and pagers and all this other stuff and it was so funny because Technology was happening so fast. So when we first started and we realized that the show was going to be a success That was basically the foundation for everything else that we were able to do and Kim and I would sit at the end of remember I've said that and then when you guys see season 18 Please I'll tweet her and remind her she said that our show was the foundation foundation things have changed Well, let me ask you about let me ask you about that foundation and the change because one of the things we've been talking about A lot recently is this issue of a fragmented media? You guys started and I think to some degree created a franchise on TV traditional linear TV first, right? Yes, and I wonder if you were to do it today using just social media Whether you think it would work whether we work the same whether I'm guessing my mom would say it would work the same. She is a big fan of Like building a brand and social media and using your voice and believing in yourself that you can make it happen through that platform I Think I'm a little bit more Traditional where I think there was some magic of us starting on TV and Really building up an audience and then the magic of timing of Being around at the same time that social media was created I think there was just like a hit with the TV and then another hit with social media. And so when I Choose to promote a product where some people I think maybe younger generations will just use social media I love doing traditional TV. What would Kylie do? Yeah. Well, she would probably Do just social media. She's launching a product. It would be strictly on social media I love to go and do the rounds and do the night shows. I mean I was I was Talking to Kendall and Kylie about you know The days of Leno and Letterman and they looked at me and was like no And I was like mortified. I was so mortified and But it's really funny and it just shows, you know but there is something to be said about the way we started the audience that we have now and the people that follow us and The the consumers that buy our things are the people that became emotionally Invested in the family and there was always a family member that somebody either, you know loved or or you know Wanted to watch their journey and everybody saw the kids grow up on TV for the last decade or so Well, that's what's so interesting to me because it's generational, right? I mean you totally and yes, you've actually now sort of almost segmented out if you will so many different demographic markets In terms of both age and also to and just how people approach the family So that's what I was thinking when you guys create products now Do you guys sit around and say my brand my Kim brand? Represents this the Kylie representive brand represents this the Chloe brand represent that they're all Spaced out and how does this work? Well, they're all separate businesses for sure. And I think everybody has their own completely different demographic and Even if you think about Kim and Kylie, for example, they're what 16 years apart and you know, that's to 17 that's two different generations basically, and so I think that we do examine and I treat it like an Absolute CEO or CEO of the family brand because you do we have so much Incoming and things to choose from and banks and they're all very separate as well Yeah, I don't separate and discuss with Chloe or Courtney. I mean to give advice absolutely, but as far as like the day-to-day managing of our own brands and what we're Naturally drawn to and how we operate our businesses is completely individual. Do you feel like you're competing? No, we really honestly don't we're very supportive I mean Kylie and I both have beauty brands if we happen to be at each other's houses and see products laying around We'll discuss it. But otherwise, well, we're very mindful and on our calendars to not launch a product on the same time But if she's launching concealers and I'm launching concealers, they would actually be such a different product We have different, you know skin age demographic exactly what she was talking about So we use our products so differently that there has not been any competition Even in sales wise we can see our analytics. There hasn't been any crossover. How does this work? I'm assuming there are hundreds of companies that are coming to you Every day saying I want you to do a paid post on Instagram where I want you to invest in my thing would become the spokesman All of these people are coming. How do you sort of sort it out? What do you accept that you want to do? What don't you want to do? Take us inside the the the Kardashian Jenner Empire. Well for a paid post I am really Cautious about like what I spend so if I overspend on something and a paid post happens to come in at that time I'll weigh it out and think okay. Well, I have to pay for X Y & Z since you mean your own personal Yes, my own personal expenses or if I'm even like, okay, you know we have Schooling projects and now it's a little bit more personal for me if I have a paid post that comes in and I think okay Well, this can fund X amount of people that are behind bars that can help free them with simple legal fees that they just can't afford Then that would be worth it to me. Even if the post might be a little bit off-brand for me I really weigh out different things now than I used to because what's on brand for you. Um Any beauty as long as it doesn't compete fitness Health stuff maybe Just any health products if I you know when I Mentioned I was having a CBD baby shower because I needed some calm before the storm of a fourth kid coming every CBD company on the planet reached out and you just it's You know, it's it's kind of this joke also that I do if I really want something and I'm a bit lazy I can tweet I'm loving Oreo. I'm craving Oreos right now and then on my doorstep Oreo will show up. It's true with her name on each cookie So are there other companies though that come to you and you say look I just this is not this is not me And I'm not gonna do it or I just can't do it for whatever reason. Well, absolutely. I mean, I think we've really learned By trial and error to an experience I mean there was a time when I was about to say earlier that Kim and I in the beginning Would sit and have these goals we would write down for the year and what we really wanted to do And the first thing that we talked about and Kim's passion was from the very beginning was fragrance And that was so just her thing was fragrance growing up She loved fragrance So that was one of our first goals that we wrote down and something that we were able to accomplish and that felt so good I'll never forget her and I sitting at the Beverly Hills Hotel at this meeting and the guy handed us a check And it was so exciting and satisfying and rewarding but There's been a lot of you know We've kissed a lot of frogs along the way and thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall You know what hasn't worked for you well I mean listen one one great example that I Wanted to tell you the other day was that the got milk campaign? I thought Kim would be so great in like a got milk campaign Remember like everybody did these got milk campaigns and I thought oh, well, she's like perfect for that I don't know where that came from and I'm sure I was a lot more excited and Enthusiastic about this idea than the got milk people were So that really never came to fruition and then at the end of the day a couple years ago Kim was in a music video and she was taking a milk bath and I thought you did it Kim You've got milk all over that body So that was kind of like a fun thing But there's been things that talk about off-brand in the very beginning the girls did we did everything Wait, I think for a quick trim and at the end of the day you really just wanted to be curvy We sadly everything you could possibly imagine if someone came To us with a product we were just so excited that they were interested that we would do things that were really off-brand And I think that even that stage in our life. I look back and think that was such a Learning Growing process for us and I feel like in the last few years. I finally found my voice on What to say no to what to really stand up for how to really focus in there could be amazing deals that come our way financially on brand everything, you know fits my criteria, but if there's just no time like now, I feel like there's a Power in saying no and having a little bit of time, you know for my family and self and everything else but you have to have the bandwidth to be able to put that kind of energy and time and Creativity into a brand or an idea that somebody wants you to be a part of and if what they're you know If she's signing up for something that she's never gonna have time to do. It's only gonna be a disservice to everyone So does somebody call you and say I pay you X amount of money for a Post is there what's the market? What's the market right now or an Instagram post? Well, I Think that what we do have is I started to say earlier is this great incoming of offers and deals that come through whether it's a private equity a brand A VC a bank, you know There's just so much coming in that we and she my kids all have to be their own CEO I might act as the CEO of a bigger picture and just weigh each thing that comes in if it's a acute story since my husband's here, so There was a fast fashion brand a few of them and they would knock off easy all the time His color palette designs and so this fast fast fast fashion brand offered me a million dollars for an Instagram post and I thought okay. Well, that's you know easy just to wear clothes that you know, I could pick anything that I wanted It's a quick post And when I told him about it, he asked me not to do it and said, you know without of respect I don't think that we should be giving them everything. They copy everything. It's you know, it's I Completely understood why he said no I Gladly said no and then for Mother's Day He handed me an envelope and it was a check for a million dollars saying thank you for not posting for the other brands and then I don't know if I'm supposed to say this if I have or if And and a contract to be an owner in Yeezy as a as a thank you. So yeah So there is power in saying no sometimes there is some power in saying no, how do you think about your influence on the marketplace? broadly in terms of what you project out to the public and the reason I ask is and you know when Kylie tweeted at one point I saw this that she tweeted that she did when she didn't use snap anymore. I stopped using snap snaps Market value literally dropped by 1.3 billion dollars So how much I mean More than oops. Oh, but so when you when you post or when you speak, I mean It's hard to sometimes probably remember. Yeah who you are to some degree and what the influence is yeah, this is always something that I struggle with because I Believe that people should be themselves Even if it's not what you agree went with even if it's not your beliefs and values I believe in being yourself. And so when you start thinking about how you have to censor yourself so much because it could I mean I personally Might not say bad things about people unless I'm provoked and I have to stand up for you know family, but Generally, I try not to talk about like other brands if I didn't like a particular ice cream or something You know that I feel I could hurt a brand I just kind of stay away from it it's a big responsibility. However, I do believe that people Should speak freely and if that's not what Kylie was doing and that was authentic to her then I I don't think that there's something wrong with that so but I struggle with that because it's like I do I always really do care about people's feelings and I'm really compassionate about a Headline like that. I would feel bad about it. But You also just have to be yourself How much you think about your brand and his brand and I'm looking at Kanye right now in terms of how you guys work together And I know that you were part of Really actually remaking the way skims actually turned out Yeah, I mean our brands We respectfully let each other Have our own voices in our own brands and create our own brands, but we're very much together in Every last decision in detail that we make so like for skims, you know, he drew the logo he our packaging was one way and I thought it looked amazing and then he walked in and Had about a two-hour conversation with my whole skims team About why it was not so amazing But it was really inspiring and really when you look back It was really trendy the old packaging and it would I would have been sick of it by now And he really gave us like amazing advice on how We want it to be classic and timeless and all the packaging that the team was bringing us Other products in the marketplace They were saying isn't this better than that and Kanye's main advice was why don't you go get? Packaging that is the that you think is the best of all time It doesn't have to even be in the marketplace, but any product and you should strive to be on that level Why are you striving to be better than the worst and it really clicked to the whole team we all went back to work and he picked like our photographers was involved in the castings for the models for skims and Color ways. I mean everything you could think of so we really are he's like my ghost stylist and my ghost creative director and it's it's amazing to have someone that you really respect and Value their creative opinion What do you think about your impact on culture and the reason I say the impact on culture is there is a sense And social media has been a big part of it But I think a lot of people have looked at you and your family as role models in many ways Where people where everything is now just exposed you you you put it all out there And there's something very authentic about that But I think there's also people especially different age groups who have misgivings about that and sort of where the line is For privacy and and how much to really share or overshare Well, I think from the beginning one of the things that we said to ourselves was we wanted to have a successful show We were gonna do this and put ourselves out there Then we really needed to do that And so we said let's just show everything and just be ourselves and cut to you guys remember that episode. I'm talking about I need this on a loop. Oh my god Okay, I had a bad week a couple weeks ago. Just remember that too. Okay guys You month yeah, so This is gonna turn into a family feud So in the beginning we and that's I think was the you know this whole thing is the perfect storm I think being able to work with the family and having everybody on board But all at the same time willing to show You know the good the bad and the ugly We think we're gonna talk to Kevin system in just a little bit co-founded Instagram, and there's lots of questions about Mental health related to social media Whether it's giving people good or bad body images in terms of how they how they think about themselves Whether whether liking is actually a good thing right you know there's so many people I meet young people today who say I just want to get famous as quickly as possible get as many followers as possible And I'm gonna figure out a way to monetize And nobody has a plan B That's the problem is if you really put all of your eggs in this basket You know I tell everybody that I speak to is Really have to have something to hang your hat on and create something for yourself that Sustainable and a business that can grow it's just not about being famous for us We happen to be lucky enough and blessed enough to have a show and that kind of started everything else, okay? So So I you know that's very valuable, and that's something that continues to be very successful in almost 200 countries around the world and as many languages so we've got very Tricky, and it is you know I think about when I raised my kids and screen time phone time What to post what not to post? You know even posting things in real time I learned from a bad experience that I had When I was robbed that people really knew my every move they knew what I had they knew where I was what I was doing You know and and that to me really changed Maybe the things that I post and and I still want people to feel like they're along that journey with me But I might video something and then post it like 30 minutes later when I've left the location more for privacy But as far as mental health, I mean it's something That's you know I think taking the likes away and taking that aspect away from it would be really beneficial for people And I know that the Instagram team has been having lots of like inner Conversations with a bunch of people to get everyone's take on that and it's taking it really seriously and that makes me happy Do you read all your comments? I do not But I find myself to be Extremely mentally strong and I have people Friends that are obsessed with reading the comments, and I find that to be really unhealthy so I I Have to I struggle with like having to step outside of how I feel and thinking about like What if one of my children was like one of my friends that? Wasn't as mentally strong and would really be affected by the comments that would really affect me Water I had a separate question Which which relates to this a lot of the conversation? We've been having this morning is about CEOs of thank you so much about CEOs who have felt like they are now taking or being pushed to take positions either political positions or or or Positions in terms of culture and what's happening in society in a way that perhaps they didn't just a couple years ago You've gotten very involved in the mass incarceration Topic, but I'm curious actually from as a from a brand perspective in terms of how far you think you're willing to go on You know we've had people we're gonna talk about gun violence in a minute actually after this after the session But you know whether it's immigration or all of these other issues that are very political and we live in this sort of very politicized World you've now spent some time at the White House. How do you think about that? I? Am a really firm believer that you should be Who you are believe and what you want to believe in and as a brand I'm the type of person that I? can separate political beliefs from Brands and I believe that people should have the right to believe in whatever they want to believe in and so if I don't really push politics on my brands I Also believe that like Kim Kardashian West is also a person not just like the KKW brand so I will speak up Personally on politics when I have to and when I want to Did you get pushback though? There's some people who like the president and there's some people who can't stand the president Yeah, I mean for me. I focus on prison reform and the president has done amazing things in Prison reform I will also speak up when I feel like something is Not how I feel like the world should be and that could be immigration or other things. I'm very focused there's a lot that we have to get done in prison reform and I Believe I will be more beneficial if I just focus on that at the moment, so I'm grateful for that relationship in that area Can I focus on that, but that was a big thing where people So many people advise me don't go to the White House, and it didn't that didn't make sense to me because I was like a Life if someone can get out of you know prison and get their life back versus my reputation of going to the White House where there's only one person on this planet that can make the decision and that would be the President and that was even a question You know for the media That just absolutely didn't make sense to me. I would go see anyone in power That would have that decision to change someone's life You don't like politics I know you I know you don't like politics I want to get to questions in this audience because I know there are people who want to ask you a handful of questions And we're gonna do that in just a second, but you're you're you're studying to be a lawyer. I am Your father was a lawyer L1 it's almost over okay, so tell us. What's the plan? What is this about um you know? I think that the more I would go into the White House And I remember sitting in the Roosevelt room, and they called me in for a clemency meeting, and I'm thinking to myself like they're asking me to be in a clemency meeting like I I'm just gonna you know and I definitely raised my hand and asked questions Was as involved as I could have been but there was some attorneys there that I knew and so I Felt this comfort in asking them all these questions, and I just wanted to know more. I wanted to the more that I know The more that I can do and it's so interesting because had I done this back in college I wouldn't have cared at all like I wouldn't have gotten through it now when I'm studying contracts And these are like actual life things that I'm dealing with now and now that I own my own home And I'm old enough, and I'm you know studying torts, and I'm learning about personal injury like everything I'm so interested in it actually pertains to my life. It does not feel like I am I mean I'm definitely working really hard and it's a Commitment that I've chosen to take this time away from my family to study and to not go out with my friends and like live A different life, and I I'm so okay with that. I love it, and I just hope that one day I Can start a firm that will help? With prison reform and really help I would love to hire These men and women that are behind bars because they know the law better than you want to start a lot I do yeah, I really do Let's open it up to questions because I know there's so many people who have hands up I don't know. I see Leslie Stahl who taught me my whole career watching Leslie Stahl get do interviews herself from 60 minutes Leslie Stahl get get her a microphone so first off Andrew. You're doing a remarkable job. Thank you I'm in awe Every so many people And I want to congratulate both of you not only for building such a Successful business, but for using it now For issues that you think are important, but what I want to ask you about is social media in general It's come under a lot of controversy attacks spreading things like Calcium pills cure cancer There's bullying and now the question of political ads, so this world that you live in has become extremely Controversial and I wonder if you're worried about it, and if you think it will hurt your business just to be on these sites Just what your general opinion is of the direction Social media is taking I think for me Just to answer your question about as far as family goes what I worry about our future generations and my grandkids And so my biggest issue is the bullying side of it Because it really is so upsetting and the kids that are being affected by it are younger and younger and younger I have every age of five ten grandchildren So that's every age you can think of and the stuff that they see I see in my almost ten-year-old grandson Who talks about it often and very dramatically about how it affects him so I can only imagine you know Everyone else in the world and how their families are affected by it and the families that aren't paying attention There's so many parents that are you know working? Parents and don't pay as much attention And you know we're really on all of the stuff that are my kids are on what their kids are watching But it does worry me a lot, but it does worry me as I don't think social media is going away but I do think that Like me just I'd say in the last few years and my evolution Maybe some of the things that I would post a few years ago wouldn't be certain things that I would post now Or those reasons that may be the wrong message But I do believe that the social media brands are paying attention. I know that I personally have received meeting requests and calls from Really high up people that want opinions and input on how to Try to fix these problems people from Facebook and Instagram people like that or from the government Facebook and Instagram people so I do know that people are taking it seriously and But it is something that I worry about all the time or my children and What they see? So I hope that they do make some changes just to make it a more friendly place Let's see if we can get a couple more questions, and I don't know if I can do this Can we can we get you microphones for one second? I have a question for you Which is no no you've now joined this family and they've learned a lot from you Which they just talked about and I'm actually curious what you have learned from this empire. That's being built Yeah, I think If my family wasn't So They didn't work so hard and they weren't So omnipresent, maybe I would just rest on my laurels of Just being the greatest artists of human existence, and I would just be But that's that's shown that that is not enough But you have to you know, you have to hit the gym that you have to Communicate that you have to it's a modern day. It's like modern-day Rome it's an era that people remember for all of Human existence in this, you know social media I have about every time that's question I have a thought on it every time because social media is like the new That's saying that it's particularly as negative as Cigarettes and that's saying that it's a full Edward Bernays, you know torches of freedom, you know Full in empowerment, but I do think that I've said I've done interviews often that you know If I post 100 posts, they're like all you need to go to a hospital going crazy, but Instagram and different social media out, you know, they have the likes come back at a slower speed They have a certain amount, you know post that you should do to look normal. It's like actually controlling the rate at which we're supposed to advance and communicate as human beings for What is said is the common norm and actually that makes it be where you know 50 people can control the billion people that are now getting into You know So, you know it's a matter of my perspective, you know, Jesus already already run the Jesus has already won the victory and it's for me as a man as Christian as a billionaire as a founder of the company to stand up and be You know But just as a male opinion looking at my daughter Saying that this innovation Community what we're doing education and we're doing, you know in politics even now like we have 12,000 Cody Wyoming well has Actually opened up the ability to buy more land and in America, you know America you can buy land Have to be just the product of what black Twitter tells Us what we're supposed to do or you know any black man that you know This has been taken out of every single one of my interviews. I'm gonna say it now My my father's a black panther my mother arrested I mean it's it is at age six to fight for us to have the right to vote But it was the right to vote for who we tell you to vote on It's okay that any black man voted for Hillary coming up next But if a black man didn't vote for Hillary LeBron we're gonna burn your jersey and acting if you choose the team you want to go to you come back to Cleveland Then you're here. You could help. No, that's not what we want you to do, but my parents fought for us to have the right to have our own And sometimes the social media They can even put false comments about 6-7 in to try to incept indoctrinate and control our minds I would I would continue this for hours. I Just know that We've got a couple of other fabulous People they're never not as fabulous as Kanye and I want to thank you for that. I appreciate that very very much final question for me for both of you, which is if we came back here in 10 years from now and sat together again and Talked about what the what the Jenner Kardashian Empire looks like What do you think it will be? We would be Just continuing doing what we're doing. I mean the one thing that everyone asked me is What what more what's next and I always think like well? I want to live in the moment because there's already a lot on my plate and I want to nourish Each thing that we're doing. I hope that My beauty brand and fragrance brand continues to grow. I hope skims is an amazing business and Everywhere and a necessity for people I really want to focus and I hope that I'm a lawyer in 10 years and have an amazing firm and Changing The whole prison system. I really hope that I will just be more into that and I hope that all my sisters and brother and everyone is just happy and Living on a farm in Wyoming What do you say Chris you're taking 10% of everything I know Fabulous Well 10 years from now I'll be 74 It was her birthday yesterday. Yeah, but thank you guys You know, I'm so proud of them And I think that one thing that a lot of people probably maybe they do but you know A lot of people don't realize is the work ethic is second to none And I think just watching them grow and build their companies Getting more and more independent within their own brands and figuring it out and the creativity the way they work together I think that we're building something so fantastic and Just being able to figure out what really works for each one of them is very rewarding for me And hopefully in 10 years I can sit back and watch them do it all by themselves Please join me in thanking Kim and Chris and Kanye