Kendra Bracken-Ferguson – Successful Balance

Helping to define and navigate the digital space as a creative force for brands and influencers, while becoming a recognized and sought-after business innovator and global digital architect — and balancing that with motherhood…

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Entrepreneur, Innovator, Transformative Brand Builder, Founder/CEO at BrainTrust, and former Chief Digital Officer at CAA-GBG, shares her story with George Manley (CEO & Co-Founder SOULER) in the MouthMedia Network studios. Presented by SOULER.

 

In this story:

• How Kendra knew she wanted to be in PR from the time she saw the Press Secretary in the 6th grade.
• Purdue and her internship at FleishmanHillard PR
• Receiving her Master’s in Sports Management and working with the Indiana Pacers
• Leaving the Pacers Organization after the “Malice at the Palace” to join FleishmanHillard PR full time
• Taking Cingular (AT&T) into the social sphere with MySpace
• Creating a Mobile Music Studio with MySpace and Cingular
• The birth of Digital PR, before it became Social Media and Digital Marketing
• How PR Practitioners are always the best storytellers
• Being a leader in the evolution of social media marketing
• Leading the Digital and Social teams at FleishmanHillard
• Landing at Ralph Lauren after realizing her desire to get into fashion and beauty
• Going from being an “Agency Girl” to the Brand Side of the business
• Realizing the need to shift advertising budgets into social
• Looking at social thru the lens of E-commerce
• Can you get an influencer to bring someone to your website, have them stay long enough to make a purchase, and sign up for an emailer?
• Starting a business to manage bloggers, DBA
• Ralph Lauren’s invention of “Merchantainment”
• Creating a symbiotic relationship between brand and blogger
• Picking the right influencer based on the ethos of your brand
• Starting a business without a business plan
• The first time asking “Am I an entrepreneur?”
• Launching a new product for bloggers
• Having blogger parties with Kenneth Cole
• Leaving DBA to work with brands again.
• Realizing your flaws and finding your strengths
• Building brands, connecting people, seeing the future, and being innovative
• Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you
• The busy life of PR
• What is it that drives people to be serial entrepreneurs.
• Wanting to write a book about being an Intrepreneur vs Entrepreneur
• Can you hire a COO, to handle things from management on down, and still be a great leader?
• The humanity of CEOs, from meltdowns to successes.
• What is it that makes Elon Musk and Steve Jobs so unique?
• How being an entrepreneur to psychologically damaging, the most positive way.
• Can anyone be a brand builder, install the infrastructure needed to grow and support a new brand?
• Having night sweats about being under capitalized.
• Starting a company young with no “risk” versus starting a company with a family
• Having a sense of destiny, Preparedness plus opportunity equals success
• Balancing work life with family life
• Kendra on being the best role model she can for her daughter and encouraging an entrepreneurial mind
• How becoming a mom was a bit of a wake up for her health, both physical and mental
• The best advice for being a successful mother and entrepreneur
• Creating generational wealth for her family, it should be easier for the next generation.
• Influencers are the new driver’s of commerce and pop culture trends
• Her latest company, Talent Venture Fund
• Bridging brands and influencers.
• Increasing the valuation of brands to make them more commercially successful, and to help boost their relevance based on the partnership ownership with the talent