Fostering business success with 26 West Entrepreneurship Center Director Kim Richmond

Kim oversees the entrepreneurship center at the State College of Florida, where she works with and guides entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, founders, and aspiring founders. Prior to that Kim worked in branding and marketing for several iconic American brands, including Sears, Kraft Foods and FAO Schwarz, where she had profit and loss responsibility for up to $2 billion. In 2006 she founded her own marketing, branding and digital strategy firm, richmondmarketing+communications. 

Business Observer Managing Editor Mark Gordon and Kim talked about how Kim navigated the early parts of career, in Corporate America, with an emphasis on taking risks, resiliency and curiosity. They also talked about how and why Kim changed gears in her career four years ago, to mentor startup business owners. And listen for the fun stories about when she worked for iconic toy brand FAO Schwarz.   

3 Takeaways:

1. (04:45) Leaders have to articulate and inspire towards a vision
2. (06:00) It’s not enough to just maintain the business
3. (14:50) Integrity, honesty, and curiosity are non-negotiable

Timestamps:

(00:00) This episode is sponsored by Kerkering Barberio!

(00:50) Introducing Kim Richmond and 26 West

(02:20) Kim’s career and growing into leadership

(05:10) Learning from leaders

(07:40) FAO Schwarz and selling to a hedge fund

(11:00) Hiring actors as retail workers and marketing magic

(14:32) What do you look for in leaders?

(16:55) Guaranteeing success

(21:00) What is coming for 26 West

(23:55) Rapid fire questions

Join us every week as we interview business leaders to learn what makes them great, what they look for in growing leaders, and much more.

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