Hello, hello this is Brooke Devard and you're listening to the Naked Beauty

podcast. Now I told you all I had some incredible conversations coming up and

this is one of the ones that I'm so excited about because I talk to so many

founders on the show I talked to so many beauty consumers and beauty editors but when it comes to

founders one of the things that is the most important passion

creativity inspiration that's all very important but let's be honest it's

really money it's capital that is going to make or break a brand and

and today's guest Kendra Bracken-Fergison, is doing the very important

work of getting capital into Black Founders' Hands through Brain Trust Fund, a venture fund dedicated to investing in Black Beauty and Wellness

founders. Kendra has the distinction of being one of only 100 black women to have

ever raised a million dollars in investment for her first company.

She's launched three companies herself and has achieved over 1 million in revenue for each within the first two years or

less. Talk about goals. I talked to Kendra about my first year being a business owner,

how I could scale, how I could grow,

and she had some incredible advice for me.

For all of the entrepreneurs that are listening to this,

you were going to find a ton of insight and wisdom.

But even for my people that are in corporate, she talks a lot about finding your North Star,

owning your voice, owning your career trajectory.

She and I also have some shared corporate history which is very interesting,

but she talked about what she took away from each of those jobs, how the challenges that each of those companies

allowed her to be the powerhouse in business that she is today.

...