The Kardashian-Jenners aren’t just a family, they’re an empire. A
massively successful brand that rivals other empires in history. They’re
possibly even more popular than Rome. And just like Rome, the
Kardashian-Jenner empire wasn’t built in a day. It took hard work, dedication,
and a little luck. If you think the Kardashian’s are “famous for doing nothing,” think again. Let us show you how the
Kardashian-Jenner empire was built.
Before they were famous,
they were rich. While Kris Jenner was
married to Robert Kardashian. He was a successful lawyer for the wealthy and famous
of Los Angeles.Jenner was able to network
and learn from the highly successful people she was surrounded by. “Everybody
that I was surrounded by for two decades was at the top of their game in the
entertainment business,” Jenner told Janet Mock for Lenny Letter.
“… They taught me the most. I didn’t even realize it at the time.”
When their marriage
fell apart, Kris Jenner moved on to marry Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner), but they didn’t have the money Kris Jenner had
grown used to. She knew if they were going to make things work, they had to
figure out some way to profit off of her new husband’s Olympic gold medals.
So, she started sending
out press kits, looking for speaking or promotion opportunities. It paid off.
Her husband began to have steady work promoting products like Coca-Cola and
Visa. He also found work speaking as a track and field expert.
While Kris Jenner was working hard to earn money for the family, her
daughter Kim was trying to build a name for herself in the gossip magazines,
with the help of pal Paris Hilton.
Kim told Rolling Stone, “We’d go anywhere and everywhere just to be seen. We knew
exactly where to go, where to be seen, how to have something written about you.
All you had to do is go to this restaurant, or this party, talk about whatever
you want to talk about, and it would be in the paper the next day.”
Soon, people in the
Hollywood scene began to know the name of Kim Kardashian, and Jenner saw this as an opportunity.
The family came up with
the idea of a reality show based on their lives. At first, they thought it
could be about the retail store, DASH, that Kourtney and Khloe were currently
running. That idea never came to fruition, but they were able to find someone interested
in making a reality show about their family life, Ryan Seacrest and the E!
network.
“Kim had a look that
wasn’t on TV at the time,” Damla Dogan, senior VP of Programming and
development at E!, told The Hollywood
Reporter. “She wasn’t stick-thin, and that was relatable.”
The first season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians aired in
2007 and it was a huge hit.
Right away, Seacrest encouraged the three older sisters to get a Twitter
account and start posting on social media to interact with fans and connect
with them on a personal level.
That strategy paid off big
time. They built a massive online following. Today, a single Instagram post by
the Kardashians is worth several
hundred thousand dollars.
Once the show took off,
and the Kardashians became a household name, they were free to pursue
individual projects that bring in more income. The first thing Kim did was
create her own fragrance line, with Jenner’s help.
In fact, the momager is
super involved and supportive of all her children’s dreams. With Kim’s
fragrance idea, Jenner was determined to find someone to make it happen. She
told Lenny Letter, her motto is, “If somebody says ‘no,’ you’re talking to the
wrong person.”
Another Kardashian-Jenner
that has followed their dreams to success, Kylie Jenner,
who developed a cosmetic line and is now worth over a
billion dollars. Kendall Jenner is a fashion model for some of the
biggest names in the industry, and Khloe has written a book and launched a
denim line.
Jenner is so supportive
of her children’s goals, that she sits down with each of them every year and
asks what they have planned, what their goals are, and how she can help. The
strategy has worked. Every member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan is massively
successful, and they only grow more so every year.
