Kendra Bracken-Ferguson has international acclaim in the world of health and beauty. Her global brand marketing firm, BrainTrust Founders Studio, is the largest membership-based platform for Black beauty and wellness founders and its adjacent BrainTrust Fund.
During Essence Festival, Bracken-Ferguson took part in the author’s stage with her book, “The Beauty of Success.” She talked about her time at Essence as an author, calling it “a dream come true,” especially since she had the dream during grade school.
“The Beauty of Success” does come with challenges, which in part, inspired Bracken-Ferguson to start her braintrust and in turn, inspire and help others along their own success journey.
“When I was in 6th or 7th grade, I told my mom I wanted to write a book,” Bracken-Ferguson said. “She said, ‘Go to college, get a job, make some money, and write your book.’ “I feel very accomplished that I have done those things. I realized that I’m here to be of service and my journey as a three-time founder, being incorporated, building businesses; I was really here to help someone else’s path be a little bit easier.”
“We talk about the lack of funding that goes to Black founders. We talk about the lack of resources,” Bracken-Ferguson said. “For me, it’s how do I look at the resources that I have? How do I look in my toolkit and everything and say, OK, I know this person. I can figure this out. I can ask this person for help.”
When it comes to “The Beauty of Success,” Bracken-Ferguson said she wanted to include the sentiment of beauty of wellness, which a lot of her work revolves around.
“It is for people who really want to understand how do you start a business,” Bracken-Ferguson said. “What does it look like? How do you build your brain trust? How do you identify your pillars? And so for me, it was, I can bring all of those things together. And I think that success is something that sometimes we put on a shelf or we put on a long list of things we have to do. But we should look at our successes every day.”