Decades before Kris Jenner became the “momager” of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, she taught herself an early lesson in business negotiation while working as a flight attendant.
During an appearance on the April 9 episode of “The Burnouts” podcast — hosted by Bill Gates’s daughter, Phoebe Gates, and her business partner, Sophia Kianni — Jenner reflected on her brief stint working for American Airlines in the 70s.
“Every single lesson that I learned that I really appreciate, I think I learned from that year and a half or two years of being a flight attendant,” Jenner told Gates and Kianni.
It all started when Jenner, then a fresh flight attendant, was not assigned the flight route she wanted.
“I was really hoping for Los Angeles,” Jenner said. “And they kind of looked at me like, ‘You’re never going to Los Angeles. That would take you years to be able to build up that kind of seniority where you can go to Los Angeles.'”
But instead of accepting rejection, Jenner took matters into her own hands.
“I thought, ‘OK, there’s another way to get around this,'” Jenner said.
She started talking to different people in the company to find out how she could land a spot on the flight routes she wanted.
“So I just randomly walked into the scheduling office — that nobody probably dares to do back in the 70s — and I said, ‘Listen, I’ve got a problem. This is what I need, and this is what I know you have the power to do. How can we meet in the middle? What can I do to accomplish this?'” Jenner said, recalling the incident.
Showing up at the office worked: Management offered her a spot on the substitute list instead. If anyone called in sick, she would be the one to replace them on those flights, Jenner said.
“And I figured out how to make the system work for me in the best of ways because then I had, maybe once or twice, walked into the scheduling room with brownies,” she said.
Jenner said the experience taught her to pivot and not accept the first answer somebody gave her.
“It was one of the first things that I actually negotiated for myself,” she said.
Since then, Jenner has become a businesswoman and a reality TV star.
She catapulted her family into superstardom by launching her family’s reality series, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” in 2007. The show concluded in 2021 after 20 seasons.
A year later, the family announced their return to reality TV for the Hulu series “The Kardashians.” The show is now in its sixth season.
Reality TV aside, Jenner also manages the careers of her famous daughters — Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, and Kylie Jenner.
In 2022, Jenner told Forbes she takes a 10% cut from everything her kids earn through television and other business ventures.
Representatives for Jenner and American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider.
