Women Who Mean Business
Kesha Alexander is a Woman Who Means Business
Kesha Alexander, co-owner and account lead at Supper Co., is always looking to build meaningful connections with clients.
By Kate Duby | Art Direction by Danielle Giarratano and Sarah Patton | Photography by Brandon Alms
Mar 2022
Photo by Brandon AlmsKesha Alexander: Co-Owner and Account Lead at Supper Co.
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Kesha Alexander is well versed in excellence. Throughout her career in marketing and entrepreneurship, her resolve to deliver a superlative product while building meaningful connections with her clients has pushed Alexander to new heights. It’s what keeps her going on the tough days.
“From a marketing standpoint, brands grow when they are treated with excellence,” she says. Alexander launched Supper Co. with her business partner Josh Sullivan in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Starting a new business was new territory for her, and it came with obstacles, even before the pandemic set in. “I definitely felt like I was strong in how to serve clients from a marketing aspect and to give them a really valuable product, but running a business is different than that,” she says. Supper Co. is a brand strategy, advertising and design agency specializing in the alcohol, cannabis, food and hospitality industries—and as the company’s website puts it: “anything else that sounds like fun.”
Alexander graduated from Missouri State University with degrees in marketing and finance. She got her first internship during college at advertising agency Noble & Associates and moved into a full-time role after graduating. She considers her experience at Noble foundational to growing her professional identity and understanding what hard work can yield. “That was really the basis for my career growth, doing the really down-and-dirty work there and getting my feet wet, just doing whatever people told me to do and saying ‘yes,’” Alexander says.
Going back to her high school basketball career, Alexander says she’s always pushed herself to succeed at everything she takes on. Though she might not have been the best player on the team, she says, she was always a starter because she hustled and pushed herself to her limits.
“There’s so much freedom when you embrace what life gives you without trying to just constantly work harder and harder to achieve the next thing.”— Kesha Alexander
“That ethic can really do a lot for you, but it also can create a person that just never feels like they’ve made it,” she says. “I think that in the workplace––and culturally––we can find ourselves in the rat race, where you honestly can never arrive. There’s always going to be something more.”
Alexander says part of her journey has been learning to manage her instinct to constantly push herself. While this trait has been important to her success, she says she’s started “to understand that life is bigger than that next thing you’re trying to accomplish. There’s so much freedom when you embrace what life gives you without trying to just constantly work harder to achieve the next thing.”
And in some ways, getting in touch with that freedom has helped Alexander keep her focus on what’s important, something she calls the “why.” As she says, “Your ‘why’ is what will keep you going on hard days.”
MORE ABOUT KESHA
COMPANY
Supper Co.
HER LEADERSHIP STYLE
“Value people above all, the rest will work itself out.”
HER COFFEE ORDER
An Americano with a little cream.
HER FIVE-WORD PEP TALK
“It’s all just an experiment!”
HER MID-AFTERNOON ENERGY BOOST
An energy ball from The Coffee Ethic.
HER SECRET CONFIDENCE FORMULA
An all-black outfit. “I feel like myself when I’m in black but also can feel so perfectly dressed for the occasion. If I need the extra boost, I let Brené speak to my subconscious and remind myself that sometimes the bravest thing is just showing up.”
