Take Two: Identical twins use their likenesses for business success

The sisters don’t just do similar work, however. Kennally and Sederholm are identical twins, which can sometimes lead to confusion about who’s requesting money for which organization.

“When we both worked with nonprofits in Kansas City, (people) would mistake us for one another,” Sederholm said. “You just have to be on your toes and try to represent not just yourself but your sister as well.”

Special support

Most identical twins report sharing a special bond – and local twins say that bond stretches even into the professional arena.

“Communication is just so much better between us,” said Brent Kembell, commercial banking officer at UMB Bank. His twin brother, Sean, is a teacher and tennis coach in Springfield Public Schools. “We can’t even explain it. It’s one thing to communicate what you’re thinking by talking, but to just know what they’re thinking is different.”

The special nature of the bond between twins is an ideal support mechanism, Brent Kembell said.

“One thing you may notice about twins is that they’re generally high-energy, happy people,” Kembell said. “If you think about it, you can measure happiness by the support you have in life, and twins have the ultimate support person – this person has been with you since day zero.”

The Kembells say that despite their different lines of work, they constantly offer each other advice. Both actually had considered going into banking, and if they had, Brent Kembell said they definitely would have worked together.

“If we worked in the same field, we’d have to work right next to each other, because we work so well together,” he said. Sean Kembell agreed, adding that the duo “can make a lot of things happen together that we’re not as good at apart.”

Sederholm said her sister is one of her best sources of business advice – mainly because she pulls no punches.

“We talk every day, and a lot of it is about work,” Sederholm said. “She’s someone who will give me the straight skinny and not just what I want to hear, because we know each other so well.”

Kennally said that being an identical twin sometimes makes her job of finding new donors or clients easier.

“It’s a nice ice-breaker, and people are outwardly more friendly because they know her,” Kennally said of her twin. “I think it’s a big help, and I’ve never thought of it any other way.”

The business connection goes even deeper for identical twins Sharyl Boyce and Shareen Beal; both are senior vice presidents of commercial lending for Commerce Bank in Springfield, and the two work in close partnership with each other every day.

They say they couldn’t imagine working apart from each other.

“There is no doubt that there is not a better person to be my partner and take care of my clients,” Beal said. “We are one – we think as one, and we act as one. It goes unsaid that anyone who does business with one of us does business with both of us.”

Who’s who?

Understandably, the biggest challenge for identical twins is mistaken identity. That’s a problem with which the Kembells are very familiar.

They are, in fact, so identical that they were chosen in 2006 as one of the four most-identical sets of twins in America as part of Discovery Health Channel’s “America’s Most Identical Twins Test.”

“I know a lot of people who don’t know him and don’t know that I’m a twin,” Brent Kembell said. “There are people who have seen ‘me’ on the street and expect me to say hello, but I don’t because it’s not me, it’s my brother. Then they think I’m a real jerk, because I don’t acknowledge them.”

Sean Kembell agreed.

“We’re really good at recognizing if someone has mistaken one for the other,” he said.

The mistaken identity problem is especially acute for Boyce and Beal, due to their work as business partners.

“One time I was in my office and I called Shareen in, because I had a client on the phone. It was one of her clients, and she ended up picking up the phone and finishing the conversation in my office,” Boyce said. “I went over to her office because I had another call to make. In the meantime, another client came in to her office, where I was, and wanted to talk about something they had discussed earlier in the day. I had to explain that, no I wasn’t Shareen, I was Sharyl, and he said, ‘Now don’t be pulling that stuff on me.’”

In the end, though, none of these twins would change their situations.

“There are 150,000 more advantages than disadvantages to being an identical twin,” Beal said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be an individual.”[[In-content Ad]]