Emma Grede - ‘Ambition Is Something I Am Entitled to’

Today’s guest is a female billionaire: the co-founder and CEO of the Good American inclusive fashion brand and a founding partner of SKIMS, the shapewear and loungewear company. Emma Grede’s close working partnerships with the Kardashian family have led her to become an advocate for empowering women through business.

Now, she’s publishing her first book, Start With Yourself, in which she explores everything from building personal resilience to developing self-forgiveness.

In this episode we discuss her East London mindset, her famously controversial (!) attitude towards work-life balance, being a mother of four (her twins were born via a surrogate) and her experience of miscarriage. Female ambition, fertility, the discomfort of hard work…I’m so grateful to Emma for opening up on subjects that are so often shrouded in silence.

✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

03:02 Ambition Loves Discomfort

05:57 Growing Up East London

07:31 ‘Too Ambitious’

08:34 East London Business Code

11:15 An Employee Mindset

19:13 Work-Life Balance Myth

26:34 Fearless Hustle Mindset

27:53 ITB Rise and Influencers

29:08 LA Office Ego Crash

31:40 Parenting as a Team

32:56 Fertility Reality Check

38:19 Good American Expansion Misstep

46:25 Mother’s Influence

💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

I have always thought about ambition as something that I am entitled to as long as I work for it.

If you want to be extraordinarily successful… Then extraordinary work is required.

You become confident because you know you can get through things and you know what's on the other side of failure.

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Emma’s debut book ‘Start With Yourself’ - is available to buy now

The Testaments, a new Hulu original series, streaming exclusively on Disney+

Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com

📚 WANT MORE?

Melinda French Gates - another extraordinarily successful female philanthropist, who co-chaired the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest private charitable organization, for 24 years: swap.fm/l/Zr3OTH30YZpvPRiXIkeX

Mo Gawdat - an incredible guest who has been on How to Fail FOUR times - most recently in December last year to talk about the most common mistakes we make in love: swap.fm/l/Daw9T2DZbicGt0aOZZVX

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Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

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