The Woman That Makes Millionaires: They're Lying About Work Life Balance! I Built SKIMS Without Fashion Knowledge!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

She turned hustle into a $4 billion brand, Emma Grede breaks down how she built Kardashian fashion empires

Emma Grede is the founding partner behind the globally successful brands SKIMS, Good American, and Safely, all launched with the Kardashian family. She is also Chairwoman of The Fifteen Percent Pledge, is a board member at Baby2Baby, and was named one of Forbes ‘Richest Self-Made Women in America’.

She explains:

• Growing up in East London, raised by a single mother, and how early hardship forged her fierce independence.

• Taking on a maternal role from childhood, learning to lead through responsibility, empathy, and survival.

• Turning rejection, dyslexia, and a lack of qualifications into fuel for building billion-dollar fashion brands.

• Balancing ambition and motherhood, and the personal toll of leadership, hustle, and hard decisions.

• Building SKIMS and Good American without fashion training, and the mindset that made it all possible.

00:00 Intro

02:17 Becoming Emma Grede

03:58 Acting as the Mum and Raising My Siblings

06:49 Lacking a Father Figure Growing Up

08:25 Anger Management Tools I Learned

11:06 My Dream Was Always Fashion

12:20 Understanding Money Attachment Styles

14:32 Emma's Recipe to Achieve Anything

17:55 Customer Feedback

19:30 The Importance of Reliable Decision Partners & Mentality Shifts

21:38 Do People Need Mentors to Succeed?

24:06 The One Skill That Made Me an Entrepreneur

26:09 The Three Most Important Words for Career Advancement

27:25 Does Working in an Office Make Employees More Successful?

31:11 Traits of Future Successful People

33:32 Interview Red Flags & Work-Life Balance

39:32 Can You Be Successful and Have Work-Life Balance?

40:58 You Can't Be a Leader and a People Pleaser

43:51 Being Cancelled as a Leader and Public Figure

46:29 Racism and Sexism in the Business Industry

50:56 Dealing With Business Struggles and Crises

53:33 Top 3 Valuable Practices for Founders

55:58 Don't Get Stuck—Keep Fresh Eyes

57:15 Brands Copying Other Brands

01:00:42 Advice for People With Unsupportive Partners

01:02:10 Scheduling Date Night

01:05:45 Meeting Kris Jenner

01:12:05 Pitching to Khloé Kardashian

01:12:43 Turning an Idea Into a Business

01:14:23 Strategies Deployed in Business

01:16:24 Building a Brand Strategy in 2025

01:21:11 First Principles of Business

01:25:59 How to Become the Best Salesperson

01:33:01 Learning How to Fire People

01:37:17 Attracting Top Talent to Your Company

01:39:37 What a Founder Shouldn't Do in Business

01:41:33 Hiring Exceptional People

01:45:42 Prejudices in the Workplace

01:49:09 Why Prejudices Shouldn’t Limit Anyone

01:50:39 How to Stop Giving a F***

01:54:16 When Do Successful Women Have Children?

01:56:01 My IVF Journey and Miscarriages

02:00:30 The Taboo Around Surrogacy, Freezing Eggs & Pregnancy

02:04:51 Emma Grede's New Podcast ‘Aspire’

Follow Emma:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/emmagrede/?hl=en

Good American - https://www.goodamerican.com/

SKIMS - http://skims.com/

Safely - https://getsafely.com/

Aspire With Emma Grede Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aspire-with-emma-grede/id1811878340

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