Emma Grede: Work-life balance is your problem to solve

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 5, 2025

Duration

2h 6m

Channel

The Diary of a CEO

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Emma Grede is the founding partner behind the globally successful brands like SKIMS with Kim Kardashian, Good American with Khloé Kardashian, and Safely with Kris Jenner. She was named one of Forbes ‘Richest Self-Made Women in America’. ▫️ How to build a winning brand strategy in 2025, what actually works in today’s market ▫️The key hiring traits behind her billion-dollar teams and why grit and adaptability beat experience ▫️ Why hustle culture isn’t toxic and how ambition fuels Emma’s business growth and company culture ▫️The leadership frameworks she uses to scale fast and build high-performance, mission-driven teams ▫️How she grew SKIMS and Good American without design skills: by doubling down on vision, execution, and speed ▫️Why every founder must zoom out and audit their business regularly, or risk scaling failure instead of success 00:00 Intro 02:17 Becoming Emma Grede 03:58 Acting as the Mum and Raising My Siblings 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 01:05:45 Meeting Kris Jenner and Pitching to Her 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’ 🃏 The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): ⁠https://thediary.com/products/the-conversation-cards-2nd-edition 📧 Get email updates: ⁠https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/subscribe?a=QSijwy&g=UmhJ8p ⁠ 📣 Think like a CEO - join the 100 CEOs newsletter: https://bit.ly/100-ceos-newsletter Follow Steven: ⁠https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo?_branch_match_id=1443935875697260069&utm_medium=marketing&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXTzcqzTHQSywo0MvJzMvWT89zL%2FQx8Sz29k6yrytKTUstKsrMS49PKsovL04tsnXOKMrPTQUAG23N%2FTwAAAA%3D 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 Sponsors: "Vanta - https://vanta.com/steven Bon Charge - http://boncharge.com/diary?rfsn=8189247.228c0cb with code DIARY for 25% off"

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Emma Grede

  guest

• Steven Bartlett

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Emma Grede and Steven Bartlett, Emma Grede: Work-life balance is your problem to solve explores grit, Not Balance: Emma Grede Redefines Work, Ambition, and Success Emma Grede, co-founder of Good American and SKIMS, unpacks how a gritty mindset, ruthless focus, and clear-eyed honesty about sacrifice shaped her rise from East London poverty to running billion‑dollar fashion businesses. She argues that work–life balance is a personal responsibility, not an employer’s promise, and that extraordinary success always demands extraordinary effort. The conversation covers her upbringing as a de facto parent, building and scaling brands in a changed 2025 landscape, leadership and hiring philosophy, and the realities of being a female Black founder. She also opens up about fertility struggles, surrogacy, and why she’s launching a podcast, Aspire, to “scale mentorship” and give more people a realistic blueprint for ambition.

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