By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
The Mel Robbins PodcastIf You Only Watch One Video Today, Make It This One
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
From East London Grit To Billion-Dollar Brands: Emma Grede’s Playbook
- Mel Robbins interviews entrepreneur and Shark Tank judge Emma Grede about how she went from a poor, dyslexic kid in East London to co-founding billion-dollar brands like Good American and SKIMS. Emma emphasizes radical personal responsibility, managing your thoughts, and practicing excellence in every task as the foundations of her success. She demystifies “overnight success,” stressing that careers unfold in long chapters, powered by hard work, smart risk-taking, and relentless iteration. The conversation also covers knowing whether you’re truly suited to entrepreneurship, how to pitch and build a network, and why women must not miss the AI revolution.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasTreat personal responsibility and thought management as non-negotiable foundations.
Emma frames her life as proof of what happens when you fully own your circumstances and carefully choose your thoughts; you cannot manifest your way out of anything—vision must be coupled with hard work.
Practice excellence in everything, especially the small and ‘crappy’ jobs.
“How you do anything is how you do everything” underpins Emma’s approach, from making sandwiches to packing clothes; showing up with pride and excellence draws people and opportunities to you and builds true leadership skills.
Stop chasing perfection; aim for your own version of excellence.
Perfectionism is externally focused—obsessing over what others think—while excellence is internal, about whether your effort meets your own standard; shifting to excellence frees you to start, iterate, and grow.
Use every job to learn what energizes you and what doesn’t.
Emma used years of low-level roles to learn the fashion ecosystem and discover her strengths (e.g., negotiating) and weaknesses (e.g., spreadsheets), recommending you follow what gives you energy as a compass for your path.
Success is slow: think in decades, not months.
She spent 10+ years building an agency before Good American and only truly loved her work in the last five; she urges people to stop rushing, accept the “rule of thirds” (great, okay, terrible days), and commit to the long game.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesAnything is possible if you really put your mind to it, but you are not going to manifest your way out of anything.
— Emma Grede
How you do anything is how you do everything.
— Emma Grede
If you don’t know what you should pursue, you should pursue yourself.
— Emma Grede
Not everybody should start a business… We’ve romanticized this idea of what it means to be a founder.
— Emma Grede
Everything you want is there. It’s just gotta find you working.
— Emma Grede
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
