If You Only Watch One Video Today, Make It This One
Mel Robbins (host), Emma Grede (guest), Narrator, Narrator
In this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, featuring Mel Robbins and Emma Grede, If You Only Watch One Video Today, Make It This One explores 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.
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.
Key Takeaways
Treat 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.
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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.
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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.
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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. ...
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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.
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Know if you’re truly built for entrepreneurship before you leap.
Emma bluntly says not everyone should start a business; if you need predictability and are highly risk-averse, you may thrive more in a strong corporate career than as a founder constantly living with uncertainty.
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Obsess over your category and customers, then become a master storyteller.
Her Good American pitch worked because she knew the market, price points, product details, and underserved customer deeply, then wrapped it in a compelling story; great founders sell through narrative, not just features.
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Leverage the network you actually have and just start.
Emma built her early deals from backstage contacts, not glamorous connections, and stresses that people get stuck planning and ‘networking’ instead of doing—your factory, banker, and clients are your real network if you use them.
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Adopt AI now or risk being left behind, especially as a woman.
She warns that women largely missed the first tech boom and urges everyone to integrate AI into their current work—finding efficiencies and new capabilities—so they’re positioned for the next wave of opportunity.
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Notable Quotes
“Anything 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
Questions Answered in This Episode
Where in my life am I still blaming others instead of taking full responsibility, and how is that holding me back?
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. ...
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If I applied Emma’s definition of excellence, what would tomorrow morning actually look like from the moment I wake up?
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Looking at my last few jobs, what tasks genuinely give me energy and which ones consistently drain me—and what does that reveal about my strengths?
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Am I truly suited for entrepreneurship, or would I be happier and more successful building an entrepreneurial career inside an existing company?
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How could I start using AI in my current role or projects this week to work smarter and open up new opportunities?
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Transcript Preview
(instrumental music plays) Today on the Mel Robbins podcast, one of the most motivational episodes you will ever experience. In fact, I'm gonna go on the record and say, this is my favorite episode to date. You are not prepared, and neither was I, for the absolute force of nature that is Emma Grede.
Anything is possible if you really put your mind to it. And this is the big thing that I want specifically women to understand. When you have nothing, and I have been there, how you do anything is how you do everything.
Mm-hmm.
When I, you know, made sandwiches in a deli, I made the best sandwich. When I worked in the cupboard packing clothes, I would do it with excellence.
I love you so much. There's just a grit to you and there's grit plus an amazingly huge heart.
I was brought up in East London, which is a bit like the rough side of the tracks. I'm the oldest of four girls raised by a wonderful single mum. Life was a little bit tough. You know, my mum did the best that she could with the little that she had. I wanted to live a different life and work in something that was enjoyable, because again, where I grew up, everyone did a job to pay their bills. I had spent 10 years building my career at the intersection of brands and fashion.
Mm-hmm.
I had a fantastic understanding of what works in fashion and where the white space was.
Okay.
I really understood what was missing.
Got it.
Where was there a problem that I could find a solution for? And Good American was a solution. Most women are massively underserved by the fashion industry, and so I pitched Chris and Khloé.
Pull up a chair and put us in the meeting in terms of how that meeting went.
I really approached that meeting saying, "Hey, I have this golden, brilliant thing, and this is going to be the next big thing in fashion."
So, what happened next?
Oh, it was a disaster, Mel (laughs) .
What is kinda the biggest lesson from your experience launching Good American?
I would say that my biggest learning has actually been, that might not be what people wanna hear, but that is the truth.
That's what they need to hear. Welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast.
Thank you so much for having me.
(laughs)
I am so happy to be here.
I am so excited to have you here. I can't wait to learn from you and I know the person that is here with us is excited, too. And so I'd love to start by having you just share with the person who's here, what could they experience that could be different about their life or their future if they take everything that you're about to teach us and share with us today to heart?
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