Aspire with Emma Grede - The Five Lessons That Shook Me This Year

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

In this solo episode, Emma Grede looks back on the conversations that shaped her most in the first year of Aspire. From billion-dollar founders to cultural icons to the people closest to her, Emma rev...isits the moments that shifted her thinking, changed her routine, and genuinely shook her this year.  These five lessons span money, mindset, ambition, career, and emotional resilience. Together, they reveal a truth Emma returns to constantly: success is a lifelong practice of learning, unlearning, and returning to what matters.  If you’ve been feeling stuck, rushed, overwhelmed, or unsure of your next step, this episode is a recalibration. Which of the five lessons hit you the hardest? Drop your biggest takeaway in the comments below, and if this episode moved you, make sure you subscribe so you never miss the conversations that help you grow, thrive, and aspire. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I am so excited to share my debut book with you or Start With Yourself, which is available now. You might have seen the headlines, you might have seen the social, but this book is exactly what I intended, a conversation that will make you think, and it's a blueprint for anyone who wants success without the toxic positivity. Start with yourself is about self-leadership, because wherever I go, women ask me how I got to where I am. But what you really want to know is how you can get there. So I'm doing what I do best, sharing and navigate keeping what's works for me in the hope that you can borrow from a philosophy that has served me so well. The truth is I'm not an expert. I've just lived it. I've made the mistakes.
Starting point is 00:00:40 I've had the failures and I've learned what actually works. It takes a lot. It takes the most. And this book is for anyone who's tired of feeling like a passenger in their own life. It's about taking responsibility for your thinking, managing your emotions and getting clear on your ideas and then knowing your next step. It's about picking yourself up after failure, being accountable, but also forgiving yourself, pushing for wins, and never, ever apologising for your ambition. It's also about challenging the rules that you've been told. There is no perfect time. Balance isn't the goal. Alignment is and there's nothing wrong with you wanting more. I'm precisely sure that the reason I've been so successful is
Starting point is 00:01:21 so I can share it with you. Start with yourself. My debut book is available now. Visit emigre.com to purchase the book, also available on Amazon. on, your favourite audio platforms and all good bookshops. So I don't know about you guys, but when I listen to a podcast that I really love, I tend to go back again and listen for a second or even a third time, because there will always be something in there that either I loved and I want to double down on or something that I completely missed. Now, we've been doing this podcast for almost seven months,
Starting point is 00:02:03 and so what I wanted to do was pull out some of the parts that have been the biggest game changes for me. The things that I've taken into my routine, the things that have shifted my way of thinking, and the things that really move the needle for me. Because when I decided to do this podcast, it was really about sharing information, giving you an insider's look on how excellent people get stuff done. But it was also about finding more ways to connect with people and ultimately finding more ways to learn and to feed my own appetite to learn. So today, I'm going to go back to some of my favorite episodes to show you the things that moved me the most. For me, there is no one more helpful when talking about business than Mark Cuban,
Starting point is 00:02:43 because he ain't going to sugarcoat it, but he's also never going to overcomplicate things. And sometimes a simple answer is all that's needed. So when I ask Mark, what's the one thing you wished every founder knew? He told me this, sales, cures all, meaning that you either have the sales or you don't have the sales. and therefore one of the most important traits any entrepreneur can have is learning to sell. Now, listen carefully to this one because sometimes the best stuff is so simple, it just passes you by. This wasn't just a simple answer. It's the ultimate business truth because if you have sales, you'll figure everything else out. And if you don't, you don't have a business. You have a hobby.
Starting point is 00:03:25 So thank you, Mark, for making it so simple. Let's free visit. What's something that you wish every first time found a new? sales cures all. Sales cures all. No sales, no company. That's it. No exceptions to that rules. Because people get amored with all the other stuff,
Starting point is 00:03:42 a maud with their model, the marketing, and it's like you need sales. I talk about this all the time. It's like focus on distribution, focus on your sales, focus on like owning that story and just being the best salesperson possible
Starting point is 00:03:56 because that's all you need at the end of the day. Right, because if you can sell. Yeah, you'll figure the rest out. Yes, because everything else is not a problem. is through to that sale. If you can't sell, it doesn't matter what you're good at. It doesn't matter anything else for that matter. You're stuck. Why do you think people avoid that? Because people don't like to be told no. Oh. You know, I tell people all the time. Every no gets you closer to a yes. Every no. And I would tell that to myself, I was selling magazines door to door, right? And I'd walk up,
Starting point is 00:04:25 are you telling me that for $5 a week, this wasn't going to improve the education and enjoyment of your family? No. On to the next one. And it's the same. Selling Mavis tickets. Switch up your pitch. You know, when I first like the Mavs, hey, it's less than McDonald's.
Starting point is 00:04:39 No, you guys suck. Boom, on to the next, right? You've just got to be relentless and most people are afraid of the word now. Are you afraid to give the word no? Because I feel like getting the feedback is really hard. You just give the feedback, right? No, I don't like to say no to people.
Starting point is 00:04:54 That's my problem. That's why I don't do hiring to my companies. Oh, right. Is that true? Oh, yeah. Because I'm awful at hiring people. You're just like, I'm on board. No, I'm like, I'm a sales guy, right?
Starting point is 00:05:05 So like, I think I can make this work. What is the truth then in entrepreneurship that no one actually tells you? The truth that no one is the truth. It's hard. You know, it's, it's, there's, I think you're not automatically going to make money. Most people don't make it. Most people fail. It's hard.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Yeah. That's, I think, what I've seen. And it's interesting, actually, as you go into the town, because even if you think an idea is a great one and you think it has a market, like not everything works out. No. And you can give the funding and it just for, I don't know, a myriad of reasons might not work. It fails. Yeah. Most companies have you failed. Yeah, of course I've failed. You never heard about my powdered milk company. No. I started out of college. Not a good one. Not a good one. It was cheaper. It didn't matter if it didn't taste like milk. It was powder milk.
Starting point is 00:05:54 All right. Tell me about the powdered milk company. Well, I want to know about the failure. I want I don't know, what does it mean to fail and get back up and do it again? Like, what is it in you that allows you to take the failure and it not be about you? Damien John says it best. It's the power of broke. You're broke. What else are you going to do? I mean, I was eating mustard and ketchup sandwiches. I was going to a bar with $5 buying one beer and eating all the fried mushrooms and the peanuts and whatever shit. Broke is good. Broke is great for a period of your life. Yes, right? Because you've learned. Yeah. Yeah, it's really true. But what have you learned? Do you feel like the failures that you've had, have they amounted to something that you've been able to see, like, as a
Starting point is 00:06:39 pattern in your life? Or is it more just about the individual circumstance? Because I feel like I could look at every failure I've had, and I'm like, basically the same thing. I don't know if it was basically the same thing other than maybe shit didn't sell, right? Is that? Powder milk? Yeah. It didn't sell. did not sell. I remember taking samples to people mixing up, like, look, milk's expensive. We're broke, right? It's save you money. It's some grainy shit.
Starting point is 00:07:06 And just seeing the look on their face. No, you can do about that. Point taken. You're like, I got it. But it's just you. Your taste in milk is different, right? All right, so how long, because this is that kind of love. About a month.
Starting point is 00:07:20 How amounts? Yeah, about a month. Yeah, but isn't that the thing? At least you didn't try to do that for a year? Because some people just don't. know how to step away. But doing no sales. It was going nowhere, you know.
Starting point is 00:07:29 I know, but people don't always hear that. Don't you think, like, you must deal with a lot of early stage founders that just don't read the signs. They don't see it. And I think it's really important to talk a bit about failure and to talk about when it's time to pack it in. You know, I never really thought of it that way, but you're right. You have to have a lot of self-awareness to be an entrepreneur.
Starting point is 00:07:49 It's no secret that I love Michelle Obama. But what she left us with after her episode was more than that. just great, quotable Michelle moments for me. The biggest single takeout was this idea of there being these defined chapters in your life and bringing an awareness to the fact that life doesn't all need to be figured out in one day. For me, this was more than a little bit reassuring because as a highly ambitious person, I do find myself in a rush to get to the next big thing. Every now and again, I wonder why what I'm working on isn't happening faster, why I'm not seeing the results that I want right away or the sales that I want right away or thinking like why didn't this thing happen exactly
Starting point is 00:08:30 as I'd intended. But Michelle made that all go away with just this very simple reflection. When I look at my life so far with the benefit of hindsight, I know that there've been chapters when all I've done is work. There've been chapters when, honestly, I haven't had as much work as I would have wanted. There've been seasons where everything I tried didn't have the desired effect or flat out just didn't work. But this idea of your life coming in chapters or in seasons is a really helpful framework, especially for those of us who need to make sacrifices,
Starting point is 00:09:04 sacrifices that slow us down, or when something stands in the way that you didn't choose. Like losing your job, someone getting sick in the family. What I know for sure is that life will throw you curveballs because you can be in a season that, quite frankly, isn't about you. It's about your kids. It's about somebody that needs something from you that takes precedent, But knowing that nothing is finite, we don't actually need all the things in the exact moment
Starting point is 00:09:28 because there will be another moment. And allowing yourself to be at peace with the decisions that you sometimes have to make was so liberating. You know, being a wife to the leader of the free world, to, you know, your own career ambitions and all your own aspirations as well. And I wonder if there is like a critical and honest piece of advice that you can give or that you can share based on your own journey and what you would say to women that are trying to seemingly have it all, do it all, live to the fullest. I've said this a lot. It's impossible to have it all. So stop with that. First of all, you can have it all over a period of time.
Starting point is 00:10:15 but this impatience and this feeling of like, I've got to be, I've got to have the exact job at the top of the game. And I want to be the best mom to all to the, you know, I want to be there, be at all the stuff. And I want to look my best and be in my best shape and be emotionally intuned. La la la la la. And my marriage has got to be on point. Like, it's, it doesn't, you can't do all of that. There are tradeoffs. And it's okay. You know, if we're blessed and we can take care of ourselves emotionally and physically, life is long.
Starting point is 00:10:53 And you can have chapters. And you don't lose out because you, you know, you didn't read the whole book in one sitting. Each chapter can be really special. When my kids were little and I was sort of ready to drive in my career, but Barack was a, state senator, and then he ran for Congress and lost, and then he was a U.S. Senator, he was away more than he was home. I got to a point where I said, I can't be in the highest driving point in my career life. I just can't. So I left running a nonprofit that I enjoyed running, but running a nonprofit is an all-consuming, and the nonprofit didn't have a lot of money,
Starting point is 00:11:42 and I needed flexibility. Did you do it happily? Or was there resentment there? There was a little resentment. But I was happy because I love my girls and I love the time that I spent with them. And I felt more at peace with that decision because it was the right thing for them. And ultimately for me, because it gave me balance that I needed at that time. And I used myself as an example. I did that.
Starting point is 00:12:14 And it didn't stop my growth. It didn't, you know, I went on after that. I became an associate dean. I was the vice president and head of community outreach for the University of Chicago hospitals as the girls grew. And I felt more secure. I started re-aligning myself. People don't realize they can take a little pause.
Starting point is 00:12:36 Yeah. Like life doesn't really give you the feeling right now that you can just be like, hold, please. That's right. For whatever reason. And you can, and you don't. don't have to stop. Like, I didn't stop. I thought about quitting completely. And then I got an opportunity to get a good job that I enjoyed in a flex situation. I negotiated flexibility for myself. I negotiated flexibility first. That wasn't flexibility. It just was less pay. And I was irritated at
Starting point is 00:13:05 that because I got half the salary and was still doing a full-time job. So I learned from that. I was like, never again. I'm too much of a driver. to ever get paid less, right? So the next job, I was like, pay the full salary, but give me hard blanche over my schedule. I will get the job done, but I'm picking up my kids from school.
Starting point is 00:13:26 I'm going to the Halloween parade. And I might not be here on Friday, but I'll be here when I need to be here. So pay me, right? I learned that. So I would just say out there to women, it can come. And if you are choosing to drive,
Starting point is 00:13:41 which that's a choice, then don't parent from guilt. All. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package.
Starting point is 00:14:03 The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at Yamava.com must be 21stwinter. Please gamble responsibly.
Starting point is 00:14:17 Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right.
Starting point is 00:14:44 Kayak. Got that right. and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College deal, everything you need,
Starting point is 00:15:01 to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 premium and a year of Xbox GamePass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at Windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th, terms at AKA.m.m.S. It will probably go down as the most succinct message ever delivered on the show.
Starting point is 00:15:30 But when Melody Hobson said, you have to have a sense of urgency. You have to want to be great. To me, it was like, here's what separates the best from the rest. I've said it on many occasions that not everybody has to be ambitious. We don't all need to start businesses or want to be at the very top of our career. But if you do, there are a couple of non-negotiables and a sense of urgency and how much you care are two of the most important traits of any successful person that I know. Now, when we hear stories about people that do things that should take five years in one year or should take five weeks in one week, there is no secret. You know, you simply cannot underestimate the importance of moving fast and a first move as advantage.
Starting point is 00:16:16 I've worked in fashion for most of my career and sweating the small stuff or caring the most, as Melody says, is what the best people in the business do. The ones that care about every component of how our products has made, every stitch, the lining and the trim package and the fabric and the construction, then how it's folded when it gets on the shop floor, how it's put in the bag, how it's packaged to the customer, the experience of unboxing and on and on and on.
Starting point is 00:16:41 That is the difference between the best and the rest. There's just some stuff that you cannot argue about. If you want to be great, urgency and caring the most is a great place to start. So many people that are sitting there in a corporate career. And I do think to some degree there is a blueprint for getting promoted from moving through a job in the way that you have. So what do you tell people? I mean, because you're on an 11. Do you need everybody else around you to be on a 11?
Starting point is 00:17:15 and 11 and what is it that people need to do in order to be successful and to be promoted where they're at? Okay, this is going to sound strange, and I'm going to make it hopefully not sound not great, but it's how I think about it. My mom had six kids. She mothered us all differently. That's just a fact. No siblings have the same parents.
Starting point is 00:17:39 No. That is a fact. It's a fact. directly with me, I understand what they can do and how they can do it. John Rogers always used to tell me that the World Championship Chicago Bulls that won seven championships, he said, Dennis Rodman rebounds, Steve Kerr shoots threes, Michael is the greatest player of all time, you know, he would go through each player. And he said, but each one is really important. Michael can't play without them. They can't win. So Dennis may be out at night,
Starting point is 00:18:14 but everyone makes sure Dennis is on the court so that he can rebound for them. And he's like, so he doesn't have the same rules as everyone else. And so, Melody, you figure it out that you get the best out of each person, but everyone is not going to run the place. But what happens if your aspiration is to operate at the highest level? Like, what are the non-negotiables do you think for people that want that type of career? What do they need to do?
Starting point is 00:18:40 You must. And I mean this with serious. intensity, I think you have to care a lot and have a sense of urgency. You have to have a sense of urgency. You have to want to be great. And if you want to, there's a, you know, I love that book by Jim Collins, Good to Great, and the first line of the books, good is the enemy of great. Good is the enemy of great. Plenty of people are happy with good. They say the worst student is the B plus student. Because the B plus student, I was like, it's fine. It's good. It's a good. It's They're like, the C student aspires for something better.
Starting point is 00:19:17 And the A student is just the A student, but the B plus student is, they live in that no man's land of its fine. And so it's almost like the worst situation that you can be in. So if good is the enemy of great, I want the person who wants to be great, but understanding that differential between good and great is really hard. Do you think you can train people into that or do you think it has to come from somewhere within themselves?
Starting point is 00:19:41 It has to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, some people just, you know, they come out of the wound with it. Some people don't, but that doesn't make them, they can still be very valuable. They're just going to be a certain kind of player. And that's what John said. He's like, there going to be other people.
Starting point is 00:19:55 They're just not going to run the place. So you think people have to just work really hard, want to be great, and they need to have a sense of urgency. I think they have to want to be great. Let's start with that. And, you know, some people have to work harder than others. So I remember going to school with geniuses at Princeton. They didn't have to work as hard as I did. They, you know, sort of like skim the page and got it.
Starting point is 00:20:14 And I'm like writing notes and checking, you know, flashcards and doing the whole thing. But, you know, it came easier to them. Some things come easier to me. So I think it's just a function of you understanding yourself. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at U.S. USAA.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply.
Starting point is 00:20:48 So you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a free night's day anywhere? Anywhere. What about fancy places like the canopy in Paris? Yeah, Hilton Honors, baby. Or relaxing sanctuaries, like the Conrad in Toulomb? Hilton Honors Baby. What about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives? Are you going to do this for all 9,000 properties?
Starting point is 00:21:10 When you want points that can take you anywhere, any time, it matters where you stay. for this day. Book your spring break now. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed sponsored jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate C. According to Indeed data, sponsor jobs have four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed.
Starting point is 00:21:40 Get a $75-sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. I was so excited to speak to Reese Bitherspoon because she's someone that I've just loved since she was in cruel intentions. I've devoured every movie that she's ever done and I love it when you get to meet people and they don't disappoint. Reese is obviously a powerhouse. But the last conversation I expected to be having with her was one about money. And let me tell you, Reese did not mince her words. She has a passion for helping and enabling other women.
Starting point is 00:22:20 And so when she spoke on this podcast, she came to do exactly that. And let me tell you, anyone, anyone that's happy to part ways with their best money advice is someone I'm going to listen to all day long. So what's the one thing that every woman needs to know about money? Do you think? Oh, my God. Where do I start one thing? Well, go on.
Starting point is 00:22:38 Give us it all. Well, first of all, I learned about money from doing things wrong. Yes. I don't know a woman, Emma. I do not know a woman who doesn't have a disaster financial story in her past. Facts. Whether it's her, her best friend, her sister, her mom, her grandma, her auntie, she lost all her money. Or she got divorced and she got stuck with the bill. Or, you know, just whatever financial debt. So much debt. And so I listen to every podcast on finances. I am so interesting. and financial wellness for women. And just also, a lot of what we learn is one course, three days in high school. We're lucky if you get three months.
Starting point is 00:23:26 Yeah. And that was the end of my financial learning. And then I became this woman. I was making money and I was a young mom. And I did not save correctly. I'm in fine. I'm fine. But you mean you're fine.
Starting point is 00:23:41 You're not like, are you not rolling in it like now? Like, just fine. I did invest properly. I'm not not saying that it wasn't, I'm completely fine. And I did well, but I could have done amazing if I had learned a few things. And a lot of them are mindsets. Right. Mm-hmm. About saving, about the steadiness of the stock market and index funds and diversifying your portfolio and making sure that you're looking at treasuries and you're looking at bonds and yields and things that are pretty simple if somebody says them, to you in a, like if you're a visual person, you see a visual chart. I'm a visual person. So
Starting point is 00:24:21 every time I talk to people about finances, I need it laid out. I need it laid out. And I want cute colors. Yes. I'm just being honest. Notes. I want a pleasing palette and a pie chart. Thanks. Damn right. We know what your business managers are doing. Making this very aesthetically pleasing presentation. Like, can somebody do the pie chart for a reason? But I love that you say that because it is all pretty simple. But again, we're not always having those conversations and sharing the information. What's the best piece of money advice you think you've been given? Don't get into debt.
Starting point is 00:24:53 Do everything you can to not get into debt. And pay off those credit cards or don't spend the money like it's yours. It's not yours, girlfriend. Yeah. And that was a really good piece of advice. Don't ever let somebody control you with money. Somebody says, I'll take care of it and I'll take care of you and I'll take care of this. that person could leave, that person can hurt you.
Starting point is 00:25:19 You always keep your job. Your job is your life insurance. My mom used to always say that to me. Oh. And my mom went through some tough stuff in a marriage with finances. Really tough stuff. Yeah. And so to my grandma, not in the marriage, but in like a family structure.
Starting point is 00:25:35 And I have this past of women not being taken care of financially. And so I think. You too. Right? And as a little girl, it scars you, like literally. It's living inside me. So, so deeply. And that's why I have a passion for helping women understand.
Starting point is 00:25:58 And also demystifying it, you know? Yeah, I feel like the demystifying piece is really, really important. Do you, are you the type of person that looks after everything yourself, or have you kind of outsourced all of that to a team at this point? I have outsourcing, but there's frequent check-ins. Same. Weekly. I'm the same.
Starting point is 00:26:14 I like to have enough of that, you know, it's like one hands on it all the time. Like, I'm happy to let the experts be experting, but I need to like, I need it there. Yes. Yeah, I need it there. And then I also need checks and balances. I need to diversify things so that everything's not in one investment or one savings account. Yeah. But that's it.
Starting point is 00:26:35 That's what I did for a long time. It's like, if nobody teaches you that, you don't know. And you're just like, okay, the money sits all here and it's safe. but it's like, it might be safe, but it's not growing. It's not doing it for you. Right, right. And most people don't live in a way that savings is even part of their life. Okay, so I'm very realistic about that. Yes, you have to be. My mom and my grandma always saying to me, you know, they did have, my mom has retirement because she worked her whole life doing three and four jobs, including being in the military and being a nurse
Starting point is 00:27:08 and working in a state university. But you have to think ahead. And you have to think think about saving as helping your future self. Oh yes, absolutely. What you don't spend today, you're saving for your future self. You're saving for 65-year-old Emma who doesn't want to have to worry about the gas bill. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I want to relax as an old lady. Yeah, me too. Eventually at some point. No? I want to have a glass of wine and sit on a porch. A porch. I want to come on that porch. We're just going to sit there and tell our stories. Talk shit about all. We're like, you know. We're going to travel where we want to go.
Starting point is 00:27:46 Oh. And our cute kids. Wouldn't it be joyful? Oh, my God, we have the best time. Now, the outpouring of love that came in after I spoke to my husband on this podcast was really something that I never expected. I think it's because he was both honest and vulnerable when he spoke about anxiety. And anyone who suffers from anxiety will know it's not something that you can control.
Starting point is 00:28:08 There's no switch to turn it off. There's no framework that magically helps you. It's a constant. It's constant. and it's a constant battle. So it made me so happy when Yenz reframe the idea of having anxiety as a superpower. And he spoke about no longer judging himself for having anxiety. You can be with someone for years and years and years and learn new things about them all the time. And there's nothing better than learning from someone you love and then being able to share it with a lot of
Starting point is 00:28:36 people that could benefit from it at the same time. So a huge, huge thank you to all of you that broke to me and commented, I'm really so happy we did this episode. Let's take a listen. And I want to understand a bit more about anxiety as it relates to your career and your life and your business. Because I think that we're so much conditioned to see anxiety as a weakness, and I know you think about it as a superpower. So will you, when did you start seeing it as a superpower and will you just talk about it a bit for me? Very late, probably in my late 30s, where I really understood. And I did that through work I was doing
Starting point is 00:29:16 with a highly spiritual person who asked me, I said, I want to change. I don't want to be this anxious person any longer. I want to feel whole. And he said, are you sure you want to change? I said, yeah, this is a negative thing for me. This is big, you know, my days are heavy. And he said, if you change, it also will change who you are.
Starting point is 00:29:50 You're not just successful because, you know, despite your anxiety, you're successful because of them. there's so many positives that are driven and so many skills that comes from your anxiety that if you change that, you might not be as good as you are today. You might not be as good version. You might not be as an effective founder, entrepreneur without it. Are you sure you want to lose that power? And that was...
Starting point is 00:30:31 Oh yeah, that was, I walked out of that room. I remember. Dr. Tran, right? Yeah, Dr. Tran. Nothing had changed and everything had changed at the same time. Yeah, I mean, I think that that, even just you saying it, and I know that story so well, I feel like it is so important for people to hear because we all have parts of our personality that are useful or less useful, more useful or less useful.
Starting point is 00:31:01 And it's not often, like we don't often put things in the right order. We don't often understand how some of those things that can be troubling to us can also enable us. Yeah. And anxiety can be debilitating, can be crippling. And indeed, for many people, something that they need to get treated. At the same time, anxiety is a human, emotion. It's a part of our human experience.
Starting point is 00:31:36 We all have it to some degree. It's healthy to have a dose of anxiety. It's helped just like it's connected to fear, which is a natural human emotion, reaction. It's our ability to feel love, sadness, you know, joy. Anxiety is part of us. I have more of it and I have so much of it that for a long time in my life, every day was just harder for me than it was for other people.
Starting point is 00:32:17 And I kind of started every day at a negative. Yeah. Right. So I had to overcome that to do anything. I had to overcome anxiety to meet people. I had overcome anxiety to get out in traffic, to get on an airplane, to be on my own. So I always was so, it was exhausting. It was really, really exhausting.
Starting point is 00:32:46 It still is often exhausting. How do you know when anxiety is fueling you versus controlling you these days? I think it does both. I think it does both for better or worse, but I don't judge myself for having anxiety anymore. I accept it. I see it as a wave, and when it comes, it can be imposing,
Starting point is 00:33:16 and in the middle of the wave, you feel hopeless. But I know the wave is going to wash over, and I know there's still, the water is still on the other side. So what am I going to do? Never get in the ocean. Is that better? Or am I going to start getting scared of the sand? You know, the problem, and I'm sure other people, if anyone listens to this,
Starting point is 00:33:40 who suffers from anxiety, and I'm sure many do, the more you tailor your life to avoid situations which makes you anxious, you're getting anxious in lesser situations. When you lower the bar, that becomes a new bar. You need to lower it again. And life gets smaller that way. It's a very tricky subject. Everybody have their own journey.
Starting point is 00:34:11 And I can only speak on my experience. I'm not saying that's translatable to other people. They have to have their journey and they know themselves best. I can only speak of mine. but my personal experience is that I do better when I challenge it. These five conversations each taught me something different about resilience, about grace, excellence, confidence, and self-acceptance. And together they remind me that success is a lifelong practice of learning,
Starting point is 00:34:43 unlearning, and returning to what matters the most. If this episode leaves you reflecting or inspired, that's the whole point. because the people who move us don't just share their wins. They share their wisdom. Thank you so much for being part of Aspire this year. We have so many more wonderful episodes coming in 2026 dedicated to helping you grow, thrive and bet on yourself. Here's to stay in curious, stay in bold and always, always aspiring. See you next time. If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click follow on your favorite listening platform. While you're there, give us a review and a five-star rating and share an episode you love with a friend.
Starting point is 00:35:25 be so grateful. Aspire with Emigreed is presented by Odyssey. I'm your host, Emagreed. Our executive producers are Corrine Gilliard Fisher, Derek Brown, and me. Our executive producers from Odyssey are Maddie Sprung Kaiser, Leah Reese Dennis, Asha Saluja, and Jenna Weiss Berman. Stephen Key is our senior producer, sound design and engineering by Bill Shorts.
Starting point is 00:35:48 Angela Paluso is our Booker, original music by Charles Black, video production by Evan Cox, Kurt Courtney, Andrew Steele, Carlos Delgado and Arnie Agassi. Social media by Olivia Holman. Special thanks to Brittany Smith, Sydney Ford, my team's at the lead company and WME. Mora Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Hutchinson Rose, Tim Mekyll, Sean Cherry and Lauren Vieira. If you have questions for me, you can DM me at Aspire with Emma Greed.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Greed is spelled GR-E-D-E. that's Aspire, AspI-R-A with Emigre. Or you can submit a question to me on my website, emigreid.migre.com. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.