Trading Secrets - 234. Emma Grede: From high school dropout to entrepreneurial powerhouse, a masterclass in the hustle, heart, and high standards behind Good American, Skims & beyond!

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

This week, Jason is joined by  a powerhouse who's not just building brands, but shaping the future of entrepreneurship, Emma Grede! As Co-Founder and CEO of Good American and Founding Partner of SKIMS, to becoming the first black woman to guest star as a shark on Shark Tank. With a keen eye for opportunity, a passion for equality, and a voice that resonates far beyond the boardrooms, Emma is redefining what it means to lead, especially as a woman and a woman of color.  In this episode, Emma shares how she recognized her entrepreneurial spirit early on—watching her mom budget, understanding the cost of everything, and forming a deep emotional connection to money. She opens up about raising capital for Good American, growing from a modest client base to working with some of the biggest names, and the hard lessons learned after failing in LA and starting from scratch. Emma talks about building a full-service reputation, earning trust, and key insights from investor Andrew Rosen. She explains how directly asking women what they need has informed her investment and product strategies, the top three traits she looks for when deciding where to invest, and how she keeps up with fast-moving trends. Plus, she breaks down her rules for hiring, firing, and promoting, shares the inspiration behind her new podcast Aspire with Emma Grede, and talks about her recent collaboration with Off Season and designer Kristin Juszczyk. Emma reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss! Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guest: Emma Grede Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! Thrive Market: Thrive Market is like your favorite health food store-but online, and way more affordable. I'm talking about premium brands like Primal Kitchen, Siete, Hu, and Simple Mills... all delivered to your door, and up to 30% less than what you'd pay at traditional stores. Skip the junk without overspending. Head over to ThriveMarket.com/TRADINGSECRETS to get 30% off your first order and a FREE $60 gift. Booking.com: Whether you’re looking to earn that extra income, fill those vacant weekends, or grow you business, head over to Booking.com to see how you can get started today. The reach is global, the bookings are consistent, and the control is yours. For the bookings you’ve dreamed of, list your property on Booking.com! Boll & Branch: Boll & Branch products are made different, so you can sleep better at night.Woven with the finest 100% organic cotton on earth and crafted by artisans who earn the pay and respect they deserve.  Feel the difference an extraordinary night’s sleep can make with Boll & Branch. Get 15% off, plus free shipping on your first set of sheets, at BollAndBranch.com/tradingsecrets  Cymbiotika: Cymbiotika is changing the game when it comes to supplements. Their liquid packets are more effective, convenient, and go wherever you go. ​Cymbiotika is as clean as it gets—no seed oils, preservatives, or artificial junk. Just high-quality, real ingredients that actually do something. Go to Cymbiotika.com/tradingsecrets for 20% off + free shipping today

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are honored to spotlight a powerhouse who's not just building brands, but shaping the future of entrepreneurship, Emma Greed, from co-founding the inclusive fashion juggernauts, good American, and skims to becoming the first black woman to guest star. as a shark on shark tank, Emma is a force in the world of business. With a keen eye for opportunity, a passion for equity, a voice that resonates far beyond the boardrooms, Emma is redefining what it means to lead, especially as a woman and as a woman of color.

Today, we are going to explore her journey, the hustle, the heart, and the high standards that drive her and how she is lifting the next generation of female entrepreneurs along the way. Emma, thank you so much for being on Trading Secrets. What a lovely intro. Yeah, well, you know what? You deserve, I told you this before, but I went through your resume. I'm like, I need you for 10 hours, not for 50 minutes. How do we talk about everything you've accomplished in this short period of time?

I love that. It's unbelievable. So nice of you to say. Yes. Well, I mean, I'm going to start out with this. Like, you know, from a high school dropout to Forbes, recognizing you as one of the richest self-made women in America, reshaping the thought process and the thought leadership of women in entrepreneurship. When you were that high school girl, did you ever expect that your life would be where it is today when you think about your career direction and things you've accomplished?

It's such a difficult thing to say yes. You know, in a way, it's so interesting. You know, I've said this before. We don't have yearbooks in England like you do here, which is such a lovely tradition. I love it for my own kids. But I kind of feel like I would have been most likely to succeed. You know, I was a hustler of a kid that was just, I was born that. way. You know, I was always selling something. I was always like trying to make money. I would

always have a job. You know, I worked like a paper route when I was 12. I would sell things to teachers in like the recess time. So to me, it's like part of who I am is just finding a way and figuring stuff out. And so I feel like my entire career has really started from that place of just like being a hungry little monster and being a born hustler and like leaning into honestly, like whatever opportunity was in front of me. And honestly, they haven't all been as wonderful as they are now. Yeah, of course. There's definitely some bumps on the way, but I feel like I'm kind of predisposed to being somebody that was going to succeed and going to figure it out for themselves. It's amazing. And obviously you've had massive success. Some of these names,

you guys have all heard, Kai safely skims, good American. The list goes on. Offseason brand, huge fan of that brand. I wore it all through the Buffalo Bills playoffs. Thank you very much. Yeah, we were rocking it, drinking beers in the parking lot. But I mean, like some of the numbers that you can at least see online with some of these companies and, you know, the accuracy of them, we still have to go through. But like you look at like skims, you look at 500 million at least was what we saw online. Good American revenue of 150. I feel like they underplayed me.

They underplayed you. That's a 4.2 billion dollar valuation we have over there. They're saying the revenue numbers 500 million. That's also underplayed. Underplayed. See? And that's why we have this podcast. Now we're going to get to the.

numbers, we'll get to all the businesses that you're part of. Before we do, though, obviously these are huge numbers with huge businesses that almost every single person listening to this podcast will have recognized. When we talk about money and recognition and all these things, I want to start from what it looked like even before high school. Just in general, you're grinding, paper route, always selling something. What was your relationship with money growing up? And what was that like in your family dynamic? And how has that led you to some of these big numbers today? Well, honestly, I love that you start there because I grew up as a really pork. I'm one of four girls raised by a single mom in East London, which is, you know, like, I don't know, the equivalent of being raised in like Brooklyn or, you know, like Long Beach or, you know, it's a place that is very kind of formative when I think about who I am, but I grew up like not having much and really my mom having to count every single penny, you know, it was about how are you keeping the lights on, how are we buying our groceries this week and understanding the value of everything.

But I never think about that as something that held me back. In fact, it was really about me knowing what we had and knowing how to make things like last and stretch, right? It's like if we had 60 quid, my mom had to feed four kids, 60 pounds. Sorry, I'm very English. You know, it's like if we had that little bit of money, we would need to figure out how are you going to get three meals a day out of that? How are you going to keep the lights on? How are you going to pay the guy that delivers the milk? And that was really, I think, my first kind of formative.

relationships with money came from watching my mum budget and she would budget every single line item, write it down and be to the absolute penny. So I learned that from a very, very young age. And I think still to this day, I know the price of everything. You know, I don't do my grocery shopping, but I can tell you like what everything costs. And I have a very, still like I would say, like an emotional relationship with money and eventually like running out of money. That would be like something that I think about constantly. interesting to think that like behaviors you develop as a kid could be the same behaviors that you're applying to a $4 billion plus valuation business like skims still to this day. I mean, that's

pretty cool. I think it's cool, but I also think it gives you a level of, you know, responsibility because when I raised money for the first time for my first venture, you know, I treated that money like it was my own, right? There was no sense of, oh, like I've raised a couple of million dollars and now I get to go and squander this around and see, you know, we'll see what sticks. I was like, this is precious, this is finite, this has a weight and a value to it. And I treated it like it was my own. And I think that when you're an investor, and certainly as an investor now, I'd love to think that my founders actually treated my money like that. So it set me up in a really good way.

And I'm very intentional when I think about money and indeed how I equate value to things. Very fascinating. When you talk about your first raise, I see that your first company is ITB worldwide. Started that at 26 and then you went on to sell it. Was that the first company you did a raise? for? Absolutely. So interestingly enough, it's an interesting story because that company had a lot of different iterations. Technically speaking, Good American was really the first company that I made a raise for because that company was formed out of me acquiring. I first started an entertainment marketing agency.

So I was working on putting partnerships and collaborations together between brands and artists or brands and celebrities. And then I started acquiring businesses. So I would acquire like a little PR agency, a little VIP agency. And I started a licensing company. And I pretty much amalgamated all of these companies put it together. And that's what I eventually sold as ITB worldwide. So technically the first time I actually went out and raised capital was for good American. And so when you, that's fascinating. When you started this company, that was like an agency that you continued to piece together. When that happened, like did you start that all by yourself? Did you have partners? How How much did you have to invest from the get-go to get it going?

So from the beginning, it was just sweat equity. It was me. I worked in, I worked as a division of a PR agency. I was the only one billing. And the two guys that run that agency came to me and said, hey, would you like to start your own company? We think we see something special. You're the only one making any money here.

Maybe we should spin you out and we'll do a joint venture. And honestly, I went home and like Googled, what is a joint venture? Sure. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll do it. Sounds great. You know, how much do I get? And they were like, you'll have 51%. And I was like, well, that sounds amazing.

And so the first thing that I ever did was really tried to understand how I could have ownership in this thing. But for me, it was all sweat equity. And they invested in the back office, the infrastructure and some staffing for me. And it was all about, you know, it was me on my own from the beginning. I wrote every proposal. I delivered all of the work. I then would, you know, create the invoice to send to the client.

But it was like a complete startup in every sense of the work. My curiosities are just driving me, but at this point, you have your own PR shop. Like, who are you managing? Are you managing brands or people at this point? Actually, at the time it was brands. Okay. So my job was really to connect the brands to the people. Okay. So, you know, it's like I would be representing a car brand or an alcohol brand or a fashion brand.

And they would say, go fetch. Like we wanted to. And back then, they weren't even influences. These were like bloggers to begin with, you know, like chefs or, you know, a CEO. And it was all about like time to connect those brands. And of course, as my agency got bigger and bigger, the clients got bigger and bigger, and then the talent got bigger and bigger. So I was booking, you know, Gwyneth Poutre or Natalie Portman on a Dior commercial.

But in the beginning, it was tiny and all based in London and about doing tiny little deals, $5,000 here, $10,000 here, $25,000. I remember when I got $25,000 deal, I was like, yes, and I was taking a percentage of those deals. Of course, yeah. Now, I think everyone listening to this can really connect with the grind of exactly what you're talking about. like there's going to be entrepreneurs like I'm there I got my own little thing I got a couple thousand two thousand I'm representing an alcohol brand or maybe like a chip brand but I can't even fathom how could I make a jump to a Gwyneth Patrol that's a huge jump to make so for those

people out there they're kind of just grinding and fighting the way you were fighting and then you were able to make this jump to where you are now what was it like how do you go from just representing the small people to then someone like doing a deal with Gwyneth and then of course partnering with the Kardashians on many of their ventures. Well, I love that you ask this question because I think it's something that people think about all the time, and I think it's something that even in my own companies now, as people are coming up, they're like,

how do I get to the next place? Like, what's in my future? How do I meet this place and meet my ambition? And to me, it's all about being excellent at what you do today. Unless somebody really values what it is that you're doing and you are absolutely amazing at what you're doing, nobody looks at you for the next thing. And honestly, for me, I grew,

through reputation alone. You would do one job for a PR company or for an agency or for a brand and they would say, oh, we just won this other piece of business. Maybe you could come in on that or, you know, somebody would jump ship and go to another company and you would be like over there providing services there. And my business grew purely by recommendation, by association, by the jobs that I'd done. And I used to tell myself, you are only as good as the last job you've delivered. So everything has to be excellent. I prided myself on being. whatever my clients needed, I would be there and I would do it and I would go that extra my and I would really, really think about how can my agency stand out?

Like, what is the extra thing that we could do to make ourselves better than the competition? And so I was really all about just being brilliant at this very, very narrow thing that we did, which was booking celebrity talent, booking artistic talent. And I got very good at it, right? My contracts got really sharp. I understood how to look for the pitfalls. And inevitably, when shit hits the fan, when things go wrong, I would be there to work things out.

And I think that what happened a lot in those days is that your broker, your agency was nowhere to be seen on the day of the shoe, you know, throughout the duration of like whatever that campaign was. And so I was like, you know what? If this is a six-month contractual term, I'm in for the six months. So you might have just paid me to do that one contract,

but I'd be there for the life cycle. And actually what happened in that business was the advent of social meant that, you know, it used to be about you do the shoot, the shoot is the advertising campaign and everybody goes off. As social media came in, that really changed because the deliverables changed. And so me then saying, I'm not just here for the shoe and for the contract, but I'll stay through the duration of the contract, meant I was there to help the brand get their deliverables. And when the, you know, difficulties arise, I'd be there to unstick that. So I kind of just got a reputation for myself as being somebody that was very full service and that kind of then permeated down into the agency and by the time I had five or 10 or 15 staff like that was just our service offering. That's what we did. That's what we were known for and that's why brands

will come to us. Yeah, I think it is so fascinating because that differentiation, it's like the idea of just saying what is my peer group doing and then how am I going to do things differently, do it consistently and then realize that my last deal I'm only as good as and I'm going to continue to step it up from there and there and there from a time period perspective you build the agency you you piecemeal it together and then you just said your first real raise was with good American and so this is in 2016 good American is founded and you change the entire dichotomy for the denim business right like so the way that you are having a trend for designs but also that fit women of all sizes and so this is 2016 how does this connect as far as like how long have you

been with your agency at this point before good American was established. It was a full 10 years. 10 years. Which is wild when I think about it. And, you know, I never want to gloss over it because I made so many mistakes. I cannot tell you, you know, we were killing it in London. And with, you know, I just, I remember thinking quite highly of myself because I was still young and, you know, the work was fun. And so I opened an office in L.A. and I opened in New York. I failed so miserably in L.A. Because I kind of, you know, like I really believed that we were the best and that I could export what I was doing anywhere. And so I hired a few amazing people and I came to L.A. and I failed miserably. It was the biggest waste of money, the worst experiment.

I just, you know, it was really eye-opening. But in a way, it really informed everything else that I did because I went back and I said, do you know what? I only need to fail once, right? I'll make a mistake and I'll take that mistake on the chin, but I ain't going to do it again. And so I took a couple of years to recover and before I would then open in New York and that was really formative for me because I understood so much about the American market

then so much, you know, for me it was like America, right? I was like, America's America. I had no idea the difference between operating on the East Coast versus the West Coast. Night and day. Like night and day. And even the agencies, right? The agencies from London to New York

were very transferable. There were so many similarities. But you got to the West Coast and it was like literally the Wild World World West, totally different market, totally different expectations, like, and no, you know, there's such a community on the West Coast, and I wasn't part of that. So I made a lot of mistakes, and it took me a while to come back from that before I could open a New York office, and then before I could really kind of get my strength up to do something

that in my mind was, like, global again. I'm glad you touched on failure because you've had so many successes, and when I saw your, at your resume, I'm like, where has been, like, where have you missed? Because it doesn't look like you've missed in anything. Oh, I've missed so much. Have you? really, I honestly do think I've missed so much. I think early, early in starting ITB, I don't think I understood really the strength that you have as a founder and a CEO to set the agenda

early on, right? I was like, our business was all about winning business. It was all about going and finding business. So I thought if you were good at that, then that's all that mattered. I don't think I really understood the strength of relationships and hiring the right people and really the, I guess, like the curvature of the people that you needed, like different people doing different things within the business. I thought if everyone was like me, like a sales animal, that we would kill. And, you know, it's like I built this service offering, but didn't really build the staff needs, the resource needs to back that up. And so I think I made a ton of mistakes in how I was hiring, you know, how I was running the business. I overstaffed and I had to make a reduction

in force at some point. And so there's just been so many things that I've done, not so well. But like I said, I am somebody that learns very quickly and I tend not to make the same mistakes wise. Amazing. So let me ask you this, though. The number one reason why you failed in L.A. It's got me thinking. Like, what was it? And ignorance to the culture, which I think is so led by community more than anywhere else in the world. And what I mean by that is L.A. is so small, right? Like, when you think about it, there are more people in a borough. of London than there are in like the whole of L.A., everybody knows each other, everybody does business with one another. You know, it's like, I go to the Lakers now and I know like, I can

go around and like, I'll know like hundreds of people there. I've lived here for like not that long. And so there's just this very small community and everybody is doing business with one another. And I didn't have the level of respect for that that I needed to come here and be successful. I kind of come with my reputation from Europe thinking that would be enough. And it was like, no, thank you. Check that at the door. You've got to reestablish yourself in LA. You've got to start from zero. And I think that that's a really fantastic lesson because in as much that I've had success, you know, I think that you're always starting from the beginning. So if I think about off-season, which is a new venture, I take the experience from everything else that I've done, but I take

none of the mentality. I take none of the imagination that what I've done somewhere else is transferable into this business. And so it really is about taking everything from a starting point and saying, how can I do the best with this thing? Bring my knowledge, bring my enthusiasm, bring what I've learned, but don't take anything for granted because the time, the culture, the moment, the product, like all of that has to fall into line. And so you're not able to just like transfer things. Otherwise, you know, everything would be skims and I'd have 10 of them. Yeah. It makes perfect sense. There's setbacks. There's growth. There's changes. And then, there's movement. And then, of course, like Good American, massive movement. Now, the question

I have about Good American, you got 23% stake in the company, and you co-founded this with Chloe Kardashian. You at this point have credibility in L.A. You've built an agency in L.A. You're running the show, and you're doing big things. That being said, one of probably the hardest people to just meet, let alone have a meeting with, let alone start a company with, one of the Kardashians, and you co-found it with Chloe Kardashian. So talk to the people back home and myself about how do you, what type of process do you undergo

to take your skill set, which is so differentiated and successful, and be able to partner up with someone who is so differentiated and successful in an area, though, that there is so much demand to work with someone like that. Yeah.

Well, you know, it's really difficult and I will never speak on Chloe's behalf because, you know, I'm sure she had her own feelings about why she decided to partner with me. But from my point of view, you know, I had spent 10 years at the intersection of brands and entertainment. And so I knew a lot about how you put brands and talent together to accelerate a business, right? I had done that over and over and over again. And so really for me, what it was was taking everything that I knew, everything I'd learned. And honestly, you know,

all of the mistakes that I had made throughout that time working with different brands in ITB and trying to do something differentiated. And I think that honestly, the most important thing, because people like to look at, oh, the partnership, like that was like the most important thing. It was an important thing. But actually, I think what made Good American so successful was that we came into the market with a highly differentiated product and a story that was right for the time. If you go back to that time 2016, no one was talking about body positivity there. No one was talking about plus size influences. It was really much more of a fringe movement happening in that community.

And what I learned from 10 years of working with fashion brands and lifestyle brands and beauty brands was that there was an enormous amount of women that were completely left out of the fashion conversation. And so it really came from that key insight. Like, what can you do that doesn't exist in the marketplace today where there's a huge need? And I had been on enough sets, I'd been on enough shoots, I'd been in enough campaigns where I knew that that customer was massively overlooked. And I had the insight, I think, just as being a woman, that that's just not how women think. We don't think based on our size, like what we would want, what trend we want to get into. You see a nice pair of shoes, you want the nice pair of shoes. You see the good swimsuit, jeans, whatever it is.

You're like, I want that, oh my God, I want a size 16 one of that or a size 2 one of that or a size 22 one of that. So for me, it was just about putting those things together and doing something that felt highly differentiated. And I never want, you know, I think that we've seen a lot of celebrity brands that have failed more than have succeeded. And so for me, it was really about what's the solution, how you bring in a best in class product to market. And the talent piece was an accelerator to all that.

But customers won't part with their money more than once if they're not getting true value. And so what we did was obsess. over what are we giving customers? How do you put customers at the center of what you're doing? And yes, the marketing piece was wonderful, but we were really obsessing over what can this customer not get elsewhere and what can we uniquely give them. That is so fascinating.

And then obviously since then you've had massive success with Skim Safely, Kai, we've talked about off-season brands and many other business ventures. But I always think a lot of people back home, the first one is what intrigues them because that is the hardest if you don't have a massive form of credibility to get it off the ground and run. You obviously have huge success with what you're doing and how you're doing it and differentiated, but then you've got to go to the table and you've got to raise capital for an industry that is so

competitive in which majority, like you said, a lot of these companies, they start and flop. Celebrity-backed brands, they can start and flop. And then you're competing in the parallel space against some of the biggest bohemists. So at this point with good American, you know, when you're sitting down to raise capital, and this is really like your first big baby doing it, what are you saying to these investors to capture their attention, but also capture their trust in you to invest. Because I would imagine now with the momentum you have, you could go into any room right now and just be like, look what I've done. Let's go. Yeah, now you're the Pope. Now line up and I'll maybe, maybe I'll invite you. But I think

what's more relatable to us back home, the people that are just trying to do it for the first time is like the first time feels like the hardest. So what are some tips you had to get trust without having the massive resume that you currently have? Well, you know, I have to be really honest. Because if you would have said, you know, BCs to me back then, I would have just drawn a complete blank. I had such a limited understanding of that world, how you raise finances, what valuations should be. I just didn't know. What I knew was, you know, I had very naively mapped out the basis of a business plan. I was like, what's going to get me through to month 24?

In my head, I was like, you know, it's going to take me a couple of years to get to profitability. How do I create something, you know, like a 24-month runway? So that was like my starting point. I'd figured out that I needed three million bucks if things went okay. Like that's kind of where I was. I was like, I can probably make this stretch. Like that's what I'd need and I, you know, mapped it all out. Then I was like, where am I getting three million bucks?

Yeah. And it was really that simple. So that was my starting point. But I didn't know anyone. And again, I was sitting in London, very, very different, you know, place. like capital of kind of finance in Europe, but, you know, banking and not something that I really understood. And so for me, again, it was like leaning back into, well, who knows me, more importantly, how will I get them to trust me? And so I went to clients and I went to my bosses.

I went to the guys that had invested in me to help me set up that first company and one of my clients who I'd been delivering amazing work to for seven or eight years. And I was like, hey, like, you're in retail, you understand apparel. I've got this incredible idea. Would you give me three million bucks? I went to my business partners and I was like, hey, I've got a second amazing idea. You've made a bunch of money out of me in the agency. How do you fancy giving me three million bucks? They both looked at me and was like, are you insane? Like, what is this idea? You are not an apparel CEO. Like, yeah, like who needs another pair of jeans? And, you know, and I think that what happened is there was that trust there and that track record there that both of them were

like, do you know what? We'll take a punt. And I got a million dollars off of each and was like, okay, well, now I've got two. I've got an 18 month runway, which by the way, I absolutely didn't. But that's a different story. But in my head, I was like, okay, I'll make it work on the two million bucks. Okay. That was the end of that. So two million is what you raised to get good American off the ground and running. Unbelievable. And how do you decide, like, I think a big position that founders get stuck in is percentage of equity. So 23% is your stake in that company. How do you know what is the right amount to take when you're raising? Well, 23% wasn't what I started with because, you know, one of my rules in life is that you should take some money off the table as you go in.

And thank God I have done that repeatedly throughout my career. That's a good, that's a good trading secret right there. Yeah, because listen, you know, and I often say this to founders, I'm like, you can have 100% and nothing, it's still nothing. For me, I had nothing to trade with at that time, right? So my where equity was all I had. All I had was that plus a track record. So to me, it was better to give something away to start something because I was like 32 then. So in my head, I was like, I've still got a runway. I could make this work and still have another two chapters after it. So better for me that I would give something away and actually be able to start something. So I didn't stress about I need 100% of this. I was like, I just was very strict about what I needed in return for the

investment. And so for me, it was about a mixture of infrastructure and then expertise. So Andrew Rosen, who was one of my first investors, this is a guy that had built so many incredible brands and been part of so many incredible apparel startups from, you know, rag and bone to frame to Alison Olivia, right? Like, just like, you know, he was involved in Uniclo and theory and all of these incredible things. So more than just the money with Andrew, still to this day, I opened a store in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. And I was like, I think I messed up all the tables. And he's like, yeah, your folding and nesting tables are just terrible. And I would have done X, Y and C. So he can go from like five-year business strategy and how much money do you think

I should raise for this thing down to like just really tangible stuff that unless you've been doing it for 30, 40, 50 years, you just wouldn't know. And I think that my biggest take out was like, don't just take the money. Like, don't sweat the equity. Sweat what you're getting in return aside from the money. Make sure your investors are worth something else to you. And I think that that was hands down to this day, considering I'm still in business with all three of those people that came in. That was the best decision. It wasn't about how much I gave away.

It was what I was getting in return aside from the cash. Interesting. Okay. So it's what you're getting from their expertise to your first big business. You raise the capital. You partner with Chloe. And you have a product that's differentiated and you're ready to go to market. How long did it take for the company be profitable?

Not that long. We were profitable in the first year, which was absolutely amazing. That's not to say we've been profitable every single year, but we were profitable right out the gate. And I always attribute this to some of those early investors, because you have to remember, it's 2016. In 2016, we're in the height of the direct-to-consumer boom. So you had these insane companies out there, Everlane, Reformation, Warby Parker, that were all absolutely killing. And, you know, I think that what was happening more broadly in the market, is that people were paying so much money to acquire a customer and no one was thinking about

the bottom line. And so I had one half of my board of directors that were just like, you should just spend, acquire customers, just grow the top line, don't worry about what's happening from a profit perspective. And I had these much kind of, they hate to be called the old guys, but I'm always like, the old guard will call them, right? It's like these guys that had just been around for a lot longer and they were like, I don't care what this D to C thing is. Eventually you'll need to be in wholesale, eventually you'll need to open your own stores, and your optionality will be greatly reduced unless you have money on the bottom line. And for me, that really made sense, because I thought to myself, wow, how do you do all the things you

need to do in a company unless you've got money to spend? Exactly. Right? Immediately, you don't have the options to do fantastic campaigns. You don't have the option to start new, you know, categories. You don't have the option to open stores everywhere unless you got money on the bottom line. So I did. I listened to the old guard, and it was probably the best decision I could ever make because we never had an unhealthy business. And as the tides have turned, post COVID, post the algorithmic changes in Google and Facebook, post us being able to do business in the way that we started for the first three years of the company, we would never have survived.

So with the strategy of saying, like, we're going to focus on profitability, but also great products, but we have to reduce the amount that we're going to spend to acquire new customers. What did you find, a lot of business owners back home can hopefully connect with this? What did you find was the most efficient means? of marketing and spend to acquire new customers. So again, I don't want to say that we didn't rely on anything, like Facebook and Instagram, that was a huge part of it. But actually being like in real life with customers, like meeting customers where

they were at and creating community around our brand, again, we're going back eight years now, but it just wasn't being done. One of the best things that we ever did was this open casting and it was every single year we would go out and we would be in Nashville, we'd be in Chicago, we would be, you know, like in the middle of this country meeting thousands and thousands of women that loved our brand and talking to them about who we are, what we stand for, what our values are, we'd run this huge model competition, we would get, you know, like our own community to be in the campaigns. And there was just like some sense of connection between the brand saying that it was for real

women and really being about real women, really going into communities and understanding what the needs of those women were. And for me, I didn't really know it at the time. but it became this like sort of amazing exercise in collecting data because I would fly into these cities, spend two days, speak to 400 women and actually understand what they were concerned about. And I think some of the biggest unlocks in our business came from just listening to what people were saying. You know, some woman said to me, my thighs rubbed together because my thighs chaf and I get big holes. And I was like, you do. And she's like, well, yeah, all plus size women. Our thighs rubbed together as we walk. And I was like, oh my God, not only do I need

reinforce belt loops but I need to reinforce the inner panel of jeans and that was like like it was such a big thing and I would never have done that because that wasn't like something that we were talking about in our design team so there are a lot of things that happened because we went into the community we were in real life and in a time when digital was ruling everything we were in front of customers meaning we made a connection and we meant something to them and the cost of doing that is what next to nothing having a conversation with a consumer I would I would fly four people to my office, we'd go to a Nordstrom location, so we were actually supporting the sales of one of our wholesale partners. We'd bring thousands of people into the

store. Nordstrom can thank me later. And then we would meet these people in real time and have great connections with them. And it became one of the things that I think every person who works for good American would look forward to that time of year and be like, oh my goodness, how can I be involved? It energized the office environment too. And it just became something that every, everybody loved about what we were doing. I love it. It is fascinating. The one thing I did say earlier in this podcast, I said a revenue number of 155 million. How off am I with that? Revenue for Good America? Yeah. You're a roundabout the ballpark. We've been up and down. It's a tough year this year. Yeah. You know, we'll be ever so slightly north of that. Okay. Ever so slightly north of that. Now, as someone started a good American, founded it and you are now a shark on shark think. I want you to think about every. I'm a guest shark. You're a guest shark. I'm a guest shark. I want the people. Before someone thinks I've got a new job. Yeah, that's true. Let's make that correct. She's moving it. All right. So as a guest, Shark on Shark Tank, I want you to go into the shark mode right now. Okay, let's go. 155 million plus dollar revenue company, Good American. Someone is sit in front of you right now with the apparel company and they are pitching you

exactly why you should invest to them. To you, one of the top three things that you're considering as a potential investor when you're seeing someone potentially launch an apparel company. So I think apparel company, but all company. I'm all about the founder. I need like an obsessed founder because at the end of the day, all businesses go through high points and low points. And to me, it's so much about what is the attitude, not the experience, what is the attitude of that individual. Are they someone that is just built leaning into what it is that they're doing? Are they resilient? Are they obsessed with what they're doing? So I really love to get that feeling from a founder off the bat. And I would say I could get

like a treble A idea with a C founder and not go for it. So do you think that's the number one most important thing for the success of a business? I mean, yeah, I would like to say so because look, at the end of day, who sets the culture, who sets the agenda, who sets the vision, who's executing the strategy? For me, it's like founder, founder, founder, founder. Now, once things get to a scale, you absolutely don't want it to be a founder. And I've been in that position when I actually sold my first business and the acquirer was happy to let me leave. I remember feeling devastating. I was like, but I am the company.

And they were like, no, you've actually built a really brilliant business that doesn't rely on you. And I was like, but I don't want to say. You're like, it's my baby. Meanwhile, that's the dream. My husband was like, take the check. Yeah. There's no buying. You can go. But, you know, for me, that, yeah, I'm very focused on like, who is the founder? Why do they come into this work and what drives them because you know that with businesses you are going to have really difficult moments and the integrity and the ambition and the viewpoint of that founder is often what will get you out of like some of the most difficult situations. Okay, so number one thing is a guest shark you're thinking founder. What are the next two? Well, here's the thing. It kind of goes back to the

founder bit. I am yet to meet a founder that I will enjoy working with who isn't their own best salesperson. So if somebody is saying to me, listen, I came up with this idea, I'm the engineer, but I'm going to bring in these other people that are going to package it, market it, sell it. I'm like, again, not interested. I need you to be able to sell. Interesting. That is it. You've got it.

Like, wherever that is, like you have to be at the person that crafts a sorry and can go out and find an audience. And to me, the primary job of somebody that is in that driving seat position is the vision, right? I need you to have the vision. you don't necessarily need all the strategy. But I need you to have that North Star and I need you to be able to go and sell. Interesting. The founder can you sell and what is the vision?

Those are the top three. Those are great three. All right. So we're moving on to skims now. So good American, we already talk about $155 million plus in revenue. Then you start skims three years later. And as everyone know, I mean, I don't need to say this. But you guys know you guys created the next generation of underwear, lounge wear,

shape where everyone knows that. But in such a short period of time, the numbers on. are 500 million partnering with Kim Kardashian. What is it when you think about Good American and Skims, both extremely successful? Why do you think Skims was able to grow as fast as it was in such a short period of time? You know, it's a difficult one for me to answer, but I always feel like, you know, I'm part of a team at Skims, and I feel like that's a really important starting point. It's, you know, it was Kim's idea.

Kim is the founding visionary of that company. I actually work as the chief product officer. my husband is the CEO of that company. And there was such an amazing group of people that bought that company to life. And I think that when you think about any great business, you've got to have an incredible idea, you've got to have an incredible product, but you also need the stars to align, right? There was something in what was happening in culture at large. There was something about what we were doing and the way that we were doing in the time we

were doing it that just meant that everything kind of came together in this great order. And so, you know, again, if I had all the magical answers for why that company was so successful and so brilliant, you know, we'd be doing them all day long. That's true. I'm just a small part of something that has gone so extraordinarily well and something I'm so proud of being a part of. But, you know, my job there is chief products officer. You know, what I do is oversee design and production, merch and planning. And so, again, I'm back in the driving seat as somebody who is across the product. If Kim can envisage it, if Kim wants something in the line, my job is to make that happen.

My job is to essentially get to the point where we have the right product at the right price and it goes out into the market in the right way. And it is, honestly, if I thought about everything that I did, everywhere in my life, like, that's the bit I love the most. It's like my dream job at Sims. Is it a CPO of Skims? That's like the dream job. Okay.

Dream. It's a thing that I love the most. I just love products. I'm such a, you know, it's like I love, I love, the detailed orientatedness of it. You know, it's like for me, I just love getting into the weeds and the details and speaking to vendors and talking about fabric and componentry and I love pricing. And I think I have a very, very good sense. You know, it's like if I have a superpower, it's understanding what women, girls, people need and how much they want to pay for it. And so you kind of

develop this touch after a while for where consumers are going. And you also start to see patterns in things, right? And I think what's so nice about how I work is, you know, you look at denim, for example. Denim works like in cycles. There are trend cycles in denim. So, you know, it's like when I was younger, it was all about the skinny gene. And like things move and they move and then you get into flares and straight right now. You know, for the last few years, we've been in a kind of low slung, baggy moment. And these cycles last a really long time. What's so nice about my job is how I get to put those insights together and couple the data and say, okay, well, if the bottom silhouette is really baggy,

chances are she's going to want something small and tight on top. That means I can sell hundreds of thousands of baby teas over at skims. And so, you know, it's kind of interesting as I never thought of myself as a merchant, but I think what I am at heart is just like a pretty good merchant, somebody who knows what people want to buy when they want to buy them and can hopefully put the right product out at the right time. You gave us an example of Good American where you did the focus group at Nordstrom. That information allowed you to change that product.

I think about skims and just the ever-changing. It feels like the only constant right now, especially with trends and the way things are moving, is change. So how, and you talked about how you're keeping up with it and adjusting things with the skinny top because of the bag of your bottom. But Azara, do you have any type of trading secret as to how you're keeping up with trends

that are changing so fast? Are you studying other cultures? Are you looking at like a Tokyo or in Italy or something like that? Is there any type of trading secret and keeping up with things that are moving so fast? I think that if you really want the honest, answer to that, we're creating the trends because if you are trying to look to what everybody else is doing, you're always going to be behind the curve. And I think what Skims has done so

beautifully is create things that don't exist in the marketplace, right? There was no one-legged shapewear. There was no nipple bra. Like, we make the trend. And by the time everybody else has figured out how to do it, we're on to the next thing. Interesting. So that's, I think, what is way more interesting a place to be. What a power answer. We don't study the trends. You make the damn trends. We're falling out here. That is, I mean, that is a great place to operate from. We try.

We try. You are actually making the trends. That's phenomenal. I mean, it's to see what's happened in the apparel company, the growth of this. And you're saying, this is a company now, it's worth over $4 billion. Ain't it just? I mean, yeah. Four billion dollars.

I don't let the valuations bother me. Okay. Because I just think it's a fleeting moment in time. And what is a valuation unless there's a transnational? action attached to it, right? It's like, I don't, I've seen way too many people have fabulous valuations and come out with nothing. You know, what I really believe is that valuation is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king. There you go. That's a power line right there. You're creating trends. You got it all down to a T. A word that you've used often in just this interview, and I've

heard you use on other interviews, is culture and people. And so I think about, I think culture is probably one of the hardest things to drive in everything, in businesses, in new businesses, in relationships, in families. Like driving the culture and the tone that you're setting is extremely hard and it takes day-to-day work. What is it? And why do you keep using the word culture and how big of a differentiator has it been in the success of these companies? So for me, culture is everything. I think people get really, really tripped up. And I like to think of it in a really succinct and easy way because it's very, very hard to define culture. You know, so many big companies, right, these giant manifestos about what their culture is, what it means. But here's a really definitive way

for anyone to think about it. Culture is who you hire, who you fire and who gets promoted. That's what actually defines your culture. Who do you bring in to your organization, right? Who gets to come into that and be at the decision-making table? Why and when does somebody actually get fired? Meaning that they are not a fit for the culture that you are trying to create. and who gets promoted, somebody that reinforces the culture that you guys are trying to permeate through the organisation. And so I think that you can really think about who are we and what we're doing through those three lenses. And that for me has been just the most helpful thing. And so when I think about what I'm trying to do, which is to foster a really inclusive

culture, which is to say that the more people that you bring, like from different points of view, different backgrounds that get to add into the decision-making process, the more reflective you'll be of your customer base, and the better and stronger and more resilient your business will be. But that's about who you're hiring, right? Who gets to come in? And so I think that when you're thinking about, you know, what kind of place do I want to build,

I spend 20% of my time finding the right people. Who has the right attitude? Who has the right level of flexibility? What type of people do I want to be with and build, with and permeate through my organization and be there for the younger people to learn from, those decisions are mission critical and they will define the type of culture that you have and what you allow to happen at your organization. And so I would really look to like how you're thinking about people as to how you're shaping the culture. You have such power lines.

Like it's concrete in what you're doing and how you're doing it and what's led to your success when you talk about hire, fire and promote. And I always like to think about about when people are listening to this, like the takeaway, because the line is so powerful. But like with hiring and firing and promoting, within any of those, do you have any rules of thumbs or secrets that you're just like, this is typically what I do? Like, typically you'll get hired when I see this. Or you'll get fired the second this happens. Or promoting this. What are those? Because this is like this is now you're giving, now it's like professor. You're giving us a master class. No, I'm going to answer your question. And let me tell you the reason I have

so many good lines because I think that as a leader, your job is to communicate really clearly and really effectively. No one in my organisation ever sits around going, I wonder what Emma's thinking. You know what I'm thinking. I'm going to tell you, right? Because I'm so clear in my expectations. I'm so clear in my communication. And so when I'm thinking about hiring people, I do that kind of slowly. Like I am going to see, if I have a good position available in one of the companies, I am going to go out and really use that opportunity to figure out how, do you structure your department there? What does that look like? How many people can I meet? I almost like vet, you know, I'm like, what does it look like where you are currently? How is your department

structured? What decisions happen in what places? So I really use those opportunities as I'm hiring people to learn more about my competition, to learn more about how other people are doing it, perhaps better than me, and to learn like how I'm going to progress. So I take a long time to hire people. I am quick when I fire. If I have that feeling, I do not sit and, you know, try to work it out, figure it out. Like, I'm allergic to that. It's like, you know what, better to pay people a handsome severance and move them on out quickly because it doesn't get better, right?

Whatever feeling you've got, whatever's happening in your organization, it's like act quickly, act decisively, get that person out. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. But more often than not, I'm right in my instinct and my intuition. And I'm like, do it quick. Don't let it fester. It's never worked out for me. like when I've like held and waited.

And promotion for me is like, who deserves it? Not like who's doing their job and should get the incremental rise and the next like, you know, position up. It's like who is out here proving and wanting it and fighting for it and ready for it? And I am very clear. Like I think that people that have a lot of ambition need to speak up and say it. And I like to know when I've got like those people in. my office and I want them to make it known to me. So I'm like, don't anybody be shy. Like,

let's have these conversations, like make yourself known. But I will say the same thing to everybody, like all the time. Like, you better be excellent in what you're doing today. Otherwise, there's just no chance for a promotion. I'm not looking for someone who's like struggling and doesn't really love what they're doing, but fancies that thing over there. I'm like, you're not even, you're not even in the running. You have to be excellent at what you're doing right now. Genius. Higher slow. Fire fast. And promote the people that are just extraordinary, period, end of story. It's unbelievable.

And all these unbelievable power lines, successful ventures you had are why you're starting a new podcast. So tell us a little bit about the podcast you're starting. Well, I'm so excited about the podcast. I can't even tell you. The podcast is called Aspire, I'm agreed. And, you know, I was thinking for a very, very long time about how I could scale this idea of mentorship.

I think so many people, it doesn't matter if I'm out on the street. or I do a podcast or I'm on social, like whatever it is, I get the same questions asked over and over and over again. And I'm one of these people that every now and again, you know, I'll go in my DMs and I'll be like, send me your number. I'll jump on the phone to you for half an hour and I'll talk you through this thing, right? If I've understood like an unlock in, you know, logistics that somebody's trying to figure out or somebody's saying to me, my 3PL trying to charge me, this was what it was yesterday,

my 3PL trying to charge me like this amount to like, you know, put an insert in packages. I was like, that is insane. Like, let's have a conversation about it and what are you trying to do? So I will get on the phone to people, but that isn't sustainable, right? And I do think specifically in, you know, podcast land, while this kind of media is very, very broad, the kind of viewpoint is extremely narrow, right? There's a lot of men, granted, we love men, doing a lot of business podcast. But it's very different if you're a woman.

And I think that the more we try to hard. from that. We're not helping each other. But I also think that women have an enormous amount to learn from men in business. And I think some of my best mentors and some of the people that I've had around me have been so formative. And when I think about what I needed, I have like this amazing bank of people that over 20 years I've built and I just call them up, you know? And I'm like, how do you do this? Like, what's the best way to do that? And so I was like, can I bring that into a podcast format? Can I actually like be the unlock for some people that are trying to figure out how to start something, how to raise some money, how to get over their fear,

how to do a pivot from their corporate job. And I was like, well, I probably can. And then I started calling people. I was like, would you be on my podcast? And so, you know what was so crazy? So many of the people I called had never done a podcast before. Wow. And I was like, well, that's interesting. You know, women with like billion dollar brands have never done a podcast before. So I was like, there's a need, I'm going to do it. Why not? So when is it launch? Sixth of May. The Sixth of May. And do you, have you done any guests yet? Like, can you, can you tease? No, I'm not teasing.

You can't tease. No. You can't tune in. All right. It's very unexpected, you know. Okay. It's really interesting. I think there are some people that, you know, you would expect me because of who I am, you know, around to be involved in.

But I also think that, like I said, I've been very pleasantly surprised about the number of people I've called and they've said, no, I've never done one before. But yeah, why not? All right. I'm happy to chat with you. Everyone is going to have to tune into that. I have a feeling just. just looking at some of the people you have founded business with. I have a feeling it's going to be a stacked guest list.

Everyone is going to have to check that up. Who knows? Who knows? We'll see. You'll have to tune in. I do want to ask you real quickly on off-season brand. Massive success, it started trending everywhere. You saw Kristen Newschecks.

She's building these jackets. Taylor Swift wears it and takes off. The curiosity I had with that is did you see, because you're so quick with trends, you create trends and you jump on trends. Was this one of those moments where you saw something moving faster than someone might be able to keep up with and you reached out to them? Or how did that work? No, I wish I could say it was. This was actually an example of someone I looked at and I was like, wow, she is so like me when I was younger. Kristen sent me, I've never counted, but too many DMs to count. She maybe got

10 people to call me. And at some point, I was like, who is this? Kristen used to check. Like what, like, you know, I just couldn't understand how she'd figured out so many ways to get to me. And of course. I just went on her Instagram and that was it. I was like buried in this woman who has taught herself to sew who had had these like amazing moments, signed a license with the NFL and, you know, I was, she came to my office. It was so interesting actually because I was so blown away. She came with a deck, like a full pitch. She came with all the products she'd ever made like in suitcases. She sat down in a really like cute suit. She looked so fierce and lovely and fully pitched her idea. And I promise you what we are doing with offseason today is what she's

pitched me in that room. Wow. You know, with a team and an infrastructure that I have, you know, helped her put together. But she had a very, very clear vision and I was like, that is an incredible idea. And I think that it's a perfect example of when what's happening in the broader culture, when we think about what's happening in women's sports, but sport more generally being, you know, back to what it was 20 years ago, ratings through the roof, an amazing, amazing moment in this country for sports and people returning to wanting to be with their family, something wholesome in the current, you know, climate that we're in right now. Like sports feels like a really safe place. But at the end of the day, there's just this, there's only

one way to get dressed in sports. It's like with this like license merch, there's nothing premium. There is nothing that feels like, oh, I've got to have it. And when I saw her product, I was like, I want that, I want that, I want that. And so all we did was like, I was like, okay, I know how to make thousands and thousands of these instead of you sewing it. It's unbelievable. You know, I know how to build a team around this. And so she's in my office. and it's been such a lovely partnership. And honestly, I like companies. I love the startup phase.

It's like when there's like less than 20 people, I'm like, this is the best thing ever. And that's where we are. We're off-season right now. It's little, it's grassroots. It's like just figuring out what we're going to do. And it has just been a joy to work with her. We've talked a couple numbers with some of the businesses,

revenues, maybe units sold. Can you give us any type of growth, anything with this business? Well, let me tell you, we had a 98% sell-through, meaning that we sold 98% of everything that we had made in the first week, which was absolutely insane. Have you ever seen those numbers before? I mean, I saw them at skims, you know. I have a way of doing this.

Actually, I saw him at Good America, which was so crazy. The good thing is, a Good American, it took me three to four months to get back into stock. With Kristen, I had more product straight away, so I'm learning. We're growing up here. You're learning and growing. We're backing ourselves up on fabric, can we tell you? From begging a couple people for a couple million dollars to then having people begged to work with you and that 98% sell-through rate. What a story it's been.

I knew an hour wouldn't be enough, but we're at the hour mark. So I got to wrap with the trading secret. So it's something you've given a lot of them in this episode. But something specific to you, people couldn't learn through a textbook or TikTok, a professor or master class. I could only learn through your experience. It could be life advice, financial advice. It can be professional advice. What's a trading secret you can leave us with?

You know, it might sound a little bit off because it's not about the money. But I think that when you're starting something, we can get so amored by these ideas of marketing being so important, right? Like that that's the way I'm going to reach a customer, that that is the only way to get attention to my brand. And I think that when you do something, when you do something like really special, when you meet a need, when you solve a problem, when you create a solution, In my experience, that word of mouth, the type of virality that comes from it and the longevity of that far outweighs anything that you can do in marketing. And so just as a total random one, like I think of all the things I've ever done. We've made some products at Good American that when I go out in the streets, people still, they say my own copy lines back to me. They say tummy smoothing technology.

they say reinforce belt loops, they say gap-proof brand, that you would sit down and then not see, you know, your panties when you sit. Because that stuff was an experience that they were having that when they bought that product, no longer happened. And so I think of all the things that we've done, like figuring out what you're solving for, what unique proposition you're solving for, and reiterating that to customers over and over and over again.

And to the point of boredom is the best thing that you can, can do. And when you're five years in, six years in, seven years in, eight years in like I am in good American, we still rely on those initial value props that I wrote before we ever had a product. And it's been just the best thing that we've ever done, being able to come back to something that is true, that is authentic, that makes sense to our customers, and it never fails. Yeah, unbelievable. That is one hell of a trading secret. And I always like to give my trading secret what I'm taking away. So my trading secret, I think, is to be, I think we live in like a little bit of a celebrity obsessed, public figure obsessed, athlete, pro athlete, obsessed world where we put

people on such pedestals. And even me with my question of saying, you know, how did you be able to partner with the Kim Kardashian or Chloe Kardashian? And I think my takeaway from hearing everything that you've said and the strategy you've used to deploy what you've done is that you don't have to be the pro athlete. You don't have to be the reality star that becomes the A-list celebrity. You can differentiate yourself. And you can differentiate yourself from starting an agency and doing things differently and then starting a company and doing things differently. And then all of a sudden, because your differentiation is so great, you're not so worried about the differentiation of others, those people that you look up to, they're on the pedestal, are actually coming to you

because you are what's special, you know? And I think anyone that's listening to this has that or could find it. You just got to tap into it. And I think that's my trading secret from this episode. I love that. I just said it better myself. All right. Emma, well, thank you for being on this episode, where can, I mean, you got a lot going on, but name it all. Where can everyone find everything you have going on? I would love everyone to tune in to Aspire with Emma Greed when we launched on the 6th of May. That would make me so happy. And I'm Emma Greed on Instagram. Okay. And all the other companies will be in the show notes. This will be a fun recap, but Emma, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Ding, ding, ding. We were closing the bell to the

Emma Greed episode, an absolute business tycoon. I got the Curious Canadian, David Arnoen, to at this episode. David, I got to say, as the curious Canadian is, you know, usually the guy that is taking notes when it comes to business and finance on episodes like this, I am very excited to hear your take on this podcast. Yeah, I normally do have pages of notes. I usually have some things, some witty things to comment to say, maybe even to challenge. There is no critical Canadian in this one. This was the classroom Canadian. This was, I'm just sitting down and I'm going to work here. I'm trying to learn and absorb as much as I can.

I couldn't even put pen to paper fast enough to take notes because there's just things sentence after sentence, question after question. I did think it was education over entertainment. And I think that that is what this podcast does strive for at times. And I will say, I will close by saying I felt like it was a slightly higher level than a 101. I thought it was a great episode thinking to use it like a convention or like a niche like a master class or something like that. I thought it was so incredibly overwhelming with information, positive attitude, and just like double downing and reassurances on, you know,

guts and feelings and things that she believe makes her and everything around her successful. So super motivated and I thought it was an amazing episode for both of you, to be honest. It was inspiring. And I mean, I don't know that I've ever had this happen, David. When I left the studio, We said goodbye to her team, and wow, does she have, like, impressive people surround themselves around impressive people, right? And her team is just rock solid. I mean, rock solid, which was, like, unbelievable notes for me. But when they all left, and my team left, the guy who is the podcast engineer on this,

who does the audio and the lighting and just make sure everything's running smooth, he looked at me, goes, I feel like I should have paid for that episode. That was a master class. That's how good it was. I've never had that happen in 200 plus episodes. All right. So it's good to know that I'm on the same wavelength as the podcast engineer. And I think our listeners will listen to it as well.

Now, I got to say this. You are interviewing a fashion icon, a $4 billion valuation on the skims company. She's been in multiple apparel and clothing industries. And you're sitting across for her in this interview. And you're wearing the most controversial, you're wearing the most controversial hat in North America, maybe the world. is that going through your hat your head sorry your hat is that going through your head in this moment I chose this hat on this day and she's probably looking to me thinking what is on top of this guy's head I well you know first of all I know you don't like that but let's just give a shot

it's a it's a very expensive custom-made hat from an artist who is like very well-known okay so that's one Travis Austin shout out two the thing I would say is what I'm doing to little behind the scenes, little training secrets. I mean, I was in L.A. and I had like four episodes in that day. So what I'm trying to do going episode to episode, while also like really, like this episode requires, you know, my brain power, my intellect, my attention of what like three or four episodes would be because she's so quick and smart and makes me think about what I'm going to ask, right? So that's a very draining, like a very, a draining is the wrong word,

a very stimulating episode, which requires a lot of time and effort. But through that day, I'm preparing for each one. I'm also changing my outfits. So I have four different looks for the cameras. Because these are four different weeks, hopefully going to be on, you know, that's a month's worth of episode. So with that one, my biggest complaint is I forgot to wear by Kristen Uchek's Super Bowl sweater, which is what I planned for.

But it's okay. But yeah, the hat, I think she said, What'd she say? She's like, I like that. Like one of those. It's not that I don't like that. It's my duty as your critical Canadian best friend to make sure that I'm giving subtle jabs to make sure that you know that the hat is a piece. It's a big statement piece.

I think I had a, I think I was like the most commented person on your Instagram during those. And I had chirps. Does that thing have its own turn signals? I heard there's a UFO setting. in L.A. Are you sure are you okay, Jason? Does that thing have his own zip code? But I just had to throw that in there. You know, and we talked about last week of the last week recap, we talked about the exploration of finding yourself, knowing yourself through life and like what that looks like. And I think I could even tie last recap to this recap and the fact that the exploration of finding

yourself, knowing yourself, and acting in the way that is so true to yourself, that is contingent on having a foundation of people like to critical Canadian in your life. So when you view your left or right, you at least have a little noise to say, hey, you might want to check yourself. So I'm here for that, David. It's always good to have your biggest, like I said, your biggest troll commenter on your Instagram also be your best friend. So it's good to have those bases covered, right? Of course. So I got to kick it to you. I mean, there was Jim after Jeb, after Gem, after gem, after gem dropped in this episode. And I, in the ending of the episode, I,

talked about the trading secrets that I took away. But I'm curious. You see someone who really built an empire like no other in the way she has in such a short time. And I know you're always thinking about your career navigation. What's next? What's best for you and your family while you're also pursuing your passion? What was your biggest takeaway? My two biggest, I'm glad you asked, my two biggest takeaways were this. Number one, I'm in the leadership role in my organization right now and I absolutely am obsessed with her how she said she defines culture and defining culture to her is who you fire who you hire and who you promote and she gave an example of kind of how each of those things really determine the standards and in what you're going to accept

and what you're not going to accept and I just that just kind of hit me of really simply defining culture in the decisions that you make and that's like at the end of the day actions. and I loved how she says as a leader of all her businesses, no one ever has to wonder what she's thinking. She said she takes her a long time to hire. She's quick to fire when she gets that feeling. You can't really get that feeling back. So from a leadership standpoint,

putting the emphasis and highlighting how critical those things are and they shouldn't be taken lightly, but also understanding for the people below you, the ripple effects that all those actions show. They either are affirming or confirming. And sometimes when you get rid of people and you fire people, it's crazy how many other people in your organization are like relieved and thrilled and excited because it's almost like you're getting rid of the toxic, the bad,

and you're just by firing them, you're rewarding the people who are trying to live out the company mission. So that was a huge takeaway for me. Huge. And I think the big one too is hire, slow, fire fast. That's a really big one. And it's just like, yeah, I mean, you, listen, everyone says it from like kindergarten. and on. Like, you are who you surround yourself with and you are who you employ the intention of those people, the integrity of those people, the character of those people. And it's clear that

she has built her legacy and her entire company on hiring right, building the right culture, making sure that she's doing her best every day and surrounding herself with the people that are best at what they do while still staying so true to making sure she's the best of what she does. 100%. And it's unbelievable. And, you know, there's a, there's a bit of like, you could see it's like, it's like humbled perfectionism with her.

It's like, I know we're going to do it wrong. I'm going to learn from it, but we're going to continue to try and be the best version of us. Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth. The next biggest takeaway was just having someone at that success levels be so, like, making sure to talk about her mistakes, making sure to talk about her mistakes, making sure to talk about her failure using that as a pinnacle. And I think that's why our listeners will connect with the episode really well. You even said in the episode, you said, people are going to be connecting with the grind that she showed. And I love her example of moving to LA, thinking because

she had such a good success with a good American over in the UK, she was going to come over here but dismiss the culture and how tight-knit things were there. And even learning about the differences between marketing and branding from the East Coast to the West Coast. I just loved how she didn't want to not only didn't want to skip it but like was adamant that she needed to talk about that and then obviously how relatable that is um i thought that was great and really my last uh my last takeaway was i loved the christian eustache example at the end of the episode here's someone who's married to an NFL player on the west coast probably has a lot of connections but didn't rely on anyone else but herself sent her what she said countless dms couldn't even count how many dms she

was sent to her had multiple people call her to reference and then when she got the opportunity she brought in a full deck she brought in the product samples had a full and clear vision i just loved that motivation story because it's like if christian eustech is going to hustle and grind to get something's intention like what are you doing at home to get noticed and what you want to do so those are my big takeaways dude that was a big takeaway for me too right because christian jukech right obviously of course they have a ton of money they have a ton of fame they have a ton of success and i think that is the definition of so let's let's also you know obviously christian's character who she is and like her drive all that stuff let's not take away from that but i think the definition

of doing something that you care so much about is exactly exemplified and the behavior she deployed like think about the detail the amount of effort the amount of time the presentation the preparation of it the delivery all that uh that christin brought to the table to me i was like that's that's everything in life because when you're doing something you're supposed to be doing None of that other stuff we just mentioned matters because you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. That's the only thing that matters. And yeah, it was just, you know, David, I'm also making a prediction. You and I like to do this.

We like to say, we like to look at like people on social media and we're like, damn, they're good. They're blowing up. Watch. Emma obviously already has a massive following because of her success already. But based on her podcast that's coming out and the way she structures her teams and builds, and the attention it seems like she's about to give social media. I'm calling it right now in the next year, Emma is like a household name on social media. That's my prediction.

I like that prediction because the name alone, I wasn't aware. Obviously, I'm aware of the businesses that she's been able to found and start. So I'll take you up on that. She has the podcast. It's out now. May 6th that launch, Aspire. Something about her accent just makes her feel smarter. and makes her feel a little bit more like a boss than everyone else.

So automatically, I'm like, I better be on, I'd be able to be put on alert here because she's going to, you know, she's telling me something that I need to know. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to her podcast. And overall, like you talked about, from high school dropout to Forbes, richest self-made woman in America.

I thought it was a great interview. And I thought, I hope the people at home enjoyed it. And happy Mother's Day again. Last shadow, happy Mother's Day. Tell the mothers out there. last shout out happy mother's day to all out there um and then the last the other thing i would say david too is just i love to tell people this behind the scene she's awesome like she's funny

she's witty she's cool she's down the earth she's badass so everything about and uh i am now i was a fan before i'm a bigger fan now it'll be fun to watch the continued success and also how many people will learn from what she just brought to the table yeah i feel like she was someone that like after the interview, you could go and put an EPL game on it and drink a beer at the local pub. She'll be screaming at the TV. Like, that's the type of vibes I got. So all around, just a boss. Loved it.

Just a boss. Well, Emma, thank you so much for being on this episode, Trink Secrets to All the Money Mafia. I hope that you took so much away from this episode. We always like to change up week to week, the type of guests that we have and what you can take away. Everything from pop culture meets money to an absolute sharp. in boss like Emma. So thank you for tuning into another episode of Tray Secrets. One, hopefully you couldn't afford to miss. Thank you.