The Woman That Makes Millionaires: They're Lying About Work Life Balance! I Built SKIMS Without Fashion Knowledge!
In this episode of The Diary Of A CEO, Emma Grede discusses her path to business success, from her upbringing as the eldest of four sisters raised by a single mother in East London to her role as a successful entrepreneur. She shares insights on managing and scaling businesses, emphasizing the importance of careful hiring practices, strategic decision-making, and the ability to adapt to market changes.
Grede addresses common misconceptions about work-life balance, stating that extraordinary success often requires working beyond standard hours. She also opens up about personal challenges, including her experience with infertility and journey to parenthood through surrogacy. Throughout the conversation, she explains how her approach to calculated risk-taking and her ability to focus on goals while filtering out distractions have contributed to her business achievements.
This is a preview of the Shortform summary of the May 5, 2025 episode of the The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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1-Page Summary
Formative Experiences' Impact on Emma's Mindset and Success
Emma Grede's journey began as the eldest of four sisters raised by a single mother. As a young caregiver, Emma developed a strong work ethic through tasks like ironing school shirts and making lunches. The financial hardships she witnessed drove her determination to create a stable, anxiety-free life. Her East London upbringing instilled values of honesty, reliability, and resilience, shaping her approach to creating her own opportunities in business.
Building and Scaling a Business: Hiring and Managing
Emma Grede emphasizes the importance of rigorous hiring practices over relying on personal connections. She focuses on finding T-shaped leaders who understand the business beyond their specialized roles and isn't afraid to make tough decisions about underperforming staff. Grede regularly steps back to evaluate her business against market trends and competitor activities, prioritizing focused initiatives rather than spreading efforts too thin. Her ability to articulate and sell a clear strategic vision has been crucial in attracting talent and securing partnerships.
Work-Life Balance and Personal Life Challenges
Grede asserts that work-life balance is an individual responsibility rather than an employer obligation. She believes that significant success often requires working beyond standard hours and advocates for honesty about the effort required for extraordinary achievement. Grede also openly shares her personal struggles with infertility and her journey to having twins through surrogacy, aiming to destigmatize conversations about reproductive health in both professional and personal settings.
Taking Big Risks and Overcoming Obstacles
Emma Grede's success stems from calculated risk-taking and perseverance. She demonstrated this by transitioning her marketing agency to focus on influencer marketing when it was still emerging and venturing into the denim industry without prior experience. Her ability to filter out external noise and focus on goals, combined with her adaptability and willingness to learn from failures, has given her a competitive edge in business.
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Counterarguments
- While Emma Grede's work ethic is commendable, not everyone who grows up with caregiving responsibilities develops the same drive or opportunities for success.
- Financial hardship can be a motivator, but it can also create barriers that prevent individuals from achieving stability, regardless of their determination.
- The values instilled by an East London upbringing may be beneficial, but success is not solely determined by one's values and can be influenced by a variety of factors, including privilege and access to resources.
- Rigorous hiring practices are important, but overemphasis on them can potentially overlook the value of personal connections and the diverse perspectives they can bring to a business.
- While T-shaped leaders are valuable, businesses also need employees with deep specialized knowledge to excel in their specific roles.
- Making tough decisions about underperforming staff is necessary, but it's also important to ensure that employees are given adequate support and opportunities to improve before such decisions are made.
- Evaluating a business against market trends is crucial, but it's also important to innovate rather than just follow trends.
- Prioritizing focused initiatives is generally good advice, but some businesses may succeed through diversification and exploring multiple avenues simultaneously.
- Articulating a clear strategic vision is important, but execution and adaptability to change are equally critical for success.
- Work-life balance as an individual responsibility can overlook systemic issues that make achieving balance difficult for some employees, such as inflexible work policies or societal expectations.
- Advocating for honesty about the effort required for success is valuable, but it's also important to recognize that not everyone has the same capacity or resources to work beyond standard hours.
- Sharing personal struggles is powerful, but it's also important to acknowledge that not everyone may feel comfortable or safe doing so in professional settings.
- Destigmatizing conversations about reproductive health is important, but it's also crucial to respect individuals' privacy and boundaries around such personal topics.
- Calculated risk-taking is often a part of success, but it's also important to acknowledge the role of luck and timing.
- Early adoption of influencer marketing was a strategic move, but it's also important to recognize that early adoption can sometimes lead to failure if the market isn't ready.
- Venturing into an industry without prior experience can be innovative, but it can also lead to oversights and mistakes that could be mitigated with industry expertise.
- Filtering out external noise is useful, but external feedback can sometimes provide valuable insights that should not be ignored.
- Adaptability and learning from failures are important, but it's also important to recognize when persistence in a failing strategy needs to be balanced with strategic pivots.
Actionables
- You can develop a strong work ethic by volunteering for roles that require responsibility and accountability, such as coordinating a community clean-up or managing a local charity event, which will challenge you to be reliable and resilient.
- Volunteering in roles that demand a high level of responsibility can simulate the caregiving tasks that build a strong work ethic. For example, managing a local charity event will require you to be organized, communicate effectively, and handle unexpected situations, thereby fostering values of honesty, reliability, and resilience.
- Enhance your decision-making skills by setting up a personal 'board of advisors' consisting of friends or mentors with diverse expertise who can offer you different perspectives when you face tough choices.
- This personal board can act as a sounding board for your decisions, much like a business evaluates market trends and competitor activities. For instance, when considering a career change or a significant personal investment, consult with your board to gain insights that can help you make informed, strategic choices.
- Cultivate adaptability by learning from a diverse range of experiences, such as taking an online course in a field unrelated to your own or starting a side project that challenges you to acquire new skills.
- Engaging in activities outside your comfort zone, like learning a new language or starting a blog on a topic you're passionate about but not yet an expert in, can help you become more adaptable. This willingness to learn from new experiences can give you a competitive edge in your personal and professional life, similar to how adaptability has been crucial for business success.
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Formative Experiences' Impact on Emma's Mindset and Success
Emma Grede's remarkable story of overcoming adversity and achieving success in the business world is deeply intertwined with the formative experiences of her upbringing.
Oldest of Four: Emma's Responsible, Resilient Upbringing by Single Mom
Emma describes growing up as the eldest of four sisters with a single mother—a dynamic that entrenched responsibility and resilience into her character from a young age. Taking on early caregiving responsibilities, Emma assisted with tasks such as ironing school shirts and making packed lunches, giving her a work ethic that would fuel her future ambitions.
Young Caregiver Emma: Instilled With Work Ethic and Drive For Stability
Emma's involvement in the day-to-day care of her siblings instilled a strong work ethic within her. She contributed significantly to keeping her family afloat, supporting her mother and embodying the belief that nothing comes easy. This responsibility meant sacrificing parts of her childhood, as play was often replaced with ensuring her sisters were cared for and the house kept in order. These experiences drove her relentless pursuit of stability and security.
Emma's Financial Hardship Fueled Her Ambition For Security and Independence
The financial hardships Emma witnessed as a child, such as the stress of unpaid bills, heavily influenced her determination to forge an anxiety-free, financially stable life. Coupled with those hardships was an ingrained sense of empathy and maternal protectiveness, reinforcing her urge to ensure the well-being and safety of those around her.
Emma's East London Roots and "Grit" Shape Her Character and Business Approach
Emma's upbringing in East London is a cornerstone of her identity, cultivating traits like honesty, reliability, and a powerful work ethic. She attributes these values to the environment and the robust community of her early years, which required both resilience and shrewdness for survival.
Emma Credits Her Work Ethic to Her East London Upbringing
Identifying with the grit of her East London background, Emma believes her culture taught her that achievements were possible with hard work. She adopted a mindset of self-responsibility, disregarding the notion that external factors were solely responsible for her community's challenges, an ethos she carried into the corporate realm by persistently creating her own opportunities.
Emma's Experiences Fostered Self-Reliance and a Commitment To Creating Opportunities
Emma's roots play ...
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Formative Experiences' Impact on Emma's Mindset and Success
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Counterarguments
- While Emma's upbringing certainly contributed to her work ethic and resilience, attributing her success solely to these factors may overlook the role of luck, timing, and external support systems that can also play significant roles in one's career trajectory.
- The narrative that hard work and self-responsibility are the primary drivers of success might inadvertently downplay systemic issues that can hinder individuals from similar backgrounds from achieving similar outcomes.
- The emphasis on Emma's individual drive and ambition could overshadow the importance of mentorship, networking, and collaboration in professional success, which are often crucial in the business world.
- The story may unintentionally perpetuate the "self-made" myth, which can minimize the impact of societal structures and the assistance one receives from others along their path to success.
- The focus on Emma's ability to forge her own path in the fashion industry without direct connections might imply that anyone can do the same, which doesn't account for the barriers to entry that many people face in highly competitive fields.
- ...
Actionables
- You can develop resilience by volunteering for a leadership role in a community project, where you'll need to navigate challenges and guide others. This mirrors the responsibility of being an elder sibling and can help you cultivate similar character traits. For example, leading a neighborhood clean-up initiative will require you to plan, motivate volunteers, and overcome obstacles, much like Emma's role in her family.
- Start a "Skill Swap" within your network to foster self-reliance and a strong work ethic. Offer a skill you possess, like cooking or budgeting, in exchange for learning a new one from someone else. This barter system encourages you to value your abilities and the hard work behind acquiring new ones, echoing the self-responsibility learned from Emma's upbringing.
- Create a "No-Connectio ...
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Building and Scaling a Business: Hiring and Managing
Emma Grede's insights into the essential process of building and scaling a business spotlight the significant role of rigorous hiring, strategic thinking, and mastering the art of selling a vision.
Emma's Focus on a Strong, High-Performing Team Drives Success
Emma Grede's approach to creating her team is a calculated and ongoing process, valuing experience and adaptability. She allocates a significant portion of her time to talent acquisition, and hires based on performance and a proactive mentality. Having noticed her initial shortcomings in hiring without thorough vetting, she now pours her efforts into identifying T-shaped leaders who comprehend the business beyond their specialized roles. Her emphasis on rigorous hiring implies that she prioritizes finding talent through a methodical process over simply relying on personal connections or gut instinct.
Emma Prioritizes Rigorous Hiring to Find Talent Over Personal Connections or Gut Instinct
Grede acknowledges the importance of a vigorous hiring process, underlining the significance of the first few hires and using all tools at her disposal to make sound decisions. Rather than being driven by intuition or personal rapport, she confronts the need for careful deliberation, especially as she understands her company's influence on elevating individual performance levels.
Emma Values Making Tough Decisions About Underperformance, Even When Difficult
Confronting underperformance is another aspect that Grede does not shy away from; she has learned to release individuals who, despite their roles in building the company, can no longer contribute effectively to its growth. Grede candidly shares the challenges of firing staff due to a sense of loyalty but recognizes that such tough decisions are imperative for the business's scale and attracting superior talent.
Emma's Strategic Mindset and Zoom-Out Ability Drive Growth
Emma Grede routinely takes a step back to evaluate her business against a broader landscape, assessing competitors, market trends, and customer feedback.
Emma Analyzes Trends, Competitors, and Feedback to Find Improvement Areas
She values insights from various sources, prioritizing significant high-impact initiatives and staying flexible in her strategic approach. Grede has adapted her strategies in response to the shifting algorithms and behaviors of customer bases and the evolving marketplace.
Emma Prioritizes and Executes a Few Focused Initiatives, Avoiding Doing Everything
Taking a page from Bill Gates, she treasures times of reflection to consider her business and its context globally. Her growth strategy involves observing competitors and market dynamics for effective business steering and emphasizes the importance of not spreading efforts too thin but instead, focusing on very few, critical business elements at a time.
Emma's Vision-Selling and Buy-in Skills Are an Advantage
Emma Grede's capability to articulate and sell a clear strategic vision is pivotal i ...
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Building and Scaling a Business: Hiring and Managing
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- While rigorous hiring is important, overemphasis on methodical processes can sometimes overlook the value of diverse perspectives that may come from less traditional backgrounds or hiring channels.
- Experience and adaptability are valuable, but focusing too much on these traits might lead to overlooking potential hires with raw talent who could grow into the role with proper mentorship.
- Relying solely on performance metrics in hiring may not always capture a candidate's soft skills or cultural fit, which can be equally important for team dynamics.
- Making tough decisions about underperformance is necessary, but it's also important to ensure that the company culture supports employee development and provides opportunities for improvement before termination.
- While focusing on a few critical business elements can be effective, this approach might miss out on innovative opportunities that arise from exploring a broad ...
Actionables
- You can refine your hiring process by creating a scorecard that evaluates candidates on key attributes like experience, adaptability, and performance. Start by identifying the core competencies required for each role in your organization. Then, design a scorecard that assigns weighted values to these competencies and use it during interviews to objectively assess candidates. This helps to remove bias and ensures you're evaluating potential hires on the qualities that matter most to your business.
- Develop a habit of conducting regular competitive analyses to inform your business decisions. Set aside time each month to research your competitors, identify market trends, and gather customer feedback. Use this information to create a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for your business. This practice will help you stay agile and make informed decisions that keep you ahead of the curve.
- Practice focused decis ...
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Work-Life Balance and Personal Life Challenges
Emma Grede shares her perspective on the debate over work-life balance, emphasizing individual responsibility over employer obligations, and sheds light on her personal experiences with surrogacy that resonate with the struggles many women face.
Emma Argues Work-Life Balance Falls On Individuals, Not Employers
Grede asserts that work-life balance is a personal responsibility and not an issue for organizations to solve. She believes that during the hiring process, questions about work-life balance can be a red flag because they imply that the candidate might not be willing to make necessary sacrifices for success. Grede, a mother of four, understands the necessity to balance ambition with parenting and is candid about the reality that successful leaders often work long hours.
Grede stresses that a good work-life balance for employees is possible only if the company is profitable and efficient. She highlights the importance of a "social contract" with employees where hard work is expected, but in return, employees receive benefits above the norm, such as fertility seminars offered by her organizations.
Furthermore, Grede implies that success and leadership might require working more than a standard workweek. She mentions that successful individuals, like herself, often work on weekends and are quick to respond to messages, which denotes a dedication beyond a five-day work schedule. She advocates for honesty regarding the effort required for significant success and alludes to the necessity of separating from the workplace strategically to maintain a good work-life balance, thus outlining the importance of individual responsibility.
Emma: Successful Leaders Sacrifice and Work Long Hours
Grede comments on the misconceptions of balancing a successful career with a strictly 9-to-5 work schedule. She suggests that managing work alongside personal life logistics, like commuting and picking up kids, is an individual responsibility and that mastery in one's professional role extends beyond adhering to traditional working hours.
Grede debates the idea that one can achieve substantial success within the confines of a 9-to-5 schedule and implies that those claiming so are dishonest. She believes that extraordinary lives require extraordinary effort and that an individual should prioritize their own goals and aspirations, addressing potential conflicts such as unsupportive partners.
Emma Disputes Mastery With a 9-To-5 Schedule
According to Grede, achieving mastery and significant success is unlikely to be accomplished within a traditional 9-to-5 schedule. She emphasizes that truly extraordinary lives likely come with extraordinary efforts, and it's unrealistic to expect the benefits of success without putting in the corresponding hard work.
Emma's Fertility Challenges and Surrogacy Decision Highlight Struggles Many Women Face
Emma Grede speaks openly about the emotional pain and practical difficulties of infertility and pregnancy loss. Grede had little trouble getting pregnant with her first two children, but at the age of 38, she experienced the hardship of infertility with no clear explanation. She underwent several rounds of IVF, describing them as some of th ...
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Work-Life Balance and Personal Life Challenges
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Counterarguments
- Work-life balance is a shared responsibility between individuals and employers, as organizational culture and policies can significantly impact an employee's ability to manage personal and professional demands.
- Questions about work-life balance during hiring could indicate a candidate's desire for a sustainable career and commitment to long-term productivity, rather than a lack of willingness to make sacrifices.
- Profitability and efficiency are important, but companies also have a role in creating an environment that supports employee well-being, which can lead to increased loyalty and productivity.
- The expectation for leaders to work long hours can contribute to burnout and may not be sustainable or desirable for everyone, potentially excluding talented individuals who prioritize balance.
- Success can be defined in various ways, and not all successful leaders work beyond a standard workweek; some prioritize efficiency and delegation over extended hours.
- Extraordinary effort is important, but it should not come at the expense of health or personal relationships; success can also be achieved through smart work, not just hard work.
- While personal responsibility is crucial, employers can support work-life balance through flexible work arrangements, parental leave policies, and other supportive measures.
- Open conversations about fertilit ...
Actionables
- You can reflect on your personal definition of success to align your work ethic with your goals by writing down what success means to you and the sacrifices you're willing to make, then compare this with your current work habits to identify areas for adjustment.
- Start a peer support group for discussing fertility and reproductive health to foster open conversations and reduce stigma, ensuring a safe space for sharing experiences and providing emotional support to those facing similar challenges.
- Create a per ...
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Taking Big Risks and Overcoming Obstacles
Emma's Risk-Taking Has Been Instrumental to Her Success
Emma Grede's journey into the entrepreneurial world is marked by a series of calculated risks and a drive to overcome numerous obstacles. Her willingness to leap into new sectors and her perseverance through various challenges have significantly contributed to her current status as a successful businesswoman.
Emma Left Her Comfort Zone For New Opportunities
While no specific details are provided about Emma leaving her comfort zone for new opportunities, the activities she embarked upon show a clear pattern of risk-taking. She transitioned her marketing agency to focus on the then-emergent trend of influencer marketing when influencers were predominantly known as bloggers. With insight into the denim brand market and without direct product creation experience, Grede plunged into the denim industry, leading to the development of Good American. This move demonstrates a conscious step out of her established comfort zone.
When she discusses moving to America with young children, she talks about leaving behind everything familiar, indicating a significant departure from her comfort zone for the sake of pursuing greater opportunities.
Emma's Grit and Confidence Helped Her Persevere Through Challenges
Emma attributes her drive to escape her humble beginnings as one factor driving her later success. With imaginative strength and grit, she painted a vision of the life she desired, eventually leading her to achieve those dreams, symbolized by her fireplace, Christmas tree, and credenza.
Her determination saw her cold-call and hand-deliver letters to West End businesses, seeking out the next opportunity with relentless ambition. Emma sees her ability to filter out external noise and focus solely on her goals as instrumental in her ability to overcome challenges.
Emma's Adaptability and Learning From Failures Give Her an Edge
Emma is candid about the learning curves in her entrepreneurial journey, including missteps in hiring decisions. She shares that she once relocated people to LA for an off ...
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Taking Big Risks and Overcoming Obstacles
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Counterarguments
- While taking calculated risks is often praised, it's important to acknowledge that not all risks lead to success, and the narrative may suffer from survivorship bias, where we only hear the stories of those who succeeded.
- Transitioning a marketing agency to focus on influencer marketing may have been a strategic move, but it also could have been a response to market pressures rather than a proactive risk.
- Moving to a new country for opportunities is commendable, but it's also a privilege that not everyone can afford or manage, and it may not always be the best or most feasible option for others.
- Grit and determination are important, but attributing success to these qualities alone can overlook other factors such as timing, market conditions, and support networks that play critical roles.
- The narrative that escaping humble beginnings is a driving force for success can unintentionally perpetuate the idea that success is only meaningful if one starts from a disadvantaged position.
- The focus on filtering out external noise and focusing on goals can sometimes lead to a lack of collaboration or ignoring valuable feedback.
- Learning from failures is crucial, but the text does not address the systemic issues that might contribute to those failures, such as market saturation or economic downturns.
- The emphasis on evaluating the size of one's dreams and leveraging current resources might not take into account the systemic barriers that can limit access to resources for some individuals.
- Holding grand plans for life and constantly striv ...
Actionables
- You can start a "calculated risk" journal where you document daily or weekly risks you've taken, the outcomes, and the lessons learned. This practice encourages you to step out of your comfort zone regularly and reflect on the growth that comes from each risk, whether it's speaking up in a meeting, pitching a new idea, or trying a different approach to a common task.
- Create a "resource leverage plan" by listing all the assets and resources you currently have, such as skills, network contacts, or even software you're proficient in. Then, brainstorm how you can use these resources to achieve a new goal or improve an existing project. For example, if you're skilled in social media, consider offering to manage a social media campaign for a local non-profit or a friend's startup.
- Develop a "failure resume" where you record past mistakes, what you learned from each, and how you've appl ...
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