Emma Grede

What is it that you admire about me?

What's the most annoying of my traits?

What do I get wrong all the time?

It is unbelievable.

And so many people don't ask those questions.

And so in my book, I was like, you need to do that routinely to yourself because it brings up all of this stuff.

And, you know, again, we tell ourselves a lot of stories and they're not always entirely true.

And so I've just learned to kind of understand what it is

that I happen to be good at.

And when you double down on the stuff that you're good at, that's what makes you really successful, not going outside of all of the things all the time.

It's such a good story.

Well, I had spent like 15 years of my career at the intersection of like brands and entertainment, meaning that I'd built this agency.

that put brands together with celebrities and did film product placement and licensing deals.

And so I was so in this place where, you know, as a kind of frustrated consultant that I, you know, imagined that, you know, I'd do a project for Topshop or Calvin Klein or whoever it might be.

And I was like...

look at all the money they're making out of my idea, you know?

And you do, you get to the point where you're like, I can't keep giving it all away for fees and for something that I have like no skin in the game for.

And so in my head, I was like, I'm going to start a brand.

I'm just going to start something and I'm going to own it all and I'm going to make it huge and it's going to be amazing and I'm going to sit at home and count all the money.

Of course, it doesn't go exactly like that.