In this deeply personal solo episode of Aspire, Emma Grede gets real and shares the ten foundational principles that have shaped her journey as an entrepreneur, leader, and mother. Drawing from over two decades of experience, Emma opens up about the power of embracing vulnerability, leveraging your unique strengths, and facing your past head-on. She discusses the critical importance of authenticity, personal responsibility, and the transformative role risk plays in achieving success. Emma’s practical insights will help you clearly identify what truly matters, focus your energy on what you can control, and develop a learning mindset that bridges the gap between good and great. Tune in to discover the powerful guiding principles Emma relies on that can help you forge your own path to fulfillment and success. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the foundational principles that shaped Emma's journey?
Welcome to Aspire with me, Emma Greed. Over the past 20 years, I've built, run and invested in some incredible businesses. I co-founded a multi-billion dollar unicorn and helped grow companies worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. And at the same time, I'm raising four kids right here in Los Angeles. But trust me, that's a long way from where I started.
Chapter 2: How did Emma's upbringing influence her career?
I grew up in a rough neighborhood in East London, one of four sisters raised by a single mom. I've really come a long way and I've learned a lot. But this, this podcasting thing is brand new territory for me. I've built businesses rooted in purpose, but they weren't always my purpose.
It wasn't until I stepped into leadership, mentoring others, guiding teams, that I actually realized what really drives me. Helping people find their own path, their own success, that's what drives me. So when I thought about launching this show, two words kept coming up for me, intention and purpose. That is the heart of Aspire.
My intention's really simple, to bring you conversations with some of the most brilliant thought leaders and minds in business, to give you insights, tools, and takeaways to build the life you want on your terms. I want every guest to be the mentor in your head, the voice that pushes you, that inspires you, and that reminds you just how powerful you are.
But if there's one truth I've learned, even when I had to learn it the hard way, it is this. The road to success starts with yourself. It doesn't matter where you come from, who your mentors are, what's held you back or what you've done wrong. You need a strong belief system that guides everything you do.
Because when every step you take starts with you, everything becomes possible, especially when you put in the work. And to borrow from one of my favorite mentors, the mentor I have in my head, Oprah Winfrey, it's one of the only things I know for sure.
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Chapter 3: What does it mean to embrace vulnerability in business?
So today I want to take some time with you to break down what that really means, to share the real stuff, 10 key takeaways that have shaped my journey. Some I wish I'd known sooner, and I'm going to keep it 100% honest.
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Chapter 4: How can knowing your weaknesses lead to success?
Number one, know what you don't know. Let's be honest. How well do you really know yourself? I'm not just talking about what type of personality you have or what you're good at. I'm asking, do you know what you don't know? What are the things you're not great at? What are the skills that you lack, the areas where you need help? In other words, are you honest with yourself about your weaknesses?
We all have them. I'm dyslexic. I find it really hard to read spreadsheets, especially those full of numbers. I have a very short attention span. I hate long meetings and I really don't like big meetings with more than four or five people. And yet every week I need to sit in collection reviews with 40 or 50 people present from all divisions of the business.
I know these things, these weaknesses about myself, and I would never be successful if I haven't figured out a way to combat them. I can tell you right now, one of the biggest breakthroughs I had was when I finally admitted I don't know everything. And the next breakthrough I had was when I stopped pretending to everybody else that I did.
As with so many women, I've been stuck in the perfectionist trap where I felt like I needed to be great at everything and have all the answers. The fear of not being good enough or falling short of expectations can be overwhelming. Perfectionism often arises from this desire to avoid criticism or rejection, which is so real when you're out of your comfort zone, just like I am now somewhat.
But when you're starting something new and when you're pushing yourself, it really comes up over and over again. I've sat in meetings and I've masked what I didn't know. And I thought for a long time that not being particularly strong with numbers or with finance meant that I should actually never be allowed to run a business.
Until that is, until one day I started asking questions, not just to the people I had directly around me, but actively making calls to anyone I thought that might want to chat and help me work for a problem. I called my agency clients. I called my old colleagues. I spoke to the bosses of friends. I even called competitors. And I started to become someone who would find answers.
When I started my first business, I thought I should be able to do it all. I thought being in charge meant having every answer. I micromanaged everything. I thought if I didn't control it, then it would never get done. But you know what? That only created chaos. And the moment I stepped back and trusted the people that I hired, my business exploded.
But in reality, what it actually meant was being honest with myself and being crystal clear on what I wasn't good at and what skills I needed to hire for. It took me a while to get there, but being willing to hire the best people and get out of their way was a breakthrough. Today, if I'm really honest, one of the best parts about my job is finding talent.
I love nothing more than bringing the best people from all over the world to work with me. And I lean in to what I don't know. I don't despair that they might be more knowledgeable, that they might have more experience, that they might be more articulate or present better than I do. In fact, it's the absolute opposite because surrounding myself with the best people makes me look good.
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Chapter 5: Why is leveraging your strengths essential for growth?
every opportunity to give where I knew what I was speaking about or not and as I've got older I've understood that it is all my differences that make me who I am and uniquely able to do what I do to see things the way I see them and to operate the way that only I can.
the quote you might as well be you everybody else has taken is a great quote because to me it says that we're all unique that we can all bring something to the table and when you really embrace the idea of being who you are being yourself understanding yourself it's not only freeing but it becomes like a kind of magic being me and leaning into being myself has got me to where I am today and it is far less exhausting than the alternative
So I choose it and you should choose it for yourself every damn day. Number four, you have to deal with all your old shit. Take it in for a second, because I'm going to get super real here. Every single one of us carries baggage. And let's face it, your past can be a heavy weight to bear. For me, it was childhood trauma, a lot of anger, unresolved emotions.
And when you're building something big, whether it's a business, a career, or just your life, those old wounds will catch up to you. At one point in my 20s, I realised that my anger and my unresolved issues were really holding me back. I couldn't keep blaming my childhood or my circumstances for where I was at that moment. If I wanted to move forward, I had to do the hard work of healing.
And that meant sitting down, confronting everything and being willing to deal with all of that old shit. I've been in and out of therapy since my late teens. And I honestly believe it's been one of the single most rewarding aspects of my life. Two years ago, I did the Hoffman process, which is like an intensive course over nine days where you deal with your childhood trauma.
I'm someone who finds it very, very difficult to compartmentalize. It's not like I have like a work day and a family part of my day and a podcast part of my day. Everything is is everything. It all melds into one thing. And when I'm super pissed off, I can't park it and come into the room a different person for a different project or for a different mood.
So the reality is that in order to do all the things I do, I have to deal with the fundamentals. And so will you. I am so glad that we're living in a time when there's no stigma around therapy for most people. But when I was much younger, there definitely was. As a busy working mum of four, I also struggled to find the time to work on myself. And sometimes it can definitely feel overindulgent.
But making the time to understand why you do what you do and how you come to those decisions enables you to make changes where you really need to. When you identify something in yourself, if you can pinpoint where it comes from, you can work on it. And even when you start to notice things that aren't about you that are happening around you, it's an opportunity to look inwards.
I had an amazing therapist that used to say to me, you spot it, you got it, which I think about all the time when I have my little judgy hat on. I said it at the start of today, but you can't be successful in business unless you're successful in life. So working out all your own shit will allow you to move through your life in a far more successful way than if you choose not to.
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Chapter 6: How can being yourself impact your career?
My experience has been that when you're in a downward spiral, taking responsibility in the capacity you have is the single best thing that you can do. Now I'm talking about a particularly early part of my life, but when I think about how that translates to what I do now, I think that it's my responsibility to figure out how to make myself happy.
It's my responsibility to work out how to be the best parent to my four kids while I balance my ambition. And when I'm exhausted and I'm frustrated and I feel a sense of overwhelm, I know my responsibility is to correct that and figure out a path forward. No one is coming to save you. No one. This was a hard pill for me to swallow.
When things went wrong, it was easy to point fingers at other people, at circumstances, at things outside my control. But here's the truth. I am responsible for where I am today, for the good and for the bad. Right, that key take out part again. Taking responsibility means owning your choices and Every mistake, every failure, it's yours.
And the moment I took full responsibility, I started to see real growth. Because when you take ownership, you stop playing the victim and you become empowered. I'm not saying it's easy, but it is necessary for me, for you and for all of us. And to quote one of my favorite quotes, don't forget, the water doesn't get any warmer if you jump in late. Number six. The only thing you can control is you.
The truth everyone needs to hear, there's so much you can control and just as much that you absolutely cannot. As an entrepreneur, here's what I know for sure. You can control your vision, your energy, your standards, how you show up. Every single day, you can control these things.
You can choose your mindset, your team, your boundaries, how you respond when things don't go as planned, but you can't control other people's opinions. You can't control the pace of somebody else's journey or every twist and turn in the market. And trying to control those things, that is what drains your energy.
Let me tell you the first four things I think about every day as a matter of practice. These things we all have control over. And I promise you that if you get hold of them, they'll make the biggest differences to your life. The first one, how you speak to yourself. My great friend, Diane, Diane von Fustenberg says this,
The most important relationship you'll ever have is the one you have with yourself. So make it a practice to speak to yourself well and with intention. Here's the next one, how you respond to others. Life is short and the world is really small. And I can tell you countless stories of how the same people come back into my life in different ways over and over again.
Are you someone that walks into the room and brings energy or do you drain it? Choosing and being deliberate, looking people in the eye, saying hello, a little smile, acknowledging a small detail or something that you know might be important to someone else, or just taking a little moment for a chat. This is how people experience you. This is the stuff that matters.
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Chapter 7: What role does personal responsibility play in success?
Chapter 8: Why is it important to confront your past?
But every one of them teaches you something that you couldn't have learned by playing it safe. Too often we're taught to crave certainty, to wait for for the plan, the approval, the perfect timing, but I promise you, it's a waste of time. So the question is, how do you get better at risk-taking? And the answer is, you start small.
You build that muscle, you get used to discomfort, and you ask, what's the worst that could happen? And what's the best that could happen if I trust myself? Playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do when you've got really big dreams. So today, I challenge you to take one bold step. Send the email, pitch the idea, launch the offer, say the scary thing, ask for what you want.
Because every time you choose courage over comfort, you're building the future that you actually want. And that, my dears, is a risk worth taking. Number eight. The work is non-negotiable. There is no other way for me to say this than I probably work an unhealthy amount. I sketched out the outline for this show at 11 p.m. on a Friday night. It's all fun and games at my house.
I go into my office at least four days a week, usually five. And even if I'm not in the office on a Friday, I'm out and about and I'm taking meetings or I'm at my home all day, but I'm doing work. I work in the evenings and I work on the weekends. I love the work I do. but I work all the time.
Now there have for sure been periods in my career, in my twenties and in my thirties, where I had an unhealthy relationship to work, where I lived in London. I would wake myself up in the middle of the night to respond to a lawyer's comments on a celebrity contract, because given the time difference in LA, by the time that I would wake up, they'd be asleep. And inevitably the turnaround time
When you're trying to close a deal and keep clients happy, it was just not something that I could bear. Now, while I would never advocate for unhealthy working practices like that, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a moment in your life and in your career where it made sense to put the pedal to the metal. And for me, that was in my 20s. At this time of my life, I didn't have a mortgage.
I didn't have any big responsibilities, no kids. I could apply myself 100% to my work. And oh my goodness, did I. I'd also say that there is a huge gap in my own friendship group between those that really applied themselves during their twenties and those that just didn't. Now, this type of work ethic isn't for everybody. And I don't think that you can't be successful because
if you're not willing to go all out. But there is something to be said for what it takes to be excellent at something and what it takes to really, truly apply yourself. Personally, what I found really helpful is to have a focus with work. And what I mean by that is to have an end goal, to be clear about what you're working towards and make sure that your energy is spent wisely.
There is a smart way to work really hard and killing yourself without any big picture in mind will never be satisfying. Now, I know that people are tired of hustle culture and I know that work-life balance is important. It's important to prioritize looking after yourself. And as much as I dislike the term self-care, I love what it actually means for me.
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