Emma Grede, the businesswoman who co-founded brands like SKIMS and Good American with Kim and Khloé Kardashian, talks about how she only has a high school education — but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming a huge success story.
“I was raised by a single mother, one of four girls, and I watched my mom get up and go to work every day,” says London-born Grede, 41, who is currently co-hosting the second season Side Hustlers on Roku with Ashley Graham, where they lead and invest in women who represent new businesses. (The new season has been the #1 on-demand title on the Roku channel since its launch.)
“I always think of myself as someone who was kind of born bent,” he says of his secret. “I was always working — I was just finding a lot of things that I either wasn’t that good at or didn’t want to do. And so it was more about taking control and going, ‘Okay, I’ve just got to find something that I want to do.’
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At just 24 years old, she gained her fashion experience and started an agency that helped people in the entertainment world to sign sponsorship and brand ambassadorship deals.
“I had that company for ten years and I was lucky enough to learn on the job. I learned how to be a boss, and honestly, I learned a lot about what not make.”
Ashley Graham and Emma Grede Good American cast for “Good Squad”.
A good American
She also learned one key element to achieving success: sacrifice and boundaries.
“If you really want to start something, be prepared to make sacrifices. Because my experience of starting a business has always meant that there is some kind of sacrifice that has to come with it,” she says.
“If you’re the type of person who wants to exercise every morning or go out with friends every night, then something has to give,” she says. “I think we can make entrepreneurship seem easy and it’s not, so there has to be a reality check, where people understand the trade-offs.”
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For Grede, it was determining her limits when it comes to balancing her business life and raising four children.
“I have a 10-year-old, an 8-year-old and two-year-old twins,” she says. “I’d like to be honest about that, because I think as a working mother, again, I come back to that idea of, well, where are my boundaries? What am I willing to give up? And what’s not – negotiable?”
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She continues, “I don’t come and go every day. But if my kid is in a play, I’m going to see my kid in a play. It’s not cookie-cutter, it’s different for every person. I think what we have to do is normalize the idea that you’re not going to have it all which only exists on Instagram.”
She also rejects the idea that women have to be supermoms.
“I don’t know about you, but the way I was raised, nobody cut my sandwiches into fun shapes!” she says with a laugh.
“I think we can look back on our own childhoods and remember that we were all good. Our children don’t need us that much. They need us to love them and guide them, but we shouldn’t carry them every moment and every difficulty. That’s not helpful .”
She continues, “If we try to do that, it leaves very little time for women to do anything else. And I feel like I’ve just watched so many of my friends turn upside down after becoming moms.”
As for the launch of SKIMS and Good Americana, Grede says a big reason the brands became so successful was because they were delivering products to a huge underserved segment of the female population.
“The fashion business only catered to petite women or a small segment of the plus-size market. But 64 percent of women are over a size 12. So we figured if you’re going to make products for everyone, have more customers.”
He says it’s that different way of thinking that makes Good American’s Size 15 jeans one of the best sellers.
“There were women who were not plus size and were at the back of the sizes offered,” she says. “It’s our fourth best-selling size to date. At the end of the day, what we’ve really done with those brands is we’ve made them for as many people as possible and with real lasting power.”
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Khloe Kardashian and Emma Grede at the Good American Launch Party in Miami 2019. Alexander Tamargo/Getty
Grede also credits his success to listening to his instincts and his ability to learn on the job.
“I had a pretty serious learning disability and I didn’t go to college or university. I dropped out of high school. But if you’re not good at something, you can become good at it. Now I know it’s called a growth mindset.”
“I didn’t know it when I was younger, but I knew I could learn things. I never think of intelligence, aptitude, or ability as fixed things—I’d say for anyone out there, you can get better at almost anything.”
The second season of Side Hustlers is now streaming on ROKU
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education