How Grit, AI, And One "Perfect Sandwich" Built A Business Empire For Emma Grede

Key Concepts

• Learning Mode: A continuous state of openness to new information and experiences, crucial for adaptability and success.
• Flexibility: The ability to adapt one's style, mindset, and approach to changing business landscapes and opportunities.
• Force Multiplier: An element that significantly increases the effectiveness of an effort, such as focus in work and life.
• Human Capital: Utilizing one's unique skills, gifts, and effort when financial resources are limited.
• Leverage Points: Strategic advantages or opportunities used to advance one's career or business.
• Grit: Unmanufactured resilience and determination, often born from necessity, maintained through a humble, startup-like mentality.
• Plaistow, East London Mentality: A mindset of keeping things small and lean until there is clear justification for expansion, avoiding complacency.
• Demystification: The process of making complex or obscure topics (like business, money, or success) understandable and accessible.
• Transcendental Meditation: A specific meditation technique mentioned for its ability to energize and enhance clarity and focus.
• Excellence: Approaching every task, regardless of its perceived importance, with the highest possible standard, leading to recognition and future opportunities.

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Prioritization, Motherhood, and Challenging Comfort Zones

Emma Grede, a founder, serial entrepreneur, and host of the "Aspire with Emma Grede" podcast, emphasizes the importance of prioritizing what is truly important. As a working mother of multiple children, she consciously sets an example for her kids by pursuing her ambitions, viewing her work at events like Forbes Black as a source of pride and purpose. She believes in putting herself first to effectively show up for her children. Grede also highlights the necessity of challenging oneself to move beyond what is familiar and comfortable, a principle she applies to her personal and professional life. She notes that her musical preferences are largely stuck in the pre-1998 era (e.g., Warren G), but she remains open to new influences, mirroring her approach to business.

Constant Learning and AI Integration

Grede operates on the principle of always being in "learning mode," acknowledging that "you don't know what you don't know." This involves staying open to new business developments, regardless of direct involvement, and being willing to learn from anyone, including her children, office staff, and seasoned senior hires. She stresses that flexibility – in style, mindset, and openness to new ideas – is a key attribute for sustained success.

Regarding technology, Grede is actively integrating AI into her businesses. She was impressed by ChatGPT's recent integration of various apps (booking, Spotify), which she is training herself to use. Her office extensively uses Asana for productivity, particularly for startup founders. They are also developing predictive planning tools to analyze the first five minutes of sales for an item to forecast its lifecycle. Two years prior, Grede incentivized her employees with bonuses for integrating AI into their work, fostering a culture where AI is "the smell of the place," ensuring the company stays current and productive.

Personal Growth: Transcendental Meditation and Self-Focus

Grede recently learned and implemented Transcendental Meditation, which she considers a highly meaningful practice with tangible output. She initially viewed meditation as "switching off," but discovered it provides significant energy, clarity of thought, and enhanced focus. She describes focus as a "force multiplier" for work and life, making the ability to truly concentrate incredibly important. This practice aligns with her current "me-focused" phase of life, where she believes one must prioritize self-care to effectively support others.

Early Life, Entrepreneurial Beginnings, and the Power of Grit

Grede's journey began in East London. She describes herself as "stupid" in school, later realizing she is severely dyslexic, which made traditional education challenging and draining. At 15, she left school, driven by a need to escape her circumstances and earn money. As the eldest of four girls, she took on a maternal role at home, prioritizing practical needs over formal education.

Her entrepreneurial path started by leveraging her "human capital" – her unique skills, particularly negotiation. After feeling underpaid in a job where she negotiated deals for brands and artists, she decided to start her own talent agency from her bedroom. This endeavor, which she later sold in her late 20s after scaling it to multiple countries, was built on a "series of leverage points" and sheer hard work. She emphasizes that the glamorous "entrepreneurial endeavor" often starts unromantically and requires persistent effort, not a grand plan.

Grede defines grit as something that cannot be manufactured; it arises from necessity. She maintains her "Plaistow, East London mentality" even in success, keeping things small and justified, and avoiding complacency. This involves staying in "learning mode," taking nothing for granted, and never "believing your own B.S." She strives to approach every day with the same hunger and commitment to excellence.

Meeting Kris Jenner and the Mindset of Equality

In 2012/2013, Grede secured a lunch meeting with Kris Jenner in Paris. She highlights that at the time, Kris Jenner was not yet the global icon she is today, reflecting on how much a person can evolve. Grede approached the meeting with the same enthusiasm and sales mindset as any other, guided by her mother's teaching: "You're not better than anybody else, but nor is anyone better than you." This foundational belief in equality allows her to enter any room with the default assumption that she belongs and has earned her place. She lives by the quote, "If you play small, you stay small," always remembering her capabilities and coming fully prepared with research and knowledge, ready to "work her off."

Current Business Landscape and the American Opportunity

While her businesses (like Skims and Nike collaborations) are successful, Grede's daily reality involves constant problem-solving. She views living in California, despite its high taxes, as a "luxury proposition" offering unparalleled opportunities. Having lived in the US for eight years, she asserts that "there is nowhere in the world where you can do what I've done in the same way that you can in this country." She remains "pro this country" and its people, acknowledging its challenges but emphasizing the unique opportunities it provides.

"Aspire with Emma Grede" Podcast: Demystifying Success

Grede's podcast, "Aspire with Emma Grede," stems from her mission to provide access and information, which she believes were key to her own success. She aims to "lift the lid on things," explaining practical aspects of business and life, such as raising money, getting a pay rise, interviewing well, and navigating company failures or successes. A core focus is to demystify what it means to build a company and a successful life, particularly by having honest conversations about money, which she feels is often shrouded in mystery.

Lessons from Failure: The LA Agency and Remote Work Critique

Grede shares her biggest failure: the expansion of her talent agency into Los Angeles. After building a successful agency over ten years with offices in Paris and New York, she brought her model of celebrity partnerships and product placement to LA. She realized she "didn't know what I didn't know." In LA, where celebrities are neighbors and the industry is close-knit, her role as a "broker" or "middle woman" was irrelevant. She failed "miserably" and "slowly," taking too long to admit defeat, which had significant personal costs, including relocating employees who then lost their jobs.

This experience taught her the critical lesson that to be successful somewhere, "you probably need to be there" and assimilate into the local culture and way of doing business. This insight directly informed her approach with Good American, where she ensured she was deeply embedded in the culture.

She extends this lesson to a critique of remote work, arguing that while it offers flexibility, it "loses the plot" by sacrificing crucial aspects of the work experience. She highlights the loss of social connections, networking opportunities, and informal learning (e.g., observing and "stealing" best lines from a boss). Grede believes that "Zoom is soul destroying" and that the reciprocity and organic interactions of an in-person office environment are invaluable for career development and personal relationships.

The Opportunity of Tomorrow: Human Connection and Excellence

Looking ahead to 2026, Grede presents an "unpopular" but profound opportunity: getting off your phone, looking up, and listening. She observes that "so much nuance is being lost" due to constant digital engagement. She stresses that "all the best things that have happened in my life happened in person," through active listening, note-taking, and direct eye contact. This ability to connect with people, understand their needs, and build relationships is critical in business. She warns against letting the embrace of AI and technology come "at the detriment of the basics" – the foundational human connections that define us. Undervaluing our humanity, she argues, is the only way machines truly "take over."

Drawing from Jim Collins' "Good to Great," Grede concludes by emphasizing the importance of excellence in everything one does. She recounts how making the "best sandwich" at a deli led to her first work experience opportunity, demonstrating that even baseline tasks, approached with pride and excellence, can lead to unexpected opportunities and recognition. She advises approaching every day and every interaction with the commitment to do the absolute best, as this is what gets you noticed for future endeavors.