Skims Boss Emma Grede: Here Are My Tips for Business Success

Emma Gred, 42, is a founding partner and director of Skims Products, a brand of strips with a value of $ 4 billion. She also serves as co -founder and executive director of Apparel Brand Good American, which registered $ 200 million in sales in 2022 (and $ 1 million on her first day live on October 18, 2016, marking the largest denim launch in history). She is worth informing $ 390 million.

It is also a dropout of the high school raised by a single mother in eastern London who began working on a paper route at age 12 to earn extra money. At 16, he had left school and began working in a fashion production company. While he was there, Grede came up with the idea of ​​his first business, a marketing and entertainment agency called Independent Talent Brand (ITB) that matched fashion designers with funds. He founded the company in 2008 at 25 and the agency increased before selling it 10 years later to the Marketing Rogers & Cowen firm for an unleashed sum.

Related: The good American CEO Emma Gredo talks about management, navigating exterior noise and why she should always stick to her mission

Now, Grede is based in Los Angeles with her husband, the CEO of Skims, Jens Gred, and her four children. He also co -found the sportswear brand out of season and the cleaning company without chemicals, safely. It appeared as a guest investor in Shark Tank in seasons 13 and 14.

And now you can add the podcast host to your curriculum. The serial entrepreneur has just launched a new podcast called Aspire, which aims to educate and inspire business leaders through in -depth conversations with leading executives and celebrities.

^{Emma Grede. Photo credit: Jamie Goldler}

Grete sat down with Entrepreneur To talk about your new podcast, how it manages several businesses and what is needed to be a successful entrepreneur.

Why did your podcast begin and how is different from other business podcasts?
I left school when I was 16 years old. So, I don’t have a traditional trajectory. I am trying to unpack as much as the success I have had, the mistakes I have had. I wanted to give something that I thought would be useful when I started my businesses.

What child or advice would the leg use?
To start, you have to love what you are doing. I say that because it is difficult to start something from scratch, and try each fiber from your being. So you have to really want to do it. It has to be more than a single objective, as I need to earn money, or I just want to leave the place where I work. It has to be something that feeds you.

What child or mentality is needed to succeed in entrepreneurship? Is there any feature or skill that stands out?
I think you have to have an unwavering love. There is a part of this that is really a mentality that won not to take the answer and can see problems and adversity. That works every time.

How did you decide on entrepreneurship?
It is something that I fell. Like many of us, I worked in corporate work for many years. I left that job because I thought I was being paid well enough for what I did. So I fell into entrepreneurship. And that’s why I started mine.

If you could start a lateral hubby today, what would it be?
I would do it because being a florist. That is the only thing I wanted to do that I have never touched. I would love to have a job that is only beauty and that is artistically satisfactory. That would be my little dream of sleep. A flower shop somewhere in a lovely place.

What is your leadership style?
Ate [Good American]There are more than 150 people. I am the product director of another company [Skims] Where there are probable 400 people. So, there are many people, but I tend to hire the best people and get out of their way. One of the things I do is hire. I am particularly good to build equipment.

What are you looking for in new hiring?
Contract for attitude on experience often. That is not in all positions, but I think that especially when you start a company, with people who have energy, who have passion, you cannot put a price about it.

What keeps you motivated?
I honestly feel that I have created the life of my dreams. I am grateful every day that I can do what I do. I think that keeps me motivated, that I have done this life for me, and it is or my choice.

What is it like working with her husband in the same C-Suite leadership team? Does it maintain a separation between family and work dynamics?
I have worked with Jens for a long time, and we had a solid professional relationship before being a couple. Marketing management and skim day operation while I am concentrated in the product. Then our roles are very defined, and we do different things. We have different skills, which makes us very compatible as commercial partners. We also have a lot of separation in our real roles. But if I’m sincere, we love what we do so much. So, do businesses extend at home at home, and we talk about what we do all the time? Absolutely. YEAH. There is a part of that is inevitable.

Do you have a lot of help at home?
I have three -year -old twins, and then I have an 11 -year -old boy and an 8 -year -old boy. At home, I don’t have four children who arrive at school myself in the morning. I have a lot of help around me, and I trust all that help to spend the day. I think it is very important to be honest about it because I don’t want anyone to look at me and think, Oh, go. She is a girl or superwoman. It’s like, No, I’m not a superwoman. I am just a woman. I am making decisions every day and making many sacrifices every day.

This interview has been slightly edited and cut for clarity.

Related: Kristin Cavallari and Emma Greda reveal how they built brands that stand out in a saturated market, and the secret is not the stellar power