Speaker 1: Emma Greed is a serial entrepreneur who started her career
Speaker 1: in the media business and has gone on to launch
Speaker 1: multiple companies, including Good American Skims, and she is about
Speaker 1: to launch a brand new venture called off Season. She
Speaker 1: is a recurring shark on Shark Tank, I Love You
Speaker 1: on that show, and she co hosts Roku's hit series
Speaker 1: Side Hustlers. Emma and I share a passion for entrepreneurialism
Speaker 1: and I am so pleased to talk to her today.
Speaker 1: Welcome to my podcast, Emma.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, thank you for having me. Well, I'm
Speaker 2: dying right now.
Speaker 3: It should just be said. I'll get it out of
Speaker 3: the way. I've done the fangirling thing. You've signed my cookworks.
Speaker 3: I really am having a bit of a moment.
Speaker 1: So you've just launched a new business venture, your fourth
Speaker 1: venture as a co founder. Tell us about off Season.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I have to say it's probably I
Speaker 3: would say maybe my business venture if you count everything
Speaker 3: that was in media prior to me starting the you know,
Speaker 3: apparel businesses. But this is a really special one because
Speaker 3: I'm a huge, huge sports fan, and I think that
Speaker 3: there's this unbelievable opportunity as sports becomes such a hit
Speaker 3: in culture to do something where you're putting quality at
Speaker 3: the forefront.
Speaker 2: I mean, for too long we've been wearing.
Speaker 3: Sports gear that's just about a logo slap on a
Speaker 3: pretty cheap garment. And what I do is really, you know,
Speaker 3: specializing where the culture meets some kind of quality.
Speaker 2: And so I'm excited to do this.
Speaker 1: Well, I I'm a fan girl of Kristen from day one.
Speaker 2: Day one you came to my dinner. She was like,
Speaker 2: so excited to meet you.
Speaker 1: CHRISTI hu check. How do you say your last name?
Speaker 2: Check?
Speaker 1: Use check?
Speaker 3: Really, I've learned because I'm very dyslexic, and just seeing
Speaker 3: it written, it doesn't say use check.
Speaker 2: So used check.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: She is the wife of a San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: I met her the first time last year after already
Speaker 1: commented many times on her Instagram. I met her lest
Speaker 1: year at the Super Bowl and I applaud her entrepreneurialism
Speaker 1: because she was the first person private person to get
Speaker 1: a license from the NFL to use their logos on clothing.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, she is a force to be reckoned with,
Speaker 3: and she hunted. She gorgeous, first, beautiful and so talented.
Speaker 3: This is a girl that taught herself to sew, has
Speaker 3: no fashion background whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Absolutely went through so many people.
Speaker 3: To find me and she said, I want you as
Speaker 3: my business partner, and here's the opportunity. And for someone
Speaker 3: like me who kind of you know, I used to
Speaker 3: be that person trying to knock on all the doors
Speaker 3: and get people to work with me.
Speaker 2: I've never been more impressed by someone.
Speaker 1: Well, as you launched this business, how are you defining
Speaker 1: your audience and marketing to them?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think what's so interesting is the
Speaker 3: sports has such a built in fan group. But coming
Speaker 3: up in England, you know I went to soccer every
Speaker 3: single week being in La. I have you know, season
Speaker 3: tickets at the Lakers. But you know, when I started
Speaker 3: going to football, to American football, you just look around
Speaker 3: and you see everyone wants to support their team. And
Speaker 3: I think that we're at this point in culture where
Speaker 3: everybody is really they really, really really want to wear
Speaker 3: these clothes outside of supporting their team.
Speaker 2: And so I think it's a built in audience.
Speaker 3: To get back to your question, but you know, it's
Speaker 3: really about being where the fans are at and thinking
Speaker 3: not just about marketing but about distribution.
Speaker 1: But what about the other manufacturers of all the NFL
Speaker 1: licensed goods, What do they say about your high fashion?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know what they're going to say.
Speaker 1: It's going to be it's very competitive.
Speaker 3: It is competitive, But I think any business that's worth
Speaker 3: being in, as you well know, is competitive. And rather
Speaker 3: than worrying about competition, I always worry about what's my
Speaker 3: point of difference? What am I doing so uniquely that's
Speaker 3: not out there? You've got to focus on quality. And
Speaker 3: I honestly believe that people want to be they want
Speaker 3: to feel different, they want to feel differentiated, And we're
Speaker 3: going to bring a real unique design proposition and give
Speaker 3: you something that you want to wear on any day,
Speaker 3: not just on game day.
Speaker 1: Well, you're and the clothing that Kristen makes is charming,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, it's a little true. I can't wear
Speaker 1: so many bare midress.
Speaker 2: You'll be at me neither. Okay, those days are over
Speaker 2: for me too, for children.
Speaker 1: But I must say it is incredible how how artistic
Speaker 1: she is, yes, and how clever with the logos and
Speaker 1: the colors and the banners and everything else she puts
Speaker 1: on those things.
Speaker 3: And that's the point of differentiation, right, We're going to
Speaker 3: do something that you can't just find in any old
Speaker 3: team shop and make it really special.
Speaker 1: So we are you selling it?
Speaker 3: We will sell it on our own sites good and
Speaker 3: then we'll be in some of the team shops and
Speaker 3: distribution will grow from there.
Speaker 1: But we have I see, I see a shop in
Speaker 1: every city.
Speaker 2: Don't you Just thank you?
Speaker 1: But you out there, you have to have a couple
Speaker 1: dressing rooms just to try and mine for ladies.
Speaker 3: And we want to do things that are cute and
Speaker 3: you feel good in. You know, we don't want some
Speaker 3: schleppy t shirt.
Speaker 1: This is the furthest from Schleppie. Absolutely, So your retail
Speaker 1: ventures started with Good American. But let's go back. You
Speaker 1: attend in the London College of Fashion, which is a
Speaker 1: fantastic school. It is what did you learn there and
Speaker 1: why did you leave before graduating? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I ain't that the case?
Speaker 3: So actually I did business there, and I mean what
Speaker 3: happened for me is I just I didn't have the
Speaker 3: financial means to keep it going. You know, I was coming,
Speaker 3: you know, an hour on the train to college. The
Speaker 3: tic train ticket was so expensive. I was trying to
Speaker 3: work three days a week and go to college the
Speaker 3: other four days of the week.
Speaker 2: And I just couldn't make it work.
Speaker 3: And what happens when you're working in the middle of
Speaker 3: London you meet a lot of people. I met stylists
Speaker 3: and I met, you know, people that were working in
Speaker 3: fashion shows. And I just decided that it would be
Speaker 3: better in fashion to just get in and start doing
Speaker 3: the work and have the work experience then have a qualification,
Speaker 3: and so I just had to go.
Speaker 1: Well, like most entrepreneurs, you started working very early as
Speaker 1: a new when you were thirteen.
Speaker 2: I've had the most jobs after there.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Actually, I think that's what kind of gave birth to
Speaker 3: my lava food, one of my like I still think
Speaker 3: of it as one of my favorite jobs. I worked
Speaker 3: in a deli when I was fourteen, and so, you know,
Speaker 3: and I probably I made the best sandwiches. I learned
Speaker 3: to slice the meat so perfectly, the name of every cheese,
Speaker 3: every olive, and I always took pride in any of
Speaker 3: those jobs. So I have been working for a long time,
Speaker 3: but I'm a person that can take something from any situation.
Speaker 3: And I learned how to deal with customers. I learned
Speaker 3: how to please people I learned how to present things beautifully,
Speaker 3: and so I feel like there's so much of that
Speaker 3: that's come into the work that I do today. And
Speaker 3: so I feel like all of those jobs were, you know,
Speaker 3: part of making me who I am.
Speaker 1: So you started a talent agency at twenty six and
Speaker 1: what made you do that? Where did you find all
Speaker 1: this talent that you.
Speaker 3: You know, A fin on the ground, I have to
Speaker 3: say I was making up half the time. I feel
Speaker 3: like the pattern in my career is that I've leveraged
Speaker 3: everything that I've done.
Speaker 1: In Ted Lasso, Oh I never.
Speaker 2: Watched Ted last night, everyone told me I should have watched.
Speaker 1: So there's a young woman and she's crazy, little blonde
Speaker 1: girl who becomes like the talent Asians.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: For me, what I specialized in was really the commercial partnerships.
Speaker 3: So my job was actually representing brands and partnering them.
Speaker 3: There you go, maybe they've got maybe they've got big,
Speaker 3: somebody call them, oh my royalties.
Speaker 1: Well what did you learn about the power of celebrity?
Speaker 1: I mean you must have learned a lot right away,
Speaker 1: you know, I really did.
Speaker 3: I understood the power of leveraging a talent's name, image, likeness.
Speaker 3: I also learned about the acceleration and what that can
Speaker 3: mean for a brand.
Speaker 2: And I think in a.
Speaker 3: Very crowded marketplace, and if we go back fifteen years,
Speaker 3: they weren't the deals that you see now right, They
Speaker 3: were very very different, namely people putting their names to
Speaker 3: fragrances and fashion brands doing a day photo shoot and
Speaker 3: off they go. There really wasn't the integrated marketing that
Speaker 3: we see now with levels and levels of different things.
Speaker 3: And I learned social media didn't exist at all then.
Speaker 3: But what it actually taught me is how powerful you
Speaker 3: know the idea of being able to get a message
Speaker 3: out to popular culture and how if you think about
Speaker 3: and I say this about you all the time, like
Speaker 3: you are the original person that was able to take
Speaker 3: all of your skills and everything that you stood for
Speaker 3: and leverage that into a business. And so I think
Speaker 3: that I've done a good job of taking that understanding
Speaker 3: and figuring out how I.
Speaker 1: Can do it many times, which is incredible for a
Speaker 1: woman of your age. I mean, you've done a tremendous amount.
Speaker 1: And when you approached Christ Janner, is this your first
Speaker 1: big partnership with a celebrity family.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I had done a lot of individual
Speaker 3: one off deals. So I built my agency from the
Speaker 3: ground up by myself. Right, I was the first employee,
Speaker 3: meaning I wrote the proposals, that call, did the new
Speaker 3: business calls, I sent the invoices, and I performed all
Speaker 3: the work. And after about six or seven years, you
Speaker 3: get a reputation for yourself if you are any good,
Speaker 3: and so I had an impeccable reputation. I would come
Speaker 3: to Hollywood meet the agents, the managers, the publicist, and
Speaker 3: at that time, going back all of those years, Chris
Speaker 3: was one of those people that I would come and meet.
Speaker 1: How much of a business plan for your genom company,
Speaker 1: good American did you really have in mind at that time?
Speaker 3: So this was actually going this is twenty sixteen, just
Speaker 3: for the timeline's sake. I had a good chunk of it.
Speaker 3: And I really understood, having done so many different campaigns
Speaker 3: for fashion brands, how so many women are overlooked in
Speaker 3: the fashion space. Right, if you don't look a certain
Speaker 3: way and you're not of a certain size, it's like
Speaker 3: you're cast a side. The same from an age point
Speaker 3: of view, the same from.
Speaker 1: Around You were one of the pioneers, Well, we were
Speaker 1: the originators in sizing for everyone.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I think that I saw that body tape
Speaker 3: everybody type and also really just thinking about women, right,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter how old you are or you know
Speaker 3: what your size is. Everybody knows that when you look good,
Speaker 3: you feel good, you standtle, you operate differently. And so
Speaker 3: I really took what I knew about being a woman
Speaker 3: and thought, how do you create a brand that really
Speaker 3: is for everybody that's not paying lip service saying maybe
Speaker 3: i'll have something that fits you in this part of
Speaker 3: the collection. It was like doing all the sizes all
Speaker 3: the time and having this around fit And I think
Speaker 3: the Good American really was revolutionary when we when we
Speaker 3: launched that business, I couldn't have been more proud, and
Speaker 3: I'm very happy to say that eight years later, we're
Speaker 3: still thriving. We have hundreds and hundreds of retailers all over.
Speaker 1: This hundred million dollars businesses it And as with Chloe, Kardashian.
Speaker 2: Absolutely cries my partner, So, how did.
Speaker 1: The idea for Skims come about? And this is Kim
Speaker 1: Kardashian's business.
Speaker 3: Absolutely with Emma, so Kim, this was all her idea.
Speaker 3: Kim had the idea to do skims, and I think
Speaker 3: what I.
Speaker 1: Have learned from I have an idea.
Speaker 2: Well, you know the name.
Speaker 3: The name is an interesting story because it wasn't skims
Speaker 3: from the beginning.
Speaker 2: And we did what we do best. We listened to
Speaker 2: the audience.
Speaker 3: And you know, when you get things wrong, which you
Speaker 3: inevitably do in business. And I say this all the time,
Speaker 3: it's not plain sailing. My job is dealing with a
Speaker 3: series of problems every single day. And my life might
Speaker 3: look glamorous, but the reality of my day is that
Speaker 3: it's not. People never come to me and go like
Speaker 3: everything's amazing and you know, having a great day. It's like,
Speaker 3: this is an issue, this is on fire, here's a problem.
Speaker 3: And so that was one of many things that we
Speaker 3: had to deal with. But I'm again very proud of
Speaker 3: that business because I think it's a business that is
Speaker 3: a gender setting.
Speaker 2: We do things on our own terms.
Speaker 3: We've built this beautiful business and it's exactly what kim
Speaker 3: envisited it to be. And I'm a person that's obsessed
Speaker 3: with products, and so I do what I know how
Speaker 3: to do, which is to create the best product at
Speaker 3: the best price and make sure that we can give
Speaker 3: customers exactly what they want.
Speaker 1: So it's Skims Skims. I am sure you've heard of it.
Speaker 1: I went and looked at the entire line the other day.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, and they have a huge almost the whole
Speaker 3: floor were every Nordstrom door, Yes you are.
Speaker 1: And then Sacks. I have not gone into the shop
Speaker 1: at sax store is beauty. Yes, I saw it as
Speaker 1: I was passing through one day. Did enough time to stop.
Speaker 1: But now you're going to have your own store on
Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 2: It's wild. I mean we've opened stores.
Speaker 3: We're now in Austin, and we've got a store opening
Speaker 3: in La We have a or in Miami. It's really
Speaker 3: really exciting. But this, I mean Fifth Avenue next door
Speaker 3: to Cardia.
Speaker 1: My mind is like, so, what were your original executions
Speaker 1: for Skims, which is a line of sort of color coordinated,
Speaker 1: well fitting undergarments for women of all sizes.
Speaker 2: That is Martha said beautifully.
Speaker 3: You know what we when we think about this brand,
Speaker 3: it really is about creating solutions for all women. Right.
Speaker 3: The brand was very much rooted in this idea of
Speaker 3: shapewear and underwear and has gone on to really expand.
Speaker 3: And Kim's idea was that she wanted to do something
Speaker 3: to meet all of her needs right whether she's on
Speaker 3: the school run or if she is going to a
Speaker 3: red carpet event. And again, I think that that brand
Speaker 3: has done such a phenomenal job of really changing the conversation.
Speaker 3: You know, Skims is a brand that's in the news
Speaker 3: all the time or.
Speaker 2: Whatever it does.
Speaker 1: She puts it on women. She puts it on women
Speaker 1: of every color and every size, and it's always I
Speaker 1: always look at every single ad.
Speaker 3: I study those ads. I mean, everybody loves that ad.
Speaker 3: It's we have a really amazing thing. But I would
Speaker 3: say that Kim is really pivotal in the marketing.
Speaker 2: I mean, she's an ideas machine.
Speaker 3: She's like, you know, it's a text, every multiple text
Speaker 3: is every single day. And she is an incredible business
Speaker 3: woman that really is. They're constantly pushing the agenda and
Speaker 3: some of the best ideas that are in that business company.
Speaker 1: So is there a demographic or is it?
Speaker 3: No? I think our customers are like from ten to seventy,
Speaker 3: you know, they really they really are every woman yeah.
Speaker 2: And man now, which is exciting, very we get the guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the idea of buying underwear and bras online would
Speaker 1: have been unthinkable ten years ago. You just couldn't do that.
Speaker 1: You would be returning everything. How did Skims overcome that challenge?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think it's really interesting because when
Speaker 3: I look at director consumer and you think about some
Speaker 3: of the things that we do really uniquely good American
Speaker 3: was right at the start of showing you product on
Speaker 3: different sizes. Right, if you're a size sixteen looking at
Speaker 3: how a pair of genes looks on a size zero,
Speaker 3: it's kind of useless because it's going to look like you,
Speaker 3: you know that on you. And so I think that
Speaker 3: we've done some pretty unique things by making sure that
Speaker 3: as a customer, you can come in and understand what
Speaker 3: is that product doing for me?
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it's about making
Speaker 2: exceptional products.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: We are obsessed with fit, with fabrication, with making things
Speaker 3: understandable and creating almost like a system. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's like, this is the bra that I like in
Speaker 3: the fabrication that I like, and I'm going to be
Speaker 3: able to get that all the time. And so I
Speaker 3: think what we do best is really think about consistency.
Speaker 3: And I think that any brand is obsessed with their
Speaker 3: customer and we know that our customers are looking for solutions,
Speaker 3: and oftentimes it's really just about listening because your customers
Speaker 3: will tell you everything that you need to know, but
Speaker 3: you've just got to be ready to take that information
Speaker 3: in and do something with it.
Speaker 2: And I think we've been how.
Speaker 1: Many skims have No, it seems like you have thousands.
Speaker 3: There's quite a few. Yeah, what the very size intensive business?
Speaker 3: Let's say that, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Because we go from a double access to a five
Speaker 3: X and so that's an enormous amount of sizes. We
Speaker 3: have sixty four sizes in bras and so there's a lot.
Speaker 1: So as Skims sort in popularity, how did the company
Speaker 1: manage scaling up?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we have an incredible team. My husband
Speaker 3: is the CEO of that business, and Kim's business partner.
Speaker 3: And I think just name these name is the ends. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: it's wonderful.
Speaker 2: But I think, just like.
Speaker 3: Any business, you know, we built these companies to scale, right.
Speaker 3: I think that we've been very, very purposeful, and you're
Speaker 3: only as good as your team. And I know that
Speaker 3: if I've learned anything as a founder and as a CEO,
Speaker 3: I spend I'd say twenty five percent of my time
Speaker 3: looking at talent, and by that I mean interviewing, being speculative,
Speaker 3: even if I don't need that particular position, if someone's
Speaker 3: in the market and it's looking for a role, or
Speaker 3: even sometimes if they're not kind of hated by all
Speaker 3: the competition, I'm there. I'm ready to meet and understand
Speaker 3: because you don't know what's coming next, and so finding
Speaker 3: the right people that are going to be able to
Speaker 3: take your business to the next level is so important.
Speaker 3: And I think as a founder, especially as a first
Speaker 3: time founder, people get really scared about not doing things themselves,
Speaker 3: about having to relinquish some control. But you'll never grow
Speaker 3: with that mentality. And I think I've learned that people
Speaker 3: are what make businesses great. Right once you have a
Speaker 3: product market fit and you figured out how to get
Speaker 3: some fame, right you figured out the marketing piece. The
Speaker 3: single biggest thing that will make a difference to your
Speaker 3: businesses the people. And so I really make sure that
Speaker 3: I just have teams around me, and I'm pretty clear
Speaker 3: about what it is that.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I know what I don't know, I know what I'm
Speaker 3: not good at, I know where my strengths are, and
Speaker 3: I make sure to bring the right people around me.
Speaker 3: Where is a good American need all over the world actually,
Speaker 3: and so in the beginning it was a lot more
Speaker 3: in America than it is today. And I think that
Speaker 3: as the business has grown, we've really had to adapt
Speaker 3: to that. When you're making hundreds of thousands of units.
Speaker 3: Sadly we're not able to do that in America anymore.
Speaker 3: And it's made all over the world a little bit
Speaker 3: the same.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, the ads and the focus of the companies
Speaker 1: have a big focus on body positivity, which I love.
Speaker 1: I think it's such a nice thing and inclusivity region. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and why is this so important to you?
Speaker 3: Well, we want to create a big company, you know.
Speaker 3: I think Good American was extremely pivotal in the early
Speaker 3: days of like body positivity, because again, a lot of
Speaker 3: companies speak that language, but they don't do the work
Speaker 3: of not just providing the size, but making sure it fits.
Speaker 2: And it's not as simple as you think.
Speaker 3: You don't take what works in a size small and
Speaker 3: just scale it up. It's actually an entirely different pattern.
Speaker 3: It's usually a very different teams most companies. If you're
Speaker 3: a designer or a pattern maker or a technical designer,
Speaker 3: you only know one side of the scale. It's very
Speaker 3: unusual that you get people that can work in both.
Speaker 3: So you're really thinking about building and mirroring a team
Speaker 3: on both ends, which is expensive and I think that's
Speaker 3: why a lot of companies don't do it. But we've
Speaker 3: taken the time, we've made the investment to make sure
Speaker 3: that we can do that, and then it pays back
Speaker 3: because customers, once you find your fit, once you find
Speaker 3: the things you like, you come back time and time again.
Speaker 3: And so we're all about not cutting any corner so
Speaker 3: that we can make sure that customers are loyal to
Speaker 3: the brand.
Speaker 1: I think for one of your promotions, you partnered with
Speaker 1: Swarowsky Crystal Oh. I was lucky enough to get one
Speaker 1: of those long dresses. How beautiful was that d unbelievable?
Speaker 1: Thousands thousands of crystals somehow affixed to a sheer fabric.
Speaker 3: Ohan, isn't that crazy? I wear that dress all the time?
Speaker 2: Do I wear it all?
Speaker 1: One of my guests who wears the dress? You don't
Speaker 1: know my thirteen year old granddaughter, but she looks like
Speaker 1: a dream. Fine, this beautiful entrepreneur sitting across from me
Speaker 1: is how old I'm forty two. She's forty two and
Speaker 1: she has four children ages.
Speaker 2: They are ten, eight and twenty three year olds.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, and so they probably you get they get
Speaker 1: put in the backpacks, the little ones, and they go
Speaker 1: off on the trip.
Speaker 2: They go off on all the trips.
Speaker 3: I've always traveled with the kids, and I never worry
Speaker 3: about jet lag. And I'm like, you know what, you
Speaker 3: just got to fit in with my life. That's how
Speaker 3: we've tried the kids. And honestly, I think that we're
Speaker 3: in such a period right now of this idea of
Speaker 3: you know, really over parenting, and I've never done that.
Speaker 3: My favorite thing to say, actually to anyone, but especially
Speaker 3: to my kids is figure it out, you know.
Speaker 2: And I really believe in that.
Speaker 3: I don't think that kids need you to usher them
Speaker 3: through life to figure out all of their problems. To
Speaker 3: you know, constantly, you travel so much, so you have
Speaker 3: a nanny for each kid. No, I don't have a
Speaker 3: nanny for each kid, but I do have two nannies,
Speaker 3: and I have an enormous amount of help. Like I'm
Speaker 3: not cleaning the toilets, I'm not cleaning the uther So
Speaker 3: let's be honest.
Speaker 2: It takes an army and I'm totally fine with that.
Speaker 3: But what I do do is that you know, I'm
Speaker 3: there for my kids for the things that really matter,
Speaker 3: and you have to choose your style of mothering. Like
Speaker 3: I've never wanted to stay home. That wasn't my choice.
Speaker 3: I think i'd be really bored. I always say to
Speaker 3: you know, it's like I'm a like two three hour marm,
Speaker 3: you know, like I'm good for a couple of hours
Speaker 3: and then I'm like, I'm going I'm going out to
Speaker 3: I have other things to do and i have other interests.
Speaker 3: And I think that my kids are learning from me
Speaker 3: what it means to be really passionate about something, what
Speaker 3: it means to go after your your own dreams and
Speaker 3: to have those you know, ambitions and take them really seriously.
Speaker 2: And so I don't make any apologies to eat everything.
Speaker 3: Okay, Martha, this is my biggest Bugwere so the older
Speaker 3: two and this is where you know, like mothering mistakes.
Speaker 3: The older two are the most unbelievably fussy eaters. Oh really,
Speaker 3: Oh it's so upsetting for someone who has a real
Speaker 3: scarcity mentality because when I was younger, I grew up
Speaker 3: and they just wasn't there and I.
Speaker 1: Just showed me her Thanksgiving, which included pork bill. It
Speaker 1: included a tricky wrapped in bacon. It included all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuffings. It included a corn bread, It included salads.
Speaker 1: It was huge. You had beef. Was their beef?
Speaker 3: Studied with the clothes, lovely leased hair. I try to
Speaker 3: do my best month.
Speaker 1: So the kids eat everything.
Speaker 3: The little ones eat everything. The big ones are nightmares.
Speaker 3: And I really boys or girls. One boy, one girl.
Speaker 3: You know, we're working on them. They have other skills.
Speaker 1: Send them to me. They'll be eating everything. So back
Speaker 1: to business. Tell me, what's your strategy for making business decisions?
Speaker 2: You know, I am a gut instinct person.
Speaker 3: I definitely am someone I'm not shy to ask questions,
Speaker 3: right so I think, knowing what you don't know, I
Speaker 3: will phone a lot of people and I will get
Speaker 3: an opinion and a point of view. But I am
Speaker 3: someone who leads by their gut. If it doesn't sit
Speaker 3: well with me, I'd rather make the mistake and own
Speaker 3: the mistake than go against my beliefs and go against
Speaker 3: what I'm feeling. And I honestly think that nine times
Speaker 3: out of ten, I'm not saying I'm right, but I
Speaker 3: can live with my decisions. I'm really lucky to be
Speaker 3: in a position right now where I have access to
Speaker 3: a lot of people, and I use that access right
Speaker 3: So I have no problem calling a competitor or some
Speaker 3: you know, another CEO and saying, how did you navigate
Speaker 3: this issue? I'm coming up against this, I'm at this
Speaker 3: stage of the business.
Speaker 2: What did you do?
Speaker 3: And we're helpful and people people are helping, you know,
Speaker 3: people like to help, they like to be asked questions.
Speaker 3: And I think there's a generation of people, you know,
Speaker 3: I always talk about the two generations of people that
Speaker 3: I have on my board, like the young, cooler d
Speaker 3: t C investors, and then I have like the much
Speaker 3: older group in their sixties and seventies that come with
Speaker 3: the wisdom and the basics like make profit, don't mess around,
Speaker 3: where is.
Speaker 2: The money and focus on that.
Speaker 3: And so I rely on people like Andrew Rosen, for example,
Speaker 3: who I think is an incredible entrepreneur, an unbelievable kind
Speaker 3: of supporter and mental but also someone that can go
Speaker 3: high low right. You can talk to Andrew about you know,
Speaker 3: LRP three year strategy, and I can say, what's the
Speaker 3: best shelf to display netwear god, and he will have
Speaker 3: an opinion about everything. He can go down a rail
Speaker 3: of clothes and be like that's a hit, that's a hit,
Speaker 3: that's not, and you're like, oh, get it out the
Speaker 3: line immediately. You know, he just has instinct. And so
Speaker 3: I think I'm really lucky that I've surrounded myself with
Speaker 3: those type of people. But I'm not scared to ask
Speaker 3: for help, and I do it all the time. I'd say,
Speaker 3: on a weekly basis, I'm calling someone and saying, what's
Speaker 3: your opinion on this.
Speaker 1: Whether there are some of the keys to expanding a
Speaker 1: brand but protecting it as a gross well.
Speaker 2: I think my opinion about that is that in a.
Speaker 3: Business, it almost everything should change except your principles. Right.
Speaker 3: It's like the reason that you started that company, you're
Speaker 3: defining principles should stay the same and then every of
Speaker 3: the course, but then everything else should transition on the
Speaker 3: way up. And you have to be willing to kill
Speaker 3: your darlings the things that you say. Right in the beginning,
Speaker 3: I was like, we're going to be a director consumer brand.
Speaker 3: It's like until I needed some whole sound, until I
Speaker 3: started opening the stores. And you have to move with
Speaker 3: what's happening. You have to shift and change and be
Speaker 3: open minded. And that also includes the people, right, because
Speaker 3: the people that get you to fifty million or one
Speaker 3: hundred million are not the same people that necessarily get
Speaker 3: you to a billion dollars. And so I'm very pragmatic
Speaker 3: about knowing that things need to change, but also I
Speaker 3: need to change. I need to understand where do my
Speaker 3: expertise start and where do they finish and put my
Speaker 3: ego to the side and say, well, that's not where
Speaker 3: I'm good. And so I would say that change is inevitable,
Speaker 3: you have to go with it.
Speaker 1: Well, my business started all in retail, in stores, and
Speaker 1: then data seeking and Amazon key and disrupted the entire world.
Speaker 1: And so now what's your philosophy. Do you have to
Speaker 1: be in both places? Strongly?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like you have to be wherever your
Speaker 3: customer is at and different customers, you know, and again
Speaker 3: it's not about age, It's really about what experience they
Speaker 3: find the most useful. You'll have people that want to
Speaker 3: go into a store, see the sales assistant they've been
Speaker 3: working with for a long time and take their opinion.
Speaker 3: And you've got others that are quick and need the
Speaker 3: convenience and they want to check out. And then you've
Speaker 3: got people that have an account on a specific site
Speaker 3: and they want to check out from that account. So
Speaker 3: you've got to be everywhere that your customer is and
Speaker 3: again you have to be willing to adapt. But it's
Speaker 3: about providing the best customer experience in each of those locations.
Speaker 3: And so I think what you have to really focus
Speaker 3: on is what other customer needs at that place and time.
Speaker 2: And so that's what we gets a.
Speaker 1: New skim story which I cannot wait to see. Do
Speaker 1: you have a lot of changing rooms?
Speaker 2: A lot and beautifully lit.
Speaker 1: Changing Okay, so everybody gets to try on.
Speaker 2: Are you a tryer on it?
Speaker 3: I'm a tryer onor I like to try and thinks
Speaker 3: if they plan to be because then you have to
Speaker 3: wear the rate stuff to the store if you do.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? True, your stuff that you
Speaker 1: have on has to come off easy, that is true.
Speaker 3: You know when we go over the head and messing
Speaker 3: with the hair and makeup, You're right, you've got to
Speaker 3: be ready for the trial. I you know, I'm a
Speaker 3: little bit spoiled. I like to do as much as
Speaker 3: I can at my house. But that's the la way.
Speaker 3: You know, it gets sent home and then it gets
Speaker 3: shipped down.
Speaker 1: How did you meet your husband, YenS? Well, how long
Speaker 1: ago was that?
Speaker 2: It was seventeen years ago.
Speaker 3: I actually met him at work, which would be entirely
Speaker 3: frowned upon now, but that was, you know, pre any
Speaker 3: internet dating.
Speaker 1: Where is she from? He's Swedish?
Speaker 3: Swedish and was living in London, and he was technically
Speaker 3: my first investor, and we.
Speaker 2: Really hit it off, you could say, But you.
Speaker 3: Know, it's so interesting because Ens and I had a
Speaker 3: professional relationship that preceded our you know, personal love relationship,
Speaker 3: and he's Swedish and so we have a really amazing
Speaker 3: way of being able to work with one another. I'd
Speaker 3: say he's probably my biggest supporter, also my biggest critic,
Speaker 3: and it's good to have someone to keep you, keep
Speaker 3: you honest.
Speaker 1: Well, you've talked about how there is no such thing
Speaker 1: as balance in a life, a work life, and I
Speaker 1: totally agree with you.
Speaker 3: I've said that ever ever since I started my comfort.
Speaker 3: I love that you say that, yes, because there isn't.
Speaker 3: I mean, we can't fake it. You can't fake it,
Speaker 3: and yet you have to make time for each aspect
Speaker 3: of your life, which you sound like you do with
Speaker 3: the kids right in the right time and in the
Speaker 3: right moment, and I do want to believer it. No,
Speaker 3: and you have to make sacrifices, right You have to decide,
Speaker 3: like what is the most important thing today?
Speaker 1: Subscription New York.
Speaker 3: This is a two three night trip actually, and I
Speaker 3: was here for two nights last week, so that's pretty
Speaker 3: unusual for me that I would travel two weeks in
Speaker 3: a row. But that's what's most important right now. My
Speaker 3: children are in good hands, and I feel pretty good
Speaker 3: about it. But I also my kids are used to
Speaker 3: they know what's important to me, and so we have
Speaker 3: a very I've made They come into my office, you know,
Speaker 3: they have a lot of holidays and they'll come in.
Speaker 3: They understand what I'm doing. But more than that, they
Speaker 3: know this is what is important to mommy.
Speaker 2: We're really important. But she's also been working for a
Speaker 2: very long time. You know.
Speaker 3: I always think that on social media, you get this
Speaker 3: idea that everybody's an overnight success.
Speaker 2: I've had a job since I was twelve.
Speaker 3: I have been working towards these moments where this success
Speaker 3: level that seemingly looks like it's come out of nowhere
Speaker 3: would be a reality for my life. And so I
Speaker 3: think it's really important that once you get to a
Speaker 3: place where these things are happening to you, that you
Speaker 3: take full advantage of them. And I'm I think I'm
Speaker 3: right at the beginning of where my you know, success
Speaker 3: is going to come.
Speaker 2: And cert I would hope, so.
Speaker 1: This is incredibly You're building amazing, amazing companies. They're the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the future.
Speaker 2: I've really you know, I hope so.
Speaker 3: And I I do go back to the balance thing
Speaker 3: because I believe as a woman, this idea that you're
Speaker 3: supposed to be all things to all people, that you
Speaker 3: would have this wonderful relationship with your husband, you'd be
Speaker 3: the most fabulous wife, and then your home would be
Speaker 3: in great shape and your kids are only looking to you,
Speaker 3: and then your company is running so smoothie. It's not true.
Speaker 3: There's a trade off with any of this stuff. We
Speaker 3: have to make sacrifices, and I'm picking and choosing every
Speaker 3: day and something has to give. That's the reality of
Speaker 3: my life. Every day there's something I'm not doing.
Speaker 1: A question, how do you still maintain personal healthy relationships?
Speaker 1: That's a stupid question.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I only have friends that are fine
Speaker 3: if I don't phone them for four months.
Speaker 2: If you're not cool with that, it's that we're not friends.
Speaker 1: I'm busy. I'm busy. I'll blige. I'll lge you.
Speaker 3: Another time, right, Yeah, But that's like like when you
Speaker 3: have really good relationships and I have very few, but
Speaker 3: very good relationships, that's fine with those people because they
Speaker 3: know what your priorities are to who's your best friend.
Speaker 3: My best friend is a girl called Chanelle Krahl. She'll
Speaker 3: be with me for the holidays. We have babies at
Speaker 3: the same time, and we've been friends since we were sixteen.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: She's the organized, pragmatic, can read any map, gets us
Speaker 3: around in the native language of whichever country we are in.
Speaker 3: She's just that person. And meanwhile, I'm like, where are
Speaker 3: we going?
Speaker 2: What are we doing?
Speaker 3: I'm great in any professional situation. Take me out of there.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Chanel, this is a store in Japan. I'm
Speaker 3: looking for find me very good friends, and I really
Speaker 3: rely on those relationships.
Speaker 2: You have to have a I feel like you need
Speaker 2: a handful of.
Speaker 3: People that you would say all the stuff that you
Speaker 3: say to yourself.
Speaker 2: You know, and I really believe in that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and this is also in the fashion industry, Yes,
Speaker 1: he is. And how has he helped you in your adventures?
Speaker 3: You know, I feel like he's been I said earlier
Speaker 3: that he's been a big critic, and I mean that
Speaker 3: in the best way, because he has been the person
Speaker 3: that I think saw my talent like very early and
Speaker 3: gave me maybe permission to do things that I might
Speaker 3: not have done as soon as I've done them, and
Speaker 3: so it's really nice. I really do think about him
Speaker 3: as my my great.
Speaker 2: Cheerleader, and we do. We share a lot of information.
Speaker 2: We share a lot of which are his dealings.
Speaker 3: He has a he's a bunch of different companies, but
Speaker 3: you might know Frame Denim, which is his company, which
Speaker 3: is a gorgeous company. And of course he's a partner
Speaker 3: with Kim and I at Skims too, and then he
Speaker 3: has a lot of different investments in media and in tech.
Speaker 3: But he's a brilliant, brilliant entrepreneur. I think he's brilliant.
Speaker 1: Everyone else that's very handsome, handsome, Oh my gosh, right
Speaker 1: out of Mr Bergman movie.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: I mean that true. In one interview, you mentioned one
Speaker 1: secret to your success was to think about your failures
Speaker 1: as much as your accomplishments.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, did I say that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah? How has that helped you improve in business? Well?
Speaker 2: I think I'm honest with myself.
Speaker 3: You know, my my lovely friend Diane von Furstenberg, she
Speaker 3: always says to me, the greatest relationship you'll ever have
Speaker 3: is the relationship you have with yourself. And I think
Speaker 3: there's no true thing being said, because you I am
Speaker 3: in constant conversation with myself, like all the time. So
Speaker 3: you have to learn to be kind to yourself. But
Speaker 3: you've also got to be critical and honest. And I
Speaker 3: really pride myself on like just being honest. And so
Speaker 3: I look at my failures and I try to I'm
Speaker 3: a big thinker. I like to dissect everything and understand,
Speaker 3: like what was it that tripped me up there?
Speaker 1: Not.
Speaker 3: I don't look at things as having happened to me.
Speaker 3: I really take responsibility for everything in my life. So
Speaker 3: I'm like, what could I have done better? What was
Speaker 3: it inside me that made these things happen or led
Speaker 3: me into those mistakes? And so I'm fiercely critical, but
Speaker 3: I think it's really just about learning. I'm like a
Speaker 3: lifelong learner, and I'm in constant learning mode, and I
Speaker 3: think the do you read like you wouldn't believe? Like
Speaker 3: so many books. It's my favorite thing to do. Aside
Speaker 3: from are these like self help books. I read a
Speaker 3: bit of self help. I'm not someone who reads novels.
Speaker 3: I like the business.
Speaker 1: Books and the biography.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I how did you make?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: How did you do this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And I've I've read everything about you. I've read everything
Speaker 2: about Oprah.
Speaker 3: I you know, all of the tech guys are the
Speaker 3: guys that I really like, love and admire and think
Speaker 3: about so much. I'm obsessed with the idea of how
Speaker 3: people change their circumstances because I do ultimately believe in
Speaker 3: this idea of self actualization and you're taking responsibility for
Speaker 3: everything that happens to you.
Speaker 2: And I love to look at.
Speaker 3: People that have seemingly like had one set of circumstances
Speaker 3: and have been able to shift and change that. Or
Speaker 3: your heroes on Martha, I'm going to look like such
Speaker 3: a wally saying that, like you're one of my heroes.
Speaker 3: And I've said that a thousand times in a thousand places.
Speaker 3: So I will tell you to your and you know,
Speaker 3: I've watched your documentary the other day. I told your
Speaker 3: team fifty two people I counted all the emails in
Speaker 3: the texts said to me, did you see the documentary?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I'm going to watch it.
Speaker 1: I just need a kid.
Speaker 3: It was incredible, and I thought about all the things
Speaker 3: that have happened to you and and how like what
Speaker 3: an inspiration you've been for so many women in business.
Speaker 3: I also thought about really what happened to you and
Speaker 3: how many women would have been put off by Actually.
Speaker 1: Part of the documentary is that it hands that women
Speaker 1: are feeling stronger.
Speaker 3: And largely because of how you handled that situation and
Speaker 3: how we've seen you come back even stronger and then
Speaker 3: come back even stronger. And I think it's an amazing
Speaker 3: message for women because life is not smooth sailing when
Speaker 3: you're in business and when you're doing things that change
Speaker 3: the culture and you're forging a path, like you're going
Speaker 3: to get burnt. And I think it was such a
Speaker 3: beautiful message to just look at what you've done and
Speaker 3: how successful you've been, but also the fact that you
Speaker 3: know you're here and you're still standing. And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: like Martha for the win So heroes also like Oprah.
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed. I'm always putting every message.
Speaker 3: I've never met Oprah Winfrey and I am she's some
Speaker 3: fabulous wrong.
Speaker 2: Well, I just I just love her.
Speaker 3: That would be my little trick like Martha here, And
Speaker 3: I believe in manifestations, it's going to happen to me
Speaker 3: at some point.
Speaker 2: I think that my mom is one of my heroes.
Speaker 3: We have a very tumultuous relationship my mum and I,
Speaker 3: but she really went through it.
Speaker 2: She is incredible. She's in London and she's going to
Speaker 2: kill me for saying that. But I can't believe you
Speaker 2: do this here. I mean, no one can see this.
Speaker 3: Pretty magical that you get all of this traffic and
Speaker 3: you see that. But you know, this is going to
Speaker 3: sound kind of dorky, But I look at heroes as
Speaker 3: people that are able to make the best of their circumstances, right,
Speaker 3: And I look at my mom, I look at my nan,
Speaker 3: I look at some of the people that you know
Speaker 3: work around me, and and these transformations that they're making
Speaker 3: going from one place and really pushing into something else.
Speaker 3: And so and also I do think I'm a little
Speaker 3: bit of my own hero as well.
Speaker 1: Oh you are. I feel rus you are. I just
Speaker 1: say I love. I love that a girl at your
Speaker 1: age is doing so many diverse and fabulous things. Thank
Speaker 1: you and paying attention and helping others at the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a huge part.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about your charity.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I think fifteen years ago, when my job was doing
Speaker 3: really big commercial partnerships for really rich, famous people, I
Speaker 3: kind of got to the boy and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you need to find a little bit of meaning and
Speaker 3: what you do. And I joined the board of Women
Speaker 3: for Women International, where they work with women that are
Speaker 3: living in conflict zones all over the world, in Afghanistan,
Speaker 3: in the Republic of Congo, in Iraq, and so that
Speaker 3: was my first foray into nonprofit. Sat on that board
Speaker 3: for eight years. I currently sit on the board of
Speaker 3: Baby to Baby in LA, which is one of the
Speaker 3: most incredible organizations that works with children all over this
Speaker 3: country to get them the basic necessities that they need.
Speaker 3: And I'm the chairwoman of the fifteen Percent Pledge, which
Speaker 3: again is another incredible nonprofit that was founded by my
Speaker 3: friend Aurora James, and we're working with brands and retailers
Speaker 3: all over the country to have them allocate fifteen percent
Speaker 3: of their annual spend to black owned businesses. And so,
Speaker 3: what I think is incredible about the times that we're
Speaker 3: living in is that you can take a little bit
Speaker 3: of success and a little bit of you know, for
Speaker 3: want of a better word, you know, fame or reputation
Speaker 3: or any of those things, and you can really leverage
Speaker 3: it to get stuff done. And so I think about
Speaker 3: it all the time, like what am I doing with
Speaker 3: my time? Like how would I help a girl that
Speaker 3: was like me, that seemingly is a high school dropout
Speaker 3: that really didn't have much in terms of like an
Speaker 3: education or business acumen, And say, you can take your
Speaker 3: life and your circumstances and you can do anything if
Speaker 3: you're given the right set of circumstances and if you
Speaker 3: take that and use those opportunities. And so I think
Speaker 3: about all of my nonprofit working, you know, thinking I
Speaker 3: have had so many experiences in my life and so
Speaker 3: many things that have happened, and people that have been
Speaker 3: around me that have helped me, And so I talk
Speaker 3: of responsibility. It's like, why wouldn't I use some of
Speaker 3: that to help whoever I can well.
Speaker 1: It's to be admired and also extolled.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I think we have covered a lot of territory, and
Speaker 1: you are so effusive and so enthusiastic and so charming.
Speaker 1: I think that part two maybe next year, after you've
Speaker 1: launched a couple more of your phenomenal businesses. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining me today. Let everyone know where
Speaker 1: they can follow you.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, they can follow me on Instagram. What am I?
Speaker 2: I must be like Emma Greed g r ed e.
Speaker 1: That's right, so you have to know how to spell
Speaker 1: it g r e D. Thank you very much and
Speaker 1: we look forward to all your forthcoming projects.