Emma Grede’s new rules for success and how to tap into Devil Wears Prada 2 mania

0:00This episode of Female Founder World is presented by Omnisend.

0:04Jasmine:Hey everyone, welcome back to your weekly business group chat by Female Founder World. I'm Jasmine. I'm the founder. I'm the person behind all things Female Founder World. Hi, and I'm Paige. I am a contributor at Female Founder World and one of the co-founders of Benny. We make good for you energy drinks nationally across the US and Canada. Hi guys, I'm Natalie. I'm the partnerships and editorial manager at Female Founder World. You've probably seen me at a ton of our events, but I'm also doing a lot behind the scenes. I'm also a content creator. And as of today, I'm a female founder. So that's really exciting.

0:35I can finally join in.

0:38Jasmine:Natalie's brand went live today. And we've been purposely not talking about it because I want to talk about it on the show. Your brand just went live today. I want to know how the launch went. I just went on and checked because I want to get a pair of your, the beautiful blue swimwear, which is my fave color. There was one left in the medium, which I'm loving. Tell me how it went. Oh, no way. I've been really trying not to stare at it all day and refresh. Now I know what people talk about when they talk about their launch day. Like it's actually so addicting. So it's been going well. I honestly had no expectations other than like best case scenario would be to sell out, which would be also be really extremely stressful because I have a lot of stuff lined up.

1:17So if I had sold out, I don't know what I would have done. I guess I would have set up pre-order, which again is one of those things that I would just figure out as I went along. but I'm in like a healthy medium spot where things are selling out um certain colors certain sizes

1:29Jasmine:which is perfect tell us about the brand for people that don't know it like why did you want to start a swim brand what's different between you and others like give us a little bit of the spiel oh I love this question well I was always beach girl growing up on Long Island in New York and as my body changed and I went to college I felt like so many girls started to shop on Amazon and Zaffle and Shein and everyone was buying really cheap stuff for spring break and I kind of fell into that habit but as my body changed and I got a little curvier I gained weight in college I would buy those swimsuits and wear them for like a pool party or one day at the beach and I'd be itchy and I just didn't feel good in it and my mom took me shopping for spring break one year because I felt just like nothing was fitting me right my body was changing and she got me this swimsuit that I felt so confident in and later we found out that it was for post-menopausal woman and I was like how am I 19 and the only swimsuit that I feel good in that is in like a perfect price point and I can wear all day is for post-menopausal women like I'm so young and so fast forward a couple years later I really like to surf I love to go to the beach but I feel like my bikini drawer is insane like I have every swimsuit out there and I feel like we fall in this category of fast fashion or luxury swimwear, which is not necessarily attainable for the working girl in her twenties or thirties.

2:51So I set out to create my own and I feel like it kind of checks those boxes, take you from like brunch to swimming, to surfing, it looks cute in an Instagram photo. So that's the story, but more on socials.

3:03Jasmine:So beautiful. And I'm so proud of you. And I think you're going to do really, really well. And also I think, um, you wouldn't have thought of this cause you haven't been at this live stage, but it's actually the perfect style of swimsuit when you have little kids and they're like they're like pulling down and tugging on your swimwear and you're actually being really active at the beach and you're postpartum you don't want to be in like a really skimpy bikini but you want something that feels beautiful and not like super mumsy so I actually think that is a demo you haven't thought of but that I can open up for you but yeah no it is I love it I love that yeah it really is for the girl that is transitioning into motherhood as well.

3:41Like it's not for the super, super young demographic, although it's really for everyone, but yeah, it like, it totally can cater to her moms. I love that.

3:49Jasmine:Well, I can't wait to see how it all goes, but let's get into the show now because first up, we need to talk about Emma Greed. I know that if you're someone who is building a business, if you're ambitious, all of the accounts that you follow are posting by Emma Greed right now because she just dropped her first book and she's kind of just like the business mentor I think we've all been waiting for. And then after we talk about Emma Greed, we have a conversation about intimacy and marketing and community building and some of the things that brands are doing and what's having a big moment right now.

4:20Jasmine:And then Devil Wears Prada 2 is going to be out next week. And if your brand hasn't figured out how to use this cultural moment yet, we're going to give you the playbook. So let's kick off with Emma Greed. She just released her first book and it really does feel like it's been absolutely everywhere this week. And although a lot of the headlines have been about her being a three-hour mom, I honestly think there's so much more practical stuff that we can talk about. And I know that the people who listen to this show, they want the tactical lessons and takeaways. And I know that they're not going to get distracted by these silly headlines and clickbaity articles that we're seeing out from her press tour.

4:57Jasmine:So I want to get into the stuff that we're actually taking away and what we're actually learning from her. So I'll give you some context. Emma Greed, if you don't know, she's the co-founder and CEO of Good American. She's a founding partner and chief product officer at Skims, which is a brand valued at$5 billion with revenue forecast to exceed a billion in 2026. She was the key architect of the Nike Skims partnership. And she also co-founded Safely with Kris Jenner and Chrissy Teigen, as well as Kylie Jenner's fashion brand Kai and the sports apparel brand Off Season. She's really the Kardashian CEO.

5:32Jasmine:she's the the business brains behind a lot of the brands that they're building she's also from East London she is very much the you know quintessential like self-made woman she is dyslexic which she talks about a lot and she dropped out of high school she sold fireworks toasted sandwiches beaded bags and eventually made it all the way to London College of Fashion which I actually think she may have dropped out of as well because she couldn't afford the college tuition fees so she's now got this book start with yourself which was released last week and it is the only thing I'm thinking about and talking about Paige Nat is this in your feed as well of course no she's everything like I wish no I don't wish like you know I am like I can't find a flaw you know what I mean in the way she like talks about business she's like the most gorgeous seems so kind Emma you've got a spot on this on this podcast anytime you want to chat no I'm obsessed like she's she's the moment and I know Jaz you have some really interesting takes that I absolutely love on what Emma talks about regarding money but I think what I love so much about her is someone that's so deeply in like this messy middle of business where it feels like everyone else has like a leg up and like you know everyone knows someone that you don't know and everyone's going to the events that you're not invited to and you're like, I can never do this because I'm like an outsider or don't have the connections.

6:59Like she was that and she made it happen. I know this isn't, you know, a revolutionary thought, but it's just so inspiring. I agree, Paige. And it's funny, we were saying in our Slack group earlier today, if Emma's starting a cult role joining, and I think she would have also our entire community joining as well. Something about the way that she is so eloquent and everything she says just happens to click. And Jasmine, even, I mean, you can touch on this, that you were saying you were having a day and like, even just listening to her on the audio book, just changed the framework of your day and how you were thinking about it.

7:33I listened to hours today of it already. And something she talked about in terms of her anger and her relationships is that when you recognize the maze, have you guys gotten to this part? When you recognize the maze, that is when the anger can change for you. And for me, I have a really hard time letting go of things in like relationships or even just like business relationships when someone doesn't treat me right. And she was saying, once you get to the point where you say, I actually don't have time to deal with this. So I'm just going to move along is when you're so free from that revenge, from that anger.

8:04And I think that can go for a lot of people when you're starting a business. People are always getting screwed over. And I think when you're just like at the point where you don't have time for it, you know, you've made it.

8:12Jasmine:You're like, I just don't have time. Okay, bye. I don't want to be, you know, I feel like, oh God, so boring that we all just like agree and love her. But we just, I think we're just the kind of people that are going to be, you know, drink the Kool-Aid that she's selling. So Emma's been on this press tour promoting her book and there's been a lot of pushback about it. I think a lot of it has come from these kind of work-life balance focused business coaches or folks in like the spirituality and wellness space. I think have a lot of issues with her perpetuating toxic work culture, but I've actually found it quite refreshing.

8:43Jasmine:a lot of things that she said I feel like as someone who does have really big ambitions professionally um and it's fine if not everyone wants this but I do I actually find the discourse around finding work-life balance the soft life all of that I actually find that really hard because I'm just like I can't I can't do that and get the thing that I really want and she made had this quote that I just thought was this like rallying cry to women who are ambitious that I want to play for you? I think the one thing that we have to understand as women is that we have to put money in the centre of our plans.

9:21You don't get anywhere hiding behind soft ambition or performative purpose or like kind of shy ambition, right? You have to say the purpose of creating a business is to make money. And when you do that well, you can pay people well, you can give them good bonuses, you can do work in your community, you can get back to non-profits, but it comes after profit. So the money has to come first. And oftentimes I will get, you know, a business plan and it talks for five pages about all the things that they're going to do, all of the give back. And I'm like, but where's the profit? Where's the money? What I want women to understand is that you can do deeply meaningful and impactful work and care about money.

10:03You can care a lot about money and other things too. And so put money in the center of your plans, because when you avoid the subject of money, guess what happens? The money avoids you. So you got to put it right there in the middle, be really blatant and, you know, what do we talk about? Audacity. Have the audacity to say what you want and, you know, don't ever be one of those people that's like, you know, if I just do great work, the money will find you. It won't. The money never finds you. You have to go after it unashamedly and be extremely focused on it. And those people that do that, that don't hide behind performative purpose, those are the ones I see winning.

10:38oh I just I just love her performative purpose so much because this is something that I feel

10:47Jasmine:like I've been skirting around in so many conversations that I've had on this show and in this community where we talk about reach and community and vibes and whatever and it's like what tell me what the numbers are and I think often women are encouraged or socialized to build businesses and with the purpose of helping other people and that is amazing but it's almost like we need to be building these companies that are for other people and bettering other people to give ourselves permission to be able to actually go after it in a big way and I just honestly found it really refreshing to hear someone say you are allowed to and supposed to be focused on money in a business because that is literally the function of a business and then once you have money, you have the power to be able to do what you want with it.

11:39Jasmine:And then you can create the impact. And I think she's just, she's just saying the thing that we're all thinking and that no one has said in a long time. How did you guys respond to that? I love it. No, my mind is like a million places. I totally agree with you, Jasmine. I feel like you actually were a huge inspiration in me and my business for this. When you first had your first child, your son, I think it was like a real and I'm like speaking for yourself but I remember you telling me or telling our even female founder world group chat that like your mind had kind of changed and you're like I have like a life and a legacy that I want to build and like provide for in a way that like I'm well I'm not single but I don't have kids you know like I I don't have that life to build in the same way that you speaking about that really like opened my eyes to like it's okay to want to build a financially successful business and like say that and for myself it's been like I want to like have like a great community and like a brand and like but what does that mean like when we actually like distill it down I think the analogy of like putting your own life mask on so we can like help like uplift other women Emma Greed is like the perfect example of that and yourself too Jasmine but I think you are someone that was always very inspirational for me on you know like we can want our businesses to be financially successful.

13:00And that is like not a weird thing to say or a shameful thing to say. Last piece I'll say on this because Natalie, I really want to know what you're thinking too. This has been so topical for my co-founder and I as we're fundraising. We have a coach and I think we'll talk about that later in the show on our smart swaps. But we've been talking so much about like being more upfront with our numbers and our data because that's what investors want to see and we have nothing to be ashamed of like the numbers the money like where is the money let's talk about the roi here where we've always kind of skirted around and felt like it's impolite you know like it feels rude i'm like we're talking to investors here of course we should talk about money i i hate to also jump on the bed market and being like yeah this is great but i think that especially when it comes to the internet hate on someone who's so ambitious and great in so many categories.

13:54If you don't agree with her, you don't have to do it. Like no one's forcing you to implement this into your business or your life. If you disagree, that's okay. Again, move on. I don't see the point in like arguing with this. If you, like Jasmine said, want to live that different lifestyle, not, not everyone has to be a CEO. Not everyone has to go and be a serial entrepreneur. So this is just the route that she took and it works for her. She's just sharing what she's learned, which I see no problem with. The second thing I would say, just as of today, being a business owner, but the couple of weeks leading up to today, and I feel like Paige, you probably feel similarly, similarly when people were asking me why I started this business, I wanted to be a good person and say like for the community, like to make people feel good about themselves.

14:39Yes, that is all true, but I want to make money. I don't, and I would be really shy to say that. and it took some practice and over the course of like the past couple weeks I've been like I want to be able to profit off of this business and I want people make I want to make people feel really good and confident and sexy in their swim and those things can both be true and I don't think there needs to be a badge of honor of like foregoing your margins or making things cheaper or taking the easy way out to make consumers and customers happy like the right people should be repeat customers and I think I don't know I think that like Paige said it's almost rude to even talk about financials when that is the business that is how you're making money you also can't keep

15:24Jasmine:doing the work if you're not resourced so at the end of the day like it means I just yeah I loved everything that she said I think the way that she's gone about her press tour she's obviously got her talking points that she knows are going to be conversation starters but she's someone who you just can't argue with like she is this self-made black woman from east london who has had incredible success and she's just telling you what her experience is she's not endorsing the system or the structures that we're that we're building within but she's telling you what the rules are and if you want to build something like what she's built she's saying these are the rules and she talks about how work from home culture and working from home can impact your progression because you're not visible in a company, which I thought was a really interesting and honestly, like very honest take as well.

16:12Jasmine:And so, yeah, we love Emma Greed. Emma, come speak at Summit this year. I've been speaking with her team. I've not gotten anywhere with them, but it's been two years now of pitching Emma Greed to come speak at Summit and we need to make it happen. Please, I'll tag her on everything. No, but co-sign it all. And Natalie, like you're light years ahead. We still, my co-founder and I, we're like, we're in it for the love of the game. the game like the money is the scoreboard the money is the scoreboard on that note let's move on to talking about uh there's oh who put this in the slack it the set the set active set sunday dinners we have really double tapped and gone deep on this on slack and it's just fascinating to me so this is a conversation for anyone who's interested really in community building and the way that brands are creating intimacy in what feels like a very mass-produced world so So Paige, was it you who dropped the set link in our Slack?

17:06Jasmine:Can you tell us what actually, what you saw and what they're doing? Yeah. That was really interesting. No, so interesting. And set, I feel like, is just like the forefront of cult community building. Like, I don't know what they've got. Like, I love their products, truly. I don't know what they have in the water that people are just like so obsessed to know. Have you guys seen Lindsay's broadcast channel? Yes. Oh, my God. Linny's Corner. And like Linny's Circle. And she's just turned replies back on in her broadcast channel. This is the founder of Set Active. And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of replies.

17:40Jasmine:It's just absolutely fascinating, the connection that she has with her customers. Anyway, continue. What are they doing with their Sunday night dinners? Yeah. No, I, okay. So Natalie, you might even know more than I do. So what they did, and I think this last Sunday was the first Sunday that they did it, was they invited, I think it was about 300 of their community members on for a Zoom with a few of their team members to chat through like what was new. So set active for folks that aren't like super in the know on them. They operate on a drop model. So it's athleisure, but with a drop model, they always have new stuff coming that sells out like so incredibly fast.

18:15And I would say maybe that's a piece to why community care is so deeply because there's always something new. It's like a secret and you want to know like what's coming, but it's just so insane. Like, I don't know if you two are like this. I don't want to get too far from the conversation, Jasmine. But I personally, I'll buy something if I like it. But do I need to know what's coming? Am I hanging on the edge of my seat? I'm not. But people are. It's insane.

18:44Jasmine:No, it's crazy. And so they're basically doing these Zoom dinners every Sunday where you're invited if you're a certain member of their loyalty program or something. Yeah, I think so. Interesting. Interesting. Nat, what are your thoughts? I said this in the group chat, and this is a genuine question. I'm wondering what kind of people are attending something like this, because similar to Paige, I like something. I buy it. I'm good. I will follow on Instagram. I'll see kind of what's new. I'll sign up or subscribe to emails. But for me, joining a community event would kind of feel like homework.

19:19Like giving, I guess maybe it's because that I'm in this space and I know that I could give my two cents for equity or I could get paid to consult. So I'm going to give you my thoughts for free is kind of like, that feels like extra homework for me. However, I will say, I feel like there are some people that really just want to give feedback and are so invested in the product and they just really enjoy it. So I'm curious for brands what it takes to get someone that is such a champion of your brand that they participate in all of these things. And then on the flip side, what kind of people are these people?

19:54I'm so curious because for me, it was like a little bit of extra work, but it works. It works for some brands.

19:59Jasmine:It is interesting because you look at platforms like TYB, which is a community building platform that integrates with Shopify and it basically helps people build loyalty programs and reward customers for amplifying your brand and taking small actions. You get tokens and you can use those tokens eventually to like buy product or get perks within the brand ecosystem. So all of the consumer brands we love are on there pretty much. and it's founded by Ty Haney, who is the founder of Outdoor Voices before she built this brand. And I look at those platforms and I think, Natalie, you originally brought this to the Slack when we were kind of talking about these community events and what brands are doing at the moment to create intimacy and community.

20:43Jasmine:And you were the one who kind of said, yeah, but would you actually want to do this? And who is the person who is doing this? And I am really curious because TYB is a platform that has all of these massive brands on it and I'm wondering whether the person who is using these loyalty programs is actually the customer and they are actually the person who is purchasing from a brand and is a super fan or is it kind of the next iteration of the Groupon customer we saw you know a decade ago in e-commerce Groupon was like a discount website where people would kind of like chase deals and they were a pretty low value customer.

21:20Jasmine:And I'm wondering if this, like these community platforms are the next iteration of that or not. And this is no hate on TYB. We actually recommend TYB on the show all the time. And I've heard incredible things from people who use the platform in terms of brands, but I am wondering like what the line is between offering value. And like you said, Nat, giving people homework and what kind of customer you're engaging through some of these programs. Paige, what do you think? Oh, it's so hard. I totally agree with you. I love TYB. Ty and the team are like amazing. I think you've probably actually said this, Jasmine, but I can only really like relate to like Benny and our experience in the community that we've built.

22:05But I'm sure you've said this before about Female Founder World. And I see this and I'm sure everyone that's engaged in the community sees this, that there is so much value that is just given away without expecting anything in return. And that's kind of the way I see community because I too, Nat, when we were chatting in the Slack group this morning on the set Sunday dinner, I was like, who does join this? But then I think we've done very similar things at Benny. So we host a ton of IRL community events, very little digital, but we've done focus groups where it's been like an hour with like, we've probably done like a hundred or so you know attendees within focus groups that are giving us their time literally on zoom and they're so excited to do that and I think it's like being really bought in with the brand I think because we're such a small brand like people know Julie and I like we probably met at an event that's a piece to it but in anything community and I've again taken this so from female founder world anything community building we have so shifted from anything ROI because it just, I want it to feel like a true community.

23:08And I feel that way about, you know, some of our, we call them our friends with Benny, but some of our like closest community members that are always at events, always tagging us on stories. Like I consider them my friends and I hope they consider me theirs. Um, and I think that is what like ample, like, you know, that's the, that's the community I'm trying to build, but it's so hard. Cause how do you ROI that? You know what I mean? How do you back to Emma's point on like, how do we make the money on this I don't I don't know like that's the reason why we've actually hesitated on a platform like a tyb because I'm like I don't know if our benny girl is here for 20 off I think they're genuinely here for the community you know interesting something else that I've been seeing

23:51Jasmine:brands like set and brands that are focused on community doing is voice noting in the dm so you guys notice this I haven't seen this until you said it and now I'm gonna keep my eyes open yeah i found a voice notes in uh in broadcast channels i just think it's that's such an interesting way to build intimacy because doesn't it just feel so much more intimate hearing someone's voice than getting a message especially as we're seeing more people use tools like many chat which is an automated direct message platform that you can use on instagram we use it and often i actually won't use it i'll say comment you know drop a comment if you want the link to the show or the resource or whatever we're talking about in an Instagram post.