[@TheDiaryOfACEO] SKIMS Co-Founder: They're Lying About Work-Life Balance! I Built The Kardashian's Business Empire!

Link: https://youtu.be/EdlXcVu1CTs

Short Summary

Emma Grede, co-founder of brands like Good American and Skims, emphasizes the importance of grit, self-responsibility, and knowing one's strengths to achieve success in business. She advocates for action, focus, and not letting others' opinions derail progress, while also emphasizing continuous learning and leveling up one's team by hiring people with talent, a "figure it out" mentality, and curiosity across the entire business.

Key Quotes

Here are five quotes extracted from the YouTube video transcript:

1. "Work life balance is your problem. Like, that's yours to figure out... That isn't the employer's job. That isn't the employer's responsibility."
2. "Is it possible to have the success to be number one...and is there like not a way where I can have my evenings and weekends but still get like... I want all of my evenings and weekends? No, you're not. No, no. If if it's possible, tell me who she is and I'll show you a liar."
3. "I think that what I do uniquely well, Stephen, is that I have an ability to focus on what I'm doing. I have an ability to get better at what I'm doing... And then I have an ability to drown out and kind of disregard the noise of everyone around me."
4. "I feel like this person was like dying, like dying to just do something differently and dying to escape her circumstances." (referring to a childhood photograph of herself)
5. "You can have a truly exceptional person in a kind of dysfunctional company and then they don't do as well, right? Like you can bring in somebody not quite exceptional into an exceptional culture and company and the organization makes them great."

Detailed Summary

Okay, here is a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript in bullet points:

Key Topics & Arguments:

• Emma Grede's Early Life & Formative Experiences:
  • Raised in East London by a single mother.
  • One of four sisters; played a significant role in raising her siblings.
  • Experiences instilled a strong work ethic, responsibility, and a desire to escape limited circumstances.
  • Absent father didn't negatively impact her due to strong male role models (grandfather, uncles).
  • Attended anger management classes as a young woman to manage her reactions and improve relationships.
• Career & Entrepreneurial Journey:
  • Early ambition to be a fashion designer, but realized she lacked creative talent.
  • Excelled at enabling talent and turning visions into reality.
  • Worked in various roles in fashion show production and marketing.
  • Founded ITB, an entertainment marketing agency.
  • Recognized the potential of talent-based equity deals, leading to the concept for Good American.
  • Co-founded Good American with Khloe Kardashian, identifying a gap in the denim market for inclusive sizing.
  • Co-founded Skims.
• Success Factors & Mindset:
  • Grit: Crucial for overcoming obstacles and achieving goals despite lacking formal qualifications.
  • Focus: Ability to concentrate on a finite number of things and disregard distractions.
  • Action: Taking concrete steps and making connections.
  • Continuous Improvement: Constantly striving to get better at what she does.
  • Self-Responsibility: Taking ownership of her choices and actions.
  • Trust in Intuition: Balancing feedback with gut feeling.
• Leadership & Hiring:
  • Importance of hiring for attitude and potential over experience.
  • Values flexibility, a winning mentality, and a broad understanding of the business.
  • Prioritizes finding excellent people and building a great culture.
  • The importance of "Enterprise Mentality": Prioritising the business above all else, while still ensuring that the business is profitable and well structured enough for employees to have a good work/life balance.
  • Learn to fire quickly, don't become too loyal, focus on growing the company rather than remaining as a "family".
  • Actively seeks talented people for recruitment and dedicates much of her time in her current leadership position to ensuring that exceptional people are brought in.
• Work-Life Balance & Ambition:
  • Work-life balance is the individual's responsibility, not the employer's.
  • Rejects the idea that someone can achieve top-level success without significant effort and dedication.
  • The benefits of work/life balance are only available if the business is profitable and well-structured.
• Building a Brand & Connecting with Customers:
  • The importance of meeting customers in real life through experiential things.
  • Stresses that the customer experience is extremely important to a brand.
  • Experiential marketing is more important for building a memorable, long lasting brand.
  • Community building is important, as is having a purpose.
• Challenges & Obstacles:
  • Dealing with others copying business ideas and products, focus on moving forward rather than dwelling on it.
  • Acknowledges the challenges facing founders in today's climate due to social media and shifting work culture.
  • Discusses downsizing and the difficulty of letting people go.
  • Difficulty internalizing cash-flow and client issues when founding ITB.
• Personal Life & Fertility Journey:
  • Discusses her relationship with her husband and business partner, Yens, and the importance of mutual interest and support.
  • Relationship and business partner must encourage belief within yourself, otherwise that causes a problem.
  • Stresses the importance of scheduling time together.
  • Openly shares her difficult journey with IVF and surrogacy and how that journey lead to a profound and selfless experience.
  • Urges women to consider their fertility plans and potential challenges.
  • Emphasizes the importance of discussing fertility struggles with friends and family.
• Prejudice & Overcoming Limitations:
  • Acknowledges the existence of prejudice but emphasizes not allowing it to limit her potential.
  • Sees her unique perspective as an advantage.
• Emma Grede's Podcast "Aspire":
  • Aimed at scaling mentorship and providing valuable insights to listeners.
  • Addresses the lack of diverse voices in the business podcasting space.
  • Focuses on honesty, practicality, and empowering listeners to achieve their goals.
  • Goal is to create authentic, helpful content.
  • Will launch in May.

This summary aims to capture the core themes, arguments, and experiences shared in the YouTube video transcript.