Emma Greed, co-founder and CEO of the inclusive fashion brand Good American with Khloé Kardashian and partner in founding Skims with Kim Kardashian, is sitting at the board table talking about the multibillion-dollar impact that social influence has on business. But she says it takes more than influence to turn ambitions and ideas into lasting success, and she has plenty of advice to offer other women from her self-made millionaire journey.
In her new book, Start With Yourself, released Tuesday, she writes that women are often held back by the way they’re conditioned to think about things like money, leadership, and permission to pursue their ambitions.
“There’s a lot of social conditioning that happens to us… ‘She’s a good girl,’ that teaches us to be small, quiet, people-pleasers,” Greedo told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on the latest episode of the podcast “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players,” also released Tuesday.
Conditioning early in life can leave long-term negative effects on women, says Greed. “If you sit around afraid of standing out or doing the wrong thing, your fear makes it very difficult to start something new. And if you’re a people-pleaser, you probably won’t tell the truth. …And if your ambition to make a lot of money is just inside you and you’re not actually expressing it, why should someone pay you more?”
Greed was named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.
Here are some key takeaways from her CNBC podcast appearance where she discussed many of the themes in her new book.
Being honest with yourself can be the first step towards your ambitions.
Greed’s main advice for women is to take a hard look at what’s holding them back. “Why not just be honest about things like this and recognize what’s holding us back in our emotional lives, because once we understand that, we can start to fix it,” she said.
And it helps you have the confidence to pursue your ambitions.
“I always say that the idea of ambition is a bit uncomfortable, but you have to learn to lean into that discomfort,” said Grede, who grew up in East London and was raised by a single mother with limited financial means.
Ambition then requires a combination of vision, planning and hard work. “Ambition requires you to find work,” Grede said.
An idea is never enough.
Her long and successful partnership with the Kardashian family is built on more than just celebrity endorsement. “You have to be able to essentially understand what the partnership brings and what you do together,” Grede says. “We have to be able to trust each other.”
While the Kardashians certainly brought cultural breadth, fame and confidence, Greed says they also brought management experience from already running a successful business. And both backgrounds have been critical in building the structures that support Skims and Good American’s growth in the shapewear and inclusivity space. “You guys choose each other. This is what I uniquely bring to the table, this is what you uniquely bring to the table. And it just flourished,” she said.
Khloe Kardashian and Emma Greedo attend the Good American Miami Launch Party at Good American on October 24, 2019 in Miami, Florida.
Alexander Tamargo | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Greed, a regular judge on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and the show’s first Black female investor, said entrepreneurs need to come to the table with more than just an idea.
“So many people have ideas,” she said. “My view is that it’s a waste to come to me with an idea. I want to know the difference between someone who has an idea and someone who can start something. Receiving a PowerPoint presentation is very different from having a product…I like people who are starting. I’m not so interested in people who sit around and wait for someone to magically appear and make all their dreams come true,” she added.
Women cannot be discouraged by one failure.
Greed’s perspective is partly shaped by failure. She started a global talent and brand agency, but tried and failed to expand to Los Angeles. “I failed miserably,” Grede said. But she didn’t let that failure dictate her trajectory. “That situation sucked, and that didn’t work out. But what do you get out of it?”
She argues that failure becomes more emotionally attached to women than men, especially when it turns inward and leads to self-doubt. There will be bad days, she says, but “take what you learn and move on.”
“What I don’t like is the idea that everything is finite. The idea that women can fail and that failure should stick with them forever. Because we don’t apply the same rules to men. When he loses a lot of money and his fortune is ruined, he says, “Well, it was a disaster, so let’s move on to the next job.” Whereas with a woman, it’s like, “I did this terrible thing, and it stays with me.” No, no. That’s enough. …Things happen. We learn from them, we live with them, and we move forward,” Greed said.
To be successful at work, you need to be in the office.
As for women currently working in companies, Greed, who worked in the corporate world before starting her own business, says visibility will play a big role in career advancement, even in a world where remote work remains the norm. In-office experience increases over time and often determines who gets the next promotion or responsibility, Grede says.
“A great career requires visibility, and it requires relatability. There’s nothing else that can replicate that,” she said. “You may not want to hear it, but you’re not considered for a promotion or a raise in the same way as someone who works in your living room every day.”
You can’t catch Grede on many video conferences. “I refuse all Zoom,” she said. “Teams will tell you it has to be a real emergency to make a video call.”
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