‘Shark Tank’ star Emma Grede dispels myth of overnight success

we love to meet successful women and today we want to introduce you to fashion and business Powerhouse Emma green if you do not know her name just yet that's okay we can pretty much guarantee that you know her Brands take a look british-born Emma grade is one of the most successful business women in the world she's CEO and co-founder of good American which Prides itself on being the first fully inclusive fashion brand Emma launched good American in 2016 alongside Khloe Kardashian the brand made a million dollars the very first day Emma is also a founding partner of skims the solutions oriented shapewear brand valued last year at 3.2 billion dollars her reach goes beyond fashion Emma is also co-founder of safely the cleaning brand with chemical free products with an eye for product and marketing Emma has made a commitment to invest in startups rooted in inclusivity diversity and sustainability she made history as the first black woman to serve as an investor on ABC's Shark Tank and most recently Emma was named one of America's richest self-made women by Forbes her favorite two words in the sentence self-made well shall we focus on self-made Miss Emma green it's so so good to see you I think a lot of people when they see someone like you they kind of come in on this chapter the crazy successful chapter but they don't realize that before there was this moment there was a lot of struggle and hard work that maybe they wouldn't have looked at and said wow I wish I could be that 100 that's about that early part that brought you here well you know it's so interesting because I have been you know working since I was 14 years old and I'm just now finding success as I get to my you know 40th birthday and I think I really want to dispel that myth for winning that you know this happens overnight it doesn't I've done you know business after business and failure after failure and finally you know you get something right and so that's the great thing that's the journey as you said you started working when you were 14. um you are the daughter of of a single mom single mom four girls one of four one four what did she instill in you do you think that like gave you the grit to keep going because here's the thing if you would quit when you were 18 19 24 30 you may not be sitting here right now you know I think the most important thing that my mother did for me and for all of my sisters was this sense of self-confidence you know I was raised to honestly believe that I wasn't better than anybody else but nor was anyone better than me and that is the confidence that I sit with today you know running these businesses starting things from scratch you've got to have crazy self-confidence and I honestly believe that's what gets me through today you say you were working since 14 what what job did you take her out I delivered the papers I worked in Adela I worked in a cafe I worked on the shop flight so you name it I've done what did those teach you those little jobs oh I think they what they really teach you is perseverance and also just like discipline I started my first company when I was 24 years old and you're going to make a lot of mistakes but I was you know I think uncompromising and that's what all of my businesses have in common you know we're trying to do something that is about breaking the mold doing things differently but being uncompromising and that is just something that I learned very early on in my career I love that the other thing that people may not know is that you're the mother of four one two three four and it doesn't always look perfect and I think if you look at Instagram you may think oh my gosh every well not at my not on my Instagram I will tell you I try to really dispel those myths because I think that as women we're set up to fail like this idea that you can have it all all of the time I talk about this all the time but it's really about a trade-off you know I don't believe that you are perfect at business and the perfect mother and a perfect wife it's like I have a trade-off every single day you know it's like this morning I'm here I did not take my children to school and that's all right because actually I'm teaching my children something else I'm teaching them the value of going out and doing something for yourself and I think as a mum ambition doesn't disappear just because you have a bunch of children in fact I never felt more ambitious than when I gave birth for the first time I was like well now I know what I'm doing all this for totally you know and that's yeah that's part of it but you know when I think about safely and this newest Business Center of mine that's so much about my children totally doing something that is you know better them what's out there I think that all of us after the pandemic would surrounded ourselves with these toxic products and I wanted to create something that was safe to use better for your family and really you know I'm on this Mission an absolute mission to actually make cleaning something that you know we can all look forward to and to elevate your everything well I look forward to cleaning because I have a little bit of a clean problem I love that but this this stuff by the way because we've tried it yeah we have the the hand soap the dish soap and the stuff that makes your room smell delicious your philosophy is find the need and fill it that's kind of what you've done your whole career that is that is what I've done my entire career and you know this is a product that's very very close to my heart because like I said everybody wants to do that a little bit better for their family and we've created a product that's entirely plant-based that uses natural ingredients with the most unbelievable fragrances it smells really good you know what's important is that it works it's about it's super efficacious because as a mum of four I don't have time to do things twice it needs to work and so I'm very very happy but we've created a product that is accessible at a price point that everyone can afford so I'm very very happy to say we have to say we as you and Kris Kardashian yeah oh she ever mom and Serena questioner Chris Jenner who SE best house you know does she ever manager you no no wait well I think she'll mum injure each other well no Chris just mama just everybody but you know she manages this business that's for sure you know she was very specific about what she wanted to do and the fragrances really came from Chris having these beautiful smells and I'm very happy to say that we're launching in Target this week we're gonna pause just take a little break but I think a lot of people want some business advice from someone who started with a paper route and wound up where you are today on the Forbes list stick around she's got advice for a couple of entrepreneurs coming up right after this and we're back now with Emma greed one of the most successful business women in the world as a recurring shark on Shark Tank Emma knows a thing or two about emerging businesses we are so excited because we are about to meet two entrepreneurs who are sharing their businesses with us and Emma is going to weigh in a little bit of guidance okay so first up can we meet Laura Diaz Laura come on out Laura please tell Emma you are gorgeous tell Emma about what you're starting and how she can help I'm so excited to be here to present my brand Lady it's a fashion brand that I created um that women can wear whether they're pregnant or not so it's um versatile and can be worn through a pregnancy and Beyond and the reason I created it was because within my own pregnancies I was so frustrated that I couldn't find stylish clothing that I could wear and you know nine months is such a long time to not have stylish so I ended up creating my own I'm sure there's so many other women that would benefit from having stylish options during their pregnancies wow okay Emma do you have such an age yeah Emma what's your question yeah okay so my question is I started my fashion business on a really small scale but I I've done it with the intention to create a big business like yours and serve Lots of women yes she did my dilemma has been trying to figure out how to scale in a sustainable way yeah so with a product that's Innovative and kind of a new clothing category would you say that it's best to created an end by marketing and then create operations or create systems and then create such a good question right question well the problem is and the honest truth is you pretty much have to do it all at once because you're still trying to figure out your demand in these early stages of your business the best advice that I can give you is try to do things as quickly and as locally as you possibly can the great news is in America we have such an incredible and vibrant manufacturing base so you can do things really locally you can figure out what your demand is and then really iterate into that and that's what I would try to do keep everything as close to you as you possibly can so you can see it working thank you thank you so much all right we appreciate it come on out I need all of these for my babies Rosie tell us a little bit about what you created yes this is the Cozy dolls and I'm Aussie as you know it's a line of dolls um called dolls of color they come in a range of skin tones and hair textures and Styles um growing up I have there were no dolls that look like me and I wanted to create dolls that look like my girls I have two girls and I wanted dolls that they could relate to and identify with so for representation matters question my question is about brand awareness I've been in business for a few years now and I really want to know what your advice is for me about building my brand awareness I do want people to be able to recognize yakuzi dolls and I'm a small business and so challenges with funds to Big Mark understand all those challenges and the challenge is that all for all founders actually face in the beginning the beautiful East Neck thingies now that we've got social media and so it really gives almost like an equal platform for people to get their ideas out my best advice to you would be don't limit your audience I think that all parents regardless of their background are looking for things like this now we all want our kids to grow up with diverse toys because representation really does matter so make sure you're marketing to the biggest possible audience and don't narrow it down everybody is looking for product guys thank you that's such a good point gorgeous we just want to point out one last thing about you miss Emma you are it part of a very kind of awesome club that gives back tell us absolutely 15 pledge actually it's a non-profit that is working with businesses all over this country and essentially what we're asking retailers to do is to put 15 of their buy towards black owned businesses black people make up 15 of the population and so we're essentially Shifting the focus and shifting dollars into the hands of incredibly vibrant black Founders who need retailers that need the support and honestly it's one of the things that I'm most proud of we've actually shifted over 14 billion dollars of opportunity into the hands of black owned businesses through our pledge incredible good luck you guys we can't wait to thank you thank you Emma and we'll be back right after this [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: TODAY with Hoda & Jenna

Views: 11,847

Keywords: Interview, NBC News, News, Today, Today Show, current events, newscast, politics

Id: ze3wQH-nw_g

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2023