Aspire with Emma Grede

Most of us have been taught to see conflict as a sign that something has gone wrong. Today’s guest, Priya Parker, sees it differently. After more than two decades working in conflict resolution, she believes the right kind of fight can bring us closer, make our teams stronger, and help us understand each other better. In her new book, The Art of Fighting, Priya gives us the language and the skill set to do it well. 

Priya joins Emma Grede to talk about why so many of us choose what she calls “unhealthy peace,” and what we lose when we avoid saying what we really think. They explore how our families and cultures shape the way we fight, why some disagreements are worth staying in, and how to tell when it’s time to let go. This is a conversation about what healthy conflict can look like in practice and how our differences can ultimately bring us together. 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The questions to ask yourself before deciding whether a fight is worth having
• Why calming your body can change the way you show up in a difficult conversation
• How leaders can make it safer for people with less power to speak honestly
• How Slack and digital tools have changed workplace culture 
• Why humor and play can help people move through conflict without losing connection
• Specific examples from Priya’s work in conflict resolution, from boardrooms to restaurants
• The simple language Priya uses to start a hard conversation with someone she cares about

Law Roach is the image architect behind some of the most talked-about red carpet moments in the world. Raised on Chicago’s South Side, he built his career working with stars including Zendaya, Celine Dion, and Ariana Grande. Along the way, he became a star himself, with a name and reputation that carry value beyond the clothes. But reaching the top also brought a breaking point, and his very public retirement changed what he was willing to say yes to.

In this episode of Aspire, Law joins Emma Grede to talk about his journey to the center of fashion and how he turned his talent and taste into a business. He shares what it took to earn millions a year from styling alone, and why walking away from it at the height of his career gave him the freedom to decide what he wanted to build next.

Today, you’ll hear:

• Why a bold public persona only works when it’s backed by a professional reputation built on trust and follow-through
• How Law and Zendaya made sure his contribution was recognized and paid for in her fashion deals
• Why Keke Palmer fired him, and why being the best at your job doesn’t always mean you’re the right person for a client
• How gratitude and looking after other people’s interests build relationships that last
• Why Law uses fashion to tell stories about Black history and the women who shaped him
• What it takes to build a business that can grow beyond your own time and talent

Malika Andrews and Taylor Rooks have two of the most visible jobs in sports media. Malika is the face of ESPN's NBA coverage, hosting NBA Today and NBA Countdown. Taylor hosts NBA on Prime and is a major presence across Thursday Night Football. Between them they're speaking to millions of people every week — and interviewing some of the most famous athletes in the world.

They’ve also had a front-row seat to each other’s rise. And while they’re both incredibly ambitious and competitive, they’ve learned how to let someone else’s success push them without allowing it to diminish their own.

Emma sits down with both of them to understand what it actually takes to become that trusted at that scale — the preparation nobody sees, how you get an athlete to tell you the truth, and what it costs to do a job where every word, every question and every mistake gets picked apart in real time.

In this episode:

• Why preparation gives you the confidence to perform under pressure
• Trust as a daily deposit: accurate, honest, and fair
• How healthy competition can raise your own standard
• Why asking for what you want can change the trajectory of your career
• How to negotiate from a place of knowing your value
• Why credibility is built through small, consistent actions
• How to tell the difference between feedback worth hearing and noise
• Why longevity, not the next job, is the real ambition

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Everyone has an opinion about Nara Smith. Very few people have asked her how the business works. At 24, with four kids under six and one of the most recognizable formats on the internet, Nara is running a company she plans to keep growing for the next 50 years.

Emma and Nara get into the moment a viral format turned into income, and why she left the modeling agency that had represented her since she was 14. Nara explains how she uses brand partnerships to test what her audience will buy before launching her own consumer goods brand, and why she still films and edits every video herself. They also talk about the money rules her dad drilled into her and what it takes to stop letting the comment section decide who you are.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Nara turned a recognizable content format into a multimillion-dollar business
• Why knowing when to lean into what’s working can be more powerful than starting with a perfect strategy
• How she and Lucky approach money, shared wealth, and maintaining their own individual businesses
• What the internet gets wrong about the “tradwife” version of Nara Smith
• How she stops other people’s assumptions from becoming her identity
• How Nara is planning to build an empire that lasts well beyond social media

Vanessa Van Edwards has spent nearly twenty years studying what makes some people easy to talk to. Her argument is that conversation is a skill rather than a personality, and that most of us are simply out of practice.

She joins Emma to talk about how to prepare for the conversations that matter, what to say when you meet someone who could change your career, and how to handle feedback and disagreement without damaging the relationship. She also explains what happened early in her own career, when she lost a television deal during the small talk before the pitch and nobody ever told her that was why.

In this episode:

• How to prepare for conversations that could change what happens next
• The three questions you should always be ready to answer
• Why talking about how busy you are makes people think you're less competent
• How to raise a problem with someone more senior than you
• What the way someone tells their own story reveals about them

Vanessa Van Edwards's new book, Conversation: How to Connect with Anyone & Make Every Interaction Count, is out now.

Ari Emanuel is one of the most powerful people in entertainment and the real-life inspiration for Ari Gold on Entourage. He started in the CAA mailroom before co-founding Endeavor with three other agents and very little money. Over the next three decades, he merged the company with William Morris, acquired IMG and UFC, and helped reshape the modern entertainment business.

In this conversation, Ari and Emma examine the qualities behind that extraordinary career. Ari opens up about growing up with severe dyslexia, being bullied, and using the anger he carried from those experiences to drive himself forward. He explains why you have to say what you want, how he works until he finds the yes, and why curiosity only becomes valuable when you act on it.

They also explore the harder side of success. Ari reflects on the rage and aggression that helped him build his company, the moment he realized those qualities could no longer take him forward, and the work he has done to become a better leader.

They get into:

• Turning dyslexia and rejection into emotional endurance
• Why nobody will advocate for your future more fiercely than you
• What Ari learned from starting in the CAA mailroom
• His relentless approach to calls, rejection, and finding the yes
• How he turns curiosity into relationships and opportunities
• Why company culture is shaped by the behavior leaders tolerate
• What founders misunderstand about how long success takes
• Knowing when the qualities that built your career need to evolve
• Why Ari ultimately values a life of meaning over a traditional legacy

Ari’s new memoir, Roll the Calls, is available now.

Diane von Furstenberg created the iconic wrap dress in her twenties and built her namesake company DVF into one of the most recognizable fashion brands in the world. More than fifty years later, as she approaches 80, she's entering a new chapter — with a lifetime of lessons to share.

In this episode of Aspire, Emma sits down with her longtime friend and idol for a deeply personal conversation about self-belief, independence, motherhood, aging and becoming the woman you want to be. Diane opens up about the choices she made as a working mother, why guilt and fear are not options, the mistakes she's made along the way, and what it takes to like the person you've become.

Diane shares:

• How to build the kind of self-belief that carries you through every stage of life
• Why the most important relationship you'll ever have is the one you have with yourself
• How to stop comparing yourself to other people and own who you are
• Why guilt and fear should never drive your decisions
• What motherhood taught her about raising independent children without losing yourself
• Why independence has always mattered more to her than money
• How to learn from mistakes without letting them define you
• Why kindness is a currency — and how it compounds over time
• What getting older has taught her about confidence, clarity and becoming more yourself

On this special birthday solo of Aspire, Emma Grede shares 44 rules for life, business, and success—her personal operating system for nearly everything. This is everything she knows to be true about money, work, marriage, and motherhood, plus the beliefs she actually uses to make decisions, build companies, and recover from her mistakes.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why taking responsibility for your life is the biggest power move you'll ever make
• How to build confidence before you feel ready
• The question that exposes whether your full schedule is progress or avoidance
• Why you should ask for more money before resentment sets in, and how to do it
• The case for treating your choice of partner as the biggest business decision of your life
• What most successful people get wrong about happiness
• Why your reputation is built when there’s no immediate reward

Andrew Rosen has spent nearly five decades building, investing in, and shaping some of the most influential brands in American fashion. As the co-founder of Theory and an early investor in brands like TWP, rag and bone, Veronica Beard, Alice + Olivia, Good American and SKIMS, he’s also one of Emma's closest mentors.  His advice comes from doing the work — and learning what happens when things don't go to plan.

In this conversation, Andrew shares the lessons he took from his father, the setbacks that shaped how he built Theory, and the advice he gave Emma when she was becoming a brand owner. They explore how to trust your instincts, choose the right investors, and build a profitable business with staying power.

They get into:

• Taking over as CEO of the family business in his twenties
• Losing control of the company — and what he did next
• Getting fired, and why he never saw it as failure
• The experience he brought to starting Theory at 40
• Why profitability has to be part of the plan from the start
• What founders should actually look for in an investor
• The lessons he took from his father that still shape how he does business

Durana Elmi knows how to build a business. Before Cymbiotika, she built and exited four companies. She then took a wellness brand with one employee, one product, and almost no infrastructure and helped scale it into a $150 million business alongside her husband Shahab.

In this episode of Aspire, Emma sits down with Durana to unpack the decisions behind that growth. They also get candid about money, marriage, and leadership. Durana shares why financial independence matters deeply to her, what 27 years of building alongside her husband has taught her about disagreement, and how her definition of success has changed from making money to owning her time.

You’ll learn:

• Why Cymbiotika bootstrapped for five years before taking outside capital
• What infrastructure needs to be in place when a business starts growing faster than you can keep up with
• The expensive lessons founders can learn from going into retail too quickly
• What a $25 million strategic raise brought beyond capital
• Why celebrity investors became a part of Cymbiotika’s growth strategy
• How to make decisions when data challenges your instincts