Jackie Aina has been building in public for 17 years. She didn't just grow an audience, she helped define what it meant to be a Black woman with a voice in the beauty industry. But influence was never the end goal.

After nearly two decades as one of YouTube's most recognized creators, Jackie took $250,000 of her own money and started a fragrance brand. Not a makeup line — a fragrance brand. Her childhood dream. The first thing she ever did that nobody asked for.

In this conversation, Jackie sits down with Emma to talk about what it really takes to go from influencer to founder and why the two have almost nothing in common.

Jackie shares:

Why six million followers doesn't mean six million in revenue — and what creators get wrong about turning an audience into a business

How she self-funded Forvr Mood with $250K, sold out six months of inventory in four hours, and nearly had a breakdown closing the laptop

The vendor relationship that looked like a smart start and took over a year to untangle

What she had to unlearn about being "the strong one" — and why doing everything is actually a disservice to everyone around you

Why she deliberately didn't build a makeup brand, and what it meant to finally do something just for herself

What's something you've outgrown — even if other people still expect that version of you? Drop it in the comments. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next.

We'd love to hear what you think. Please take this survey to help us make the show better for you: emmagrede.com/survey

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hiring is the single most consequential thing you do when you're building anything. Get it right and it compounds. Get it wrong and it costs you years. In today's episode, Emma is sharing the thing she's come to believe is true: the team you build is the most honest reflection of how well you know yourself.

This is the real version of what Emma's looking for when she's sitting across from a candidate—the exact framework for how she actually thinks about it, the mistakes she's made, and why she can see past a great resumé to the person underneath.

In this episode you'll learn:

The three people you need to speak to before you write a single job description

Why Emma hires for attitude over experience, and what she believes you cannot teach

What to listen for in how someone talks about their wins and losses

Why culture fit has quietly become code for comfort

How to think about paying for talent when the margins are thin

Whether you're hiring for the first time, building a team, or sitting on the other side of the table in an interview, this one is for you.

Start With Yourself is available now.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Vaynerchuk has spent the last two decades understanding where culture and consumer behavior were headed long before the rest of the world caught up. He was early to YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, creator commerce, and live shopping. But this conversation is about more than algorithms and internet trends.

In this episode, Gary sits down with Emma to talk about the real reason most people stay stuck: fear. Fear of judgment. Fear of failure. Fear of what other people will think if they try something new.

Together, they unpack the insecurity driving modern ambition, why so many successful people are still deeply unhappy, and why Gary believes we are entering a cultural shift where kindness, reputation, and emotional intelligence will matter more than ever.

Gary shares:

Why most people are living for opinions they don’t even respect

The hidden insecurity driving high achievement

Why reputation compounds faster than money

What social media actually revealed about human behavior

How parents unintentionally destroy confidence in their kids

Why proximity and visibility still matter in the AI era

The business opportunities Gary believes people are still underestimating

Why “nice guys finish first”

What would change in your life if you stopped making decisions based on other people’s expectations of you? Drop it in the comments — we’re reading. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don’t miss what’s next.

We want to hear from you! Take our audience survey and help us shape what comes next for Aspire: https://form.typeform.com/to/eNPvwUY4

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bethenny Frankel turned a TikTok account into a $20-million-a-year business without a plan or a brand of her own. She had a vision and a set of deal terms that no one in the industry has been able to replicate, or get her to explain, until now. 

In this conversation, Emma gets Bethenny to do the thing she never does: open her playbook. Bethenny shows the work behind it all—the deal structures, the dollar amounts, the model she built that agencies keep trying to reverse-engineer and she keeps refusing to share. 

Bethenny shares:

The Skinny Girl carve-out that started everything and the difference between licensing and ownership that determines whether you walk away rich or walk away with nothing

How she built her business with zero exclusivity, equity in nearly every partnership, and why brands agree to terms no one else can get

Why she says trust and attention are the only two assets that matter and what that means for anyone trying to build an audience into a business

The true cost of building an entire business on yourself and what freedom looks like when you’re more successful in your fifties than you’ve ever been

If you’ve ever been put in a box or told your vision doesn’t fit the playbook, let us know in the comments. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next.

We want to hear from you! Take our audience survey and help us shape what comes next for Aspire: https://form.typeform.com/to/eNPvwUY4

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah Jakes Roberts is not a traditional entrepreneur. She’s the daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes, one of the most prominent pastors in America. Sarah became a mother at 13—and in the years that followed, she carried the weight of that story in public, under a spotlight she never asked for. 

This conversation is about what happens when the thing you’re most ashamed of becomes the thing you build from. Today, Sarah co-leads a megachurch while raising a blended family of six. But she didn’t set out to lead a global movement, launch conferences that fill stadiums, host a top-ranked podcast, operate more than a dozen revenue streams, or become a bestselling author. She started a blog because she had something to say and an instinct that other women might see parts of themselves in her story. It turned out to be millions of women. 

In today’s conversation, Sarah sits down with Emma to talk about calling, responsibility, and a feeling she describes as being “willing to do what I’ve been trusted with.” 

Sarah shares:

The relationship between anger and people-pleasing—and why suppressing one feeds the other

What Old Thoughts look like when you've been carrying them since you were 13

How she went from a blog with a million views to a global conference and a publishing operation without a traditional business strategy

What young motherhood taught her about shame and building something real from the chapter most people would want to erase

Where ministry ends and business begins—and how she navigates making millions from a unique calling without losing what built it

What’s something in your life that you need to move past?  Drop it in the comments — we're reading. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Victoria Beckham is one of the most famous women in the world. But behind the headlines is a business story that took nearly two decades to build.

She entered fashion with every reason to be dismissed. A Spice Girl. A celebrity. A public figure trying to be taken seriously in an industry that rarely gives second chances. The skepticism was loud. The losses were public. And at one point, she lost control of the company that carried her own name – but she building anyway. 

Over nearly two decades, Victoria rebuilt her business piece by piece. Through financial pressure, shifting perceptions, and the quiet work of proving she belonged. Today, her fashion business is profitable, her beauty brand is scaling, and the narrative has finally caught up to the work.

In this conversation, Victoria sits down with Emma to talk about what it really took to get here — the financial pressure, the imposter syndrome she carried for years, and the moment she decided to put Victoria back into Victoria Beckham. She opens up about building alongside David, what their partnership actually looks like behind closed doors, and why she refuses to feel guilty about following her dreams.

And for the first time, she reveals that Harper — who has sat in on product development meetings since she was tiny — is starting her own brand. 

Victoria shares:

What it felt like to lose control of her own company and rebuild from inside it

Why staying close to the creative saved the business when nothing else could

How she and David have built alongside each other without disappearing into one another

The Diane von Furstenberg advice that changed how she thinks about guilt

What Harper's brand pitch revealed about legacy, motherhood, and what it means to raise a family of builders

What have you stayed committed to longer than anyone expected? Drop it in the comments.

What would you build if you stopped listening to the noise? Drop it in the comments — we're reading. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This one is a little different.

For Emma, sitting down with Oprah Winfrey wasn’t just another interview — it was a full circle moment. A conversation years in the making with someone who helped shape how she thinks about success, ambition, and what’s possible.

In this special episode, Emma shares her conversation from The Oprah Podcast — one of the most honest conversations she’s had about her debut book Start With Yourself and the journey behind it.

Together, they go beyond the highlight reel and get into:

Emma also opens up about the mistakes that shaped her, overcoming comparison, and why she believes success starts from within — not from external validation.

It’s a conversation that feels as grounding as it is powerful.

And if you know Emma, you know — this moment meant everything.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tory Burch started her company in 2004 with a single store on Elizabeth Street in New York City, a friends and family round of funding, and a belief that purpose and business belong in the same sentence.

Twenty two years later, she has 400 stores in 70 countries. And she still hasn't had lunch.

In this conversation, Tory sits down with Emma to talk about what it really took to build one of the most recognizable names in American fashion — navigating criticism, surviving a lawsuit that threatened everything she'd built, and rediscovering the creative spirit that reinvigorated the brand.

Tory shares:

Why ambition is still a complicated word for women  and why she refuses to shy away from it

How she maintained ownership and control of her company through a very public divorce and lawsuit

What she learned about scaling a brand without losing its identity

How stepping back from the CEO role unlocked her most creative chapter yet

What would you build if you stopped letting other people define your ambition? Drop it in the comments — we're reading. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emma sits down with Tara Mohr, author of the bestselling ‘Playing Big’, for a conversation that started as an interview and turned into something much more personal. Tara has spent over a decade helping women understand why they hold themselves back — not from the outside, but from within. 

Together Emma and Tara get into why your self-doubt gets loudest right when something actually matters, the difference between your inner critic and realistic thinking, why chasing confidence is the wrong goal, and the two types of fear — one keeping you stuck, one telling you you're exactly where you need to be.

Then Tara introduces Emma to her  inner mentor and walks her through the exercise live, on camera. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 

What "playing small" really looks like, even when life looks big on the outside

How to identify your inner critic and what to do about it

How to tell the two types of fear apart 

The guilt trap and how to know when guilt is actually yours

How to stop outsourcing your decisions and become the authority in your own life

The inner mentor exercise

What's the voice in your head telling you right now  and is it actually true? Drop it in the comments. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you never miss what's next.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emma’s debut book, Start With Yourself, is out today. This is the episode she’s been building toward since the very beginning of Aspire. 

She’s doing something she’s never done on this podcast before. She’s taking on your questions about what’s at the heart of the book, including: 

The core ideas behind her framework for work and life

Why this isn’t just a book for someone wanting to start a business 

What she’d say to the woman who’s been putting herself last for too long

The uncomfortable truths she had to face about her own thinking before she could put them on paper for anyone else

Then she reads from the book for the first time anywhere, about a moment that completely changed her mindset and became the reason she had to write it. If you’ve felt stuck or scared to go after the next thing, Start With Yourself is for you. It’s available here.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices