No Excuses, Just Business with Emma Grede
Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari
Dear Media
4.2 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Emma Grede is here, and she’s not sugarcoating anything. We dig into what it really takes to build a business, lead people, and create a life on your own terms.
She gets into her no-BS leadership style: high standards, radical honesty, and owning your mistakes. Emma shares major business missteps (including a failed product expansion), how she dissects failure without ego, and why understanding your own patterns is the key to long-term success.
We also cover what she actually looks for when hiring, why being slow to hire but quick to fire matters, her take on unlimited PTO, working with friends, and when investors can do more harm than good. She breaks down why “focus” is one of the most misunderstood concepts in business, and why your customer has to be at the center of everything.
This episode is honest, motivating, and packed with real insight on failure, leadership, resilience, and building something that lasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a dear media production. |
| 0:04.4 | This is Let's Be Honest with Kristen Cavalry, a podcast all about getting real and open on everything from sex, relationships, reality TV, wellness, family, and so much more. |
| 0:15.4 | And just a fair warning, there will probably be some oversharing. |
| 0:23.1 | Emma, welcome. |
| 0:24.7 | Thank you, I don't. |
| 0:25.4 | I'm so happy to be here. |
| 0:26.5 | I am so excited you're here. |
| 0:28.1 | And happy Pub Day, because your book is out today. |
| 0:31.5 | Start with yourself. |
| 0:33.5 | I flew through your book. |
| 0:34.8 | I think I read it in two, two and a half hours. |
| 0:36.9 | Oh, my goodness. |
| 0:37.5 | I think it's the fastest book I've ever read. And I read it on a flight from London, |
| 0:42.1 | which I thought was very appropriate with you being from London. Thank you for that. |
| 0:45.8 | Yeah. How timely. Right? I loved it so much as a businesswoman, but also just as a woman, |
| 0:51.2 | you're someone who's out there speaking your mind, chasing your dreams. |
| 0:55.3 | And I really resonate with that. I also really resonate with your leadership style. |
| 1:00.7 | Thank you. You are transparent. You are accountable. You have this fire in you that I absolutely |
| 1:06.7 | love and respect. And so I'm curious, how would you describe yourself as a boss? And is it the same |
| 1:14.5 | way that your direct reports would describe you? Oof, I mean, there's a bunch of them outside. |
| 1:18.9 | We'll have to go and ask them. Bring them back to them. First of all, I'm so grateful to you for |
| 1:23.4 | reading the book because I feel like this book was just written for women, right? It's just |
... |
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