Aspire with Emma Grede

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