Grede reveals how she lands the biggest names for fashion campaigns, while Graham addresses the challenges of pitching an idea geared toward women to a room full of men.
Ashley Graham and Emma Grede are getting real about what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur, while promiting their Roku series Side Hustlers.
While sitting down exclusively with TooFab, the 36-year-old world-renowned model shared the best advice she has received … while Grege, the 41-year-old co-founder of Good American and SKIMS, revealed how she scores the biggest names in Hollywood to shoot with her brands.
“I spent 12 years before I had ever launched a business really at the intersection of fashion and popular culture,” the Good American CEO began.
“I had an agency where my only job was to book talent on behalf of brands and you get really good at it. I think that the beauty of running you know companies is that you get to make decisions and we get to make decisions really quickly,” she recalled. “I remember years ago saying to certain clients of mine — that shall remain nameless — like, ‘You should put this talent’ and they’ll be like, ‘Who are they?’ And then by the time the campaign rolls around, they had a number one hit song, so there’s some of that that is just inherent in training.”
SKIMS is known to launch campaigns around the same time a Hollywood star is on the rise in the media. Nicola Coughlan’s SKIMS campaign launched at the height of her Bridgerton fame, Sabrina Carpenter’s campaign dropped ahead of her Coachella debut and Charli XCX’s dropped during the internet sensation that is “brat summer.”
“The other thing is, its like we have a very big team and I’ve trained myself to listen to people in the business right because it’s like, I’m not the youngest coolest chick, I don’t watch every amazing show out there,” Grede continued.
“I don’t know who half of these YouTubers are, but we’ve created the culture within our companies where there are a lot of people that are really, [in the know],” she said.
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However, there isn’t always a collaborative culture in the rooms where Graham and Grede find themselves in. In fact, the pair have both been in situations where they have to pitch to a room full of men with an idea that relates more to women.
“I think those rooms are very intimidating because you’re trying to convince a man to invest in not only you, what you believe in, but also something that might be geared just towards women and an idea he doesn’t understand exactly,” Graham said, before revealing what she does to help boost her confidence during those moments.
“I’ve been in those rooms a few times where I have had to have the pep talks. I’ve had to do the power poses. I’ve had to really like more than normal prep myself,” she continued, “and some of them have been slam dunks and some of them have been hard nos.”
The two head back to the early days of starting a business with their aspiring entrepreneurs on Season 2 of their Roku show, Side Hustlers. As for what they learned from taking a step back and recalling their own humble beginnings, the two agreed it’s all about getting over those initial fears.
“You can see how fearful a lot of these founders are to make decisions,” Grede said. “And I think that I’ve trained myself to like almost find fear. If something is scary, it’s probably good and I probably need to lean into that part of it. You forget how scary it is in beginning.”
“No, that’s such a good answer, that’s it. Fear, get over and going towards the fear you have, you absolutely have to,” Graham agreed.
On the new season, a number of the entrepreneurs are seen quitting their 9-5 jobs to focus on their own businesses — but Graham insists that doesn’t have to be the goal for everyone.
“I think that there’s going to be a shift in culture and in business that people aren’t going to show up for that 9-5,” Graham explained. “They’re not going to be at work five days a week, they’re going to be doing different things, different segmented things. And that just goes to show why Side Hustlers is so now.”
“This is the time where we need to see other women doing multiple things. We are the best multitaskers ever, I mean ‘us,’ as in women,” she continued. “And so that’s why I think that this also just shows that you don’t have to quit your day job. This just is something that we were hoping for that you would be that successful that you had the option to quit your day job.”
You can watch Season 2 on Side Hustlers now on Roku.
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