Aspire with Emma Grede

Today, Emma Grede sits down with her longtime friend Rachel Zoe. Long before everyone had a personal brand, Rachel built one almost by accident. She was making $23,000 a year as a fashion assistant when a single Britney Spears music video (you might know the one) paid her more than her annual salary. At 25, she went freelance with nothing lined up. What followed changed how so many of us think about style and turned the person behind the clothes into someone we all wanted to know.
Now 55, Rachel says she’s in the freest chapter of her life. She and Emma talk about the guilt she carried over how much she earned in her twenties, and why she never slowed down long enough to enjoy any of it. Rachel also reveals why she sold The Zoe Report when she did, and what her sons told her before she said yes to reality TV again.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
How Rachel built a world around her name and the decisions she would make differently today
What younger builders get wrong when they try to engineer a personal brand without the work to back it up
Why she regrets going into business with her husband, and what she wishes they had put in place from the beginning
The financial structure she now believes every woman should have, married or not
Where the money comes from in the Rachel Zoe business today
What Rachel is building her next chapter around, and why she believes it's her most exciting one yet

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