Aspire with Emma Grede

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

Andrew Rosen has spent nearly five decades building, investing in, and shaping some of the most influential brands in American fashion. As the co-founder of Theory and an early investor in brands like TWP, rag and bone, Veronica Beard, Alice + Olivia, Good American and SKIMS, he’s also one of Emma's closest mentors. His advice comes from doing the work — and learning what happens when things don't go to plan.
In this conversation, Andrew shares the lessons he took from his father, the setbacks that shaped how he built Theory, and the advice he gave Emma when she was becoming a brand owner. They explore how to trust your instincts, choose the right investors, and build a profitable business with staying power.
They get into:
Taking over as CEO of the family business in his twenties
Losing control of the company — and what he did next
Getting fired, and why he never saw it as failure
The experience he brought to starting Theory at 40
Why profitability has to be part of the plan from the start
What founders should actually look for in an investor
The lessons he took from his father that still shape how he does business

Durana Elmi knows how to build a business. Before Cymbiotika, she built and exited four companies. She then took a wellness brand with one employee, one product, and almost no infrastructure and helped scale it into a $150 million business alongside her husband Shahab.
In this episode of Aspire, Emma sits down with Durana to unpack the decisions behind that growth. They also get candid about money, marriage, and leadership. Durana shares why financial independence matters deeply to her, what 27 years of building alongside her husband has taught her about disagreement, and how her definition of success has changed from making money to owning her time.
You’ll learn:
Why Cymbiotika bootstrapped for five years before taking outside capital
What infrastructure needs to be in place when a business starts growing faster than you can keep up with
The expensive lessons founders can learn from going into retail too quickly
What a $25 million strategic raise brought beyond capital
Why celebrity investors became a part of Cymbiotika’s growth strategy
How to make decisions when data challenges your instincts