Start With Yourself

A New Vision for Work & Life

De: Emma Grede

Narrado por: Emma Grede

“Emma Grede is a modern executive for the influencer age…Start With Yourself makes the case for putting yourself first in work, life, and child-rearing. It’s Lean In for the post-girlboss era.” —The Wall Street Journal

As seen on Good Morning America, TODAY, Morning Joe, ABC News Live, and Meet the Press.

Start With Yourself is a game-changing, no-BS guide for anyone seeking meaningful success on their own terms. It’s an essential framework that will give you the tools and mindset to unlock your full potential in life and business—straight from a woman who defied all the odds to become a serial entrepreneur, a cofounder of culture-defining global businesses, a nonprofit champion, and the host of the Aspire with Emma Grede podcast. All while raising a family of four children.

Based on the factors of her early life—she’s the child of a working-class single mother and grew up in a rough neighborhood in East London and dropped out of high school—you’d never guess that Emma Grede would go on to become one of America’s richest self-made women.

This makes Grede unique, but she’s convinced you can do it, too: Start With Yourself is a blueprint to her mindset and how she thinks about business and life, structured in easy takeaways, so you can immediately apply her philosophy to what you’re trying to build and create.

Among her most blazing insights, Grede identifies what she calls “Old Thoughts”: stale thinking, outdated ideas; set-in-stone rules ingrained into the culture about work-life balance, the crassness of money, and the unseemliness of ambition—that aren’t actually rules at all. They’re biases, Grede insists, system errors, and we must strike them from our minds so that we can gain a greater sense of control, even mastery, over our day-to-day and long-range goals.

Ultimately, this is a book for everyone tired of feeling like a bystander or passenger in their own life. Grede offers tangible and applicable-right-now solutions to create a mindset, an overall system of thought to manage emotions, clarify ideas, and illuminate the right next step—while always staying positive.

It’s about gathering yourself after failure. It’s about being accountable but also forgiving yourself. It’s about not expecting shortcuts while never being bashful about grabbing them when they appear. It’s about pushing hard for wins and never apologizing for your dreams.

Above all, Grede offers a new vision for work and life that encourages readers everywhere to take responsibility for their own thinking in order to achieve personal and professional success at the highest levels.

The Tender-Loving Kick Every Business Mom Needs

This is the most practical, holistic, detailed, fluff-free mom-life + business manual I have ever read/listened to!
The Business Chapter - is a full-blown MBA, unlike an MBA it gives real and fresh examples from real businesses and people. The list of Go-to's and Don't is meticulous and eye-opening. Every business mom MUST read and implement Emma's life-biz-manual.

I took 3 days off to devour this audiobook—listening, pausing, note-taking, crying, igniting inspiration and determination. As a Ukrainian mom of 6 who's always "dreamed big," I craved guidance from a grounded, reality-checked mom who's also a financially savvy, wildly successful businesswoman.

That's exactly what Start with Yourself delivers. Emma pushes radical honesty and true ownership: What do I want? And mega-honest—why don't I have it yet? Ouch—painful and profoundly healing.

She explains everything specifically and clearly—a guided journey inward to face what holds you back, then outward to take bold action.

There is so much practical gold in every page. Real life shit!

Like the chapter on fear: "If fear is not present, I know I am not pushing my edge." So it's not only about - 'OMG I'm gonna die if I do this thing' but it's rather - there is something there I really really need to explore.

The section about money Oh my Goodness...... every page made me 'wait, what? are they really doing that?' or ' grrrrr I am doing that all the time'. Like this one - offering an easy out immediately after asking for something we need.

I have literally saved this on my phone screen: "Say what you think and make your asks on the daily without offering easy outs"

Love this one as well "Find a way to make your life easier"—in the context of asking for help as a working mom.

Thank you, Emma! It felt like you dropped by for coffee and a tender-loving awakening. Every business mom needs this.
Kind regards,

PS: My only regret? I can't make it to London for your live talk (Visa woes!)

Honest. Straight to the point. Relatable

Emma is the example you need to remind yourself that coming from a poor background doesn’t mean you should stay poor

Wow, a book that keeps it 100

I knew of Emma but never fully followed her, this book was booking. Emma takes you from humble beginnings to stepping out and keeping it 100. I could have listened to her all day, I love how she doesn’t sugarcoat and gives her insight, she is honest about motherhood, family and business. Every chapter was invaluable and she made me realize I need to step it up. So basically she was the brand and the Kardashians were only figureheads

Loved it!

There’s been a lot of discourse surrounding her approach, but I can appreciate Emma’s honesty and willingness to abide by her own rules.

Becoming self made

This was a great audio. It opened my eyes to show me, that it starts with me. With how I think and perceive myself. No one is going to do it for me. I learned business strategy for my future business as. Well as taking accountability for all my actions. Thank you Emma. Being a single mom in a blue collar industry isn’t easy. Very different industry although your book makes me want better for myself and for my son. You are an inspiration. Thank you!!!