Success Requires Letting Go of People’s Expectations of You (Jackie Aina)
6/2/20261 hr 7 min
Jackie Aina has been building in public for 17 years. She didn't just grow an audience, she helped define what it meant to be a Black woman with a voice in the beauty industry. But influence was never the end goal. After nearly two decades as one of YouTube's most recognized creators, Jackie took $250,000 of her own money and started a fragrance brand. Not a makeup line — a fragrance brand. Her childhood dream. The first thing she ever did that nobody asked for. In this conversation, Jackie sits down with Emma to talk about what it really takes to go from influencer to founder and why the two have almost nothing in common. Jackie shares: Why six million followers doesn't mean six million in revenue — and what creators get wrong about turning an audience into a business How she self-funded Forvr Mood with $250K, sold out six months of inventory in four hours, and nearly had a breakdown closing the laptop The vendor relationship that looked like a smart start and took over a year to untangle What she had to unlearn about being "the strong one" — and why doing everything is actually a disservice to everyone around you Why she deliberately didn't build a makeup brand, and what it meant to finally do something just for herself What's something you've outgrown — even if other people still expect that version of you? Drop it in the comments. And subscribe to Aspire with Emma Grede so you don't miss what's next. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsEmma Grede· Host0:01
I am so excited to share my debut book with you all, Start With Yourself, which is available now. You might have seen the headlines, you might have seen the social, but this book is exactly what I intended, a conversation that will make you think, and it's a blueprint for anyone who wants success without the toxic positivity. Start With Yourself is about self-leadership because wherever I go, women ask me how I got to where I am. But what you really wanna know is how you can get there, so I'm doing what I do best, sharing and never gatekeeping what's worked for me in the hope that you can borrow from a philosophy that has served me so well. The truth is, I'm not an expert. I've just lived it. I've made the mistakes, I've had the failures, and I've learned what actually works. It takes a lot. It takes the most, and this book is for anyone who's tired of feeling like a passenger in their own life. It's about taking responsibility for your thinking, managing your emotions, and getting clear on your ideas, and then knowing your next step. It's about picking yourself up after failure, being accountable, but also forgiving yourself, pushing for wins, and never, ever apologizing for your ambition. It's also about challenging the rules that you've been told. There is no perfect time. Balance isn't the goal. Alignment is, and there's nothing wrong with you wanting more. I'm precisely sure that the reason I've been so successful is so I can share it with you. Start With Yourself, my debut book, is available now. Visit emmagrewe.com to purchase the book. Also available