Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of toy company Melissa & Doug, on creativity and her lifelong depression

Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People

Guy Kawasaki

Documentary, Society And Culture, Management, Evangelism, Innovation, Remarkable People, Education, Society & Culture, Apple, Silicon Valley, Writing, Technology, Marketing, Guy Kawasaki, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Pitching, Social Media, Business, Macintosh, Speaking

4.6 • 667 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2021

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Meet Melissa Bernstein, half of the team behind Melissa and Doug. Melissa & Doug is a half-billion-dollar success story, its products a cheerful presence in toy stores and on children’s bedroom floors everywhere. Far less known are the real people behind the company: Melissa and Doug Bernstein, a married couple and parents of six, who are the founders, architects, and entrepreneurial force behind the company’s meteoric rise. Melissa, with her uncanny ability to understand what brings joy to children, has been the chief designer of its 5000+ playthings. But behind that genius is a truth she's rarely divulged: she has spent her life grappling with existential anxiety and depression, a condition that both fueled her creativity and brought her to the brink of self-harm. She's now on a journey to help others learn to accept themselves with her book Lifelines and community at https://www.lifelines.com/. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In my years of entrepreneurship, I've seen countless startups. And here's the truth.
0:07.3	Smart spending drives growth, which is something Brex has championed. Brex isn't just a corporate credit
0:14.0	card. It's a strategic tool to help your company achieve peak performance. Corporate cards, banking, expense management, all integrated
0:24.1	on an AI-powered platform that turns every dollar into opportunity. In fact, 30,000 companies
0:32.9	are trusting Brex to help them win. Go to brex.com slash grow to learn more.
0:48.2	I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. This episode's remarkable guest is Melissa Bernstein.
0:56.6	If you are a parent, you may have given your child a Melissa and Doug toy.
1:02.4	She's that Melissa.
1:04.5	It'd be natural for you to think that this podcast is about how she created her remarkably
1:09.2	successful toy company.
1:12.3	You'd be wrong.
1:18.9	If you want that story, I suggest listening to the excellent interview Guy Raz conducted with both Melissa and Doug in his podcast, How I Built This. By contrast, this interview is about how Melissa
1:26.6	found herself after 50 years of trials, tribulations, and silencing.
1:32.5	If you think Melissa is a good entrepreneur, wait until you hear her poetry.
1:38.3	One more thing before we get started.
1:41.2	You need to know the definition of sophomoric.
1:46.3	It means something that's juvenile. You'll to know the definition of sophomoric. It means something that's juvenile.
1:53.1	You'll hear why that definition is important in a second. This episode of Remarkable People is brought you by Remarkable, the paper tablet company. Yes, you got that right. Remarkable is sponsored by
1:59.5	Remarkable. I have version 2 in my hot little hands
2:03.3	and it's so good, a very impressive upgrade. Here's how I use it. One, taking notes while I'm
2:10.5	interviewing a podcast guest. Two, taking notes while being brief about speaking gigs. Three, drafting the
2:17.2	structure of keynote speeches.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Kawasaki, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Kawasaki and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.