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What does it take to stay true to your vision when the world keeps pulling you toward the next big trend? How do entrepreneurs build meaningful lives while building businesses that are constantly evolving? Which three aspects are the most important for the recipe of entrepreneurial success?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks with the Melissa & Doug Founder, Melissa Bernstein, on entrepreneurship and meaning.
Podcast Sponsor: Headway
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Meet Melissa Bernstein
Melissa Bernstein is a visionary entrepreneur and creative force best known as the co-founder of Melissa & Doug, the beloved toy company she built from her basement alongside her husband.
Today, Melissa channels her passion into her second act: she’s the driving spirit behind LifeLines, a wellness brand and digital community dedicated to mental-health support, self-acceptance, and meaning.
Her honest memoir, LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light, explores her decades-long struggle with existential depression and anxiety — and how she transformed that inner turmoil into tools for healing.
Melissa is also deeply involved with Duke University (her alma mater), where she mentors young entrepreneurs through the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program.
Connect with Melissa on Instagram.
In This Podcast
- Maintaining a core audience while changing products
- Running a business with your spouse
- Habits that nurture a meaningful life
- The entrepreneurial recipe
- Melissa’s advice to private practitioners
Maintaining a core audience while changing products
Melissa & Doug’s company has undergone numerous iterations, from puzzles to wooden toys to true-to-life animal plushies.
They have continued innovating and moving forward in every sense, constantly building on their creativity and not allowing themselves to be cast into one category, no matter how challenging it was to keep striding forward.
Through it all, they have built their evolving business around their core customers and principles: families and creative play.
The reason we succeeded is because we never lost sight of our core tenets, and the things that were most important to us, and basically, with Melissa & Doug, it was [to] take dull, lackluster, boring categories and turn them on their heads! And inject them with pazzaz, and make them fun, engaging, and fresh for a new generation. (Melissa Bernstein)
By keeping their vision clear and their pricing affordable, with their goals at hand, they have been able to keep going ahead through decades without falling short.
We call it the “squirrel-chasing-the-acorn phenomenon”, where people start to get enamoured with these acorns all over, and they go all over in search of the next greatest thing – that never happened with us, because we held so firm to what was unique, special, and different, and [we went] to the place where nobody else wanted to go. All our peers were chasing trends … And we never were victims of that. (Melissa Bernstein)
Running a business with your spouse
Working closely with your spouse in business is a challenge, but also a great privilege. Either way, it requires a strong commitment to the shared goal, a robust communication skillset, and learning how to trust each other to do what needs to get done.
Additionally, it helps tremendously for you both to work together while playing to your strengths. Divide up the tasks in a way that allows each person to shine.
It’s very important, if you have a business partner, that your duties are in what I call, “Different areas of the pie” … Doug and I, just by luck or karma, we happen to each be the two halves of the pie, the opposite halves, and what he’s really good at and passionate about are not the things I’m passionate about or good at. (Meliss Bernstein)
Working as two halves of the same whole meant that Melissa and Doug were able to run alongside each other towards their shared goal while working on their different tasks, instead of bumping into each other while trying to complete the same tasks.
Habits that nurture a meaningful life
Melissa has followed Viktor Frankl’s lead when it comes to building a meaningful life, and she works with three tenets he has inspired:
1 – What you give to the world
2 – What you take from the world
Can you squeeze all the juice that there is to squeeze out of life? Can you appreciate and enjoy being with others, building relationships, friendships, food, culture, art, music, nature … And being grounded and present enough to take joy in whatever’s around you? That’s become very meaningful for me. (Melissa Bernstein)
3 – Your mindset toward unalterable circumstances in your life, and approaching anything that happens to you with the mindset that “There is meaning in everything.” You can practice this step by changing the narrative of:
- Why is this happening to me?
To:
- Why is this happening for me?
The entrepreneurial recipe
One of the biggest slipups that Melissa sees entrepreneurs making is going too fast. The trick is to go slow to go fast.
Humans have what we call a “rush mentality.” So, we are focused on the goal and not the process, and we want to race to a finish line, and entrepreneurship takes tremendous patience … I say it takes patience, passion, and purpose. (Melissa Bernstein)
Melissa’s three-piece recipe for successful entrepreneurship is:
- Patience
- Passion
- Purpose
If any of these pieces are missing, the whole structure is weak and threatens to fall apart.
Melissa’s advice to private practitioners
Anxiety is being overly pathologized. Anxiety is endemic to being human. However, in the world today, anxiety is at an all-time high because the world is unstable and erratic.
So, Melissa explains that while anxiety is part of being human, we just need to teach tools to manage it, rather than trying to eradicate it, which would be impossible.
We can use tools through our senses [for example], to create our own holistic well-being practice and manage the anxiety that is part of being human, and if we can develop those practices earlier and earlier, we will go through life much more content, grounded, and able to really find joy. (Melissa Bernstein)
Books mentioned in this episode:
Melissa Bernstein – The Heart of Entrepreneurship: Crafting Your Authentic Recipe for Success
Melissa Bernstein – LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light
Rick Rubin – The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Michael Alan Singer – The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
Sponsors Mentioned in this Episode:
You can try it free—and get 50% off your first two months with code JOE at JotPsych.com/Joe.
Curious how Headway can work for you?
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Visit Melissa & Doug Toys and Lifelines
- Connect with Melissa on Instagram.
- Check out our Practice Academy!
- Sign Up to the Group Practice Boss Conference!
Check out these additional resources:
GPBC25 Series: Want a 7-Figure Practice? Take Insurance with Melissa Schneider | POP 1302
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Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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