Melissa Bernstein is the co-founder of Melissa & Doug, where she has designed nearly 10,000 toys and created a $500 million dollar company. In this conversation, we talk about the importance of failure in the creative process and what it means to live and create with authenticity. She also gets very honest about mental health and why her new book has been the most incredible creative experience of her life. The book is called: LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light.
You can listen to the podcast by clicking ‘play’ below, or in the following places:
You can find Melissa in the following places:
lifelines.com
Her book: LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light
Twitter: @seeklifelines
Instagram: @seeklifelines
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Skeme Richards has not only found a way to grow his creativity and audience, but fill his life with what inspires him. As a DJ and collector, he has found a way to infuse everything part of his life with the art, culture, and people he appreciates most. We discuss why he chose to not make his creative passion his day job, how his work as a DJ grew globally over the years, and how he has embraced the web to fill his life with like-minded people and share his music in new ways. 
Today I talk with KJ Dell’Antonia about the huge creative shift she made from writing nonfiction to fiction. We take a behind the scenes look at her book launch, which she and I began working together on it months before release. She shares specifics of what she did, and how her novel, The Chicken Sisters, came to be picked by Reese Witherspoon’s book club, become an Indie Next List pick, and land on the New York Times bestseller list. 
In today’s episode, Anthony Trucks takes us through his story of reaching the pinnacle of his dream — joining the NFL — only to having that dream crash down around him. But then, he found alignment: The clarity, the drive, the balance that so many of us desire. I loved this advice from Anthony in our chat; that to get what you want, “you have to go past logic.” You can find Anthony at https://anthonytrucks.com. His new book, Identity Shift: Upgrade How You Operate to Elevate Your Life comes out in August.
Growing up in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Amanda Stern met Shel Silverstein when she was 12, lived on the same block and Bob Dylan, and described it as: “the whole village was like a stage, and everyone was in a show.” We explore her success as a writer with 9 children’s books, 2 young adult books, a novel, and a memoir, and the value of being a part of a creative community. She says: “Making connections and building community is one of the best ways to generate ideas and come up with new projects.”