Problem Solvers

How Melissa & Doug Fight Fakes, Dupes and Copycats

Melissa Bernstein co-founded Melissa & Doug and built it into a billion-dollar children's toy company. Along the way, she learned a lot about entrepreneurship, which she shares in her new book The Heart of Entrepreneurship. Today, for the first time publicly, she shares the three-part strategy she used to fight back and what happened the moment new ownership stopped following it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Science of Knowing When to Walk Away

Every entrepreneur has been told to push through, stay the course, and that grit is everything. But advice like that leaves out that some of the smartest, most successful people in business got there by quitting at exactly the right moment. So how do you know when that moment is? Dr. Anthony Klotz, organizational psychologist and author of Jolted, has spent years studying exactly this question. He joins the show to share his framework for figuring out whether you should stay and fight harder, or finally walk away Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Smith Makes Movies. But Something Else Made Him Famous.

Kevin Smith went from making art to being the art and learned the hard way that when you become the product, there's no off switch. In this episode, Smith breaks down how he's stayed relevant for 30 years by treating fans like the bosses they actually are. Plus: Jason shares how he once convinced his college to spend their full year's speaker budget just to get Kevin Smith on campus and what happened when they talked afterward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Engineer the Perfect Product Market Fit

Joey Zwillinger, the founder of Allbirds and Biologica, sat down with Jason to talk about the challenges of finding your ideal customer. Joey's done it both ways. Starting with a product and searching for the right people to buy it, and starting with a problem and building the solution. In this conversation, he breaks down what actually works when you're hunting for product-market fit, and what to do when your customers surprise you (because they will). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I Hate Meetings. This Expert Showed Me Why I'm Part of the Problem

Nobody likes meetings. But there’s a good reason for that. Organizational behavior expert Dr. Rebecca Hinds, author of the new book Your Best Meeting Ever, explains why most meetings are a massive waste of time and what to do about it. She shares a simple test to determine if a meeting actually deserves to be on your calendar. Plus, Jason also discovers something uncomfortable about his own approach to meetings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices