Michelle Bernier

🤝 Trying to build something that last 100 years
🧡 Host @behindscenespod
📍🇻🇪 en Houston, TX

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

@amccobin @Behindscenespod Thank you Alexander!

[Alexander McCobin @amccobin]

@soymichelleber's new podcast, Behind the Scenes, is live.

Episode 1 is inside a 50-year family business in @PrincipledBus. Not a studio.

@Behindscenespod

https://t.co/FUqPHExNWR

[Swapna Kumar Panda @swapnakpanda]

This is the kind of show we actually need more of.

No surface-level fluff. Just the real systems, decisions, and near-disasters that keep companies running when no one’s watching.

Behind the Scenes is a brand-new interview podcast. Very different from usual ones.

The first episode is already out. Give it a watch. I hope you will like it.

[Behind The Scenes @Behindscenespod]

Today, we're launching Behind the Scenes.

We go inside your favorite companies and ask the questions no one else does. How do they actually operate? What systems keep it running when no one's watching? The unsexy, behind-the-scenes stuff — the processes, the decisions, the near-disasters.

Watch it now → https://t.co/EKkenzwva6

[Behind The Scenes @Behindscenespod]

Episode 1 of Behind the Scenes is out.

Erika Mandel spent 20 years avoiding her family's blinds business. Then she came back to consult. She never left.

Her take: 50-year-old family businesses don't survive on nostalgia. They survive on discipline.

Watch now: https://t.co/JKmhcMw73x

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

So excited to finally share Behind the Scenes with all of you!

https://t.co/ZUh1Sviufe

[Behind The Scenes @Behindscenespod]

Episode 1 of Behind the Scenes is out.

Erika Mandel spent 20 years avoiding her family's blinds business. Then she came back to consult. She never left.

Her take: 50-year-old family businesses don't survive on nostalgia. They survive on discipline.

Watch now: https://t.co/JKmhcMw73x

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

But two people put their trust in me anyway: Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin, and Dan Cathy, former CEO of Chick-fil-A. Those two conversations put us on the map and opened the door to every interview that followed.

What started with fear, no editing skills, and zero credibility is now out to the world.

If that's possible for me, it's possible for the people listening too. That's the whole point of the American dream. Not that success is guaranteed, but that the door is actually open if you're willing to walk through it.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

I've always wanted to build something that lasts 100 years, but I had no idea how to actually do it.

3 months ago, I decided to learn directly from the best. I started showing up in person, at the HQs of the businesses I admire most, and asking the CEOs and founders who were already there, or on their way there, for their lessons.

II came to the U.S with one conviction: that business, done right, is one of the most powerful forces for human progress. Behind the Scenes is the clearest example of anything is possible here.

First episode drops today! Subscribe here: https://t.co/H2yvEldLX2

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Then came problem #2: editing.
I didn't know how to edit a single 1-minute clip. So my husband and I taught ourselves, watching videos, studying what our favorite podcasters do.

Then came problem #3.
Every guest I emailed wanted a show with views, downloads, numbers. And I had none of that. This wasn't even a launched podcast. It was a pilot project in the earliest idea stage.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Pull Every String

A few weeks ago I was at a conference and wanted to interview one of the speakers for Behind the Scenes. I got past his handler and security to ask him directly, not once, but twice. Both times he said yes. Both times he told me to email him.

So I did. And he never replied.

Makes sense when you think about it. Full conference schedule, 3-4 talks a day, hundreds of people trying to get 5 minutes of his time. My email was probably one of a hundred sitting in his inbox.

So I asked the conference organizers for his assistant's email. Still nothing.

Then I saw him talking to someone off to the side. I walked over, got his number from that person, and 20 minutes later I had a confirmed interview.

Don't send one email and call it a no. Don't take silence as the final answer. Find another way in, then another, then another. Push until you get the result you actually want.

Who do you think it is? Drop your guess in the comments. 👇

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

3 months ago, I never would have believed this was possible.

Look at the first photo. I'm not even looking at my guest. Eyes glued to my notes, shoulders tense, so focused on getting the questions right that I forgot to actually be in the conversation.

Look at the last one. No notes. No fear on my face. Just two people talking.

That's the whole journey of Behind the Scenes in two photos. Not talent. Not luck. Just reps. Every interview I did, I got a little less scared and a little more myself.

If you're at the beginning of something and you feel like you're doing it wrong, you're probably not. You're just early.

Keep going. Keep improving. Keep getting better.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Making an Ask and Getting a Yes are two separate arts

When I first started reaching out for Behind the Scenes, I used to write these long, personalized emails. My story, why I started the podcast, the topics I wanted to cover, the in-person logistics, travel, schedule, previous guests. Everything, in one email.

There's one Shark I admire that I emailed 7 different times before I finally landed the version that worked. It was 2-3 lines long.

Here's what changed. I stopped explaining and started asking.

Line one: what I want them to do. "I'd like to interview you for Behind the Scenes."

Line two: my biggest advantage, since the podcast isn't out yet and doesn't have followers or numbers to lean on. Who I've already interviewed.

Line three: one sentence on what I'd love for them to talk about.

Then I ask: "Who on your team can I talk to next?"

Think of it like inviting someone on a first date. You don't hand them the full itinerary. You don't explain your whole life story before they've even said yes. You give them just enough to want to say yes, and you let the details come after.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

38 people said no to me. 😅

For @Behindscenespod, I reached out to 122 people to get 12 interviews recorded. That's a 30%+ rejection rate, and honestly, that number doesn't even count the 55 still sitting in outreach with no response at all.

And here's the thing nobody tells you: rejection stops hurting the moment you stop taking it personally.

Every single "no" wasn't about me. It was about timing, bandwidth, a full calendar, a policy against interviews that week. I used to read rejection as "you're not good enough." Now I read it as "not this door, try the next one."

So I just kept going. And, as a result, 12 incredible conversations were recorded that are becoming part of Season 1.

The rejection never stopped. I just stopped letting it stop me.

Season 1 of Behind the Scenes goes out August 19th.

Comment "behind" and I'll send you the link to subscribe.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Have you ever stopped to think about how a pearl is actually made?

It starts with something uncomfortable. A grain of sand. An irritant. Something that was never supposed to be there.

And the oyster does not reject it. It just keeps showing up around it. Layer by layer. Day by day.

That is the whole thing.

I was watching a documentary on Netflix this week, Stutz, directed by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Phil Stutz. And they talk a lot about a concept called String of Pearls.
The idea is simple. Every action you take is a pearl. Making your bed. Sending that email. Giving a talk in front of a room full of people.

Same size pearl.

About three months ago I started recording my own podcast. I have sat down for interview after interview, built out a whole backlog of episodes, and I have not published a single one yet.

That is the whole point.

Because here is what I was missing before. I was so focused on producing something worth publishing, worth winning with, that I kept waiting to start. And waiting meant nothing was getting made.

Now I spend one hour a day just making things. It does not matter if the episode I recorded is not as polished as someone else's show.

That is a pearl.

Because here is what we get wrong about confidence. We think it comes from being exceptional. From doing something perfectly. From waiting until we are ready.

But confidence is not built in the highlight moments.

It is built by proving to yourself every single day that you are who you say you are.

And here is the part I love most.

Every pearl has an imperfection.

Not some of them. All of them.

So if you are waiting to act until you can guarantee a perfect outcome you are going to be waiting a long time.

The necklace does not get longer by finding the perfect pearl.
It gets longer by adding one anyway.

Comment "PEARLS" if you want the link to my podcast Behind the Scenes so you can subscribe and be the first to know when the episodes drop.

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THIS!!!!! 😭

I have always wanted to build something that lasts 100 years, but I had no idea how to actually do it.

So I started showing up in person, at the HQs of the businesses I admire most, and asking their CEOs and founders the questions that never make it into the interviews you usually see. All the behind the scenes parts. The real story.

I didn't have views. I didn't have experience. I didn't have connections. I had a camera, a plane ticket, and way too much fear about doing all of this.

And somehow… they said yes.

I got to sit down with Dan Cathy, former CEO of Chick-fil-A. With Kelsey Grammer. With Richard Branson from Virgin Group. People I used to watch from the outside, and now I was sitting across from them, asking them how they actually got there.

Everything is possible if you put the work into it.

Season 1 of @behindscenespod goes out August 19.

Comment "behind" and I'll send you the link to subscribe. 🥹❤️

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Last week I sat with a hard truth: I was terrified this podcast was failing.Then I asked myself why I started @behindscenespod in the first place. The goal was not to hit a million views. Not to compete with anyone. I started it to lose my fear of doing interviews in English.

There's a question I think most people avoid: what do I actually want?Not what your parents wanted for you. Not what your teachers said success looks like. Not the ladder you started climbing before you ever stopped to ask if you wanted to be on it.

Expectations aren't the problem. The problem is where they come from. If they come from comparison or fear, they will bury you.

So ask yourself: what are you good at? What would you still choose even on a hard day? And are you doing that, or are you doing what someone else decided success should look like?

[Michelle Bernier @soymichelleber]

Sometimes life doesn’t go how you planned it.

I studied law for years. Then I moved to the U.S. and couldn’t practice. So I built something nobody gave me a title for: “Chief of Staff” at a venture firm, helping visionaries turn ideas into companies.

Three years later: became the youngest member of the Forbes Business Council, spoke at Harvard, MIT, started a podcast with the founders behind companies like Chick-fil-A and Virgin Group (More to be announced soon)

Funny how the plan you lose can lead you to the one you actually needed.

Follow along, this story’s still being written.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

The reason anyone gets insanely rich is almost always because of the stock market. It certainly how @elonmusk did.

And the reason they get rich from the stock market, is because 150m Americans decided they wanted to own shares of stocks directly, or through their retirement plans, or through other approaches as a way of building their net worth and trying to create a better life for themselves.

One Hundred Fifty Million Americans. About 60% of adults.

Effectively believing that @elonmusk and many billionaires could make them wealthier and help them achieve a better life.

If you want @elonmusk , and most billionaires to no longer be that rich, convince those 150m to sell their stocks, funds, ETFs whatever.

Of course you would wipe out the net-worth of most of those people, and everyone else’s savings, as the markets crashed and brought down the economy and created the worst depression we have ever seen.

Alternatively

There are ways to improve healthcare access and eventually make it available to all.

To start -
If you want @elonmusk and all billionaires to improve healthcare for everyone , ask them to stop doing business with the enormous healthcare conglomerates and to work directly with transparently priced care providers.

It’s the behemoth HC conglomerates that make HC so bad for so many. (Check my timeline for more detail)

Removing them would push the cost of healthcare down for everyone. Their corporate decisions impact our healthcare cost and availability.

Of course if they do that, not only would our HC costs go down , and the quality of care for their employees and the entire country go up

But

They would see their corporate cash flow increase dramatically and we would have more millionaires, billionaires and maybe even another trillionaire when that cash flow moved from the big health care conglomerates to their bottom line, so would the net worth of the 150 million American adults that own public stocks

Capitalism is better than socialism because 150m Americans can influence exactly what happens in this country.

[@jason @Jason]

Leadership is hard, but @jack is an exceptional leader — and this is being done as well and humanly as anything this difficult can be.

I’ve been a private shareholder in the company since the early days, and have never sold a share — and never plan to, as long as Jack is involved.

We’re heading into choppy waters as an economy and society, but we’ll navigate it, and tens of thousands of new startups will continue to be created through these volatile and inspiring times

This will be one of many similar announcements in the coming years

If the changes in the world impact you, my best advice is to find the two smartest people you know and form a startup

The next five years will be the greatest opportunity for entrepreneurship in the last century, by a factor. 🙏❤️🫡