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The Joan Barnes Interview:

Anxiety, Bulimia & Recovery on the Road to the IPO

 

Joan Barnes founded Gymboree in 1976 with only $3,000, and grew it into one of the most recognizable brands for mothers and children. While many knew Joan as an ambitious, creative entrepreneur, she describes in this intimate interview the anxiety, eating disorder and exercise addiction that no one knew took her to rock bottom. Hear how she overcame these personal struggles and reinvented herself and her career.

 

You can learn even more about Joan's journey, and how she aligned her inner life with her outward success, in her recently published book, "Play It Forward."

 

“I kept thinking that with a little more outer success, maybe this hole I felt inside me would catch up. It was very backwards thinking.”

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Notable Revelations in the Interview

 

“Every entrepreneur feels like an imposter at some point.”

 

“The Board was having a love affair with me.”

 

“I kept thinking that with a little more outer success, maybe this hole I felt inside me would catch up. It was very backwards thinking.”

 

“I had an eating disorder that would come very front forward when I couldn’t manage the pressure.”

 

“Everybody was in the pretend mode.”

 

“I was a lone outpost as the CEO. There was a famine of connection and community.”

 

“Of course I wanted to tell people, but what would they think? I wasn’t in business. I was the business.”

 

“There was a time when things with the business and my family were great, and I knew if I stopped here I could have a balanced life. But I was too hungry for more. I liken it to a love affair: you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you’re going to take your chances.”

 

“When we went into retail, because the franchise business wasn’t going to meet the needs of the venture capitalists, I was in over my head and had to let go of my origin team. I didn’t have the tools to walk away and my eating disorder exacerbated.”

 

“I was putting everything in front of my family.”

“Never never never did I ever consider being one of the companies that the venture capitalists would write down. Now I knew well that more than half of them did go down, it’s very common. But not on my watch.”

 

“The rock bottom for me was I had an exercise addiction. I ended up in a Red Cross tent with a beat up body and a beat up mind. I had become a competitive mountain biker and been pulled off the course. It was in that moment that I knew: game over. I was 43, heartbroken and lost.”

 

“I went off to a treatment center, and three years later I did return. I had no home, no marriage, empty nester, and no job. It was a far cry from the woman peering out at me from the cover of People magazine four years before.”

 

“To tell you the truth, my recovery is the proudest moment of my life.”

 

“About the IPO, you would’ve thought this is the entpreneur’s dream! Fifteen years of devotion and drive, and now I’m in a treatment center. But I assessed inside of me: ah yeah, that would’ve been great to celebrate the IPO with my origin team, but good for Gymboree and good for me that I was able to help grow the company to get to that point. I have no regrets.”

 

“I am so excited about the next iteration of my life.”

 

“I hope that viewers are in the side car with me. The idea that we all have inversions, blind curves, skillful decisions we’ve made, and more trouble, will help us realize that we all are really the same.”

 

“I have found that it is in our vulnerability that we become connected to one another.”

“There was a time when things with the business and my family were great, and I knew if I stopped here I could have a balanced life. But I was too hungry for more. I liken it to a love affair: you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you’re going to take your chances.”

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Notable Revelations in the Interview

 

“Every entrepreneur feels like an imposter at some point.”

 

“The Board was having a love affair with me.”

 

“I kept thinking that with a little more outer success, maybe this hole I felt inside me would catch up. It was very backwards thinking.”

 

“I had an eating disorder that would come very front forward when I couldn’t manage the pressure.”

 

“Everybody was in the pretend mode.”

 

“I was a lone outpost as the CEO. There was a famine of connection and community.”

 

“Of course I wanted to tell people, but what would they think? I wasn’t in business. I was the business.”

 

“There was a time when things with the business and my family were great, and I knew if I stopped here I could have a balanced life. But I was too hungry for more. I liken it to a love affair: you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you’re going to take your chances.”

 

“When we went into retail, because the franchise business wasn’t going to meet the needs of the venture capitalists, I was in over my head and had to let go of my origin team. I didn’t have the tools to walk away and my eating disorder exacerbated.”

 

“I was putting everything in front of my family.”

 

“Never never never did I ever consider being one of the companies that the venture capitalists would write down. Now I knew well that more than half of them did go down, it’s very common. But not on my watch.”

 

“The rock bottom for me was I had an exercise addiction. I ended up in a Red Cross tent with a beat up body and a beat up mind. I had become a competitive mountain biker and been pulled off the course. It was in that moment that I knew: game over. I was 43, heartbroken and lost.”

 

“I went off to a treatment center, and three years later I did return. I had no home, no marriage, empty nester, and no job. It was a far cry from the woman peering out at me from the cover of People magazine four years before.”

 

“To tell you the truth, my recovery is the proudest moment of my life.”

 

“About the IPO, you would’ve thought this is the entpreneur’s dream! Fifteen years of devotion and drive, and now I’m in a treatment center. But I assessed inside of me: ah yeah, that would’ve been great to celebrate the IPO with my origin team, but good for Gymboree and good for me that I was able to help grow the company to get to that point. I have no regrets.”

 

“I am so excited about the next iteration of my life.”

 

“I hope that viewers are in the side car with me. The idea that we all have inversions, blind curves, skillful decisions we’ve made, and more trouble, will help us realize that we all are really the same.”

 

“I have found that it is in our vulnerability that we become connected to one another.”

radical transparency

from the best in business

The Joan Barnes Interview:

Anxiety, Bulimia & Recovery on the Road to the IPO

 

Joan Barnes founded Gymboree in 1976 with only $3,000, and grew it into one of the most recognizable brands for mothers and children. While many knew Joan as an ambitious, creative entrepreneur, she describes in this intimate interview the anxiety, eating disorder and exercise addiction that no one knew took her to rock bottom. Hear how she overcame these personal struggles and reinvented herself and her career.

 

You can learn even more about Joan's journey, and how she aligned her inner life with her outward success, in her recently published book, "Play It Forward."

“I kept thinking that with a little more outer success, maybe this hole I felt inside me would catch up. It was very backwards thinking.”

Notable Revelations in the Interview

 

“Every entrepreneur feels like an imposter at some point.”

 

“The Board was having a love affair with me.”

 

“I kept thinking that with a little more outer success, maybe this hole I felt inside me would catch up. It was very backwards thinking.”

 

“I had an eating disorder that would come very front forward when I couldn’t manage the pressure.”

 

“Everybody was in the pretend mode.”

 

“I was a lone outpost as the CEO. There was a famine of connection and community.”

 

“Of course I wanted to tell people, but what would they think? I wasn’t in business. I was the business.”

 

“There was a time when things with the business and my family were great, and I knew if I stopped here I could have a balanced life. But I was too hungry for more. I liken it to a love affair: you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you’re going to take your chances.”

 

“When we went into retail, because the franchise business wasn’t going to meet the needs of the venture capitalists, I was in over my head and had to let go of my origin team. I didn’t have the tools to walk away and my eating disorder exacerbated.”

 

“I was putting everything in front of my family.”

 

“Never never never did I ever consider being one of the companies that the venture capitalists would write down. Now I knew well that more than half of them did go down, it’s very common. But not on my watch.”

 

“The rock bottom for me was I had an exercise addiction. I ended up in a Red Cross tent with a beat up body and a beat up mind. I had become a competitive mountain biker and been pulled off the course. It was in that moment that I knew: game over. I was 43, heartbroken and lost.”

 

“I went off to a treatment center, and three years later I did return. I had no home, no marriage, empty nester, and no job. It was a far cry from the woman peering out at me from the cover of People magazine four years before.”

 

“To tell you the truth, my recovery is the proudest moment of my life.”

 

“About the IPO, you would’ve thought this is the entpreneur’s dream! Fifteen years of devotion and drive, and now I’m in a treatment center. But I assessed inside of me: ah yeah, that would’ve been great to celebrate the IPO with my origin team, but good for Gymboree and good for me that I was able to help grow the company to get to that point. I have no regrets.”

 

“I am so excited about the next iteration of my life.”

 

“I hope that viewers are in the side car with me. The idea that we all have inversions, blind curves, skillful decisions we’ve made, and more trouble, will help us realize that we all are really the same.”

 

“I have found that it is in our vulnerability that we become connected to one another.”

“There was a time when things with the business and my family were great, and I knew if I stopped here I could have a balanced life. But I was too hungry for more. I liken it to a love affair: you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you’re going to take your chances.”