Genna Rosenberg is the chief executive and founder of GennComm, a Calabasas-based toy licensing and product development firm holding six patents. With more than 30 years of experience, she consults with major intellectual property holders and manufacturers, focusing on consumer products, social impact and innovative business strategies.
“I’ve spent 30 years in the global toy industry as a storyteller and industry changemaker. I would consider myself a social impact activist. I remember that early in my career, I convinced a toy company to stop destroying excess warehouse inventory and let me find it a better home. Over 12 years, they gave me $60 million worth of toys to put in the hands of kids in need. That is the kind of impact I live for, and yet I’ve struggled to get my own projects off the ground, one of which is a podcast.
“So, my biggest mistake has been, at times, not trusting my intuition and letting negative self-talk take over.
“Connecting dots has always been one of my superpowers. I have very big ideas and see things sometimes that I think other people don’t – strategic synergies, collaborations that could be meaningful, products that could be huge. I put big things into the universe, I know the right people, my vision and enthusiasm are contagious. But then it happens. The self-doubt begins to fester. The ‘what ifs’ set in, anxiety-induced procrastination kicks in, and it becomes a cycle. My vision gets temporarily clouded by the unknowing – by not seeing every single step of the exact path forward.
“No project illustrates this more than my podcast, Play with Purpose: Conversations with Changemakers. The concept is completely me: a platform for spotlighting how everyday people and companies can leverage their resources – infrastructure, staff time, product, scale – to drive real social impact. I’ve lived this thesis. I’ve seen how Walmart mobilized faster than FEMA did after Hurricane Katrina because of its infrastructure. I know that if you’re a builder, you can create homes for people who are homeless. If you’re Colgate, you can provide toothpaste for unhoused communities. The show practically writes itself.”
Except it didn’t. Not for a long time.
“There were so many directions I could go. I started a Google Doc, kept coming back to the idea of ‘conversations with changemakers,’ but I was squirreling myself – too many ideas, not landing on any one of them. And then the personal stuff crept in. I have a million Post-it notes everywhere. I start a million projects. My brain moves really fast.
“And I’ve since learned there’s a name for what stops me cold: task paralysis. I can have a business agreement sitting in my inbox – we’re going to get paid the moment I sign it – and I just cannot open it. I think about it constantly. I feel bad about it. But I can’t touch it until the dopamine kicks in.
“But here’s what I’ve learned: if you can name it, you can push through it. I’ve been doing the work – vision boards, breathwork, podcasts about manifesting, learning to hack my own thinking. And I made a decision: I’m done playing small. I’m done with the ‘not enough-ness.’
“So I said it out loud on my socials. Play with Purpose is launching this fall. The response has been incredible – people writing the kindest things, the positivity flowing right back to me. My intuition has been spot-on, time and again. It’s not just a hunch. It’s 30 years of expertise. And it’s finally time to use it.”
