What's Your Backstory?: GhostBed's Marc Werner

Summary

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Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: The Dr. Laura Podcast
Episode: What's Your Backstory?: GhostBed's Marc Werner
Date: May 4, 2026
Host: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Guest: Marc Werner, CEO of GhostBed

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Overview

This episode of The Dr. Laura Podcast features Marc Werner, CEO and founder of GhostBed. Part of Dr. Laura’s “What’s Your Backstory?” series, the conversation explores Marc’s journey from growing up in the Werner family (of Werner Ladders fame) to creating and expanding GhostBed, a family-run mattress company. Dr. Laura and Marc discuss his inspiration for starting the company, the role of family in business, product innovations, and the motivations behind his entrepreneurial decisions. The episode is a blend of personal narrative, business philosophy, and practical advice for listeners interested in entrepreneurship, family business, and wellness.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Family Roots and Invention Legacy

• The Werner Ladder Story

  • Marc grew up in an entrepreneurial family:
    • “My grandfather started [Werner Ladder] over 100 years ago. My dad invented the aluminum ladder and the fiberglass ladder.” (Marc, 02:22)
  • The original business was a “glorified lemonade stand” to support eleven siblings, showing humble beginnings and a drive for practical innovation.

• Transferring Skills and Values

  • Marc worked as his father’s “little lab assistant,” learning about polymers and invention.
    • “I ended up making memory foam type pillows, mattresses, etc. And that's a comfort polymer. So I took that learning and transferred it over to the mattress and comfort side…” (Marc, 03:28)
  • After the family sold Werner Ladder, Marc was motivated to start his own family business to re-create the binding force and teamwork of a shared enterprise.

2. Personal Motivation and Health Challenges

• From Necessity to Innovation
  • Marc suffered from three neck surgeries, leading to chronic discomfort. Unable to find suitable sleep products, he leveraged his knowledge:
    • “I couldn’t find a pillow or a mattress that really worked for my situation. So I decided, I love this memory foam...let's just make my own.” (Marc, 04:32)

3. Building GhostBed

• Mission and Family Business

  • GhostBed was founded with his wife and children as a classic family business, now employing two out of his three children full-time.
  • Emphasis on treating all employees like family:
    • “All of our people that work here, we consider family. We treat everyone like family, and we just like that environment. And that's kind of our ethos, who we really are.” (Marc, 04:55)

• Dealing with Family Dynamics in Business

  • Dr. Laura probes the stereotype of family business skirmishes. Marc describes his upbringing in a polite, conflict-free family, learning only later that disagreements are normal:
    • “I called my mother, I said, ‘Yeah, I think I’m getting divorced.’…She goes, ‘No, no. Married people argue, Mark. You just never saw it in your life.’” (Marc, 05:31)
  • Marc approaches conflict calmly, focusing on understanding the issue and de-escalating tensions.

4. Product Development and Innovation

• Designing for Real Needs

  • Focused on cooling technology for sleep comfort and recovery:
    • “Sleeping cool is…a better thing to do. I focused from day one on cooling technologies…pillows, our sheets.” (Marc, 09:46)
  • Developed unique products, such as gel memory foam pillows and innovative sheets with extra-strong elastic bands.
    • “On our fitted sheet…we have a 2-inch elastic band that goes around the sheet.” (Marc, 11:01)

• Quality and Customer Experience

  • Marc regularly uses and tests products himself.
  • Products are developed to minimize common annoyances—like fitted sheets popping off or mattresses retaining too much heat.

• Return Policy and Charitable Giving

  • GhostBed’s return policy gives customers 101 nights to try their mattress. If it’s not a fit, products are picked up and nearly always donated:
    • “95% of the time it’s going to some charitable organization across the whole country.” (Marc, 12:13)

5. Branding and The "GhostBed" Name

• Origin of the Name
  • As a child, Marc feared ghosts under his bed—when relaying this to his sales manager, they realized “GhostBed” would be a memorable, fun, and approachable brand:
    • “...I really love it because it’s easy to remember...it's fun.” (Marc, 13:08)

6. Continuous Innovation

• Upcoming Products
  • Marc teases a soon-to-launch anti-snore product (June 2026), featuring an automatic adjustment to reduce snoring by modifying sleep position:
    • “It’s going to help if you snore. It’s going to have an automatic anti-snore feature.” (Marc, 14:13)
  • Discusses the problem of “sleep divorce” and the importance of split mattresses that meet both partners’ needs (massage features, separate customization).
• Massage Mattress Invention
  • Developed a massage mattress inspired by his father’s struggles falling back asleep at night:
    • “I invented this massage mattress...all the attributes of...massage chairs...but it’s a horizontal platform, really very comfortable.” (Marc, 17:09)

7. Family and Legacy

• Marc’s Children and Family Involvement

  • Two out of three children work for GhostBed; Marc emphasizes the importance of happiness and autonomy in his kids’ career choices.
  • Grandchildren are present in his life, a further testament to family continuity.

• Workplace Culture

  • Marc believes his non-confrontational, family-first approach is reflected in employee loyalty and low turnover:
    • “I try to be a full-time gentleman and always very nice and I try to make everyone, you know, happy. And so that's kind of the environment here.” (Marc, 16:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Family Business Roots and Perspective:

  • “Family business, to me is very important. It's a binder to keep you together. You work all day, have dinner tonight, you know, at night. So it keeps your family together over generations.” (Marc, 04:00)

• On Product Quality—Sheets:

  • “Every morning I wake up, it's like Groundhog Day. I say the same thing every day. Greatest stuff. And I'm so proud of it.” (Marc, 11:04)

• On Proactive Problem-Solving:

  • “Through the years, I’ve just kind of saw a problem and solved it.” (Marc, 04:37)

• On Return Policy:

  • “We pick it up, and 95% of the time, it's going to some charitable organization across the whole country.” (Marc, 12:17)

• On Anti-Snore Product:

  • “If it kind of lifts you up a little bit, it will kind of open that passageway and you’ll stop snoring. So you don’t have to get the elbow from the partner or the flying pillow…” (Marc, 14:13)

• On Workplace Culture:

  • “I try to be a full-time gentleman and always very nice and I try to make everyone, you know, happy. And so that's kind of the environment here. And we don’t have a lot of turnover.” (Marc, 16:31)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:58] Introduction of Marc Werner, GhostBed’s origin story
• [03:28] Transfer of polymer knowledge and invention in the Werner family
• [04:32] Personal motivation: Neck surgeries lead to mattress innovation
• [05:31] Navigating family business dynamics and learning about conflict
• [09:46] Product innovation: Cooling technology in sleep products
• [11:01] Sheet design and attention to customer experience
• [12:13] Return policy and charitable donations
• [13:08] Origin of the "GhostBed" name
• [14:13] Sneak peek: New anti-snore product coming June 2026
• [17:09] Massage mattress invention
• [16:31] Workplace culture and Marc’s role as a leader

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Conclusion

Dr. Laura closes the conversation by praising Marc for his commitment to family and innovation, noting the additional value brought to GhostBed products by the character and story behind them. Marc offers an exclusive discount to Dr. Laura listeners and reiterates his focus on happiness—both for his family and his employees. The episode is an uplifting exploration of how personal challenges, family legacy, and inventive thinking can create a successful and meaningful business.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

All right, I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and this is part of our series on a. What's your backstory? I mean, it's interesting the things that people do in their lives, you know, and they have successful companies and what have you. But the real interesting part is, is how do they get from zero to there? And today we're talking to Mark Werner. Hi, Mark.

[Mark Werner]

Hi, Dr. Laura.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

He is CEO of Ghostbed, and we're going to find out why the bed is called a Ghostbed. But you know, a lot of people, a lot of companies, oh my gosh, mattress companies. There are a million of them. But yours started out with a mission.

[Mark Werner]

Ours started out with a mission. Definitely.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Tell us that.

[Mark Werner]

Well, going way back, I was fortunate to be born into the Werner ladder family. So my grandfather started that over 100 years ago. And then my dad invented the aluminum ladder and the fiberglass ladder.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Whoa.

[Mark Werner]

You might have heard of a werner ladder, about 85% market share. So there's quite a few of them out there. But when they started it, when my grandpa started it, who was a lieutenant colonel in World War I and World War II, he just started with a mission statement of making dinner money for his 11 brothers. And sisters, you know, it's very simple. It was a glorified lemonade stand, just, you know, just dirt poor, just trying to do something to make kind of dinner money. It was just kind of brick by brick, and then they built that up. But they were all inventors and engineers, and that's kind of been the history of my family for multiple generations. So when my dad invented the fiberglass ladder, I was his little lab assistant when I was a little guy growing up through the years. So I learned a lot about polymer technology and then joined the business. I then was the fiberglass manager working in there. So what I learned was that that's what we call a structural polymer to make the fiberglass ladder. And I ended up making memory foam type pillows, mattresses, et cetera. And that's a comfort polymer. So I took that learning and transfer over to the mattress and comfort side and then filling that out. I started this business with my wife because I wanted a family business. I came from a family business, and family business, to me is very important. It's a binder to keep you together. You work all day, have dinner tonight, you know, at night. So it keeps your family together over generations. So I kind of missed that when we ended up selling the Werner company 25 plus years ago. So I started ghostbed with my wife and my kids. They were a little younger at the time, but two of my three kids work full time here, and we're super excited about that. But the reason I got into mattresses, because I didn't really know anything about mattresses 25 years ago, other than I slept on one, is that I've had three neck surgeries. So I've got all this titanium metal screws and rods fused together and very uncomfortable. And it gets worse and worse as I get older. So I couldn't find a pillow or a mattress that really worked for my situation. So I decided just, I love this memory foam, which was a new type of material. So I said, let's just make my own, because through the years, I've just kind of saw a problem and solved it. So that's kind of how I got into the mattress business. And now we're going 25 years, we're in multiple countries, the US, Canada, the UK, Puerto Rico, soon to be Mexico. So we've expanded, but we're still a family business. And all of our people that work here, we consider family. We treat everyone like family, and we just like that environment. And that's kind of our ethos, who we really are.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Well, families have Skirmishes. So how do you. How do you folks deal with the. I did that on time. No, you didn't. How do you folks deal with that when you're mixing family and business?

[Mark Werner]

I was very fortunate in the Werner ladder business that everything was handled in a very professional manner and a very polite manner. And there really wasn't the arguments. I mean, believe it or not, my mother's now deceased, but my parents would have been going on. My dad's still here at 95, going on 65, 70 years of marriage. They never had one fight. So in all my years growing up, you might find this hard to believe, especially in your profession. They never had an argument. So I didn't know anything about know arguing in that sense. And it was very low key. In fact, the first time my wife, when I was first married, 40 plus years ago, I mean, I'm still married. Was that she. She got angry at me for something. I called my mother. I said, yeah, I think I'm getting divorced. And said, why? I said, well, Donna's, you know, upset with me about something. I don't even know what it is. She goes, no, no. Married people argue, Mark. You just never saw it in your life. But that's normal. You never saw it. I'm like, okay, good, because I didn't want to get divorced because she's upset with me, and I was just too naive to even know. But, you know, I'm not embarrassed to admit it.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

So how did you make her feel better when she was mad? How did we resolve that?

[Mark Werner]

I just tried to find out what the problem was, and I was just very low key about it, like I am today. I'm not a confrontational person. So I find out what the issue is, and I just let it kind of relax a little bit, and it comes back to normal.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Good. Excellent.

[Mark Werner]

Now, three kids and five grandkids later. Wow.

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[Mark Werner]

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

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[Mark Werner]

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[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Now. When your neck got messed up, how do you know that? The kind of pillow or mattress you're making, it may be good for you, but you're selling zillions of them with the notion that it's for repair restoration. How do you know that it covers all those different necks?

[Mark Werner]

Well, couple answers on that. So for my neck surgery, we have several pillows, but the first one I made that I patented is our gel memory foam pillow. So I made it with enough support and comfort that I knew it worked for me. And so I figured it would probably work for at least 50% of the country. And it's turned out that's correct. But I also know the second ingredient is most people like myself, sleep warm no matter what and so sleeping cool is a really important attribute. And being able to sleep cool puts you in a better rest and a better REM sleep. So it's a better thing to do that. So I focused from day one on cooling technologies. Unfortunately, I've gotten several patents on it. And it's been part of our ghostbed story is everything we're doing is cooling the pillows, our sheets. I make our sheets with Tencel, which comes from the eucalyptus tree and long staple cotton from California. It's made on three or four different continents. It takes almost six months from start to finish. And you wake up every morning. I wake up and I say to my wife, these are the greatest sheets in the world. I mean, I made them and I invented them and they're fantastic. And we take everything about quality from the quality of the materials on our fitted sheet. Dr. Laura, we have a 2 inch elastic band that goes around the sheet.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Why didn't I know you make sheets?

[Mark Werner]

I didn't know that they're the greatest sheets in the world. I mean, every morning I wake up, it's like Groundhog day. I say the same thing every day. Greatest stuff. And I'm so proud of it. And so with that 2 inch elastic band on the fitted sheet, they never pop off. So you never have that argument with your partner. Like, the fitted sheet came off, you go pick up the heavy mattress and put it back on. Doesn't happen with ghostbed sheets. Doesn't happen with our sheets. We, we have the same thing on our mattress protector, which makes no noise, it's cool, it's waterproof and stays fitted on. And even our memory foam toppers, which are unique, we have a great cover for that also with that 2 inch elastic band so it stays in place. We try to think of everything for the customer so they're really happy and they never have to think about it.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

May I ask you offer that you use it, you don't like it, send it back to us. How the heck do you get that into an envelope and send it back to you?

[Mark Werner]

Well, that's kind of tricky. It comes compressed as, you know.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Yes, I uncompressed it and turned into a mattress.

[Mark Werner]

Like those toys in the bathtub when you were a kid, sponges. So what we do is we give you 101 nights to try it out. So over three months to try it in your own environment. Hopefully most people take the Mark's mattress quiz. So they kind of size up their with the type of mattress that they need and that we offer. So that takes care of A lot of the problem, but for the people that it doesn't work out, what we do is we pick it up and we pick it up, and 95% of the time it's going to some charitable organization across the whole country. We have a server.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

I was just wondering how I would ever jam that back into a Wheaties box.

[Mark Werner]

Yeah, okay, you can figure that out, let me know. I mean, I know how to do it, but you need a big machine that cost a lot of money.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Yes, exactly. I'm not going to send it back to you if I first have to get a machine, but I love the mattress, so it's not happening. Now, where the heck did you get a name like Ghostbed? I mean, really.

[Mark Werner]

So when I was a kid, I was afraid that there were ghosts under my bed. So when we were first starting, I was talking to my sales manager and I was telling him the story and he said, you know, that would be a great name for the brand. And I'm like, okay. And I really love it because it's easy to remember, it's certainly easy to spell. It gives you an idea of the product category and it's fun. And we've got the little ghost guy in the home. So we can have them with a top hat on for New Year's or just all throughout the seasons and play around with it. And it's just a fun type of a name and it works well.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

So you've been evolving and developing this for about a quarter of a century, but you seem young enough that the brain is still working really good. So are you coming up with any new stuff and invention?

[Mark Werner]

I am. I'm coming up with a very big product that I've been working on for 10 years that's very important that I've got multiple. I have multiple patents issued on it already.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Hint. What part of my body would I use it for?

[Mark Werner]

Well, it's going to be help if you snore. It's going to have an automatic anti snore feature. So for most of the people that snore, it's not deviated septums, it's just passageway. So if it kind of lifts you up a little bit, it will kind of open that passageway and you'll stop snoring. So you don't have to get the elbow from the partner or the flying pillow or any of those kinds of things.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

I used to do that a lot

[Mark Werner]

and I'm super excited. Right. It's such a common problem. In fact, there's something called like sleep divorce because 20% of the country sleep in separate rooms because of snoring issue or I like a different mattress. It's another thing with Ghostbed. You do the split King. You can pick the mattress you want you at the height and massage features and things that you want. So we lean into that Split King. But yeah. So this new product comes out in about June. We're very excited about it. Long time in the making. I know it's going to make a lot of people happy and.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Excellent.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Yes, excellent. Well, I'll be able to refer now when people call how she put me in the other room and now we don't cuddle.

[Mark Werner]

Yeah, no problem. We've got that. Oh,

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

how many kids do you have?

[Narrator/Announcer]

How old are they?

[Mark Werner]

So I've got a daughter turning 40 who's worked for us for almost 19 years and she's terrific. Ashley. She has three kids, so three grandkids there. My son Jeffrey in the middle works for us and he's got two, two babies. And my youngest boy is getting married later this year and I expect him to have quite a few grandkids for us.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Does he work with the company also?

[Mark Werner]

He lives it. We're based in South Florida, originally from Chicago, so he lives in Dallas and he's into commercial real estate and he loves commercial real estate. So whatever makes anybody happy and especially my kids, if that makes him happy. He's doing terrific attic. He's a wonderful boy. So we're happy for him. Would I love him to work in the family business? Absolutely. But I also want him to do what he wants to do maybe one day in the future.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Well, I'm really impressed with you. In addition, you seem like a really nice guy. You sound like you'd be a great boss.

[Mark Werner]

I try to be a full time gentleman and always very nice and I try to make everyone, you know, happy. And so that's kind of the environment here. And we don't have a lot of turnover. So I think it's pretty indicative of that.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Explained it right there.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Well, thank you so much. I've been talking, I still am talking to Mark Werner about Ghostbed and all the other things he's doing and I. Did you have a mattress that massages? Yes, I think I ought to have access to it. An experimental mattress probably.

[Mark Werner]

So my dad massager was 95 and when you get older, you know, you get up a lot to go pee and the restroom so hopefully catheterized. Right. What happens is when you get older, then you can't fall back asleep that easily. So I invented this massage mattress. And think of a massage chair. Those expensive massage chairs. This has all the attributes of that, but it's a horizontal platform, really very comfortable. We make it in all foam and a hybrid foam with pocketed coils, and it's the first of its kind. So with my dad, I put him on this massage mattress and he goes to the bathroom, comes back, he turns it on. In five minutes, he's out like a light. And he goes to the bathroom nine or ten times a night. So, I mean, this is catheterized. He doesn't want to do that, but this game changer for him. And people just love the massage mattress.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Thank you so much, Mark. It has been really a pleasure to hear your backstory. I like people to know. Yeah, there are people who make products and the products are okay and great and wonderful and all of this, but the people behind them make so much more value for the products when they're like you. So thank you very much.

[Mark Werner]

Thank you so much. And you can use the Dr. Lore and get an extra 10% off at the ghostbed website.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

How about that? All right. Extra 10% off.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I love it.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Thank you so much. And now you've taken my mind off the worry of how to get it back into a package. But it's.

[Mark Werner]

Yeah.

[Dr. Laura Schlessinger]

Have a great. Have a great day. Say hi to your family.

[Mark Werner]

Thank you, Dr. Laura.

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[Mark Werner]

Bye. Bye.

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[Mark Werner]

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