Episode #164: MESH Toys For Mental, Emotional and Social Health with Rachele Harmuth
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MESH is NOT the new STEAM. MESH is a solution that utilizes toys as an answer to the mental health crisis among children and teens today. The development of MESH skills is important to help kids learn how to navigate strong emotions and difficult experiences. So what is MESH? MESH is an acronym for Mental, Emotional and Social Health. Developing MESH skills can help protect kids from the risky behaviors and self-harm that are too often the result of their mental distress.
Today’s podcast episode is a Masterclass on MESH with Rachel Harmuth, the Head of ThinkFun. MESH products are products that build skills like problem solving, perseverance, adaptation, conflict resolution, self-regulation, self-advocacy, cognitive skills, and communication strategies.
If you have a toy or game product that could potentially fit into the MESH category, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss. In this episode you’ll learn all about the MESH movement, who is behind it, and you’ll uncover how you can get involved.
Thank you to our episode sponsor!
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This episode is brought to you by LongPack Toys.
Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.
Check out the MESH website to learn more and get involved.Shop the MESH toy mentioned in this episode by Azhelle, The Soothing Snuggler
Stay informed with all things MESH by visiting their website.
https://meshhelps.org/ -
[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: I want you to finish this sentence for me. The thing that surprised me most about the toy industry was,
[00:00:05] Rachele Harmuth: When I started, I would say it was really this, the secrecy of it was shocking
[00:00:12] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, episode number 164. Hey there, toy people, Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach Podcast, making it in the Toy Industry.
[00:00:36] This week's episode is sponsored by Long Pack Toys.
[00:00:41] EP-164-LongPackToysPromo21423: If you are looking for a factory to produce your next toy or game product, you've got to know about long pack. Long pack toys is a manufacturer with over 20 years of experience producing high quality plastic, vinyl, and wooden toys and game product. For clients in over 30 countries.
[00:00:58] When you work with long pack, you'll get a supportive team of engineers, product managers, and toy designers on your side to help you find the perfect balance between quality and cost. Long pack's manufacturing abilities include injection molding, blow molding, ultrasonic welding, spray painting, silk screen printing, hot stamping, and heat transfer capabilities.
[00:01:18] To get started today, send an email to toys long pack.com and let them know the toy coach sent.
[00:01:25] Azhelle Wade: Today's guest on the podcast is my friend Rachel Harmuth a toy industry leader on a mission to impact the industry and help build mesh skills.
[00:01:35] Mesh stands for mental, emotional and social health skills for children, and she's doing it. By toys and game awareness. So with a passion about play and creating products that create an impact on kids' lives, Rachel's really made a name for herself in this mesh space being the head at Think Fun. And I'm excited to have her on the show today.
[00:01:55] And she's gonna give us a masterclass on mesh. Rachel, welcome to the show.
[00:02:00] Rachele Harmuth: thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:02:02] Azhelle Wade: I wanna start first and just learn a little bit about your toy history, your toy story, and then get into your amazing mesh presentation. How did you first break into the toy industry?
[00:02:12] Rachele Harmuth: Well, it's interesting. I actually, when I was a kid, I was dead set that I was gonna be in theater. Theater was my world. And I went to college, uh, at Carnegie Mellon, totally focused on directing and then ended up in costume and scenic design. And that was my, my whole life. And then I, I had a professor who sort of, as many professors do, changed the course of your life.
[00:02:33] And
[00:02:33] he sat me down one day and he sat, it was my junior year, beginning of my junior year, and he said, you need to be a toy designer. And it was, that's a thing.
[00:02:45] Like it never occurred to me that that was something that was possible, but it was absolutely spot on. And so I, I completely did this like shift and spent all this time studying, you know, toys and talking to anybody who would talk to me and walking up and down the aisles of, you know, toys Ross and back then, and, and really digging in and thought, my God, this is totally where I should be. So I switched into industrial design and any project we did, I just did for. Right. So, uh, came out and started my very first job as a toy designer at Connects when Connects was a baby. And it was this amazing creative experience of just developing this construction toy that was so open-ended and had so many opportunities. Um, and I was so, I was there for. gosh, a total of nine years. Um, and in that process I was in design for several years and then I had an opportunity to move into marketing, which was really cool cuz I had ne no idea
[00:03:43] what marketing did and, and
[00:03:45] brand management. So I did that for a couple of years and then at the very end I had an opportunity to move into sales, which at first when, when the, the folks from sales came and they're like, Hey, there's this job, we think you should take it. So I had this opportunity came up in sales and, and you know, when you first think sales after you've been in design and marketing, and it was like, really? But I had a really great, uh, head of sales who said to me, you wanna run a company someday, don't you?
[00:04:13] Azhelle Wade: Oh,
[00:04:13] Rachele Harmuth: do. And he was brilliant.
[00:04:15] And he was like, follow your product line. You spent years developing the product line. He's like, see it all the way through. And that. A fantastic experience. So I actually switched from marketing to sales at Toy Fair. I went and prepped the whole thing as marketing, and then the day Toy Fair opened, I moved into sales.
[00:04:33] And so, yeah, yeah,
[00:04:34] Azhelle Wade: very cool.
[00:04:35] Rachele Harmuth: really cool experience. Um, yeah, so I was at Connects for nine years total. Um, and then I got a call, uh, from an old friend who's like, Hey, there's this job. And I was like, oh, okay. Talk to me about it. And it was klutz. And for me, klutz was just my. brand. Right? Like the thing that I
[00:04:54] Azhelle Wade: was my dream brand too.
[00:04:56] Like I, yeah, I always wanted to work for Klutz.
[00:04:59] Rachele Harmuth: Yep. Yep. So I got this call for Klutz and they were in California, but they were looking for an East Coast person. And so I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. Um, so I started with Klutz and I actually, um, I was with Klutz for a total of 15 years. Like it was an amazing, amazing company and experience. Um, and through the transition, so Scholastic had.
[00:05:22] Clots right before I started. Um, and so I got to sort of experience clots as like the, the original sort of structure and foundation and then became part of Scholastic and did both for a while, which was a really interesting dynamic cuz books and toys are actually a very different industry in terms of how they're sold and how they're bought and sort of what, what the, the structure of the sales is and how it, how it developed.
[00:05:45] So it was a really great experience. And then in the, and in the end, um, K clots had gone through a cycle of a couple different GMs trying to figure out how to run it with it being in California and the parent company being in New York. So eventually we moved the whole thing to New York and I got to sort of really dive back in completely and become entirely klutz, um, and run sales there with a, just a fantastic team.
[00:06:08] And so it was a really. It was an amazing sort of growing up experience and watching the lifecycle of a company and, and see how acquisition works and see how product can grow and change with different focuses and different leads. And it was just a really, it was an amazing, amazing 15 years. And so I was there and, and I, I had again, an old friend called me up and said, Hey, there's this job.
[00:06:33] And I was like, no, no, I'm really happy. Like I have this amazing team, this great group. And he was like, yeah, just. and I was like, okay.
[00:06:40] Azhelle Wade: know what you need. I know what you.
[00:06:41] Rachele Harmuth: Exactly. Ex. That was exactly it. Um, and he was right cuz he was like, Hey, it's it's fat brain.
[00:06:47] Azhelle Wade: Oh
[00:06:49] Rachele Harmuth: brain, like, oh my god. Those like really innovative guys, right?
[00:06:54] Like it e everything I knew about Fat Brain was that it was just a, an incredibly nice group of people,
[00:07:00] They were making these really innovative. Products that were sort of pushing the boundaries on things, using different materials, really beautiful design. And I thought, wow, to be able to come to a company that's still quite young in the wholesale part of their business and be part of the formation of, of that into a line and into a, into a a real, you know, brand was just a.
[00:07:25] Azhelle Wade: Incredible.
[00:07:26] Rachele Harmuth: opportunity. So yeah, so I was, so I went to Fat Brain and I was at Fat Brain for five years.
[00:07:31] Um, again, through the acquisition with Tony and that whole experience, but now I kind of like, I'm like, oh, I've done this before. Like, all right, I got this right. Like it
[00:07:38] Azhelle Wade: The acquisition thing? Is that what you were thinking? Like
[00:07:41] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah. Well, like the, so Tony acquired them.
[00:07:44] I was at Fat Brain for about, I'd say about three and a half years before they were acquired by Tony.
[00:07:50] But it was a, it was a different experience when. Again, when you've sort of been through that sort of acquisition process before and seen how it can be done really beautifully and, and there was such a desire with Tony to maintain the integrity of the brand.
[00:08:07] a fat brain. That was really important. It was a really great, it was a great experience. And we have really, the folks that told me were really fantastic. So, so I was there for about another year or so after the acquisition. Um, and then I got a call for Think Fun. And Think Fun was like a whole other, I I, my kids grew up on Think fun, right?
[00:08:26] Like I, yeah. So like, we had, I would say almost every product
[00:08:30] Azhelle Wade: it felt
[00:08:30] like almost full circle. You're like, this makes sense. This
[00:08:33] makes sense. I want you to finish this sentence for me. The thing that surprised me most about the toy industry was,
[00:08:40] Rachele Harmuth: When I started, I would say it was really this, the secrecy of it was shocking coming. Well, okay. So when I very, when I first started, when I, when I got the, you know, my professor sat me down and said, you need to be a toy designer. Of course I did all this research and I, uh, I found about Toy Fair and I was like, oh, I have to go to a toy fair.
[00:08:59] Right? And I was 20 at the time and I got a, a, a plane ticket to New York City. Well, first I found out you had to be a.
[00:09:05] So I incorporated a company so I could go to Toy Fair, right? No purpose beyond just being able to go to Toy Fair and like learn. I, I got a hotel room, like saved up all my pennies and got a hotel room and I went to New York City and it was in the toy building at this point and I like marched myself in day one.
[00:09:21] All excited. And I walked into a showroom and promptly got thrown at. . I was like, what? Right. Like, what do you mean I can't just walk around and see everything?
[00:09:32] Because the assumption is, especially before you understand sort of the, the business, business world, and this was also 30 years ago, so like really there was no, you know, internet, there was no phones with cameras and all that kind of stuff.
[00:09:46] So it was just a very close secret. Business and I just had no idea walking in. Um, and so, you know, that was sort of my introduction to the toy industry was getting thrown. And then I, I proceeded to decide I was gonna see everything I could, because I had of course saved my pennies for a hotel room. So I got thrown out of 26 different showrooms
[00:10:05] that week until I finally was like, okay, I've seen enough.
[00:10:09] You know? Um, but, but I think that was, you know, it's, it's such a love of play. And the love of wonder and, and so to have that balanced with this business that was very secretive was just a surprise that you don't expect going in. And I think things have changed in a lot of ways now in the sense that you have sort of a, there's a greater platform.
[00:10:34] You see a lot more things, there's a lot more openness just because of the technology that's out there, but it's still super important to keep. , you know, to keep your IP and to keep that, that moment so that you have this reveal that has that like wow, amazing peace to it. And, and with that, you, you've gotta have that, that secrecy to go out there.
[00:10:54] But that was the, I think, the biggest surprise to me
[00:10:57] coming into the industry. But again, coming in when I was 20 and, you know, very delighted and like, this is gonna be so great. We're gonna play all day. Um, you know, but in some ways we still, we.
[00:11:09] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:11:09] Rachele Harmuth: Like we have full on meetings about like, should it be kangaroos or llamas,
[00:11:15] right? Like this is like, this is what's amazing. So
[00:11:17] Azhelle Wade: do, I do enjoy that too. Okay, let's get into the mesh topic.
[00:11:22] Rachele Harmuth: okay.
[00:11:22] Azhelle Wade: fo. So first, before you dive into your presentation, I want you to say what, um, where did this idea for building. This mesh platform come from? Where'd you get this initial?
[00:11:33] Rachele Harmuth: So this was really interesting. So anytime you start with a new company, what you start with is trying to understand the brand, right? Like really digging into brand and saying like, what? , who are we, what do we stand for? What is the through line and the promise across all of our products? Um, and so that's of course where I started when I started with Think Fund was really diving in with the team and understanding what's the brand.
[00:11:57] Um, and so we did, and then, and then you take your brand and you say, great, we, we know who we are. Now how are we relevant? to consumers. Right? How relevant to kids and to parents, and to educators. And caregivers and, and, and understand how your brand fits in the world. And it was through that exploration that we really started to look at mesh and, and I'll It's funny cuz this is exactly how the, my little spiel starts because it's explaining it.
[00:12:30] So we'll just jump in if
[00:12:31] Azhelle Wade: dive right.
[00:12:33] Rachele Harmuth: Okay. All right. So this is, again, this is sort of the, the story of how we came to this. So, you know, one of the things about Think Fund, especially when we talked to the founders and, and Bill and Andrea, I are an amazing resource for me and I'm so grateful that they're, they're willing to, to, to. Phenomenal consultants for us as we move forward, but it was about, you know, looking at, at stem, STEM was so crucially important for the last 10 years.
[00:12:59] And of course then STEAM when you added in the arts. Um, and if you, if you talk to the founders of Think Fund, it's like, yeah, we were STEM before STEM was even a thing, right? That's just so the essence of what the brand is. Um, and so I was so excited to sort of have this, this amazing. Historical IP and brand focusing on, on progression, focusing on learning and on the development of, we call it the power of progression, right?
[00:13:23] Every time you play, you get better. Um, and so went out into the world and started talking to retailers, started talking to parents, and what I was finding was that while people loved STEM and they loved steam, it wasn't what was the foremost thing on their mind. It wasn't what they were walking into a toy store looking for.
[00:13:42] And so that kind of made us stop and. Okay, so what are
[00:13:48] people looking
[00:13:49] for? Like what is happening right now? Like, let's just step away from trying to look specifically at our brand and look at the bigger picture, what's going on? And it was, you know, towards the. I would say the end of the pandemic, but I don't think we're at the end of the pandemic, but after several years of real upheaval and what we saw is that there was this real social conversation going on about mental health focused on adults, but that it was extending as, as the pandemic went on, it was extending down into kids, and that was the conversation that was most prevalent.
[00:14:22] That was the conversation that a lot of toy store owners were telling me they were having is. Conversation around kids' mental health. And so we took a step back and we started looking at some research to say, okay, how big is this? Like how important is this overall? And, and what we found is it was a pretty radical.
[00:14:42] Percentage when you looked at, so we, we looked at, uh, places like the National Institute of Health, the Pew Foundation, unicef, people who've been doing research around, um, kids and, and mental health over the course of the pandemic and prior. Um, and what we've found is that, you know, 71% of parents were saying that their, their kids have really struggled and had an impact from the pandemic.
[00:15:06] We had 44% of teenagers reporting feeling sad or. And like these numbers were huge, you know? And then we looked at things like suicide attempts and there was a 50% increase in suicide attempts in adolescent girls just in the last two
[00:15:21] Azhelle Wade: gosh.
[00:15:22] Rachele Harmuth: Exactly. And so we kind of went like, wow, this is. real, and this is substantial and we need to understand this because if this is the, the world that we're, you know, publishing product into, it's, it's quite different from what we had talked about five years ago when we were really focused on, on, you know, the stem elements and the educational elements.
[00:15:45] And so, so we dug in more, right? And of course, the big question was, is this really about the pandemic? Right? Like all of us had our lives changed. There's a a ton. Anxiety and depression and and frustration that was happening around that? Or is it something bigger than that? And that's that correlated also with us talking about, is it just teenagers?
[00:16:07] Right? Are we really looking at like 12 plus that are really struggling or is it a wider range overall? And what we found is that the, the issues with mental health and, and kids from the research was showing that it was start. to really raise long before the pandemic. The pandemic just like accelerated the whole thing, right?
[00:16:27] Like
[00:16:27] radical life change. Yeah, exactly. Like radical life change isn't accelerated. The, the, the, the talking about it and the intensity of it. Um, but we also found that, you know, we were talking about kids down to, you know, five years old. There's a, you know, a, a 24 4% increase in ER visit. For mental health related reasons for five to 11 year olds, right?
[00:16:49] Like, this wasn't just about teenagers, this wasn't just about the pandemic. Um, but it was truly growing. And then we, as we dug in, we found, so the, the American Academy of Pediatrics and, and the child and adolescent psychiatrists had come together and declared a national state of emergency.
[00:17:07] And that was sort of that moment of like, , right?
[00:17:11] Like when the doctors and the psychiatrists are saying, this is a really serious issue, and they had never said that in their 125 years in existence. Oh my gosh. We need to really understand it. So as we were looking, we were also looking at the effects on parents, right? Like, what does this mean for parents?
[00:17:29] Were out there, they're spending significantly more time, significantly more resources trying to figure out how to help their. and then we hit, we hit sort of that one big moment where in, in the research we, it, it made us stop, which was that 66% of adults thought parenting was more stressful in 2021 than in the year prior.
[00:17:54] And it was like, okay, in 2020, like the world shut down. My kids didn't go to school anymore. I couldn't even go to the grocery store. I was working from home and sort of like half trying to teach my kids cuz they were trying to do online. It was just, it was insane. And you would think that would be the most stressful parenting year ever.
[00:18:12] Right.
[00:18:13] Azhelle Wade: right?
[00:18:13] Rachele Harmuth: But all the was, the research was showing was actually the, the next year.
[00:18:17] And so
[00:18:18] we dealing with the
[00:18:20] Azhelle Wade: the emotional fallout. Yeah.
[00:18:22] Rachele Harmuth: Exactly. And that made us go like, okay, we, we really need to take notice of this and understand it.
[00:18:27] Um, and then for us as a, you know, as a toys and games company, we found out that the majority of parents right now were reporting that their children's mental health was more important to them than their children's academic achievement.
[00:18:42] Azhelle Wade: Yes. I remember when you first presented this. This one's, this statistic stuck out to me a lot
[00:18:47] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah. Right. And that was kind of like, okay, we clearly need to, yeah. And so we clearly need to, if we wanna be relevant to two kids and two parents and have an impact on their life and their development, we need to really dig in here,
[00:19:02] you know? Um, and so we also knew that that wasn't something that a bunch of toy execs sitting in our offices, you.
[00:19:10] discussing kangaroos or llamas, you know, could, could really do so. We wanted it to be based in, in research, we wanted to be based in, you know, evidence-based science. And so we, we found a friend, right? We went out and we found Dr. Gabo. And Dr. Gabo is one of the foremost resilient experts in the country.
[00:19:28] She's a family practice physician in Pittsburgh, but has been working, um, for years and years far before the pandemic on research to help build parenting and parenting skills. And then also, dig into the idea of building resiliency and sort of what does that mean overall? And so we brought her three different areas we wanted to understand.
[00:19:47] The first was we wanted to understand like what's actually happening with kids and mental health. And then we wanted to understand what do kids need to, to be more resilient now and in the future? Like what do those skills.
[00:20:05] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:05] Rachele Harmuth: In, in the twentie year, we've talked a lot about things like, you know, fine motor skills, gross motor skills.
[00:20:10] We know about kids learning to cut with scissors and kids identifying letters and numbers or
[00:20:15] what we call soft skills with turn taking and, and pieces like that. But we didn't have any idea how you build resiliency. What do those skills look like? And then once we've had understood what those skills look like, help us understand how toys and games, you know, and.
[00:20:35] can build those skills. Like how do we, how do we take this and, and really concretely make the steps so we understand what kind of products really build resiliency in, in kids. And, and through this process, she introduced us to an acronym that we just fall in love with, and that's where the mash comes from.
[00:20:52] So mesh, of course stands for mental, emotional, social health, and it was wonderful to just have a way to talk.
[00:20:59] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:59] Rachele Harmuth: Um, we've been talking about like sel, which a lot of school systems are using, and a lot of teachers groups are using social-emotional learning.
[00:21:07] Um, or we just talk about mental health, but that's a really big, you know, so this was a great way to, to be able to have a, a term that allowed us to talk about this idea as a whole.
[00:21:17] That didn't feel too. Education oriented or two academic oriented. Um, and also has a really great sort of visual, like the idea of like mash or a net and we're sort of catching and supporting was just really beautiful. Um, so, so yeah. So then we started to really dig in around mesh. And when we first started talking about mental health and kids, right, we went down the path, I think almost everyone did, especially during the pandemic of the idea of toys that provide comfort.
[00:21:46] These are. Really important. And if you look at what's sold in the last three years in the industry,
[00:21:52] you see a massive amount of things like fidgets and the squish mallows and the weighted plush and the sensory with things that you touch and hold and they bring you calm and they make you feel okay.
[00:22:07] Right? And these are all about recovery.
[00:22:10] And I can't emphasize enough this. This is really important, right? Like if a child is in distress, Something that brings them calm and recovery is super, super, super important. Yeah. Comfort. But these products don't make you stronger in the future.
[00:22:27] They, they bring you back to your baseline of, okay, and again, essential.
[00:22:30] But we wanted to understand, okay, but what would make me stronger in the future? Or, or, or be able to handle sort of the next life disappointment or the next life change that comes down the pike. And so this is where Dr. G really.
[00:22:44] Azhelle Wade: Oh really? Just
[00:23:44] keep going
[00:23:45] Rachele Harmuth: to this
[00:23:45] Azhelle Wade: way. Yeah, I know because we're still recording,
[00:23:48] so, and we got almost halfway through, so keep going. Just
[00:23:52] Rachele Harmuth: yeah. Okay.
[00:23:54] Azhelle Wade: We're still recording. All right,
[00:23:56] Rachele Harmuth: Okay, here we go.
[00:23:57] Azhelle Wade: you said, doctor, that's where you
[00:23:59] Rachele Harmuth: so Dr. G? Yeah. Dr. G really helped us identify the skills that were specific to building kids' resilience. You know what? What do they need to be able to handle the challenges or the changes that are happening in our life? And they are problem solving, perseverance, adaptation, conflict resolution, self-regulation, self-advocacy, cognitive skills and communication strategies.
[00:24:25] Azhelle Wade: I do wanna say in
[00:24:26] here like, Like, I have a client who's a mom who created a, a plush that on the outside you would think it's a comfort plush. It's a, a plush and it is a little weighted, and it's called like the soothing snuggler. That's
[00:24:39] like, so you're like, oh, comfort. But it's so interesting when she was talking to me about how, why she created it. She was like, you know, plush are great. Weighted plush are great, but all they do is what you're saying, Rachel. They just comfort for recovery. So her being a clinical psychologist, her product. teaches kids some of these, these skills that you're talking
[00:24:59] about, um, like teaches them how to be aware of their surroundings and their emotions cuz it talks and teaches them these things.
[00:25:05] So it's more than just a plush and that's just, I feel like this is just a not you've create, well, I mean, you and this doctor together have elevated and created this. Almost this pitching angle that anybody that has a toy that does help develop these skills can use, like this is like you can pitch to media and say, I've got a mesh product.
[00:25:27] If you don't want know what mesh is, listen to this Toy Coach podcast
[00:25:30] with Rachel Harmon.
[00:25:31] No, but, but really you've created this angle for people to promote their products, which is amazing.
[00:25:36] Rachele Harmuth: Well, I think that the key thing is we all know play is amazing
[00:25:41] and we know play is important, but I couldn't. , I couldn't, I didn't have the vocabulary to tell you why.
[00:25:50] Exactly. I couldn't articulate why so, so this to me was so much more, it's not that this is radically, and we're not changing the kinds of products that we make.
[00:25:59] We're just understanding what. They do for kids on a level that's different from how we've understood before. We've given ourselves a vocabulary
[00:26:09] to talk about beyond like, oh, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, which are super important. But like
[00:26:15] now we have a vocabulary we can talk about things like perseverance and adaptation, which is so important, but we just didn't know how to talk about it or look at it that way before.
[00:26:24] So yeah, to your point, it's exactly it.
[00:26:26] Azhelle Wade: and now you can even market products to parents differently. Like this will specifically help with problem solving and self-advocacy skills, and
[00:26:34] that's so much more helpful to them than just saying like, I don't know, buy this truck that flips over 10 times for 9 99. Like,
[00:26:41] Rachele Harmuth: right. Like,
[00:26:42] play is fun, you know, but it's like
[00:26:44] Azhelle Wade: is, yeah, this is so much clearer and, and yeah, this is great. Yeah.
[00:26:48] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah. And that, that and truly, truly, that was the whole thing of like, okay, we just need, we need communication skills. We need a vocabulary. And so, but, so we took these eight skills and we said, okay, what kind of products develop these eight skills? Right. And so we identified four different areas of products and this is where it got really interest.
[00:27:06] Cause this is far bigger than Think Fund, right? Like we started it here cuz we just took a step back and was like, okay, we're gonna stop looking at our brand for a moment and look at just kind of the world of what's happening and then pull it back in. Um, and so, but there's four different areas of products that we found that really build these eight skills.
[00:27:24] And they are products that focus on problem solving products that focus on storytelling. products that have increasing challenge over the duration of play, that have levels or cycles that get harder as you play. And products that draw children and their adults together. Right. And so for us at Think Fund, we got really excited cuz we do a couple of these really, really well.
[00:27:46] Like we're, we're like, wow. Our product as it stands, does a couple of these really well. And as you look at the marketplace, there are products from other companies that. some of these really, really well. And so when you put the whole world of toys together, like we've got this guys, we've already got this with a product that's out there, we just need to understand that, right?
[00:28:06] Like there are amazing storytelling products out there. There are amazing problem solving, you know, products out there. There are amazing products that bring kids and adults together. And so it's, it was amazing to see. I keep saying amazing, but like it was f fantastic to see that it wasn't about redo.
[00:28:24] everything that was done. It was about understanding how you pick products for intentionally building these skills. Right. Um, so, so all of this together was about seeing that we have the product already that can build skills in kids to make them more resilient. But then it was really digging into kind, understanding these four different areas.
[00:28:46] So I'll zip through this really quick, but it was just to help people understand as a whole, so, products that focus on problem solving and perseverance. And you'll look, they look a lot like STEM products, right? Cuz a lot of STEM products do this just innately in their process. But these build kids' ability to identify and overcome obstacles,
[00:29:06] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. This
[00:29:06] is so much clearer. I think even than just stem, cuz stem, you understand like, I want my kid. Be interested in these career type fields when they grow
[00:29:14] up. So I want them to play with STEM products, but you don't quite understand what they're doing for them cuz it's not broken down to this level.
[00:29:21] So this
[00:29:22] is great. Yeah. This is broken down. You're like, oh, obviously problem solving and perseverance. They need that to go into science or go into,
[00:29:28] right?
[00:29:28] Yeah.
[00:29:29] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, encouraging storytelling. So this I really loved because I think, you know, there's so many areas for girls where this is it's whole categories, right? Like dolls are sort of the quintessential version of it. But if you think about about. , sort of the greater picture of play.
[00:29:45] Um, there's this action. The whole world of action figures is amazing. The little tiny army man, you know, when, when kids create scenes with their toys, even, even it's just, you know, stuffed animals and blocks and they're building these sort of experiences and stories that is really crucial for kids to understand how to communicate what's happening to someone else,
[00:30:06] which translates to how to communicate whether what's happening to themselves, and that builds self-advocacy.
[00:30:13] I mean, essential, as you talk about mental health, if you can explain what's happening or, or have a story to try to, to, to comprehend what's going on and communicate that it's huge as you get older and are, are experiencing struggles or anxiety overall. So this is, I think, one of those really important areas.
[00:30:31] Azhelle Wade: I wanna
[00:30:31] plug something else. Forgive people. An example.
[00:30:34] Like there's a, there's a woman, Julie Dini, she created a card game. She's also a psychologist. These psychologists love to come up with products. Um,
[00:30:41] Rachele Harmuth: And they're
[00:30:41] Azhelle Wade: a. ,they're really good. It's a tool she uses in her practice that she sells online too. And it's a card that helps kids identify emotions in the kids they see on the cards and explain their own emotions.
[00:30:52] So I say this to say, anybody listening or watching this video, if you have a product that can help kids develop self-advocacy, This is an angle that you can use to explain to people what your product does.
[00:31:04] It's a mesh product. It encourages storytelling, it helps 'em develop self-advocacy. All this language is done for you as part of this whole mesh movement.
[00:31:14] So, you know, don't miss out on it.
[00:31:16] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah. It's funny, I, I, you know, I, I spoke at, at Chi tag and, and I, I've had the title of my presentation being like, the products that you are already creating, do more than you know.
[00:31:27] Azhelle Wade: Ooh,
[00:31:28] good
[00:31:28] Rachele Harmuth: was really what it was all about. It was
[00:31:30] Azhelle Wade: title.
[00:31:31] Rachele Harmuth: so much more, you're already doing it. We just need to talk about it and identify it, you know?
[00:31:36] Um, okay. So then we jump into so new and increasing challenge of the duration of play. Clearly. For Think Fund, this is a place that we.
[00:31:44] we have passionately done for it for years and years and years. And it's understanding about the idea of adaptation and sort of the cognitive skills that go with it. But the idea that you have success and then you have frustration and then you have success, and then you have frustration.
[00:31:58] But that builds that, it also builds that perseverance element, right? Like you stay with it because you have the confidence to move forward.
[00:32:05] Azhelle Wade: mean,
[00:32:05] I love it. For me, you sent
[00:32:07] me the rush hour. You sent me the rush hour. Was it rush hour, the game you sent me?
[00:32:11] Or Or traffic jam. Traffic jam. I think. Love this game. I
[00:32:14] play it for fun. Well, obviously, but like I play it when I'm supposed to be working cuz it just makes me feel good and I love it.
[00:32:21] Rachele Harmuth: Well, and it's that moment where you're like, I know I can get this if I, okay, I'll try it. I'll try it a different way. And that exact piece of like, I will try it a different,
[00:32:29] Azhelle Wade: Yeah,
[00:32:30] Rachele Harmuth: right? Like that. Think about that in your
[00:32:32] Azhelle Wade: so good.
[00:32:34] Rachele Harmuth: and you're like, I can't do this. And it's like, okay, well let me step back.
[00:32:38] I'll try it a different way. And that's the skill that you're learning through this. Yeah. It's
[00:32:43] Azhelle Wade: Sometimes I would go back and I'd be like, I must have set this up wrong cuz this
[00:32:46] seems impossible, But I love that game It, when you get it, it just, it gives you that. My mom always says, never say you can't. That was her mantra to me when I was growing up. Never say you can't
[00:32:58] Elle. So yeah. Amazing mom.
[00:33:01] So that game reinforces that mantra cuz I'll literally be like, I can't do this. And then I'll be like, okay, lemme just take a minute and then I
[00:33:08] do it. And
[00:33:09] then you're like, oh my gosh. There is a way you're like, where there is a will, there is a way is what that game says to me.
[00:33:14] So
[00:33:15] Rachele Harmuth: that's, that's exactly adaptation. Like that's what you're learning through that process. So, perfect. Perfect. And then the last one is really about drawing children and their adults together, right? And we say they're adults, cuz this could be
[00:33:28] Azhelle Wade: they're adults. It's cute.
[00:33:29] Rachele Harmuth: be teachers, right?
[00:33:30] Like it's their adults, whoever their adults are.
[00:33:33] Right? It's about bringing them together and, and this really comes down to communication strategies, conflict resolution, and to understand as you, as you get older and as you have struggles and issues that arise, that you have people you can talk to, and that you've built those communication lines prior to those situations,
[00:33:54] Azhelle Wade: this could even teach people how to play games with their kids better, like, um, Right. Like how
[00:34:01] to support your
[00:34:01] kid.
[00:34:02] Rachele Harmuth: of the things we put together was like this, like list of questions you can ask
[00:34:06] e even after your child has played with something. So even if you're not playing with your child, right? What are questions that you can ask that are sort of age appropriate, that focus on these four areas that start the conversation about like, wow, it looks like that you, what you were working was really hard.
[00:34:22] What did you do? to be, what did you do to make it work?
[00:34:26] And so the directly talking about like, you know, problem solving and progressive challenge and things like that. But so yeah, we actually had a little list on the website of like, okay, so how do we, how do we encourage the conversations? Even if you're not actually doing the play with the child for some of the other areas, you know, how do, how do you develop that, those communication?
[00:34:47] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:48] Rachele Harmuth: after the play, so, yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So then I think, sorry, go
[00:34:53] Azhelle Wade: sorry. I have one more thing. I, I'm hoping as this mesh movement grows, that it will become a tool that designers can use to fight for certain, um, elements of their product. Because in, I did a lot of craft product development,
[00:35:09] so I always cared about, I wanted there to be more in the box so the kid could make what's on the box, but they could also make something else.
[00:35:16] Like, not like in addition to, but instead of, cuz you know, cost.
[00:35:20] Rachele Harmuth: I, no, I totally get it. Yeah.
[00:35:22] Azhelle Wade: but I was always struggling cuz that was a thing that was important to me. But, you know, cost sales, you
[00:35:27] can't go and tell somebody like, we need 50 more gemstones. Cuz it's important to me that the kid has
[00:35:33] Rachele Harmuth: that they can explore. Yeah.
[00:35:35] Azhelle Wade: need a, you need a case.
[00:35:36] And you have created with funds, helped created and promoted this case that I'm hoping can be used for designers in the future to be like, well, you know, if we include 50 more gemstones, we can market this as helping them develop these skills because it will be able to help them develop these skills.
[00:35:52] And then that's a case for designers to make the product that they want. So that's great. I love it.
[00:35:57] I love it.
[00:35:58] Rachele Harmuth: I think that it, it's also just to understand the power of, of what you're doing. You know, like you do it and you play and you're like, oh my God, I love this. This is so fun. And you can see the development that's happening in that process. But again, it comes back to vocabulary. If you don't have a framework to talk,
[00:36:16] Azhelle Wade: Yes.
[00:36:17] Rachele Harmuth: Right. Then how do you, this is where, so the idea of products can do more than how they're marketed. Like there's, there's greater ness to it. But the, the biggest piece for me that I wanted to sort of sit here is that it's not, this is not an or. It's not, it's not. This is, you know, it's funny, I've had some folks be like, this is a new stem.
[00:36:35] And I'm like, what? It's a new thing for us to talk about and it's a, but it's STEM's amazing, right? Like, look, I don't whatever wanna get rid of stem, I think STEM's fantastic and important. And essential. But this is an.
[00:36:46] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:46] Rachele Harmuth: you can talk about STEM skills, you can talk about mesh skills, but you can have products that do both, right?
[00:36:53] And so if you think of even the things that you're doing, like, okay, if we're doing an outdoor game where you're learning gross motor skills, right? And you're jumping into hoops, can we add progressive challenge to that?
[00:37:05] Can we make it where you've got three different levels of what you're trying to achieve?
[00:37:08] Or if you're doing a multiplayer game, can you make sure to reinforce the communication skills that are co like it, it's an and thing. And to your point, it's just about understanding on a bigger scale what's happening
[00:37:21] overall. You know?
[00:37:23] Azhelle Wade: me
[00:37:23] seems more tied to play pattern.
[00:37:26] Rachele Harmuth: mm-hmm. , that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:37:29] Azhelle Wade: It's like more tied to the whole experience. Yeah.
[00:37:32] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah, that's actually a really good way of saying that. I hadn't thought, but yeah, exactly. It's not just like, what do I learn, but it's the process of how I'm
[00:37:39] Azhelle Wade: learning Ooh,
[00:37:40] Rachele Harmuth: play. Ooh,
[00:37:41] Azhelle Wade: It's good. It's good.
[00:37:45] Rachele Harmuth: That's awesome. Okay. All right. Play pattern. I like
[00:37:48] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:37:49] Rachele Harmuth: is good. Um, so, so that's the idea as a whole. And then I sort of have that quick version of like, what we've done so far. So we just started talking about this in October of last year. We pulled together all the research and put it into a white paper.
[00:38:00] So we had. Sort of the evidence-based research behind it, um, to sort of say how we got to where we got. Um, and then we started just talking about it. The idea was to just spread the word, right? So, so I've been reaching out to all the different sort of, uh, retail groups, the Learning Express and Good Toy Group, and Astra, and spoke at, you know, the Plan education program and China tag and, and, and starting to reach out to other youth organizations outside of.
[00:38:26] talk to Sesame Workshop. Talk to Boys and Girls Club and, and kind of say like, Hey, we're, we're thinking about. , how does this resonate with you? Is this important? What would be helpful to kind of understand where to go from here?
[00:38:38] Um, and of course we, we put a website together with just kind of the basics.
[00:38:41] Like it's a super tiny little three page website, but it is just to house the basics and like the downloadables that were available for parents and for, for retailers overall. And then what's next? So we're, you know, we, we've put together a task force that is. Multi-stakeholder. So there are manufacturers, there are retailers.
[00:39:00] We have a couple speech therapists, we have some teachers, we have, um, social worker, uh, designers, sort of all coming together at all different levels and saying like, this resonates with us. What should we do with it? Right? Like, how do we make it impactful? And I. To the industry, to the, to the world. Like what do we do?
[00:39:22] And so we're, we're just in the sort of the beginning of development of that task force right now. And we're looking at putting the mission together and sort of the plans for the first two years. We encourage anybody who wants to join, you know, go to mesh helps.org. and sign up, we would love it. Like if this is really meant to be sort of an open invitation to anybody who says, wow, I really want to be part of building mental health through play.
[00:39:43] Um, yeah, and that's, you know, that's, and then of course we, I think when we have our own specific pieces, we look at every product now, the lens of what are these pro, what are these skills? does this product develop? And we're talking about how we communicate that to parents and, and working on pu pulling those three pieces together overall.
[00:40:00] But I think that the most important thing for us to come out with is, is this is bigger than our specific company. This is bigger than, you know, ThinkFun or Ravensburger. And we want, as an industry to say, you know, help us help kids. Like by, by, by bringing this vocabulary and starting to understand the impact of the products that you already.
[00:40:22] What amazing things that they do for kids through their play patterns. I love that. Right. Um, we can, we can make a big impact. It, the moment for me on this that was so important was like realizing that outside of parents and educators,
[00:40:37] like we as an industry have the greatest opportunity to have the most impactful.
[00:40:45] But, but we make the toys, we make the tools that they use in our real life. Like we can have this huge impact if we understand it and can, can bring it to life. So that was just the, the really big piece
[00:40:56] overall
[00:40:57] Azhelle Wade: is there like a badge for a mesh? Identifying wait, iden mesh identifying product. Well, a product that fits mesh standards. Are you planning to make one, some sort of like review process? Like
[00:41:10] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah. So this is one of the big conversations that the taskforce is having is like, do we want to sort of create that, just create some kind of like, here are the guidelines and have a, you know, to have the, the mesh logo and sort of what would that mean? The taskforce, and again, we just started,
[00:41:26] so it's pretty new overall, but that's kind of the goal is to say like, do.
[00:41:31] do we try to do, I mean, I know that the TIA is doing it for STEAM products right now,
[00:41:36] and it's like the sort of review process. Like, do we wanna set up something like that and is that the place that that would make the biggest impact? And then how do we communicate that out to parents? So we're definitely looking at that,
[00:41:46] but haven't determined, again, we're, we just had our first meeting, uh, last month to
[00:41:52] sort of say like, Hey, what do we wanna do?
[00:41:53] Uh, but that's definitely one of the conversations that, that we're having right now.
[00:41:57] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, you should. And then you can put those eight different, like, could be little logos, like which ones does this that fulfill,
[00:42:02] you know, like That's yeah. That's great. Um, I, I'm gonna do something. I have an idea of putting
[00:42:08] together for a download for this episode on the toy coach.com/ 1 64. If you wanna learn about mesh and you wanna follow this, become part of the movement, the link to, to the mesh website will be there.
[00:42:20] But I'm also thinking I can create a quick. Template for people that want to pitch their product with a mesh, uh, focus. Like say, Hey, have you heard about this thing that's mesh. I've got a product that does some of these things. Uh, pitching to the media in the sense, um, I think that that could be a nice template for people to start out with, you know, alerting the media that mesh is a thing and saying like, we've got some products here that fit
[00:42:44] Rachele Harmuth: Right, right. And I think that the key thing is just to, is just to start the conversation. And that's exactly, that'd be a great way to sort of be like, here's a framework of how to have this conversation and how to talk about a deeper level of play than what we normally talk about, you know? So that's super cool.
[00:43:00] Yeah.
[00:43:01] Azhelle Wade: so great. So what's, uh, what, what would you say would be a huge success to, for Mesh to have accomplished by this time next year?
[00:43:09] Rachele Harmuth: Oh wow. Okay. So by this time next year, I think, um, well, I, I, first and foremost, I want the task force to be able to come together and I love the fact that it is across all different manufacturers and all different retailers, and it's got, you know, people from all areas to come together and really identify how we, how we talk.
[00:43:30] as a whole, but I think if next year people use the, the word mash and understood as a vocabulary for, for play patterns that build resilience. Like if it was a, a term that people knew and understood, and it's exactly to your point when you're pitching a product, you could say, Hey, okay, look, this does fine motor skills and does adaptability.
[00:43:52] And perseverance. So these are the mesh skills that it develops. Um, and if we could start to get that. Uh, parents in a way that helps them pick product intentionally to build their kids' money. Like that would be
[00:44:07] huge win.
[00:44:08] Huge
[00:44:08] Azhelle Wade: if you had a parent with a shelf that was like the colors of the mesh skills and they had toys and E like that would be, that's the
[00:44:14] Instagram
[00:44:14] Rachele Harmuth: that's like super
[00:44:16] Yeah.
[00:44:16] exactly right. Like that's that like super, super amazing TikTok parent who has like the beautiful home, right? Yeah. That's compared to like the piles of stuff on his shelf.
[00:44:25] That would be super cool. Um, but I think also with retailers, helping retailers help customers, especially in
[00:44:32] Azhelle Wade: I know I love that with
[00:44:33] Rachele Harmuth: benefit.
[00:44:34] Azhelle Wade: download, I'm encouraging anybody listening to go to the mesh website and get the downloads cuz there are conversations in these download guides on how to talk to people that are in your store that are looking for certain types of products and how to explain mesh to them briefly and say what kind of, um, skills certain toys can cover
[00:44:50] in that arena. So yeah,
[00:44:51] like that's so great
[00:44:52] Rachele Harmuth: and we have, we have sample sheets of like, okay, for a three to six year old here are products across the industry in problem solving, in increased challenge, in storytelling, you know? Um, and the cool thing is those weren't put together by us a thing fund, because again, I don't have the perspective of the whole.
[00:45:09] world of toys. So I, I, I sat down with some folks from overly amazing specialty store and we'd
[00:45:15] Azhelle Wade: Oh,
[00:45:16] Rachele Harmuth: pizza and wine and sat down one night and was like, okay,
[00:45:19] you know, uh, seven to 10 year old storytelling, what are the amazing products out there? And, and that's where those lists came from, was from retailers sort of pulling together and saying, here's this, you know, what, what they see across the whole spectrum of toys.
[00:45:33] So yes, absolutely. Check it out. And there's a, there's. For the stories, as part of the story training guide that we put together, we have a scavenger hunt, which is like, okay, so now you learn the basics of it. Now here's your
[00:45:43] scavenger hunt. Go look on your own shelves and see what would be problem solving for a 11 year old.
[00:45:51] What would be storytelling for
[00:45:53] Azhelle Wade: way for them to sell too and engage with their customers in the store. It's so,
[00:45:57] it's great. It doesn't just have to be like, what birthday are you shopping for? You know? Now you
[00:46:01] Rachele Harmuth: Right.
[00:46:01] Azhelle Wade: new topic of conversation. Um,
[00:46:04] Rachele Harmuth: we have at Think fund, we do have, if anybody who downloads the, uh, downloads the training guide
[00:46:10] and, and does it with their staff, just email us. And we have buttons
[00:46:14] Azhelle Wade: Oh.
[00:46:14] Rachele Harmuth: say, um, ask me why kids need mesh with this like, great picture on it
[00:46:19] Azhelle Wade: have begun.
[00:46:21] Rachele Harmuth: Yep, exactly. You get your bling,
[00:46:24] you know,
[00:46:25] Azhelle Wade: Oh,
[00:46:26] Rachele Harmuth: but again, just meant to start that conversation and grow that convers.
[00:46:29] Azhelle Wade: So, okay, I wanna get into our closing questions.
[00:46:32] These are non mesh questions, but they're
[00:46:34] very important to the listeners of the podcast. Um, what was the best piece of advice you received in the first years of your toy?
[00:46:44] Rachele Harmuth: Oh, interesting. Okay. In the first years of my toy journey,
[00:46:49] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Do something stick out in your mind.
[00:46:52] Rachele Harmuth: Um, well, it's, it's funny, okay, so when I first went into sales, it was actually in my interview for sales. And I remember going in and being like, these are all the reasons why, you know, like, I am the person that you, like. I was so excited and I was so into it.
[00:47:10] Um, and, and I had this amazing boss at the time, and he looked at me and he went, I said, yes, stop. ,
[00:47:17] right? Cause I would keep going. I would keep going and keep going. And he would be like, okay, good. And I would keep going and keep going. And he's like, take the yes, right? Like stop telling. It was just, but it was, it was a really helpful, it was a really helpful piece of us for the rest of my life because I get very excited.
[00:47:34] I'm a very passionate person, right? And it was like, when you get the win, take the win. You know what I mean? And stop pushing and pushing and pushing on top of it. Now I think that was one of the, sort of the best. Pieces that help me regulate my passion and my enthusiasm and get people on board and also learn to stop talking and let other people talk.
[00:47:55] Right? Like, like you have that moment of like, you've got the win. So that was, that was a really, really great Yeah, exactly. Chill out
[00:48:03] Azhelle Wade: And my last question for you today is, what toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
[00:48:10] Rachele Harmuth: as a kid.
[00:48:11] Azhelle Wade: As a kid,
[00:48:12] Rachele Harmuth: Okay. All right. As a kid. Um, okay, so this is, it was actually a blocks and marbles game that my brother, and it was literally just the square blocks of wood that had the holes that you did like a, a marble run with that had like the planks and things. And um, and actually I met the guy who did it one, one of my first toy fairs.
[00:48:34] He was there with this, like, the only thing he had was this, like amazing blocks and Marvels game. , but we used to build these, these massive, massive, massive balo and marbles, marble run. And that would be the kind where you would hide. You'd have like four parts in the top, you could put it in, you would hide which one it would come out,
[00:48:52] Azhelle Wade: Oh
[00:48:53] Rachele Harmuth: these sort of games for each other.
[00:48:55] Um, and it, it wasn't so much that it, it blew my mind as much as it. , the play level and the like, the fun factor of how long we played with this product. Um, and the ability to design things that had mystery to like, you couldn't see which path it would go down and I got to like trick my brother, which is always fun.
[00:49:17] Um, but I think that was one of my absolute amazing products as a kid, you know.
[00:49:24] Azhelle Wade: Do you remember the specific name of that product?
[00:49:28] Rachele Harmuth: I, I really think it was called blocks and marbles. Like
[00:49:30] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's so funny. Okay. Blocks and Mar, I'm gonna look it up.
[00:49:33] Rachele Harmuth: really, this was like 42 years ago, so it
[00:49:38] Azhelle Wade: why this is a great question. That's
[00:49:40] why this is one of my favorite
[00:49:41] questions. I love it. It always, I literally most times buy the games that my guests say that they like the product. So I have all these like vintage toys around my house now. Like it's a
[00:49:50] Rachele Harmuth: So I will tell you there are much more advanced versions of this now, so that, that are like, but again, it's the idea of being able to build marble runs. I think that if I had had, you know, I had a, a product, again, back to this marble run idea that was, oh, sky something. that was like this like super finicky thing that had tracks.
[00:50:08] It was like a grab tracks before there was gravel tracks. Like if I was a kid now, like grab tracks would be like my total happy place, right? Like the idea of this like Rube Goldberg machine thing that I build and it has things, trampolines, that bounce and all those, all that kind of good stuff to it would be my absolute heaven.
[00:50:24] Azhelle Wade: Now Rachel, where can people connect with. if they
[00:50:28] Rachele Harmuth: Oh, um,
[00:50:29] Azhelle Wade: learn about mesh,
[00:50:30] Rachele Harmuth: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely reach out on LinkedIn. I, I'm not super phenomenal at social media, but I love LinkedIn. Um, so reach out on LinkedIn is the best way or reach out, uh, to, to think fun or to Robin Berger and you can get to me, but the direct path is probably best with LinkedIn overall. And, uh, you'll see my, my little mesh background that I have on my LinkedIn thing as we try to spread the word.
[00:50:53] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Thank you so much for being here today. This was an amazing
[00:50:57] Rachele Harmuth: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:50:58] Azhelle Wade: Can't wait to share the video. If you are listening to the audio now, head over to YouTube a few hours after the audio is posted, we're gonna also post the video to YouTube, so make sure you watch the video so you can see her amazing presentation in the visuals as we were chatting.
[00:51:13] Thank you so much,
[00:51:14] Rachele Harmuth: Thank you so much for having me. This has been amazing.
[00:51:16] Azhelle Wade: Yes. See you later.
[00:51:18] Rachele Harmuth: Okay. Bye-bye.
[00:51:19] PART 3_azhelle: Well, there you have it, toy people. My interview with Rachel Harmuth, the head of Think Fun. I hope you learned a lot from this chat. Now I do wanna say this before we keep going to our conclusion. The Mesh group is holding a webinar tonight called Mesh Strengthen Kids Mental Health through Play.
[00:51:38] The link will be in the show notes of today's episode. It is tonight, so hopefully you're not listening to this episode too late. You can register for that. But if it happens that you listen to this LE episode after the air date, you can still go and follow the mesh movement online@meshhelps.org or you can connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.
[00:51:57] All of those links will be waiting for you at the show notes. So if you can't remember them or write them down, all you have to remember is this The toy coach.com/ 1 64. And scroll down, look for the mention in this episode's tab. Click that and you will see all of the links from today's episode.
[00:52:14] The key takeaways I want you to pull from today's episode is the understanding of what mesh is. While talking with Rachel, I came to my own conclusion that Mesh really focuses on the play pattern of your products. Likely you already have products in your assortment or in your line that help promote and build mesh skills. So all you have to do is start learning what those skills are, and I bet you're gonna find a new way to talk about your product with consumers or with your buyers, or even with your internal teams. Learning about mesh is not only for parents who wanna learn how to better play with their kids, how to help them develop social emotional skills, it also is a useful tool for toy designers who might need a reason to keep certain features in a product when they might be asked by a sales team member or someone to change those features. But it's also helpful for sales team members to have these tools to sell products to buyers with, to explain how their products help kids not only have fun, but build things like problem solving. Mesh is also helpful for toy store owners, and their team members because it helps them explain the usefulness of toys beyond fun, and it deepens the explanation of STEM products.
[00:53:35] If you love this podcast and you haven't already left a review, what are you waiting for? Your reviews mean so much to me. I still get notifications on my phone every time a new review comes in and it puts a huge smile on my face.
[00:53:48] It helps keep me motivated to keep coming back week after week and delivering incredible solo episodes and interview episodes like today's episodes. So if you love this podcast and you want it to continue, take a moment and leave a review. As always, thank you for spending this time with me here today. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly means the world to me that you keep tuning into this one.
[00:54:13] Until next week, I'll see you later. Toy people.
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