Episode #49: 7 Lessons For Toy Inventors From Netflix’s Jingle Jangle
Listen Now
Tap Play Below or Listen On iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts
This season we’ve all cozied up and scrolled through Netflix trying to find the perfect holiday flick, but there’s one in particular that will resonate well with my fellow toy inventors. The movie is called Jingle Jangle, and it’s a musical adventure about a toymaker’s journey...from which those of us in the toy industry can glean some valuable insight.
In today’s episode, we’ll outline seven specific lessons you can take away from this fun holiday film, such as being careful who you trust with your toy ideas, and how believing in your inventions is the most important step in bringing them to life. Go check out Jingle Jangle on Netflix and then listen to this episode to draw all the parallels!
-
Listen to Episode 26, The Growing Importance of Social Proof for Your Toy Ideas, by clicking here: http://www.thetoycoach.com/26
Learn more about Wordstruct by clicking here: wordstruct.com
-
Azhelle
You're listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, Episode Number 49.
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like and now your host Azhelle Wade.
Azhelle
Hey there Toy People! Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in The Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com Are you ready for a toy challenge? Starting this month I'm hosting a toy challenge for all you aspiring inventors and entrepreneurs out there. So if you want my help developing ideas and an opportunity to pitch those ideas to a few major toy companies, I want you to head over to challenge.thetoycoach.com to sign up and join our little toy community. If you're thinking you aren't ready for a challenge, let me tell you yes you are. This is a chance to brainstorm be inspired by me and a community of others and come up with a new idea or even perfect one of your existing ideas. So it's ready to pitch again head over to challenge.thetoycoach.com and I will point you in the right direction to get started. This is a free challenge. Today's episode is a fun one toy people. I had to go back into my notes from November from this one which is totally embarrassing because apparently I was that much into the Christmas spirit way back in November for Thanksgiving. Okay, so on November 13. The day it came out. I snuggled up with Christian and watched the Netflix movie jingle jangle, I've got to be honest, based on the movie poster. I didn't think this movie was for me. But then I read the description. It's about Jeronicus Jangle and inventor toymaker. And well Honestly, I stopped there because I knew then that this movie was definitely for me. Now while watching the movie, I found myself co signing on a lot of the messaging that they put out there around being a toy inventor, and I thought what a fun episode this would make so fair warning. If you haven't watched this movie yet, jingle jangle, I want you to go do that because there are definitely going to be some spoilers ahead, but I will do my best to keep it to a minimum but if you have seen this movie, stick around because I'm going to outline seven useful lessons for toy inventors highlighted by the movie jingle jangle itself. Are you ready to get started? This is going to be a super fun and insightful episode. Okay, so let's start with toy inventor. Lesson number one from Netflix's jingle jangle don't hinge your entire career as a toy inventor on a single toy idea. At the very top of the movie, the protagonist Jeronicus Jangle, fellow toy inventor received a special component that essentially brought his latest and most prized toy invention to life. Now, it's already clear in the movie that Jeronicus has had much success as a toy inventor, but for some reason this one invention. A Matador doll named Don Juan Diego is clearly what he sees is his ticket to worldwide success and fame pretty early in the movie Don Juan Diego is stolen from Jeronicus Jangle a loss that devastated the toy inventor so greatly that he started suffering with creative Glock. And eventually he stops inventing all together. And I have seen so many talented inventors stuck on a single toy idea, refusing to give up on it no matter how many times they hear the word no. And the reasons that inventors have for sticking to this one idea that they feel is their prized invention varies. Sometimes it's because they really believe in the idea itself, and they just don't want to give it up. Or sometimes it's because they simply feel they've spent way too much time or money developing it. And they feel it might be foolish to move on. But what I want you to take from lesson number one is this. Sometimes hyper focusing on a single idea is preventing you from seeing the obvious problems with that idea. And when you insist on making that idea work, you don't give yourself the space to take it apart, pull the best bits from it and rebuild it into something new and better. And this happened in the movie because he couldn't see that Don Juan Diego wasn't a great toy and he really should have taken that special component and put it into another toy which kind of happens later on in the movie as a toy inventor, your job is to come up with many, many ideas and those ideas can be iterations of one another, but the quantity of your ideas is important to your success. Don't let yourself and your money get stuck behind developing just one idea that may work out. You want to apply your resources, your talents, your finances, to as many ideas as possible to help increase your likelihood of success. Now, this brings me to lesson number two, which is, be careful who you trust with your inventions and ideas. In the movie, shortly after Jeronicus Jangle brought his most prized Matador doll to life, his most prized invention, and a book of dozens of other invention ideas are stolen by none other than his apprentice named Gustafson. This moment in the movie is such a valuable lesson to toy inventors out there who have a book of invention ideas I know that's you, that isn't tucked away in a safe place. It's also an incredibly valuable lesson for all of you toy people who like to share your secret toy inventions on social media for all to see. So here's the thing, Jeronicus Jangle had his book of inventions stolen by his trusted apprentice. So you have to also assume that people on the internet, you know, even if they seem like they're friendly, they might steal your idea as well. So you don't want to post your ideas to an open Facebook group or on your social pages. However, we all know that this is the age of information sharing, right? So if you don't post it, it didn't happen. If you don't post every week, you don't exist. So you're probably thinking like, what do you have to do? How do you stay relevant and share without sharing your ideas. Now, I've mentioned this in Episode Number 26. So head over to the toy coach comm forward slash 26, if you want to hear this again, but you as an inventor, as you build a name for your invention studio, you have to get really strategic about what and how you post on social media about your inventor studio, you have a little bit more of a challenge than everybody else. But I know you're up for it, my friend, I know you've got this, you've just got to carefully curate your images to show your process, but not your ideas. And when you want advice, you're going to have to ask in general terms, and find a person who will go one on one in depth with you. And ideally, you want that person that you're going one on one with to sign an NDA before you're sharing anything. And now that we're talking about NDA is that leads perfectly into lesson number three, which is protect your IP. Now there are two areas of the movie that actually touch on this, you'll see 30 minutes into the movie that Jeronicus Jangle his granddaughter Journey actually joins the story and he has her sign an NDA to work with him on his inventions. Now I found myself cringing as he scrolled through the long contract to have his granddaughter Journey sign it without even reading it. Now granted their family but still not reading a contract is a huge no before signing. NDA is our long, and they're boring, but you're gonna want to read every word or send it to a lawyer who can review it for you. Now, if you've listened to my episode number 47 all about protecting your toy ideas, then, you know, I've already taken you to church on this topic. So you can head over to thetoycoach.com forward slash 47 if you haven't heard that one yet, now I mentioned that protecting your IP comes up multiple times in the movie. Now the second time that I want to point out is at the end of the movie, when Journey actually saves the day by secretly marking the design of her grandfather's latest invention, effectively putting a copyright on his design, which they use to prove to the authorities that this latest toy invention is legally his. Now I don't want to give away too much. Maybe I already did. But I'll just say here, do your due diligence and protect your inventions legally so that if a sneaky apprentice comes in and tries to steal your work, you can defend the rights of your invention. Now lesson number four for toy inventors from Netflix's Jingle Jangle is once a great inventor, always a great inventor. Now throughout this movie Jeronicus Jangles struggles with losing hope not believing in himself as an inventor. He starts to feel as though he just doesn't have any more good ideas left, so he gives up instead of inventing, he turns to fixing and thrifting his once colorful and fun toy shop turns into a shell of its former self. The movie visualizes and inventor mind with these blue math equations and later gold colored math equations and plan drawings and lettering that kind of appears in the air when an inventor is thinking up an idea Jeronicus. And his granddaughter Journey are the only ones that can see this writing as they're kind of inventing. And it's becomes this visual symbol of their shared skill. But when Jeronicus falls on hard times, he actually loses the ability to see this writing, he loses his ability to invent. And essentially, he's suffering with a pretty serious creative block. Later in the movie. When he regained his inventor, mind and skill, the writing returns and his writing that he visualizes is gold, and the ideas are overflowing, it becomes clear that he was creatively blocked by a lack of love and faith and hope in his life. So the lesson to be learned here is that creative block happens. And just because you're suffering with creative block doesn't mean you're no longer a great inventor to break free of that creative block. Sometimes you have to look back and look at some of the things that you valued in your life when you were at your most creative and most happy and honestly ask yourself, are you valuing those things today right now? And maybe because you're not valuing those things is why you're suffering with this creative block. Jeronicus valued his family at the height of his success, and at his lowest low he never saw them. Once he reconnected with that love and regained his faith. He was free of creative block and great inventions freely flowed from his mind once again. Next up lesson number five is to test before you pitch at around minute 40 of the movie Gustafsson Jeronicus' apprentice was attempting to pitch his latest toy invention to a crowd when the invention overheated, spun out and essentially crashed and burned in front of an in middle of a crowd of spectators. Gustafsson was so desperate to show something new, he went to his pitch unprepared. And that is something I never want for you to people. Before pitching your toy prototype, make sure that you have tested it extensively. To assure that it will work. The best test is to ask a friend or family member to test your prototype themselves. Because if a friend or family member who is not a toy inventor can use your prototype with ease and it works. You can feel confident that you've done your due diligence and that your product is really ready to be pitched. Don't go to a toy meeting with a prototype that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If you have a meeting coming up and you just can't quite get your prototype to work more times than it doesn't. I would suggest recording a video of it working and creating a sizzle during your pitch focus on that sizzle, and only bring up the prototype. If asked. Usually you'll have time after that first meeting before you're ever asked for a prototype so you'll have some time to perfect it. Next up in our lessons for toy inventors from Netflix's Jingle Jangle we have lesson number six. And that lesson is be careful of the manufacturers or agents that you choose because they may have ill intentions. If you are an alumni of Toy Creators Academy. You already know that I teach you how to reach out to toy companies to try and land your own meetings and pitch your ideas. But if pitching isn't for you, Toy Creators Academy also gives you the information you need to work with toy agents or inventor relations firms to try and get through the doors of the bigger toy companies. Now let's talk about how that shows up in the movie. About an hour into the movie, Gustafsson attempts to trick journey into working with him to produce Jeronicus' latest invention. So Gustafsson has selfish plans to steal this latest invention, but he positioned himself as though he wants to help offering to mass produce it, but Journey doesn't fall for it. And she keeps tight lipped about the latest invention, not even admitting its existence. So what I want you to take away from this is that you have to think long term when it comes to the time to make a deal with a licensing agent. Or a manufacturer for distribution, you've got to put on your business hat and decide, is this really someone that I want to partner with? Do I believe in their work ethics, their passion, their value system? Do I want to align my product? And more importantly, myself with their company? What do others say about them? What is their reputation and does what other people say, really matter to me? Now, I know these are some heavy questions, but you definitely want to put your business hat on and think about what a deal with a person or a company means for your business and yourself in the long term before you agree to anything. And finally, we're at lesson number seven from Netflix's Jingle Jangle and I believe this is the most important lesson. Lesson number seven is believing in your ideas is the first step to making them real. I want to say that one more time believing in your ideas is the first step to making them real. And here is how that ties into the movie. When Jeronicus' granddaughter finds one of his old inventions that doesn't work. It's called buddy 3000. She's able to bring it to life with her inventor skill and her faith that it will work. So journey believes buddy 3000 will work and she uses her you know, imaginary inventor vision to help her figure out how to fix him how to get him working, and buddy comes to life. It's an amazing moment. However, buddy won't work whenever Jeronicus is around, because he doesn't believe at the end of the movie, when Jeronicus' breaks free of his creative block and he reconnects with his inventor abilities. And he believes once again, he can see buddy coming to life in front of him. So my lesson to you here is this. Believe in your ideas, toy people believe in them enough to take a step toward making them real. Because believing in your ideas is the first step to making them real, whether that's doing a sketch or creating a prototype or just having a phone call with a factory. Nothing is going to happen if you stand still and question yourself or question your ideas. Okay to people, that is all I have to share with you today. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. And I hope you check out Netflix's Jingle Jangle. This is no affiliate promotion here. I am not gonna monetarily benefit from this. I just really enjoyed this movie. And I'm telling you, as a toy inventor, you will definitely benefit or just enjoy this holiday film. If you love this podcast and you haven't left a review, please I want to ask you to do that right now. Head over to Apple podcasts. Scroll down to the reviews, hit write a review and leave me some love. I get a kick out of seeing those messages come through. And guess what? Today we have got a listener spotlight on a product called Wordstruct. Wordstruct was created by listener Doug Kim, and is the first truly 3d word game ever. Wordstruct innovative tile shapes let players build words in three dimensions on a tabletop or two dimensionally in the reusable word frame that it comes with. It's a pretty cool product. I loved it when I saw it, you've got to check it out. Head over to my show notes. Thetoycoach.com forward slash 49 to grab the link to check out word struck. If you have a product that you would love featured on this show, you've got to join my facebook group for Making It in The Toy Industry. Every once in a while I surprisingly feature listeners products to help boost awareness for products that I think are pretty great. And as always, thank you so much for joining me here toy people. I know there are many podcasts out there so it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
Intro/Outro + Jingle
Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry podcast with Azhelle Wade, head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips and advice
-
🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.