Episode #34: Attracting Your Ideal Toy Mentor

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Have you ever had a toy mentor? Have you ever searched for one? In today’s episode, The Toy Coach gives you four tips for attracting a valuable toy mentor. A toy mentor is someone who is more knowledgeable than you in a specific area of the toy industry, who may agree to educate, guide, advise, and motivate you as you develop your toy career. And the most valuable mentor you can have is one that aligns with your personality, way of thinking, and vision for the future.

In this episode, you’ll learn 4 tips to attract the ideal toy mentor for you. And you’ll learn how to start establishing that relationship before ever talking about the possibility of mentorship. If you follow these four tips, you’ll put yourself in a position to meet a likeminded person and create the opportunity to share your values and dreams in a way that will make industry professionals recognize you as a promising mentee. And yes, even if they weren’t looking for one.

Ready to learn? Pop your earbuds in and listen to this actionable episode.

• Mentioned In This Episode

  Listener Spotlight! - Check out Little Seeds Therapy, a passion project by MITTI listener, Julie Dini. Visit littleseedstherapy.com.au today and support fellow toy people.

  You can also find them on YouTube here.

• Episode Transcript

  Azhelle  00:00

  You were listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, Episode Number 34. 

  Intro/Outro + Jingle  00:07

  Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you. And now your host Azhelle Wade. 

  Azhelle  00:17

  Hey there, Jay people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in The Toy Industry. This weekly podcast is brought to you by thetoycoach.cam. Before jumping into today's episode, I want to tell you all about something super special that I've got in the works. Now this is for you if you're in love with learning with me on this podcast, and you have an amazing toy or game idea that you want to create and monetize. In September I will be opening the doors for you to register for my online digital course Toy Creators Academy. Now if you've already joined the email list,  you are ahead of the game and I can't wait to serve you. When the doors open up. Toy Creators Academy is going to teach you how to develop your toy ideas and turn them into a toy business. So if you'd love a little more toy inspiration from me and a whole lot of guidance, then head over to toy creators academy.com and join the early access list. If you're on that list, you are going to be among the first to know when the doors open. And to top it all off, you are going to get the opportunity to join the course at an incredible rate that no one else will get not even my regular toy coach insiders. So if you've got a few great toy ideas inside of you, and you want to turn those ideas into a toy business, head over to toycreatorsacademy.com to learn even more. Okay, let's jump into the episode.  Today we are going to talk about mentorship. Specifically, I want to dive into a question conversation around the importance of understanding that you don't just go out and find a perfect toy mentor, but you actually have to attract them. Much like magnets, good friendships, a good toy mentor for you is going to be somebody who thinks like you right now. Or maybe they used to think like you earlier on in their career. But before I go any further, if you are far along in your career, and you're already thinking, I don't need this episode Azhelle, I don't need a mentor. I just want you to give this episode a chance and give it a listen. And that's for two reasons. Number one, we can all always use a mentor. There is always something new to learn, considering how much this world grows and changes online offline, the toy industry, there is always something new to learn. And number two, it's actually really important for mentors to know that they will be better served, mentoring someone that they really connect with someone like minded with goals that they can relate to, and a path that they can actually advise them on. Now, as a mentor, it would actually be better to just recommend someone to someone else, if you recognize that you and a potential mentee are just not a good fit in learning style, availability or just future vision. Now, over my career, I've had many mentors, some were teachers, some were bosses, others were just colleagues that actually worked in different departments, but at the same company, and at the time, I didn't realize that all of these people were my mentors. But looking back now I see that they each came into my life and my toy career at a time when I needed guidance or inspiration to elevate myself to the next level in my career, they all helped prepare me mentally and to make decisions that were going to help propel me forward in the world of toys. They inspired ideas, recommended me for jobs, encouraged my dreams and sometimes in advised me through tough decisions. Now, what I want you to take away from this episode is both an understanding of how to utilize a mentor mentee relationship. But most importantly, I'm going to give you tips for how to establish one in the first place. All right, so here's what you're gonna learn aspiring mentees, I'm going to give you four tips.  Four tips for attracting the ideal toy mentor for you. And just remember, you don't want just any toy mentor just because you're eager to get advice and you just want to move on to the next step. You want The right toy mentor for you at the stage you are currently in. So, as always, we're going to kick it off with a definition. You can blame my childhood of looking everything and anything up in encyclopedias on this, but just in case anyone listening is unsure of the definition of any of my topics. I like to make them crystal clear from the beginning. So what is a toy mentor? A toy mentor is the more experienced or the more knowledgeable person in a mentorship relationship. Now, did you hear how I emphasized or that's because you could have 20 years of toy design experience, but let's say zero years of experience in marketing, and find yourself mentored by someone who has zero experience in Toy Design, but maybe five or 10 years have experience in marketing that you don't have. Now, what will your mentor help you with? Now, all mentors are different. And remember, you aren't entitled in this relationship to anything. I mean, it's a free mentor mentee relationship usually, but in my experience, a mentor might share with you stories and lessons that they've learned or gathered throughout their career. They might help offer advice to you help you avoid common pitfalls in the industry or struggles that they went through. they'll provide motivation, maybe in some instances, support and they might even help you set goals or help you establish industry connections. Now, an important thing to remember is that when you do find a toy mentor, your success with them and in that partnership that mentor mentee relationship is directly tied to the action that you take based on the advice that they give. You cannot expect that your mentor will make all of your dreams come true on their own, that they're going to introduce you to people that are going to just magically change your life with out much extra effort on your part, you have got to put in the work. And your mentor is only going to be able to offer you a clearer and sometimes a shorter path for getting there getting toward your dreams. Now you might be thinking, well, maybe what if I need more help than just a mentorship by what you're describing to me, maybe that's not what I really want. Now, if you're looking for someone to help you beyond a toy mentor, maybe to do more legwork for you. You might be looking for a toy, a coach or toy consultant and that person is some you're going to hire to work with you for a predetermined amount of time to reach specific goals. So they similarly will help you with their insights and their advice and connections and guide you on your toy journey. But they might actually do some of the legwork for you, if it's sourcing for you or designing for you, depending on your specific work agreement, they might be offering you some of those extra benefits. But let's get back to talking about a toy mentor, because this is an opportunity for education that I really, really want to help any of my listeners who are having problems finding or attracting the right toy mentors. So if you've ever had the experience where you found a mentor, but maybe for some reason or another, the relationship fizzled out, and you're not quite sure why or you don't know how to get it back or you're just not quite sure why can't seem to connect with the right toy mentor, this is the episode for you.  All right, so let's get into how you should go about finding and attracting not just any mentor but their right mentor for you. So when you go out looking for a mentor, you have to consider your own personality. First and foremost, you have to think about how do you like to learn? How do you like to receive criticism? How much handholding do you need? Okay, so now we're gonna get into the four tips. And with all of these tips, I want you to keep thinking about those questions. This mentor mentee relationship essentially is all about you. So if you're not taking into consideration if this person is really an ideal personality match for you, you could do all of the work of finding and establishing a relationship with a mentor, only to feel that you're not quite connected with your mentor and you don't exactly know how to use this relationship to help you develop educationally and to move your career forward. Alright, so let's get into the four tips for attracting a toy mentor. Tip number one, I want you to go where you're comfortable to find your mentor. Now, the biggest question that people have for me is where, where do I go to find a mentor? And my suggestion is just go where you're comfortable. If you are comfortable at networking events, whether that's online with zoom or in person in the near future, hopefully, then just go there and go regularly. The most important part of finding a mentor is developing a relationship naturally. And to do that, you're gonna have to frequent the same circles at the same time regularly. And the most important part about going to where you're comfortable to find a mentor is that you're going to be the best version of yourself when you're most comfortable. So if that's a zoom chat room, then go there. If that's an in-person event, then go there. If it's at work, then focus on finding your mentor there. But tip number one going where you're comfortable. If it's reaching out to your existing network, or asking friends of friends, then you want to go there. You want to start where you are the most comfortable because let's be honest, starting a mentor-mentee relationship can feel uncomfortable because you're really asking for someone to give a lot more without having too much to give back. So the most important thing is to just make sure you're comfortable. So you can show up as your most authentic and positive self so that you can attract the ideal toy mentor for you. So I want to tell you a little story. The very first mentor that I ever had, I would say, was actually a mentor I found in school, and I found this mentor because I was looking to get into a toy design program. And I established a relationship with the head of the department because I was just honestly looking to learn more about the program. So I just shared, you know, my first contact I believe, was just via email, where I just shared my passion for, you know, children and my interest in the toy industry and how I wanted to learn more about the program and how I would like to meet them in person, because in person is always better if you can do it to, you know, make your first connection with someone and just learn more about what the program entails and involves more about the industry. So that the head of the toy design program, Judy Ellis, then became you know, at the time, of course, I didn't realize it but became my first mentor, because she brought me into a program, looked at my work and gave me suggestions as to how I could move forward to, you know, improve my skills, so that I could apply and hopefully get accepted into the program. So for my career, if I look back on it, if I hadn't approached the situation, from a place where I was most comfortable, you know, I was most comfortable starting out with email and leading into an in person conversation. If I didn't start where I was most comfortable. That relationship may not have formed as positively or may not have, you know, offered me the education and the guidance that I needed at the time. So I think it's really important that whom ever you intend to form this mentor-mentee relationship with, maybe you actually know the person by name. Or maybe you just know that you need to reach out to a person at a certain level, at a certain company or within a program at a school. I think it's really important that you go into that relationship in a way that makes you feel most at ease and most like yourself, so you can present yourself in the absolute best light. So let's move on to tip number two, to attracting your toy mentor. Tip number two is to share your values and your dreams. Now this tip applies once you're in your comfortable space and you're reaching out to the person that you hope to form this relationship with. This is what you want to talk about. You want to share your values and your dreams. Now I say this from the experience of being someone who gets messages from people who are looking for guidance and looking for mentorship, and the people that stand out in my inbox, are the people who reach out and share their values and their dreams. It's those of you who tell me how much you love the toy brands or products or projects that you're working on or you have worked on and why the people that reach out and you can tell I mean, I can tell from their messaging that they're planning to do whatever it takes to either see their ideas actualized or their career formed in the way that they want it to be. And you can tell from the wording that it's the journey that fuels them, not just the potential for like success or glory or money, but instead, they really love the process of growing and learning in the toy industry. But I have to point out that just values and sharing your values alone isn't all it you need to be seen as a good potential mentee. Toy industry professionals, most of us are not looking for mentee to take under our wing. You know, we've already got a lot going on. But a good mentee, like a promising mentee that shows up in your inbox or your LinkedIn messages is just a shining light that you cannot look away from. And a good mentee expresses their very values and their dreams to you and that first interaction, or their toy career, and their dreams are clear, and really aligned with their values. I mean, they don't have to be, you know, it's like they obviously already know how to achieve their dreams. But what has to what has to be evident is when a professional, here's your values, and then here's your dreams that they can envision a path for you. And when when we can envision a path and we can see the road you need to take. It's almost like you just you want to help. It's almost even if you're not going to form a long term mentor-mentee relationship. You know, sometimes you might find that a professional will just respond with some quick advice, saying I see where you're going and I would advise you to do X, Y and Z. So when you first connect with a potential mentor, whether it's in person, on the phone or via email, I want you to be ready to express your personal values and dreams as they relate to your toy career and aspirations. And don't feel like you need to treat it like a job interview. Remember, you want to attract the right mentor for you. So, if you want a mentor who will accept your mistakes, and appreciate your eagerness to learn, and an almost an understand or appreciate your inexperience, then don't try to fake it or don't try to cover up those things. The most important value to express if you have it, is your work ethic. You want to show your potential mentor how much you've learned or accomplished already, either independently or in school or in your career. And after that, you want to express how you believe that the path for your dreams whatever they are, could be clarified or helped along by a mentorship relationship with them.  Okay, we're going to move on to tip number three, it is my absolute favorite tips if you're multitasking come on back. Tip number three, I want you to ask a thought provoking industry question. Now, in a mentee mentor relationship, it's understood that the mentor is going to be giving value to the mentee free of charge, right. And let's be honest, that is a big ask for someone who may be an executive at a big toy company or maybe managing their own toy firm. So if you want to put your best foot forward in attracting a mentor, that's great for you. I would suggest that at some point early in your relationship, In fact, your first conversation that you asked them a thought provoking industry related question. Now, this question should be a question that you really want to hear the answer to. In fact, it could be a question that helps you identify if you would be a good personality fit, or the mentor mentee relationship with this person. Obviously, it should be a question that you have already thought through and already have your own answer to if asked. and the value of this question, if it's a good one, is that it could provide your mentor as an opportunity to see you as someone with fresh ideas and fresh thinking. They could see you as a potential mentee that would challenge them with their questions that they'd be happy to have by their side to nurture because they see that you're also going to bring inspiration and a new way of thinking. Now you're fresh perspective, hopefully highlighted by this thought provoking question could shine a light on you and help them see you as a promising mentee, or like I said before, a good mentee, one that is ready to learn and grow. And one that would be an inspiration to lead and watch transform. Now, I've got to tell you, I have led many teams. And the moments that I taught my teams have also taught me something as well. So if you come off as a mentee that inspires new thinking, and inspires a leader to be an even better leader, a more thoughtful leader, you're going to have a better chance of establishing this mentor mentee relationship, because it'll become Instantly, mutually beneficial. Now the final tip I have for you tip number four is, I mean, I know I said tip number three was important. But honestly tip number four, if you forget Tip number four, you might as well not do one through three. But Tip number four is to schedule your next chat or email communication. Now, this tip is really for you if you hit it off with your potential mentor. And you might not be discussing a mentorship yet maybe that's just in your head and they don't even know that it's gonna go there just yet. And you might I mean, you might not be and it's totally fine if you're not discussing a mentorship or possible mentorship by the end of your first conversation totally fine, but you can still ask if you can stay in touch via phone or email and when or if they say yes, I want you to put it in your calendar immediately. Now, you don't necessarily have to send them a Google invite and make it a whole official thing. Because this is, you know, a casual, like let's exchange business cards like casual, you're acting cool and casual, don't want to scare them away. But I do want you to put it in your personal calendar, so you don't forget to message them or simply lose the nerve to do so. It's really easy when you're the mentee to feel like you're troubling someone for reaching out. But I want you to use that calendar reminder to remind yourself that you are not troubling them. And in fact, that they invited you to reach out. What I also like to do is I love to use the Notes app of my calendar section to leave myself either notes of things that they said that inspired me to want to reach out to them in the first place. And I do that so that when my notice goes off and it's time to reach out to them again, if I'm feeling Oh, I don't know, like how our conversation went, or if they'll remember me that I have a little bit of a reminder built into that calendar notification. Now I want you to remember, staying Top of Mind is key in marketing and is it is the same thing, if you are marketing yourself. And when you're searching for a mentor, you are essentially marketing yourself, my friend, you're saying pretty much Hey, their professional experience to a person I am up and coming XYZ and I want you to help me along in my journey because I'm sure that in the future, we're going to have a mutually beneficial relationship. I'm going to be big, you know, that's pretty much the message that you're sending. So you want to make sure that you're staying Top of Mind, you're presenting yourself in your best light and you don't forget to follow up and continue to develop relationship.  Okay people, that is all I have to share with you today about attracting a toy mentor. It is super important that you take away from this episode, that it's not about finding a mentor. It's about attracting the right mentor for you. If you miss a line in teaching styles, in the ways that you like to give and receive criticism, the mentor mentee relationship could be more trouble than it's worth for either of you. And the best part of developing a mentor mentee relationship with someone who has a similar mindset as you is that this mentor mentee relationship could grow into something long lasting, you could be mentor mentee for many years and it could even evolve into a friendship once you are both, you know, at the same type of level within the toy industry. So I think it's really really valuable valuable to take away that you want to attract the right toy mentor for you, not just any toy mentor you it's not like Yelp and you're just going to look for what other people say was five stars like you're looking for a human that you can connect with and learn from. Now, I do want to share this with you if you're a recent college graduate from a non toy design program, I want you to head over to Instagram and send a message to me @thetoycoach. I'm working on a small program specifically for anyone that has recently graduated from a non toy program, but that wants to break into the toy industry. And it's going to be something super affordable that will connect you advise you and motivate you to getting that very first toy job. So send me a message on Instagram @thetoycoach and just say hey, I graduated this year or whatever year and my name is and I want to break into toys. And now it's time for my favorite part of the show listener spotlight. So this week I want to highlight a product from one of my listeners and an active member of the Making It in The Toy Industry Facebook group, Julie Dini, Julie created dealing in feelings emotion cards for children. These cards help children identify facial expressions and talk about their feelings, which I think considering how much life has changed from January to March to now from normal to lockdown to limited quarantines. This is a product that our kids need more than ever. What's great about Julie's cards is that you can use them as an educational tool or to play fun games like go fish and memory. To learn more about dealing and feelings, head over to thetoycoach.com/34 and check out the show notes for links to Julie's product. As always, thank you so much for showing up and joining me here. I know there are so 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  28:17

  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 .

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