#247: How to Fix What’s Not Working in Your Toy Business with Tyler Turk
How do you pivot your toy business when your current model isn’t working?
In this episode of Making It in the Toy Industry, Azhelle Wade chats with Tyler Turk, founder of Crated with Love, about his journey from subscription box entrepreneur to retail board game powerhouse. When Tyler’s subscription box business skyrocketed during the pandemic, it seemed like a dream come true—until the workload became unsustainable. That’s when he made a bold decision to pivot to selling one-off products, a shift that transformed his business into a retail success story.
Tyler shares how he tackled the challenges of transitioning from subscriptions to board games, landed his products in major retailers like Barnes & Noble, and mastered the art of adaptability in a competitive market. Whether you're looking to refine your toy business, connect with retailers, or learn how to pivot your brand to match market needs, this episode offers invaluable insights for creators, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals alike.
Learn Tyler’s strategies for navigating manufacturing, retail partnerships, and scaling your business without burnout. Don’t miss the practical tips and inspiring lessons from this episode! 🚀
Listen For These Important Moments
The Origin Story of Crated with Love - [00:02:24]
Challenges and Pivots During COVID-19 - [00:05:25]
Transitioning to Retail and B2B - [00:09:53]
Future Plans and Subscription Box Evolution - [00:14:18]
Executing a Successful Pivot - [00:20:15]
Strategies for Approaching Major Retailers - [00:20:38]
Learning the Manufacturing Process - [00:23:05]
Overcoming Challenges in Retail Transition - [00:25:48]
Future Goals and Automation - [00:28:04]
Networking and Industry Insights - [00:30:29]
Closing Thoughts and Contact Information - [00:33:12 ]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Reach out to Tyler at: tyler@cratedwithlove.comReady to experience the creativity and fun of Tyler's amazing products? Visit CratedWithLove.com to explore their unique date night boxes, games, and more! Don’t miss out on bringing joy and connection into your life!
Want to know more about Zapier? Check out these episodeshttps://www.thetoycoach.com/199
https://www.thetoycoach.com/108 -
[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It In The Toy Industry, episode number 247.
[00:00:10] Welcome to Making It In The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs, and makers like you. And now your host, Azhelle Wade.
[00:00:21] Azhelle Wade: 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.
[00:00:31] Today's guest is Tyler Turk, the founder of Crated with Love. What began as a creative subscription box for couples evolved into a thriving card and board game business with products featured in major retailers like Barnes and Noble and Uncommon Goods. Over the past decade, our guest Tyler has designed over 300 games, self published 100 titles, and built a brand that thrives on creativity and connection.
[00:00:58] He is here today to share with us how strategic pivots shaped his journey and what other toy entrepreneurs out there can learn about evolving your brand with purpose. Tyler, welcome to the show.
[00:01:11] Tyler Turk: Hi, Azhelle. So great to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:14] Azhelle Wade: Oh my God. Thank you for your patience. It has not been an easy moment today.
[00:01:19] What's going on? Is Mercury in retrograde? I don't know. So today's topic, I thought it was interesting to talk about pivoting. I actually just hopped off of a call with all of my Toy Creators Academy students, but one of them literally asked the question of how do I know when I should change courses? How do I know when I'm not just kind of beating an idea down because I believe in it and I want it so badly and maybe it's not the right thing for right now.
[00:01:42] So I think it's a perfect time for me and my experience for this conversation. And I hope for the listeners, it's a great time too. But for the very first question today, I want to ask you to finish the sentence for me, the thing that surprised me most about the toy industry was...
[00:01:58] Tyler Turk: How close knit and how small of a community it really is.
[00:02:02] So I spent like about for six years of the business, just kind of on my own, doing my own thing. And when I started jumping into doing shows and talking to people in the toy industry, everybody knows everybody, everybody's so welcoming and so helpful. And you kind of expect that with like toys and games and that sort of thing.
[00:02:20] But it was like, I was part of the family as soon as I jumped in, which was really cool.
[00:02:24] Azhelle Wade: That's really nice.
[00:02:25] Tyler Turk: Yeah.
[00:02:26] Azhelle Wade: Now you initially launched Crated with Love as a subscription service. Where'd the idea come from?
[00:02:32] Tyler Turk: So, um, my wife and I were in college, well, my fiance, um, and I were in college at the time and we were sitting on the couch one day, it was just a normal day.
[00:02:42] She turned to me and she said, Tyler, why aren't you as a romantic as you used to be when you first, when we first started dating.
[00:02:49] Azhelle Wade: Oh, I like, she's like me. I like her. Yeah, right. She's like straightforward, straight shooter. I like it.
[00:02:54] Tyler Turk: To be completely honest, like at first I was a little upset, like, I'm going to school.
[00:03:00] We got multiple jobs. We're trying to make ends meet, like we're busy. And, but the more I thought about also side note, my wife is a licensed marriage and family therapist.
[00:03:10] Azhelle Wade: Oh wow. Oh, you, you made a choice, right?
[00:03:13] Tyler Turk: So in the end, she's right. Like most things, um, if I was going to spend the rest of my life with this person, I have to invest in our relationship.
[00:03:20] We have to invest in our relationship. So after that conversation, we kind of made the decision that no matter what, we even had like a, a savings account that just said date night on it.
[00:03:30] And we said, no matter what, we're going to put 20 to 50 bucks a month in this account And we're going to do something different than just Netflix and pizza.
[00:03:38] We're going to do something unique. And what we found was that dedication and doing something fun on a monthly basis, not only improved our relationship, we started communicating better. We started laughing more. Um, it just helped our entire relationship. So we wondered if other couples could benefit from the same thing.
[00:03:55] And I launched what would be Crated with Love actually as a school project while I was in college as this date night subscription box.
[00:04:01] Azhelle Wade: Wow. The idea of having that separate account for date night, I think I could use to just stop overspending on date night, husband and I, we love date night. We just date night all the time.
[00:04:11] Tyler Turk: When we decided, like, we didn't have a lot of money at that time. And we just said even 20 bucks. So we, so we even made it as like a challenge. Like what can we do with 20 bucks or what can we do with 50 bucks? And it was a bunch of stuff from like going to Michael's and just getting stuff and making our own coffee table to going to the Dollar Tree and just stocking up on stuff for a date night.
[00:04:31] So it was kind of a challenge.
[00:04:32] Azhelle Wade: Amazing. Can I share a story? So very first time my husband and I had a Christmas together. We were really early in our, I think we're early in our relationship where we just, I think we're also broke. And I don't know who had the idea, but we're like, let's go to Jack's 99 in New York City.
[00:04:49] We have a $10 budget and we're going to buy each other something. So I bought a bunch of stuff to create an experience. So I bought like, I think it was like pancake stuff in a Christmas Theme. And he bought a bunch of stuff to call back to my childhood and toys that I said I never had. But of course it was like the .99 cent store, but it was a really cute moment.
[00:05:09] Cause it was like a challenge. We separated, we would call each other, like I'm on the first floor. Where are you? Like, don't come near the first floor. And like, you know, and then at the end we were like, Hey, Does our $10 include packaging? Can we, can we, it's like, yeah, it's like, that's, that's what you're reminding me of and that was really cool.
[00:05:26] So as the subscription service, it worked, but what signs made you realize that you had to pivot away from that initial idea?
[00:05:35] Tyler Turk: So Crated with Love was the first business I ever started. I launched it in 2014. I actually just got the LinkedIn notification that's been 10 years, and I can't believe that. In the first couple of years, we're mostly just trying to figure out what the heck I was doing, right?
[00:05:49] Like learning sourcing and manufacturing and how to sell things and just kind of getting my feet wet. Um, in 2018 and 2019, things started to take off. And then in 2020, we were hit with COVID. And I didn't know what to do. We kind of had the opposite effect of a lot of businesses during COVID where we saw a huge spike in demand for our product.
[00:06:10] People were staying indoors, needed something to do. So at first it looked like it was a really good thing, but then the fallout of COVID and lockdown was that we started to see a lot of problems with supply chain. We were trying to order things, you know, normally would take two or three months to order things.
[00:06:27] Now we're ordering in four or five, six, seven months in advance, trying to figure that out. And then in addition, 2020, I believe is when iOS 14 rolled out, making it a lot harder to do digital marketing. And as a D2C company, especially as a subscription company, it's all on acquisition cost. Before COVID, we would acquire a subscriber for $6-$7.
[00:06:48] And then it spiked to $20, $25, um, during COVID and because with the rollout of iOS. So there was a lot of external factors where it was like, I love this. I love what I'm doing and our customers love it. But from an economic standpoint and from a scalability, like it was really, really difficult. And so it was about that time when we decided, when I started to think like, how can we take what we've learned, what I've learned?
[00:07:10] And kind of apply it to a new business model, keeping the same mantra of helping people reconnect through the power of play.
[00:07:18] Azhelle Wade: That's really interesting. I remember when that iOS update came out and a lot of people were trying to figure out ways to bring their cost per acquisition down. And it's very interesting that you went the other route. Like you saw the change in profitability of your business and instead of thinking like, okay, there must be other ways around this iOS update, you said, no, this is kind of showing us a weakness in our business and maybe we need to solve that. What do you think made you think that way?
[00:07:45] Tyler Turk: Well, I think the economics of the subscription industry itself was kind of at a breaking point. Even if you look at somebody like as, as big as Birchbox. So Birchbox is, you know, like the, everybody knows kind of the big player in the subscription box world. At one point, they were valued at half a billion dollars.
[00:08:02] They sold a couple years ago for $44 million. So, that as a microcosm of the subscription box world, it was kind of, kind of at its end. Also, you have to consider like, if you're going to get somebody to subscribe every single month, the price has to be good. And so, we were competing against price. And we were also shipping a new product out every single month.
[00:08:23] So the margin after, you know, cost of goods, it wasn't very good. And then you add in that elevated acquisition cost, where now we had to get people to month three or four just to turn a profit, uh, it was just a really difficult business model.
[00:08:36] Azhelle Wade: So how did you balance staying true to your original mission while doing something different? What did you end up doing?
[00:08:43] Tyler Turk: Yeah, it actually came down to a couple of things. One was this idea of, kind of what I said earlier, of we wanted to help people reconnect and strengthen their relationship through the power of play. At first that looked like subscription boxes, and then that kind of evolved into games.
[00:08:59] And what I realized, I had a mentor tell me that was involved with the toy industry before I even knew anything about it. He had mentioned like, hey, you've done this for six or seven years. You design a new, essentially a new board game every single month. Each box that you ship out includes three to four games.
[00:09:13] Like, have you ever thought about kind of being in the toy industry? And like, and it was actually kind of what we were doing. Each box that we would ship out would have three or four games. And if we found one game or one mechanic inside that box that people really resonated with, we could take that one thing, extract it and build a standalone product around it.
[00:09:30] So we were also using the subscription model as a way to market test ideas.
[00:09:35] Azhelle Wade: Oh, very interesting.
[00:09:36] Tyler Turk: Yeah. And we also had a lot of customers asking us like, are we going to come out with a family version? We had couples that were saying that they were tweaking the rules in their date night to play with their kids.
[00:09:47] Um, so yeah, that was pretty sweet. And it was just kind of like all these different telltale signs kind of nudging me in that direction.
[00:09:54] Azhelle Wade: So are you full B2B now?
[00:09:57] Tyler Turk: We do, most of it is still D2C, but that's probably going to change within the next six months or a year. I really started B2B in late 2022. Um, we got our first key account fall of 2023.
[00:10:10] We've got a couple of awards this year, so by next year it'll probably take over.
[00:10:15] Azhelle Wade: Who was that first key account?
[00:10:16] Tyler Turk: The first key account was Barnes & Noble.
[00:10:18] Azhelle Wade: Ooh, that's a great key account. So do you no longer do any subscription? It's only bundle boxes and then individuals?
[00:10:25] Tyler Turk: We still have the subscription for a little bit. We'll keep that going for a little bit longer. But it's just, as a solopreneur, we've got a small team, like, It's a grind. It's a grind. You gotta focus.
[00:10:35] Azhelle Wade: Were you able, and feel free to share as much as you can, what percentage of your subscribers were you able to convert then to customers?
[00:10:43] Tyler Turk: We still have a very large email list and following and like, it's, it's 10 years of kind of building up this customer list and a lot of them we've been able to convert and we have a lot of different card games.
[00:10:54] I think one other thing that helped push me in this direction too, was this idea of sustainability. And I just didn't feel right putting out a box every single month. That was kind of a one and done and people loved it, but I just, I thought there was a better way to do that. So in the last couple of years, we've actually designed each game to be replayable, um, and kind of like in this transition, kind of like, even with the boxes designed them to be more retail friendly and more replayable and that sort of thing.
[00:11:23] Azhelle Wade: I too got to a point in my career where that really bothered me. The environmental pack factor. And where I struggled was just making, you know, when you work for big companies like I did where you're making product that goes to Target, and Walmart, and Big Lots, and Dollar Tree.
[00:11:38] Not everything you make is something you love. Right? You don't get to decide everything and it just started to get to me. So I really love now working with people where I meet with a teacher or a doctor and like, I want to make this because my kid needs it. Or I, you know, I've always dreamed of this, like getting to work on that.
[00:11:53] And it just feels so much better. And I'm sure you controlling your product now even more feels so much better.
[00:12:00] Tyler Turk: Yeah. And it, and it also challenges me to create that same experience that couples had with a single box and creating products that will do that over and over and over again.
[00:12:10] Azhelle Wade: You mentioned your email list. How big of a list are we talking? 5, 000, 10, 000, a hundred thousand. Where are we at?
[00:12:16] Tyler Turk: Would say we do a lot of pruning, um, because we don't like, yeah, we don't like a zombie subscribers, so it's near the six digit range, I'll say. But I will say we do a lot of pruning. We probably should utilize email more than we do now, but it's 10 years. It's, we've had a lot of couples.
[00:12:40] Azhelle Wade: Amazing. Like I believe in email so much, like my whole business built on email. You were talking about my automation sequence, what you're in as a podcast guest is a corner, like a tiny, tiny hole of the whole big picture, but yeah, I love and believe in email marketing, especially when the iOS updates happened.
[00:13:01] The only way you can connect with your customer is if you have a direct line. So now I even try to get phone numbers whenever possible. And it's not so much to use the phone as the same way, but it's kind of to use the phone as I just sent you an email. Check your spam box if you don't see it, you know?
[00:13:16] Tyler Turk: Well, especially with the privacy stuff rolling out too, even email has been affected of like seeing the percentage of people that have read it. And it's, even that's gotten a little bit harder too.
[00:13:25] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, it's gotten harder, but it's still like, it's the most direct tool we have other than their phone number.
[00:13:31] Tyler Turk: And speaking about email, one thing that's interesting in our journey, starting off as a D2C company and then going over into retail, what I've heard is most companies are kind of the opposite. Like we started with retail, but we really wish we had a higher D2C presence. And so, uh, I'm grateful that we've had that experience because now we've got ways to introduce new products to our couples and to our customers through that email.
[00:13:54] And if we ever, you know, like, Hey, we just launched this new game in Barnes and Noble. Can you guys go help and help us increase the sell through rate?
[00:14:01] Azhelle Wade: So they don't ask for a chargeback. Thanks so much. That'd be great.
[00:14:06] Yeah. You could even run like digital promos. Like you go to Barnes and Noble, buy and upload your receipt. We'll give you like a digital something, an extra digital version of some addition to a product you buy.
[00:14:16] Like you could do so much with that. Yeah, that's fantastic. So let's move on to our second topic. Cause we covered, you created this brand. It was, it was hugely successful, especially when the pandemic hit, Crated with Love. And then you pivoted once you saw the profit margins were going down and you were, and you were so smart to look at the market as a whole, like you're looking at Birchbox, you're looking at other players and how their business valuation is going down.
[00:14:41] So really, really good at analyzing the data and not being sentimental about it.
[00:14:46] Tyler Turk: I held on as long as I could, but there was a breaking point. Yeah,
[00:14:49] Azhelle Wade: You were like, I was trying, but let's talk about doing that pivot successfully. So what was the moment where you, do you remember the absolute moment where you were like, "Oh no, we have to change."
[00:15:01] Tyler Turk: Yes. And it kind of answers both questions. So we had our most successful product to date, which was actually our, probably our first standalone product is called the 'Mix It Up Date Night Generator'. So similar to your story where you're creating this experience, you draw three cards, you combine them, and it gives you this dinner and a movie challenge.
[00:15:21] So it could be like, find a movie that's about pirates. Your dinner has to include everything from the frozen food section and to mix it up, you got to eat with your hands or you've got to, you know, whatever, some crazy thing. And so that was the first product, that standalone product that we put out and it was very successful.
[00:15:37] And the margins on that were so much better. And I'm like, I'm pulling my teeth out, trying to get people to subscribe for this, you know, $20 box that's costing me $10 to make. Oh, by the way, this individual card game that we developed was outselling the subscription and outselling everything else. So I knew that there was something there and then kind of like what I talked about of like using the subscription to kind of market test ideas, you know, the first couple of steps were "All right. Can we create a standalone box?" I don't know how familiar you are with subscription boxes, but normally you get like the corrugated box with just like the crinkle paper and yeah, crinkle paper.
[00:16:18] There's still some embedded in my carpet. Um, I think the intermediate step was like, instead of doing that, can we design our subscription boxes to look more like retail games?
[00:16:30] So we actually started reaching out to factories that traditionally made board games or card games and said, "Hey,"
[00:16:35] Azhelle Wade: Wait, this is your first step. You realize the profitability and then you took this as your first step, a redesign.
[00:16:41] Tyler Turk: First step was designing the subscription boxes more like retail. Because we could still sell them with the subscription, but we could also start trying to pitch them to specialty retailers, putting them on our site as one time, as one time products.
[00:16:54] Azhelle Wade: I see.
[00:16:55] Tyler Turk: Can, you know, to answer the question, like, can we sell standalone games? Kind of like an MVP.
[00:17:01] Azhelle Wade: Right. So you took, so was it past subscription boxes you did that too? You just chose past subscription boxes, converted their packaging to be an evergreen packaging that could go for retail or online?
[00:17:13] Tyler Turk: No, we would do the new themes. Oh. So because we had control of all, and I always tell people, I chose the hardest business to start because it's not like a socks subscription where you just throw socks in a box and ship it out.
[00:17:27] Like we were designing board games every single month. We were sourcing and curating and customizing all these components.
[00:17:35] Azhelle Wade: Did this become your date night, like you and your wife, like, was this now, like now created with I'm assuming she was helping you.
[00:17:41] Tyler Turk: Well, the first couple of years, we didn't have enough room in our house for a Christmas tree. So we built one out of boxes. And it was about at that, it was at that point where she kind of kicked me out of the apartment and said, we gotta find a place.
[00:17:53] Azhelle Wade: You better send me a photo of that so I can look at it after this interview. Wow. Wow.
[00:17:57] Tyler Turk: Yeah. So because of we controlled, we were actually getting our different components shipped to our warehouse.
[00:18:02] We would kit them and then we would ship them out. And we just slowly said, okay, instead of a corrugated box, we're going to do this, you know, a retail friendly telescope box. And then just slowly started changing the components.
[00:18:13] Azhelle Wade: So one, I have an idea for you too. I had a client who also had a subscription box.
[00:18:18] And when she hired me, that was actually the first thing we did too. Cause she was moving into retail, redid it. So she wanted it to still have that like pizza box open style. It was a cross thing and we did redesign it to have a retail presence. So we had to, it was kind of like upside down because the position of the handle.
[00:18:35] And where we needed the front of the box to be. So I was like, look, it's going to be a little upside down, but this is the best way you want to keep this handle. So, okay. The idea I had for you, if you ever did want to go back to the subscription box era, and I'm also wondering if this is how this category might evolve, if it becomes more of a high end experience where there are limited edition drops.
[00:18:57] It's not a subscription per se, but it's like one month, one box is available, limited edition drop, and then you get it. But also it's an event, like it's maybe an in person or a zoom and it's high price point, like high premium. Like you're actually paying for a date night and it's the box and the creators playing with you or something like that.
[00:19:16] And I like that idea. And that's where my head was. I was like, I still love the idea of like recurring revenue and like, you know, being like, I love creating things. So like, the idea of just creating something every single month was like, was amazing. And I think if we were able to go back, that's how we would do it.
[00:19:31] It would be drop based where there's only a certain amount, which we could control costs and control quantities and inventory and all that stuff.
[00:19:37] But you can't start there though, because you need the following. So the fact that you did it the way you did it, I think is perfect. Cause now you have the following.
[00:19:43] If you did a drop now, people would clamor and they would sell out quick, but you couldn't do that originally anyway.
[00:19:49] Tyler Turk: No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. That's why, yeah. If we were to, it's almost like we started with the subscription. We're going to do this next phase. And then I think there's an opportunity later to do that as well.
[00:19:59] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. That would be really cool. You could even have like a whole like games. You'd be like, who's the winner at the end? Like for a whole year, it has an ending and like, there's like a, I don't know, it could be like a whole thing.
[00:20:09] Tyler Turk: Yeah. We did a couple of group zoom date nights, um, which were pretty fun too.
[00:20:13] Azhelle Wade: Cool, cool, cool. All right. Back to business, executing that successful pivot. So you got to count Barnes and Noble, number one, huge win. Also, I have to say Barnes and Noble tends to be in a lot of conversations I've had with inventors. They tend to be the most exploratory with new inventor products.
[00:20:30] They're really like, hello, Barnes and Noble. If you're listening, please come on the podcast. Cause we love you like for supporting inventors, Hobby Lobby you got into and other major retailers. What strategies did you use to approach and pitch to these companies? When you were transitioning, because if they went to your site or if they heard about you, they're thinking your subscription box company, get your stuff out of here, you're not for us. So what did you say to them?
[00:20:53] Tyler Turk: I think part of it was luck. And part of it was being at the right place at the right time. And part of it was us being so unorthodox and different from everything else that I think helped give us a little bit, uh, at least made people notice us maybe a little bit more.
[00:21:08] So the first thing was going to trade shows. I had never done a trade show before 2022, I think, and didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know what shows to go to. Didn't know how to pitch. Didn't know what buyers were looking for, but we just
[00:21:19] Azhelle Wade: Didn't find this podcast.
[00:21:21] Tyler Turk: Didn't find this podcast. No, and now I found it.
[00:21:23] Azhelle Wade: No, you found it and you're on it.
[00:21:29] Tyler Turk: So the first step was just getting a little bit of experience with that. And actually the first show I ever did, I think was the last Toy Fair in Dallas.
[00:21:40] Azhelle Wade: That was the first show you ever did?
[00:21:41] Tyler Turk: That was the first show I ever did.
[00:21:42] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's not a good one to start with. I know. It's not a great one.
[00:21:47] Tyler Turk: But, but, we weren't in the showroom. We were just,
[00:21:52] Azhelle Wade: Oh no. What happened?
[00:21:55] Tyler Turk: Well, that's where we got to meet Barnes and Noble.
[00:21:57] Azhelle Wade: You know what Barnes and Noble, Barnes and Noble will be coming out. How'd you meet them?
[00:22:01] Tyler Turk: I think the buyer just walked by and sparked up a conversation. I might've tried to schedule a, uh, a meeting with her. I don't know, but we, we got our chance to pitch and we pitched our, some of the games and we were pitching the subscription box versions of these games.
[00:22:15] So they weren't even fully retail ready and they took a chance on us. And now it's, it's, it's selling pretty well.
[00:22:21] Azhelle Wade: How big of an order was that first order?
[00:22:23] Tyler Turk: Am I allowed to say?
[00:22:24] Azhelle Wade: Was it, like, was it more than an MOQ run?
[00:22:27] Tyler Turk: It was an MOQ run. Okay. It was, it was the biggest sort of that we'd ever had.
[00:22:31] Azhelle Wade: That you'd ever had.
[00:22:32] Tyler Turk: That we'd ever had.
[00:22:33] Azhelle Wade: That's what's most important. You were like, I was like, call my wife.
[00:22:37] Tyler Turk: I don't know how we're going to get this done, but we're going to get this done. So the other thing is like all, all of our retail accounts, as of right now are direct. So we're not going through a distributor as of right now, which means that I had to learn everything about EDIs and vendor guidelines and like chargebacks and make sure that the carton label is two inches to the right and so like, yeah, all that stuff. So it was, it was crazy, but we got it done. Yeah.
[00:23:06] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Now manufacturing is often a sticking point for creators. So what did you do to learn that process? Did you sit down, cause you'd never done that before with this subscription boxes and you're selling to retail, not only to retail, but to mass retail, which if you had started with a mom and pop shop, you wouldn't have had to deal with like the sticker labels being a certain size and like not so much with chargebacks.
[00:23:27] You wouldn't have, it wouldn't have been as big of an order. But how did you learn all that stuff? Like, did you yourself read through all the documentation they send you? Did you call in a consultant to help temporarily? Did you ask your factory to explain things to you? What'd you do?
[00:23:42] Tyler Turk: So from a manufacturing standpoint, it was the history that we had was good in the sense that, like I said, we got to improve little by little.
[00:23:49] So we started with us getting everything. We switched over to buying bulk and then we switched over to factories and that sort of thing. So I, at that point, I was pretty familiar with working directly with factories, but even our factory had never worked with a retailer before.
[00:24:03] So, yeah, so I had to read, I had to read the guidelines.
[00:24:06] And then it was a lot of kind of going back to that very first question of what surprised you about the toy industry is I reached out to a lot of people and asked a lot of questions and utilize the, the retailer's contact list, uh, cause they do have people out there that you can reach out to and ask questions about and like, "Hey, am I doing this right?"
[00:24:23] And then knock on wood, no charge backs to date. So,
[00:24:25] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Okay, sales. Okay, list. Okay. Um, I have to say too, like when sometimes my students would ask me like, "Oh, this company sent me this EDI form and I don't know if they want X, Y, Z." And I'm like, listen, you need to just ask them because like, don't try to like figure it out, put in some numbers and think they might be right.
[00:24:45] Because that could delay the whole thing months. Cause if they try to push it through and then they have to bring it back, like the big companies move so slow. I remember setting up a vendor at Toys R Us took six months. So like if you put in the paperwork wrong and that would be another six months and then you're just not going to be in.
[00:24:59] Tyler Turk: And every retailer, at least in my experience is different. And required different, different specs, different, um, you know, even with Hobby Lobby where shipping, you know, I had to learn FOB and on freight forwarding and all that stuff. So...
[00:25:15] Azhelle Wade: It's like, they know they're all different is also the key lesson.
[00:25:19] So when you ask, what is this? It's not surprising for them. Like they know that they all have different systems. And if you're a new vendor, they wouldn't be surprised that you don't know.
[00:25:29] Tyler Turk: And I think they all want you to be successful because if you're successful, they're successful. Just ask questions and they're going to do their best to help you.
[00:25:37] And then also be a part of groups and masterminds and get around other people that have done it before and make friends with the people that your booth is next to at trade shows. And there's a lot of questions you'll get answered just by networking.
[00:25:49] Azhelle Wade: Looking back, were there any missteps or unexpected challenges you faced when you were pivoting from subscription to retail ready. If so, how did you overcome them?
[00:25:58] Tyler Turk: Yeah. Well, I know you have a hard stop at some point so I can't go into all of them. But I'll say there was a lot mostly because I didn't know what I didn't know and there's just a lot of learning through trial by fire type of thing and I wish I would have slowed down a little bit more. Because we were moving so fast and I was trying to do so many things at once. I think that would be one big thing piece of advice that I would give is just, you know, slow down.
[00:26:25] You don't have to conquer the world in a day. And, uh, I think that was, that was definitely one thing.
[00:26:31] Azhelle Wade: Was there a specific situation you remember where you were like, Ooh, I moved too fast. I should have slowed down that you could share.
[00:26:36] Tyler Turk: Yes. I can't give specifics because of NDAs. Um, but I had the opportunity to collaborate with a very, very, very large brand. And I said, yes, because I thought it would be really cool to work with this brand. And we ended up losing a lot of money on it. It just took up too much of my time and just resources. It was kind of that, like I'd lost focus a little bit because this opportunity I thought was going to be like life-changing.
[00:27:05] Azhelle Wade: So what is the decision tree or matrix you use now when things come up that are a little bit different than what you're doing to decide if you should devote your time to them?
[00:27:12] Tyler Turk: You had said this earlier podcast, I think it's in a recent one, where you created the matrix of like, is it profitable versus how much happiness do you have?
[00:27:22] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sort of thing?
[00:27:23] Uh huh. Yeah,
[00:27:24] That kind of do the similar thing now. Like there's a, there was a lot of stuff in the beginning that was like, Oh, this would be really cool. What if we did XYZ? And it just didn't work out and I was like, I know we're going to lose money on it, but like, can you imagine if we could put this brand's name on our website and like talk about it?
[00:27:38] Like, how cool would that be? Um, and so I think, and it goes back to kind of slowing down and just like really evaluating opportunities and things that come up is like, is this good for the company? Is this going to be profitable? profitable? Am I going to be happy doing this? Um, you know, answering kind of those questions first before making a decision.
[00:27:58] Azhelle Wade: I'm going to see if I can find that rating scale because yeah, that's that helped me a lot too. Okay, I'm going to move on to our closing questions. What are you hoping to achieve one year from now with Crated with Love?
[00:28:09] Tyler Turk: Well, there's a couple more accounts that I would love if we got, um, and that's another new experience of just like the waiting game for awards.
[00:28:18] There's that. I think there's a couple of new products that we have launched. And I think another thing is I've been doing this on my own or with a very small team for so long. I'm looking for ways to kind of automate our process or kind of streamline things so that we can get back to more development, which I think is our strong suit.
[00:28:37] Azhelle Wade: Let me tell you a thing I did the other day, yesterday, this morning, actually, I started using ChatGPT to refine my automations. It was really good. Like I have a monthly membership and the process of scheduling meetings and tracking membership that I built years ago is like just convoluted. So I explained my tools and my process.
[00:28:57] And I said, like, is there something else more streamlined? And wow, like it blew me away. And I was like, Oh yeah, I could do that. I'm like, why didn't I think of that? It's just so great. So maybe.
[00:29:07] Tyler Turk: I remember when I first stumbled upon Zapier and I was like, we could do what? Um, and then now things are just so crazy. And then did I hear you created your own GPT?
[00:29:18] Azhelle Wade: Of course, that's awesome. I have, I have many GPT. I have so many now. That one was just a one. But, um, that GPT builds your ideas out to be more toyetic and makes them on store shelves and it's really cool. But I actually have a podcast on Zapier. So I will link that as well in the show notes.
[00:29:37] My friend is a Zapier coach and she is the first one who introduced me to it. And I just didn't understand it at the time. I was like, so what? Like, what do you need that for? I don't understand. And now I'm like, Oh, like my whole life is on Zapier. That's so cool.
[00:29:50] Tyler Turk: Well, and that's, that's the other thing too, is like coming from the D2C world, I guess I was more aware, I wouldn't say more aware, but like we use a lot of software and a lot you know, tools like that. And kind of, it's kind of cool seeing. new ways that we could use that for retail now. Um, and like tweaking things of like how we used to use it for D2C and how we can kind of growth hack a little bit. So
[00:30:12] Azhelle Wade: That's what I'm trying to do with some of my, my, um, bigger clients. Cause I'm trying to figure out like, okay, y'all don't use any email service provider and you don't do proper emailing. You're just emailing anybody who, even if they haven't opted in, like, I'm like, no, there is a way. No, no. So good. Um, okay. What's one piece of advice you wish more people knew?
[00:30:32] Tyler Turk: I think it would go back to the networking thing. I'm a closet introvert. Like I portray myself as an extrovert, but I kind of like being by myself most times, but I don't mind talking to people, pitching to people, and I've just gotten so many opportunities, fortunately that were given to me just because I went up and talked to somebody. So if you're a new entrepreneur or you have this idea or you want to kind of see what the next step is like, talk to people, go to shows, talk to people.
[00:30:59] Don't be afraid if it's a big name, you'll never know. I'll tell you a quick story if that's okay.
[00:31:05] Azhelle Wade: I would love a story.
[00:31:06] Tyler Turk: In addition to doing B2B, I've also. Kind of because we've developed so many games have said, okay, can we test the waters and licensing a little bit? And I flew out to London for like two or three years in a row and pitched at the mojo pitch competition or a pitch event and you get 15 minutes and you get to sit across in person, sit across the table from inventor relations from all the big toy and game brands and I walked away with so many people that I could reach out to, so many contacts, so many relationships that we didn't get anything licensed, but it was well worth it just in contacts and just experience and just talking to people that are so, um, yeah,
[00:31:53] Azhelle Wade: I agree. Yes, talk to people. Networking is key. People often say, "Azhelle, I just need to contact Mattel." I'm like, no, you don't. You need to network first.
[00:32:01] Tyler Turk: And it's not as scary as you think. And the toy industry, everybody's so welcoming, or at least in my experience, they've been so welcoming. So yeah,
[00:32:07] Azhelle Wade: They've been nice to me. I can't complain. I can't complain. I'll be nice to you if someone isn't nice to you. So what toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
[00:32:19] Tyler Turk: Yeah. So my dad had this big gray duffel bag that he would only get out on special occasions. And inside this duffel bag was some of the original Hot Wheels sets from the seventies. And he had this big box full of like unopened Hot Wheels and all these, all the original hot wheels.
[00:32:38] And so my brother and I would just spend the afternoon creating, uh, these tracks for the Hot Wheels. And there was just something so special about connecting that last piece, turning on the little motor, putting the car down and then watch it actually going in, you know, without falling off the track or something.
[00:32:57] And so that's probably the first toy I ever remember really playing with. And that's kind of the one that's stuck around.
[00:33:03] Azhelle Wade: Very cool. So it's just like seventies hot, you don't even know what specific one. It was just the era.
[00:33:07] Tyler Turk: No, it was like the gray tracks with the orange connectors and like, yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:12] Azhelle Wade: Very cool. So how can guests get either get in contact with you if you're open to that? Yeah. Or how can they purchase Crated with Love?
[00:33:20] Tyler Turk: Well, I'm always open to connecting because I feel like, especially in this industry, I'm more than happy to pass along any of my experiences, any of my failures to help other people kind of get their ideas out into the world. So you can contact me at . C R A T, like crated, like in a box.
[00:33:37] Azhelle Wade: I'll put it in the show notes. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:39] Tyler Turk: Um, or you can go to cratedwithlove.com to see some of our games.
[00:33:43] Azhelle Wade: They've got holiday bundles, date night boxes, date night subscriptions for now, date night games, cooperative games, competitive games, scratch off products, party games. They got it all.
[00:33:52] Tyler Turk: We got a couple, um, couple of really fun party games that we launched, uh, earlier this year. So
[00:34:00] Azhelle Wade: Clicking around now, Picablo, fun name. Okay.
[00:34:04] Tyler Turk: Picablo will be in Barnes and Noble in spring.
[00:34:06] Azhelle Wade: Please buy it. Yeah. Support your fellow creator. Don't let them get a charge back. Okay. No, that's great. Tyler, thank you so much for joining us here today, and I just want to give a quick recap before I give our listener shout out for the week. So we talked about creating a brand and pivoting that brand. And what I heard from you is that you had measurable points of your business. Profitability cost that you could look at to analyze and be hyper, like just super realistic about if a pivot was the best idea.
[00:34:43] And I think the lesson is pay attention to those signs in your business. Don't ignore them. It doesn't mean you have to shut down and change the business tomorrow, but it does mean you can test something like you guys did by changing your packaging and just seeing if you could make this new idea for your business work without even affecting the subscription business as it was at the time.
[00:35:03] Um, so that, that's a great, great point. And then the second big tip I think we got today was network. Talk to people. Tyler gave his contact info so you can talk to him. If you can't find it, we're going to put it in the show notes or it might be the thetoycoach.com/podcast. So Tyler, thank you so much for joining us here today for sharing your journey with Crated with Love. And thanks to Chrissy Fagerholt, who recommended that you come on the show. She's so smart. You're a great storyteller, by the way.
[00:35:32] Tyler Turk: Uh, thank you. Uh, networking. I met Chrissy at a show or some random show. And then we've just been, you know, she's a good person to know. So...
[00:35:41] Azhelle Wade: She literally was one of the first 11 people to join my very first iteration of my program. And so she was one of the first supporters I felt that I could Like I, it was great. And I remember seeing her first game and I was like, Oh, this girl's like, she has no idea how good she is. She's really good at it.
[00:35:59] For anyone listening, who's wondering how to evolve their business, like Tyler's insights on adaptability, creativity, and resilience to see it through are definitely something to aspire to. Thank you again, Tyler, for inspiring us all with your story. And if you are listening to this podcast and you haven't yet left a review, what are you waiting for?
[00:36:20] Your reviews are what keep me coming back week after week to deliver these episodes. And it's definitely what attracts my amazing guests to come on this podcast and share their insights and their tips. If you leave us a review, I might read it. Like I'm going to read this one right now. I have one from Stick Stacks who says, I've listened to all the inventing related podcasts out there.
[00:36:40] And this one has become one of my favorites. While the toy industry is all about fun, it's also one of the most competitive when it comes to licensing inventions. It's great to be able to pick up little important details about the industry while driving around. And I'm really grateful for this wonderful content that could be you.
[00:36:54] So make sure you leave a rating or review wherever you're listening to this podcast. I get notified whenever I get a new one comes in and it puts a huge smile on my face. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there.
[00:37:08] So it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later, toy people.
[00:37:15] Thanks for listening to the 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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