Episode #157: In-Person Interviews with Entrepreneurs At Chicago Toy and Game Week [3 of 3]
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The Toy Coach Team ventured out to the windy city to set up a live podcast recording booth at Chicago Toy and Game Week, also known as CHITAG by Mary Couzin and People of Play. This annual, public toy and game fair is where toy and game brands connect with the consumers who love their products, debut new lines, and marketing activations.
During this 2 day fair, I interviewed 10 toy and game creators during this fair to learn about their toy journeys and ask them to share any toy biz wisdom they’d gathered along the way. This is Part 3 of a 3 part interview release series featuring my interviews with the founder of Tragos Carolina Acosta, who created the games company that works to remove the stigma of not being Latino enough" through cards that almost any Latin@ can identify with regardless of how much Spanish they speak or where they were born. After that, we'll go right into an interview with Fungisaurs a true augmented reality collectible toy and IP. And finally, we'll wrap up today's episode with Mary Kay Morrison, the author of the grandparent guidebook, Legacy of Laughter.
Watch the video of these 10 interviews on my YouTube channel, visit youtube.com/thetoycoach and hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss those.
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Order your copy of Tragos or Get Loud by clicking here.
Check out the toy that blew Carolina’s mind as a kid here.
Buy Legacy of Laughter by clicking here.
Check out the book that blew Mary Kay’s mind as a kid here.
Shop the Fungisaurs by clicking here.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making it in the Toy Industry, episode number 157.
[00:00:05] Hey there, toy people. Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach Podcast, making it in the Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. Today's podcast episode is part three of the three part series to complete this year of podcasting.
[00:00:38] Every episode in this season highlighted interviews that I conducted at a recent toy industry event, CHITAG. Which is the Chicago Toy and Game Fair that's held in Q4 every year. If you haven't heard part one or part two, go back and listen to those. It's at thetoycoach.com/155 and thetoycoach.com/156.
[00:01:04] This series features the interviews that I held in person, at CHITAG with 10 creators of toys, games, and even books. We did record full video for all of these interviews, and those videos are now available on YouTube, so head over to youtube.com/thetoycoach to check them out.
[00:01:28] For today's episode, I am excited to share with you three new interviews. First up, the founder of Tragos, Carolina Acosta, who created the games company that works to remove the stigma of not being Latino enough through cards that almost any Latino can identify with, regardless of how much Spanish they speak or where they were born. After that, we'll go right into an interview with the creator of Fungisaurs, which is a true augmented reality collectible toy and IP that you can care for like a tomagotchi. And finally, we'll wrap up today's episode with Mary Kay Morrison, the author of the Grandparent Guidebook, legacy of Laughter.
[00:02:15] Now in today's podcast episode, you're gonna learn what is essential for success. When launching a niche card game, you're gonna hear about how much money you'll need to raise to launch that children's toy line and animated TV show idea you've been holding onto, and you'll learn about a new must have book for grandparents out there. Keep in mind, these interviews were conducted in person at a toy trade show, so the background might be a bit noisy, but I stress the importance of in-person shows, and you will hear why in these interviews. So further ado, let's dive into the interviews held by me, the toy coach at CHITAG, the Chicago Toy and Game fair put on by People of Play and Mary Couzin.
[00:03:03] Hey there toy people. I'm here with Carolina Acosta, the founder and CEO of Tragos Games, the party games that celebrate Latin culture. Carolina, welcome to the show.
[00:03:13] Carolina Acosta: Thank you for having me.
[00:03:14] Azhelle Wade: I'm happy to have you here. Really excited. We actually just bought this game, Christian and I just bought Get Loud, so excited to talk about. So I dive into Tragos, but I wanna know how all of this began.
[00:03:27] Carolina Acosta: Well, , how did this start? Oh man. Okay. So we have to rewind to 2019. And it kind of starts with my own experience, with my own culture. I grew up in the US and my parents are both immigrants. So I'm first generation I'm half Colombian, half Dominican. But I never really kind of identified as Latina my whole life. Just do it really. Cause Yeah, just, you know, I was always called gringa the family, which means like the little white one.
[00:03:55] And I, I think it was kind of, you know, part of assimilation, you know, going to school and having to learn Spanish English at an early age, and then kind of forgetting, you know, your culture when you're surrounded by all these other cultures, especially in New York. Yeah. And so as an adult, I went to South America for the first time. I actually loved it so much. I ended up living there for a few months.
[00:04:17] Azhelle Wade: What?
[00:04:17] Carolina Acosta: Yeah. Wow. And it was the first time I could connect with my culture with the people, the food, like everything, the language. And I came back just like pretty much transformed. Okay. I feel like I can identify as this because I, I, I can relate a lot more than I thought I could. Right? And coming back to the US I felt like something was missing in my life. I didn't have that culture surrounding me like I did living in South America.
[00:04:43] And so a friend called me one day, I remember like it was yesterday, and he's like, what do you think of creating like a party game? And and like making it cultural. And he was talking about his his culture. He is Asian American and we really bonded over being just like ethnic . Yeah. And I was like, I love that.
[00:05:00] I'm gonna do it for me. And he's like, okay for me, but okay, we'll do it together, . So we both launched our games at the same time. I came out with Tragos. So it is a drinking game, but we recommend, you know, playing it with any beverage. They play with coffee. People sometimes play, you know, with wine, like depending on your age Of course.
[00:05:16] Yeah. And all the cards are just, you know, are relevant to things that people understand either growing up Latino or if you have Latino friends, there's a lot of overlap of other ethnic. And it's just like a fun time and something that we knew that wasn't really out there.
[00:05:32] Azhelle Wade: First of all, what does Tragos mean?
[00:05:34] Carolina Acosta: Tragos translates to drinks or cocktails in Spanish? Yes. And like I'm went very literal .
[00:05:42] Azhelle Wade: So what is so special about the cards in this game? Like, tell me, gimme some examples.
[00:05:46] Carolina Acosta: okay, so there's different cards that they all tell you what to do. Yeah. It's very self-explanatory. You pick up a card on your turn and every card has instructions. Okay? So this card, for example, is a trivia card, and this is where you ask everyone a question. Where do most Latinos put their pots and pans? Winner picks a player to take a sip. Ooh, do you know this?
[00:06:07] Azhelle Wade: Uhhuh well, my husband's Colombian still. I'm gonna say in the oven.
[00:06:12] Carolina Acosta: Yes. Okay. Yes. Exactly. So ridiculous. Um, You, I know what nothing else. I'm like, why wouldn't you put your pots and fans in the oven? Every card has something like that. It's like we all can relate to it. So it's funny cuz it's true. Yeah. And you know, we try to fill up the cards with references that all Latinos would understand, or all Spanish speakers might understand. Yeah. So another ones, if you grew up listening to Selena cheers to your favorite song. Take My Step.
[00:06:41] Azhelle Wade: Is that how you're supposed to pronounce that? Okay.
[00:06:43] Carolina Acosta: You say Selena too? I guess that's in Spanish, but Oh, yeah.
[00:06:47] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, como la borea sereia guess everybody said that.
[00:06:49] Carolina Acosta: That's a, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one.
[00:06:51] Azhelle Wade: Okay, so you have, this is the original Tragos and then Oh, oh, it's in Spanish?
[00:06:56] Carolina Acosta: Yes. The booster pack, the, we had two booster packs.
[00:06:59] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Okay. So what's just extra cards? Cause you played so much. Yes. You've done the cards three times. Mm-hmm. . Is that the complaint you got from people? They're like, I love this game, but I need more and then you.
[00:07:09] Carolina Acosta: Honestly no. People love playing this because every time they play they're usually playing with a different crowd, different relatives, different friends. Yeah. And so they're like, we play all the time. I'm like, you don't get bored . Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But you know, people always want something new, so we didn't. You know, just ride on one product and I think maybe I got bored. Yeah, that's probably what it was.
[00:07:28] Azhelle Wade: And then you came out with a booster?
[00:07:30] Carolina Acosta: Yes. Yeah.
[00:07:30] Azhelle Wade: Okay. And then what is this one? Spicy.
[00:07:33] Carolina Acosta: That one? That one's the adult one. Oh. So Tragos is more for, I'd say young adults to older adults. So a spicy was actually one that was requested by our consumer base. We did a survey. Everybody wanted this one. We were like, okay. Spicy. Yeah.
[00:07:51] Azhelle Wade: Is that an Spanglish?
[00:07:52] Carolina Acosta: It's a, yeah. All the games. In Spanglish, except for the one entirely in Spanish. Uhhuh because most of our audiences in the US.
[00:08:00] Azhelle Wade: Okay, cool. So, so tell me about how your consumers actually asked for this?
[00:08:05] Carolina Acosta: So this was a fun way to find out. We wanted to do a survey. So we have a big email base and we big social media following. And so we wanted to create a fun survey and we turned it into like a buzzfeed type quiz. So we said, what kind of party person are you? And so we created four different personalities. Are you like the cute, fun one? Are you the party animal? Yeah. Are you the this or that? And we kind of just kind of threw it in. Like what kind of game would you wanna see next?
[00:08:36] Azhelle Wade: Oh, like it was like part of the quiz.
[00:08:37] Carolina Acosta: Part of the quiz. Yeah.
[00:08:39] Azhelle Wade: So smart.
[00:08:40] Carolina Acosta: It was so fun.
[00:08:41] Azhelle Wade: That is some clever marketing. Wow.
[00:08:42] Carolina Acosta: It was, yeah. And you know, we also got to find out, you know, who do you play with? What, what, what do you like most of our games. Do you like that it's that you can play with your family? Do you like whatever? We had different, questions. And one of them was, which game would you like to see next? And we had four options. This was one of them, like a naughty pack. And that one won by a landslide. Wow. Yeah. And it was over a thousand answers.
[00:09:06] Azhelle Wade: Like how naughty is this naughty pack? Like would you play it with your parents?
[00:09:10] Carolina Acosta: No.
[00:09:11] Azhelle Wade: Okay.
[00:09:13] Carolina Acosta: Not at all. .
[00:09:16] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Alright. We're gonna keep that one over here. I wanna talk a little bit about the growth of Tragos how did you get so popular?
[00:09:22] Carolina Acosta: Yeah. Okay. So I, I'd say we came at the perfect time. it was a culmination of many things happening. It was a cultural. Kind of happening that was going on in social media. I think with millennials and Gen Z now they're becoming more comfortable with multiple identities and kind of speaking out to, basically that like, like having multiple cultures, like being, yeah.
[00:09:46] Yeah. Because I think, you know, when, when growing up, you know, we would have to assimilate and feel like, like we were. The American culture because that's what our parents were trying to do as immigrants. And I think now with social media and kind of expanding even with new gender identities, people feel comfortable saying, yes, I am American, I am Texan, I am Mexican.
[00:10:09] And that goes for, you know, the whole country. Yeah. So I think me, like my story resonated with so many people on social media right away. That was one. Another thing is we all do like party games. I think that's been a rising industry. Just games, board games in general and also social media just made it so easy to reach the masses and find our audience very easily, like the Latino, the US Latinos that we were targeting.
[00:10:37] Azhelle Wade: When you were marketing your game, were you sharing your story and how were you sharing your story?
[00:10:41] Carolina Acosta: You know, I was actually very shy about my story. Yeah. At first, I think the reason why it resonated with people so much was more the content in the cards.
[00:10:50] Oh, okay. Like they were cards that say, You know, if you're Latino, but don't speak Spanish, take a sip. And it's not like to feel bad about it. The whole point was you're embracing all parts of the culture. Right. And so I think people resonated with a lot of things that I felt were coming personally for me, right.
[00:11:06] As opposed to the story which came on later with PR and, you know, more opportunities like that. So I'd say our, our branding was really big. The first ads we ever did were Photoshop mocks that I made. Like, you know, just like using a little template. I didn't even have the game yet. I just had a Photoshop file that looked like a game. And I, and I like, you know, wrote out the ideas of the cards that we first had, but I only had like, maybe 10 cards to start with.
[00:11:35] Wow. And when we had a pre-order and showed, you know, that people were interested, then we bought her. Inventory. Wow. Which is why I was able to self-fund it and we didn't need any, you know, funding before.
[00:11:45] Azhelle Wade: So you didn't do like an official Kickstarter. You did like your own kind of a pre-order, like you managed the pre-orders?
[00:11:51] Carolina Acosta: Mm-hmm. , like wow. Yeah. All we did was post on Shopify. Only expense we had were Facebook ads. On a credit card. Yeah. You know, I was, fingers crossed, I was praying. I was like, oh God, I've not, I did not tell my parents about this. They would've freaked out. I was doing freelance graphic design at the time too, so I didn't even have a steady job. I was just like, okay, God. Like, let's see if this works. And what.
[00:12:13] Azhelle Wade: Did you test this with your friends? There must have been something that gave you confidence that it was gonna work?
[00:12:18] Carolina Acosta: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. It was definitely. Like a, a product we put a lot of love into because it wasn't just me coming up with the cards. I had a spreadsheet. I sent it to my cousin, my family, like anyone who I knew was Hispanic. Really? I was like, do you relate to this? Do you relate to this? Like, does your mom do this or is it just me?
[00:12:38] And everyone's like, oh my God, like, yes. That's so funny. And again, it was just the content that we really like, loved. And the best part was I have so many friends from different backgrounds. Yeah. That, you know, I knew all the Colombians would understand, all the Ecuadorians, all the Mexicans. Yeah. And so that's what I loved. It was so diverse and that's why that's, I guess that's where I got the confidence.
[00:13:00] Azhelle Wade: Okay. And then this game, what inspired Get Loud?
[00:13:05] Carolina Acosta: I think my age. We launched, what is it last year? The tagline is Lamare of all word games. That translates just to like the mother. The mother of all the mother, yeah. . Yeah. And I think we were playing th Argos for so long. Sometimes we would get hangovers. No, I'm not gonna lie, . And also, you know, a lot of people we would meet in our, our community Latino population is huge, you know?
[00:13:31] Yeah. And we felt like we were kind of not really representing the people who don't drink or. You know, and also kids, which they're a huge part of all of our families. And I, you know, my little cousins, my niece should, they'd be like, can we play? We're like, no . So this is definitely for the kids. So get loud.
[00:13:52] Azhelle Wade: How do you play?
[00:13:53] Carolina Acosta: It's a bilingual guessing game, so if you've ever played. Heads up or even charades. It works like that. Okay, so you have a timer, one minute, and you have cards with words on them, and all the words come in English and Spanish.
[00:14:07] Azhelle Wade: Why? What's on the back and the front? I just realized there's like.
[00:14:09] Carolina Acosta: So blue and green are harder words. Okay. Orange and, and red are easier for the kids. Okay. Okay. So yeah, so we can play multiple ways, but I usually play it like taboo. So when I flip the timer Yeah. Then I just describe it and you have to guess the word correctly. Oh, okay. Okay. So this is what I use to wash in the shower or to wash my hands.
[00:14:34] Azhelle Wade: Soap.
[00:14:34] Carolina Acosta: Yeah. So, yeah. So you guys sold, that would be a point for you. Nice. But then you could also play like, all right, you're practicing your Spanish. How would you say it in Spanish?
[00:14:42] Azhelle Wade: I don't, but I just saw it. So now I know it is jabón right. Okay. Yeah, but I didn't, I didn't know that.
[00:14:47] Carolina Acosta: So then there, there.
[00:14:48] Azhelle Wade: I would've said Sopa.
[00:14:49] Carolina Acosta: That's , that's soup . You're working, you're.
[00:14:56] Azhelle Wade: I know other words. Try me again. Okay. So it could just be flashcards.
[00:15:00] Carolina Acosta: It could be flashcards. And that's what a lot of people have been using them for, just to kind of practice their Spanish or English at home, especially in bilingual households. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. So how would you say. To think?
[00:15:12] Azhelle Wade: I'm thinking, pensar.
[00:15:14] Carolina Acosta: Yes. Mm-hmm. That's a point.
[00:15:15] Azhelle Wade: Yes. Thank you.
[00:15:17] Carolina Acosta: You, you're doing good. Okay. How would you say almond?
[00:15:22] Azhelle Wade: No idea. Never used that word. Al Mano, no. , no idea. Um, Almond. No, I saw some of these words don't have a translation, so I was hoping it was one of those.
[00:15:34] Carolina Acosta: That's That's a good, that's a good point. Yeah. Some of them are the same word, like chihuahua is the same.
[00:15:39] Azhelle Wade: Oh, okay. What, how do you say almond?
[00:15:40] Carolina Acosta: Almendra.
[00:15:41] Azhelle Wade: Almendra. I was close.
[00:15:43] Carolina Acosta: You were close. you said almendro or something. You made up a new name.
[00:15:47] Azhelle Wade: I did. Almendra.
[00:15:50] Carolina Acosta: Okay. You know this one. What? How do you say cheers?
[00:15:55] Azhelle Wade: Salute.
[00:15:56] Carolina Acosta: Yes. Okay. right. Yeah.
[00:16:00] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Yes. So you use this as a game or a splash card? Yes. I'm glad we bought this one. Yeah. I make it feel so good. Yeah. So what are you gonna come up with next to teach me conjugations?
[00:16:09] Carolina Acosta: I, I literally was thinking of that yesterday. Yes. I've met a lot of kids that are learning Spanish and school, and they're from all backgrounds and they're like, can I use, can I play this and make sentences? That would be hard. Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's definitely a big space, you know, for like language learning games. Yeah. So I might, might dabble in that. Think about that. We'll see.
[00:16:33] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, I would use that. I listen to like a Spotify playlist where they tell you all the. The conjugations that I literally am just listening to a person reciting every word in every tense.
[00:16:41] Carolina Acosta: Yeah. No, that's, no. You need something more interactive.
[00:16:44] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna connect it to a core feeling. Mm-hmm. or memory, that'll help me remember it better.
[00:16:50] Carolina Acosta: I have some ideas, but we can wrap them. Yes. Still under wraps. Yeah. Speaker.
[00:16:54] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Yeah. I wanna wrap up, I wanna ask you closing questions, but before I do. For anybody out there that has an idea for a game. Okay. Cause that's what you did. Yeah. What advice would you give them taking into consideration that things are different from when you started? We were talking off camera before this about how Facebook ads have changed the game and both of, in both of our businesses. Yeah. She had to completely change how she did Facebook ads to change my business as well. Now that you see the, the way the world is now, the way social media is now, what advice would you give for someone starting today?
[00:17:23] Carolina Acosta: I mean, today I would a hundred percent recommend TikTok. It's the new Google. It's, you know, where everybody find. how to do anything like tutorials, like gift ideas. Yeah. How to, you know, even starting a business, there's all these channels that will be like a lawyer saying exactly what you should do. Yeah. I've seen a lot of things blow up on TikTok. We're still, we kind of got in there a little slow. My team, like we're all like in our thirties, older millennials. Yeah. Yeah. And so we're like, okay, like how do we do this? You know, people are still trying to figure it out, but I think it's such a, an important resource to leverage right now.
[00:17:59] Yeah. More than anything. And then I'd say like as far as building it out, I mean, yeah, I learned how to create and manufacture a game just by Googling things. Yeah. But there are all these resources that I've learned that I wish I had before. There's women in Toys, and there's all these you know, Facebook groups. I would, I would say don't be scared to reach out to anybody that you know that might have an idea, because I, I think I try to do a lot by myself. And when I did bring on a team, it was very fast paced.
[00:18:29] And I, I didn't really think through exactly what my business needed long term. Right. I always thought short term. So it may seem a little like hard, but I think games are like one of the easiest things you can make. I think the hardest part is marketing. Yeah. And finding the right market fit and making sure that, you know, your game isn't gonna be in a saturated space where you might make a game specifically for two to four year olds, but the game industry might say, oh, we already have two to four year old games this year. Yeah. So really like consider that and, and I guess also be passionate about like why this game? Like what is. What is it that's, you know, is it your kids that like, absolutely love it? Cuz I've seen success stories like that. It's great.
[00:19:14] Azhelle Wade: It's like the passion and the why behind it. Like you had a really clear reason behind this.
[00:19:18] Carolina Acosta: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's why we found such great market fit. But I know other people that they're like, I have this game. I've had it for years, but I don't know what to do with them. Like, , then maybe it's not, it's time or yeah, maybe you gotta talk to more people, so, yeah.
[00:19:31] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. It sounds like you did a lot of really great research just in your content creation process. You ended up doing like market research for your product itself.
[00:19:38] Carolina Acosta: Right. Because I think I had a very strong understanding of my specific audience. Yeah. So we're very niche and I think that's where we definitely excelled in.
[00:19:46] Azhelle Wade: Congratulations. When you were a kid, what toy blew your mind? Or game ?
[00:19:52] Carolina Acosta: Oh my God. I was obsessed with Candy Land. Obsessed. Why? I love the colors. I don't know. I thought the little, like characters were so well designed. I mean, I, looking back, obviously, I, I wouldn't think as a four year old I'm like, oh, so well designed. Yeah. But , but I just. So well, I, I, I drove my brother crazy. I'm like, let's play Candy Land. He's like, oh, oh. Again.
[00:20:15] Azhelle Wade: You remember when you were little, like how used to feel like?
[00:20:17] Carolina Acosta: A hundred percent. That's so crazy. Yeah. Wait, what was yours? I'm curious.
[00:20:22] Azhelle Wade: Oh, I loved Polly Pockets. I was obsessed. Oh yes. I also liked things where I could like build a city, so I would set my pockets up in a neighborhood. Aw. Yeah. And then they had like little cars that would ride them around their neighborhood. I was like, oh, I love that. Make a. Day I'd be like, so they'd go to school morning. A morning had whole set of everyone. It was like, it was a neighborhood.
[00:20:39] Carolina Acosta: Did you have the carpet with the roads on it?
[00:20:41] Azhelle Wade: I, the carpet with the roads on it?
[00:20:43] Carolina Acosta: It was like a big rug where we used to drive.
[00:20:45] Azhelle Wade: Well, I use like kitchen table. Okay. So I would just like make rows of houses like, mom, don't touch my city. Yeah. It was, I had to clean it up before dinner time. It would Aw. So I'd start like really early. Yeah. I would spend like hours setting it up and then like only like an hour playing. It's so silly. That's determination. Yeah. I'm like building things. I love that. Well, thanks for coming on the show. Yeah, thank you. Amazing. It was a pleasure. I'm excited to take this home and play with it. Thank you.
[00:21:09] Carolina Acosta: Oh my gosh. I can't wait for you guys to play.
[00:21:11] Azhelle Wade: Oh, thank you.
[00:21:11] -----
[00:21:11] Azhelle Wade: Hey, there toy people. I'm here with Aiman Akhtar 3D animation artist at Nickelodeon Studios who created on his own Fungisaurs cute little toy dinosaurs that come alive in virtual reality. Aiman, welcome to the show.
[00:21:26] Aiman Akhtar: Thank you for having me.
[00:21:27] Azhelle Wade: Thank you for being, here. Yeah. I'm excited d to dive into your brand. You I've gotta say one of the coolest setups here you created a whole jungle. in your trade show booth. So I wanna talk about why you decided to come to this trade show. But first, let's dive into your toy story. Have you always known you would get into kind of the toy and animation field?
[00:21:47] Aiman Akhtar: That's a great question to start. So I grew up in Pakistan. I was always playing with toys. Like I was that kid that was always and just off in my own world, obsessed with animation and toys. Right? Like Heman, Thundercats, GI Joes, you know, transformers. I played with all those toys and watched the shows.
[00:22:04] Yeah. So growing up I kind of knew I wanted to be a creative and in that vein, yeah. And. When I started getting into my career as in animation it naturally led me to being a sculptor. And then from there it led me to, Hey, let's make my own thing so toys.
[00:22:22] Can, can we talk a little bit about the pro, the process of becoming an animator?
[00:22:26] Cause I don't know anything about that. No, that's fair. That's a great idea. Yeah. So
[00:22:28] what do you, what'd you
[00:22:29] study? Animation. So I actually studied here in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I did a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Tech, focusing on animation. The Art. Art Institute is a lovely school, the School of the Art Institute for learning everything.
[00:22:43] So I bounced around from like fashion illustration to welding, to sculpting and carving with wood. Yeah, to primarily focusing on working on digital art out of computers. And I prepared a whole demo reel and a website for all the things I could. do. So modeling something in 3D and Maya texturing it and painting it.
[00:23:03] Being able to rig it and Learning the whole process. You know, that's what you should do if you want to get into animation now, is figure out, do you wanna do 2d, do you wanna do stop motion, do you wanna do 3d? And I really wanted to do 3d. Yeah. So I learned how to be a generalist. And from there I bounced around various studios and jobs until I got to where I wanted to be.
[00:23:23] Azhelle Wade: What was like the first job you had in animation?
[00:23:26] Aiman Akhtar: So, the first thing I ever got, Chicago is primarily a advertising hub of the us they test all the products in the Midwest cuz if it does well in the Midwest, it'll do well everywhere. So a lot of ad agencies like Leo Burnett, a lot of jobs for like McDonald's secret deodorant.
[00:23:42] I was working on Harley Davidson projects for a couple of years. So A lot of their art is now 3D because it makes a lot more sense to put the bikes together in three. and shoot them digitally. Interesting. With like real photography based lighting backgrounds.
[00:23:54] Right. Than just to assemble a bite, put it on a truck, get it on location, shoot it in somewhere new, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So that's one of my first jobs as I started learning through advertising. Yeah. A lot of agency work. And then from there, I made the move from Chicago to LA about eight years ago. Left advertising behind and started doing vfx, so working on movies and started working on concept art. And from there I bounced tech and games and stop motion animation. Yeah. And a lot of 3D printing. Yeah. And then from that to Nickelodeon animation where I'm at now.
[00:24:26] Azhelle Wade: We're gonna get to Fungisaurs. please. I have a few questions. Please, please, for animation, please keep going. Keep going. , I love animated movies, and I, I studied a little tiny bit, like a few classes. Sure. And like solid works, mostly rhino, things like that. So I I can kind of see how much effort goes into just making one figure and I can't even imagine animating it and rigging it. Yeah. So from what I've researched about an like animated you might do. like A a five minute portion of a movie? Is that how it works?
[00:24:53] Aiman Akhtar: It depends. So yeah, if you're an animator, yeah. Your job is to, you know, take assets that have been built and just move them and take a picture, move them, take a picture, move them, take a picture, and that process.
[00:25:04] Yeah, you can maybe get one second of animation a day. So it's a, it's a very lengthy process. , I'm on the production art side now. I'm a creative director. Okay. But like, I'm on the production side most of my career in which I make the asset. So my primary job is as a sculptor. Okay. So I make the character sets and props that then will get used and animated in part of the process pipeline.
[00:25:25] Yeah. Oh. So there's, in animation, it's a very collaborative medium. It's, if you work with the whole team, you only do a very small part of the. process. So you're either modeling or you're texturing. Or you're rigging, or you're animating. It's great to learn everything to start, yes. But when you get into a professional pipeline, you're gonna be doing just one thing very well.
[00:25:43] Azhelle Wade: And is the part that you are doing like the most, like freedom and creative, it seems like, cuz you get to sculpt, you kind Get to start from scratch, whereas everybody else has like a baseline to like, okay, I have to light this really well. or I have to rig this really well, But you get to be part of like the concept art, like you said.
[00:25:59] Aiman Akhtar: That's actually a great question. So I guess I'm still part of like the early part of the process. Yeah. But before me are all the 2D artists, you know, that I cannot describe enough how vital their role is. They're the true creators Oh, because they work with the writers and like the directors to create the initial vision. Yeah, so they create the key art, the concept art, the storyboards and all of that is what I used to build, build off of. However, my job primarily is to understand what the director's vision is. Yeah. And what the 2D artist's vision is, and then translate that appeal, that appealing beautiful 2D drawing.
[00:26:34] Yeah. Into an appealing. 3D shape. Yeah. And that took a while to train my eye for Oh. Because it's a very complicated process to distill that appeal of something 2D and make it 3d. Yeah. It's okay. It's doable to make something look good from one angle. Yeah. But making it look good for every angle is a hard challenge.
[00:26:49] Azhelle Wade: In toy design mm-hmm. , for me, I've always been in a situation where I sketch it and I'm involved most of the way. Yeah. Until it's on shelf. Yeah. So I always wondered with the animation, what it feels like as a person who's a part of it, but you've only Been a part of it for the small part, and then you go maybe a movie or the premiere and you see it and you're like, when did all that other stuff happen? ? Like, I was spending the last, that's actually two years doing this.
[00:27:10] Aiman Akhtar: That's really fun. Actually, the best part of working in animation is the people. Yeah. It's getting to see something that you were a part of come alive, Oh. and so to me, I'm. creating these characters. I'm like a real big part of the initial props and sets and character creation. Yeah. But I don't feel like I breathe life into it. That's really the animators, because they actually move it, you know?
[00:27:32] Azhelle Wade: That's so cool.
[00:27:33] Aiman Akhtar: Yeah. And it's lovely to see something that you've helped create, having a life of its song. Yes. That's kind of what I love about making my own brand.
[00:27:40] Azhelle Wade: Yes. So, where'd you come up with the idea for fungisaurs?
[00:27:43] Aiman Akhtar: So the idea for Fungisaurs came up out of In and Out Burger.
[00:27:47] Azhelle Wade: What?
[00:27:48] Aiman Akhtar: That's the best place of all the birthplace of all the ideas in California. I went to Yosemite National Park. Yeah. And on the drive back, like a really rainy season. So I saw a lot of mushroom and fungi popping up everywhere. And so I picked up a mushroom hunting catalog, and as a sculptor, I was just drawn to the shapes because they're such beautiful organic shapes.
[00:28:05] I didn't know anything about mushrooms at the time, except that, oh, I eat them, you but, or I don't eat them. That's all I know. Yeah. Yeah. But I was really intrigued by the beautiful organic shapes. And then on the drive back down to, LA We stopped in and out Burger. They gave us some dinosaur stickers because they had a thing going on, like a promotion or something.
[00:28:22] And I had the dinosaur stickers in the mushroom hunting catalog sitting in front of me, and I started sketching all these hybrid characters and I was like, there's a lot here, . Oh, and this deserves to be made into. you know, Something that can make an impact.
[00:28:37] Azhelle Wade: And this is like, it's expandable.
[00:28:39] Aiman Akhtar: It's so expandable because there's, you know, dinosaurs run for 150 million years. They're evergreen. People love them. Yeah. You know, I grew up, before Pokemon, I memorized thousands of dinosaur names. Really? I was that kid. right?
[00:28:50] Azhelle Wade: I had a, I had a dinosaur VHS that like, I don't remember what it was called, but I was obsessed with it. Right. It was just like an educational cartoon about dinosaurs.
[00:28:58] Aiman Akhtar: Yeah. And we're fascinated by that world and like these lumbering around the planet. And so dinosaurs are fascinating. Si. Jurassic Park. And even before land, before time, there's so much there, right? Yeah. But then I started looking at fungi even closer and they've been around for 3 billion years.
[00:29:14] Oh really? They turned the rocks on this planet into dirt so the plants could take hold. The first 30 foot tall structures weren't trees. They were fungi. Shut up the largest organism right now. And the oldest are fungi. Interesting. And there's, they do so much for the environment. They Filter water, they get rid of toxins, they get rid of after oils spill, after radiation spill. Fungi are the first thing that clean up so other things can grow. Interesting. They do so much bioremediation, Uhhuh, that I realize this is an amazing opportunity to create an animated show, a series, a whole. Showing kids that, hey, climate change is happening. It's real. Yeah. But there's something that can be done about it. And so what if I make magical creatures that do just that based on real world science?
[00:29:57] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Love that. Yeah. So tell me about these magical creatures. Who am I looking at right here? Who's this?
[00:30:01] Aiman Akhtar: So this is one of my favorite characters called a paradox. Uhhuh . It's based on the amanita muscaria mushroom, the famous Mario mushroom with the red and white dots. You know, Uhhuh Uhhuh , and a parasaurolophus. which is a real dinosaur. I haven't never heard of that before. . Okay. And so all of the fungus stores are specific dinosaurs combined with specific fungi to create beautiful, appealing shapes.
[00:30:21] Yeah. And fun characters. This is one of my favorite characters because he is got the perpetual puppy eyes. He's just like, Ooh, you know? Yeah. cute.
[00:30:29] And to me, like all of the fungus stores are, you know, create, created in like a math science experiment. Okay. They get, they get out, they spore like mushrooms, they land somewhere ideal.
[00:30:41] They start growing, they start sprouting legs and they start walking around. That's cool. And then they get bigger and bigger and bigger. So all of the fungus stores toys are like little baby characters. Uhhuh, , and the essence of the stories and the animation that I'm building. yeah. Is these babies need to be, you know, us humans.
[00:30:59] Kids need to find these creatures and take them to somewhere more ideal where they can then grow and then shape the environment and kind of rewild spaces.
[00:31:07] Azhelle Wade: Your, you have an iPad here with like an app? Is there an app that does that?
[00:31:11] Aiman Akhtar: So that's actually, thank you for the amazing segue. Yeah. Because when I started. Playing with toys as a kid. Yeah. Yeah. It was toys and then animation. Right, right. But now more and more there's games and the games are so interactive. Yeah. They're so fun. They're so appealing that I was like, you know what? If I'm starting a thing as a sculptor, primarily I'm gonna start with toys.
[00:31:31] Yeah. So four years ago we did a Kickstarter. We made these eight characters. It's a mystery box set, so you get one of these eight characters in the set. Okay. Paradox is one of my favorites, but
[00:31:41] There's eight characters in the set and we made an app to bring them to life in augmented reality. So if you go, it's a free app called Fungisaurs. Aris, this is beautiful. They're all animated characters. You can see them all. I'm gonna try to bring it all closer to the camera, despite, it might be tough to see on the screen.
[00:31:55] You can actually play with them as virtual pets. So you can select each character, you can interact with them here, right? There's also a mode I wanna interact with them, please. Yeah. Huh. Let's see. So there's, you know, you can tap swipe, hold interactions, you can do an AR play once you select. them. Walk them around, feed them, do dance parties and things like that.
[00:32:15] There's also a mode where you can do Aris, and this is the thing that's most exciting to me because I wanted to do the next level of physical to digital technology. Uhhuh . Like Skylanders, a Mebo, Disney, infinity. Yeah. I wanted the toys to come alive. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. So what we figured out in our startup is, Object tracking to bring the toys to life.
[00:32:33] No need for chips or you know, R F I D chips or anything tags in the toys. Okay. You can just go to Aris and an outline of the toy comes up. You select whichever toy you get outta the mystery box. And once you line up the toy, he comes alive. Oh. And you can start interacting with this character Now. Tap swipe, hold interactions. You can feed them different things.
[00:32:53] Azhelle Wade: This is awesome.
[00:32:54] Aiman Akhtar: you can shower them. , you can pet them. So we created like a virtual pet. game, You know, like a tamagotchi, but for a new generation. In which the toys themselves are interactive.
[00:33:05] Azhelle Wade: Does he have like food levels? Like he's hungry.
[00:33:08] Aiman Akhtar: He's just got a happiness meter. Oh, happiness And so you can like keep him happy or sad, but because it's all object crack. Yeah. I can move the toy around and interact with it and it's all happening live. That's so cool. And so what I dig about this is it opens up a whole new world of toy interactivity That no one's really doing. And as an independent startup, I wanted to push the bounds of this, like how far can we take it? So now we're working on a board game where we figured out cards, working with the object tracking of the toys based on proximity. And it's really cutting edge stuff.
[00:33:40] Azhelle Wade: How much of this development did you do? Like, did You do all of the 3d rendering features?
[00:33:45] Aiman Akhtar: I did all the 3D models. I did a lot of the textures, I did a lot of the rigging. And then I brought out other Riggs. I brought on other animators, including some of the a but.
[00:33:53] Azhelle Wade: And funding. Was it all from the Kickstarter?
[00:33:55] Aiman Akhtar: No, we did a startup. So we did initial fund Kickstarter. We only raised 20 k. That's what we were going for. And we raised like 22. and I was happy and that's what helped us put half the funds and then the other half for the toys.
[00:34:05] Yay. We put ourselves and we made toys, we made 16,000 toys. And then we started working on the app. The app we partnered with Octagon Studios that are developers out of Indonesia and Ireland To do the programming. And we provided a lot of the assets so that they could help us build our vision out.
[00:34:21] Azhelle Wade: how'd you find them?
[00:34:21] Aiman Akhtar: At Augmented World Expo. So I started doing a lot of expo with the toys and saying, here, this is my vision. This is what I wanna happen, and I wanna do it independently because I wanna retain. control. I Wanna build a brand, I wanna do something that can make an impact. Great stories, I don't wanna just estimate a show. yeah, yeah. yeah. I wanna make something complete.
[00:34:39] Azhelle Wade: So, wait, is a show coming?
[00:34:41] Aiman Akhtar: It is eventually .
[00:34:42] Azhelle Wade: Okay. No, I mean, you've got a lot on your hands.
[00:34:44] Aiman Akhtar: No, we've already gotten writers. We've put together a whole animat like a. Five minute pitch for the show. We've done like a, it's 2D yard that is sequential. We did composing, we did voice actors.
[00:34:55] Azhelle Wade: How are you Fungisaurs put it all together?
[00:34:56] Aiman Akhtar: A lot of, through my own efforts and my own jobs. So I do work for companies like Nickelodeon. Yeah. And I put a lot of the funding into my own projects. Wow. And we've been a, a Delaware. Incorporated seed stage startup for about a couple of years now.
[00:35:10] We started in 2019 2020 technically is when we officially launched the startup. So far we've raised about, I think 150 K, 200 K in FI financing, but that's not enough because this is about, I mean, this is like five, 600 k worth of work, so, oh my gosh. A lot of people believe in me because of the amount of effort I put.
[00:35:27] into it, And so they are willing to take a chance on equity over something like this because they understand that I'm not going to stop until I build this thing to the heights that I want to. Yeah. So we started with the toys. We've got the game now. It's out free for iOS and Android. You can download Fungisaurs ARise. The more toys you collect, the more you scan in, the more populate into the game.
[00:35:46] Azhelle Wade: Oh, so it's empty when you first start.
[00:35:48] Aiman Akhtar: It's empty. You get one character to start and you have to scan them in.
[00:35:51] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's great.
[00:35:51] Aiman Akhtar: And you actually scan the. toys And then they get added to your list and then now you can play with them. Right. That's so fun. And so we're leveraging a lot of this new technology, trying to create something really cool. And now my goal is to children's books, animated content like TikTok and like actual shows to make people fall in love with these characters. Cause no one knows about Fungisaurs yet.
[00:36:12] I've been doing a lot of this development on my own. We are in about 170 stores now. We sold about 10,000 toys.
[00:36:18] Azhelle Wade: What kind of stores?
[00:36:19] Aiman Akhtar: A toy store. So like in Chicago, we're in Rota. Fugi in like California, a lot of The west coast cuz I'm based out of la We're in the West coast in Utah and Colorado in the Pacific North West. So independent toy stores.
[00:36:30] Azhelle Wade: What do you find as a benefit of Comington an in-person show like this, like CHITAG?
[00:36:34] Aiman Akhtar: So that's my main purpose is to come to independent shows. Get the word out about my. brand. Get small toy stores, tocar. We're not on Amazon yet. We're not going to Target or Walmart or any big stores yet. We want to just do a ground swell independently. Yeah, yeah. Kind of like Mushroom do, like they kind of grow their mycelium roots and get a really strong base.
[00:36:55] Azhelle Wade: I love what you've become like a mushroom expert. Like this is hilarious.
[00:36:58] Aiman Akhtar: They're fascinating. You know, there's like, so much of the conversation around dinosaurs is like, oh, they're big and. So much of the conversation around mushrooms is like, oh, they're food, or they're psychedelic, and like, no, that's 1% of mushrooms. Right? There's so many more .
[00:37:13] Azhelle Wade: Well, I love the passion here. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. Where can people find you where are you online?
[00:37:19] Aiman Akhtar: So Fungisaurs.com. Fungisaurs on Instagram. We're gonna start doing more tos and more tubing and stuff over this coming year, all of up till the development up to this point has been independently done as side project. almost, you know? Right. We've done a lot. We've done more than most people do full-time because of the passion, like you said, you know?
[00:37:36] Yeah. But now it's time to get, you know, more and more full-time on this project growing it to the heights. You know, one day I can imagine. Not just a show, a theme park, maybe.
[00:37:45] Always shoot for the stars. Like the purpose of coming to shows like this is to make the connections. Get the word out there about your brand and the thing you want to. build. You can license your invention or your brand to other companies that are a better suited to get it out or you can double down on doing it yourself. Yeah, and I always recommend do whatever you can yourself.
[00:38:05] Azhelle Wade: I mean, congratulations. How's the show been for you?
[00:38:08] Aiman Akhtar: So far so great. I think we'll make the boot costume them day.
[00:38:10] Azhelle Wade: So far so great. I love that. Thanks so much. I appreciate the encouragement.
[00:38:13] Aiman Akhtar: Always encourage your independent creators and people like this, like if you come to these shows just as a guest or you know, just to, to come check out the cool stuff. Yeah. It goes a long way for brands to just buy a little toy or give them encouragement, because that is, yeah, for small creators like us, it's everything, you know.
[00:38:29] Azhelle Wade: Has, has anyone tried to buy you out early on that you were just like, no, no, no. I'm growing this big. I'm growing this big?
[00:38:33] Aiman Akhtar: I'm not gonna name names, but Yeah. But. But I'm not interested. I wanna really make something that makes an impact and inspire a next generation of kids with great entertainment.
[00:38:42] Azhelle Wade: It's hard, like when you let a company buy you out, like you don't know if the integrity will get held.
[00:38:47] Aiman Akhtar: I don't want like to make a traditional kids boys brand or a girls brand Yeah. Fit into any of these categories or boxes. I wanna make something that transcends, you know, welcomes the weird. that Allows people to be themselves and bring themselves into it. That's why this virtual pet game doesn't have clear instructions what to do.
[00:39:08] Azhelle Wade: So you can just explore?
[00:39:09] Aiman Akhtar: You can explore, you can raise your pets, how you would wanna raise your pets, right? And that's really the fun of it. Imaginative play is, And enabling it It's all about letting your kids do what they would do normally anyway.
[00:39:21] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you for being here today. I think.
[00:39:24] Aiman Akhtar: Thank you for having me.
[00:39:24] Azhelle Wade: Invite you back in the future. Cause I could see awards in your future. We're gonna have to talk again soon.
[00:39:30] Aiman Akhtar: Happy to be back and do this again.
[00:39:32] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, yeah. It was a pleasure. It was great meeting you.
[00:39:34] -----
[00:39:34] Azhelle Wade: Hey there, toy people. I'm here with Mary Kay Morrison, a former kindergarten teacher and an author who has been studying neuroscience and humor in the way, so they work together. So, we're Here today she's showing me some of the previous books that she's authored, but then today, today we're talking about the legacy of Laughter. This is a book that Mary Kay developed with her 12 grandchildren. Very welcome to the show.
[00:39:58] Mary Kay Morrison: Thank you so much. Yeah. It's such a joy to be here.
[00:40:00] Azhelle Wade: I'm excited to have you here and learn more about what you're doing and what you're creating. So tell me about laughter and how it affects the mind . Yeah.
[00:40:10] Mary Kay Morrison: I'm so glad you asked. Yes. We have been studying humor, Uhhuh and the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, which I belong to. Okay. I'm past president, so I've been studying for about 40 years. Wow. Ever since I was a kindergarten teacher, as you mentioned, I became concerned. They were taking play and laughter out of the classroom. Really. And so I started learning about the brain and how we learn. Yeah. And so my first book is written with teachers with ideas for the classroom.
[00:40:41] Azhelle Wade: That's this one?
[00:40:42] Aiman Akhtar: That's that one. Okay. You Using humor to maximize learning. Uhhuh . So we share ideas on how to bring play and laughter into the classroom.
[00:40:50] Azhelle Wade: So I wanna talk a little bit about that first. Okay. So what was happening while you were teaching in kindergarten that made you feel like humor was being taken out of the equation? What happened?
[00:41:00] Mary Kay Morrison: Well, they making these little kids take tests and sit down in their desk and they, most of them don't even know how to, you know, read or hold a pencil very well at that age. And I knew it wasn't age appropriate really. So I decided to study further about the science of how we learn. Yeah. And laughter and play in the classroom. And so the last 40 years concentrating on how we learn best and we know that play and laughter are very helpful for brain development.
[00:41:33] Azhelle Wade: Can you tell me some, like are, I don't know if there are like key lessons that you could break down maybe from this original book? I'm just curious what were your main like three findings with how you can inject Humor into learning?
[00:41:45] Mary Kay Morrison: Well, one of the things is understanding your own humor style and what's comfortable with Okay. So there's actually part of the book that talks about how you can evaluate how you use humor. Okay. And how you can improve your sense of humor.
[00:41:58] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Oh, improve your sense of humor. . So that just means like, stop being a stick in the mud. I think it's great.
[00:42:04] Mary Kay Morrison: Is it actually what we say is it's not about being funny. Okay. It's about seeing funny. Oh, I like that. So, how do you change your mindset so that whatever happens to you in life. Yeah. Even if it's something horrible that you can start to see the funny in it. We know that once you're able to laugh about something, you know you're starting to cope.
[00:42:26] Azhelle Wade: Oh, interesting. So this book was written for teachers?
[00:42:30] Mary Kay Morrison: With teachers.
[00:42:31] Azhelle Wade: right. Oh, with teachers. But who's it for?
[00:42:33] Mary Kay Morrison: It's for teachers, I was working at a regional Office of Education, Uhhuh. . And so I went to over 200 schools and worked with the teacher. And so one of my goals was to help implement humor and play into the classroom. So I had some principals and teachers who encouraged me and who actually shared ideas with me so that we could share that with the general public.
[00:42:57] Azhelle Wade: So with the lessons here, finding your sense of humor, are you trying to help create more lighthearted teachers so that they will just naturally bring that into the classroom? Right. Is that the goal?
[00:43:08] Mary Kay Morrison: Right. Really we study the benefits of using humor. Okay. There's many benefits to using humor, not just in the classroom, but for you and I personally and professionally. How, how do you bring more humor into your life, Uhhuh, , and laughter into your life? Okay, so there's actually strategies that you can use Uhhuh, . One of first understanding how what your sense of humor is.
[00:43:28] And how You use humor. And so there's steps in the book Yeah. to identify that and actually taking a look at how you use humor on a daily basis. Yeah. Everybody has a different humor style uhhuh and uses humor in a different way. And so we want people to encourage people to what makes them laugh. And how they bring humor into their own lives.
[00:43:53] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. I wanna read this review from Ronald, a Burke, a PhD, professor of biostatistics. He said, in a nutshell, Mary Kay Morrison captures some of the most positive research arguments and compelling reasons for teachers to use humor in their teaching and their lives.
[00:44:09] And taught third, fifth, and middle school grades for several years, I think this book will be really useful. So this book will help you bring humor into your everyday life, but also if you're a teacher, since it's designed for teachers by Teachers we'll help you bring that into your teaching life as well. But now the premiere book of the show Yeah. The reason you're here at the show. Exactly right. The legacy of Laughter right. Okay.
[00:44:31] Mary Kay Morrison: It's a grandparent guide and playbook. I've got 12 grandkids. And so what I've done is taken the research that I've learned over the years and shared it so that grandparents can. include that Into their grandkids lives. And right now, especially having gone through covid, a lot of our kids are traumatized. Yeah. And grandparents are often the people that can be that support system for grandkids. Yeah. And so this book shares a lot of ideas that I've learned over these last 40 years. Yeah. And actually wrote it with my grandkids so. So cute. It was so much fun.
[00:45:07] Azhelle Wade: That's cute. So my question for you had you been looking for a grandparent guidebook and you couldn't find one?
[00:45:14] Mary Kay Morrison: No. I had friends come over and say, you have to write a book. You're doing so much fun stuff.
[00:45:19] Azhelle Wade: Oh, really? Yeah. So what were you doing with your grandkids that impressed your friends ?
[00:45:24] Mary Kay Morrison: Oh my gosh, I don't know. so in, in our family room, I have a peg with keys. Every one of them when they got to be two years old, got their own set of keys. And so they would go and start their little toy cars run, you know, with their keys.
[00:45:39] Azhelle Wade: What do you mean?
[00:45:40] Mary Kay Morrison: I gathered old keys and key rings. And so they each have a fake car key, like just like imaginary car. Imaginary car keys.
[00:45:47] Azhelle Wade: That is cute. So like at two was like, you're getting, yeah. So like all your grandkids would tell the younger grandkids, like add two. Yeah, you get to have your keys. Oh my god.
[00:45:56] Mary Kay Morrison: And then when you turn four, you get your own path in the. woods. So we have woods outside. We have six acres, so we have woods. And so when they turn four, my husband Don, who is a collaborator in this book, okay. And took all the pictures. He would make forge a path in the woods and they got their own little sign, and then they get to paint birdhouses and put 'em in their woods and decorate their woods the way they want their woods to be.
[00:46:25] Azhelle Wade: I don't know that I've ever heard people talking about a grandparent guidebook. It's such a brilliant idea.
[00:46:30] Mary Kay Morrison: Thank you. Yeah. There's not much out there. So it's, but you know, a lot of grandparents are already doing what I call super power grandparent things. And so I've gotten a lot of ideas from other grandparents and as a teacher, you know, I've had a lot ideas over the years of ways to implement and use humor to help with the learning process. So The kids don't know. their learning. They think they're playing. But it's all, a lot of it's purposeful, fun stuff.
[00:46:58] Azhelle Wade: So this book, how is it formatted? Explain like if I read through this book, is it, you know, things to do in January, February, March? Like how's it divided up?
[00:47:06] Mary Kay Morrison: It's more formulated with, when you become a grandparent for the first time, what do you experience? And you're usually dealing with outlaws. I call the outlaws the outlaw. Well, it's. Your son or daughter's, spouse's, parents. Oh, so the ,I call them outlaws. What? Well, you wanna get along with your outlaws, you know, because you're at their baptisms, you're at their little school plays and stuff, so you're always running into the outlaws.
[00:47:38] So you wanna have good relationships with them. And then you have to share holidays with these folks. Yeah. Who's gonna go wear it Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter. And so it's ways of. how do you Negotiate all of that. And how do you, how do you, how do you find childcare? You know, do you use your grandparents for childcare?
[00:47:57] If you do, these are the rules then, and I some guidelines for that. So it starts at the beginning and then it travels through. As your children become older, you know, what kinds of fun things can you do with them? For instance, when our grandkid, what do you do for presents? When our grandkids graduate from eighth grade, we take them anywhere in the continental United States that they wanna do on a one-on-one trip.
[00:48:22] Oh. And so they all look forward to that. And so each of them get, we had three last summer. Yeah. So we went to Boston, we went to Estes Park. Yeah. And the Rocky Mountains, and we went to Branson, Missouri. Yeah. So each of them choose their trip and they get to decide where they wanna go and what they want to do.
[00:48:41] Azhelle Wade: What I really like about the way that you think about parenting or grandparenting is you're building Milestones in where there aren't really natural milestones, but you're giving your grandkids, something special to look forward to and to talk about with their other cousins, right? They're like, oh, you're gonna have so much fun. This is what I suggest you do. Or like, you know, here's some ideas, and then they can ask each other like, what happened on your trip? What happened when you got your path? What'd you do? Where'd you take your imaginary car? Like, that's. really Creating a special memories. It's miracle. It's a memory.
[00:49:15] Mary Kay Morrison: It's the memories. Yeah. Building memories.
[00:49:17] Azhelle Wade: And so structured memories too, yeah. like it's really nice. And you said the goal is to make a significant difference in children's lives, to nurturing. And have you seen that, like people that have engaged with this book, what have they said?
[00:49:30] Mary Kay Morrison: You know, it has had really positive reviews. Yeah. I've had lots of people contact me and tell me how, what strategies they've used and how it's gone. Yeah. Yeah. So, Yeah, that's been really fun. It's only been out about a year. But the, the grandkids are really excited about it too. You know, they're, yeah. They're very proud because if you look in the book Yeah. It's their artwork. And there's pictures of them doing all of the fun stuff. Each of the children is a silhouette. And so they each chose their silhouette and they wrote, there's several poems by them. There's a lot of the work in there is actually done by the grandkids.
[00:50:07] Azhelle Wade: Are you giving examples in this book, like showing like What you do and then examples from when your grandkids did them?
[00:50:12] Mary Kay Morrison: We did a lot of artwork. I've done a lot of art with the kids, a lot of creative reading. They've put on plays, they've actually organized scavenger hunts And that kind of stuff. Yeah.
[00:50:23] Azhelle Wade: So where can people purchase your book?
[00:50:27] Mary Kay Morrison: Actually they can come to the toy show and purchase it.
[00:50:29] Azhelle Wade: Oh, come to CHITAG . But what if they're not here? What if by the time this gets out?
[00:50:34] Mary Kay Morrison: It's all, it's Amazon. Amazon, okay. And Barnes and Noble.
[00:50:37] Azhelle Wade: Oh, Barnes and noble? Yes. Dot com or in store? Both. In store. Okay.
[00:50:42] Mary Kay Morrison: Yeah. A lot of them are in store. If you go in the store and I'm in Rockford and they have actually done book signings for me in Barnes and Noble.
[00:50:49] Azhelle Wade: Oh gosh. Wow. Look at you .
[00:50:52] Mary Kay Morrison: It's been fun. Mary Kay. I know.
[00:50:54] Azhelle Wade: And just one Year?
[00:50:56] Mary Kay Morrison: Yeah.
[00:50:56] Azhelle Wade: Okay. So I have to ask, how'd you land in Barnes and Noble in one year?
[00:51:00] Mary Kay Morrison: I just went in there and showed them the book.
[00:51:02] Azhelle Wade: How many Barnes and nobles?
[00:51:03] Mary Kay Morrison: Well, I don't know how many You don't know, but I know it's in Rockford. Okay. And I, they have done, I've done like education workshops in Barnes and Nobles in the past. But I also do workshops in museums and in Little smaller bookstores. Yeah, A lot of small bookstores like carrying my book and I'll go in and do a Wow. A little seminar.
[00:51:20] Azhelle Wade: So where'd you go to find the person who would print the book for you?
[00:51:23] Mary Kay Morrison: Well, I have a publisher. Okay. And an editor. Oh, okay. And they were, they were invaluable.
[00:51:28] Azhelle Wade: This one, what category does it fall? self-help?
[00:51:31] Mary Kay Morrison: It's mental health it's a playbook guide. So it really encourages grandparents to use the power of play. Yeah. And to use their own superpowers because every grandparent has superpowers. Yeah. And you know, finding your own niche and what you love doing and sharing that. So in instance, if you Love to knit or crochet using that, or if you like to Yeah. or whatever it is you have cook. Yeah. Yeah. You share that with your grandchildren.
[00:52:03] Azhelle Wade: My grandmother, she would teach me how to bake. There go. And I remember to this day, like we were at my birthday party and we didn't have any butter and we were making either the cake or cupcakes and we were doing it at the birthday party and I was so upset.
[00:52:19] My friends were already there and, and I was like, we don't have any butter. Like Nobody cared to look. And my grandmother was like, Azhelle, she had this like very like old timey voice . And she was like, what can you use other than butter? And I was like, I don't know , I'm not a chef. I'm like, I don't know. And I remember to this day, she was like, you can use oil.
[00:52:39] And I remember I did not believe her. I was like, that doesn't sound right at all. I was like, first of all, butter's solid and oil is not. And I was like, that doesn't make any sense, grandma. And then, she was like, yes, you can use oil. So I get the oil and I remember I was so like, this isn't gonna work. And then it worked. And I was like, oh, oh my gosh, my grandmother's a genius.
[00:52:58] Mary Kay Morrison: And she was. And how old were you at that time?
[00:53:00] Azhelle Wade: Oh my gosh. I don't know, maybe eight.
[00:53:05] Mary Kay Morrison: So one of the things that we know about long-term memory.
[00:53:08] Azhelle Wade: What?
[00:53:09] Mary Kay Morrison: Is that when you have a strong interaction Yeah. And an emotional response. Yeah. You create memories. Oh. so you are Strong emotions lead to strong memories, whether they're positive or negative. Right. One of my grandkids, Drove their big wheel into the culvert, and chipped his tooth. He remembers that. But they also remember all the fun stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Strong emotions. Lean to strong memories. Yeah. One of The things we know about the brain. The other thing we know about the brain is play is critical for brain development. Play is the most important way that children learn.
[00:53:42] Azhelle Wade: How do you define play though?
[00:53:45] Mary Kay Morrison: It's the imagination. Okay. It's when the child is engaged. Okay. In whatever it is they're doing. Right. And it doesn't have to be formal toys. Yeah. In fact, boxes. Right. And when they kids are little, they make up their own play. So at the end of the book, I talk about the five stages of humor development. Yes. So the first stage is the peekaboo stage. So I will demonstrate that.
[00:54:08] Azhelle Wade: Let's do it.
[00:54:09] Mary Kay Morrison: The first stage is the peekaboo stage. Okay. And so when you have a baby for the first time, everybody goes up and they go, GA, ga guy. Yeah. And then they go peek Kaaboo. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So there's a pattern to that. The first pattern is that the child becomes anxious because they can't see you anymore. Yes. And then the blanket comes down and they're relieved and then they left. Mm-hmm. . So the. that strategy your whole life? The three stages of peekaboo? Yeah. Anxiety. Relief. laughter. Oof. And so a lot of times your laughter comes out of some anxious moment that you have, and then you're relieved. Yeah. And then you laugh. Yes. And so that's a pattern you keep for your entire.
[00:54:51] Azhelle Wade: That's me.
[00:54:52] Mary Kay Morrison: Career. Yeah. And that's just the first stage. Stage two is a knock-knock stage. So kids at that stage do a lot of knock not jokes. And that's until kids are about five years old, and so there's all kinds of things you can do during that stage.
[00:55:07] Azhelle Wade: Oh, okay. Next. So the book teaches you like activities for each stage?
[00:55:10] Mary Kay Morrison: For each stage, Yeah, so riddles are the next stage.
[00:55:13] Azhelle Wade: Stage four is pun fun. So there're activities to, so this is already something, kids are kind of like going through it, around this age, and this is gonna help you further that development. Right. Okay.
[00:55:22] Mary Kay Morrison: And that's teenagers. So a lot of people have a more difficult time with pre-teens and teenagers. Yeah. And then the last stage is for everybody. Okay. And it's actually a joy flow. Joy flow. And how do you find joy in your life? Yeah. And so it's the ideas for encouraging teenagers to adults and joyful living.
[00:55:43] Azhelle Wade: I wanna wrap up with our final questions. Okay. So I normally ask people What toy blew your mind as a kid? But for you, I wanna ask like, what book were you really focused on as a kid? Or did you love as a kid?
[00:55:53] Mary Kay Morrison: My favorite books are Dr. Seuss. Yeah, they're absolutely fun. They're whimsical. Yeah. And so those are, I'd say that's my favorite book for kids.
[00:56:02] Azhelle Wade: And and what advice would you give someone who wants to develop a book like you've done?
[00:56:06] I don't think I'd be an author, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. It's working with the grandkids was the best. Yeah. You know, other than that just persevere and take notes and write down what you enjoyed and what you loved. That's it. where can people connect with you online? Is there a place? Yes. Okay. Where can people connect with you online?
[00:56:26] Mary Kay Morrison: My website is quest for Humor.
[00:56:29] Azhelle Wade: Questforhumor.com. Okay. Thank you again. Thank you for being here, Mary Kay.
[00:56:33] Mary Kay Morrison: Thank you It was so much fun. You're so good at this.
[00:56:35] Azhelle Wade: Oh, thank you. Take care. This was great.
[00:56:38] Well, there you have it. Those are all the interviews we have for today. Before I jump into my summary of today's episode, I'd like to take a quick break and give a shout out to T Mama 15 who said, what an amazing show. T Mama says, I have been seeking help and insight for my product for some time. This podcast has given me a clear, Next steps for my prototype.
[00:57:03] You are welcome, T Mama 15, and if you are listening to this podcast and you love this podcast, please leave us an incredible rating and review. Those reviews help so much. They keep me motivated to keep coming back week after week. Okay, let's dive into the conclusion of what we learned today. I've got three points I want you to walk away with.
[00:57:25] One, you will have to take some risks to start your toy or game company, and some of that risk may be finances that you spend on ads or hiring a social media manager. But if you make a big enough splash, it can be well worth it. Carolina started her business with just $500, so it is possible.
[00:57:48] The second piece I want you to walk away with today is consider combining something that you are passionate about with an evergreen trend or character or icon, much like the Fungisaurs did with fungi and dinosaurs is amon created a beautiful, meaningful educational world with so many possibilities for expansion through his various characters.
[00:58:15] So think about things that you love and think about trendy icons and characters in the toy game space. Right now. The third thing I want you to remember is to look for white space and opportunities as they come up in accordance with what you're experiencing in your own life.
[00:58:34] That's what Carolina and Mary Kay did. So Carolina created the game, but as she played it more and more, she saw, she couldn't play it with the younger people in her family, the kids of her family. So she created a game that fit her ever-evolving needs. And Mary Kay known for her excellent grandparenting skills by her friends and family, made a grandparent's guidebook. Okay. Let's get into your action item to do for next week, because it's the end of the year.
[00:59:09] I want you to make a New Year's resolution. Make a promise to yourself that you will make some progress on your toy or game idea or your show idea in 2023. Whatever that idea you've been holding onto, tell yourself say it right now out loud if you can. I will make progress on this idea in 2023.
[00:59:34] As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later toy people..
[00:59:50] Jingle: Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry Podcast with ael Wade. Head over to the toy coach com for more information, tips, and advice.
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