Episode #100: Special 100th Episode Getting To Know The Toy Coach
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Every week for the past 100 weeks I have shown up with a new episode designed to help you take another confident step forward in your toy journey. This podcast is filled with lessons from my decade long career, and the career of others. But for episode 100 The Toy Coach podcast is going to do two things. First we’re going to celebrate the listeners of this podcast with an audio montage of who they are and lessons learned from listening to the show. After we celebrate the impact made by 99 episodes of this podcast, I’m answering personal and professional questions that came directly from listeners of this show.
Today I’m sitting down to answer a list of personal and professional questions submitted through my website, instagram, and Facebook. These questions cover everything from my experience as a child actress on Sesame Street, to how I handled a shocking cancer diagnosis at a young age, and even how I go about raising capital for my growing business. Ever wanted to know more about The Toy Coach? Well, this episode is for you. After listening you’ll feel more connected and aware of the community that loves this podcast, you’ll know more about the vision behind The Toy Coach, why I do the work I do, and what qualifies me to be your guide.
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Donate to the Cancer Survivor, Kanlaya, who I discovered on Tik Tok by clicking here.
Watch Azhelle (wearing orange) on Sesame Street Dancing The Spaghetti Dance by clicking here.
Check out Costumize Me on Etsy by clicking here.
Check out the Full Focus Planner which Azhelle uses in her business by clicking here.
Check out Azhelle’s Project Management tool, Click Up by clicking here.
⭐️⭐️ Listener Spotlight on Shoe Tying Made Simple, learn more about how to simplify shoe tying for your little one by visiting junctionoffunction.com
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You were listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 100.
[00:00:04] Well. 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. Toy people can you believe we've made it to episode 100 of this podcast? I can't. I've got to tell you if when I first started this podcast, somebody had told me you're going to write record, edit, upload a hundred episodes. I would have just said, you know, nevermind, I'm not gonna do that. I probably would have never taken that first step because it would have seemed so overwhelming, but having the understanding of how much this podcast has impacted so many different people across the toy industry. It just makes it all worthwhile and I'm so happy that I started it.
[00:01:07] Okay, to celebrate 100 episodes I reached out to you and asked you to share a little bit about who you are, what you've created, what you do in this industry and what you've learned over 99 episodes of the toy coach podcast. You're going to hear from my Ozzie's US-based toy creators, from retailers, entrepreneurs, inventors. Okay. Without further ado, before I tear up here our listeners of the toy coach podcast, sharing what they've learned over 99 episodes.
[00:01:40] How fun was that? Now, whether this is your 100th episode or your very first episode with me, I just want to say welcome and thank you so much for being here. We've got a special treat for you today, inspired by an email that I received from listener Kelly. So Kelly sent me this really sweet message. I'm going to read it for you exactly as she sent it to me. Kelly says I think that one of us, meaning one of the listeners or the guests that you've already interviewed should interview you.
[00:05:02] As you have a very interesting background, we would all like to know more about your journey, your patents, your IP, your cool costume biz. Perhaps we could do prerecorded questions and you could just answer for us just a neat thought as I'm listening to your podcast. I still do not know much about you and your journey and businesses. So Kelly sent that email and I've got to say, I was not only excited about the idea, but I was relieved because I didn't know what I wanted to do for episode 100. And this idea sounded perfect.
[00:05:35] Honestly, I go around and I do talks every once in a while outside of this podcast. And I feel like my story is out there, but I never really took the time to really introduce myself here on this show. I don't really know what people want to know about me. So Kelly's idea was perfect. Kelly went out and asked fellow listeners to send in questions to ask me for this podcast. I went out and got questions from Instagram, and I also pulled some questions that would fit into this topic from our podcast suggestions form. Yes, there is a form it's at the very bottom of thetoycoach.com website. And we've compiled a list of questions for me to answer about myself and my toy journey day.
[00:06:20] So my friends you are in for a treat. By the end of today's episode, you're going to learn a little bit more about me and what keeps me motivated to keep coming back here week after week and showing up as your coach, your cheerleader, your connector, wherever you're at in your toy journey, whether you're at the beginning or you're a vet, and you just love the connection that we have here every week. This episode is going to shine some light on why I'm qualified to do what I do. And most importantly, what I see in the future as the toy coach grows, and as this podcast continues to develop. Are you ready to dive into the questions from today's episode? Let's do this.
[00:07:04] Okay. Our very first question for the toy coach today is, Azhelle tell us about your childhood and your time on Sesame Street? Oh, wow. So if you don't already know, I was a little bit of a child actress growing up. my mom ran this incredible model and talent agency based out of New York city and my childhood consisted of going to school and sometimes go on audition for various things like the very first thing I remember I was in, I don't know if I actually auditioned for, it I was terrible. I'm not going to lie. I wasn't a good model. But I somehow probably because my mom owned the agency, I got into this ad campaign.
[00:07:45] And honestly I have to say, this is probably my very first memory of feeling inadequate. I know that sounds terrible. I'm remembering the pictures from this magazine once they came out. I think I was about 10 and I remember being at this photo shoot. There was this other girl with this beautiful long curly light brown hair. She was a pro, she had no fear. She knew her angles. She was just like fun and lively. Her smile was just so warm and natural.
[00:08:18] I was so awkward and I just didn't have like the style and the confidence that she had. I just remember feeling such insecurity of like, why can't I just be confident like her? I remember the pictures that came out. I was shocked that they use my pictures. I think they probably had to cause I was the only one wearing the clothes that they needed to be modeled. But I remember seeing the pictures and I just looked so uncomfortable and this girl looked, she was just having the best time.
[00:08:46] I guess I should go back. Sesame street was much earlier than this, so that I was 10. Sesame street I think I was about three maybe four. And I was on there for a few years. I don't remember a lot of it I was very young. I have these like flashes of memories of being on set and being in the green room and being in I don't know what this room is called, but like the script where we would go over the script and go over what was going to happen in the show that week. I remember being in that room very frequently. I was actually good on Sesame street. I was there were some scenes where I was picking my nose, but other than that, I was a super pro.
[00:09:23] And I just remember, I got to do things like dance with Snuffaluffagus. He just like a giant kind of mammoth looking creature. We got to do like the spaghetti dance, which I have. I found a video on YouTube. I can link that in the show notes. Yeah, I did a spaghetti dances snuffaluffagus. I remember meeting big bird and freaking out cause I saw he wasn't real. I remember seeing them take the head off of him and the, the dude that was inside. And I was like, oh, people, it's not real dad. I want to go home.
[00:09:50] I remember meeting the lion and doing some like counting or spelling with him. And then I remember meeting Oscar, the grouch and Elmo and one of the cool things from Sesame street that I remember knowing as a kid with like insider information was how all of the puppet masters people controlling the puppets were on scooters. And the scooters were very similar to what I would later see growing up as like the scooters you play with in gym class that you kind of like roll around on and they're all sitting on these scooters and they had these small TVs kind of on their chest so they could see what was going on up above.
[00:10:24] It was just so cool. I also remember a very interesting, like race moment on Sesame street, we were getting ready to do a sleepover scene with Elmo. And so they had all these like fake parents and they were assigning all the kids, fake parents. And I remember they assigned me a white mom. I was just so confused because I saw all the other kids, like, there was like a dark skinned black girl who got a dark skin black mom. And there were like these white kids who got their white parents.
[00:10:51] And then I was this like light skinned black girl. And they gave me this mom who was just super white and they were like, okay, so this is your mom. And I knew it was pretend. I don't even think I knew biracial kids were a thing back then. I don't know, but in my head I was like, I don't get the skin tone. I remember just being very confused and just saying like, okay, guess this is my mom. It was a very strange moment. Yeah. So anyway, that was a lot of my childhood. It was very much in this model and talent world.
[00:11:19] I got to see a lot of things. Just behind the scenes, fashion shows and models, getting ready for additions and hearing things and learning things growing up that really influenced the way I did everything. My mom was a true entrepreneur my entire life. Greatly influenced what I wanted to become. I didn't actually want to be an entrepreneur because I saw how hard and how long she worked. But I had all these entrepreneurial tendencies. My mom will tell you, while she had her business, I was like starting side businesses. That was pretty much my childhood was me just like making little businesses out of anything.
[00:11:50] I would sell my parents like photographs. I would sell my classmates jewelry and I eventually made a newspaper that was kind of my entrepreneurial journey. I think it was the last business quote, unquote that I started before hitting adulthood was I decided I was going to start a stationary company. At the time it was Microsoft program, I don't remember what it was called. It was kind of like word but not word. There's all these amazing templates on this program and their templates for like stationary.
[00:12:18] And I thought I could create stationary for people and send it to them. So I wrote up a letter basically stating my intentions. Like I will create stationary for you because not everybody had a computer, back then and not everybody had printers and knew how to use these things anyway. I don't think I knew how anything worked. Then you're probably thinking, Azhelle where did you find your market? Were you on the internet? No, I went to the yellow pages. That's how I'm not young. So I went to the yellow page book. I open up the book and I randomly selected names. And I mailed them this like solicitation for stationary business. I remember several of them got returned. Like that person didn't live there anymore, like with a big red stamp. And I felt like I'd done something illegal. And then some of them I just never heard from, and then I gave up on that. Yeah, but I think that was probably my last business.
[00:13:09] That was the worst one. The other ones were pretty legit. My jewelry business legit got shut down by the teachers cause they said I couldn't be running a business in school, but it only got shut down because it was successful. And the newspaper, same thing. But that stationary business was like a rough start. Okay. Let's move on. Next question. How did you come up with your great idea about the custom made children's Halloween costumes? One, It wasn't a children's Halloween costumes. To every parent that came to my trade show booth tables when I was selling these, told me I should make it for children. And I made the mistake that I teach all of my students not to make, I bought way too deep on inventory.
[00:13:50] So I could not pivot when I got that feedback and I could not change. Not only did I buy too deep on inventory, just bought too deep in on the concept, like website development. You know, how was like getting all of the fabrics, how I was constructing it, building out all of the patterns the different sizes. I invested heavily in one direction of a product and I couldn't turn around until I sold through that. But at the time I felt like I had bought in too deep to turn around and pivot. Every parent told me I should make it for kids.
[00:14:24] And I just said, yeah, I will. And then life has a lot of things happen, which I'm sure we'll get into, but I will show you. I'm also recording video with this podcast. So I'm going to bring up on the video this dress. So CostumizeMe was a convertible event where in line for women I say was because I don't have time to work on it right now. Although I do still have like the Etsy store upselling through some leftover inventory, but I'm not buying new stuff. So when I first started it, I just wanted to create costumes that felt like they fit the personality of the people that were wearing it. That was my main goal.
[00:14:58] And it started because I had a group of six best friends and we all had such different personalities and we all loved Halloween and we loved all of those other holidays, like Santa con, and any reason we could dress up as a group of like hot young girls and like go out on the night on the town and have fun. Right. So I wanted us to all just be able to look great, show off our personalities and not have something that was like a throwaway piece of fabric. I just always felt like clothing should be just higher quality. I don't love and I still, to this day, don't love cheap Halloween costumes.
[00:15:32] Cause like for me, Halloween is like, fashion week. So I actually started costumize me as a custom made to order costume And I went to my girlfriends and I sketched out pictures of all of our different personalities in these different costumes. Right. And then I got them all to say, okay, do you like the style? Like one of my friends, she was like, kind of hipster-ish I gave her like a hipster Santa look, and one of my other friends, she was like the girly, one of the groups I gave her like a really fluffy dress.
[00:16:01] The other one was just very like soft and delicate. So like a gift for like a snowflake outfit, very sleek. And they all loved the look. I had to like go buy a ton of fabric cause I didn't know what I was doing. And I was like, I just need $25 for materials and I will make the bleep out of these clothes. Okay. So they all trusted me, even though I think at the time we were also young and broke. Everybody was like, Ooh, $25 Azhelle really? So I went to the fashion district. I bought all these different fabrics and I made us custom costumes.
[00:16:28] We did a fun photo shoot. I can throw up some pictures. We all looked fantastic. Then I threw up a website and I made it made to order. Essentially people had to fill out a form, to order these customers clothes. I had to price them really high because I was essentially making new patterns for anybody that would buy. And I was not a fashion major. I was just learning on the go. So what happened from there? No one ordered the ridiculously expensive custom made clothes.
[00:16:56] And honestly, at the time, I didn't know how to market it. I had no idea what I was doing. So I eventually realized that they needed to be convertible. Right. It needed to be something that could be. Made one way, so mass marketable, but then convertible when you got it home. So it was going to take away some of the customization that I wanted. But what I realized is like, if this can be convertible after they buy it and all the pieces can be the same before they buy it, then everybody can have their own little style. Right.
[00:17:27] So enter in this is a American flag version that I'm actually showing on the video for this podcast episode. I did different versions of this dress like mermaid version, American flag version, circus version, too many. I went to deepen inventory. Don't do that. And it's a dress that has snaps. Kind of like the snapshot would find on a baby's onesy. There are snaps at the top of the dress and at the tail of the dress. So you can change what is normally like kind of an asymmetrical hem strapless dress into a kind of like bubble or layer or handkerchief dress.
[00:18:02] Cause you could pin up the long end of the dress into like different styles at the top. And that literally just came from, like sketching out the idea, working with a pattern maker and figuring out the different ways to customize. And then one of the things I added on were strapped. So you could actually have a strapless dress, but then some people don't like strapless. So we added straps and then you could snap the straps on. I still love this product and I still love this line, but what I realized was I didn't understand my target market when I first launched it.
[00:18:37] And I decided to make it all in the U S which made it extremely expensive. And my target market could not afford it. What I actually found as I got older with this product. I started traveling. I would take it to events once I got older and my market, that it was around, got older. They started to be less intimidated by the price. But then it was about the type of fabric colors that I chose because I chose my product to be very costume oriented. And then it started to turn into this everyday wear. The main idea with costumize me was that you could have a convertible costume, so you could never have to wear the same costume twice. It was convertible for like every day and costume wear.
[00:19:17] Okay. Next question. I want to first start off and say that I heard, you mentioned that you had cancer at some point in your life. Could you share about this experience and how it has changed you? Yeah, I think 2016. I had been diagnosed with cancer and it was just horrifying. Everyone always says like, how'd you find out because I know I get it. You're wondering, like, do I have cancer? Right. So I had a random pain on my side that I attributed to exercise. And I went to a doctor who luckily listened to me and really believed that I had pain. And she did a scan and she found this giant mass.
[00:19:56] I don't know if this is everywhere, but when they found my mass, they didn't say it was cancer outright. They just said it's a mass. And when I would say, what does that mean? They would say it's a mass. And we had to wait to get, like the test back to definitively say what exactly it was. Cause it could have been, I guess non-cancerous and there are also different types of cancer. That experience for me was just earth-shattering. I remember I was actually working at toys R us at the time and I went back to work right after leaving my doctor's office where we were supposed to be trying to get me an appointment.
[00:20:29] And we couldn't because healthcare is a mess in this country and I didn't qualify for the doctor that she wanted me to see and I had to go to work. And I remember all I could think about is like, what am I supposed to be doing? Once you are in the hands of a doctor, who's giving you, these are your appointments, these your next step. It's a little bit clear, but when you're at the very beginning and you don't even know how to get an appointment or who you need to be calling for your specific type of cancer or, where you should be going? How to talk to your family? How to deal with their reactions to what you tell them? How to talk to your coworkers? How to deal with their reactions?
[00:21:04] I did not have a guidebook and I remember sitting in the parking lot of toys R us and just crying because I thought my life was over. I just thought I wasn't going to achieve anything. I was a product manager and a design manager at the time at toys R us and I had such big dreams. I really wanted to be a CEO of a company. I had huge, huge dreams and I Googled stuff, which don't do that if you ever find out you have cancer. And I Googled stuff that said, like, you're not going to live for past five years. And I thought my whole life was over. I mean, it's been five years now.
[00:21:42] Like that would have been it. And I just thought, I'm never going to have a family of my own. I'm never gonna be the head of a toy company, I'd wanted that. I thought I'm never going to have my own business cause I'd been putting costumize me on the side, I was so busy at toys R us. I remember, oh, excuse me, emotional thinking about it. But I remember feeling like. What have I done with my life? Like I've just wasted all this time. And that was a really hard thing to come to terms with. You just feel like you don't know what to do with yourself.
[00:22:12] Then the next big hard moment of all that was, I remember sitting in another parking lot in Jersey, outside of a doctor's office. And I think that I had to go get the films from my scan, because if I wanted to go to another doctor's office who was going to help me get rid of this cancer, I had to bring the films from the first doctor's office, the second doctor's office and blah, blah, blah. I get the films and I go back to my car and I was starving, so hungry. And I remember thinking, I don't even want to eat. Cause I feel like whatever I put in my body is going to make this worse. And that was like such a scary feeling because I just remember thinking I just felt so helpless.
[00:22:55] Not even just helpless, but I almost felt like I was hurting myself. I felt like everything I'd been doing to my body and my life up to this point must have been wrong if I'd gotten cancer. Right. So I didn't want to keep going. And I think that was probably when I discovered there's this guy online his name is Chris beat cancer. And he has this whole story about how he beat cancer with natural remedies. And I mean, he has a whole program that he sells that I didn't buy, but reading his inspirational emails about how he got through it. And he does give a lot of tips as far as like, you know, this is a good vitamin to take, and this is good to take.
[00:23:34] And that it helped me regain some sense of control because when you find something like this out, especially when you can't get a fricking doctor's appointment in the beginning, you feel like completely out of control. Like what do I do now? Yeah, so it changed me. How did it change me? So many ways. I remember, I'm sure I pleaded with God at some point saying like, if I could get through this, I will not waste time. And I'm going to like do my career. I'm going to do my business. I'm going to push. And I did. I made it to VP at a toy company, I think before, or at 30. And I started a business and I did costumize me. I did all of those things.
[00:24:18] I went hard and fast. Actually the second I got better, I immediately dove into costumize me. I started reassuring up my inventory and planning events where I could sell it and doing it all very seriously. Then I got at the same time, really serious about my career, honestly, really serious about my love life. I got really hyper-focused on what was making me happy and what was making my life worth living. And, it just kind of made me fearless. My mom already made me pretty, like, never say you can't, you can always do it.
[00:24:51] But the idea that everything could end in five years will make you realize that like, there is no fear worth you not doing what you want to do. There is nothing scarier than not having the ability to do something. So just fricking do it, you know, that's what I think it taught me. It really put into perspective what's scary. And what's scary is not having a future. What's scary is not having a choice. With scary as not having the ability and everything else, like starting a business, asking for a raise, getting a new job. That's not scary. That's life. What's scary is not having life.
[00:25:34] So I would say that. I have my moments of doubt and fear all the time. My boyfriend Christian will tell you, I'm afraid of everything all the time. I'm like, I can't do this, this is too hard. When I went for one second and then I'm like, okay, fine. I'm going to just do it because I have to, or I want to, or whatever. I have my moments, but you've just got to learn to get, take control over your mind. And I've been learning this practice of just seeing the positive and everything. Even before recording this podcast episode, I was nervous and stressed out like a couple days ago, thinking about how I have to record this episode and it has to be good.
[00:26:08] And, you know, you just flip that switch in your mind and say, no, I get to record an episode for hundreds of listeners who care to hear what I have to say about my story. That's incredible. So anyway, I know I'm going off on a tangent, but there's no one here to stop me. Okay. Let's move on to the next question. After receiving such a diagnosis and overcoming it, what life goals do you have for yourself? Both professionally and personally? Oh, I should have read that before I answered them. So after hearing that diagnosis and overcoming it, I think my life goals are just to not regret, not taking action.
[00:26:44] My mom gave me a book, do everything one day that scares you. It's like a coffee table book. It's a journal and it has a year's worth of fear facing prompts and mottoes of encouragement. And whenever I'm feeling a little bit stuck, like I can't move forward. I'll use this book. She gave me this book December 25th, 2016. This is the year I came through cancer. So this book, you can kind of just turn to a random page. And it just tells you something to do. You can put in whatever date you want, you don't have to go in order. And I think it's a great thing to help you break out of that funk of like, I can't do something or I'm too afraid or doing everything one day that scares you is going to help you move forward to the next stage.
[00:27:25] The one thing I do have to say here though, is I have a little bit of a survivor's guilt with cancer because my cancer story is not as debilitating as so many other cancer stories out there. It was shocking. I was super young. When I found out that this was going to happen. So the idea that my life was going to get shut down or could possibly get shut down was crazy. I got really lucky that it was a really rare. I shouldn't say lucky, my mom will hurt me. So I was blessed that it was a really rare form of cancer and it is likely not to reoccur. I had an incredible surgeon. I went to an incredible hospital and they took great care of me. I did not have to go through chemo.
[00:28:07] I just got the surgery. And I was kind of in and out. And I honestly, I, they had me on so many painkillers. I don't remember. I think I was an in and out in a day. Could have been two days. I don't know. I remember I had to walk through a lot of pain. I couldn't really move. So it was really painful to like get up and walk. And I had like a tribe behind me, like my friends and family came to support me just to help me walk down the fricking hallway. And then as soon as pretty much I could walk, they were all right, get out of here. See you later. Leave the hospital cause you'll get sick of you stay here.
[00:28:39] I have a lot of survivors guilt in that way, just because, when you say cancer, people have this whole picture of how harrowing of a disease it is. And I was really blessed that I just had to go in for a surgery, go through some pain. Go through some like recovery from an intense surgery and then, checkups, but it's nothing like some of the stories that I see, honestly, I just recently saw a story on Tik TOK that just broke my freaking heart about like ovarian cancer and a woman whose life was just shaken by that. And I will put that link in the show notes too, in case you want to donate to that family.
[00:29:12] But I'm so blessed that's my story. And then I am here and I'm strong and been checked out and I'm okay, no cancer resurgence here for me. But my goals for me have just been to live like a full life. I've done all the things that I wanted to do. I went in hard on costumize me. I started my own business and I reached a really high point in my professional toy career. So I guess now I got to start making some new goals. Okay. Next question. What made you want to start your own business and podcast?
[00:29:42] So I wanted to start my own podcast because I'd met somebody at a toy trade show and she had a really great in game product and she was super excited about it and super proud, but she did not understand all the information that she would need to present that game to me or my boss professionally to potentially be licensed. And I really wanted to help her, but I just literally didn't have the time I thought I could just like, kind of guide her like, oh, put this together. We want to see this and then pitch it to us, but I just didn't have the time.
[00:30:13] Months pass and I started to think, what, if I could just explain what companies want and put that on a podcast and I can just tell these people, listen to this episode, do this, and then give us that, you know, And that was my first idea. Honestly, as soon as I released the first episode, I thought of myself as a podcaster and I just started sharing information that I could share. And yeah, I just started doing that. Then from doing that people identified and recognized my perspective on this industry, really appreciated it and reached out to me to help them with certain projects.
[00:30:50] And it was my sister who said, Azhelle wake up, the universe is trying to tell you something. When are you going to start listening to the universe? The universe is saying that it's time for you to start your own business. And I just it took a leap of faith. Honestly because we had all these stay at home orders of the pandemic. I was able to save a lot of money cause I live in New York city, it's insanely expensive. Traveling transportation here is expensive. So when we all had to stay at home, I actually was able to save so much money than having to travel back and forth with work.
[00:31:23] I didn't realize how much I was spending just in hobbies and all these things. So having that limited time where I wasn't spending anything allowed me to build up a small nest egg so that I could take the leap, take on a small project take on some freelance to help pay the bills, but not need it to replace my income so that was just a leap of faith. It was really just me saying, it's now or never. The circumstances will never be better in which I'm more prepared. And my sister telling me, they'll just listen to the universe.
[00:31:55] Okay, next question. In your opinion, what do you feel has contributed to your professional success? Trade shows, background work, experience, personal drive? Okay. My professional success. First, if I'd have to say my mom and my sister for sure. My mom, her motto that I talk about time and time again, never say you can't. That is something I have a picture of the day her telling it to me. At least the time that I remember very clearly I was wearing this like green and blue plaid skirt. I think I told her I can't do something. I don't remember what it was I was making. And she just looked at me and she's like, never say you can't.
[00:32:34] And she said, come here. I don't know what she did, but I remember her helping me or showing me that I can't. And that mentality helped me professionally greatly because any time somebody would say, Azhelle, can you figure out how we can grow our girls' brand by like $500,000 by the end of the year, it'd be like, sure, gotcha, we'll figure it out. Cause it can. Then my sister she was a cheerleader. She still is such a huge cheerleader for me. And she always encouraged me early in my career when I felt like, oh, am I, I don't think I'm good enough for this job or that job. She would just be like, just fake it till you make it.
[00:33:10] I'd be like, what does that even mean? She'd be like, nobody knows what they're doing in the beginning. You think these companies expect you to come in knowing everything you're freaking an intern or you're like the lowest person on the totem pole. You just listen, learn and then apply. That's kind of what I did. I tried to be a little bit easier on myself, as far as what I needed to know, going into to companies very early on giving myself space to learn and adapt and grow and finding people in all the companies I worked at that I could trust to let them know like, Hey, I'm new.
[00:33:43] Like here's my areas of expertise. And here's what I need help in. Are you willing to be a mentor to help me grow where I need to grow? And it's always a risk when you open up to somebody new that you're just meeting at a company you work for. But if you're lucky, it'll pay off and you'll get somebody who will kind of take you under their wing and help you grow and help you learn. And it's so worth it to look for that person. Okay. Next question. How do you get your creative brain working?
[00:34:08] So my creative brain, love going for runs. Listening to podcasts while walking or running for me are ideal. Half of my brain is listening. And because of the running, I think the other half is able to combine what I'm learning from that podcast to something that's happening in my life or some problem I'm trying to solve. That's really creative for me. Honestly, I get a lot of ideas in the shower right before bed. And I've gotten to the point where I was like, I don't have Aqua notes yet. I've heard that. So the thing where you can actually like write notes in the shower.
[00:34:40] But I will record stuff. Like if I get an idea and I can't forget this I'll stop and like record something on my phone. I've got like notes filled with things and ideas that I have for how I need to do business differently or do business better, or invite somebody to a pitch event or something like that. And right before bed, usually they're not the best quality ideas I used to act on them immediately. But now I will write an email to myself as soon as I get the idea and just say, like to do tomorrow, and then I will write whatever the idea is. And tomorrow see if it makes any sense or if it's actually good.
[00:35:13] Sometimes it happens where I wake up in the middle of the night too, oh, I have an idea. And then I'll do the same thing, write an email to myself or just if I'm like really half asleep, just like write a note To remind myself to do it the next day. I find it's easier to be creative when my two dues are all written down somewhere. So that they're not in my head. I use something called a full focus planner by Michael Hyatt. I should put the link to all of this stuff in the show notes, going to be a linked up show notes. But the full focus planner by Michael Hyatt that helps me get my, to do's all in one place so that my creative mind is free to think. Yeah, that's it.
[00:35:48] Okay. Then the next question is how do you get your ideas to come to life running a business takes capital and where do you seek this? Yeah, I've applied for a few grants. I haven't gotten a lot of them. But I don't put my focus on the grants. I actually put my focus on creating a product at a price point that my ideal target market can afford and a product that they're interested in. So I just focus on trying to have a successful business, like a business plan. actually do projections to see where our money is going to fall. Like, we have money for the end of the year? what's going to happen? And if we don't, I'll do side jobs. I'll take on freelance or I'll do client work or something else.
[00:36:32] I do make sure that everything in my business follows the value system that I have in place. I have specific values for what I want to bring in my life, what I want to bring to the toy and why I want to do those things. So when I'm looking for things to bring incremental income to my business, I try to be very picky as to what projects I pick up. Because if they're not going to add to the value that I believe in for the toy industry, or they're not going to add to the value that I wanted to give my students, or it's not going to help me grow, then I shouldn't do it because I have many skills.
[00:37:08] I'm sure you're all probably aware. I do a lot of different things. But it has to be very careful with how I spend my energy, if I want to continue to grow the core business of the toy coach and not expelled my energy elsewhere. It's part of the reason why I'm not able to work on customize me right now, because I literally just do not have the bandwidth if I want to grow this. You've got to pick and choose your battles and just focusing on the areas that you're most aligned with in value, and that bring the most income. That's how I make sure that my business maintains capital and then making sure that anytime a grant opportunity comes up, I am applying for it.
[00:37:50] Okay. Next question. Have you won any toy awards? If so, what were they? And do you think that they help to sell products? Yeah, I've won a few. So there was the Oppenheim toy award. Back when I worked for toys R us and most recently I'm getting the game changer award at the 2021 taggies. And the mojo nation award is one that I've gotten. The patents are kind of awards on toy inventions. Then when I was in college, I got an honorable mention in a national design competition for a store design that I did for a Sony display. It was called like sink by Sony.
[00:38:29] Anyway they were on my resume and it was a part of what I used to sell myself to employers. Do I believe that toy awards help? Yes. So toy awards help because parents care about the safety, the reliability, and the quality of the toys. Right. But they're only going to help one if they're in the right place on your website. And they're also only going to help if the parent knows what those awards are. So toy awards are good. But if you can mix them with like authority badges. And when I say that, I mean, features on media sites that are commonly known things like Buzzfeed or popular mommy blogs or entrepreneur, features that people trust will help you build that, like know like trust factor.
[00:39:17] So yes, for the toy awards, but it, it varies between what kind of products. Like very eco-conscious, sensory focused toys. I think those more niche awards will help sell those toys better. But when you get into like more mass market, if you can get national coverage from some of those bigger magazines, parent magazines kids play magazines like that parents can identify with and that's going to help you even more. It just matters where it is on your website. I was listening to a podcast the other day that said people often put their authority badges, like the social proof that they have, I've been featured in entrepreneur or parenting magazine or Oprah. They tend to put those at the bottom or in the middle of their site.
[00:39:59] So you have to scroll to get to them. This person said, you should put it right at the top of the site. Don't make people look for that information. And I agree, like if you're selling a product, it should be one of the first things that the buyer sees because that's going to encourage them to keep going through the product and it's going to increase the authority that product has in their mind from the get go. And you want to do that as soon as possible. Okay. Next question. I also hear that you have patents and intellectual property. Can you tell us more about these and what you've done with them? Yeah. So my three patents so far that I have happened when I was working at a toy company called horizon group USA.
[00:40:38] So I've worked in new product, develop. And I developed three items that eventually got patented by the company. The fact that I invented something and I was on this patent because, when you work for a toy company full time, what you create is that company's property essentially. So I was really happy and lucky to have been named on the patents for the products that I created. One of them was called zip screens. That was a product that was sold online and Walmart. I remember going into a Walmart, taking a photo of it.
[00:41:09] And that was a screen printing device that made screen printing really simple and easy to use. Then I created this friendship bracelet creator. It was a five and one friendship bracelet creator compared to the three in one friendship bracelet creators that were out there at the time. And then I created a travel version of that same friendship, bracelet, creator, and those were my three patents. So for me at the time, it was a huge achievement. Just having a patent as a young woman, just starting out in the industry and then having three of them. But also my entire job was to come up with innovations for the company.
[00:41:42] I mean, I just felt at the time like, wow, I'm really doing my job, but I have to say, I didn't actually realize how valuable patents were until about five years ago. When I mentioned to somebody as I was rewriting my resume. Oh yeah. I have some patents and they were like, wait, why are your patents that on your resume? And I was like, oh, do you think that that's important? And they were like, yeah, that's important. Put that on your resume. I just I had fun making the products and then getting the patents. I just kind of had to sign some paperwork.
[00:42:08] It didn't feel like I did something really hard to earn those. So I didn't know it was a big deal, but yeah. Luckily someone sent me straight and I put those patents on my resume. Okay. Next question. It takes courage and intelligence to accomplish what you have thus far in your life. Where does your drive come from? I got to tell you, I don't know. I would initially say my mom, just because she had this entrepreneurial spirit. I love starting things. One of my next business models might be, you have an idea. Let me start you off. I'll set you up with your website, business plan, social media, logo and then you go take it from there because I absolutely love starting things.
[00:42:49] The hard part is actually once it started and once it's gaining momentum, staying with it, just out of fear, because I know a lot of people might think, oh, Azhelle, but the scary part is starting a business. No, when you started a business it's a white sheet of paper. Like, who's going to tell you what you're doing is wrong. You could do whatever you want. You know, it's your baby. You're creating something from nothing. Like no one can judge that. Right? Once you have a business, once you have customers, once you have expectations for me, it becomes a little bit more like, oh, I don't want to make another move.
[00:43:22] What if I do something wrong? How do I do this? What's the right way to handle this? So now what keeps me motivated is just something I've learned, in the past couple of weeks, it's to look at what you think is your have to do list as what you get to do. And that's really changed my perspective. When I first started my podcast, I would have like 20 listens and episode and most of them were me. And now I get to record episodes that sometimes hundreds of people are listening to, and that's pretty cool. So I just try to look at it as like my get to do. This is what I get to do instead of what I have to do. So that keeps me motivated the fact that I even have built something that needs maintaining is really impressive.
[00:44:04] And the other thing that I recently learned from another podcast, is this lesson that nothing is going to be easier or better than where you are at right now. Okay. It's a little bit of a scary thought, but it's also a bit motivating because it pushes you to enjoy where you are right now. When you first start a business, the stresses nobody's watching, nobody cares, nobody's listening, nobody's buying right. That's the stress. And you think when you get those sales, when you get those eyeballs, things will get easier. But in reality, what happens is when you get those sales and you get those eyeballs things actually get harder for different reasons, right?
[00:44:46] And then you think, oh, well, once I get even more sales and even more eyeballs, I can hire people and that will help things get easier. But in actuality, there are things that come along with hiring people that make things harder. It's just different things that are hard. So what that helps you realize when you think about it, that way, it's like wherever you are right now. Instead of paying attention to like, what's wrong with where you are right now. What's hard about where you are right now. Appreciate that's hard right now. Like that's all you're dealing with right now because after this moment, you're only going to grow more complex and you're only going to have more depth to you and your business to deal with down the line.
[00:45:24] It's only going to get better or deeper or richer. Even if you choose to shut down your business, you're still going to continue learning and growing more before you choose to shut it down, right? You're still going to be meeting more people, expanding your experiences and still probably earning more money and having to figure out what you're going to do with it. So I guess what keeps me motivated additionally is just appreciating right now, like what I've built right now and the fact that I can keep going. So I'm just focusing on the fact that like, I can keep doing this. People want to keep hearing from. Let's go, let's do it.
[00:46:01] I have these really incredible students who just tell me how much the course toy creators academy has helped them on their journey so far. You can head over to toycreatorsacademy.com. If you want to learn more about that program. But hearing the reviews from people who've taken that program really keeps me motivated. It shows me that I'm doing something right, that's helping people and that's all that matters.
[00:46:23] I just want to make an impact on the world that's positive. And I love that. Even while I'm not making as many toys as I used to, I am helping so many different people make toys that will impact the world. And most of the people that take toy creators academy are mission-driven toy creators who are making a toy or an IP or a game that is intentionally being created to improve the lives of children or families or adults.
[00:46:54] Next question is I think many of us in this community are very appreciative that you are guiding us and sharing your wealth of knowledge, but can you list a distinct driver that has pushed you toward the path of success? Ooh. Okay. I would say pitching myself to media outlets and to podcast just kind of unashamedly, like, Hey, here I am, this is what I have to offer. I think that might have been the reason. But it's also being a little bit of a visionary, seeing that like, okay, this is the way things are normally done, but what if I come in and I do things a little bit different? Like how do you feel about that and just doing it and seeing what happens.
[00:47:35] Okay. Next question. I also understand that you were vice-president of a toy company. How fun was this? I'm sure many listeners want to know more about that. Yeah, I loved it. I worked at a company called creative kids. I was the brand manager. I got promoted to VP of brand product and I loved it. I have to say it was so fulfilling and when you work at a company that's like not quite as big as like the big four toy companies, but still quite large, meaning you're doing like millions of dollars worth of product. You get the experience creating mass quantities of product, but then you get to work on so many different areas of the business, because it's just the workload isn't as divided between specific roles.
[00:48:21] So you get to do the ideation, the plan drawings, the brainstorming, buyer presentations, you get to handle inventor concepts, get to go to trade shows. You just get to touch so many areas that I felt so validated with the work I was doing. I would have an idea and then be able to watch that idea evolve over just a few like six months, sometimes from a thought to a logo, a product, a pitch deck to on-shelf. I guess I'd been doing it my whole career, but it was different when there are less people involved and there's like less red tape and just seeing how it like, kind of comes from your hands that was so much fun.
[00:49:04] And then aside from that building a whole team, hiring people, going through resumes, finding the best people, interviewing them, bringing them onto the team, teaching them the way the lay of the land. I absolutely love that process. And, I was really sad to have to choose to have left my team because they were incredible and I absolutely loved working with them. Okay, next question. What was the aha moment when you knew you wanted to start the toy coach? Oh, good question. I said this one a little bit earlier and it was when I met that inventor who had a great game idea, she was really passionate about and she just didn't know what she needed to do to bring it to the company I worked for.
[00:49:45] She didn't really know how to explain her product. She didn't really know what she needed me to see, and I wanted to help explain that process to her. I'm not going to say it was guaranteed that if she could explain it, we would have picked it up. But there was a huge possibility for her there had she known the right way to handle the situation. So that's why I started the whole toy coach thing. And I just thought there's a market opportunity here. I'm going to go for it.
[00:50:09] Okay. Next question. I would be interested in hearing about anxiety and or imposter syndrome when getting into the toy industry, have you experienced these problems and how did you work past them? Okay. Such a good one. This one was actually from a podcast topic suggestion. Maybe we'll do a full episode on this, but this speaks so close to my heart that I had to bring it up today. So imposter syndrome is something that I deal with all the time. I think most creative people do one of my dear friends, Julie. She says she hates the term imposter syndrome because the word imposter actually means fraud. And you know, to think you're a fraud is just such an untrue statement.
[00:50:55] You know, you are not a fraud. If you were a complete fraud, you would have to know nothing about the work that you were doing and intentionally be deceiving people into believing that you do. And for you, dear listener, who put this in I don't believe that you are intentionally deceiving anyone or that you don't know anything about what you're doing. The best thing to do when you are feeling anxiety or imposter syndrome about breaking into the toy industry is just to start reading, listening from multiple sources to learn a bunch of different things about the toy industry. So the things I teach about the toy industry, they're from my personal experiences.
[00:51:35] And I worked at many different companies. So luckily I can give a pretty well-rounded view of like terms that are common, how the development process is handled. But it's always helpful to get multiple perspectives because you could learn everything I have to say about the toy industry. And then you could work at a toy company that I'd never heard of.. And they could have completely different terminologies for ammo queues or bill of materials, but still meaning the same thing. And if you go into a meeting and someone says some acronym that you've never heard before, that can easily trigger your imposter syndrome, even if you actually do know what they're talking about, but you use a different acronym for it.
[00:52:15] So the best thing you can do is just arm yourself with knowledge from as wide of a range as possible. So that you feel comfortable with the idea that everybody in the toy industry has a slightly different way to approach situations, to reference topics slightly different acronyms to refer to things. So here's an example of that. A while back, I did a panel with Dougal Grimes of spin master, and he kind of did a lightening round with all of the panelists and different acronyms using the toy industry. He would say an acronym we had to buzz in or slap in for the answer. And he got to this acronym, NPD. Now NPD has two meanings.
[00:52:56] It could be referring to NPD data, which is kind of a website that has like retail, consumer shopping data. And the toy industry pulls from that data very often. You'll see a toy industry news reports with data from the NPD site. But it also could stand for new product development. So I remember answering that and I just said, I'm going to go with new product development. And he actually said, no, we were looking for NPD. Now Azhelle from like five years ago would have felt mortified by saying new product development over, NPD the website. Right. But what I've learned just going through this industry is just every toy company is different.
[00:53:35] Every person is different. If somebody is going to judge you, because you don't know the same acronym that they use for a specific term or specific title, those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter. Don't concern yourself with people that are going to try to hold something so trivial against you. It's one thing to not know that a term exists or not to know the meaning of a term at all, but not to know like things like acronyms or how people refer to certain things at one company versus other companies. Those are things that you learn on the job.
[00:54:06] The best way to overcome imposter syndrome is to just read as much as possible, learn as much as possible. And when you get into a new job in the toy industry, listen more than you talk for the first week. And then you'll start to get comfortable to voice your opinion and just get comfortable with making mistakes and not being right all the time. You don't have to be right all the time to be successful or to even be seen as a pro in the toy industry.
[00:54:32] Okay. Next question. How do you avoid giving up when your idea gets rejected? I'm not even at that point in my toy journey yet, but I'm already dreading. I know you just have to keep going and there will always be someone out there who doesn't like me or my ideas, but hearing the word. No, still hurts. Have you ever felt like giving up? If so, what convinced you not to? Oh, oh, you're just cutting deep with these questions. It does get hard when your idea gets rejected. You've got to learn to not take rejection personally. As I'm saying this to you, I am saying it to myself too.
[00:55:11] But you've got to learn as soon as you hear that word no, to flip your mind into a logical state of being. And instead of saying, there's something wrong with me, there's something wrong with my product. Just start thinking to yourself. Okay. What's missing. I often pitch myself for a lot of things, not just toy pitches, but pitching for features and things like that. And I try my best to see nos as not right now. Okay. I always try to see it as it will happen one day. And the best thing you can do is try to find an answer for what happened right now. So that you can apply it when you go to pitch the next company.
[00:55:52] Okay. Next question. Have you ever been a recipient of a grant or sponsor donation? If so, tell us about your experience with this. How did you reach out and obtain the funding? Okay. So the last time I launched a creators academy, I actually did receive a sponsor who sponsored 10 students. It was learning express lake Zurich, Richard Derr. Thank you so much, Richard, for your sponsorship and you just helping keep this dream alive of toy creator's academy for me and for my students. I didn't apply for that sponsorship. I just showed up doing what I did best and that was teach. Richard came to one of my teaching sessions that I do in order to launch toy creators academy and announce it.
[00:56:36] And he just saw what I was doing and believed in what I was doing. And also really believed in the people that showed up for that training cause it was a Sunday night training and he said, I'm going to sponsor the people here. And he said we have a fund set up for this. So that is how I received that. But ever since then, I am focusing a little bit more on making a concerted effort for grants and sponsorships because I see How much of an impact that had on the students who wanted to take the program, but couldn't financially afford it. And honestly just for me and my time, I want to do this work, but it is a lot of work.
[00:57:13] At the same time have to be paid for my time investment. I just see the value all around. I'm putting it on myself to try to find opportunities like that moving forward. So if any toy companies are looking to connect with New fresh people with fresh ideas and are interested in sponsoring some students to go through toy creators academy. Reach out to me info@thetoycoach.com is my email address. I would love to share with you our deck and information about how you can sponsor some students to go through the program.
[00:57:44] Those were all of the deep, intense get to know the toy coach questions, but we do have a couple of fun bonus questions. Do you have a pet? I don't. I'm actually allergic to cats and dogs grew up with both. Could never breathe. Finally, I moved out and I can breathe better now. So I don't have any pets, but I do really want a puppy.
[00:58:07] What is your favorite food? Oh my gosh. I love potato anything and I absolutely love Mac and cheese. So I will just eat like all kinds of French fries and Mac and cheese and just love it. How about we just go with cheese fries. There was a place Palm Freed's in the city. Oh, love it so much.
[00:58:28] Okay, next question. How do you manage and balance all the demands in your life? I use project management softwares, I use a program called click up to manage my my entire business, honestly, because I would not be able to keep track of everything without it. But mostly my calendar on my phone, my full focus planner, and then click up, help me keep it all together.
[00:58:53] And the last question for today, what do you do for fun or to keep you healthy? I've been salsa, bachata dancing and performing for years. actually fun, Not fun story. I actually got into a car accident, I think in 2012 I drove a Kia, it was a tiny car and I got hit by a Mack truck. Crazy. I was in my early twenties or something. And I was suffering with back pain for the longest time. A friend of mine said. Oh, we're going salsa dancing. Do you want to come? And at that time, because of my back pain, I really wasn't doing much exercise. I felt like every time I was standing for too long my back would start hurting. And then when she asked if I wanted to go salsa dancing, I said, you know what, I'm going to go salsa, dancing. I don't know how to salsa dance at this point, but she's teaching me, her brother's teaching me.
[00:59:48] We had a great time. It was amazing. I took classes and I swear to you salsa, cured this back pain. Some doctors that I met with later said that I was probably building up the muscles around the injured area, which would help relieve the pain. So I started just learning how to salsa dance. And eventually I got really comfortable with bachata dancing and I said, I'm going to perform bachata dancing. So I got on a bachata dance team. I've performed all over the us. We're learning a new routine now we'll be debuting it in New York sometime soon. Yeah. That's what I absolutely love to do for fun. So that's it.
[01:00:26] Okay. Toy people. I hope you enjoyed this episode getting to know me, the toy coach. So we've got to do a major listener spotlight right now. This is a super important listener spotlight for Kelly. Kelly is the one who inspired this episode idea. Kelly is a rock star listener. I'm so happy to have you listening to the podcast. And we are about to plug Kelly's shoe tying made simple. So I want you guys to head over to junctionoffunction.com. I will put the link in the show notes. This is your companion in guiding children to learning new skills. So Kelly has a shoe tying, made simple product on her site that I would love you guys to check out. Thank you, Kelly so much for helping arrange this podcast episode.
[01:01:19] It was my pleasure answering these questions for you today, guys, and I hope that you feel more comfortable in hearing from me and learning and connecting with me on this podcast. But I also hope you understand and found inspiration in just putting one foot in front of the other and keeping moving on your entrepreneurial journey. I know how challenging and scary it can be at the beginning, but I just hope that I sprinkled enough lessons of the things I've learned along the way in my own journey to inspire you, to take steps and move forward, because I've got to say it's always worth it.
[01:01:56] When I was trying really hard with costumize me and selling, but not selling enough for it to be my main income. And some people would say like, why are you doing that? Is it even worth it? But I still to this day, believe that my costume business helped me get my job that eventually turned into VP of brand product because it showed that I had these entrepreneurial capabilities, that I was the kind of person where you could just point at a problem and say, Hey, can you figure this out and get this done? And I would say, yes, I can because I have the mindset of an entrepreneur.
[01:02:27] Okay. Now, listen, if you love this podcast, as much as listener Kelly does, then I want to ask you right now to do two things for me. One, I want you to share this episode, send it to a friend, someone you think that would enjoy listening to it and might learn or be inspired by it. Two, I would love you to leave a rating or review for this podcast episode. Head over to apple podcasts. If you have an apple product or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave a rating and review for the show, I love seeing them come through. I get an email when there's a new review and you might end up on the next listener spotlight.
[01:03:06] Now as always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know that your time is extremely valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
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