Todays’ podcast guest, Isaac Elliott-Fisher’s, experiences in the film industry as a cinematographer led him on an unexpected journey to creating The Village Toy Castle, a destination that is part museum, part toy store, part play space, and soon to be the center for his new manufacturing techniques for plastic toys and toy parts. In today’s episode, you’ll find out how much money goes into creating a brand new toy store, what kind of out-of-the-box thinking helped the process, and about the benefits of having a generous and open mindset. You’ll also find out how to get in touch with Isaac about pitching your product for his store!

What happens after you go viral? How do you go viral in the first place? There is no perfect formula to make something go viral on social media, but there are things you can do to make it more likely. Today’s guest, Danielle Murrell Cox, self-published a coloring book called Black Queens & Kings, and then went viral, which led to a publishing deal with Harper Collins. Now she has created her own line of plush toys, Zuri and Dre, based on the characters she created. In today’s episode, you will learn what factors led to Danielle going viral, and what happened afterward. You’ll also hear about the personal experiences that led Danielle to create her characters with wide noses and natural hairstyles. Finally, you will find out some amazing tips for how to progress in your business when you’re not sure what to do next.

Becoming an entrepreneur looks different for each person who chooses this path. However, one thing that can help any entrepreneurial project is putting yourself, including your background and your history, into the story and finding a meaningful motivation for your ideas. Keewa Nurulla, today’s podcast guest, is the founder of Kido Chicago, a brick-and-mortar kids’ store that also has an online shop. It started as a store for kids clothing that Keewa designed herself, and then branched out into books and toys. Keewa talks about how her family’s entrepreneurial background going back to Black Wall Street and her history as a Black performance artist shaped her vision. Learn about how she designed her store, the frustrations she has encountered with the photos on product packaging, and the number one piece of advice she received when starting her business.

As a toy entrepreneur it’s pretty likely that your cost of doing business is high. From manufacturing the perfect toy or game, to going to trade shows, building a website, nurturing an email list, dealing with returns, and damaged goods…you may be finding it’s hard to do anything for free, even if you do it yourself. Today’s podcast episode is going to share how you market your toy or game product for free. Now look, we know nothing is truly free in this world, so these marketing tactics will cost you time to implement. But with time and the tools provided in this episode you could be marketing your toy or game product for free in a way that compounds your efforts over time.

Have you ever heard of content marketing? You likely already know what direct marketing is, the action of promoting and selling your toy or game product. But what is content marketing? Content marketing is a long game approach to creating awareness for your toy or game product. It takes time, consistency, and a deep understanding of your Ideal Target Market. In this episode I share several ideas for how you can start using content marketing for your toy or game product and highlight a couple of game entrepreneurs who are utilizing content marketing for their product in a brilliant way. Tap listen to find out what that is.