Episode #126: Toy Lessons Learned From My First Fashion Company Part 1
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The Toy Coach’s entrepreneurial journey didn’t start in toys, but instead it started in fashion. In 2012 Azhelle Wade, aka The Toy Coach created a fashion brand called Costumize Me. What started as a made to order costume company, evolved into a convertible event wear brand with the tag line 1 dress 100 ways to wear. The story of Azhelle building a brand in an industry she knew nothing about is one that she is excited to share with you on the podcast today, because it’s one that you can probably relate to as a new-ish toy creator. Listen to how Azhelle conquered that fish out of water feeling and dove into an industry she knew so little about.
This two part episode series details a toy designer’s entrepreneurial journey in the world of fashion. And because this is The Toy Coach podcast, every lesson learned and mistake made is packaged into a lesson that you can take and apply to your toy journey today. From naming your brand, filing your trademark, testing your concept, changing your idea, flipping from inventor to entrepreneur…this story covers the highs and lows of entrepreneurship in great detail with your favorite toy coach as your guide.
EPISODE CLIFF NOTES
Find out when and how Azhelle first came up with the perfect name of her clothing brand and made sure it wasn’t already taken [3:20]
Learn the benefit of investing in marketing materials and promotions before you purchase inventory on your product idea. [11:42]
When to work with an expert to take your initial idea to the next level. [16:42]
Your life experiences could inspire the evolution of your amazing toy or game idea. Hear how Azhelle’s experiences inspired and changed her fashion company. [20:58]
Can you DIY your first product run? Maybe! Find out how Azhelle DIYed hers. [27:48]
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 126.
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. For today's episode, I am going to share with you something that honestly, I can't believe I haven't shared on the podcast before. So many of you listening. If you've been listening to my educational episodes, either solo episodes with me, or if you've been listening to interviews with some of my friends and acquaintances in the toy industry.
You might be wondering who is the host behind this whole show? Or why is she doing this? Where did she get started and why should I be listening to her? Well, aside from my 10 plus year career in the toy industry, working as a product developer, a designer, a brand manager, and ultimately a VP at a toy company, I also did venture out into my own entrepreneurial venture, not selling toy products but selling clothing. So I thought I would share a little bit about my journey here on the podcast. I think you're going to find some parallels or understanding as to why I built the program Toy Creators Academy that you often hear me talk about on this podcast.
Because what you're going to hear from my fashion journey is how somebody coming from outside of an industry that they just have no experience in and starting a company in that industry, what that journey was like. So when I went and set out to make the Toy Creators Academy, I built what would have helped me one when I was first starting out in the toy industry, but also to which would have helped me as an entrepreneur in an industry that I just was not familiar with. So I thought it would be a lot of fun to share the process from the very beginning, as much as I can remember.
We're going to go on a trip down memory lane from coming up with the idea for my costume company to developing the fashion line itself, to selling it online, selling it in person. And I'm just going to tell you exactly the entire path that I went on. Of course, as always cover lessons learned and, you know, I love relating lessons from outside of the toy industry to the toy industry. So we're going to do that too. Okay. Ready to learn the history of the toy coach's fashion line, Customize Me. Now FairWarning today's episode is a part one and a part two. I didn't intend for this. But as I was going through memory lane, sharing all of the tips and advice from my entrepreneurial journey with Customize Me and how it was influenced by my toy career.
I just realized I had a lot to say. This episode got really, really long, so we split it up into two episodes. So get ready for cliffhanger. Let's dive in. I still remember like it was yesterday, the day that I had the idea for Customize Me. I remember when I had the idea for the name and the name of this brand, you'll see, would later greatly influence what the brand itself became. So I remember it was around 2012 when there was a massive increase in the price of gas, gasoline, driving your cars. And there was it also, I feel like at the time people were afraid of scarcity.
Like we were going to run out of gas, right. So, you know, all over the news, people were going to gas stations, filling up their cars, filling up these containers, like gas containers, totally illegal. And I remember I was in line for gas in New Jersey. And you know, I've been thinking of coming up with an idea for a costume company and I was sitting in the passenger seat and I'm scribbling on this notebook and I'm scribbling the words, costume, me, I'm scribbling girl fashion. Kind of word association, and this is a name storming technique, which my students know I teach inside of Toy Creators Academy.
Just kind of pulling out words, similar words to what I think I wanted to create a brand or a thought I wanted to create a brand around. And then once I had this like bank of words, scribbled on this paper, I started mashing the words together. I can't remember the details now, but I think I was smashing the words like fashion costume, every day, convert costume. And I remember thinking like, okay, but it's a costume, but it's, it's going to be also event where like, event. And I remember thinking I want it to be convertible. So I was like converted costume. And eventually I was like costumize and I just literally flew out of my mind Costumize Me.
I remember the moment writing it down, saying it out loud and saying, Ooh, that is it. I couldn't wait till I got home immediately while waiting there. I went onto the uspta.gov and I searched the term Costumize me. And if you don't know why you would search on uspta.gov, it's to see if there was a trademark that existed for the name. I remember searching uspta.gov customize me. So I was like, okay, this is it. I was so nervous hitting that search button after I typed it in, because I didn't want anything to show up and nothing did no records were found. I couldn't believe it.
I tried the name without spaces, with spaces, I was shocked. I was shocked that that name was still available. Like how could that be checked for a.com? I was able to get the.com locked the Instagram. And if you are thinking in this story, you're like, wait, what? She did all this while in the car online for gas. Yes, I am a very, as my mom likes to call it, go to now type person. So if I have an idea that I feel in my gut, like you get this gut instinct that you've got to learn to listen to as an inspiring entrepreneur. If I get this idea that in my gut, I feel is so good. It can't be ignored. Yes. I'm a very go to now person. I will register the domain. I will get the Instagram account, the Facebook. I did all the thing.
Okay. So once I have that name settled, I was like, oh, I've got to file for a trademark. Truth be told fast-forward it would be years until I actually got that trademark. We can get into that story maybe later on this conversation, maybe not. That trademark a primary focus of mine, as must as I think it should have been considering how much money I was putting into the brand. So I came up with a name and I was doodling the logo in this car ride. So I'm doodling the logo coming up with a bunch of things. And you know, that's kind of when that whole moment was born.
So initially when I created Customize Me, I wanted it to be an event where a company that made high-end high quality costumes that would allow adults to play dress up and not feel like they were wearing cheap flimsy fabric, but also just make them feel like they were expressing their fashion sensibilities while dressing up. So basically if customized, we made a devil costume and you were like a punk rock chick, there would be a punk rock devil costume for you. That was my goal with customize me in the beginning and keep mind of that, to how things have changed.
So I built a website cause I was just very into HTML, always since a young age, I built a website and there was a very old school website builder, very HTML first. Before Shopify, not even WooCommerce, like I can't remember the name of it. Way back in the day, built a pretty HTML first you know, e-commerce website and with this website, the goal was to have custom costumes. So I wanted the users to basically choose their personality and then choose the category of costume that they want. And then they would get a costume, like a version of that costume for their personality. So with the devil costume concept in mind, let's think about it like this. And a woman says, you know what?
I want to be a devil this Halloween, she goes to customize me.com and she fills out like some information about her measurements to make sure the costume will fit her properly. But most importantly, she says, you know, I'm a punk rock chick. This is the style of music I'm into. I love sequence. And all of those details would then be applied to this costumes. Her devil costume versus somebody else's devil costume, who is like a girly girl, let's say would never look the same. They might both be devils, but you could see their individual personalities in that costume. Right. Then the subsequent idea behind that was that these costumes would be essentially clothes made out of individual pieces that could be worn every day.
So it was really like a curation of clothing that could then be used as a costume in that situation, but then be broken apart. And now you've just got sequined red leggings to put in everyday wardrobe. And because you're a punk rock chick who loves sequence that fits your everyday wardrobe, as well as being something useful for you when you're a devil on Halloween. So I thought it was brilliant, blah, blah, blah. Now did I get sales in those early days? I didn't know what I was doing. I think I must've been like in my early twenties you know, I was focusing on my career this was a hobby I was doing on the side.
Did not know anything about marketing. And clearly did not know anything about creating a scalable business. Cause this was a very custom made to order business model that I had created. Right. So eventually a group of my friends, and I all decided to go to Santa con. And when we were all planning on going to Santa con, I said to them, I was like, Hey guys, I would love to make our costumes for Santa con because I have this costume company. And I want to make us each have a costume that reflects our personality. So I knew all my friends of course. So I was like, okay. You know, one girl is going to be a Sante. One's going to be a snowflake.
Like we all had like a themes that we chose and then I built a costume based on their personality. So it all started with sketches. I'm just thinking now I can include my sketch process in the show notes of this episode, if you want to see how costumize me began and like what the logos used to look like and all of the craziness, I will totally share all of the different variations of this, of this costume with you. So go to thetoycoach.com/126 to check that out. Okay. So it's 2012. I just started this company. I built a website, but I didn't really know what I was doing. And I got my female friends to agree that I can make all their costumes for Santa con.
And I would make them to fit their personalities. So like one friend, she was like super bubbly and fun and wild. And I made her a snowman. Big fluffy tool skirt, another friend. made her like a really feminine like tiered skirt with a lot of red and marabou feathers on the trim of the shirt. I had another friend who was like tall, almost look like an ice skater. So I made her like a snowflake and I had another friend who really, really helped with the personality edge. Cause she was a little bit like punk rocks. I gave her this like cool shorts outfit. Kind of like overalls and she had a little bit of like blue mix into her outfit and together we looked awesome.
Then a good friend of mine, met up with all of us in Jersey city. We did a photo shoot, so I built and I will totally put this in the show notes. I built like a catalog, a look book of costume eyes, me of all of the clothes that my friends were wearing. Keep in mind, I did not really have a final product yet that I was selling on this site. It was all kind of made to order it and really know what I was doing, but I was building marketing material and I tell this to people a lot now, because now I know things I didn't know, then. The marketing material, you can build that before you actually have a product to sell, and you can even get some of that out there before you have a product to sell.
And it's actually helpful for you to have a lot of history even before your product is available for sale. So sometimes people want to wait to like, you know, they have all of the inventory and they have everything set. But what's really helpful is getting feedback on samples and images of your product before you ever invest in massive inventory before you launch that site. Just, I mean, it's very, very helpful. So I created this little catalog no idea what I was going to do with it. Customize me, you know, goes up. I started to get a couple of orders from friends and family. Once I started to get a couple of orders, that's when I realized how unscalable this concept was. And that's when I started to freak out a little bit.
I was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? This concept is impossible to maintain because every order is so different. So when that started happening, I said, you know what? I'm not going to make it so customizable. But what I am going to have is a lot of individual skews that people can choose from to kind of like build their own costume. Right. So a few years later I have another photo shoot. I've built brand new costumes. We're doing like St Patrick's day and bachelorette party themes. And I started to have a lot more luck selling. Individual kind of like adornment pieces, the sashes the sparkle shorts and things like that.
So I absolutely loved doing that process, but I still didn't know what I was doing. There was still a lot of like, how is this going to be a scalable concept? How is this going to be a scalable idea? So I had a couple of friends look over what I was doing. And they were like, you know what? We love what you're doing. We actually want to work with you a little bit on what you're doing. I said, sure, yeah, like, let's talk about it. Let's work together. Cause I have no idea what I'm doing. Let's what do you, what are you thinking? And they're like, you know what a gel, we really think that costume eyes me, it should be something people can convert after they take it. And, it didn't really match my initial vision.
I wanted it to be that, you know, the company based on what you select online, customizes your costume for you, and they send you that custom piece. Right? So these friends of mine were like, no, no, no. We think that you should make it so that it is customizable by the user after they buy it. So that idea. First of all matched up with the name of the brand that already exists. So well, costume eyes, me and then that sent me on an entirely different trajectory of designing the product. And I say this because, you know, I recently talked with one of my students who had a really great game idea and all it took was one statement, one statement from me saying, you know what, there. Is a certain something missing.
There's no wow factor. And just telling them that piece was missing is what set them off on a different way of thinking. And that different way of thinking is what elevated their game to the next level, adding more surprise element and anticipation into their game. So that's what I did. I took that advice from the friends and I said, okay, what could I possibly do with this product? How could I possibly update it so that the pieces are customizable when you take them home? So I did a bunch of fashion sketches and I would love to include some of these in the show notes as well. Of pirate costumes, mermaid costumes, devil costumes, all being customizable once the user brings them home.
So what happened after that point is my friends helped me connect with a fashion designer who helped take my sketches and refine them into the vision I had for all these deferent ways to where pieces so that they, so that all of the costumes could be a little bit more consistent, right? And this is where I would tell you if you're refining your product concept, bring in an expert because this fashion designer. Really helps solidify the vision that I was having with the help of my friends. She really helped solidify this vision so that we could actually have the clothing patterns that would make it possible to make this dress convert into a skirt, make the skirt convert into a top and all of that.
So I work with this fashion designer and we we met up a few times. She created these incredible patterns for the dress itself and that dress, we would tie in different ways, like tied around the waist, tied around the arm, wrap it. And I was illustrating all these different ways that it could be worn. From there I started holding photo shoots, video shoots to take pictures of the clothing, being worn in different ways and take pictures of people positioning the clothing, wrapping it, changing it all the different ways to wear. The focus from this brand went from, just customize me to customize me with a tagline that was one dress, 100 ways to wear.
Now the dress wasn't the only piece apart about the costume. But it was definitely one of the most important pieces. So at this point, my friends and I actually started pitching this concept as a licensable concept. We started pitching it to party city. I think they were pitching it, some other places trying to license out this idea, this a convertible event where costume line, we try to license it out. We didn't get any hits. We had some interest, but really things didn't pan out. I was creating a lot of PowerPoint decks showing the white space and opportunity for a high-end convertible costume line. And if you don't know what white space is, I talk about it.
I'm sure in my first episode on this podcast, but it's the number two thing that in toy creator's academy, I have my students focus on identifying that white space. Like, why is your product needed? Is it even. Very important before you develop anything. So, I was creating a. Pitch decks going to pitch meetings, trying to pitch this concept and it didn't catch on. So after pitching and pitching to no avail, we decided to create a Kickstarter video. And Kickstarter was just kind of like all the rage. I think this was like 20 14, 20 15. I believe all the rage. It still is the rage, but it was, you know, it seemed like every project that launched seemed to be funded almost.
So I ranged a video shoot and a photo shoot. We had some additional styles because I, you know, no one told me not to expand the skews to so many different design. So I had like a pirate skew added. I had an angel skew added, so I arranged this photo, video shoot combo in which I recorded a video introducing myself, this fashion line, introducing the fashion designer that helped establish some of the patterns. Also just video of the models, changing the outfit and got a lot of images of the models, changing the outfit over time. And this often happens with projects when you're working with other people.
It just kind of didn't go anywhere. You know, it kind of didn't really. We never finished that Kickstarter. We had all of this great video. We kind of posted it and shared it a little bit, but we never fully launched that Kickstarter. And honestly, when I was watching the video and looking at the product, I could feel that it just wasn't quite there yet, but I didn't know why, it felt almost too similar to most other convertible, everything that I'd seen online. So then I started getting into a really high level positions in the toy industry. And this was at toys R us because of that, I didn't have the time to develop to devote to this project anymore. I worked at toys R us for about three.
Toward the end of my time with toys R us, I switched over to the baby team. I spent six months working on the baby team, baby products. I made friends with a woman named Kaia who worked in the clothing department at toys R us. And we would hang out a lot. She would show me the fashions that they were working. And this comes back into the story. You're like, why is she talking about baby gear at toys R us, this comes back into the story. So then fast forward to, you know, being at the end tail end of toys, R us and. If, you know my story at all, you also know that my time in R ToysRUs was also my time where I was diagnosed with cancer and I was going through that whole thing. And that after that cancer diagnosis, I kind of wanted to reinvest myself in to my own businesses because I realized like life is so short. We were only here for a finite time. I want to make the impact that I wanted to make. Right. So I say that to say The experience of going through cancer and being worried that I didn't have that much time left and then surviving and realizing, I have plenty of time left. Let's use this working in this baby department, combined with having this fashion line that had developed somewhat and really kind of like didn't get its full footing off the ground.
All was just swirling around in my head. One day when I decided, you know, what I want to do. This costume thing, another try. I want to try do new relaunch, new version, new everything with customized me. I was talking with my sister and I was like, you know, I just, you know, the way that this dress is used, is good when it's not great. It felt almost too handmade. The customize me dress essentially is like a, the costume eyes, me dress, which is like the one dress 100 ways to wear, which allows for so many of the costume transformations that you can be a devil with these three costume pieces and look completely different from somebody else.
Who's being a devil. And you can also be, you know, this type of devil at this Halloween costume party. And you can change up that look to look completely different at another Halloween party. So the dress was a very integral part of this, cause it could be a full dress. It could be a skirt, it could be a shirt. But the way that it did those things was you would put on the dress and then you would tie the dress like around your neck or around your waist, or you would put knots in it and things like that. And while that was pretty standard for most convertible clothing at the time, I recognized that it wasn't enough of a wow factor because it wasn't easy enough to execute. I loved convertible clothing around, around this time. I still have a couple of the convertible dresses that inspired the change I made in costume eyes, me and I I'm a creative and a crafty person. So for me, a convertible dress with those super long straps where I'm like trying to figure out all the different ways to wear is a fun challenge.
But for a lot of people, it's like. Overwhelming responsibility to figure out how to make this convertible piece of fabric. Essentially look like a fancy dress for a bridal party or for a date night. So I realized that was a struggle that was happening with costume eyes, me, it was too hard to convert.
It wasn't something that like anybody, a non-creative. Easily. So what happened was having the experience in the baby side of the toy industry made me hyper aware of snaps, AKA fasteners. It's the thing that you see on like baby onesies at the very bottom. Those two little snaps fasteners that closed the bottom of the.
And I thought, what if I use those snaps to allow the dress to be convertible instead of having people tie it? So I went to the fashion district, I bought a couple of snaps. I had to learn, like there are so many different ways that you could apply snaps. They're actually the machines that you need to apply snaps are quite expensive and these really heavy duty press like machines.
And I wasn't going to invest in all that, cause this was just the concept. So. I found online an invention. Someone had made a plastic version of a snap making machine where you could, you could like use a hammer and these plastic pieces and attach snaps to clothes.
It wasn't the most accurate machine. There were a lot of mistakes when you would use this machine, but it worked pretty well.
So I tested the idea. I put these snaps on this dress and I put like the male part on the top of the dress. I put the female part of the snap on the tails of the dress. And it worked, you were able to customize the design of this dress simply by snapping the tails into place. So in toy creators academy.
I talk a lot about how you should be analyzing your competitor's product and seeing what the customer, what their customers are saying about their product, what they're struggling with, and then making your product a better version of. That's what I did with this convertible dress. People were struggling with figuring out all the different ways to wear and how to do it.
Like they're watching videos of convertible dresses, converting, and unable to replicate what they're watching. So how could we simplify that? And I simplified it with the snaps because now. Instead of saying, you know, take this long tail of the dress and put it over your shoulder and not it with another tale of the dress.
Instead of saying that I would say, take snap a and snap it to snap B. And that is it. You know? So it's got a lot simpler. The way that the dress could convert did change. Like you couldn't get as much variety, just snapping things into place, but there still were like a hundred ways to where it just wasn't quite the same variety, but it was an excellent trade off.
Right? So the snap dress this incredible snap dress, I was so excited about it. I was like, oh my gosh, this is what this was missing. All along
now mind you, this is now probably about three, four years in the making from having an initial concept that has really evolved over the years and now is almost nothing like where it began. So now what became more important with the snaps that are now added were, was the material because different patterns would affect the way the dress looked when you snapped it different stiffnesses of fabric would create even cooler effects. So I tried one with a vinyl that looked amazing. So this really transformed the entire vision of this brand, the direction, the style, the aesthetic. And I was like, oh, I need another photo shoot.
I just, I loved a good photo.
So at this point, the brand started to get a little bit more edgy. We had vinyls, I had some neon colors. We had this like Wakandan inspired African print did a whole new photo shoot with a friend of mine, and hired some of the same models from my very first shoot.
I'd been knowing these models for years because I kept calling them back to do more and more costume eyes me, and they would see all of the revisions of the product, which was just so much fun. So at this point, I had this whole new step system and I decided I'm just going to go grassroots and try to sell it direct to consumer. But before I could do that, I was going to need inventory.
Wanting to keep my manufacturing costs low. I went out and purchased a surger. If you don't know what a surgery is, it's a type of sewing machine that you use to create like spandex fashion. So a surger is like an overlock machine. It's like, that's a term that creates these really sturdy and flexible stitches for spandex materials. So. I want you to picture this. I had an idea for a product line. I worked on it for years and then I purchased a sewing machine that was so advanced. It took me. Like a week to really learn probably a month or so maybe I don't even know if I still have mastered it but month or so to master quote unquote. And I did all that so that I could hand make my very first batch of costume eyes, me clothing.
So that very first batch was July 4th. Costume eyes, me. Themed, you know, dress, skirt and pant, that could be worn a bunch of different ways. I called on a friend, I called a favor from a friend to get a photo shoot for it. And then I just put them up on a website.
But this time I think I'd moved to like wix.com, which was a really cheap website to manage a fashion line, a budding budding fashion line. And I'd also gotten into Facebook ads. So I started using Facebook ads to promote my fashion brand. And at the time I had what was called my mermaid leggings, they were sequined leggings that I had designed.
And then I had my. 4th of July fashion dress and pant. And I was just taking a bunch of photos of those being worn a bunch of different ways, and I priced them way too high. But I priced them, put them online and started to sell, started to sell a few. But I have to say the process of selling was expensive because I had to invest a lot of money in marketing over time.
It was thousands of course. A lot of money in marketing my fashion brand on Facebook, because that was primarily the way that I learned back then. To just to get people, to see it online. And then once people saw it and started commenting on things like the price point being too high once people started to comment on the fashion style, I didn't really know what to do with it.
And all of these pieces are things that I've noticed that I wish I understood and knew a little bit better, how to make the most out of that kind of visibility, that marketing, which I try to teach my. Today. So after I did that first run and I sold, I went to some really affordable fairs in New Jersey.
And I sold some, some of my 4th of July dresses. I sold a lot of sequined pants. Like people love the sequined pants and I started to make more product. I started to go to. Devil outfits that I'd wanted to do originally, I made a bunch of those. I created a circus look that people loved. I did a bunch of those and I started to sell.
It took me years to finally put my product on Etsy. And when I did my whole marketing process got a whole lot easier. Now, today I hear that Etsy isn't like as wonderful as it was before. It's not really that friendly to you know, independent creators and there's a lot of factories now selling product on Etsy.
But at the time, And Etsy's marketing built into the website was really beneficial for me. And I sold through a lot of my inventory that I'd been sitting on just through Etsy. So there's this website called 10 times.com. It's a great website where you can find events, global trade shows, conferences, all that stuff. Toy industry, outside of the toy industry, fashion industry. It's got everything. That website is how I identified a bunch of local trade shows that I could go to with my costume, eyes, me inventory, and try to sell it.
I, at the point I had felt like I was spending too much money on online ads and I wasn't really making a return. I did have an email list at the time, but I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't know how to nurture them. I didn't know how to like, sell to them. I had no idea what you should do with an email list.
And so I thought, you know what? This internet thing's not working for me. I think the problem is that people need to touch the fabric. So I just, I started booking these shows. Going to in-person shows to sell your product is such an arduous task. Not only do you have to bring signage, which I have an amazing signage company that I absolutely love. And I found this signage company while doing all of this stuff for costume eyes. and that signage companies is stickers, banners.com. I absolutely love them. If you are an independent toy maker, you're starting out. You're trying to go to trade shows and it's expensive. You want some cost effective signage stickers, banners.com. I believe they're based in Pennsylvania, but they ship all over the U S and their prices are.
[00:32:39] Azhelle Wade: Phenomenal it's worth it. It's like so good. So I bought a lot of signage and I had to buy a few stands to hold my customized goods on like clothing, racks, and a tablecloth to cover the plane tables that they give you at these events. So it's a huge financial undertaking to do these events, but it's also just really physically taxing. So I would for months almost every weekend pack up my car filled with costume buys me inventory that I had created or hired out help to get made. And I would load it all up in my car and go to these trade shows, set up a booth.
It's been like an hour setting up a booth decorations, putting out my clothes, putting on my prices, everything like that, kind of my inventory. And. And it was so hard. It was really a struggle of figuring out the right price point, how to talk to people, how to not make them feel pressured, how to become friendly with them.
There was, it was a lot. But the learning experience is just incredible when you're in person. And you can hear what people are thinking and feeling about your product. So I always recommend people. If you can do a trade show, And especially a consumer facing trade show before you invest too deep on inventory, do it with like a low, like 50 pieces of inventory.
Just to hear what people are saying about your product. Before I did trade. Early on. I decided I wanted to invest in inventory cause I had some success with my sequined, pat pans, and I had some success with my July 4th outfits. I wanted to find someone who is going to be able to help me make them, because like I said, that surger that I purchased.
It was really difficult to use. I cried so many nights when fabric got snagged and caught and it wouldn't look perfect and seams would rip, like I went through so much trauma dealing with that surgery. So eventually I was like, no, I need to find a factory. So I started looking for some factories to help me produce some small runs.
Granted I didn't have a lot of proof that people were going to buy enough of my product to warrant really a factory creating it. But I knew that I just couldn't handle the stress anymore and I'd rather have inventory and then just focus on the selling and the marketing of it.
And this is where we're going to stop off today. So this is the end of part one. Part two. You'll find out about how I found the factory who helped me produce the rest of my product for costume eyes, me so that I could sell more of it. And I could focus on that marketing.
I know cliffhanger, how dare you, Azhelle, but I hope that you. And join me next week, where we finished the story and the journey of costume eyes, me. Okay. So let's talk real quick about your action item for today because you do have an action item. I want you to just give your some grace, if you have an idea and you think that maybe you've been working on it too long, or you have an idea and you're not selling enough of it, or you're not licensing it, you don't understand why give yourself and your idea some grace let it evolve. Do not stay married to the original iteration of your concept. Had I stayed married to the original iteration of costumes. It would have never become what it became. You'll hear more about this incredible journey with this fashion line in next week's episode. So I hope you come on back next Wednesday. Before we close out of today's episode, I've got to give a shout out to Kesha. O'Connell a toy craters academy alum who. Is a finalist in the character and animation category for the licensed, this pitch competition at the Las Vegas licensing expo that's happening next week. I found out this competition was going on, shared it in my community, Kesha applied and got accepted her item cat. Is just the coolest IP around. I am so excited for her. We had some incredible interest from a studio when we pitched this idea at a TCA virtual pitch event. Keesha don't give up. I'm a rooting for you. Let's see what you can make out of this. You know, you've got your entire toy creators academy, crew alumni, current future students right behind you, cheering you on.
Well, that's it for today's episode. Join me next week for a part two. 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 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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