Which comes first? Your product or your mission? In today’s episode you will learn the benefits of creating your mission before your toy or toy brand. Defining the purpose of your brand will guide you on the creative journey, and can give you a powerful reason to invest so much time and money into your toy ideas. Today’s podcast guests are Janene Russell and Ms. Monica Sutton, also known as Ms. Monica. Janene is the key lead in preschool brands and preschool brand manager at Educational Insights. Ms. Monica is an early childhood educator and child behavior specialist with a hit YouTube channel with over 500,000 subscribers. In today’s episode, you will learn some valuable lessons about how to develop your mission. You’ll learn the power of saying no, how sticking to your mission can lead to more opportunities, and how things that didn’t go so well can actually help to define and guide your mission.

Long form episode description goes here.Your own life is the best inspiration for your game and toy ideas. Just think of the best times with your friends and family and you might come up with an idea. Today’s podcast guest did just that. Today’s guest is Greg Watson. In episode 72 of MITTI you heard him talking about working with a distributor to get your toy or game into retail. Now he has a new card game that he created with his husband. The game, Poof, is available on Amazon. In this episode, you’ll learn all about Greg’s personal inspiration for the game. You’ll also learn what game mechanics are, how Greg tested his game in the middle of a pandemic, and what to consider for packaging differences between online sales versus retail shelf space. You’ll also learn about Greg’s pricing strategy for this game as well as some future predictions for the toy industry.

Is your toy idea begging to see the spotlight? Do you have a game idea swimming around in your imagination? You may be a burgeoning toy inventor! However, if you are ready to fully flesh out your toy idea, brand, and marketing, you may be a toy entrepreneur. What is the difference between these two toy industry tracks?

Today’s guest is Chrissy Fagerholt. She is a graduate of the Toy Creators Academy and already has a successful game out with Goliath and has two more games coming out soon. In today’s episode, Chrissy tells us about making the jump from toy inventor to toy entrepreneur. She explains a bit of her inventing process, how the shift to toy industry entrepreneur happened, and where in the process of inventing a toy she starts to come up with marketing and branding ideas. You will also find out how the Toy Creators Academy helped Chrissy to make the toy industry connections that led her to figure out how to make toy industry entrepreneurship work for her.

Mission driven toy creators like Julie Dini have one major goal in common. It’s to improve the lives of the kids and families that interact with their products. Today on The Toy Coach Podcast, our guest Julie Dini shares her toy journey from handmade prototype to recurring sales online. Julie’s product, Dealing In Feelings, helps kids understand simple to complex emotions through identification and gameplay! Whether you are a buyer or an aspiring toy entrepreneur, you’ll enjoy this inspirational and informative chat with toy entrepreneur and Developmental Psychologist, Julie Dini.

Whether or not you’re completely addicted to Wordle, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s the latest viral fad that everyone is talking about. In today’s episode, I examine 3 toys and games that went “viral:” Wordle, Pokemon Go, and Silly Bandz. In just 2 months, Wordle had 300,000 players. Pokemon Go saw even more exponential growth with over 100 million users the month after it launched. Shortly after they launched, Silly Bandz were so popular that they got banned from many schools. You’ll learn about 3 of the toyetic traits that helped these products succeed with such a big burst of energy.

Remember when you came up with your latest and greatest toy idea? At any point, did you stop and wonder to yourself, is this really a toy product? If you’ve had an idea or two that you weren’t quite sure fell into the category of toys and games, then today’s episode is going to help you clear that thought process right up. Today’s episode was inspired after about a dozen inquiries I’ve gotten asking to clarify what makes a toy a toy. This episode will walk you through 3 exercises to take your idea through which will help you identify if it’s a toy, game, or kids’ product. Plus, in this episode, I touch on what to do if your idea doesn’t fall into the traditional toy category at all! When you are ready, let’s dive into today’s episode and learn techniques that will help you finally answer the question, “Is my idea a toy product or not?”.

Coming up with toy ideas is fun, and over time it gets easier and easier. And vetting ideas that you’ve come up with is the trickiest step of all, because of our own ego. Ego can get in the way of you recognizing if your latest toy or game idea is really GREAT or just OK. So, in today’s episode The Toy Coach breaks down 3 methods and exercises that you can utilize to vet your latest Amazing toy idea.

Cas Holman from Heros Will Rise will tell us about her story as a designer, as a toy entrepreneur, and what it really means ‘to design for play’. This interview will inspire not only those who are starting in the toy industry but veterans as well. As Cas says ‘Good Toys Make Good People’ and she will tell us why. Let’s go!

This episode is part 2 of the 2 part series aimed at guiding inventors on how to nurture their creativity and develop their ideas while stuck at home. In this episode learn how to make a game of brainstorming and developing your idea with friends and family. You'll also learn how to playtest and vet your toy concepts from home. Learn the best ways to use video chats, online surveys, and snail-mail to keep your concept development moving while the rest of the world is on pause.

This episode is Part 1 of a 2 part series aimed at guiding inventors on how to nurture their creativity and develop their ideas while stuck at home. Learn by example how to analyze the current day to day struggles that parents, teachers and even kids are facing, and identify potential opportunities for new toy or game inventions. Learn what an Inventors Notebook is and HOW to keep one as a legal record. Additionally, learn how to use an Inventors Notebook to develop your small ideas into big inventions.

Let's be honest, the market is changing. We're in the midst of a serious shift in the way we live, and life and business as we know it is changing drastically each and every day. Having the ability and know-how to pivot and adjust your business to fit market needs is paramount in assuring long term success. So for in this episode, The Toy Coach dives into a detailed conversation exploring how the current coronavirus pandemic has and will continue to affect the toy industry.

The term toyetic is thrown around a lot in the industry. In this podcast episode, we break down the true toyetic definition and pull out 4 guiding Toyetic Principles and show you how to make your toy inventions or game ideas more toyetic and ultimately more marketable.

Are you trying to come up with your next great toy idea, but you're suffering creative block? If you find it difficult to come up with an amazing new toy idea time and time again, then this is the episode for you.