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Making It In The Toy Industry is your secret weapon for showing up like a pro in the toy and game industry.

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Episode #106: The Power Of Telling Your Unique Toy Story with Cher Hale

How can you weave your own personal story into your product and make a powerful connection? Today’s guest, Cher Hale, founder of Gingko PR, shares her experience in helping diverse clients do exactly this. She also shares how she started working with the types of clients that she wanted to help to get their stories out there. Cher shares her moving story about why she wanted to help people facing systematic barriers tell their own stories. She also shares how adding diverse voices to the mix through PR helps to create social change and why many people from a minority background feel uneasy about telling their stories.

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Episode #97: Write Click-Worthy Email Subject Lines For Your Next Toy Pitch

Business people receive 16 promotional emails per hour (or more!) How can you cut through the noise? With a great headline! In this episode I share my best practices for an amazing e-mail headline that will grab attention. I’ll tell you all about the “four U’s” to make your headline really pop, and give you real life examples of my most popular and successful e-mail headlines. Each headline example that I share in this episode has an open rate of 30% or more. These tips can help you to get people to open your e-mails, and get your ideas in front of the right person!

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Episode #82: The Pillars Of Marketing Your Toy From Scratch with Harold Chizick

I absolutely love talking marketing. Both digital marketing, traditional PR, and earned media are the main ways you can create awareness for your business. Before you spend any money developing your toy idea, I want you to have a realistic plan to build awareness around your product before you launch it. Our guest today, Harold Chizick points out telltale signs of marketing agencies that are likely to give you a cookie cutter solution and gives straight forward advice on how important research is in digital marketing.

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Episode #71: The Art of Toy Photography with Mitchel Wu

Do you know the definition of toy photography? Well in this episode, Mitchel and The Toy Coach define toy photography as the creation of art using toys as a vehicle for storytelling. Mitchel Wu is known in the toy industry as an expert in creating impactful imagery that drives engagement and conversation. Mitchel comes on the show today and shares his personal journey leaving behind a job he didn’t love to find his passion in photographing toys as well as tips on how you can take better photos of your toys.

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Episode #64: Selling Your Toy Or Game on Amazon Live

Amazon Live is Amazon’s lives streaming platform that allows Amazon sellers, vendors, and Amazon influencers to sell their products live in a QVC-style experience. In this episode, I’ll walk you through the steps to start going live with your Amazon product on this new platform. Plus you’ll find out how you can work with The Toy Coach and Amazon influencer, Albert Lawrence to get your product featured on a his new show, Night Light with Albert Lawrence.

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Episode #60: Getting To Know Black Women In Toys and Entertainment with Donna Moore

The Toy Coach presents a mini-series: Getting To Know Black Women In Toys and Entertainment. In this mini-series, The Toy Coach asks four interviewees the same 10 questions, in an effort to celebrate their career achievements in toys and entertainment, connect on a personal level, reminisce about toys from their childhood, and share their valuable life lessons

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Episode 57: Building Your Brand Identity with Albert Lawrence

Content is King. How many times have you heard that statement? And how many times did you take that statement seriously? Today’s podcast episode is focused on teaching you strategies and tactics to build your brand identity as a toy creator. In today’s world, a big part of building that identity is going to be the content you create. So that’s why I reached out to Albert Lawrence, an experienced show host who has interviewed Oprah, Dolly Parton, and Kermit The Frog throughout his media career.

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Episode #46: My 5 Favorite Online Marketing Tactics To Grow Your Toy Business

With the Christmas season fast approaching and COVID-19 numbers rising, today’s episode focuses on what you need to do to adapt your toy business or toy career so that you can attract sales and clients in a seemingly cold virtual climate. This new virtual first world we’re living in, while efficient, lacks human connection and warmth.

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Episode #26: The Growing Importance Of Social Proof For Your Toy Ideas

It's no secret that the toy industry is heavily influenced by popular media. Many people in toys compare it to the fashion industry because both are all about fast-moving trends. Thanks to the growth of social media, and the disruption of the movie industry due to the coronavirus, the toy industry is seeing heavy influence arise from influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and streaming platform originals. So in today's episode, The Toy Coach addresses the growing importance of establishing a brand identity and connecting with your target audience online.

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Episode #10: The Modern Marketing of Toys With Steve Starobinsky

There’s no avoiding the impact that social media has had on the marketing of toys and games. Before You-Tube stars and Instagram influencers, networks like Nickelodeon and Disney influenced toy buying trends. But today, toy buying trends are influenced by social media personalities, major television ad campaigns, and disruptive social ad campaigns.

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