Visualize, Validate, and Vow to make your toy or game idea real this year with accountability and guidance from The Toy Coach team! Inside this Bootcamp, you’ll get step by step training and accountability to visualize and validate your toy or game idea FAST.  We’ll spend 5-days in a private Facebook community, where I’ll teach you my streamlined 6-step concept development process over 3 LIVE trainings. In just 3 hours and 5 days you can completely change the way you approach toy development from scratch.

If you have an idea that you aren’t sure is a “toy”, stick around for the second half of this week’s episode. I share an extended version of an episode that will help you answer the question, is this really a toy product? Learn 3 exercises to help you identify if your idea falls into the category of toy, game, or general kids products. 

Once you figure out where your idea falls, I’d love to welcome you into The GREAT Toy & Game Idea Bootcamp. It starts March 27th, it’s only 5 days long with 3 training sessions and a private Facebook group for all members.

To join visit: https://learn.thetoycoach.com/bootcamp

In December of 2022, The Toy Coach Team ventured out to the windy city to set up a live podcast recording booth at Chicago Toy and Game Week, also known as CHITAG by Mary Couzin and People of Play. This annual, public toy and game fair is where toy and game brands connect with the consumers who love their products, debut new lines, and marketing activations. During this 2 day fair, I interviewed 10 toy and game creators during this fair to learn about their toy journeys and ask them to share any toy biz wisdom they’d gathered along the way. This is Part 3 of a 3 part interview release series featuring my interviews with the founder of Tragos Carolina Acosta, who created the games company that works to remove the stigma of not being Latino enough" through cards that almost any Latin@ can identify with regardless of how much Spanish they speak or where they were born. After that, we'll go right into an interview with Fungisaurs a true augmented reality collectible toy and IP. And finally, we'll wrap up today's episode with Mary Kay Morrison, the author of the grandparent guidebook, Legacy of Laughter.

In December of 2022, The Toy Coach Team ventured out to the windy city to set up a live podcast recording booth at Chicago Toy and Game Week, also known as CHITAG by Mary Couzin and People of Play. This annual, public toy and game fair is where toy and game brands connect with the consumers who love their products, debut new lines, and marketing activations. During this 2 day fair, I interviewed 10 toy and game creators during this fair to learn about their toy journeys and ask them to share any toy biz wisdom they’d gathered along the way. This is Part 2 of a 3 part interview release series featuring my interviews with Kate Hunt, a current student in toy creators academy and the creator of the Ultimate Treehouse game. After that, we'll go right into an interview with Joe Barron Gray Matters games,  the games company with a devotion to supporting brain health. In short, they believe that exercising the gray matter in your head…matters! And finally, we'll wrap up today's episode with Rebecca Jatton of Goliath Toys and Games.

In December of 2022, The Toy Coach Team ventured out to the windy city to set up a live podcast recording booth at Chicago Toy and Game Week, also known as CHITAG by Mary Couzin and People of Play. This annual, public toy and game fair is where toy and game brands connect with the consumers who love their products, debut new lines, and marketing activations. During this 2 day fair, I interviewed 10 toy and game creators during this fair to learn about their toy journeys and ask them to share any toy biz wisdom they’d gathered along the way. This is Part 1 of a 3 part interview release series featuring my interviews with Dolphin Hat Games, Eblox, Pockimals, and Project Genius.

It is a myth that toys are shallow or don’t make an impact on kids. Today’s guest was inspired to leave a tenured position as the top professor in her field to create a meaningful line of dolls. Dr. Lisa Williams started off her career as the first black person to receive a doctorate in logistics from The Ohio State University. While working as a professor, she saw a little girl interviewed in a study about dolls and race that changed her life forever. After seeing the interview, Dr. Lisa Williams was inspired to create a line of racially diverse dolls with custom-blended skin tones. Today, her brands The Fresh Dolls, The Fresh Squad, Positively Perfect, and the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dolls, are featured in Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s and more. In today’s episode, you will learn which role models inspired Dr. Lisa Williams, the unique way she created the custom skin tones for her dolls, how she found her way in the toy industry with a background in academia, and more.

Have you been considering joining Toy Creators Academy to develop your toy or game idea? Do you still have a few questions about how the program works, when it starts, or what it covers? This episode is perfect for you! In today’s podcast episode, The Toy Coach addresses the most frequently asked questions about this 12 week group coaching program. Toy Creators Academy is the only toy education and implementation program of its kind that not only shows you how to fully develop your toy or game idea like a pro — but also how to properly pitch that idea to buyers and toy companies. Are you ready to bring your toy and game ideas to life? Make it happen with the guidance and support provided by Toy Creators Academy.

“The games category is too competitive!” “You shouldn’t even try to get a card game into Target!” If Kiara Imani had let those thoughts dissuade her from trying, she may have never gotten her Like U card game into one of the biggest retailers in the United States. Today, my podcast guest Kiara shares how she came up with, designed, manufactured and sold her conversation starting card game, Like U. In a world where we’re always trying to put people in boxes, the Like U card game helps players to enjoy a conversation of differences.

All across the globe we are seeing a massive increase in prices and reduction in quality. In fact it’s so prevalent, it has a few nicknames. Shrinkflation and Skimpflation are two practices of reducing the quality of goods and services to maintain margin, and reducing the actual contents of goods and quality of services while increasing the cost. The goal of cost reduction is typically to reduce cost without affecting overall aesthetic or playability. But when companies have to make up for 10% or more in lost margin, there’s no way around affecting the size and sometimes the quality of a product. As an inventor these monetary changes could affect the categories you focus on and as an entrepreneur or maker, it can affect the amount of components you need for your toy or game to stay competitive. If you want to maintain a cash-positive toy business you’ve got to look at the bottom line, and that means adjusting when margin and revenue take an unfortunate tumble.

The Toy Development process can seem big, scary, and overwhelming if you’ve never taken it on before, but today’s episode is going to eliminate any uncertainties you may have about what that process looks like. Learn the 5 key steps of the toy development process, and which of those steps you should invest the most of your time and resources on.

If you’re new to the toy space, you’ve chosen the perfect episode to get started with. Let’s dive into learning the best next steps to making our toy ideas into toy products.

When you first came up with your most recent toy idea, did you stop to consider what your target customer might think it's worth? Well, perceived value is extremely important to toy industry professionals when they are evaluating your toy product. The size of the package that holds your toy, the weight of it, and the price point are all data points swirling in the minds of your target customer as they evaluate your toy and define its value.

Have you ever proceeded down the path of developing your toy or game idea, to only realize that you weren’t sure what step comes next? If you’ve rushed down the path of sample making or prototyping your toy concept or invention, only to find yourself stuck in the process, then this episode is for YOU!