Have you ever watched a child engage with a push-button toy and couldn’t help but feel something was missing? Today we explore why the toy industry needs more toys designed for free play, experimentation, and discovery. Where do today’s push-button toys and arts-and-craft kits fall short, and how can negotiating for a little more free play in toy design benefit a child’s developing mind? Push play to find out!

How to protect not only your toy ideas but also your toy business? In today's episode the 3 most valuable contracts you need to have in your arsenal as a toy business owner, as well as what you need to look out for when you’re signing any work agreement as an employee.

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.

Are you curious about how COVID-19 might impact toy sales this Christmas and beyond? Whether you're a corporate toy professional or an independent toy-preneur, this is the episode for you. To kick off today’s conversation, we jump into a year review of the impact that COVID-19, stay at home orders, remote learning, and working all made on the toy industry. The Toy Coach highlights the top growing toy categories and the reason they experienced double-digit growth. Get ready to dive into a really important conversation on what the toy industry needs to do to hold onto the growth gained this year.

Currently, the People of Play Young Inventors Challenge is in full swing. Kids from all over have submitted their toy inventions and game ideas for a chance to be named Young Inventor of The Year. Which makes this week the perfect week to celebrate young inventors. And what better way to do that than to have my first kid inventor on the podcast? I have two guests today, kid inventor Sebastian Flores, and his supportive mompreneur Melanie Flores, the creators of the patented line of greeting cards, OctoGifts. Octo Gifts offers DIY, 3 dimensional, functional greeting cards that dispense candy.

When you are creating your toy, you want to make sure it is safe for everyone and that it follows all regulations. This can be a bit complicated for who's beginning and even for more experienced toy veterans. Bill Baxter will walk us through everything you need to pay attention to when creating your toy.

In today's episode, I will explain everything about THE event that is known for connecting inventors to pitch their toy ideas to large and small toy companies. People of Play, formerly known as CHITAG, is a weeklong toy fair for industry inventors, manufacturers, and it’s open to the public. With 2020 knocking out all hopes for an in-person fair this year, the CHITAG group, put together a massive innovation summit dubbed People of Play week. This event is designed to keep inventors and toy professionals up to date with the latest in the industry via daily virtual conferences, as well as connect them to plan meetings and pitch ideas much like the original in-person show.

Silly Sparkles utilizes interactive balloon play, comedy, and magic to entertain and engage with kids. Regina comes on the show today and shares with us the latest trends she’s noticing with kids since COVID-19, from the kinds of characters they like to a surprising change in their attention span.

In the past few months, the were changes and movement around diversity and inclusion within the toy industry. Organizations started creating safe spaces for black people in toys, webinars focused on diversity were planned, and major mass retailers made a push for more inclusive packaging. So in today’s episode, I pose a few thought provoking questions to help you analyze, how diverse is your toy company?

Festival of Licensing is a virtual event, designed to combine and connect the audience that typically attends three major global licensing events that cover Europe, Asia, and the Americas. This event is an online space where Brand owners, Manufacturers, and Brands can network and build licensing relationships.

Can you change the world with bubbles? Well, that’s the goal of Paola Dyboski-Bryant of Dr. Zigs’ extraordinary bubbles. Inspired by her toddler, she built an eco-friendly and socially conscious toy company that puts smiles on kids’ faces around the world with beautiful bubbles. Paola joins us on the show to round out our recent conversations on sustainability and the toy industry.

How do you tell your partner that you want to start a toy business? How do you overcome imposter syndrome together? Find the answers to these questions and many more. Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy but being a supportive spouse can make the experience a whole lot lighter.

Can a circular business model find success in a pandemic? Yes, it can! And today’s guest, Lauren Gregor is going to share with us exactly how she made that happen.

Leticia joins The Toy Coach in a conversation about the changes we need to make as both an industry and a society to reduce our carbon footprint. What you’ll learn in this episode is the Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s concept of a circular economy. You will learn why it is more beneficial to our environment, that we re-think HOW toys are produced than WHAT they are made of.

In this episode, you’ll learn 4 tips to attract the ideal toy mentor for you. And you’ll learn how to start establishing that relationship before ever talking about the possibility of mentorship. If you follow these four tips, you’ll put yourself in a position to meet a likeminded person and create the opportunity to share your values and dreams in a way that will make industry professionals recognize you as a promising mentee. And yes, even if they weren’t looking for one.

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!