Data is a precious thing. Data allows companies to make growth projections, develop products based on consumer needs, and write messages based on consumer desires. But where do you go to find precious data? Well, in the toy industry, there are several research and analytics companies that will gather that data all year long, offering trend reports and future cast predictions much like the one we’ll be reviewing in today’s podcast episode. In today’s podcast episode I will review a 2023 future forecast provided by The Insights Family. This report has 12 recommendations for the year based on the agency’s research.

During today’s podcast episode, you’ll learn about how you can use Connection Campaigns, Promotional Campaigns, Abandoned Cart Campaigns, and ReEngagement Campaigns to sell your toy or game product. The key to using email is great subject lines and even better storytelling. If you don’t enjoy writing emails to your customer list…your customer probably doesn’t enjoy reading them! Let’s fix that in 40 minutes with my latest audio masterclass, The Art & Science of Successful Toy Biz Email Campaigns.

Today’s podcast episode is something completely new and different. It’s the first time we’ve done an interview at the manufacturer's office and warehouse to see how the toys are really being made! You will get to see how bubble magic is made at South Beach Bubbles and Toys. Plus, you’ll get to hear some amazing advice and tips from the company’s “bubble dads,” the two friends who founded the business. 

In today’s episode, Ron Weizman and Shooki Grasiani, the founders of South Beach Bubbles, give you an insider tour of their new office and warehouse space. They just moved into a space that is double the size of their old one and are still decorating, so don’t judge the lack of art on the walls. However, they have all their manufacturing and business operations up and running in their new space and you get to see it! You will see how the bubbles are mixed and packaged. Plus, you’ll learn some tips about how to find a great business partner, why the company uses their own warehouse, and why they decided to work with Amazon. Plus you’ll get to see how much fun it is to play with their amazing bubbles!

To watch the full video of today’s episode, head over to youtube.com/thetoycoach and subscribe to our channel.

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

Did you know that you can turn everyday experiences into great toy ideas? Today’s podcast guest noticed that her toddler loved to play with pretend food toys. However, she saw that the food toys on the market didn’t represent what was popular in Hawai’i, where she lives. So, she created a toy company that started with Hawai’ian food toy sets and has now branched out with toys that represent other cuisines found in Hawai’i like Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese.

April Hail has lived in Hawai’i for between 20 and 30 years of her life. There, she started Keiki KauKau, after being inspired by her kids’ play patterns and the popular foods in Hawai’i. April shares about the struggles of being a parent and being an entrepreneur who is running a small one-person company. Her kids inspired her to create the business, but she also seeks to have balance so she can spend plenty of time with them. You’ll also learn about the unique struggles of importing from China to Hawai’i while also selling to the mainland US, which shipping platform you may want to try to save money, and advice on how to market a niche toy.

Today’s podcast episode touches on a subject we haven’t covered yet: faith. Today’s guest shares how her faith not only inspired her to create what became a popular product but also kept her going during challenging moments. My guest today believes that everyone has a God-given purpose and that finding that will help each person find the most fulfillment in life.

Angie Cella is a mom of four children, a Christian author, and the inventor and chief dreamer of Blinger, an amazing tool for both kids and adults that you can use to add crystals to your hair. Her incredible and unique story starts with a prayer and a dream. However, it wasn’t a metaphorical dream that led Angie to create Blinger. It was a literal nighttime dream that gave her inspiration. Listen to today’s podcast episode to learn how she made her dream into reality over the next four years, how she made it work financially with four children, and how her faith kept her going through it all. You’ll also learn why she first licensed her toy but then decided to get her license back after a few years, and about the miracle that helped her write her book, Blinger: An Entrepreneur's Faith-Based Journey.

MESH is NOT the new STEAM. MESH is a solution that utilizes toys as an answer to the mental health crisis among children and teens today.  The development of MESH skills is important to help kids learn how to navigate strong emotions and difficult experiences. So what is MESH?  MESH is an acronym for Mental, Emotional and Social Health. Developing MESH skills can help protect kids from the risky behaviors and self-harm that are too often the result of their mental distress.

Today’s podcast episode is a Masterclass on MESH with Rachel Harmuth, the Head of ThinkFun. MESH products are products that build skills like problem solving, perseverance, adaptation, conflict resolution, self-regulation, self-advocacy, cognitive skills, and communication strategies.

If you have a toy or game product that could potentially fit into the MESH category, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss. In this episode you’ll learn all about the MESH movement, who is behind it, and you’ll uncover how you can get involved.

This episode is packed with valuable, actionable advice featuring Marie Nastasi’s 5 Keys to a Successful Buyer Presentation. She brings a wealth of experience to you from her roles as both a buyer and a manufacturers’ representative. 

How do you go from a dreamer with comic book aspirations to a toy industry legend and award-winning toy designer? Today’s guest, David Vonner, shares his incredible journey as an artist, parent, and toy designer from the 1990s until now. His original dream was to be an illustrator for Marvel Comics. However, his family and those surrounding him encouraged him to go down a path that would ensure a career. David worked at Marvel as a toy designer for 5-6 years, before moving on to Hasbro to work on their Marvel-licensed products. Finally, David started his own design studio, Vonner Studios. In today’s episode, you will learn how connections helped David to advance in the toy industry, how he went from traditional employment to starting his own company, and his best piece of advice for people in the toy industry today. His story is captivating, informative, and inspirational!

Think of a time when you were shopping for a product but couldn’t find quite what you were looking for. You probably thought of a great way to improve that product at that moment. But, maybe you wondered if you could really do everything that goes into creating a successful toy. Keep listening to learn the inspiring story of someone who did just that. Josh White is an award-winning innovator who combines multiple facets of design, manufacturing, branding, and marketing at his creative agency, OffWhite Co. He created a line of kid-friendly measuring tapes called Handy Famm after a dissatisfying trip to the hardware store with his daughter. In today’s episode, you will learn how sticking with the “box” of what you know can actually help you to get started with your ideas. You’ll also learn how Josh’s product is toyetic, the importance of safety in toy design, and how Josh deals with challenges that come his way.

Today’s guest, Theresa Duncan, started a toy store, Villa Villekulla Toys, in her local community with her dad. Together they turned it into a successful family business over the eight years it has been open. Listen to the episode to find out the differences between starting a digital business and a brick-and-mortar business and the importance of a business plan. She also tells how she got the idea to quit her job and start a neighborhood toy store, how focusing on the community can help your small business, and tips for getting your product into a neighborhood toy store.

With AI-Powered Chat GPT, generating toy and game ideas has never been easier. If you are in the process of developing a toy or a game but are stuck in the concept phase, this week’s episode is one you cannot afford to miss. AI-Powered Chat GPT can generate “creative” toy & game ideas quickly and easily - and all you need to get started is a single sentence. Chat GPT was released in November of 2022, and is known for its ability to code, write stories, and even music. But today we’re giving this clever chatbot a new challenge…to come up with a concept for a toy or game. Curious to know how it did? I bet you’ll be shocked by the results.

I bet that YOU can generate a high resolution concept image of your toy idea for free, and in seconds. The use of AI art exploded in recent months, with the search term “AI art” spiking in the US this past December. The breakout AI tools have been Midjourney, Lensa, and DALL-E. Since then, there has been considerable and understandable backlash against AI art from real human artists across the globe. In this episode we explore three things, 1) how AI can help the development process of your toy or game, 2) why some artists are frustrated by the growing popularity of ai art, and 3) what legal ramifications using art generated by AI could pose.

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.