Episode #89: 3 Simple Strategies to Becoming A Toy Person
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If you’re a devoted listener of this podcast, then I’ve been calling you a toy person for almost 100 episodes now, and it just hit me recently, that I’ve never actually talked about what it means to be a toy person!
Today’s episode covers just that. Learn 3 simple strategies that you can start implementing today to become a toy person in this industry. This episode is for YOU if you’ve ever felt a little imposter syndrome when you’ve been referred to as a toy person. This episode will also help YOU if you are a new toy creator and you want to put your best foot forward when stepping into this industry.
The 3 strategies covered in this episode will teach you how to mentally show up as a joyful toy person, how to keep focused with a toy goals notebook, and share the importance of knowing the category that you want to innovate. You’ll hear personal stories from me that will help you approach your toy career, toy business, or general toy journey more strategically.
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Write a letter to your future self! https://www.futureme.org/
Looking to jumpstart your toy career? Check out www.toycareertakeoff.com
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You were listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 89.
[00:00:04] Hey there toy people, Azhelle Wade here. And welcome back to another episode of the toy coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. Today's episode is a fun one. We are going to talk about how you can become a toy person. Now, whether you are looking to be a toy inventor, an entrepreneur, or an executive in the toy industry, this is an episode for you.
[00:00:45] Today's episode is going to lay out three simple strategies that you can start implementing today to become a toy person. By the end of today's episode, you're going to know strategies that I used without knowing they were strategies. And I'm going to lay them out for you today so that you can strategically utilize your time and your energy to show up as your best self in the toy industry. If you've ever had an idea for a toy, if you've ever wanted to work in this industry, I wanted to get ready, turn the volume up, put away distractions, because this one is for you.
[00:01:24] Okay, let's dive right into today's training, how to become a toy person, three simple steps to get you started on your path into the toy industry and becoming a true toy person. If you are already a student of mine or a long-term listener, welcome back. This is going to be a great opportunity for you to reassess what the toy industry means to you and how you're showing up in it.
[00:01:50] If you're brand new also welcome welcome. Let's dive right in. You're going to love this training.
[00:01:56] Okay. So I'm not sure what brought you to the podcast today. Maybe you are a creative, already working in a field that you love and life is fantastic. And you're just curious what this whole toy thing is about. Or maybe you're struggling to find the joy in your nine to five. Or maybe you're working a nine to five job and you're struggling to find the joy in that job.
[00:02:23] So the you're looking to fill your life with more purposeful and passionate projects, whether those projects will be in addition to your current job, like a side hobby or something you do on the weekend. Or projects that will be eventually replacing that side job. Now, no matter what brought you here or what you're looking to discover. Know this, I think you arrive today for a reason. You may have a desire to do more, create more, or simply make a lasting impression with the work that you do every day. And guess what? Toys and the toy industry are a pretty cool way to do just that. So whatever your reason for showing up today, I'm sure glad you're here.
[00:03:11] So let's get the good stuff going and start talking toys. Since 2010, that's over 11 years, I've worked passionately in the toy industry. I've been a toy designer, a toy product developer, a toy inventor and a VP in the toy industry. And I have loved, loved, loved every minute of it. This career has allowed me to get paid to play every day and rewarded me with patented products.
[00:03:42] Wonderful friendships, global travel experiences. I absolutely miss and love Hong Kong and so many prideful moments where I got to see my product in stores. Pick it up and snap photos with it. It was pretty cool. There is nothing like being a toy designer, whether you're working for a company, you're freelancing toy gigs, or you're starting your own thing.
[00:04:10] Now it's been a little over a year where I've been giving back to this industry as the toy coach and educating and guiding aspiring toy people like you. I've been doing it through this podcast. I've been giving speeches at organizations like women in toys, the inventors group of America. I've been writing articles for toy industry magazines, like the toy book. I've even been lucky enough to be interviewed by two amazing women that I admire in the online business space, Amy Porterfield and Marie Forleo.
[00:04:48] And I've been able to talk to them about being a toy designer. And it has allowed me to bring focus and attention to the industry that I love so much.
[00:05:00] As the toy coach, I've been helping creatives from all walks of life, become toy people. And I've been teaching them how to break into this industry and show up as their best selves. If you know anything about my programs that I offer, you and also know that my students range from bakers to teachers, to parents, to creative designers, to animators.
[00:05:29] There are incredible people out there that want to join the toy industry. And I love, love, love being the one to help usher them in.
[00:05:38] While the toy industry is small. There are many, many different paths you can take to enter it. So whether you're a designer, an illustrator, a planner, an engineer, a marketer, or a scientist, there is likely a home for you in this industry. As long as you're a toy person. Now before you rush off to go and try to break into the toy industry. My very first lesson to you today is that you need to identify if you are already a toy person. So next, I'm going to tell you exactly what a toy person is and why it's so important to be a toy person before you dive into this industry.
[00:06:22] But as I explained what a toy person is, I don't want you to worry if that isn't you yet. When I first started out over 11 years ago, it wasn't me either. I spent way too much time focusing on the wrong things while creating toys and game products. And it took all of the joy out of the best job in the world.
[00:06:43] So, because I care about you. I want to make sure that before you set foot into this industry and network with people in this industry, that your heart and your mind is in the right place. I want to make sure that you have the best personal and professional experience possible, and that you can to give back just as much as I hope this industry gives you.
[00:07:09] Now I mentioned there are three strategies that we're going to break down to becoming a toy person.
[00:07:14] Strategy number one, I've already kind of alluded to in the title and in my lead up, but strategy number one is become a toy person first. Now a toy person is someone that is still in touch with their inner child. Someone who loves to feed that inner self with joyful playful activities, a toy person can make a game out of anything. And often does. They are often also collectors or have been collectors of their favorite toy products and appreciate intricacies in design that most other people overlook. Without realizing it a toy person, analyzes how children play and learn and finds inspiration in that play to design new toys and enhance existing ones.
[00:08:03] True toy people, evolve their design approaches to compliment the world we live in. Whether that means designing a product to help family stay connected while apart, or designing to show more cultural representation or designing products that are more sustainable to protect our future. A true toy person, can't help, but come up with ideas that are socially relevant and modernize to fit into today's society.
[00:08:34] So let's talk about why it's important to be a toy person before jumping into this industry. Well, when you first get started in the toy industry, you're going to have to make some tough choices. You may have to take low or no paying jobs to build your portfolio. You may have to save a lot of money and then spend a lot of money.
[00:08:56] If you are working as an independent entrepreneur or inventor, developing an idea. And at times you might be frustrated as you work on many a concept that either doesn't get picked up in a pitch meeting or doesn't make it to production. If you're working for a company full time. However, if you become a toy person before you ever enter this field, none of those negative things are going to matter.
[00:09:24] I'm telling you if you love that you get to take part in the process of creating or launching a toy product. Then the inevitable obstacles and expenses that cross your path. Will see like small hurdles that you are excited to leap over and every leap over every hurdle will empower you and teach you things instead of draining you.
[00:09:52] If you become a toy person first, you will fall in love with the meaning of your work and the process of your work. And you will fall in love so hard. You won't be working in the toy industry anymore. You'll be playing in it. Now becoming a toy person is the difference between working until 7:00 PM at night with a negative mindset and full of frustration and working until 7:00 PM at night with a positive mindset. And honestly thinking, I can't believe I get to do this for a living. I am so lucky.
[00:10:29] There you have it. Strategy one become a toy person first. I know it sounds simple, but you wouldn't believe how easy it is to take your position in the toy industry for granted, whether you are creating toy products that you're selling to individuals or you're creating products to pitch to toy companies, or you're actually working for a small toy company or a large toy company, it can be super easy to take what we do for granted and the easiest way to make sure that that happens is to not become a toy person before you get that amazing toy job or take that amazing leap into the toy industry. So I really want you to become a toy person first, so that your perspective will completely shift as you do your work in this industry day in and day out.
[00:11:25] Okay. Let's move on to strategy number two. Strategy number two is to keep a toy goals notebook. Now, if you do strategy one correctly, you're going to become a full-on toy person. Then you were going to love your work. You are going to love working on your new, small toy business or working at toy internships or working your entry level jobs. The whole nine. You're going to love it all.
[00:11:53] But the problem with falling in love. Is love is blind. Based on my very, very personal experience. I want you to set toy goals for yourself, and I want you to reevaluate those goals each and every year. What's important here are the types of goals I want you to set. You know, I'm not talking big picture goals, not like massive unrealistic, or will take a long time to complete goals.
[00:12:24] Like, oh, I want to land a multi-million dollar licensing deal with Hasbro or, oh, I want to be the CEO of a toy company in five years, but I have no experience. No. I want you to start setting goals for what you can realistically achieve about a year from now and because their goals, we do want them to be something to strive to, but we want it to be realistic that we can achieve that goal with the connections and tools and resources that we currently have.
[00:12:57] So I want you to set goals for what you need to learn and what you need to understand better a year from now. What you need to learn and understand better is a great goal setting point because it gives you focus on what to do next and what you should be learning and experiencing while doing that thing. So for example, what you need to do next could just be as simple as, oh, I need to write up my resume and I need to send it out to toy companies or what you need to do next is oh, I really need to invest in education. I really need to spend time learning about the toy industry before I take that step to develop that product idea that I've had. And if you want to do that, you know what I'm going to say. If you know me at all, you should check out toy creators academy, head over to toycreatorsacademy.com to learn more.
[00:13:52] Now look, every step you take in the toy industry, whether it's attending a toy trade show for the first time saying yes to a freelance gig or a full-time entry-level position. Or maybe just getting your first managerial role. Everything, every step you take has something big to teach you. If you want to grow in this industry, you're going to have to pay attention to your own personal and professional growth.
[00:14:23] It is super easy to get swept up in how wonderful and magical your day job as a toy person is day in and day out. It's easy to forget that you have goals to me when your days are filled with approving doll sculps, reviewing fun craft kit instructions going on product photo shoots.
[00:14:46] Yes, those are all amazing parts of working in the toy industry. But as much as you love this industry, you are going to need to make sure you love yourself even more. So, if you're jumping into the toy industry as a solo inventor, or as an entrepreneur, your goals are going to be a little different from someone jumping into the industry as a freelancer or a full-time employee of a toy company.
[00:15:13] So I'm going to break down the optimal areas of focus, depending on how you're joining this toy industry. And as you listen, I want you to remember that every year, your goal should be to move forward. And at least one of the areas I'm about to mention. Okay. So as an inventor or entrepreneur in the toy industry, your toy goals should be focused on areas of education, relationships, and revenue.
[00:15:44] So what does that mean? Well, education, you should be looking to learn as much as you can about the toy industry, the professional side, the independent side. The pitching side, you need to learn as much as you can about the history of the toy industry and the current state of it. So you can show up as a pro inventor or entrepreneur.
[00:16:08] Number two I mentioned relationships. In order to be an inventor entrepreneur in the toy industry. You're going to need to have friends on your side. So you're going to need to build some relationships in this industry. Those relationships might be with people who are putting on events, designed for entrepreneurs and inventors.
[00:16:27] Those relationships might be with toy companies who are looking for innovations from an inventor like you. Or those relationships might be with new toy people who want to gain experience and my offer you really affordable rates to hire them as freelance copywriters or designers. Just think about relationships as the backbone of your toy goals, your relationship building is really always going to help you get to that next step. Now, finally, for inventors and entrepreneurs, I mentioned revenue.
[00:17:00] Revenue being your third toy goal. For inventors and entrepreneurs, since you are investing your own money to develop a toy idea, you can easily run out of cash to keep your business going. So from day one, when you start out as an inventor or an entrepreneur, you're going to want to keep track of your costs and your revenue.
[00:17:25] It may take years for you to start earning the money you put into the company back, but you should have a plan on how to get there. You shouldn't just throw money at the wall or throw things at the wall and see what sticks. You definitely want to make sure you have a plan on how you can get back the money that you're investing in.
[00:17:49] Okay, let's move on. As a toy freelancer, let's talk about your toy goals. Your toy goal should be focused on relationships, contacts and personal branding. Now I mentioned relationships with the inventor and entrepreneur portion, but again, as a freelancer, relationships are even more important to you because people often hire freelancers that are at the top of their mind.
[00:18:15] So it's not always necessarily that people are looking for the best person, but it's the first person that comes to their mind. That also happens to be the best person. In their mind at that moment. So as a freelancer, you want to always be building and maintaining your toy industry, contact relationships, and making sure that they're aware that you are available for work, which in our industry usually means you're just not working for a competitor toy company. And that you have relevant recent work that is in the style. And that is in or similar to the style that the company you are thinking about working for does.
[00:19:01] Now, second I mentioned contacts. Now you might be thinking like a, hold on Azhelle isn't relationships, the same as contacts? A little bit, but you can have a relationship with someone without actually having their contact information. These days, social media makes that happen all too well. And we want to be sure that you putting yourself in the position to monetize all of these relationships. Because if you are a freelancer, that is all you're doing. So if you start having conversations with someone let's say over LinkedIn, and you are really building up a positive report, make sure you get their contact information.
[00:19:43] Whether you feel comfortable emailing them. Calling them on their office or cell phone. That's up to you, but you really want to make sure you're actually building and maintaining an up-to-date contact list. If it's in your phone, if it's in an email service provider, whatever you need to do, you need to have a way to constantly stay in touch outside of social media, but stay in touch with the people that could potentially hire you for a toy gig.
[00:20:16] Now the third and final toy goal focus I mentioned for freelancers is branding. Now as a toy industry freelancer, your brand is what's going to help you stick out and stay at top of mind for certain companies. Your brand should really directly connect to your style of your work.
[00:20:37] And I do have to be honest here, your brand may help you get jobs, but it can also prevent you from getting jobs because often if you let's say show up as the designer who creates a lot of disney, like characters and somebody is looking to hire a designer to do more clean cut wood focused character design.
[00:20:59] They might see your brand and see your name everywhere, but just think, you know, they're not the right person for the job. So when you're thinking of how you're going to brand yourself as a freelancer, make sure you're branding yourself to a style. Static that you are happy to be committed to for years to come.
[00:21:18] You can always change your branding, but when you're first starting out, it's really helpful to have a defined style and look to help you get those niche toy jobs. So those jobs where it's a lot of Disney or Pixar, like character design. If you have too broad of a brand, sometimes it's going to be hard for toy companies to know if you're the best person to get their specific job done at any given time.
[00:21:45] Now the final. Let's move on. As a full time employee for a toy company, your toy goals should be focused on education, relationship and experiences. Ooh okay, so these are a little bit different. Let's talk about that. Now, number one, we mentioned education again. Yes, as a full-time employee of a toy company, don't think that this just means you don't have anything to learn. There is always more to learn and you should be looking for opportunities, educational opportunities, wherever you can get them. Some toy companies actually pay education reimbursements. You can get an actual degree that a toy company will pay you back for oftentimes that comes with a caveat. Yeah. Well, if we help you get a master's degree, you can't leave for a year or two.
[00:22:37] You know, if you love your job, that's no problem at all. Your goal for your reason for building up your education is so that you can stay fresh at the company you're currently working for, but also as the society changes and as your company or working for might change. If you ever find yourself in the position where you need to find a new job, you'll be better prepared for it.
[00:23:02] If you make sure that you're keeping your education going and thriving and moving and grow. Now education, doesn't just have to be in the toy industry. A good example of this would be, let's say you're working as a full-time employee at a toy company and you are working in editing and you are maybe working on editing instruction manuals and writing instruction manuals. And you love the job, but one day you really hope to be a graphic designer. You might decide I'm going to take a class on the side, on weekends and evenings about graphic design, and I'm going to build up that graphic design portfolio. So that one day I can maybe move within this company to a graphic design position.
[00:23:48] So your education, doesn't always have to be exactly what you're doing right now. And it doesn't even always have to be focused in the toy industry because you already have toy industry experience. You're already working at a toy company. You can gain skills in graphic design, in marketing. In business development and those skills and those classes and those lessons don't have to be specific to the toy industry.
[00:24:14] It's just your job to take the things that you learn and combine them with the things you know, or are learning about the toy industry. Okay. Number two, if you're a full-time employee, I mentioned that you should also be working on relationships. Now, you know, when you. At a toy company, you don't even realize it, but every person you interact with every person you meet, you are networking.
[00:24:42] And when the bigger the toy company that you worked for more of a compound effect that this has. As you work at a toy company, people are going to start to get to know you. They're going to know you by name and they're going to know you by your work ethic. So it's really important that you show up as your best self at work that you constantly offer help, that you don't miss deadlines that you are just a truly focused toy professional because these relationships that you're passively building, you're not really realizing you're building are going to serve you or can serve you really well in the future. If you show up as the best version of yourself.
[00:25:25] Now I know sometimes when things happen in life, maybe we have like an awkward interaction or we mess something up really big. And we have a big moment. Sometimes we don't want to address the issues, but I am telling you from personal experience when you're working in this industry, The industry is small.
[00:25:46] So if you make a mistake or if you let somebody down at work, make sure you own it. Make sure you apologize that you're authentic about your reasons, why you had the mistake or the mix-up so that you can maintain and repair that relationship because you have no idea how long that person is going to be in the toy industry and your paths. If they stay in the industry will likely cross again.
[00:26:14] Now the third area of focus that I mentioned for full-time employees of the toy industry is experiences. Ah, for a full-time employee of the toy industry. If I can tell you one thing that you take away from this entire episode, I want it to be this.
[00:26:32] You need to sign up for every single experience you possibly can. If you hear that your boss is arranging a trip to send someone to China or to India to check out new factories. Your hand should go straight up in the air. As fast as the flash. You do not want to waste any opportunity while working full-time attitude company to gain new experiences.
[00:27:01] If the Corona virus pandemic taught me anything. One of the things it taught me was just, you know, don't take traveling overseas to develop toy products for granted. Nobody has been back. Nobody that I know has been back in China since it all began. And those trips were yearly for most people and sometimes quarterly for other people.
[00:27:25] So any opportunity that you get to take on experiences and that could be traveling overseas, but it could also be attending toy trade shows. It could also just be attending a photo shoot. Take those opportunities. I know sometimes what will happen is you'll get really busy at your job. And if an opportunity to go to a photo shoot or go on a trend research trip kind of comes up when, you know, you should be working doing other work in your full-time position.
[00:27:56] It's going to be easy to say no, no, I won't do that now. I'll do it next time. But I'm telling you. Do it, you might have to work overtime to get your other work done so you can take advantage of the experience and the opportunity, but 100% do it. If you get invited to any store opening, if you get invited to any industry event or dinner to celebrate, like let's see the women and toys dinner, or if you get invited to a store opening event and your entire team is going. I'm gonna say that you probably should be going to.
[00:28:29] Okay. Let's talk real quick about how you are going to track your toy goals. I broke up what a toy goals, inventors and entrepreneurs should have, what toy goals freelancers should have and what toy goals you should have if you're actually a full-time employee at a toy company. So wherever you're at, when you first start, I want you to get a notebook.
[00:28:54] It could be a toy person notebook from my shop, or it could just be any notebook. Maybe you just like a plain old black mole skin. You can get that too. So I want you to write down. What you want to learn in the next year, that's your toy goal. And I want you to also write down what you already know about that topic.
[00:29:15] So here's an example of this. An example would be, I want to learn more about the manufacturing process of toy cars. And then you might write down next to that. All I know right now is that they're die-cast. Now you can add more to this of course, this is just an example. Now what's left over from that is that gap. That gap of what you need to learn. You know, you want to learn more about the manufacturing process of toy cars, and you already know that they're die-cast. So now it's going to be a lot easier for you to know what information you want to fill.
[00:29:52] You could essentially go to your mentor attitude company. I want to learn more about toy cars. All I know is that they're die-cast and see where that conversation leads you. Honestly, in my experience, it's led to experiences like not only lessons from my mentors, but usually they would come and say, you know what?
[00:30:11] I love that you asked that question. Why don't you come along with me to a trip to XYZ factory and see more about that? Or why don't you come along with me on a trip to our prototyping studio to see how they make this happen? So asking these questions and knowing exactly what to say and letting your mentor know what you already know is super helpful in getting new information, especially when you don't know exactly what to ask.
[00:30:39] Okay. So let's say you're a toy inventor entrepreneur. Your toy goal might be, I want to make $50,000 in revenue with my toy idea. And I plan to do that by, and then you want to list down different ways that you intend to make that happen. Some of them can be plans you've already had in the works, but it's ideal. If you can set new plan so you have something to go after.
[00:31:05] Now the goal of this exercise is for you to get written down three to five goals, that express what you want to learn or what you want to achieve in the next year. And you also next to each of those goals, want to detail what you already know, or you already have planned to achieve it.
[00:31:25] Trust me, the details are going to make this so much better when you come back to it later. After you write down your three to five toy goals, depending on where you're at, depending on if you're an inventor, depending on if you're working full time in the industry, or if you're a freelancer, all your goals will be different.
[00:31:44] Once you have all of your goals down. I want you to set an alarm in your phone. Yup. And alarm for one year, from the day you wrote down those toy goals. Now in the note section, I love to give my future self a little note. But in the note section, you could either just copy what you wrote down in your notebook, or write a special note to your future self, to tell you to go back and read your toy goals, notebook, and maybe just a little bit of a pep talk for your future yourself.
[00:32:16] Now, if you're a person who may be often changes their cell phone, or you don't really use your cell phone alarm or calendar in that way, there is another option and you could actually write a letter to your future self and it'll show up as an email. So how you do that is go to futureme.org.
[00:32:36] It's a website, and at futureme.org you can just write a letter to your future self. They have options to deliver in one year, three years and five years. So write your future self, a letter that you'll see in one year to make sure you've taken big steps toward achieving your toy goals. You can find the link to future me in the show notes.
[00:33:01] So why do we do this? Why do we take an extra step to make sure that we will get an alert from an outside source to double check on our toy goals while we do it? Our jobs are pretty awesome. Sometimes our toy jobs are so awesome. We forget to check back and check in to see if we're growing. If our businesses growing, if it's really delivering to ourselves and the people we hope to help in this industry, if we're really delivering the goals that we set out to achieve.
[00:33:33] So it's important that we have this preset time where we're going to have to check in with ourselves. So make sure to keep your toy goals, notebook in a safe place so that when you get this letter back to your future self, you are ready to head to your toy goals notebook, and make sure you are on the right track.
[00:33:54] All right. Finally, we're going to move on to strategy number three. Which is get to know the category that you want to innovate. So before you go apply to jobs in the toy industry, and before you reach out to other toy people for mentorship or advice, the most important thing for you to do is to understand your zone of toy. genius.
[00:34:17] Now you may be thinking, oh,Azhelle, I don't have a zone of toy genius yet. How do I figure that out? Well, let me tell you something, you likely do have a zone of toy genius, and you just don't know what it is quite yet. And your zone of genius is something that's going to change and evolve as you grow and evolve in this industry.
[00:34:37] Okay. Let me tell you a little story. When I was a VP at a toy company searching out an assistant to join my team. I went through hundreds of portfolios and resumes and the one resume and portfolio that stood out was a young lady who had a clear passion for saving the environment, but also had this practical and toyetic approach to doing it.
[00:35:05] Her work stood out to me because it highlights her zone of toy genius. And it highlighted that her area of interest and expertise differed from the toy industry, but it also showed her method for creatively problem solving that difference in the toy industry and still showing up as a marketable toy person.
[00:35:30] Without knowing it, she presented her zone of toy genius to be environmentally friendly kids product. And to me, it showed up as somebody who wanted to innovate the toy industry to be more socially conscious, more aware. And that was something that I really, really loved now. Understanding the category that you want to innovate is going to affect how you show up.
[00:35:57] In the toy industry, it's going to influence the companies and the people that you work with. So it's important that you find alignment in your personal passions and the toy industry, and work out a way to showcase your passions and your zone of toy genius professionally in your toy, resume or portfolio. Now the absolute best way to understand the category that you want to innovate is to just research all different toy categories and find the one that resonates most with you and combine that category with your other passions.
[00:36:36] Are you super passionate about dance? Are you super passionate about food or are you passionate about mental care and wellness and kids. So I want you to head over to episode number one of this podcast, that episode is going to teach you how to perform a market research trip, which is really important if you're just starting out to understand the categories in the toy industry and to help you identify categories that you're most drawn to.
[00:37:09] Okay to wrap up this training today. I want you to do a little exercise. If you're driving or working out right now, you can just listen in and come back to this part later. But if you're not, if you happen to be free and you're just sitting at your desk, I want you to grab a piece of paper and a pen, and I want you to fold the paper in half horizontally. So you have two colums. At the top center of the page where the fold is. I want you to write the toy industry right across the center. And then at the top, on the left side, write my strengths. And then at the top on the right side, write my passion. And I want you to take time to fill out these two columns with as many accurate words to describe your passions and your strengths as you can.
[00:37:58] They don't have to be obviously related to the toy industry. We're just going to brain dump a bunch of different ideas here. I'm going to give you a few quick examples. Your strengths could be that you are an amazing illustrator, a creative writer, a branding genius, and your passions could be that you care about creating diversity in toys that you love science and dancing.
[00:38:23] Now once you have these two separate columns, all filled out, I want you to look at them over and compare them to the toys that you see on the market. After you do that trend research, I mentioned a few moments ago and think to yourself, could any of your passions align with a particular category of toys and which of your strengths could best help you showcase that passion?
[00:38:49] For example using the strengths and passions that I just mentioned, I could use the strength that I mentioned as an amazing illustrator and a passion for diverse dolls to design a black ballerina doll. And right there, if I'm a toy inventor or entrepreneur or I'm freelancing or working for a company full-time bam I have come up with a unique idea that aligns with my strengths and my passions. One that I can sketch and pitch to a toy company. And I figured all of that out just by analyzing what I already had to offer to the toy industry and connecting them back to the industry that I love so much.
[00:39:33] Now, ultimately what you want to do with this page of strengths and passions is identify how you want to show up in the toy industry. I know that joining the toy industry can seem difficult at first. So I want to encourage you to just have patience and trust that you have the power to control your toy future and become a part of this incredible industry.
[00:39:57] If that's what you want most for yourself. Remember to implement the three strategies that I suggested in this episode, strategy one become a toy person first, this is going to help you overcome hurdles with joy. Strategy two keep a toy goals notebook. And set an alarm email, send yourself a future me message to help you check in and make sure that you're staying on track with those toy goals. Strategy number three, get to know the category you want to innovate. Super important step to help you go through that step. I recommended you go back to the toy coach.com forward slash one and listen to my very, very, very first podcast episode.
[00:40:44] All of these steps are super important to becoming a toy person. And it's important to become a toy person before you step into the industry to be an inventor and entrepreneur or join the corporate toy world.
[00:40:59] Thank you so much. If you want to continue your toy training into the toy industry, head over to toycreatorsacademy.com and make sure you join me for the launch party of toy creators academy. If the launch party has passed, I would love to have you on the wait list. You can also join that by visiting toycreatorsacademy.com.
[00:41:22] Now, if you got this episode forwarded to you by a friend or a family member, and it's your first time here. Welcome. Welcome. Make sure you head over to thetoycoach.com to learn more about me and see how you can become a podcast insider. You can also sign up for my email list for weekly toy tips directly to your inbox.
[00:41:43] Before I say farewell, I'd like to take a quick break and shout out a listener who left a great review. Leni 2021 says, Azhelle who has developed the toy coach podcast is every toy inventors dream come true. She gives so much valuable information. Anyone at any level in the toy industry. Speaking from my personal experience, Azhelle's podcast have helped me understand a little more about the toy industry and encourage me to continue this journey as a toy inventor. Leni, thanks so much for that review. I don't know who you are, which is weird for me. I feel like I normally connected with so many of my listeners. If you are in the toy coach community on Facebook, give me a shout out. I'd love to know who you are, leni. Thank you so much for that wonderful review.
[00:42:31] Okay toy people. That's all I have for you today as always. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later toy people.
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🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.