Episode #150: How the Power Pony Was Imagined By Kids For Kids with Mia Monzidelis
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Only adults can make amazing toys right? Wrong! Kids play with a lot of toys so it only makes sense that they would come up with some incredible toy ideas. Today’s guest has come up with a sensational toy at only 11 years old. Well, she was actually 5 when she came up with the idea and started developing the product. Now she is bringing her insights as a seasoned kidpreneur to today’s episode of Making it in the Toy Industry.
Mia Monzideliz came up with the idea for the Power Pony when she got a hoverboard and a large plush horse for Christmas one year. She came up with the idea to put the pony on the hoverboard, and the rest is history! Now the Power Pony is a successful product that is only available on the company’s website. With the help of her parents, Mia created the business from the ground up, helping with everything from the design of the horses to the proprietary ZüME engine. In today’s episode you will learn all about her fresh perspective as a young entrepreneur, and her wise advice for anyone in the toy industry.
EPISODE CLIFF NOTES
Learn how a 5 year old Mia got inspired to create the Power Pony. [00:01:53]
Find out how Mia’s friends helped her to get motivated to turn her idea into a business at such a young age. [00:04:02]
Learn the first step that Mia and her family took to make the Power Pony a reality. [00:05:32]
Find out why Mia and her family created a unique engine for the Power Pony instead of just using a hoverboard. [00:06:52]
Learn how long it took from conception to having the Power Pony safety tested and ready to sell. [00:08:42]
Find out how Mia keeps it all balanced with school, playing sports, and working on Power Pony. [00:15:10]
Learn the easiest part of creating Power Pony for Mia. [00:19:54]
Find out the most famous celebrities who have talked about Power Pony. [00:23:17]
Learn the best piece of advice Mia received when she started Power Pony. [00:27:22]
Find out Mia’s favorite toy (besides Power Pony of course!) [00:29:24]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Check out Power Pony by clicking here.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 150.
[00:00:05] 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. Mia Monzidelis is the 11 year old inventor and founder of the Power Pony, which is a fun high tech ride built to ride like a real horse. Mia attends sixth grade in Long Island, New York, Where I'm also from, by the way, Mia, you may not know. Yeah.
[00:00:50] And her favorite moments are spent caring for and riding horses, which was her inspiration to create something. She could ride anywhere at any time. This remarkable young lady is making waves as an entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Starting a business at such a young age has motivated Mia to give back to others, and she looks forward to developing more fun products and experiences powered by her wait for it patented zumi engine. So, yep. Today we're talking to a patented young inventor. Mia, welcome to the show.
[00:01:26] Mia: Thank you,
[00:01:27] Azhelle Wade: I'm so happy to have you here. And I want a Power Pony. I don't live in Long Island anymore, so I don't have space for a Power Pony, but I, I want a Power Pony. They are so cool.
[00:01:39] Mia: I'll get you one for sure.
[00:01:41] Azhelle Wade: No, I have no space. I can't have one here. I can't. But tell me, how old were you when you came up with it?
[00:01:47] Mia: I was five years old when I came up with the idea.
[00:01:51] Azhelle Wade: Stop. So walk me through how that happened. Were you on one of those like hover boards and then you went to ride your horses and then you were like putting two and two together?
[00:02:02] Mia: So basically I'd been riding horses before that, but I was only riding about like one day a week, so it was like, Not a lot, but I wanted to write every single day. So I wanted to create one, but it was hard with where I'm living. So, it was Christmas and I got a hoverboard and a plush horse, and I was like, Hmm, why don't I put the plus source over the hover board and see if it. And I did and it moved and I was like, I have to show my parents this. This is gonna be so cool. I showed my parents and they loved it, and I wrote it every single day. It was so much fun.
[00:02:47] Azhelle Wade: All right. That is really cool Mia. So like it's Christmas, you're just over here not even realizing you're inventing something totally new. When your parents saw it, what did they say to you?
[00:02:57] Mia: They were like, Mia, this is so cool. How, how'd you think of this? And I was like, you know, I've been thinking about like trying to make my own horse for a little bit and I just kinda wanted to try it. You know, the shot?
[00:03:12] Azhelle Wade: So at five years old this happened.
[00:03:15] Mia: Yes.
[00:03:16] Azhelle Wade: So I see in the background, for those of you listening, me and I are on video right now and I see in the background there's like a photo of you with a horse. How old are you in that photo?
[00:03:24] Mia: I am 11. I'm actually my age right there. That was in December.
[00:03:29] Azhelle Wade: And you were riding since the age of five or before that?
[00:03:33] Mia: A little bit before that. Probably I was four when I started riding.
[00:03:37] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. You are so cool. Okay, so when you, when you decided to combine this B plush horse and the hoverboard, did you initially plan on creating more of them to sell? Where did your mind go?
[00:03:49] Mia: So I have four styles right now and when I was making the Power Pony, like when I just put the horse over the hoverboard. I thought it could just be for fun. At first, I was like, You know what, this could just be like a fun ride at my house, you know, to play with at their school.
[00:04:10] Azhelle Wade: As a normal childhood.
[00:04:11] Mia: But then, yeah, But then my friends sometimes would come over and I would show them and they would be like, Yeah, this is so cool. You should turn this into a business like this. This
[00:04:24] Azhelle Wade: Wait.
[00:04:24] Mia: This can be amazing.
[00:04:25] Azhelle Wade: Wait. Your little friends told you you should turn it into a business?
[00:04:29] Mia: They were so impressed with me. They were like.
[00:04:33] Azhelle Wade: My gosh. I like Mia. I can't tell you. I tell my friends my business ideas all the time. I show my friends things I create. My friends don't say, Azhelle, you should start a business. Like they, And I'm not five. Like I'm not five. But they don't, They don't tell me that. So, wow, you've got some great people around you. All right. So your friends told you should start a business. What happened next? When did you start listening to them?
[00:04:58] Mia: So after a couple rides, my parents started getting more into it, saying like, Oh, Mia, this is really cool. So, like, what were you thinking about then? And they just started getting so impressed with me that my dad started telling people to help us out and he was saying too, he was like, You know, I think we should start, make this a business like this could be amazing. And like parents were like complimenting it. When my friends got picked up, they were saying how cool it was and I thought, it's worth the shot. Let's do.
[00:05:32] Azhelle Wade: That is really cool. Okay, so what was the first step? Let's talk about first steps. You're like, worth it. It's a shot. Let's do it. What did you do first?
[00:05:40] Mia: First we got the design team to make the designs on how I wanted to, to look and feel. So like how I wanted the power ponies to look like as in color and names. And then we started getting more pieces like the post in the middle piece and our zoom engine, which is not a hover board. It's different cuz it has d. Things, which is a secret.
[00:06:11] Azhelle Wade: Okay.
[00:06:12] Mia: We started to build it and we got a lot of samples so we can try and try new things on it and try new parts on what to put on the power pony and what it would make it to actually be a safe and fun ride.
[00:06:29] Azhelle Wade: And so you guys were working with factories in China I assume?
[00:06:32] Mia: Yes.
[00:06:33] Azhelle Wade: Awesome. Okay, I, Who found the factories in China? Who did that?
[00:06:37] Mia: My dad.
[00:06:38] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. I thought it would be your dad. I could sense it just by the way you were telling the story. Okay, so I, I do wanna know, without giving any secrets away with your Zumi engine, what is the difference of the ride it creates versus the hover board? Why did you guys realize like, Oh, we need our own engine?
[00:06:58] Mia: So we knew it. We would have to give like credits if we used the hover board, like the original hover board, but we wanted it fully like imagined by kids, four kids. So we wanted it fully from my imagination. So, some of the differences are, well, obviously there's a different parts, a part of it, but the outside Well, the pads are different from the hoverboard, which helps it, kind of directs it better, making it going forward. It's easier. And the designs were obviously different.
[00:07:33] We custom the designs, like I was saying with the design team. We designed, which like how we wanted the colors and like the pictures to be. And we did for the unicorns, like cow girly themes. And we did for the boys, cowboys, like, it was cute. And we also have, we have different type of lights We have lights on the wheels, but like they're rainbow and they like, move around colors. And we have, lights on the side, like the rear of the hoverboard that protects from like the hoverboard hitting the wheel.
[00:08:11] Azhelle Wade: Hmm. So how long did it take you guys from, starting to contact factories to actually having a production ready product that was safety tested and ready to sell?
[00:08:22] Mia: Well, we also had to try a lot of samples just to get it perfect, which took a little bit because we wanted to be safe and fun and enjoyable. So it did take a little bit because. it was during the pandemic, so it was hard with the shipping delays and the costing increasing and just the samples.
[00:08:48] It took a long time to get here, so it was pretty challenging, but it took a little bit of time, but we got through it. I wanna say it took. Not a year. It, it definitely didn't take that long, but to get it all done, we started, came together probably within a couple months. It didn't take as long, but we just had to get through the pandemic and after that it was perfect fact,
[00:09:18] Azhelle Wade: I have to tell you, you sound like a real pro and you're like, with the shipping crisis and the price increases, I mean, look at you. Okay, so people today can buy Power Pony online, I know at powerpony.com, but do you guys have this available? Anywhere else?
[00:09:36] Mia: No, we would like to have it just at power pony.com because you know, we wanted to be all. No, we didn't want it on Amazon because we would have to like give a percentage. and we wanted it just to be on our own website. So we built our own website and they're not in stores, maybe in the future, but not in stores.
[00:09:59] Azhelle Wade: If I were to order a Power Pony today, how long would it take for it to get to my door? I'm in the. I'm on the East coast and I ask this because it's such a big item, so I don't know if you have them in warehouses locally or if it's all coming from the factory. So how long would I have to wait if I got my Power Pony today?
[00:10:18] Mia: Well, we do have factories globally, so yes, it would take a couple days.
[00:10:25] Azhelle Wade: Just a couple of days.
[00:10:26] Mia: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Azhelle Wade: Wow, okay. So I wanna give people that are not, you know, watching the video or just aren't looking at powerpony.com, a visual. So it's a cute plush life size pony, but life size for kids size, kids size pony, kind of over a hoverboard. The back legs have wheels. The front legs are positioned right in front of the hoverboard. So the child sits on the pons back, puts their feet on the hoverboard, and they can power it to move forward. But there is something on the back that I know is special. So I want you to talk about, there's like this cute little sticker. It's like a, and stitched in, circled, piece on the pons buttocks. So what happens when you that?
[00:11:08] Mia: When you hit that, we have some trotting noise if you ride horses, which I do. when you get on your horse and you warm up, there's a thing called trotting, which is when the horse like moves not galloping. It's like when, you know, when like you jump around and like while you're walking, like you kind of like jog. That's.
[00:11:29] Azhelle Wade: A skip, but like not a skip. Okay. yeah, yeah.
[00:11:32] Mia: Like jogging. So it makes a trotting noise and then after it trots for a couple seconds, it will make some naying. sounds and it's like cute. I like it. Cause horses like so nay if like, they see their friends like, it's so cute.
[00:11:51] Azhelle Wade: So now I have to ask, how is your real life horse doing? Is he or she sad because you don't ride them anymore cuz you're riding your Power Pony?
[00:12:00] Mia: Yes. I think he's a little jealous.
[00:12:03] Azhelle Wade: No. Have you ever taken your Power Pony around your horse?
[00:12:07] Mia: I was actually thinking about doing that, but I think he would I think he would be friendly because he's like a pony, so he's around. I feel like he's not that much bigger than, the power pony.
[00:12:19] Azhelle Wade: Oh, really? That's super cute. What's your ponies name?
[00:12:23] Mia: His name is Quinn. he's like my height, well, not my height, but you know what I mean. He's like a good size He's the cutest thing. He has dots on his butt. He, he's so sweet. He has like a heart. And I feel like he would love being around the Power Pony because he would be like, There's, that's a new friend, that's actually a little smaller than me.
[00:12:46] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that is so cute. . Yeah, you were just melting my heart right now. This is so cute. Okay, tell me something. Do you have another vision for the next version of Power Pony or anything that's coming out in the Power Pony line? Please share what you can.
[00:13:05] Mia: Yes, we have a couple more ideas actually. We have new styles, new animals, new colors, and we have something that is gonna be fun and creative that I think everyone would love and enjoy. And. Trust me, it's fun.
[00:13:24] Azhelle Wade: Oh, I can't wait. You gotta do the release on this podcast or something. We gotta do a YouTube video or something. . So you mentioned your Zumi engine was patented. Now I'm wondering is it a design patent or a utility patent, and do you actually know the difference between the two?
[00:13:38] Mia: I do, but we have patents. We have a lot of patents, and yes, it is utility patent.
[00:13:47] Azhelle Wade: Amazing. So I know you can't tell me anything else special about the Zumi, so I kind of wanna move on to inspire some people listening. Now, some people listening might be feeling a little, a little uninspired because this 11 year old girl has done so much more than they have if they haven't started with their toy ideas. So we gotta bring it back to the beginning for them. Okay. We gotta talk about the story of struggle. Okay. Let them know it wasn't always this easy, right, Mia?
[00:14:15] Mia: Yes.
[00:14:16] Azhelle Wade: Okay. So do you ever struggle with balancing your toy business and your schoolwork?
[00:14:22] Mia: No,
[00:14:23] Azhelle Wade: What, mia? You're not helping the people. Okay.
[00:14:29] Mia: I'm, But you know, I have to be honest.
[00:14:33] Azhelle Wade: Okay.
[00:14:34] Mia: I mean, like, I have to be honest, but, once more. No, because when I have a full 6, 6, 7 hours of school, after school, I would come home. I would work on Power Pony for about the rest of the day, and I also work on Power Pony during weekends. Since I play sports, After my sports, I would go straight to Power Pony. And my teachers, when they say, you would think, Oh wait, what about her homework? She has homework. So my teachers, cuz they know about Power Pony, they said that. You can have a couple days notice for your homework, so when I have a second I'll just get it all done because Power Pony is my main priority, so I'll make sure to get my work for Power Pony and then I'll do my homework.
[00:15:26] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that is amazing. Your parents are picking some good schools. Well done. okay. So what was the hardest part for you of creating Power Pony? Tell people it wasn't always easy. It wasn't always sunshine and rainbows.
[00:15:39] Mia: Yeah. No. It may seem like it, but it's not always easy. It could be frustrating at times and you may get Overwhelmed because you're like, This doesn't work. What do I do? Just never give up. And some of the past issues we had was some of the samples that we had during the pandemic, it was a struggle sometimes because when we, like I said earlier, the parts sometimes if we would wanna change the parts.
[00:16:09] They worked, of course, but if you know, you could always make it better than it is. nothing is ever perfect, but it took an effort and from where I am now, I'm proud of never giving up because giving up is just, it's not worth it because, you know, you could, you, you're gonna have so many successes. When you realize, I can't believe, I thought I was gonna give up. I can't believe it.
[00:16:35] Azhelle Wade: Can you share, a memory of a time? Maybe you got a sample. And it wasn't what you were expecting. And I want you to share an a specific example if you can.
[00:16:46] Mia: Yes.
[00:16:47] Azhelle Wade: What? Tell us, give us details.
[00:16:50] Mia: funny, funny thing. when we ordered the samples. To try them to make sure it was good to sell and, well, this was before to make sure it was good and perfect. My dad ordered a pink unicorn with a purple man, and we asked them, we said, Oh yeah, can we have a pink unicorn with the purple name please? to test it and ride it to the park. And it came I think about like a week later cuz it was coming from the factory we ordered it on Monday and it came on Fri I don't a Friday. And it came back as an all brown one and it was a horse.
[00:17:33] Azhelle Wade: Oh my god.
[00:17:33] Mia: And we kind of got a little mad but.
[00:17:36] Azhelle Wade: Oh my.
[00:17:37] Mia: We worked it out. I mean, it, it's a power pony. You could still, it's the, it's still the same ride, so I mean
[00:17:44] Azhelle Wade: I love your positivity. So, I, I wanna know if now, because of that experience, you do what we do in the industry and we always use Pantone numbers now whenever selecting colors for anything. Are you guys doing that now?
[00:18:00] Mia: So My dad, usually when he orders the colors for the power pony, he usually will just tell the design team what we want, and then the design team will call the factories or.
[00:18:13] Azhelle Wade: Okay.
[00:18:14] Mia: Or my dad and others will travel overseas to go make sure things are perfect, Everything's going okay. The colors are doing good. And yeah, that's how we ma mainly do our coloring and how we want things like how, how to look. And for y'all.
[00:18:34] Azhelle Wade: Have you ever gone with your dad overseas?
[00:18:36] Mia: no, I have a full life in school, so it's kind of hard to manage that because we, you know, we work at Power Pony at home, but my dad only went overseas once or twice, and the rest of the, like the design team and everyone else, they mainly go overseas more than but not like a daily thing, like Maybe once or twice more than my dad, but that's it.
[00:19:02] Azhelle Wade: Where did you guys find your design team? I'm curious. Are they in, Are they a part of the factory you chose to work with or did you find somebody locally?
[00:19:10] Mia: So it was kind of locally because my dad's friend designed stuff, He's a designer and he, thankfully, he had a team, so he was willingly able to work with us for Power Pony.
[00:19:26] Azhelle Wade: I see. Okay, so you've got them handling the design stuff and you are like the business brains and the innovation brain. So tell me, doing that, what's been the easiest part to you?
[00:19:38] Mia: Okay, so the easiest part was probably picking the colors and the names of the Power Pony because the girls, they want unicorns probably. And for the boys, horses and the colors was pretty obvious we wanted a brown one and a black one, and a pink one and a purple because. Pink is one of my favorite colors. So I was like pink for unicorn and then white for another unicorn, black for a horse, and brown for a horse, because it's common sense if you think about it, you know? Cause like the horses, like what's mainly a horse color? Like, brown and black, white. You know what I mean.
[00:20:20] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So what right now is like your most exciting part of the Power Pony business? Is it coming up with new ideas or is it when you get a new order What's the most exciting part?
[00:20:31] Mia: Well, yes, they're all exciting, but I also really like. When I ride my power pony to like the park and around my block, and I love to hear kids always like my, like kids. They always, they're like, Whoa, I wanna try that.
[00:20:51] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:20:52] Mia: And then, And they're like so amazed. And then like the parents, they drive by, they're like, Excuse me. Like, where do you get that? That's so cool. And I'm just like, Thank you. And
[00:21:04] Azhelle Wade: I made it. I'm.
[00:21:06] Mia: Yeah, I made it.
[00:21:09] Azhelle Wade: You can buy one. Here's my business card.
[00:21:12] Mia: Yes,
[00:21:14] Azhelle Wade: That's amazing. Literally, like I thought I was doing something when I was younger, having like I had a jewelry business. You're out here with a full fledged motorized toy. I mean, this is impressive.
[00:21:26] Mia: A jewelry business is smart. I mean, like to be honest, if I didn't think of that, I probably would've done that too.
[00:21:32] Azhelle Wade: So, because Power Pony is so big, there's so many parts to it. The retail price point is very high. It's $500 on your website, 4 99. so I'm curious, like, do you struggle selling it to people?
[00:21:46] Mia: Well, not anymore, but. In the beginning when we first started selling, we didn't have that much social media to like, share it and bring it to the world to say, Hey, look at this new product. Like, it's so cool and fun to ride and enjoyable. we mainly had YouTube because like Yeah, , but it was a little hard, but not, not that much because when a lot of kids are on YouTube and we have a lot of subscribers and kids would see it, I guess like, you know, when you would just get on YouTube and like a bunch of videos would just come. Say like, this girl, she has a love for horses. Maybe my product would come up on that page because she loves horses. So surprisingly, we actually had a couple sales in the first week of selling.
[00:22:39] Azhelle Wade: Oh wow. And now you don't struggle as much with the price point. Cause now you have like customer reviews, you've got proof of concept that, you know, people feel more comfortable. You've been on tv. speaking of which, I know we were on kind of on access Daily together in a way, Who is the most famous person to talk about Power Pony?
[00:22:57] Mia: The most famous was probably Kelly Clarkson because she invited me to her show, and it was more in like the beginning of when we started selling. And it was helpful a lot because she basically brought it and shared it to the world because she, because she was the first. That I went on TV with and she brought it to the world.
[00:23:28] Azhelle Wade: Wow. That is an amazing first, TV appearance and most famous. Who do you hope one day will talk about or purchase one of your Power Ponies? Is there anyone who's like your dream client or cover or media coverage?
[00:23:42] Mia: so probably Kylie Jenner.
[00:23:46] Azhelle Wade: Oh man. If that happened, you you guys better get more inventory you go.
[00:23:52] Mia: Yeah, Cause she also has kids too, so I mean, and her kids are like still very young, not very young, but her kids are young, so like They could have it for a long time and I'm sure like Stormy and like all of them. And the sisters would buy it Like Chloe, Kendall, Kim.
[00:24:10] Azhelle Wade: They should definitely have. You gotta find their PR person write them a note. Be like, Listen, we wanna send you a Power Pony for every single one of your children.
[00:24:17] Mia: My, my heart would be.
[00:24:19] Azhelle Wade: Look at J'S just like I can't.
[00:24:22] Mia: I would be like.
[00:24:24] Azhelle Wade: Oh my
[00:24:24] Mia: I would be like mindblown and I was. Come on, are you joking? Like, is that serious? Like, I know you're joking. No way.
[00:24:32] Azhelle Wade: You know what you gotta do? You gotta figure out what shows. You probably know cuz you follow her. what shows she obsessively watches, like talk shows and get on those shows so she can see you or what she like obsessively reads. So you can like get in there so she can see.
[00:24:47] Mia: Yeah, I think I do actually.
[00:24:49] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. That's where you gotta go next. Okay. In all of your success, I'm curious, have you ever thought of or attended toy industry trade shows with your toy?
[00:25:00] Mia: I actually have in 2020, in New York City. I went to the toy fair with my dad and it was so cool. And it was fun because I wanted to see like how many cool products there were. It was very fun and I had like such an amazing time. I would love to go to more like.
[00:25:22] Azhelle Wade: You've got to, did you have the product at that point.
[00:25:26] Mia: I had samples, but I didn't sell them.
[00:25:29] Azhelle Wade: So there are two toy trade shows. You should know about. So one of them is Astra. they have something called Astra Marketplace. It happens in June. That's for like specialty toy retailers. but then the New York Toy Fair, last time you went, it was in February. They've now moved it to September. So it's gonna be this next year in September. So you have time to prepare. They're selling boots now. I would say get on it, Power Pony can be in like the new product area and I am telling. You would just make a splash riding around in that pony, like everybody would be paying attention to you. And
[00:26:05] in Toy Fair, when you go on their website, they have like a marketing activations thing that you can pay to like market your product. And something that, oh, you probably remember seeing at Toy Fair that usually happens is there's people dressed up in costumes, advertising booth, walking. Those people pay to be able to do that. But what if you could pay to be just riding around on your Power Pony handing out your business cards? Like that would be so
[00:26:31] Mia: That would be so cool.
[00:26:34] Azhelle Wade: Do it. I'm sure your dad's.
[00:26:36] Mia: I, I'm going there.
[00:26:37] Azhelle Wade: So he's he's gonna be like, Yeah, we're doing it.
[00:26:39] Mia: Yeah. . He'll be like, Let, let's do it.
[00:26:43] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, you have September next year, but you do have to register soon. You should do it. Okay. For closing questions for you today, thank you so much for being here. But I've got a couple more questions to close out with. First, what is the best piece of advice you received when you were starting your toy business?
[00:27:01] Mia: The best piece of advice was definitely never give up ever. And also have fun while you're making your product during your journey because you only go through that journey once. And even if it is frustrating, it will be fun at times because once that's over with like, you're like, Man, I had so much fun. , even though things were tough, I had so much fun testing all of that and it was so much fun. also one more thing. When you pick your product and you make your product, make sure to pick someone that you trust to be either a business partner or to help you or to give you ideas. Because as you guys maybe know, I picked my dad because I trust him enough.
[00:27:49] Azhelle Wade: I wanna pick your dad. He seems like to be a great business partner.
[00:27:55] Mia: Because, he is my business partner and he helped me a lot.
[00:28:00] Azhelle Wade: Well, I hear, I don't have kids yet, but I hear that your kids will just drive you to do unbelievable things, so you are making him the man he is. Little, little do you know you're doing that. okay. That was amazing advice. I loved the thing you said about you're only gonna go through this journey once. So enjoy the good moments and just chill. Chill through the bad moments. That's so wise. You're only gonna go through this once. Love that. So Mia, normally I ask my guests, What toy blew your mind as a kid, But you, my friend are still a kid. So what toy is your favorite toy? Right.
[00:28:35] Mia: Well, obviously Power Pony.
[00:28:40] Azhelle Wade: Obviously, obviously. What's your second favorite toy after Power Pony?
[00:28:45] Mia: Well, my whole life, even though I'm still a kid, but for my 11 years of existing.
[00:28:52] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:53] Mia: I've always loved playing with toy horses. Like, you know, American girl doll, horses, she like horses. Do you know what that is like the mini course?
[00:29:01] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:03] Mia: Probably sch like horse and I still play with them till this day. Sch like horses is probably my favorite.
[00:29:09] Azhelle Wade: Ooh, that's, I could see the little hoverboard. You know those little finger skateboards? Put that on the sch like horse. You have a little mini power pony ,little mini power pony.
[00:29:21] Mia: That would be so funny.
[00:29:23] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So do you have any questions for me, Mia?
[00:29:27] Mia: I'm still like new to all of this, like kid entrepreneur and all that stuff. Do you have any, advice for me?
[00:29:34] Azhelle Wade: Yes. I would say give yourself grace because as somebody who is a high achiever, which I can tell you are, and I too am and was as a kid, it gets hard to live up to yourself. So you need to keep your head on your should. And realize that like everybody else is operating here and you're operating way over here, so if next year you wanna operate right here, down here, that is way more than okay. Let yourself relax. If one year you wanna operate down here, you wanna chill with your friends, you wanna do nothing, it's okay.
[00:30:14] You have the ability, my friend, that most people don't have to go 150%. Most people can't even. Definitely not at 11. So as a fellow high achiever, give yourself time to nap, time to hang with your friends, sleepovers, all that good stuff, and enjoy hobbies because it's easy to work for like I did like 15 years when I was a kid to when I was an adult and realize I never took time to just relax. Then when you relax, you're like, Oh, what do I do with all this free time? So don't feel bad relaxing. Let yourself relax when you want to.
[00:30:52] Mia: Okay. Thank you
[00:30:54] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. You're gonna get everything else done. I mean, I don't, Not worried about you getting anything done. You'll figure it all out. so to wrap up today, you're welcome to wrap up today. Tell everybody where they can follow Power Pony, where they can buy Power Pony.
[00:31:09] Mia: If you wanna follow Power Pony on TikTok and Instagram, it's called the Power Pony. Literally just the Power Pony. And, if you wanna buy your own Power Pony, you could buy it at powerpony.com. Which is where all the magic happens.
[00:31:27] Azhelle Wade: All the mat design. For kids by kids you said.
[00:31:30] Mia: Yes.
[00:31:31] Azhelle Wade: I love it. Ugh, toy people this was an incredible interview with Mia. We got inspired. We, she made me feel like I gotta go do more work cuz I didn't do enough today. Mia Mia's out here. 10 times in all of us. Okay. But no, I, I, I love the lessons that we learned today in the product development process. We learn patience. We learn being specific on the things you want with color. we also learned that it's great and I love what Mia did where she actually went to a toy trade show before she had a product just to get the lay of the land.
[00:32:07] And now if she wants to go, She's gonna know what she's in for. And we also learned at the end of this episode that you should give yourself some grace. If you're a high achiever like me, like Mia, we gotta take our, our naps too. So toy people. As always, thank you so much for joining me here today. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly 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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