Episode #114: How To Break Into Toys A Step-By-Step Roadmap
Listen Now
Tap Play Below or Listen On iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Did you recently discover the Toy Coach and are looking for help on how to break into the Toy Industry? Well this is the perfect episode for you. Today, The Toy Coach is sharing a presentation and step-by-step roadmap on How To Break Into Toys. The lessons taught in today's episode are applicable if you are hoping to be a toy inventor, entrepreneur or find a corporate toy job.
In today’s episode you’ll learn two ways to educate yourself in the toy industry from traditional to digital. The Toy Coach shares mindsets that hold aspiring toy people back including the inability to think outside the box when looking for toy companies to work for. As much as we love our toy industry titans, we can’t all work for them! In this episode find out what other options are available to work alongside the toy industry and still have the joy of work on children’s products. This episode covers everything from branding yourself, finding a mentor, landing a dream job and checking in on your toy goals. Are you ready to break into toys?
-
This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
-
[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 114.
[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. As you know, toy creators academy is opening for enrollment very soon. So we've been all over the internet, promoting the program and promoting the launch party. Because of that, there have been a lot of new people coming into my world and into this podcast. And I started getting a lot of questions about how to break into the world of toys. And in answering those questions, I found myself thinking back to a presentation I did for Women in Toys back in 2020, when the toy coach was just beginning. So I dug up that presentation, listened to it, and I've got to say it holds so many valuable tips that you are going to want to hear. So I decided to share that talk with you here today.
[00:01:21] Along with this episode, there is a downloadable roadmap on how to break into toys. You don't have to sign up to get access to this roadmap. All you have to do is go to thetoycoach.com/114 and you will see the how to break into toys. Roadmap laid out for you right on the page. I want you to look at that roadmap as you listen to this presentation, because that roadmap is exactly what I was showing as I was teaching this step-by-step how to break into toys and it will be so helpful to you if you can reference it as you're listing. I want to thank Teri Nichelle Bradley for inviting me to do this talk a few years back, and I'm excited to share it with you all here. So let's dive into a toy people here is how to break into toys, a step-by-step roadmap.
[00:02:17] We're going to talk about how to break into toys and I'm the toy coach. So the toy industry, let's just talk about the industry as a whole, I thought it would be great to start out this presentation. Just getting an idea of the size of the toy industry. I did a little bit of research as of 2019, the market size for the total 20 industries, about 27 billion in the areas of manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. There are over 300,000 jobs in the US and there are more jobs that are more indirectly related to the industry, like, cashiers and things like that. But the jobs that we're all looking at, there's notably 300,000 opportunities as of 2019. Granted with COVID things may have changed, but I do believe that.
[00:03:03] Positions that may have people may have lost temporarily or maybe permanently are just going to be moved into something that's more digital and more online, but I don't want to get too much into my opinion on that right now. So the global toy market is even bigger at 90 billion. And we know that because of all of the industry events that we've been to like New York toy fair and Dallas toy fair and Nuremberg, that there are thousands of toy companies globally. So with considering these big numbers, I know as a small market, relative to the rest of the world, but to us, these are big numbers. So why does it seem so hard to get started in this industry? Okay. Now I think that's because there are a couple of mindsets that people that are interested in coming into this industry need to really work on overcoming.
[00:03:54] And the first mind set is that people tend to come into it with tunnel vision. They look at it like other industries and they just look at the major players and that's all they want to focus on. I want to work for Hasbro Mattel. And that's like, that's the gold standard. That's where I'm going to get, you know, the most money or the most recognition or notoriety. And that's not always true. We really have to start looking out for smaller companies and the opportunities that they can bring us because oftentimes. When you're just starting out in the industry, those smaller companies are going to give you a lot more creative freedom. And I say this from personal experience when I was graduating from the fashion Institute of technology, I don't know really where this thought came from, but I knew off the bat.
[00:04:37] I didn't want to start with the big players in the industry. I knew that I wanted to start with the smaller players, and I knew that I wanted to increase my career and grow. And then once I was at a certain level. That's what I was going to go for the big players. So I think that one of the things you really have to overcome is this tunnel vision focusing only on the major players. When people do that, they stop considering licensors. When you're working in the toy industry, you might think, oh, I have to work for a toy company, but what about licensers like Nickelodeon, nBC, universal, Sesame works. All of these companies also have a hand in producing some toy products. In those positions you might be approving artwork. You might not be directly designing it, but it's still very much in the toy industry.
[00:05:25] Oftentimes people also forget about children products outside of toys, a big part of my experiences, my first experiences that I still relate to the toy industry, where my internships and my summer jobs were. And like working with children in arts and crafts, but I still learned a lot about children while working with them at camps when I was younger. And then when I did internships and I worked for home textile studios doing children's patterns, I still learned a lot there too, that later I was able to apply to my more developed. So initially I think the very first thing you need to overcome when you're trying to break into the toy industry is your own mindset that you have to start with these big toy companies.
[00:06:12] Okay. Mindset, number two, the lack of awareness. So I mentor some people, they come to me, especially because of the podcast and ask, you know, what's your opinion on this or that? Or how do I get started in the. And what I noticed is there's a lack of awareness or the toy industry as a whole, as I said before, not understanding the smaller toy companies, but also really not understanding the variety of the different roles that are actually available within the industry and understanding how their specific skills can apply to those roles. So one of the major things you have to overcome is you have to, throw out any notion. The job title listed on a job posting has anything to do with what you would be doing at that job. And do you have to do real research into what it really means to hold that job title at a specific company.
[00:07:05] And you can do that by directly reaching out to people, reaching out to the HR, people that work there or others in the toy industry like myself that may have a little bit more of experience. People also don't realize how important networking is in the toy industry. And because it is such a small industry, you really have to understand the value of true networking. And that's not just like coming to an event and saying, Hey, my name's Azhelle, I want to work in toys. And then never speaking to that person again until like there's a job posting at their. But true networking is more about the give and take, even if what you're giving is a check-in like, how are you? Happy holidays. That's still a little bit of networking that could also be when somebody moves to another company asking them how they're doing in their new role.
[00:07:55] And if they need anything from you. And then the take would be if there's an opportunity that you're really excited about letting them know that I'm applying for that. And I would love to have your support, if there's any way that you could give it. And again, within this lack of awareness, there is not knowing of smaller toy companies. So I'm going to get into a little bit of how you can learn about smaller toy companies if you're new to the industry, or you're just not quite sure where to look. Okay. So I built out this roadmap, how to break into choice it's small and in gray on the right, but don't worry. It's going to get big and colorful in a minute. And this is the how to break into toys. Roadmap is a guide for nuclear mid-level professionals looking for change, aspiring toy inventors and aspiring toy entrepreneurs.
[00:08:41] So while it's not going to be obviously a step-by-step for every single one of these types of people, there are definitely elements that you can apply regardless of where you're at and let's walk through it. And then I'll talk to you a little bit about how so the very first step on this roadmap is educating. The first thing you should be doing is seeking out education in the toy design or related field. If you are just graduating high school, obviously your options are probably going to be to go grab a toy design degree, right. That might be the first thing that you think if you want to do that, that's great. But I also have seen really, really successful people in the toy industry who actually studied general industrial design and just made sure that their portfolios.
[00:09:28] We're focused around the toy industry. So anytime a teacher came to them with a new project, they would say, oh, that's great. Like, I'll make a purse because that's what you want me to do, but it's going to be a purse for kids, you know? So by the end of your degree, you have a portfolio that lends itself well to applying within this industry. Now there is an option. If you're an aspiring toy venture or entrepreneur, you might benefit from an online course, like toy creators academy. I would look into the online digital course space if you don't want to fold the degree, but you definitely do need some guidance on where to go and where to get started to develop your ideas, market them. Now, what about marketing sales, buying all those other roles within the toy industry.
[00:10:15] So you're not going to find these toys specific degrees for them, but like I said before, you can still build a toy portfolio by focusing your projects to the toy industry. There's this young woman who reached out to me and she is looking to start in marketing. And what she did was she did her entire, I think it's called a capstone project at her school. Focused on the toy industry. And she did an entire, like 10 page, long research document about marketing within the toy industry. And that's not something that her professor told her she had to do. Her degree was not focused on toys, but that extra effort stood out to me immediately. And when she reached out to me, I couldn't wait to meet with her and help her, find the right fit and find a company that would be right for her.
[00:11:02] So I don't want to, I want you to consider the power of. Focusing your education toward the toy industry. So you end up with portfolio work that will resonate with the people that you're contacting in the industry for jobs or freelance opportunities or anything like that. Now, the second step on this six step roadmap is experience. So you've got your education. Now you need your experience. Now in this stage, you're looking out for internships and freelance work in. That are either in the toy industry or related to the toy industry. You have to be completely strategic about this phase. When I was just starting out, I would not take a internship that I didn't feel had opportunities for me to learn or build on my portfolio in the ways that I thought were going to help me reach my end goal.
[00:11:55] So that means that before you go about like taking on freelance gigs, just to learn a little bit about. Or maybe you're trying to learn how to market your own way ideas. So you want to take on like a marketing assistant gig. You have to have what your end goal is in mind before you take that job or that opportunity. It's important that you stick to freelance gigs and side hustles and part-time jobs that build towards that end. And you don't have to think about it so much as a ladder. Like I start at assistant and I get to, you know, product manager and then I go to senior product manager. No, you have to think of it as I want to be VP of random products. So that means that I have to be excellent at managing design and that I also have to be excellent at producing design and I have to be great at managing.
[00:12:46] So then your focus should be throughout this experience phase finding opportunities to improve your ability to manage talent, your ability to do better design and opportunities to help you improve in the areas that you need to reach your ultimate goal. So don't think of it as a step. You need to think about it as skills you need to gather while finding jobs that are going to pay you while you're gathering those skills. And I don't want to hear that there aren't that many opportunities because you have to look outside the world of toys. When I was doing it, there were not a ton there. You know, I was looking on Craigslist for job opportunities because back then that was a thing.
[00:13:25] And I got a really great opportunity working at a towel company, but I got to do it. Kids towel designs that experience with graphic design and pattern design helped me and allowed me to apply for more jobs and expense. So you have to look at everything as an opportunity to grow so that you can apply it later on in your career. So I want you to just think about not taking jobs that are not going to help you further toward that goal. Okay. So once you've built up a little bit of experience, you've built up a little bit of portfolio work. This is the most important phase. And I do not think that this is stressed enough, but it's positioning. And by positioning, I almost mean marketing. You're really defining your toyetic professional identity.
[00:14:12] So that's a new thing as a new phrase, I kind of like cooked up, but it's true. When toy companies are looking at, like, let's say your resume, or let's say you're a toy entrepreneur and someone clicks on your ad and they're considering whether or not they want to buy your product. They are looking for your position in the market. They're looking to understand your authority. So, who are you? Are you like me known as like the girl activities person? Who's an expert in all things, girl. And I can tell it's evident because of her pink and purple hair and like walls and like all of the experience she has in like crafts and jewelry and, you know, it's very evident.
[00:14:51] So in this positioning phase, what you're doing is trying to visually represent. Your highest skills and strengths, and as they relate to your goals. So if you're just starting out, you really have to curate your portfolio so that you're showcasing what you want to be known for, because that's going to help toy companies discern whether or not you're a good fit for what they need right now. Toy companies love to have an expert on their team. So it's always good. If you can come in and be like, I'm the expert in action figures or, you know, and if you can be an expert with like a weird quirky twist, like I'm a girly girl who loves anime and computer games, like that's great, but whatever your marketing tactic or twist is, you really need to hype up your resume and your online portfolio.
[00:15:44] And I don't have it listed here, but also your LinkedIn. The highlight what your personal strengths are and what makes you an expert in what areas you're an expert in this space, as you build yourself up and you discover like maybe I'm the action figure Maven or the girls' activity expert. You need to find companies that fit within your style and just apply, apply, apply. And I say, apply, apply, apply, because I applied to ToysRUs about four times before I became design manager for all of girl's world. I applied year after year, and I would have kept applying had I not gotten a call back. So do not give up, you know, apply, apply, apply, but I do have to say that something that's changed a little bit since I've been applying is that you have an opportunity now to actually directly connect with HR managers.
[00:16:34] At these companies. So I would say apply, apply, apply, but then take some time to do some LinkedIn research and directly reach out to the HR managers and say, Hey, I don't want to bother you, but I just wanted to let you know that I applied for this position and I'm really excited about it. I would be a perfect fit. Three bullet points. Why take a look at my portfolio. Thank you for your. I've done that a number of times, and it's worked out for me. I have mentored people into doing that and it is recent, very recently worked out for them. So I would definitely encourage you to apply to companies that really fit your style and then reach out to the HR managers and let them know your applications in there and give them a personal, not like copy pasted note, but personal note, expressing your.
[00:17:22] So then after that, hopefully you go full time. Now, if you don't go full-time for a company, you might go full-time for yourself and freelance. If you're an inventor and entrepreneur, you might just go, full-time working on your own toy product. If you're going the inventor and entrepreneur route, you just have to get really strategic about your time, really strategic about how you're reaching out and using your network. If you're going into the professional toy world, get really creative. I mean, I tell people all the time, if you're having a hard time breaking into just like specific toy companies, you know, go look at the past exhibitor lists for New York toy fair. Go look at the past exhibitor lists for Dallas toy fair for near Nuremberg toy fair.
[00:18:06] There are thousands of companies listed on their website. You can research them because everything is online and you can find out and contact them and say, Hey, just doing a cold call. I just want to know if you are looking for anyone that is good at, you know, product design, or if you're looking for anyone to handle X, Y, Z, I love what you're doing. And I'd love to be a part of your team, simple and clean. If you really don't have luck with the thousands of toy companies that are out there. Consider CA adjacent industries consider, you know, like the children's exhibition design home, furnishing education, computer games, apps. There are, I mean, especially if you're in the field of marketing or even buying, exploring adjacent industries could really be to your benefit.
[00:18:55] Okay. And then while you're, while you're in full time, it's really, really important that you find common ground with fellow toy. People like in a discussion like this and your, you know, your chapter meetings and build friendships before you even get into talking about. It's best to start networking when you don't need something that is like the best time to start networking opportunities. So when you get the opportunity to be full-time at a company, you are, you should immediately be in that networking mindset. So if you're full-time or if you're freelancing, full-time everyone you talk to, you should look at them as this is my new name. Let me work on building these friendships because one day down the line, it could definitely, and probably will turn into business.
[00:19:42] So the next step, once you have gone full time mentorship, it is super important. And I was so lucky when I first started out in the toy industry to find someone who is still my friend today. And who's my mentor back then find someone that you're working with and try to turn them into your trusted. You want to share your goals and your long-term dreams with them so that they can help you define what you need to do to get there. And any opportunities you get, you want to take on challenging initiatives, hopefully with them by your side, guiding you along the way, helping you, if you fall down or when you fall down, because you will. And. During this phase, this is really like your test phase. You're like giving it your all you're taking on new initiatives.
[00:20:30] You have a mentor watching your back. This is where you're really figuring out what makes you unique. Was it the thing that you thought it was in the beginning when you were applying to the toy industry? Or did you discover that you're actually an inventor and like you're not a product designer at all. And whatever that unique thing is, don't run away from it. Don't try put yourself into a different hole that you don't fit into. Try to focus on it and build on it. Because for a long time, I struggled with that. I struggled with the idea of thinking like, oh no, I I'm supposed to be an industrial type designer.
[00:21:03] Like I'm supposed to be, you know, doing all of these detailed control drawings and 3d models. I mean, as I was good at that, it wasn't all I had to offer the industry. And I actually had a lot more to offer in the way of innovative ideas that could turn into invent inventions and patented inventions and marketing, obviously getting into the marketing side of the toy business. So sometimes people get really caught up in what their current role is, and they're still afraid to realize that they might be more suited for something. But honestly leverage it. Most toy companies are flexible enough that you can use your skills to benefit them in any way that you want to. And if the company is big enough, they'll help you transition into a role that may be a better fit for you.
[00:21:51] And as always, I mean, give 200% at work. It doesn't just benefit your employer, which of course it does, but it benefits you. You're going to need that portfolio to be top notch because the next is elevate. Okay. So the most important part about breaking into the toy industry is elevate. Again, we're not having tunnel vision. We're not thinking that our first job is like it. And that's it. We're in the toy industry. No, our first job is our stepping stone. It's helping us gather all the skills that we need to be great people. It could be in the toy industry. It could be adjacent to the toy industry, but after about a year, we need to step back and evaluate how far we've come. What did we learn? What do we need to learn? And what is the best way for us to continue doing that?
[00:22:37] If we realize that we're in a situation where maybe we realize we're not a product designer, we're actually an inventor. Maybe we need to talk to somebody at our current company and try to switch roles. If we realize that there is nowhere for us to grow in this current company, or if you realize. This towel company. Isn't where I want to be. I really want to get into toys. It's time to redo that portfolio, take all of the skills and things you've learned from your current job, and then reapply it to move on to your next job. So I think a really important part of my career has always been that I have really evaluated where I've been every year. Honestly, I've probably done it every six. But I've just made it a point that, you know, what have I invented this year? What have I achieved this year? Who have I met this year? How have I kept in touch with them?
[00:23:29] I think it is extremely important that you set checkpoints for yourself because in this industry, we love what we do so much that like, we will just completely forget that we're supposed to do. Taking care of ourselves and growing in our own, right. Cause we're so busy. Like, oh my God, look at this cute doll I made. Or like, look at this amazing board game. Like we're so excited, but we forget that we have to take care of ourselves and we have to take care of our careers and we have to grow our minds. So it's really important that you give yourself time to step away from the toy industry and look at it objectively and just say, okay, I love my job, but where, what, where have I grown within it? Where has it taken?
[00:24:09] Okay. So elevate is like extremely important in the toy industry for me. And also, I want to say that if you're a toy inventor, an entrepreneur at this stage, I feel like this is where you analyze your business. And let's say you started your business and you kind of did a direct to consumer. This might be a stage where you're realizing like maybe it's time for me to go B to B. And how can I do that? What have I learned? Who have I done? That can help me transition into that phase. So elevate really is a time just like. To re analyze where you are, where you've come from and decide where you want to go. This is the full roadmap we're going education experience, positioning, go full time. Mentorship, elevate.
[00:24:54] This roadmap is going to give you a great starting point. Whether you're trying to come in as a full-time person. Or he's trying to be an inventor is just going to give you great checkpoints to check along the way I created the toy creators academy to be this online digital course. And the concept is if you have a toy idea and you want to turn it into like a toy business, this will be a great online course before. So I'm going to go through the processes with you in this course of defining what your idea is, making sure you understand your target market and fleshing out that idea. And then working with prototypers domestically to make a sample, and then working with factories overseas to make a functioning prototype and hopefully go into production. At the end of the academy, I've have two different routes for you to go to.
[00:25:43] So either you might choose to license your idea to a toy company, so make profit that way. Or you might choose to just go into production and try to market and sell it. Yeah. So I have gathered a whole list of prototypers and freelancers that have reached out to me and they want to work with the people in this academy. I'm going to have a whole resource list for different categories that you can use, but I'm also building a resource list of factories by contacting people that I had worked with before and getting to know new people. And that is also going to be available as part of this. And another great part is going to be I'll be there. So we'll have like weekly check-ins and I really want to foster this kind of a creative space to help develop our ideas. And then also just the layer of support.
[00:26:30] So as we go through the process, not just me, but some of the amazing people that are starting to follow me in my pocket. They can all chime in and help you along the way. There are some people that are following me that are really big in marketing, but they know nothing about product development. There are some people that know a little bit about product development, but know nothing about this. So I'm really excited to bring all of us together in a format that we can help each other. And then this course is going to give you like check points and it's a whole online portal. So you can follow along with like workbooks and Excel sheets to help you plan your costs and your margin. So it's going to be great if you need help developing your toy idea. This is the program for you.
[00:27:12] Well there, you have it. My, how to break into toys presentation. I hope you loved it. Okay. I want you to take some action today. Head over to thetoycoach.com/114 if you haven't done so already so that you can grab this how to break into toys, roadmap, we learned the very first thing you're going to do is get that education. Whether you get it from a traditional institution or you do some online continuing education, then you're going to get that experience to strategically seek out internships, freelance work, and other opportunities that relate back to kids or toy products. Then it's all about positioning, defining art toyetic, professional identity and figure. Who we are and how we want to show up in this industry.
[00:28:07] From there we go full time and seek out entry level roles or mid-level roles, depending on our own experience and we are not going to be afraid to look at adjacent children's product industries. Right. Then we talked a little bit about mentorship, the importance of it, how you should find a mentor and how you should utilize that relationship from there, we're elevating every year, we're reevaluating our goals and our achievements. Are we still on the right path or do we need to course correct? If you enjoyed this episode and if you enjoy all of the episodes that I put out for you each and every week, I would greatly appreciate it. If you left a review for this podcast. As always thank you so much for joining me here today. I know 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.
-
🎓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.
Not ready for the Toy Creators Academy online course? Start by connecting with fellow toy creators inside our online community. Click here to join.