#281: TCA Accelerator Coaching Call with Carrie Shaked
Building forts is a rite of passage for most kids and often the bane of organized parents. I can still picture my mom, coming home late from running her business, to find chairs flipped sideways, blankets draped across them, boxes forming doorways, and my brother and I, tucked away inside playing. It was 100% an eyesore to my parents and 1000% a safety hazard.
That universal problem is exactly what architect and TCA Accelerator student Carrie Shaked, founder of Design Laughter, set out to solve. Her buildable fort system transforms messy blanket chaos into stunning, structurally sound cardboard domes that are easy to assemble, customizable, and beautiful enough to live in your living room.
In this episode of Making It in the Toy Industry, you’ll listen in on a real 1:1 coaching call with Carrie. We cover:
How her architecture background inspired a toy unlike anything else on the market.
Why families cried (in a good way!) during playtesting.
Smart email collection strategies and social media tips for camera-shy founders.
How today’s manufacturing climate might give small startups an edge.
If you’ve ever looked at your child’s chaotic fort and thought, There’s gotta be a better way, this conversation will remind you that there’s room in the toy industry for your vision, too. Hit play on this episode to get inspired, and allow yourself to imagine bringing your unique idea to this industry.
Listen For These Important Moments
[00:01:12] - Carrie reveals what sparked the idea for a modular, modern play structure and how her architecture background gave her the tools to design something better.
[00:08:26] - Learn how Carrie pushed past her fear of international manufacturing and found a Chinese factory willing to take her seriously.
[00:15:09] - The emotional power of Carrie’s dome kits during playtesting and how those reactions helped her realize the product was about more than building, it was about belonging.
[00:22:43] - Camera shy? I got some real tactics that Carrie (and you) can use to build excitement on social media including using digital avatars, repeatable content formats, and emotional storytelling.
[00:27:12] - Find out how global manufacturing shifts and tariffs are changing the game and how smaller toy brands are finally getting attention from factories that used to overlook them.
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Grab a free printable at designlaughter.com Join the list and get early access to their launch!
See how families are building and decorating their domes @designlaughter on Instagram and Facebook
Ready to work with Azhelle? JoinToy Creators Academy.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, episode number 281.
[00:00:10] Voiceover: Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs, and makers like you. And now your host, Azhelle Wade.
[00:00:21] Azhelle Wade: Hey there, toy people. Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It in the Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com. Now, if you have ever built a fort for yourself when you were a kid, for your kids, maybe for yourself, when you're an adult and you've been through the whole fort building frenzy, trying to get pillows to stack and sheets to cover, and you thought there has to be a better way, you are gonna love this episode.
[00:00:47] Azhelle Wade: Today we're talking to a toy creators Academy Accelerator student who is channeling her love of architecture. Sustainability and creativity into a great product, a fort building product for kids and families. This episode, again, is part of our special coaching series where I sit down with students of the TCA accelerator and we dig into what's working, what's hard, how to move forward.
[00:01:08] Azhelle Wade: You're gonna hear us tackle some real world challenges that they're facing right now, but we're also gonna celebrate their wins and their progress because these people are not just starting out. They've really made some impact in the industry. Now, at the end of this episode, you are gonna hear them pitch their product to you.
[00:01:22] Azhelle Wade: So you can learn more about it, join their website, join their community, and of course, we're gonna talk about our amazing Toy Creators Academy community along the way. My guest today is, is Carrie Shaked, the founder of Design Laughter. Carrie is an architect and artist and a mom of three. She was tired of cheap plastic toys cluttering her home and falling apart, so she decided to use her design skills and her passion for sustainability to create a modular cardboard building panel.
[00:01:48] Azhelle Wade: System that kids can use to construct forts and anything else that they imagine. It is a beautiful blend of STEM learning, environmental responsibility, and creative joy. Whether you are a builder, an architect, a parent, a sustainability minded entrepreneur yourself, you are gonna love Carrie's story.
[00:02:05] Azhelle Wade: Let's get into it. Carrie, welcome to the show.
[00:02:08] Carrie Shaked: Hi, nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:02:11] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. I'm so happy to have you here. I love your product. So before we get started, tell us what's the name of your toy brand?
[00:02:19] Carrie Shaked: So the brand is designed laughter, and the product line that I'm launching is called Dwelling.
[00:02:25] Azhelle Wade: Dwellings. Love it. So today we are gonna have our three part episode, part one being our coaching session. We'll talk about things going on in your business in design laughter right now. We're gonna dive into part two after that where we wanna celebrate wins and progress so far. And then part three, I wanna focus on your brand, spotlight It, talk about it a little bit, but just so that everyone can follow along.
[00:02:47] Azhelle Wade: Design. Laughter, as I said, is a cardboard building kit and if you're listening to this episode and you happen to be by a computer or be by your phone and able to do so, go to design laughter.com right now because I'd love for you to have a visual of these cardboard dome building kits so you can understand what they are as we're talking through this.
[00:03:05] Azhelle Wade: I mean, it's not indescribable, but it's. Uh, I don't know. It's so beautiful once you see it that I think you're really gonna wanna see it as we walk through this. Okay. So Carrie, so to start out for part one for our coaching session, I wanna know what was going on in your life or your career when you decided to join Toy Creators Academy and what made you feel like it was the right move at the time?
[00:03:26] Carrie Shaked: When I joined TCAI basically just had a few sketches of my toy ideas and some paper prototype. I wasn't sure which ideas to run with first, and I really wanted to learn how to take these ideas from paper to reality. I knew nothing about manufacturing or marketing. My expertise was in architecture where I worked for many years designing homes and commercial buildings.
[00:03:53] Carrie Shaked: I knew the design process, of course, how to make scaled drawings. Both in 2D and 3D, but I didn't know how to contact manufacturers or how to find them or how to market my toy products or even how to build a brand.
[00:04:06] Azhelle Wade: Right. So why did it feel like the right time to dive into TCA? I mean, often when I hear people that have such big busy lives, they're hesitant to take on a program like that 'cause I think it's gonna be too much.
[00:04:17] Azhelle Wade: So I'm curious if there was like a lull in your life if somebody was. Seeing what you were working on and thought, oh, you really have to take that to the next level. Like who, what? What was the final straw that said I'm gonna do this?
[00:04:28] Carrie Shaked: Well, so I had just finished, uh, remodeling our landscaping Uhhuh. It was a huge project and it took a lot of my energy and I've really felt settled at my house.
[00:04:38] Carrie Shaked: And, and, um, I had, I had time to really devote to this project that had been brewing for a long time and I just had always wanted to take it to the next level and I didn't know how. Um, right. I also think that getting some coaching and help for my A DHD. Was really the biggest catalyst because I didn't know really how my brain worked until that point and how to work with my brain.
[00:05:05] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. You know, it's funny, a lot of neurodivergent people end up joining TCA and I find myself having to figure out the best way to adjust my method of teaching to work for them. And it's been really interesting. Like I have a, there are a number of people who will get on a call with me after joining and be like, Azhelle.
[00:05:21] Azhelle Wade: I'm neurodivergent, here's what I need from you, which is really, it's a great learning piece for me. I sometimes think I'm neurodivergent, but I don't. Who knows? Who knows. Now, before you joined, did you feel like you were a toy person, like you fit in this industry, or were you ever worried that your idea wasn't good enough?
[00:05:38] Carrie Shaked: Um, I never really doubted my idea in terms of like if people would want it. I doubted whether I could make it real. Market it su successfully at the right price. But I didn't think of myself as a toy person or an entrepreneur for that matter. I was, I'd always been an, um, an employee. So this was like a really big change for me.
[00:06:00] Azhelle Wade: Mm. And how was that shift like when you shifted over to this new mindset? Like, did you like it or did you hate it? Do you hate it?
[00:06:07] Carrie Shaked: You know, there are parts that I really, really enjoy and parts that are scary and hard. It's just been exciting to try. I felt like if I didn't try, I would regret it.
[00:06:19] Azhelle Wade: Mm. Okay.
[00:06:19] Azhelle Wade: I'm curious, and I think I already know the answer, but I'm curious, what part do you hate the most of being an entrepreneur?
[00:06:25] Carrie Shaked: Uh, the finances.
[00:06:27] Azhelle Wade: Oh, oh, really? I thought you were gonna say the marketing.
[00:06:29] Carrie Shaked: Marketing too, but yeah. Finances and marketing, like anything that involves spreadsheets or dealing with numbers or, and also being on camera just
[00:06:40] Azhelle Wade: now, I love to know when you joined TCA, one of the things I talk about a lot or is what your path is in the toy industry.
[00:06:46] Azhelle Wade: And I do that because depending on what your path is, you are gonna. Follow different steps. There's some things you don't have to do. So are you on the inventor path or the entrepreneur path?
[00:06:55] Carrie Shaked: I'm on the entrepreneur path. I'm not trying to pitch my ideas. I'm just hoping to build this brand so that I can launch.
[00:07:03] Carrie Shaked: Like more ideas in the future because I picked this particular product because I thought it was the easiest to bring to market, and I really have a lot more ideas that I wanna bring to market that require more engineering, more of a team. And so I needed to learn the process. With a simple product that I can kind of manage myself, then I'll be able to hire a team and develop some of the di more difficult, challenging products.
[00:07:31] Azhelle Wade: As a toy entrepreneur, you are designing, developing, and manufacturing a product to sell to consumers and or to retailers. Really smart to start with a paper-based product. People often come to me and they say, oh, Azhelle, I have an idea for a doll and I want to be fully custom. And then I have to tell them the cost of making all those molds.
[00:07:49] Azhelle Wade: And I try to encourage people to start with a paper-based product because that is currently the most affordable product to create. Funny though, that you're making like the largest paper-based product that a store will probably carry, but it is still paper-based. So there it does leave you a lot of options there.
[00:08:05] Azhelle Wade: There is potential for you to manufacture. Even in the us although it would make your product much like more expensive or a lower margin for you, it's still technically possible, which isn't the case for many other types of toys and games, so, so I would love for you to give us your elevator pitch for design laughter.
[00:08:25] Azhelle Wade: How would you describe it? Either design, laughter, or for dwellings. The actual kits underneath design laughter. How would you describe it if you only had 30 seconds in an elevator with someone who could change your business?
[00:08:36] Carrie Shaked: Design laughter. Dwelling kits are like giant magnet tiles. Kids can actually climb inside.
[00:08:42] Carrie Shaked: Made from durable, eco-friendly cardboard are panels and Velcro strips, let kids build forts, geodesic domes, castles, anything they can imagine. They're creative canvases for design, storytelling, and hands-on learning. Kids can decorate their spaces. Take them apart and rebuild something entirely new the next day.
[00:09:03] Carrie Shaked: It's open-ended play that grows with your child and inspires real world problem solving, collaboration, and joy. With architect design, beauty and engineering, their structures will stay up until they're ready to build something new, or you are ready to reclaim your living room. And the best part is everything packs away flat into the convenient storage box that your kit comes with.
[00:09:23] Carrie Shaked: No small parts that get lost. No mess. Mm-hmm. No fuss.
[00:09:26] Azhelle Wade: Love it. I love the visual that you started at the very beginning with magnet tiles where someone in the toy industry knows what that is and giving them a visual to connect your brand with before they even see your product is great. I almost want a visual to connect my brain with store flat.
[00:09:40] Azhelle Wade: How flat, like store flat enough to store under your bed or store flat enough to store? You know, I would love to have more visuals that define factually how. This thing functions or how big it is. But that was great. Well, you kind of answered this in the front, front end, but hardest part of launching your brand.
[00:09:56] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, I mean, I definitely struggle with the business side of things. I'm very introverted and I, I love being creative. I love drawing things, building things. I even enjoyed conversations with factories, discussing the details of production. But what I struggle with is like hiring, help, managing finances.
[00:10:14] Carrie Shaked: Filming and editing videos for social media. You know, I'm kind of the last of the people that were born before internet things, and I struggle sometimes with all the technology stuff, social media stuff. It's kind of hard for me.
[00:10:30] Azhelle Wade: It is. I mean, it's hard for me, and I was born in this era. It's hard to do so many things.
[00:10:37] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. I think that's the thing is like being a solo entrepreneur, you have so many different hats to wear. Mm-hmm. And I definitely struggle with some of these hats more than others.
[00:10:47] Azhelle Wade: And when you're first starting, you, like right now in my business, I look at it as more of like seasons. Like this season I'm marketing, this season I'm building.
[00:10:53] Azhelle Wade: But when you're first starting, you kind of have to do it all at once to start. I remember I sold my product before I built it. When I was, and actually, and that's what a few TCAs have done, like sold the product where they've developed it with a factory, but they haven't manufactured it because it's just the time spend of marketing the product and then the finances of investing in it to do the marketing well.
[00:11:16] Azhelle Wade: You can't also be in the midst of production. So people are. Launching on a Kickstarter, getting the revenue and then launching the product once they have the funds to do so, and then they can now stop focusing on marketing and focus on fulfillment. Do you have a plan to do that or was your plan to produce your, uh, yourself with your funds so you already have and then launch and market and sell?
[00:11:38] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, that's kind of what I was, um, hoping to do in the coaching session today was kind of, yeah, game plan, what strategy best fit. My brand for launch. You know, I kind of have in the back of my head this idea of like doing a Kickstarter, getting the, you know, funds to buy an initial stock purchase and mm-hmm.
[00:12:00] Carrie Shaked: Ship them out. Mm-hmm. And, and just do you know, sales through, um, my online website, but I really don't know what other paths there are to go about, like launching and if I should consider, you know, something different or, um, just do the Kickstarter.
[00:12:17] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, let's jump to the coaching session then. I think, well, I have a couple more questions.
[00:12:22] Azhelle Wade: What do you think your next move should be, and if, and what do you think is holding, holding you back from doing that?
[00:12:27] Carrie Shaked: I definitely need to finalize pricing and, you know, obviously move forward with the first production run. Um. I don't have a production sample kit that works that I am happy with yet. The most recent samples I got from Mexico we're not using the quality of cardboard that I I need and that I know works.
[00:12:47] Carrie Shaked: So the prototypes that I created were laser cut and I hand creed the panels and that's not a viable, you know, mass production strategy. So I looked into dye cutting and I found some factories that, that do this. But you know, getting the right quality of cardboard and the right bend in the cardboard, that's really important.
[00:13:10] Carrie Shaked: So I'm getting some samples from a factory I'm working with in China and I just paid for the samples and they're working on them as we speak. So I'm really excited to see what they will produce. 'cause they're gonna do the full kit, the box, the instructions. Awesome. The Velcro strips, and I've given both factories the cardboard specs that I need.
[00:13:29] Carrie Shaked: But it's one thing for them to actually understand what that means, and at least the China factory, I sent them samples of the cardboard and they are, you know, hopefully copying that.
[00:13:39] Azhelle Wade: Well, I, I have had the experience in the past where we couldn't really get the production quality because they required us to invest.
[00:13:48] Azhelle Wade: I don't remember if at the time they wanted us to invest in tooling or they just wanted us to invest in buying the material outright. So they were using whatever material they had on hand, which wasn't the same. And the only way that we'd get to see it is if we invested in the run. And with a company the size of the company I was working for at the time, it was like, yeah, whatever.
[00:14:05] Azhelle Wade: Just invest in the run. As long as the die line of the product looks good, but if in doing what. Your what you are doing. I would probably ask if they could send me a sample of the material that they're planning to use, even if they're not able to make the production sample out of it just yet because they have to order a minimum quantity of it or something.
[00:14:23] Azhelle Wade: I wonder if that's the issue with Mexico or if they just don't have access to the kind of cardboard that you want.
[00:14:27] Carrie Shaked: So they're looking into sourcing the right kind of cardboard. Oh. So they don't even have it. And um, my contact says that he's struggling to find a source of that.
[00:14:36] Azhelle Wade: And that's the hard thing even with going outside of China, like as we're looking at other countries.
[00:14:40] Azhelle Wade: China has been doing this for so long, they've found all of the sources and now we're asking other countries to catch up. So that's, that's a hard part. Okay, cool. So today the challenge we're gonna work through is which launch path is ideal for you? So is it the Kickstarter or crowdfunding path where you get people to invest first and then you develop, pull the trigger on manufacturing after.
[00:15:02] Azhelle Wade: Or is it that you pull the trigger on manufacturing and then you try to sell it on the backend when you are talking and when I'm looking at the picture in your background, I think you have a really unique opportunity to do something that's very different and stand out in a, maybe a retail space. So have you heard of, um, neighborhood Toy Store Day?
[00:15:21] Azhelle Wade: No. I'm sorry. It's Neighborhood Toy Store Month. Neighborhood Toy Store Month. Is an event put on by Astra and a lot of ASRA stores participate. So Astra is a specialty toy organization and they actually struggle with getting people to participate because usually the marketing for this event start. Very late.
[00:15:39] Azhelle Wade: So it'll start in like late October and then no one really has time to scramble and get involved. But what the purpose of Neighborhood Toy Store Day is, is to get people in the neighborhood into these stores playing with product to encourage them to buy that product and your product. Is the perfect product to create a big moment in a store.
[00:16:02] Azhelle Wade: So what I'm thinking is, would it be worth like creating a plan for what you could do for Neighborhood Toy Store month for let's say 25 stores and reaching out to 50 stores and saying, Hey, I have an idea for Neighborhood Toy Store Month at your store. We're launching a new product. This is the product.
[00:16:20] Azhelle Wade: This is what our retail price point's gonna be. And here's a rendering. You could probably build it with chat, GBT, or you can actually build it. You know, take a picture of their store from Google and Photoshop in your toy. And here's a look at what. Our kits could look like in your space, and it would be a place where kids can literally play in and play around this structure.
[00:16:40] Azhelle Wade: And then depending on what kind of risk the store is willing to take, like there's some stores that will do essentially like, uh, what do they call it? Like commit not commission, like where they take your product, they'll hold it and you only get paid if they sell it, or they'll buy a small quantity and sell it to their people, and then they'll have your product in the store that people can demo and practice with.
[00:17:00] Azhelle Wade: So I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to do a soft launch promo of your product in that way. It could be a really good way to test your product with your potential consumers. Also show retailers how much people love your product and have a small batch of your product ready for sale in various stores so that maybe you only pull the trigger on manufacturing like.
[00:17:25] Azhelle Wade: I dunno. We have 25 stores and we do like five in each store. Like maybe only manufacture that many. And then, yeah, and it's kind of like your soft launch before you do your big, let's say Kickstarter or something like that.
[00:17:36] Carrie Shaked: Mm-hmm. Would a store have enough floor space to display something like that?
[00:17:41] Azhelle Wade: Not all of them, but it'd be worth looking into, like I know like for example, there are several learning expresses of various sizes.
[00:17:48] Azhelle Wade: That's a huge store. There's one called like the Wonderland something of toys. That's a huge store. So I would look up all the, like if you're a member of Astra, you can get into the Astra membership list and you can sort by retailers and then you can look up all their stores and just search their stores on Google and get an idea of like their floor space.
[00:18:06] Azhelle Wade: But neighborhood Toy store day is this. Special event where they intentionally want like events that fill the space in their store for kids to engage with. Like some of them dedicate space outside their store. Some of them dedicate space in their store. One store owner, I know she had like a second floor space that was an event space where people would do stuff there.
[00:18:24] Azhelle Wade: So they're planning on giving up floor space for this specific event. Mm-hmm. That's where I feel like you could use it. What's the smallest footprint of your smallest dwelling kit? Once built?
[00:18:34] Carrie Shaked: Well, I mean you could do a small, I think they're like 20 inches by 20 inches cube. Like that would be really uninspiring.
[00:18:44] Carrie Shaked: Just a cube. But like you could, uh, well, the smallest inspiring you, you could do something like this Uhhuh, which not exactly sure I would. Guesstimate that that would be about four feet Cube.
[00:18:57] Azhelle Wade: A four feet Cube. 48. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like it's worth a conversation because it's usually heavily marketed by Astra.
[00:19:05] Azhelle Wade: They go on local TV stations and they talk about neighborhood Toy store month, and the whole goal is to get people out to these stores, but. From my experience in the years that I've seen it, it never quite lives up to the hype of engagement that they want it to. Like they don't have that many special events as they want.
[00:19:24] Azhelle Wade: So I think it, it's just worth a conversation. If there's stores that really wanna create a buzz in their community, I feel like your product could do that. So that's the first thing. I think this could even
[00:19:32] Carrie Shaked: like live on the sidewalk, like in front of a store too. I know.
[00:19:36] Azhelle Wade: It's just, it's ni November, so it depends on the weather, but I agree
[00:19:39] Carrie Shaked: here in California that would work.
[00:19:40] Azhelle Wade: Oh right. Yeah. So in California it would work. And you know what? It is best to start local. Like they love, like, oh, I'm a local toy creator in your area. And like, no, that's a great, great point. Yeah, like that could be a great way to get people into their store. So that's number one. And then number two, I think it just depends on how much you have to invest in this brand.
[00:19:59] Azhelle Wade: What I love about a Kickstarter or just a pre-order on your website, is that it gets people excited and there's a lot of buildup to this product getting launched. Mm-hmm. And people are showing interest and buying in before they ever get it, which just shows you how many people you really have that are willing to put down money and if this is really gonna work.
[00:20:17] Azhelle Wade: So even if you didn't do Kickstarter, I would say a pre-order plan would be. Ideal.
[00:20:23] Carrie Shaked: Yeah.
[00:20:24] Azhelle Wade: And what's gonna be the retail price point of the opening price point item?
[00:20:27] Carrie Shaked: Uh, around a hundred,
[00:20:28] Azhelle Wade: a hundred dollars. And then the higher price point item
[00:20:31] Carrie Shaked: around 150.
[00:20:33] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Yeah, I would see if we could do a pre-order and then like, if you did a pre-order, what would, what could be the lowest?
[00:20:38] Azhelle Wade: Special price that you could say, if you join our pre-order, you're gonna get 10%, 20%. How low can we go for the people that are gonna order ahead of time?
[00:20:46] Carrie Shaked: Um, probably like 20%, I'm guessing.
[00:20:49] Azhelle Wade: Okay. Yeah. No, I think that would be fantastic. So have you started building your email list? My favorite question
[00:20:57] Carrie Shaked: I have, I think I have like nine subscribers.
[00:20:59] Azhelle Wade: Oh no. Why only nine? Where, how have you gotten them? I
[00:21:03] Carrie Shaked: think Facebook, but I like, I am terrible at socials. Like You have no idea. Yeah.
[00:21:09] Azhelle Wade: Like how, so like what did you do on Facebook to get the nine?
[00:21:12] Carrie Shaked: I think I posted a couple things into groups. Some Facebook groups of, of like my free paper dome kit, Uhhuh thing.
[00:21:21] Carrie Shaked: Uhhuh and that got a couple people.
[00:21:25] Azhelle Wade: No, the way you're looking off into the distance, I just, but, but. So this, honestly, this is another reason why I really like the idea of neighborhood toy store a month for you because you feel like somebody who would do so much better in person.
[00:21:40] Carrie Shaked: Yeah.
[00:21:41] Azhelle Wade: So like I could imagine you there and people engaging and maybe there's a QR code that they scan and they sign up and like you don't have to do social media.
[00:21:48] Azhelle Wade: Another place that is another event that's also in November, it's actually in Chicago, is the shy, is shy tag, and there is a similar, a similar item to yours, but yours is high, I would say a higher end version of it. It's a fort building kit, but they're all cubes and it's very Minecraft inspired.
[00:22:06] Carrie Shaked: Okay.
[00:22:07] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. Um, but I, I'm thinking I will go to Maker Fair Bay area okay. This September. And that's another like in-person live event and get people to play with like the mini kits and then I can have the prototype larger kits to play with as well. And then get people to sign up on the list. Um, yes. While they're there
[00:22:27] Azhelle Wade: and you, like, you must give people a reason to sign up, like, join VIP for 20% our first drop or first order, or, you know what I mean?
[00:22:35] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm. It has to give them a financial or some sort of like, I'm gonna get a free thing if I sign up for this. And Atag. So this, this other company I'm talking about that's kind of modeled after, um, Minecraft, I've seen them atag twice now. The first year, their setup wasn't that great. The second year, what they did is they had like a big, like a huge castle.
[00:22:56] Azhelle Wade: That filled most of their booth space. I don't even think they had a table this, this like giant cardboard castle of squares filled their entire booth space and then they had a section where kids could play and break things down. But that castle stayed up the whole time. Mm-hmm. So, I mean, I remember thinking like, oh, this is.
[00:23:15] Azhelle Wade: Feels very different from everything else here and it stands out a lot. So think about that concept where your booth, the centerpiece of your booth is like a big structure built and then kind of everything is built around that instead of being built around a table or a backdrop like most booth are.
[00:23:31] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, yeah. I was singing that. I could have like a few pedestals with some of like the mini kits and then the big, you know, structure and, and people can like look at. Play with them
[00:23:43] Azhelle Wade: and they could go in or like, could you have the big structure and then the mini kits inside the big structure for them to play with.
[00:23:49] Azhelle Wade: So there's really like an invitation, like to go in. This giant tructure Yeah. Structure. Yeah. You could do
[00:23:53] Carrie Shaked: birth. Yeah.
[00:23:54] Azhelle Wade: And the mini kits, are you gonna have them for sale there at that? At Maker fair?
[00:23:59] Carrie Shaked: I'm thinking for like the first few people that sign up, they get a free mini kit included with, with their big kit.
[00:24:06] Carrie Shaked: A free,
[00:24:07] Azhelle Wade: A free one. Oh. Like if they order the big kit,
[00:24:09] Carrie Shaked: if, if they order the big kit, then they would get a free mini kit. Um, then are you gonna
[00:24:13] Azhelle Wade: collect pre-orders at that time?
[00:24:15] Carrie Shaked: I don't know. Should
[00:24:16] Azhelle Wade: I? Yes. Yes you should. So, wait, when is, when is Baker Fair?
[00:24:22] Carrie Shaked: Uh, September. Okay. That's, but I don't know if I'll be able to set the pricing for sure.
[00:24:26] Carrie Shaked: By then. I mean,
[00:24:28] Azhelle Wade: the factory's still building it now. Yeah, that's a very good point. But you do, so like when you offer people things, if they're interested in putting money down, you've gotta take the money at that time. Or you know, like once you, they go to or say it's like. Say it's like December when you finally launch, they won't have the tactile memory anymore.
[00:24:46] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Of like being at your event and saying like, oh, I want this thing. So I would probably take payment then, unless I could just sell the mini kits at that point and, and, and like say, sell the mini kit and give them a percentage off of the big kit when it launches. So you're. Taking in some revenue and then they're getting something that makes them wanna come back because the first time you launch, they'll get 20% off, but only for that first drop.
[00:25:08] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. I don't think the mini kits will be ready. Mm. Um, I, I, and I just started working with China to develop that product. Yeah. Um, so they still have to figure out the tooling and, and everything. I see. Um, I did contact a US manufacturer and their pricing was so high, it was like $15 a kit. Ah. Four mini and the mini kit kits are
[00:25:32] Azhelle Wade: like, how big, just so people that are not watching the video.
[00:25:35] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. It's, it's like one of these basically, is that
[00:25:38] Azhelle Wade: about 12? It's like eight. Is it 10 inches tall once built?
[00:25:42] Carrie Shaked: Um, it's maybe like 12 inches by eight inches tall. Okay.
[00:25:46] Azhelle Wade: 12 inches by eight inches tall. And then the corresponding larger version of that would be,
[00:25:50] Carrie Shaked: so the, the big dome is like, um, four and a half feet tall by five and a half feet wide.
[00:25:56] Azhelle Wade: Ooh, that's a big product.
[00:25:58] Carrie Shaked: It was very,
[00:25:59] Azhelle Wade: very, you're getting your money for it. You can see
[00:26:02] Carrie Shaked: the adult standing behind you. Oh, I didn't even see that was an adult back there and there's kids. Oh wow. There's like four kids inside.
[00:26:09] Azhelle Wade: I'm wondering like I feel so one time I went to the Science Museum of Oklahoma for a talk and we ended up getting a couple of TCA's product placed in the store there 'cause they were looking for product at the time.
[00:26:23] Azhelle Wade: I wonder if there's opportunity for a product like yours with various museums because. You could potentially offer the kit that they build with and then a version of that that's sold in their museum store as well. Mm-hmm. So we, we talked about Cass Holman. Cass Holman was actually part of this exhibit.
[00:26:41] Azhelle Wade: She had an entire exhibition with her RMA jig and they just had a bunch of rig maji parts in a room and stories about her. And then, um, I don't know if she actually sold product in their store, but that's a pot a possibility. And there were other parts of this museum that had. Other building kits, like foam building kits.
[00:26:59] Azhelle Wade: So I wonder if museums also might be another option for you where you're going. I definitely,
[00:27:03] Carrie Shaked: yeah. Think museum stores and, and children's museums, Uhhuh would, would really enjoy the product. I'm just nervous that the durability isn't there for, um, like commercial use. Mm-hmm. You know, or, or I guess institutional use.
[00:27:20] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. Um, like schools and, and, um, I. I've shied away from, you know, looking at, at like plastic, um, corrugated boards. Um, because the sustainability aspect of it, I really want to position this brand as like an eco-friendly brand as something that, you know, doesn't create more plastic waste in, in the toy industry.
[00:27:47] Carrie Shaked: And I don't know if there's like coating options that could like, make the. Product. Like I know that there are cardboard boxes that get used for shipping, like vegetables and stuff. Mm-hmm. That, uh, are wax covered and they obviously are more durable for like wet goods. And I think that would be an option.
[00:28:10] Carrie Shaked: I just don't know how to like find a manufacturer that has dealt with like wax coated cardboard or could wax coat.
[00:28:18] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm. It'd probably be a food, someone who does food product.
[00:28:21] Carrie Shaked: Yeah.
[00:28:21] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:28:22] Carrie Shaked: But the people that make those boxes, it's like a very set production, you know, like they're not making toys and, you know, it, it's, it's very siloed.
[00:28:31] Carrie Shaked: I've tried to contact several box manufacturers in the US that obviously. Deal with cardboard and large sheets and bending them, but none of them seem to want to delve into this kind of a product.
[00:28:46] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, and it is kind of complex. Well, anyone listening, if you do have a contact that could create like kind of a wax coated dye cut cardboard shapes for this project, please do reach out to Carrie.
[00:28:56] Azhelle Wade: We'll put her, her contact info, the in the show notes. But I don't know, I think I'm thinking of this from a museum designer perspective as I did. Uh, study that originally before toy design. And I think if I were given this product. I were told what you're saying, not sure about the durability, but we still needed to figure out a display for it.
[00:29:16] Azhelle Wade: My thought would be, could the larger panels be a preset and predefined space? So maybe there's. One kit that we get three times and we design three different structures out of it. The kids do not take that piece apart, but they can go inside of it. And then the exhibition is more about the education of how these parts can make all of these different shapes.
[00:29:39] Azhelle Wade: And then maybe the pieces that they play with are the mini pieces or maybe it. Some sort of, I dunno. Sometimes museums just have visual signage that explain these things and that lead someone to go to the gift shop or scan a QR code to get their own or get more information so that they're not taking apart in the individual pieces.
[00:29:56] Azhelle Wade: So I just wonder if there's different ways to pitch and present that. And then I would. Render something and pitch and present that to various museum heads. 'cause sometimes they do need, and sometimes they do need a new exhibit focused on a specific topic. And I feel like architecture and a little bit of math is what you could teach through this product.
[00:30:14] Carrie Shaked: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they could. You could definitely do some geometry lessons, like this is right. Um, a really neat, um, platonic solid and, and then the geodis domes are, are, um, another common one, both in schools too. Yeah, I, I've reached out to one of my kids' teachers about. Possibly doing a lesson in the classroom around the geodis geometry and they get to build the kit.
[00:30:40] Carrie Shaked: And I've seen online that some schools will have their kids build a geodesic dome and they, you know, each have to cut out a certain number of triangles and squares and, and then they'll do things like project star display on the inside, like a, a planetarium. Oh, that's cool. Um, so I was thinking that I.
[00:30:59] Carrie Shaked: Probably should develop a kit that has no cutout, so you could like make it a solid. Structure and project stars from the inside. Hmm. Um,
[00:31:09] Azhelle Wade: so I feel the most important thing right now is to build your audience, whether you do that through email, Facebook, social media, like Instagram, TikTok, or other social media.
[00:31:19] Azhelle Wade: But you have to build the community of people that would invest in this. And I'm wondering if, you know, if the community that would invest in this would be primarily teachers. Or other educators or museum, uh, professionals or individual parents like families, do you know who would be your primary target consumer?
[00:31:37] Carrie Shaked: Um, I'm assuming parents, like geeky kind of parents mm-hmm. That are into making, you know, DIY stuff. Mm-hmm. And building things with their kids and the kinds of kids that, uh, parents that buy like Mark Rober kits and the engineering space. Um, I think that is probably the primary market, I think. Schools and, and, um, museums may be interested.
[00:32:02] Carrie Shaked: I really don't know that market as well, but I don't see them as being like the primary driver.
[00:32:09] Azhelle Wade: If it's primarily parents, then we need to have a contact list of parents, whether it's email or text, phone number, or social media. Um, so how, how are you planning to build that other than the Facebook group posts?
[00:32:23] Carrie Shaked: Well, I do have a social media. I mean, I do have, um, Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. And, um, my plan is to launch like YouTube videos and post like how to build various builds on YouTube and kind of showcase the product there and talk about sustainability and, um, and other, you know, related topics.
[00:32:45] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. I'm looking at your Instagram.
[00:32:47] Azhelle Wade: Have you made one of those videos yet?
[00:32:49] Carrie Shaked: There are some shorts on Instagram, I think. I have like some cute music playing my, while my toddler climbs in and through.
[00:32:59] Azhelle Wade: Did you post 'em on YouTube yet? Can I see them there?
[00:33:01] Carrie Shaked: No, there's nothing on YouTube yet. Okay.
[00:33:04] Azhelle Wade: What is holding you back from doing the Kickstarter route?
[00:33:07] Azhelle Wade: Like why are you considering perhaps the other route where you invest and. You just hold onto the inventory until you can sell it.
[00:33:16] Carrie Shaked: I'm, I'm waiting to get production prototypes that I'm confident with and can set the price.
[00:33:23] Azhelle Wade: Are you still like considering either option? Because your question was, which path is the best for me?
[00:33:29] Azhelle Wade: So are you still considering the other option?
[00:33:31] Carrie Shaked: I really need to raise the capital right before I can make an initial stock purchase? Agreed. Agreed. So, um, unless. You know, retailers are gonna buy it, or museum stores or, or other, I, I still need to do some sort of pre-sales or Kickstarter to, to raise the capital.
[00:33:49] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Even retailers, especially specialty retailers and especially a product of the size, they're gonna buy so few that that's not gonna bankroll you into being able to. Manufacture the first run. So yeah, I think it's really smart to go with a, a Kickstarter route. So, well, let's flip the, the script a little bit.
[00:34:05] Azhelle Wade: What are some wins and successes you've already had with this product?
[00:34:09] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, so paying for the full production kit from China, I think was a big win. Getting to that point, getting just the laser cut prototypes and starting doing product testing with real people. That was exciting. I think a lot of. Things that I never thought I would do.
[00:34:28] Carrie Shaked: You know, contacting foreign manufacturers and getting over my fears of reaching out and taking those leaps. Those are big wins for me.
[00:34:37] Azhelle Wade: Really, you didn't think you were gonna reach out to foreign manufacturers?
[00:34:41] Carrie Shaked: I didn't know how to do that. I, right. I mean, it took a while to even like find manufacturers that I felt confident could make this.
[00:34:49] Carrie Shaked: It's funny having a background in architecture and knowing what's physically possible. And it's another thing like finding people that can actually make that work.
[00:34:58] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Or that don't like look at you with three heads when you're like, no, this can work. And they're like, no, we don't know how to make that work.
[00:35:04] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, so I mean one of the benefits of like when you're in a big company is then they would send you to China to show them like, this is how it would work. But you don't have the that luxury, so you kind of have to either ship a bunch of examples to them or hop on a bunch of Zoom calls to explain, and then with the language barrier still sometimes it's impossible.
[00:35:22] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, I'm excited. China Factory contacted me and reached out. There's gonna be a representative here in the US later this month that wants to meet with me and, um, I'm excited to see them in person. And yeah, those are big steps.
[00:35:38] Azhelle Wade: What is really exciting, I think for independent entrepreneurs right now is that factories are losing a lot of business because of tariffs spec, uh, specifically factories in China.
[00:35:48] Azhelle Wade: And because of that, I think they're paying more attention to these, to startup companies. They can't fully rely on their main, let's say their main clients who were sending all of their largest orders. 'cause those clients are intentionally resourcing to cheaper countries for cheaper manufacturing.
[00:36:05] Azhelle Wade: Whereas the startup companies like us, we don't have the luxury of training a whole new workforce. So we need a workforce that knows how to do what we wanna do, and now they're starting to get hungry for business. And now I think it kind of creates a perfect storm where it's still more expensive. So there's still competition happening there.
[00:36:23] Azhelle Wade: But you actually have a shot now, like you have somebody who knows how to produce this product and wants your business because like what I would say. A year ago, two years ago, maybe two years ago, they were like, no, actually, we're just too busy with our main customers. Our lines are full. We're not, we have no time for you.
[00:36:42] Azhelle Wade: So it's, it's kind of a good time for an entrepreneur. Yeah. And
[00:36:45] Carrie Shaked: I think even with the tariffs, their pricing is so much better than what I've found that it, it's. Still like a good deal.
[00:36:53] Azhelle Wade: It's still competitive, which is crazy. Yeah. Which is crazy. So has your idea changed or evolved at all since you joined TCA and what about the program helped that evolution?
[00:37:04] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, I think the product testing helped to get them in the hands of real people and, and, um, film people actually putting things together. I learned a lot through that process and, um. It's helped me kind of evolve the, you know, attachments and how they go together. It, it helps me develop this minikit so that, you know, I can help kids use their, their ideas, you know, like building in a small scale before you build large.
[00:37:35] Carrie Shaked: Kinda helps you think through your ideas and it's, you know, a common tool for architects obviously. 'cause you can't always just build a building, you gotta design it first. So things like that. Um, I've, you know, changed like what's in a kit based on some of your feedback on the pricing and price points and what might fly in the marketplace.
[00:37:56] Carrie Shaked: So I they've evolved. Yeah.
[00:37:59] Azhelle Wade: And the mini kit came about because we were look fi trying to figure out something free to give people that. Signed up for your email list, right? And we were like, well, could you make like a paper version that they could print out? And then, and then you, like a week later were like, I think I should sell this.
[00:38:12] Azhelle Wade: This should be like a separate product.
[00:38:14] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, I mean, I do have a printable free on my website. Yeah, it doesn't have, you know, the really cool cutouts, right? You can take an X exacto and try cut those if you were really,
[00:38:24] Azhelle Wade: yeah, you were really dedicated. Dedicated. I had nothing else to do, but you can like,
[00:38:29] Carrie Shaked: print the pattern and, and um, cut out, you know, the individual panels.
[00:38:34] Carrie Shaked: So yeah, the, the panels are the same. Size as the printable on my website, but so
[00:38:38] Azhelle Wade: yeah, there is a printable version of Carrie's dome kits. You can experiment with it before you invest in it, which is gonna be great for potentially great for retailers. I think these mini kits, it once you make them, would be a great thing to send to retailers as a test this product.
[00:38:54] Azhelle Wade: See if it works for, for you and for, and could potentially work for your consumer. And we have a much bigger version. I would love to dive into our product spotlight, give your product some time to shine. So tell us more about your brand and who it's for and what makes it so special.
[00:39:10] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, so. These kids are for creative families, educators, and kids of all ages who love to build and imagine and design their own worlds.
[00:39:19] Carrie Shaked: Our kids combine architecture and engineering and sustainability in a way that empowers kids to think like designers and build something they can really live in, not just play in. They're beautiful, durable, and open-ended, designed to grow with your child's imagination. So. The basic kit includes 15 squares and 10 equilateral triangles.
[00:39:44] Carrie Shaked: Some of the panels have beautiful cutouts that, uh, allow light to filter through, and others have doors that can swing open and shut. Our dome kit includes all the panels of the basic kit, plus 30 additional special isosceles triangles that allow you to build an actual two v geodis dome. The completed dome stands about four and a half feet tall and about five and a half feet wide.
[00:40:08] Carrie Shaked: There are also unusual anti prism shapes, like twisting towers you can build with the dome kit.
[00:40:14] Azhelle Wade: How long would it take to build the basic dome?
[00:40:16] Carrie Shaked: The dome takes about half an hour with two adults, um, who kind of know what they're doing. Mm-hmm. So it's not a quick system. Quicker than like cutting your own panels and, and building it.
[00:40:30] Carrie Shaked: Right. Um, but it does take a little bit of dexterity and, and time to thread the Velcro strips through the connecting flaps, but it's well worth it. The structural stability you get with that system is really impressive. Like my toddler can run into it. It doesn't fall down. Like these things really stand up and that's what I really wanted was something that like.
[00:40:54] Carrie Shaked: You can sleep in and have a sleepover with your friends and, and it's not gonna collapse around you. Um, right. So that was really important.
[00:41:01] Azhelle Wade: What inspired you to create this kit?
[00:41:04] Carrie Shaked: Well, building forts with my kids, you know, pulling out the blankets and the chairs and the couch cushions. Um, oh my gosh.
[00:41:10] Carrie Shaked: Cutting up cardboard boxes, but it's, um, you know, super messy and time consuming and they usually ended up looking like some homeless person is living in my living room. And, um, I just, I thought that there had to be a better way. Like, wouldn't it be so cool if kids had like these pre-cut cardboard shapes and you could just easily attach 'em together and, and build, like you do with magnet tiles and just live in them.
[00:41:36] Azhelle Wade: I didn't actually even think about the fact that. You are helping parents by creating something more beautiful to look at, like it's like a more beautiful fort that their kids. Can live and play in for a week or three days, however long they keep it up. And it doesn't have to look like Skid Row or like,
[00:41:52] Carrie Shaked: like it doesn't have to look.
[00:41:53] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, exactly. It's like this sculptural, you know, piece in your living room that you know, you're not afraid to let your friends come over and see. Right.
[00:42:02] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, and it could get even more. I, I wanna ask like, what is the coolest thing you saw in your play testing that people did with it? Like, did they shine lights through the kaleidoscope, like cutouts that you have?
[00:42:12] Azhelle Wade: Did they put pillows or, or sheets in an interesting way around it or over it? Like were there things that people did with,
[00:42:17] Carrie Shaked: I mean, immediately kids just wanna dragon their blankets and pillows and their ies and their books, and they just wanna decorate their space. It's, it's really cute how much they like, there were a few.
[00:42:30] Carrie Shaked: Families that like cried when I had to take them apart and like, bring them home. No. Oh no. Really? Yeah. I mean, kids get really attached to these faces. They, they, they really, you know, they really wanna play in them for a long time. And, and that's. Where this is different than, I think a lot of the building kits that are fort based is, you know, like there's tubes that you can throw a sheet over and kids can make some crazy thing.
[00:42:58] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. Where there's even some cardboard panels that you put these little foam pieces in and, and you can kind of put it together, but they, they don't stay up and they're very boxy and they look. Really janky. Mm-hmm. And, um, and so, you know, it doesn't create that inspiration for inhabitation
[00:43:19] Azhelle Wade: Ooh, inspiration for inhabitation
[00:43:21] Carrie Shaked: in decoration, like putting up fairy lights and, and hanging, you know, a scarf through the, you know, top of it.
[00:43:29] Carrie Shaked: So you can put your levies in a little hammock and, you know, put up your little art on the walls and, um, or even draw on the panels if you want.
[00:43:40] Azhelle Wade: I love that about it. 'cause it, it is so structurally sound and it is so beautiful. The dome shapes and then the cutouts that look like kaleidoscopes, but it still feels unfinished in the most beautiful way, like you feel as a creative person.
[00:43:52] Azhelle Wade: I feel like I'm meant to add to this. Like this is a base and I'm meant to do more.
[00:43:58] Carrie Shaked: This is your creative canvas. Yeah. To put your own unique spin on. Yeah. And it's, it's not me telling you what to do. It's your. Blank space to really make it your own.
[00:44:11] Azhelle Wade: You see like some of this needs to be in your messaging.
[00:44:13] Azhelle Wade: I feel like your messaging sometimes gets a little technical.
[00:44:17] Carrie Shaked: Yeah,
[00:44:18] Azhelle Wade: like a little technically, yeah. You're like an architect. You talk like an architect. So yeah, you need to like chat GBT and say like make this more sexy. Like make this more, less. Like, like I'm talking to a 10-year-old and their parent, unless like I'm talking to an architect.
[00:44:35] Azhelle Wade: But yeah, some of that needs to be in your language because I can't tell you there were some words you were using and I was like, I don't really know what that means, but I'm hoping through context clues I will. What was it? There's some word you used. D Geo Dsic. Geodis. Yeah. I was like, I don't really know what that means
[00:44:51] Carrie Shaked: really.
[00:44:51] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. So Geodis domes were created by Buckminster Fuller Uhhuh, who's a architect. He actually didn't invent them, but it's what you think of when you think of a dome. It's multifaceted triangle shapes that make, uh, like a spherical space. It's dividing a sphere into triangles. Because a sphere doesn't have any flat places, it's all points.
[00:45:16] Carrie Shaked: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so in order to build something spherical shapes, you have to turn it into a faceted, oh. Flat pieces, panels that connect. So yeah, that
[00:45:26] Azhelle Wade: word doesn't sell it for me, that word, even now that I know the description, that word doesn't make me wanna buy it. It like. Year-round, igloo might make me wanna buy it.
[00:45:35] Azhelle Wade: Like, you know what I mean? Like something that I'm connecting it to an experience that my kids already know and love and are interested in, but can't quite embrace. Yeah. But now they can because this cardboard version of it exists. Yeah. I feel like it needs to get a little bit more sexy
[00:45:49] Carrie Shaked: and then I could just say dome.
[00:45:51] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. But that's like so simple. Like there's, there's another layer and I feel, so like with your YouTube videos, I had this conversation recently with. And he was leaning very much into education for like, 'cause he's a, a board game centered around a sport that isn't pop as popular in the US So he was centering his focus on educating people about the sport and then selling them the game.
[00:46:15] Azhelle Wade: And when you were discussing your reels, it sounded like, and I couldn't play one 'cause I'm not logged into Instagram, but it sounded like your reels were gonna be focused on educating how to build. But as you were talking, the, the things that struck me from your play test sessions are how people make the space their own.
[00:46:35] Azhelle Wade: Mm-hmm. So I'm like, is it more important to lean into that? Because that's the emotional connection that people would have. Yeah. Like, is there a video format that's repeatable and easy? Would show how these domes can be transformed for your kids' personality or your kids' taste, and how it's something that you wouldn't mind having up in their room for 10 days on end, or even in the living room for five days on end
[00:46:59] Carrie Shaked: or six months.
[00:47:00] Azhelle Wade: Oh God, is it that long?
[00:47:03] Carrie Shaked: Is this what? I mean, the, the structure that recently stayed in my living room was, I think there for like three or four months I just took apart.
[00:47:12] Azhelle Wade: Oh, wow. I mean, that's great for product longevity. As a parent with a limited home space, I'm like, Hmm, interesting interest. I guess we don't need a dining room.
[00:47:24] Azhelle Wade: You build it around like
[00:47:25] Carrie Shaked: a, a mattress that your kid sleeps in and you know, that could be their little bed chamber that is so inside their room, so
[00:47:32] Azhelle Wade: yeah. I always, when I was a kid, I always wanted a canopy bed, so that would've really sold me. So like, yeah, like I feel, I'm wondering if it's. It's almost furniture.
[00:47:42] Azhelle Wade: It is I, it is furniture and like how do they sell kids furniture? And it's so much about personality in the space, in the room. So it's, yeah. Should there be, like, I know you were getting a bunch of like videos and images of this thing created. Can you digitally alter the images and videos that you've had created to just show.
[00:47:59] Azhelle Wade: Someone who loves clouds and what they could turn this into, someone who loves unicorn, someone who loves dinosaurs, someone who loves glitter, like what a kid's individual version of this might be. Can that be a video?
[00:48:11] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, I mean, I definitely had planned on doing, you know, a series on, you know, decorating and, you know, inhabiting your creations.
[00:48:20] Carrie Shaked: Mm-hmm. And, and creative ways to, you know, either paint or draw or, or decorate on the surface. Mm-hmm. Or even cut, make your own cutouts. In the cardboard. Mm-hmm. Um, I was thinking of selling decals on the website that you can put on the playing panels. Mm-hmm. And then like color in like your own coloring book pages and, and sell lots of different decals that you can then take and customize or even like a mailbox slot with the things that says mailbox.
[00:48:51] Carrie Shaked: And all you do is have to cut out the little rectangle.
[00:48:54] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:48:54] Carrie Shaked: And, and kind of give kids. And parents a little bit of, you know, that spark of imagination and like you can pick and choose which decals you want to then Yeah. Um, put on your product.
[00:49:07] Azhelle Wade: There's like an emotional, when you're saying that. Parents cried or got emotional when they had to take it down like this or families cried.
[00:49:15] Azhelle Wade: That is what we need to tap into for social media. Like that is like, what is that? And I would wanna survey those families and figure out like, what was it? What was, what made you so connected to it? How did you feel while building it? What was your favorite part? Was it building it? Decorating it? Yeah. I wanna know more.
[00:49:33] Azhelle Wade: I feel like we need to survey more. And if you've had all these play tests, why are all these people not on your email list? What God only knows. Oh my goodness. You have to get them all on your email list. Like that is the main focus. People don't wanna
[00:49:47] Carrie Shaked: sign up for emails.
[00:49:49] Azhelle Wade: Okay. I mean, I have no problem getting people to sign up for emails, so I, it's really What are you offering them?
[00:49:57] Azhelle Wade: Like what are you giving them to sign up and that, that's where I feel like the 20% off. Like if you're telling people this is gonna retail for anywhere from 100 to 200 or 100 to one $50. But if you join this list, you will get a coupon for 20% off. That will be valid until 2020. I don't know whatever time timeline you wanna give, but you do wanna give a limit to it.
[00:50:19] Azhelle Wade: But you will get one 20% off coupon to use on our pre-order. Okay. I think that will motivate people. That's a huge percentage when something such an expensive price. So, yeah. You might just not be giving them what they want.
[00:50:31] Carrie Shaked: Yeah. I don't think there's been many eyeballs that have even seen my posts, to be frank.
[00:50:37] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So we wanna start in person and then we wanna, I, I feel like starting in person will give you the motivation to say, okay, people really do like this. Maybe I could multiply this online. So neighborhood toy store month. Yeah. Fair. This is also
[00:50:51] Carrie Shaked: where I'm. Kind of thinking I need to hire a marketing professional to just kind of take the lead on this, because clearly I'm not that great at this.
[00:51:00] Azhelle Wade: So the, the most benefit that I've found, I've had two experiences. Like one, I did have somebody posting for me and that didn't do as much as having somebody engage for me, and they weren't a marketing professional. It was literally me. I actually built a, like a, a, what would you call it, like a canned, uh, response.
[00:51:19] Azhelle Wade: Document of like things I would say to certain. Posts or things. And then I gave them hashtags to research and every day they would go in and they would find posts about people posting about the toy industry or whatever, and they would comment for me. And at one point I'd forgotten that I, I hired them to do that 'cause they were doing something else, like with the podcast.
[00:51:40] Azhelle Wade: And I was like, why are these people commenting and, and messaging me all the time? Like, where are these people coming from? And I realized it was because they were going into people's. Pages and commenting and engaging. Mm-hmm. So I, mm-hmm. I really do think that that was a, a really good idea I had that I've forgotten about, and it, it actually created a lot of engagement on my page.
[00:51:58] Azhelle Wade: That plus the posting of whatever I was posting at the time. Videos. Yeah. But even if you do just one a day, and even if it's just. Like the, the slideshow videos that you have. Like if you had those videos and then you did a talking head of you that was green, screened over the thing being built and you just say, hi, my name's Carrie and this is the thing that I created.
[00:52:19] Azhelle Wade: And you don't use geo dsic and you, and you say like, you can build this like a beautiful fort in 30 minutes with the help of your parent. That can last for weeks. You can create your own little. Space. Parents cried when they had to take theirs down. Um, if you wanna know more, link is in my bio, like something really short, and you can just create simple videos that are not perfect and not beautifully designed.
[00:52:44] Azhelle Wade: And then hire somebody to be engaging with other accounts to make sure that those videos get seen. But you can also hire somebody to post those videos for you, so you're just recording. They can edit, they can post, so that person can have those two jobs to post and engage.
[00:52:58] Carrie Shaked: I'm so camera shy, it's really hard for me to make these videos.
[00:53:02] Carrie Shaked: I, I don't know,
[00:53:03] Azhelle Wade: you could make a, um, now with AI you could make an animated version of yourself. Like, um, so once I had somebody, and it's on my website, the toy coach.com, I had someone draw a character version of me. And this was before AI was big and recently I'm like, oh, I should animate that character.
[00:53:19] Azhelle Wade: 'cause there's all these apps now you can use to just animate their mouth and their eye. So. If you were open to that, you can have an animated version of yourself who would be popping up and talking in all the videos, and whoever you hire could do that without you. They could, they could render a voice that doesn't even have to be your voice, and they could just, you could just give them a script and say, I want it to say this.
[00:53:42] Azhelle Wade: Here's the character, and then just make it. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. You saw the, have you seen my baby video posts on like baby podcasts? So like on my Instagram, there were a couple of of posts where it was like my podcast clip, but it was like me as a baby and everybody thought it was because I was pregnant and I was obsessed with babies.
[00:54:00] Azhelle Wade: And that's not why, it was because the, there was a trend that everybody was doing this. Um, everybody was turning everything into babies. Because babies are cute and everyone loves babies. So they were turning like popular podcast clips into baby versions of those character of those people. Yeah. Yeah. And so I had my, so I go to my assistant who posts, who, um, edits all my podcast stuff and I said, Hey, I have no idea how to make this.
[00:54:22] Azhelle Wade: Can you make me. A baby clip and she did it in like seconds. And all she needed was a recording of me saying whatever I was saying about my podcast. She had Chachi PT create a baby version of me. So we uploaded a photo of me, said, make this a baby version. And then there was another app, which I still don't know, that animated that baby.
[00:54:43] Azhelle Wade: Uh, and she uploaded the audio and the picture, and then it just animated the baby saying the things. Yeah. So it could also be that simple and you don't have to do any of it. You can hire somebody. Yeah.
[00:54:53] Carrie Shaked: I like that idea.
[00:54:55] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:54:56] Carrie Shaked: Didn't I feel like
[00:54:57] Azhelle Wade: we, did I send my, maybe not the baby, but just having
[00:54:59] Carrie Shaked: a, a virtual character to
[00:55:01] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:55:01] Azhelle Wade: Like whatever the characters that would represent your brand. Did I send you, I sent you my hiring process, right. I feel like we talked about this once.
[00:55:08] Carrie Shaked: You sent me a link to the Philippines site
[00:55:11] Azhelle Wade: online pH, but then the hiring process that I used there doing that and this, like they can cost anywhere from five to.
[00:55:19] Azhelle Wade: 15 at most dollars an hour, $5 an hour is normal. 15 would be like, they are super fluent in English. They've been working for like top tier pros in the past and now they're gonna work with you. But typically it's like $5 an hour. Okay. Um, but that's it. Okay. Let me ask you my closing questions please. Okay.
[00:55:39] Azhelle Wade: Um. What do you hope to achieve one year from now with design laughter?
[00:55:43] Carrie Shaked: Um, I would love to see photos of kids and families using my kids Uhhuh in the while building, laughing, connecting, and, um, yeah, I want sales, but more than that, I wanna know that I've made something that brings beauty and creativity into your.
[00:56:00] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's nice. That's so lovely. We gotta make that happen. And what toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
[00:56:07] Carrie Shaked: Oh,
[00:56:08] Azhelle Wade: Legos for sure. Lego. Oh, that's so fitting.
[00:56:11] Carrie Shaked: I used to build, I used to spend hours building like random things with Legos that were passed down from my brother. Yeah. And you know, these weren't the like modern cutey Lego cassettes with animals and cute characters and, and, um, they were just, you know, simple bricks and hinges and wheels and there were no rules, there were no instructions.
[00:56:32] Carrie Shaked: I just, you know, was creating. Like random stuff and, and just loving it. It really shaped how I think about, you know, space and, and design and, and, and unlocked something in me.
[00:56:46] Azhelle Wade: I would want you to look back on how you first engaged with Lego and see if there's anything you can take from there for your kit.
[00:56:53] Azhelle Wade: As a kid, how did it first capture your eye? There's so much smaller than, I think it's just
[00:56:57] Carrie Shaked: the open-ended design, you know? It's like I could make anything.
[00:57:00] Azhelle Wade: Right. Yeah. Yours isn't quite so open-ended. Interesting. Oh, Carrie, this has been such an inspiring episode. If you're listening to this episode and you haven't already gone to design laughter.com.
[00:57:12] Azhelle Wade: Please do. Um, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your journey, being so open with the process of creating your own toy product. We talked about your real challenge, but I feel like we're gonna keep talking about it in our remaining time in the accelerator and through our TCA, uh, monthly calls.
[00:57:28] Azhelle Wade: As long as you attend those, uh, because we're, there's still so much. Work to do in getting your product launched. If we do neighborhood, toy store or maker fair or, I mean, there's just so much, but hopefully by the, by September we can get your pricing finalized. And you can move forward feeling confident that you've chosen the right factory regardless of tariffs, hopefully.
[00:57:51] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. And Carrie, before we close out, please share with us where people can connect with you and learn more about design Laughter.
[00:57:58] Carrie Shaked: Yeah, so you can find me on, um, my website@www.design laughter.com, all one word, and at Design Laughter on Instagram and Facebook.
[00:58:09] Azhelle Wade: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Carrie. It's been a pleasure having you on the show.
[00:58:14] Carrie Shaked: Thank you so much, Elle. This has been a pleasure.
[00:58:16] Azhelle Wade: Yay. Now, if you're someone who cares about design, giving kids real long lasting toys, that will inspire creativity and some education aspects, um, and you wanna build a toy business with heart, I really hope that carrie's journey made you feel. Seen and aligned like there is a space for you in this industry and maybe inspired you to take your next step.
[00:58:37] Azhelle Wade: Now, if you love this podcast and you haven't already left a review, what are you waiting for? Your reviews keep me an amazing guest like Carrie, coming back week after week, and every time a new review comes in, I get excited. I call my mom, I call my sister, I call my husband, I call my friends, and it puts a huge smile on my face to tell everyone that I'm a successful podcaster.
[00:58:54] Azhelle Wade: So please, if you're listening. If you're a guest on this podcast at this moment, leave a rating and review. Leave a rating and review. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it really means the world to me that you tune into this one.
[00:59:11] Azhelle Wade: Until next week, we will see you later toy people. Bye.
[00:59:17] Voiceover: Thanks for listening to the Making It In The Toy Industry Podcast with Azhelle Wade. Head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips, and advice.
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