#278: TCA Accelerator Coaching Call with Manish Punwani
Ever feel like your toy or game idea is too niche or catch yourself wondering if you’ve really got what it takes to break into the industry? Maybe you’ve been sitting on a killer concept, or you’re already knee-deep in prototypes and second guesses.
In this episode of Making It in the Toy Industry, I’m chatting with TCA alum and current Accelerator student Manish Punwani, who proves that with the right guidance and a whole lot of passion, even the most unexpected game themes can find their place in the market. Manish shares his journey from working in merchandising to launching Cricket or Nothing, a suspense-filled, strategy card game that turns the classic sport of cricket into a brainy, poker-like duel.
You’ll hear why he walked away from his first concept and instead went all in on cricket. We talk about what it really takes to prepare for a Kickstarter campaign and how you can start laying the groundwork now. You’ll also hear why tapping into passionate cultural communities is a genius launch, and how TCA coaching helped Manish see both his idea and his audience in a brand new light.
This episode gives you a glimpse of what it really looks like to build a game from the ground up while learning, pivoting, and connecting with the right people along the way.
If you want to be a part of Toy Creators Academy and get the opportunity to join the Accelerator as a graduate, visit toycreatorsacademy.com today.
Listen For These Important Moments
[00:06:08] - Find out why Manish scrapped his original game concept and how trusting feedback can lead to a better product fit.
[00:11:11] - Discover how this game turns cricket into a mind-game-packed, poker-style showdown that grabs attention even from non-cricket fans.
[00:09:19] - Hear how Manish realized licensing wasn’t the only option and why launching it himself became the smarter move.
[00:20:19] - Learn why marketing to fans who already love your theme (like cricket) is the fastest way to build a loyal audience.
[00:27:06] - Get practical tips on how to use low-cost ads and landing pages to grow a ready-to-buy audience for your launch.
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Know more about Cricket or Nothing! Visit https://www.cricketornothing.com/
If you’ve ever questioned whether your audience would get your idea (or if it’s even worth pursuing) and if you see yourself in Manish’s story, it’s time to join the Toy Creators Academy!
Enroll today at thetoycoach.com/tca
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry, episode number 278.
[00:00:10] Welcome to Making It In The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs, and makers like you. And now your host, Azhelle Wade.
[00:00:22] 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 thetoycoach.com.
[00:00:33] Azhelle Wade: Today's guest is Manish Punwani. He is a TCA alumni and a current TCA accelerator student, and his company is called Cricket or Nothing. Manish is gonna share with us his strategy card game where every move. A mind game between the batsman and the bowler. If you don't know all about that, we will get into it later in this episode.
[00:00:55] Azhelle Wade: But this week's episode is another one of our special coaching episodes where we're gonna be coaching TCA accelerator students on the front end, and then we're gonna be diving into their projects on the back end. If you are someone who's dreaming of launching your own toy or game, but sometimes you wonder if you really have what it takes in this.
[00:01:12] Azhelle Wade: Is the episode for you, because today you're gonna hear from one of our students from Toy Creators Academy and our accelerator, someone who's still in the middle of building their toy business from the ground up just like you might be. So this conversation is a part of our special miniseries where I'm coaching creators through their real struggles in real time, and then celebrating their progress and wins so far.
[00:01:31] Azhelle Wade: So you are gonna get this behind the scenes look of what it's really like to bring your game to life while still learning and growing and building contacts in this industry. My guest today is Manish Punwani, the creator of Cricket or nothing. A strategy card game that captures the heart pounding tension between besman and bowler in a way that feels more like.
[00:01:48] Azhelle Wade: Poker than a board game. Manisha is still shaping his path in the toy industry. He joined TCA because he had several toying game ideas that he wanted to make. And today we're gonna talk about the cricket one, which I love so much. So let's dive into the coaching, the wins, and the pitch. I hope that as you listen to this episode, you find a little bit of yourself in Manisha's journey.
[00:02:08] Azhelle Wade: Manish, welcome to the show.
[00:02:10] Manish Punwani: Hi, Jill. Hi. So glad to have you here. Same here. In fact, so nice to see you. Nice and healthy, looking fresh.
[00:02:18] Azhelle Wade: Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's a call back to my recent hospital stay. I was not doing well, but I'm much better now, so thank you.
[00:02:26] Manish Punwani: Great.
[00:02:27] Azhelle Wade: It's really nice to have TCAs on the podcast.
[00:02:30] Azhelle Wade: I don't know, like normally when I come on the podcast, it's someone I. Have only met a few times or some I might be intimidated or you know, it's just like a different energy. And this is so nice because we've worked together for so long. It's just, it's like, it's chill. It's like a chill vibe. Yeah.
[00:02:44] Manish Punwani: It's like chill vibe.
[00:02:45] Manish Punwani: Yeah. It's like as if we're just catching up for coffee or something. Yeah. It's like
[00:02:49] Azhelle Wade: one of our regular calls. Yes,
[00:02:51] Manish Punwani: absolutely.
[00:02:52] Azhelle Wade: So let's start with the first part. Let's do the coaching session. Let's see if we can walk through a challenge together. So my first question for you, Manish, is what was going on in your career or your life when you first decided to join Toy Creators Academy?
[00:03:05] Azhelle Wade: What made you feel like it was the right move at the time?
[00:03:08] Manish Punwani: Okay. I mean, you know this well, I think when I stumbled upon your profile on LinkedIn. So at that time I actually was in middle of between job and an independent consultancy with the same company called Kopia, which is a gaming app for toddlers.
[00:03:23] Manish Punwani: And I was actually handling the whole merchandising part of it where we were looking into developing games and toys for their audience. So due to certain circumstances, and obviously with the scope also being a little limited, I had to probably move into a more independent consultancy model with them.
[00:03:41] Manish Punwani: But my stint with them since 21, uh, made me realize that this is where I want to be. I want to be into the game, into the toys and game industry. And, uh, that is when I actually stumbled upon your profile, I was like, I know quite a bit of. The industry. I know all the important things that you need to manufacture a toy, but I needed a lot of handholding and guidance.
[00:04:03] Manish Punwani: So yeah, this is where I was at when I stumbled upon your profile, and I'm certain that this was definitely the right move to be a part of the TC Academy.
[00:04:12] Azhelle Wade: I love that. I remember meeting you and you were one of those people who I met with that I'm like, oof. I, why do they wanna join? They seem like they know what they're doing.
[00:04:22] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So you were one of those people that actually made me nervous when I first met you. I'm thinking of a few people off the top of my head. Like Samantha, you, we've had a few other people, uh, that have been in the industry or just kind of doing their own thing so far that have made it pretty far along where when you wanna join TCM, like.
[00:04:39] Azhelle Wade: Why, and then when you get in, I'm like, oh yeah, I, I see my value. I get it. So that's good. But when you were joining, did you ever doubt that you might really be a toy person or, or doubt your ideas?
[00:04:51] Manish Punwani: Not really. I mean, I knew that I would be able to get around the whole sourcing and manufacturing part of it, because that's what I've been.
[00:04:58] Manish Punwani: Since 21 and even before that as well, like my experience has always been into merchandising, so I was never worried about the manufacturing part of it, although that process, as you know, it gets very hectic and very stressful. Mm-hmm. When you have to work with manufacturers, especially in India and in China.
[00:05:16] Manish Punwani: Anyway, I had developed a good vendor network over the course of my career, but what I was always worried about and always had that question mark was, is my idea good enough? In fact, you know this, well, we started off with one idea and then it came to cricket or nothing. Yeah. We won't go into the other one.
[00:05:34] Manish Punwani: So that's the thing, like, you know, you, you, when you start an idea, you think, oh, this is gonna be a game changer. And when you're the creator of the idea, you feel so closely attached to it. In your course, you kept talking about market research feedback, play testing, all that really gives you a bit of a reality check and makes you realize that, okay, you know, which way you're heading with this product.
[00:05:57] Manish Punwani: But yeah, even till today idea is something that I still am a little concerned about on the acceptability part of it,
[00:06:04] Azhelle Wade: of the, the cricket idea. Yeah.
[00:06:06] Manish Punwani: Yeah.
[00:06:06] Azhelle Wade: Mm. Okay. Yeah. It's so interesting, like when there are like different stages to even working with me. So when you first like join TCA, that's when I'm more likely to say, I don't know about this idea.
[00:06:17] Azhelle Wade: Maybe we should revisit it. But when you get into like something like the accelerator that's more like, okay, this is the idea you wanna go forward with, we're gonna go forward with it as is. That was the idea that you ended up shifting and changing. And it's interesting because that's like a really good point.
[00:06:30] Azhelle Wade: Like when people give you feedback on the idea, you have to make the choice to listen and to hear it. Even if that means going back to the agreement that we had in TCA accelerator, because that is more of a profit share agreement and we have to say, oof Agel, I don't actually wanna develop that idea anymore.
[00:06:47] Azhelle Wade: What can we do to shift that idea, shift a different idea into this program and like people don't wanna make changes like that. That's hard to do. It's a pain in the butt. It's like takes time and energy, but I think it was a very, very smart move on your end.
[00:07:00] Manish Punwani: Yeah, and see we knew the market is obviously that like even in in the US and Canada as well, the market is definitely there for the game of cricket.
[00:07:09] Manish Punwani: But yes, it's the acceptability because you know, when you talk about sports, you would want to play it outdoors. So the acceptability of playing it indoor. So we have tried our very best to try and make it more like a, you know, to give you that whole poker vibe. So we have done that. So let's see how it goes.
[00:07:25] Azhelle Wade: It's also a little bit of a battleship vibe, and I'll, let me give some context. When Minish first joined the accelerator, he had a product that was more of like an audio activity experience and shifted to this. Cricket inspired board game, but we'll get into that shortly. Right now, are you currently following the path of an inventor or entrepreneur?
[00:07:44] Manish Punwani: So once the prototype was ready, the idea is that, okay, let's go the inventor route. Maybe a company would love the idea and they'll be like, take my money.
[00:07:55] Azhelle Wade: So, yeah. And so you went to the TCA pitch event and pitched as an inventor?
[00:07:59] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Yes. Pitched as an inventor, but. Honestly, you know, it's easier said than done.
[00:08:04] Manish Punwani: It's not that simple, and I don't want to keep waiting. So initially I thought we, maybe that inventor route would be good. Yeah. But, uh, want to probably pursue it now as an entrepreneur. Uh, because as I said, like I know that the liking this is there. It's just a, the kind of messaging and the way I portray it.
[00:08:22] Manish Punwani: Now that all boils down to that.
[00:08:24] Azhelle Wade: I think you should really do a crowdfunding campaign. What do you think?
[00:08:28] Manish Punwani: Yes. Um, in fact, I was going to actually Oh, uh, speak to you on that because, uh
[00:08:34] Azhelle Wade: Oh, great. Okay.
[00:08:35] Manish Punwani: Yeah. So I think in, in one of your, I'm guessing like in the upcoming questions, you know, where you try and address, uh, where I would probably need a bit of help and hand holding.
[00:08:45] Manish Punwani: It's, it's, it's a guidance for this whole crowdfunding thing.
[00:08:48] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's so funny. Oh, look at that. I'm a psychic. This was not planned. Yeah, let's keep going. So first, so that everyone else. Listening to the podcast has full context about what your product is as we try to problem solve for it. Please give us your elevator pitch for your game.
[00:09:06] Azhelle Wade: How would you describe it if you only had like a 32nd elevator ride with someone?
[00:09:10] Manish Punwani: Sure. So Cricket or nothing is actually a strategy card game where every move is a mind game between the batsman and the polar. Think of it as the poker of cricket. It's been inspired by battleship and rock paper scissors.
[00:09:22] Manish Punwani: But the beauty about this cricket game is that it's more of the strategy part of the game that decides you winning rather than just luck and chance. So you know, you can play for fun, you can play for stakes. The gameplay is designed in a way that the players can experience the thrill, chaos, and the nail biting finishes that you normally would.
[00:09:41] Manish Punwani: Experience in a natural cricket match. So we've kept it very simple and uh, that's why it's either cricket or nothing
[00:09:47] Azhelle Wade: perfect. And I have to say, it is a fun way to learn cricket, learn things about cricket. I'll give it my own little pitch. Like if I'm looking at this from a, a game designer's perspective, or just someone who likes to play games.
[00:09:58] Azhelle Wade: When you play this game, you're essentially setting up your board like you would battleship. You kind of choose where you want your players to go, but then the play is randomized because of cards that you pull to decide what happens next. Kind of define like how many points you get or don't get based on where you and the other player have placed their players or their batsman and their bowlers.
[00:10:18] Azhelle Wade: I, you know, I don't know everything about cricket, but I'm learning from this game. Yeah, so it's, it's really, really interesting. What's been the hardest part of. Launching this product and pitching it like you have so far.
[00:10:30] Manish Punwani: So I'm based in India, so pitching it in India and it, it's not difficult here, but then the acceptability of a board game in India is, is not that much how it is in the, in the us but pitching the idea of the sport is something which is a challenge I'm facing right now.
[00:10:47] Manish Punwani: But I don't see it so much of a challenge because I discussed with you as well, like cricket is a part of the 28 Olympics. And the boards, uh, the governing bodies are doing everything in their power to ensure that the familiarity and the popularity is increased in the, uh, American continent for the sport.
[00:11:06] Manish Punwani: So I, I am very confident that now as the familiarity of the sport increases in, uh, in US and Canada. The popularity of the game is already there, but then we see it sort of growing more now with cricket being a part of the 28 Olympics. And uh, that is where I feel, you know, my timing is very right, uh, to come into, uh, the US market to try and promote the board game because the acceptability will be there and also the keenness to play the sport as well.
[00:11:33] Manish Punwani: Probably you practice a bit on the board game and then maybe you try your hand on the actual feet.
[00:11:38] Azhelle Wade: So tell me about a time you felt stuck with this. Is it just that people don't know the. Game cricket and they, so that kind of prevents them from even being interested in this board game 'cause they don't think they can sell it.
[00:11:48] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Yeah. This is like, when I was pitching to brands, they just felt like, okay, the sport is very niche and we don't think we can take it forward. I, I understand that, yes, that's a challenge from a brand point of view, but understanding also the kind of market that is there already. For the game and what is going to come.
[00:12:06] Manish Punwani: So I think it would do well. But yeah, as of now, this is a bit of a challenge, which I need to sort of overcome.
[00:12:12] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. So you alluded that you are thinking about doing a Kickstarter or some sort of crowdfunding. Is this the main challenge you want us to work through today or is it the how people don't understand cricket?
[00:12:22] Azhelle Wade: Which one?
[00:12:23] Manish Punwani: So it is, the challenge is obviously the Kickstarter where, you know, I need a little bit of guidance on how we go about it. But even when I go into Kickstarter, the kind of messaging that I should do over there, how should I portray the game so that it is looked as, as a interesting want to know about product rather than, oh, you know, this is not my cup of tea.
[00:12:45] Azhelle Wade: Hmm. So,
[00:12:46] Manish Punwani: yeah.
[00:12:47] Azhelle Wade: Okay. All right. So I had a couple thoughts. First. Do you know, you mentioned like the governing bodies, and I think what you're alluding to are like the organizations that are bringing cricket to the Olympics in 2028 are doing a lot to promote cricket. Do you know what they're doing by any chance yet?
[00:13:02] Manish Punwani: So in terms of what I, I am aware of is that there's a bit of like an online, uh, trend that, not, not trend, but yeah, that what they're trying to do is probably try to create the familiarity online about the game. Get probably, uh, baseball players to endorse the game and, you know, sort of compare it with.
[00:13:21] Manish Punwani: Baseball, cricket, and baseball because they're a little similar about how the game is played. So all of that, and I think once we got more closer to 28, there will be a lot more of brand endorsements and all, which would be coming in to try and promote the game, uh, in the US and Canada.
[00:13:40] Azhelle Wade: So first step, I'm thinking start a document where it's like a simple column, organizations.
[00:13:46] Azhelle Wade: Promotion strategy and then like links. Because what I'm thinking, like if there's a song that starts trending where creators are creating videos about cricket and baseball, with this one trending song, you should just have all that stuff linked in the document so you can easily access it later. And from now till 2027, probably you'll see more and more promotions coming out.
[00:14:06] Azhelle Wade: And I'm gonna go back to like the Barbie movie. So we saw they had the Airbnb. So if that was something like that was if I was creating a document like that, this for Barbie, I would put, okay, Airbnb did a promotion, Barbie House, here's a link to that listing, and here's what they're offering to people.
[00:14:23] Azhelle Wade: And when you looked into it, they were really offering it to influencers and then maybe even adding in the notes like which influencers got invited. And I would build this document so that you have people to reach out to when you do launch your Kickstarter and that you also have. Trends to comment on.
[00:14:38] Azhelle Wade: Like if you were making a Barbie game, let's say, I could reshare that Airbnb listing and say, oh, if you weren't invited to live in the Airbnb, you can play my Barbie board game because I, you know, that's kind of how I would try to connect all of the marketing things that are happening to promote cricket to my game.
[00:14:54] Azhelle Wade: So just start by building that document. 'cause we wanna not lose track of all the ways. If they're building awareness for cricket, you need to be able to use that in social media to promote your game and not forget or lose track of all of the ways they're doing that. 'cause I agree it will grow. Yeah.
[00:15:10] Azhelle Wade: Once we get closer to 2028.
[00:15:12] Manish Punwani: Exactly. And in fact, I can actually even, uh, if I can recall correctly, uh, so in 2024 there was a World Cup, like a Cricket World Cup where us was a, was part host with the Caribbean Islands. The sport is already popular in the West Indies. Uh, so they play it over there. Uh, but uh, they tried again, you know, being, us being so close to West Indies.
[00:15:34] Manish Punwani: So they tried to promote the sport in the US as well, especially in New York. Uh, so there were a lot of, again, you know, a lot of baseball in, uh, celebrities who got involved, tried to understand the game, and even tried explaining the sport to the audience, giving references of. Like how a baseball match would be and how similar it is to cricket, so it's more easier for people to understand.
[00:15:57] Azhelle Wade: So, okay, this was another thing I was gonna say. When we look at your target demographic, you keep going toward the direction of trying to get people to learn cricket and then want your game. And I think you think that that's the way you have to go because it's the US and most of us don't know cricket, but there's a huge Indian population here and there are a lot of cities within states that have like that predominantly Indian population that already is obsessed with cricket.
[00:16:24] Azhelle Wade: And I wonder, you know, there might be Indian American, meaning maybe there were born and raised here, but they're still very culturally connected to their roots. So they might be more inclined to play a board game than. People actually like born and raised in India, but they're also connected already to Cricket because it's like a cultural societal like thing.
[00:16:45] Azhelle Wade: So I guess my wonderment is. Is it a better strategy to go after that market first because they will build you the notoriety, not the platform is really the word, like the platform that you need and then you can expand because I'm feeling like, so say for right, it's 2025 right now and you're looking at 2028, so say 2026, you promote your game to.
[00:17:10] Azhelle Wade: The Indian audience in the us Maybe you look at like certain cities, like I'm just thinking of where I've lived, like Jersey City that has a huge Indian population and you hyperfocus on this community and you even give some of them like, we're gonna give you first look to get your feedback. We're gonna give you like a prototype version or something that send an NDA and you get their feedback, but you also maybe get them to.
[00:17:32] Azhelle Wade: Create videos or post about it or whatever, and it's kind of this very, very early stage test and also building your audience. Because if you can use that audience who already loves cricket and get them to love your game, that can start the flow almost like Labu Boo. Right? So Lisa from Black Pink is from Thailand, so because she was obsessed with it, she made it popular, like.
[00:17:59] Azhelle Wade: Here as well. But it actually started being popular in Thailand 'cause she loved it. So then it, there were like government officials and other famous people in Thailand. They actually, the popularity of La Boo Boo built there first and it got overwhelming there first. And it was like a year or two ahead of like where we're seeing the explosion in, in our country here in the us.
[00:18:20] Azhelle Wade: But it actually started in Thailand. So what I'm thinking is not that yours would start in India, but it would start in Indian communities, maybe within the us and then because those communities are huge, then I'm wondering if it could spill over from that and you have till 2028, like imagine, and let's just use social media for an example, like imagine TikTok.
[00:18:40] Azhelle Wade: Or Instagram and you've been sharing with the Indian community in the US this game, they've been maybe talking about it, maybe posting it, and it's mostly a very niche conversation. But come 20, 27, when everyone's suddenly talking about cricket and researching cricket now. You've already have these like past posts and comments and conversations going on about your game that they could then use to say, oh, here's a fast and fun way to learn about cricket before the 2028.
[00:19:09] Azhelle Wade: What? You know, I'm just thinking that that might be a better way than educating people on a game and wanting them to buy it. It's like use the community that knows it already and get them to help build the notoriety for it.
[00:19:21] Manish Punwani: Yeah, I mean, I knew that we could be looking at starting off with the Indian community and the South Asian community endorsing the game and then taking it forward from there, and possibly people learning about it.
[00:19:35] Manish Punwani: But then considering the fact that like, you know, if I had to start with the Kickstarter campaign, not sure, like the people who would be seeing it would be, uh. A lot of people from South Asian origin, you know, so that is where I was come thinking that, okay, maybe do I need to do a bit of educating? But then, yeah, like from what you are saying, I think that makes more sense.
[00:19:55] Manish Punwani: Uh, yeah. Yeah, it may, and that's a more doable approach as well, I think.
[00:19:59] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. If you go the other way, you have to educate all of the US
[00:20:03] Manish Punwani: on cricket. Yeah.
[00:20:04] Azhelle Wade: And that's just to get them to buy something. And that's not a motivation,
[00:20:07] Manish Punwani: that's not gonna work. Yeah.
[00:20:08] Azhelle Wade: But if you look at Labu Boo, it's like people want to learn about this thing when it becomes popular and it becomes uncool to not know about it.
[00:20:16] Azhelle Wade: So that's the direction I'm thinking for you when in 2027, when it's gonna be at the Olympics, next year, it will be uncool to not know about cricket.
[00:20:24] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, if you put, you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense.
[00:20:29] Azhelle Wade: So the other thing I'm wondering, have you done Facebook ads?
[00:20:32] Manish Punwani: Uh, not yet. Uh, so, um.
[00:20:34] Manish Punwani: I mean, our website just is like live a few weeks back. So again, you know, we don't have inventory to sell. So right now we are just taking pre-orders. But then I think, uh, before we get into any ads, I think we probably were wanting to reach out to the right kind of market and try and create more familiarity about the game, do a little bit of play testing, and then get into like building inventory and all of that.
[00:21:01] Azhelle Wade: So I. Would recommend building your email list. So Joanna Cotton, she just launched her Kickstarter and successfully funded it. She already had a pretty big following on Instagram that helped her do that. But she didn't have an email list at all, so we had to convert her 10,000 at the time, 10,000 Instagram followers to an email list.
[00:21:22] Azhelle Wade: And I also taught her to use Facebook to grow that email list. Now Facebook's a lot more expensive than it used to be. You, for Cricut, you might use Facebook or Google Ads because people are searching cricket, I'm sure. Um, and Facebook is more of like phishing for like, does somebody like cricket? Here's a billboard.
[00:21:43] Azhelle Wade: If you like cricket, click here. Whereas Google's more intentional like someone's Googling cricket, then you can show them an ad for like get this cricket board game. But what I would say is something that might be good to start sooner rather than later is even a $5 a day ad to get emails. For your cricket game, just to build a list of like, and what, how I would do that is I think I would do something like, do you love cricket or do you wanna know more about cricket?
[00:22:11] Azhelle Wade: Or if you can create some downloadable like, I don't know, version of your game, like test this, like mini cricket game, um, like a paper version that's maybe not the full game, but it's like a partial game. I would try to build an email list, or if you wanna go super simple, it would be a landing page that says, hi, we're Aish and Amit.
[00:22:29] Azhelle Wade: We have this board game that we're coming out with in 2026. It's all about cricket. It's the, you know, it's gonna show you how to play cricket. It's gonna give you the feeling of playing cricket if you wanna be the first to. Know when it comes available and get it for the lowest price it ever will be, which will be your Kickstarter price.
[00:22:47] Azhelle Wade: Probably put your email here and start building that email list now. 'cause the bigger that is, the more likely you will be to get funded. And you want the emails and the phone numbers. So you wanna have like a tag for both of those. And with Facebook, I'm in my Facebook account now 'cause I wanted to test and see if you can do this.
[00:23:06] Azhelle Wade: But you can do targeted ads. And I wonder if cricket is an option because if I could target people that like cricket, then I would say Facebook ads would be worthwhile for you.
[00:23:18] Manish Punwani: That's, uh, actually that was a question I was gonna come to like, can I do that precise targeting?
[00:23:23] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, you can. So I just searched it.
[00:23:25] Azhelle Wade: So when you set up an ad in Facebook, there's three levels. There's the campaign level, then there's the ad set level, and then there's the ad. So the ad sets the ad like the people that you send the the campaign to. So in the camp, in the ad set level, there's an option that says detailed targeting include people who match what.
[00:23:42] Azhelle Wade: So then you get to type in interests or behaviors. And I typed in cricket. It actually does have it. It has a section called Cricket. In parentheses it says Sport. The size of this audience is 400,000. I don't know if it's in the US only, but we can check that in a second. It also says Cricket Bat. There's also like you can target people who are interested in cricket, bat sporting goods, cricket ball, cricket, clothing and equipment.
[00:24:07] Azhelle Wade: So you could choose all of these or one of these Cricket World Cup, and they're all. A hundred thousand size. Oh, that's 35 million. There's 35 million. Oh, this is a hundred million. I don't know why I thought it was a hundred thousand.
[00:24:20] Manish Punwani: Yeah, I was just wondering. That's quite small.
[00:24:22] Azhelle Wade: Oh, this one's 400 million.
[00:24:24] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, 400 million. But, so here's the thing. So I'm gonna click the Cricket Sport option that says the size of the audience is 400 million. And then I would filter that down to. Us 'cause that's what you're aiming for. I might do Canada and UK too. And you can even filter down by age and see how much smaller it gets.
[00:24:44] Azhelle Wade: So right now my locations are Canada, uk, and us. I have my age limited to 25 to 45. It says my audience is broad. Okay. My estimated audience size is 22 million. Out of all of, I think it, what did I say? It was 400 million and I filtered down to US, Australia, and uk, and now it's 22 million, which is still a lot.
[00:25:08] Azhelle Wade: I would probably just do us, let me just do us, actually, let's just see what that changes it to. And that changes it to 15 million, which is honestly still too broad. I would probably, I might even, um, at that point minimize the age range or the language, or I'm, I don't know. I don't wanna go too detailed because now Facebook's al algorithms gotten very good at like finding the next level you could do is like people interested in board games.
[00:25:37] Azhelle Wade: You could narrow either even further within the 15 million who's interested in board games, but that'd be risky. But anyway, the estimated daily result. Is a 2,400 to 7,000 and that's where the spend of $10 a day. That's just, 'cause that's an ad I've, I, I'm running right now, but you could do as low as $5.
[00:25:54] Azhelle Wade: Sometimes Facebook will let you do like one or $2, but sometimes it's finicky and it, it won't let you do that anymore. But I would consider doing something like that and trying to build an email list slowly but surely of people who are already know what Cricket is and are already interested in it. And.
[00:26:11] Azhelle Wade: That is gonna be what you use to build your audience for this Kickstarter. 'cause you, you don't have any audience just yet, right?
[00:26:19] Manish Punwani: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:26:21] Azhelle Wade: I mean, that can help you get the ball rolling. And I'm obviously like not just paid ads, you wanna do paid, but you also wanna do organic posting with the Cricket hashtag and getting people engaged in that way.
[00:26:32] Azhelle Wade: But, and then Google ads, like I do Google ads. I am not an expert at them, but. Then, I mean, I think some, the, the search term cricket I'm sure has, has, people are searching for cricket. I don't know if they're searching cricket board game, but if they are, again, I would send them to a landing page that says we're developing the first ever cricket board game.
[00:26:51] Azhelle Wade: If you wanna get the. Best price that ever will ha will ever have for this. Please enter your email and you'll be notified of our Kickstarter, and then put all those people on a VIP list to get that notification. I also want you, I'm gonna put you in touch with Lisa Ferland. We've talked about her before on this podcast.
[00:27:07] Azhelle Wade: She's a Kickstarter expert and she's worked with a lot of TCAs, so I think, uh, she'd be great. To chat with. Let's talk about your inventory. Like what's your plan for price point and like how much inventory are you planning to buy? Are you gonna wait to see if you fund, what's the plan there?
[00:27:22] Manish Punwani: So yes, initially we'd probably wait to see how that Kickstarter campaign goes and the funds are coming in, but that we'll take an estimate of, you know, whether we'll reach our target or no.
[00:27:33] Manish Punwani: And probably we can probably get the ball rolling with the manufacturers. With that said, we did sampling with a couple of manufacturers, so we still find, kind of finalizing that, who we want to go ahead with. Also, with that said, there's a lot of, uh, fine tuning happening with the design of specialty of the cards and the packaging box, and I know how.
[00:27:52] Manish Punwani: Like we have discussed packaging a lot and we know how important it is. Uh, yeah. And more importantly, like, you know, to, to put that messaging of what the game is about on the packaging is very important. So we see ourselves working through that in the next few months and probably simultaneously have the Kickstarter started.
[00:28:11] Manish Punwani: I like the fact what you mentioned that, you know, we have kind of a. Page, which has people coming onto the landing page and you know, signing up, which then we can intimate about once we start a Kickstarter. So it just makes it easier for us. Yeah,
[00:28:27] Azhelle Wade: and you don't have to start your Kickstarter now that just lets you build a list in time for your Kickstarter.
[00:28:32] Azhelle Wade: If you go after the market that already knows and loves cricket, I would also have a separate landing page that is like. What would we have to come up with a cool name for it, but, but like, be in the insider testing group for our cricket game. Be the first to play and te like, I would maybe make a signup page for those people as well.
[00:28:49] Azhelle Wade: Like something that. Special to them. They get the best price, but they also get to have their voices heard on packaging or colorways or how many cards there are. That is a strategy that Connor, from the Fort, play Fort or something. Um, he did that strategy where he had basically built an incubator of people that were interested in his product and then they were helping him build it and make decisions on it.
[00:29:16] Azhelle Wade: So that would just be wise. 'cause people get connected like once they've like, oh, I actually voted on blue being the box color and that's the box color. Now they're connected. They feel like they've, yeah, they have
[00:29:28] Manish Punwani: a, they, they had some contribution towards the game.
[00:29:30] Azhelle Wade: They did, they made an impact on the product.
[00:29:32] Azhelle Wade: So they're gonna care even more. And be only reason I would recommend this is 'cause you have so much time till the 2028 or the 2027 when you'll probably sell it. And this is a good way to spend that time.
[00:29:42] Manish Punwani: This is absolutely great. In fact, I, I mean, it's somewhere been, I knew that this, this is what we should do, but how to do it is a always a question mark.
[00:29:52] Manish Punwani: Again, you know, ideas are always there. Execution is what it comes down to.
[00:29:55] Azhelle Wade: We'll take this transcript and put it into chatt, like the transcript of this conversation. Yeah. And put into chat bt, and be like, we're launching the 28th. Tell me when I should do all of the things that were mentioned in the transcript.
[00:30:08] Azhelle Wade: Absolutely. Um, price point. So another big thing for Kickstarter is gonna be price point. You'll have to, you need to build that list of people so that you can also survey them on price point. Maybe not necessarily what they would pay for your product, but what they've paid for similar products. Just to understand, do you know how much yours gonna produce?
[00:30:28] Azhelle Wade: 'cause I know you have a lot of components. It's very premium looking, so I'm curious how much it's gonna cost.
[00:30:34] Manish Punwani: Yeah, the biggest one, the biggest expensive, uh, expense is the box, actually, because we try to make, yeah, because we try to make it look like a poker set, like how you would have a poker set. So that's the kind of, yeah, that's the kind of look, because it, it's a box with a fox leather handle, you know?
[00:30:51] Manish Punwani: Uh, so, and, and it's got those, uh, fittings, the gold fittings probably we might lose it because it maybe just doesn't make sense.
[00:31:01] Azhelle Wade: What I was gonna suggest is. Joanna had a lot of stretch goals and a lot of just like different levels you could invest in. So maybe your opening price point level is a simple tuck box or simple like a sleeve box, but then maybe there is another level like collector's edition with your fancy box.
[00:31:19] Azhelle Wade: And because it's just packaging, you wouldn't have to get like 3000 of them. Usually you could get. Fewer. So maybe you can do like a limited run of collector's edition boxes that could bump up your Kickstarter pledges.
[00:31:33] Manish Punwani: So right now, even with the fancy box, which we initially planned, so we are somewhere at 12 to $13 I think.
[00:31:42] Manish Punwani: And, uh, which, which it's a fair price actually, because if, if you sell it, let's say even if you try and sell it at 30 or 35.
[00:31:50] Azhelle Wade: I think minimum 40 'cause of the tariffs.
[00:31:53] Manish Punwani: Yeah. So it's, it's not a bad bargain to be frank, uh, for a kind of a game. It is. And especially then, you know, you get your, uh, like really good premium quality poker chip style coins.
[00:32:06] Manish Punwani: Oh yeah. Quality is great. Yeah. Then obviously the board and then the cutouts, the player cutouts the cards also, they have a premium feel to it. So considering all that, it's definitely, I feel a good price. I, I won't say it's not, uh, like it's, uh, expensive price for the product. Uh, but. Yeah, like it's an investment of like, even if we go with like a very simple and a modest quantity of 500 pieces.
[00:32:33] Manish Punwani: So you're looking at approximately an investment of around, you know, $10,000, which I think is some, it's something can be raised from Kickstarter and I'm sure that the response will be there because of the, the love for the game is that, and as you said, like if we target the right audience who know about the game, uh, then it makes it even more easier.
[00:32:53] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. And that audience can actually help your second wave, which will be your education wave once the Olympics comes around. But yeah, that's great. Love that. I think this is gonna be great. If someone, uh, listening was going through the same problem as you, what would you want to say to them from the experiences that you've had so far?
[00:33:13] Manish Punwani: Just trust the process because every communication with any, uh, vendor or with a coach, uh, like yourself, uh, will always help you, uh, to know what you can do better. Because there are many times where you think that you know, you know best, like where. Like, let's say in today's conversation, for example, I thought the better way would be to try and inform people about the game and then show them okay.
[00:33:39] Manish Punwani: You know? Yeah, there's a board game about it. But I mean, I knew somewhere yes, that that is one part of it, but I was not thinking of it. So I think, uh, the more you talk and the more you speak with people and try and be open to get knowledge and guidance, you will always find the way out.
[00:33:57] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, that's such great advice.
[00:33:59] Azhelle Wade: Like even myself, when I have mentors for my business, I go into meetings and I have to tell myself like Agel. No matter what they say, even if you think you've done it before, just pretend like you haven't and just try to try to see it from their perspective. 'cause it's so easy to think like, no, I know that's not gonna work.
[00:34:16] Azhelle Wade: I've done this before, but we, but there's no point of talking to somebody who's trying to help you or guide you if you won't take any of their suggestions, even if it might be similar to something you've done before, because it's not necessarily the first suggestion, but it's where that conversation leads, right?
[00:34:31] Azhelle Wade: That might give you something new.
[00:34:33] Manish Punwani: And then many times you, you talk, I mean, you know about something and you probably are aware of it, but it probably doesn't strike you at the right time. And then, you know, you need somebody to tell you about it so that you're like, oh yeah, that, that's also there. Oh yeah.
[00:34:46] Azhelle Wade: Right.
[00:34:47] Manish Punwani: And also, uh, one more thing to add to it is a lot of time, and I, and this I'm saying out of personal experience as well. That, you know, we always hesitate to ask questions. You know, feeling that maybe we might sound stupid, even confessing to a fact, oh, you know what, I don't really know this. So, uh, but always ask questions because if you ask questions, you'll get the answers.
[00:35:12] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, that's a really tough one. I try to tell people like, there's no dumb questions, really. Like, ask anything. I, I even have to get over that myself. I think in our group calls, like in the. Regular toy creators Academy calls. Sometimes people will ask questions and I'll be like, I actually don't know. I haven't done that.
[00:35:29] Azhelle Wade: And then it, I used to be afraid to say that, but when I say that someone like you comes in and says, oh, well actually I have done that, and then you can help. Um, somebody with their merchandising questions, which is just so, like your ego can get in the way of all of that. Exactly. And that's great. And, and
[00:35:45] Manish Punwani: even that slight embarrassment, uh, that okay.
[00:35:47] Manish Punwani: You know, and I, that's one very funny story, which I really want to share at this platform. Uh, and that's why it's been stuck in my head that, you know, always ask questions. So as you know, like there are these, uh, like whenever you go and stay at a hotel, you sometimes are offered complimentary breakfast.
[00:36:04] Manish Punwani: Right. Uh, but then the breakfast has a timing like seven 30 to 10 30, something like that. So I remember we had gone, we had gone out of town and we checked into this hotel and we had a breakfast. I was under the impression that the breakfast is still 10 o'clock, right? And, uh, I was late for breakfast and I just took my plate and I started putting whatever I could on my plate.
[00:36:25] Manish Punwani: And that came my relative, my, my, uh, brother-in-law. And he was very relaxed, picking up stuff as he, you know, whatever he wanted, ate, went back, got a second serving, and I just asked him that, you know how you're so chilled? You know, the breakfast counters were shut. So he said, no, they won't shut. I said, it's already, it's almost 10, you know?
[00:36:47] Manish Punwani: And, uh, he like, no breakfast is still 10 30. Yeah. Like, how do you know that? He, like I asked.
[00:36:56] Azhelle Wade: That's so simple.
[00:36:57] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I just felt so stupid. I was like, you know, I probably, people would've looked at me and been like, well, what's wrong with this guy? Why is he like, why is this guy
[00:37:06] Azhelle Wade: hoarding?
[00:37:07] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Why is he dumping everything on his plate?
[00:37:12] Manish Punwani: And all I probably had to do was just ask like, till when is the breakfast open?
[00:37:17] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great, great simple story. Now, I'd love to flip the script. I've been offering my advice. We've been doing a coaching session, but the truth is you've also come a long way. So let's shine a light on what you've already accomplished.
[00:37:30] Azhelle Wade: What's a win that you've had recently? It doesn't have to be cricket or nothing. Anything, any win that made you feel really proud and stop and say, wow, I actually did that.
[00:37:40] Manish Punwani: Um, so I mean, the fact that, uh, so I have done a few businesses in the past. Uh, some of them have failed, some of them have done decently.
[00:37:49] Manish Punwani: Okay.
[00:37:53] Manish Punwani: But what, what I really liked is that the maturity in which I have been able to approach. My, this particular product that's cricket or nothing is a wow feeling for me because I remember there was a time where the old me would be so erratic and so, you know, uh, abrupt in taking decisions and feeling like, oh no, this is the right way forward.
[00:38:17] Manish Punwani: Uh, but from that till now where I'm more sensible in moving forward with things and taking the right decision, as I said, like asking questions, understanding the best way forward. So that is like the wow factor for me, which yeah, I would like to say. Yeah.
[00:38:33] Azhelle Wade: What's something that you've done in Toy Creators Academy that you never thought you were gonna do?
[00:38:37] Azhelle Wade: Before joining.
[00:38:38] Manish Punwani: Think about making an email list.
[00:38:43] Manish Punwani: Never thought I would. Oh, you definitely,
[00:38:45] Azhelle Wade: you definitely have to do that. Yeah. kit.com. It's a free for the first thousand users. Yeah, I think we've talked about that before. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. We had like a class, we had like a whole like social media
[00:38:55] Manish Punwani: Yeah.
[00:38:55] Azhelle Wade: Prep challenge thing that we did with the accelerator.
[00:38:59] Manish Punwani: But, but I realize the importance of it and it's,
[00:39:02] Azhelle Wade: and I would say text is more important, is not more important, but equally as important now, because so many people are getting inundated with emails. Sometimes I send a text to just say, I just sent you an email. Like, just, can you go read it? Yeah. You know?
[00:39:15] Azhelle Wade: And have you had any aha moments that change how you think about your product?
[00:39:20] Manish Punwani: Oh yeah. So one of the fellow TCAs, uh, Andrew, I think, yeah, who's been a part of the community, uh, he pointed out one very important thing to me was in terms of repeatability of playing, right? That's very important for any game to sell.
[00:39:36] Manish Punwani: Any parent or anybody who's buying a product will try. Assess that, how often are they gonna play this? So that is one thing which kind of made me think more hard on Shelly the Shark, which was the first product which we. Which we worked on. And coincidentally, fortunately, I was also kind of working with Amit, my co-founder on Cricket or Nothing, which started off as a passion project to be frank.
[00:40:03] Manish Punwani: Something that we just thought, you know, we are just chilling and we are like, let's try and do something around cricket, maybe a board game. So in fact, uh, we, we initially started with, okay, how about we make merch, like, you know, we make t-shirts, we make some kind of a paddles, which has like really cool cricket.
[00:40:19] Manish Punwani: And all of that. So we started with that, and then we came to the board game and then we stuck onto that because we actually felt. That excitement, you know, when we played it and then we realized that yes, if you feel the thrill, and as, as human beings, we enjoy thrill. That's why we like suspense PUIs, you know, we like thrills.
[00:40:40] Manish Punwani: Yeah. So if you, if you, if you, if you get the thrill while playing, while playing the game, you are gonna come back again for it. Hmm. Yeah.
[00:40:48] Azhelle Wade: To get that dopamine hit that rush of endorphins. Yeah.
[00:40:51] Manish Punwani: Yeah.
[00:40:51] Azhelle Wade: Um, my next question was actually how has being in the TCA community helped shape your idea? But what you said is perfect.
[00:40:57] Azhelle Wade: Uh, Andrew told you to think about replayability and that's really wise. Then you said something that, uh, struck me so much you. Cricket or nothing actually started as a passion project, and that is such a great argument for your first product was very much you trying to answer a, a need that you just saw in your family, but it wasn't a passion of yours and the quality of cricket or nothing versus your first product.
[00:41:24] Azhelle Wade: As far as like how the gameplay is thought through the graphic design, I mean the quality, it looks like you are passionate about it, like it looks like. Somebody really wanted to make cricket game. Yeah. Um, and that's such a great argument for if you're passionate about something like maybe me and salsa dancing and bachata dancing.
[00:41:45] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. It could be a toy or a game. Like don't say it can't, like figure out a way to make it because your passion is gonna come through and make it work.
[00:41:52] Manish Punwani: Absolutely.
[00:41:53] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, that's great. Okay, let's do more of a product spotlight. Okay. I wanna end with a product spotlight. So who is your game for? What makes your game so special?
[00:42:02] Azhelle Wade: Give us that again.
[00:42:03] Manish Punwani: Yes. So we actually have this game targeted for ages, uh, uh, 12 plus and 14 plus because we feel that's when, you know, you have that, uh, maturity to play the game. Because again, you know, there's a bit of strategy part of it as well, which comes into play. We talked about like the whole battleship thing.
[00:42:21] Manish Punwani: You know, like how as a, uh, yeah. Uh, this is where it gets interesting. In Battleship, you park your ships and, and then you wait for something to hit you there, and then you realize that what's the trajectory with, with cricket or nothing, you have an option of changing the field. Right.
[00:42:40] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:42:41] Manish Punwani: But not all the
[00:42:42] Azhelle Wade: time.
[00:42:42] Manish Punwani: Not all the time. Not all the time. Because if, if you do it all the time, then you are basically, yeah, like, you know, you are, uh, you have the person's number and you know, the other one's like, just kind of like, okay, losing their advocates and they're losing interest, so. You have the option of changing the field, but you do it the time that you do it is very important.
[00:43:03] Manish Punwani: So this is where it makes it so special that it is not just a game, like you know, you throw the dice or you pick your card and as per what the combination of the card is, you win or you lose. It kind of starts with that. But where it gets really interesting is that when you actually assess on what.
[00:43:21] Manish Punwani: Cards the other person has played and then evaluate that, okay, this person has lost three of his aggressive cards. Now it's kind of my time to kind of trap him, and this is, that's when I exercise my field change to change the players on different paths, allowing me to then, you know, sort of get a advantage on that.
[00:43:42] Manish Punwani: And then sort of even the following. Uh, cards that I play would result in the same trajectory. So again, you evolve as you play more. You start off with maybe okay, just picking up the card and you know, oh, you like the name of this particular style of, uh, batting shot. So you throw the, you throw that card and, uh, you move with it.
[00:44:03] Manish Punwani: But then you, once you start realizing that you can actually. Create a strategy around this. That is where it becomes very interesting.
[00:44:11] Azhelle Wade: As you're talking, I'm flashing back to my recent podcast with Elizabeth Hargrave, who created Wingspan, and she talks about like the way she talks about her game is how you're talking about your game.
[00:44:21] Azhelle Wade: If there's so much passion behind birdwatching for her and then for you with cricket, and what she talks about is what you've executed so beautifully. She talks about. How can I bring the experience of this activity to this board game? So it really, there are elements where it feels like you're actually playing, even though you're not.
[00:44:38] Azhelle Wade: Like, how can you feel the tension? How can you feel the strategy, how can you feel the excitement and everything you're describing? Um, is doing that and that, I mean, the field change and the wickets and the like, if you don't know cricket, just do a quick Google. Ask Chacha bt to explain to you like you're five.
[00:44:52] Azhelle Wade: And, um, but then you'll hear the, the terms that we're using. You'll understand like, oh wow, this game will make me feel like I'm playing a game of cricket. That's great.
[00:45:03] Manish Punwani: Exactly. Like imagine, let, let me give a baseball example, right? Uh, let's say you're down to the last, uh, the nine, I think there are nine innings in baseball.
[00:45:11] Manish Punwani: Yeah. Nine innings, right? Yeah. So let's say you're down to the last ninth inning. Okay. You have the bases covered. Uh, you need like four runs to win. You are on your last strike, right, and you managed to hit it out of the park and then you end up winning the game. The combination. So we have a total of a hundred combinations, uh, with the cards which are executed on the, on the game board.
[00:45:34] Manish Punwani: So within these combinations, the way they are set up and the rules of the game more or less leads you towards that last ball finish. Where till the last two world, you don't know what's happening,
[00:45:48] Azhelle Wade: you know? Mm.
[00:45:49] Manish Punwani: Interesting. And as human beings, you know, we like all these, uh, the, we like shows like Mole and traitors.
[00:45:57] Manish Punwani: Why? Because there's a lot of suspend strategy, or, you know, so, uh, so that's what, that's what we try to bring with this game and try to bring that suspense and, uh, chaos and thrill and, and more importantly, that keeps you hooked. You know, like, okay, till the last. Two, three balls. You don't know what's gonna happen.
[00:46:16] Azhelle Wade: I feel like in your description you called it a strategy game. I think moving forward you should say suspense and strategy game. I know that's not typically how board games, strategy games are defined, but there is something very special about when you say that there's suspense in it. It makes me more intrigued to wanna know more, like how could a cricket game be suspenseful?
[00:46:37] Azhelle Wade: And then, and I, so I feel like that word is important, especially being that it's modeled after a game that maybe not everybody knows.
[00:46:43] Manish Punwani: That's interesting. So actually Amit, Amit came up with that. Amit mentioned that. What, uh, that we should try and, um, uh, do the messaging of suspense in the game.
[00:46:53] Azhelle Wade: Oh, really?
[00:46:53] Azhelle Wade: Oh, that's funny. Okay.
[00:46:55] Manish Punwani: Yeah. I, I rejected it. I said, no,
[00:46:59] Azhelle Wade: you have been outvoted.
[00:47:03] Azhelle Wade: That's so funny. Yeah, there is. Because like, you know, like you said, people, we like thrillers. So if your game can be the thriller for somebody, perhaps that's. That's good. Yeah. 'cause then there could be a whole, do you like the feeling of, I don't know. I don't know the difference. I, I can't say this for cricket, but like, do you like the feeling of the bottom of the ninth bases loaded and blah blah, like, you know, for baseball, then you'll love this game.
[00:47:27] Azhelle Wade: You know, that could be a fun meme or video. Okay. The, the last couple questions I wanna ask, and I'm changing up this question to pressure you. Where can people go to sign up for your email list to be among the first to know about your Kickstarter campaign?
[00:47:42] Manish Punwani: Uh, well as of now, you can easily log onto to ww Cricket or nothing.com.
[00:47:48] Manish Punwani: Uh, you will find a very nice video on how to play the game. You will find the components which come with the game, and uh, you have a nice little tab where you can pre-order it. There's no pricing as yet because again, that's not been established yet. But we will reach out to you once you have signed, signed up and shown your interest in the game.
[00:48:09] Manish Punwani: Uh, so we would reach out to you and then. Uh, update you accordingly, whether be it for the Kickstarter or perfect anything
[00:48:16] Azhelle Wade: by the time this episode airs, which might be next week. So get to work. I want you to make a popup that when people come to this page, before they even click on anything, it says like, join the cricket, BIP, be the first, or get the best price that this game will ever be.
[00:48:30] Azhelle Wade: Enter your email and phone number here. I would love a popup because if, if somebody comes to your site and they don't go scroll all the way down, or they don't watch the video, or they get stuck on the video and don't do anything else, you want a popup that's gonna capture them no matter what. And then last question for this part, and then we'll have one more last question.
[00:48:47] Azhelle Wade: If someone out there is sitting on an idea like you were, um, what would you say to them about joining Toy Creators Academy?
[00:48:53] Manish Punwani: I would say do it right away. Don't think much, just join. Don't
[00:48:58] Azhelle Wade: think too much.
[00:48:58] Manish Punwani: Don't think too much. Just go for it. Uh, I mean, um, again, coming back to what we started our conversation with, when, when you and I first connected, I told you about my experience that I, I'm well versed on how to go about with the sourcing and manufacturing.
[00:49:14] Manish Punwani: And as I said, I had my own, uh, good, uh, network of manufacturers established. Uh, uh, because of the years of experience that I have. But where you lack is, uh, you know, the, the help needed for designing the importance of packaging, the importance of building that email list. Like, to be frank, you can't know it all.
[00:49:36] Manish Punwani: It's always better when you know, when you have an idea. When you think strongly about that idea, it's always better to hold hands with an expert like yourself. To move forward and get somewhere with it, you know, you will get that direction with it. Uh, and um, and yeah, that would be my message is don't think much and just join right away.
[00:50:00] Azhelle Wade: Thank you. And my favorite question to ask, what toy or game blew your mind as a kid?
[00:50:05] Manish Punwani: Ah, so many. Okay. Again, battleship was one.
[00:50:09] Azhelle Wade: Really? Oh, that's great. I love putting Battleship.
[00:50:13] Manish Punwani: Yeah, I loved, I loved Battleship. Um, and, um, UNO, uh, I love Uno as I, I still love Uno. We all play Uno. In fact, UNO is being a, is going to be coming in Vegas as well, I think.
[00:50:25] Manish Punwani: I think that's a good news. Yeah. Yeah. I just
[00:50:26] Azhelle Wade: saw that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:50:28] Manish Punwani: Yeah. So, so we still play Uno and, um. Um, so there was this one particular game, uh, I don't know if you know of this, uh, called operation where you had, you know, you had that, uh, that Yeah, of course. Yeah, course that was one of my favorite
[00:50:45] Azhelle Wade: games.
[00:50:46] Azhelle Wade: Yeah, yeah.
[00:50:46] Manish Punwani: Yeah. So I love that. I used to always keep playing that I kept losing those parts as well. In fact, I remember that I had bought three operations because I lost. The funny because I love it so much. Yeah. It's a shame I couldn't become a surgeon.
[00:51:08] Azhelle Wade: That's so funny. Oh my gosh. This was so great. Manishh. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I, I gotta thank you for showing up today for sharing so much, sharing the challenges, sharing the successes of cricket or nothing, and working with us in the accelerator and in regular TCA. So in this episode, we talked about your biggest current roadblock, like where to go next, how to raise funds if you're gonna, and going from inventor to entrepreneur after pitching it.
[00:51:31] Azhelle Wade: And also celebrated how far you've come now partnering with someone to create a product that you're very passionate about. If you felt connected to Me's story today, if his question sounded like your questions or his challenges reminded you of where you are stuck, it might also be your time to start your journey inside of Toy Creators Academy too.
[00:51:48] Azhelle Wade: So you can reach out to me at info@thetoycoach.com, or you can run on over to toy creators academy.com/enroll. We are closing enrollment soon because come the end of this year to the new year, we're gonna reopen enrollment and we're gonna do a live cohort again. So if you want to DIY it until that live cohort starts, you have to join soon by August, um, if not, it will be closed.
[00:52:13] Azhelle Wade: To join to a Creators Academy, head over to toy creators academy.com. If you love this podcast and you haven't already left a review, what are you waiting for? Your reviews keep me and amazing guests like man niche coming back week after week to share their insights. And every time a new review comes in, I get notified on my phone.
[00:52:30] Azhelle Wade: I text it to my mom, my sister, my husband, and I say, look at how cool I am. So please, wherever you're listening, leave us a rating and review. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. We both have. Appreciate you. We know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of other podcasts out there, but you know, we're the best.
[00:52:47] Azhelle Wade: So it means the world to me that you tuned into this one. Until next week, I'll see you later toy people.
[00:52:54] 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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