#300: What I’ve Learned, What’s Changing, and What Comes Next

Written By Azhelle Wade

After 299 weeks of toy talk, our 300th episode marks the closing of one chapter and opening another. This little podcast that started as “let’s see what happens” has turned into a full-on resource library for toy inventors, toy entrepreneurs, and creative creatives like you who just can’t shake that pull toward the toy industry.

In this episode, I'm sharing the biggest lessons from 5+ years of episodes: why most toy ideas don’t fail because they’re “bad,” how confidence actually follows clarity, and why community and the right mentors matter more than “perfect” artwork or prototypes.

This year I was on national TV with Jimmy Fallon, landed some truly incredible clients, and became a mom for the first time. So with all those big life shifts, it was time to take a reflective look at this podcast as well.

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  • Azhelle Wade: [00:00:00] This is a bookend. It's the closing of a chapter.

    So first I wanna talk about why this podcast existed in the first place.

    When I first started making it in the toy industry, I didn't sit down and say, I'm gonna make a podcast with 300 episodes. I started this podcast because I started noticing a pattern in the toy industry. 

    You are listening to Making It In The Toy Industry, episode number 300. 

    Welcome to Making It in The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you. And now your wade.

    Hey there, toy people, Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of Making It In The Toy Industry brought to you by the toy coach.com. I wanna take a moment to let this land, this is episode 300. I don't think I've ever really taken a pause at a milestone like this before.

    We've done special edition [00:01:00] episodes to celebrate our 100 and 200, but we didn't really take a reflective moment. 300 episodes means 300 weeks of conversations about toys, creativity, manufacturing, pitching, retail, self-doubt, creative ideas, half baked ideas, major wins for toy creators, academy alumni, and students wins for myself, the toy coach, my clients.

    Ah, and everything in between. This podcast has grown with my life through all of my career shifts from being a toy designer at a toy company, creating products that were sold at stores like Walmart and Target, BJ's, and so many more to launching this podcast to creating Toy Creators Academy, the program that helps so many other people launch their brands to working with hundreds of creators, moving states, traveling to toy fairs across the globe, buying my first home [00:02:00] and last year getting on national TV with Jimmy Fallon and becoming a parent.

    So this episode right now is hitting a little different for me. This is not a how to, it's not an interview, and it's not a recap of one specific topic. This is a bookend. It's the closing of a chapter.

    So first I wanna talk about why this podcast existed in the first place.

    When I first started making it in the toy industry, I didn't sit down and say, I'm gonna make a podcast with 300 episodes. I started this podcast because I kept meeting people, parents, teachers, designers, engineers, creatives from all walks of life, people with really great ideas that just had no clue how to make it in the toy industry.

    They didn't know how the toy industry worked. Some of them would spend their life savings developing a product idea, but not in a way that was sellable [00:03:00] to a retailer or licensable to a toy company. And it frustrated me to no end, that I didn't have the time to help these people because I was so busy working for a company, creating hundreds of products year after year on my own.

    And when I left my corporate career and I started taking consultation calls as the toy coach. I saw more than ever how people with great ideas would talk themselves out of even trying to launch those ideas.

    They'd say things like, I'm not good enough. I'm not connected enough. I didn't go to toy school, so I can't do this. I don't know the right people. Somebody probably already thought of this. And those hesitations and questions just fueled me, to not only encourage them but also to find ways to bend the rules in the toy industry to change how things are done so that we can make it more accessible to new creators who are coming in with great ideas.

    The biggest [00:04:00] barrier wasn't usually someone's creative talent to execute their own idea. It was them having the knowledge of what they should and shouldn't be doing when developing an idea.

    It was them having the access to the right people that could buy that idea or help them grow that idea and the confidence that this is something worthwhile. Yes, you need to make it, and it was just not knowing how the system actually works.

    This podcast and the Toy Coach have always existed for one core reason. To help people push through self-doubt, having a lack of connections and overwhelming gatekeeping in this industry, and to show that building a play filled life and a toy career is not reserved for a small inner circle of the same, same type people.

    It is possible for you to develop your own product and launch your own toy [00:05:00] business. It is possible for you to work your way up from having no clue about toys to being a senior designer or a VP of marketing in the toy industry, this is a path that real people who listen to this podcast have taken, and this podcast has helped many people get there.

    So this podcast has been around now since 2020. That is five years of movement and change starting our sixth year today. Over the years, I have had the privilege of watching so many creators move forward with their ideas.

    Definitely not always fast. I recommend go slow and definitely not always perfectly, but moving forward, which is the most important thing. In the past year, in my work alone, I've seen toy creators Academy students pitching their products. For the first time I've had students hearing, yes for the first time.

    After pitching so long, I've seen [00:06:00] students get their first nos, or not yet, but not quit. I've seen creators turn ideas into prototypes that I have in my office right now, I've seen creators license ideas instead of manufacturing it on their own. I've had creators decide for the first time, okay, I'm gonna take this seriously, and now I know what it means to make it work.

    When I think about these stories, I'm thinking about my students Courtney Smithy, who launched Play Core this year, and how in our first phone call when she explained her toy idea to me, I knew immediately like, this is something I've never seen.

    It's something the industry needs, and you are going to change the way that people look at toys. You can only imagine how thrilled I was when Courtney went from being a perspective student to a toy creator Academy student, and then to a client who I have a serious vested interest [00:07:00] in seeing her brand grow.

    I can't wait to see what we do with her brand in 2026. I also think of. I also think of Joanna Paul toy Creators Academy alumni who licensed her product, Moodle Bears, but also went through one of the most trying years of her life personally, and is still just a bright light in our toy creators community.

    I also think about students like Durrat who came to me with one SKU one general concept. And when I challenged her to expand it and to think bigger and to think how she could grow her line from that one skew, but maintain a consistent brand identity, she met that challenge with excitement.

    Durrat and I worked together in TCA accelerator and she worked with one of my affiliate partners to develop her packaging line. So I was able to review her packaging [00:08:00] concepts with her, help her give feedback to the creative team she was working with, and just guided her on what the product development process should look like when you are working with a partner that knows what they're doing.

    And I can't help but think about my incredible clients, Cathy and Chad Croft, who came to me years ago and said, Azhelle, we work in the sports field industry and we help people maintain turf fields, and we think that. There should be a toy for people in our industry. Is that a crazy idea? I think back to that first conversation when I told Cathy, listen, if you have the audience for it, it's not a crazy idea.

    And we sat on that first call and did rough math of, okay, how many people are in your list, in your email list? How many people are your previous customers? If you could sell this percentage of your first run of units to those people. [00:09:00] How would that make you feel? We ran through those numbers and we talked about the ultimately the reason she wanted to create this product and she decided to go forward with it.

    Today, the mini groundskeeper collectible place set is sitting in her warehouse and over the holiday season, I was getting notifications multiple times a day from her Shopify store of a new order. Coming in, having Cathy as one of my TCA Accelerator clients has been just the delight of my past year and be being able to work so closely on this play set, doing the packaging design, managing the product development, working through the factory sourcing process and finding the second factory when we had to switch over dealing with tariffs. It has been a wild and exciting ride. And as I look forward into 2026 this year ahead, I'm just so proud and excited [00:10:00] that we have new, amazing clients with new products that I can't talk about yet. Some clients whose brands we will grow like Flex Lings. And I am just thrilled to have the opportunity that this is my job. Not only do I get to still work on toy products, I get to support the mission and vision of just inspire toy creators.

    Okay. What I want you to hear listener for is this. Most of these wins that I'm describing didn't come from someone just suddenly knowing how to illustrate their toy idea, or suddenly knowing how to make a 3D model and use a 3D printer to create it. They came from people who got the confidence they needed to move forward with an idea.

    By doing the proper research, by talking to an industry professional, it came from those people give, getting the clarity on what their next steps should be, and then the [00:11:00] contacts so that they know who they need to work with on those next steps. It's not always gonna be the same person. If you go to somebody and they say they will develop your whole product for you and you don't need another contact.

    It's not, that's not the best scenario. You want to be in contact with the people doing your product design, your manufacturing, your packaging. You want to directly talk to the people in all of those stages of the process. Is it more work? Yes. Will it result in a better product for you and a better use of your funds that you're investing into your brand?

    Oh, yes. And those creators, also were able to achieve all of this because they got support. Support from myself, but also community support. Most of those creators I talked about knew each other. They met each other through working with me, either in Toy Creators Academy or as a one-on-one client or a little bit of both, and they supported each other.

    If one of them lost a factory contact and another one had one to offer [00:12:00] up, they would share that information. So having a community, building a community and getting that's. Port is just as important as hiring the right help or the right coach to work with you on your idea.

    After 300 episodes and working with creators at every stage, interviewing everyone from startup companies to industry dynamos, there are a few things that I see are true.

    So first, most two ideas don't fail because they're bad. They stall because people don't invest in marketing. After the product development comes the most important thing and that's. Selling. You actually can and should start prepping to sell before you even develop your product.

    That's where social media marketing comes in. That's where Kickstarters come in. So most toy ideas actually don't fail because they're bad, but it's because they have no audience to sell to. Second thing I've learned. Confidence almost always [00:13:00] follows clarity, not the other way around.

    So if you're waiting for yourself to feel so confident that this idea is the idea, and that's when you are going to dive in and you're gonna work with that coach, you're gonna join Toy Creators Academy? No, it's the other way around. You actually wanna search for the clarity as to what you should be doing next to get the confidence that you are looking for.

    You will feel confident in your idea the more you work on it. When I notice someone is hung up on an idea for an extended amount of time, even when they've made prototypes, even when they've already done consumer research.

    I actually have them jump far ahead in the process and I have them do an initial quote with a factory. Why is that? When you go to a factory with your bill of materials and you get that first initial quote, you get back the number that defines the trajectory of your toy [00:14:00] business, your FOB pricing. Having that number gives most creators a new level of confidence because it gives you something that you can imagine. It's something tangible you can hold onto and you can say, okay, I know this is gonna cost me $5 to make, and I know that that means I need to sell it to consumers for $20.

    So let me now imagine that consumer who is buying this at $20. Having that number and being able to create that vision gives so many stuck creators the confidence they need to move forward. If you are stalling after having made significant process, it's likely because you are lacking that confidence and there are different ways to get you clarity.

    One of the ways to get you clarity is to be able to get clear pricing on your product.

    If you haven't started on your idea yet, we are gonna go all the way to step one and do market research and validation. Hearing other [00:15:00] people tell you, yes, that product is exactly what I'm looking for, or, oh my gosh, this. Game prototype is so much fun to play that will give you the confidence to move forward.

    Moving on. Third, having the right people around you, even just one or two of these people can change everything. So most people get started with their toy or game idea, and they look at the list of things they need to do and achieve and they think, oh my gosh, how am I gonna find the right packaging person?

    How am I gonna find the right factory? How am I gonna find the right sales rep? It's too much. Instead of thinking about. All of the different contacts you need focus on getting one or two of the right people around you.

    One person being that mentor, that industry professional, who's gonna guide you as you develop your product or your brand or your product line, and the second person being a fellow toy creator, someone who's at the same stage of you [00:16:00] in business and has the same goals as you. You need somebody who's as motivated and as excited as you to move forward.

    Fourth thing I've learned. The toy industry feels majorly intimidating from the outside, but it's not that serious. When I break things down.

    For people coming into this industry, at first, they are overwhelmed. There's so much to learn. There's so many people, there's so many trade shows. But once you understand how it all works and why it works. The mystery is gonna fade, and that is when you are going to be able to take control, get yourself some momentum, and start selling your products or your ideas.

    That has always been the goal of this podcast, to just replace the mystery of the toy industry with empowered understanding so you can take control of your toy journey. Okay. I alluded to a change on this podcast, so. I'm gonna lay out why that's happening and then what it [00:17:00] is. Alright, so the mission of the podcast is not changing.

    I wanna be upfront and clear about that. Moving forward, instead of releasing episodes every single week, this podcast will be released in limited seasons. And I wanna tell you why.

    Thankfully, through the years the toy coach has grown, my life has grown and flourished as well, and gotten a little bit more busy from TV shows to parenthood to new clients. My calendar is quite booked. When I took a look at all of the commitments we had through the year, I took a look at this podcast.

    This is an incredible free library of resources for anyone in the industry, and the 300 episodes that are here remain an incredible useful tool for anyone getting started in toys.

    However moving forward, I need to get some of my time back to dedicate [00:18:00] to my Toy Creators Academy students alumni, and to my one-on-one TCA accelerator clients and my celebrity clients.

    I need more time to do that, so we're taking that time from the podcast. But you know, I'm still a perfectionist, so I didn't wanna just remove episodes from the podcast without a goal. So here's what we're gonna be doing moving forward.

    We are going to be releasing 10 episode seasons. Every season will have a theme or focus that the episodes will center around. We will have a mix of guest interviews, solo educational episodes, stories of emerging toy creators and stories from store owners to hear what is working and what is selling.

    What this is gonna allow us to do is focus on themes that matter right now to be more intentional about the conversations we're having week after week, and for you to get a sense of completion at [00:19:00] the end of every season.

    I know I feel overwhelmed when I miss my favorite show, and then I have to catch up so I can only imagine how much catching up you might have to do with a 300 episode podcast.

    Well, not anymore. We are going to move forward starting season six in February.

    We are gonna move forward to start season six on February 4th, and we will be introducing the theme of the entire season on that episode, and then starting our initial descent into that theme.

    When this podcast first started, it was the pandemic. We all had a ton more time on our hands to do things like, listen to a 30, 40 minute podcast. We simply don't have that kind of time anymore. So you deserve depth, value, and focus with the episodes we release here, not just weekly noise.

    Because we will have these limited episodes. We will be able to invest a bit more in these episodes. So we [00:20:00] will be releasing video versions whenever possible to our YouTube channel as well.

    So that's what we're gonna focus on doing.

    Okay, so what to do moving forward? Well, if you're brand new here and our season hasn't kicked off yet and you're like, Agel, I still need that toy. Industry 1 0 1 that I came here for. Don't worry. We've got a curated playlist of episodes that are the best place to start depending on where you're at.

    So you can find that playlist at thetoycoach.com/starter.

    And I hope that I will see you back here February 4th for our first limited episode series, season six episode one.

    This podcast will continue to be a place for people who want to make it in the toy industry for people who are already making it in the toy industry. Curious creators who are serious about learning, want to expand their minds, are willing to think differently about how we make toys in the [00:21:00] industry

    And wanna create product that has a positive impact on society, from kid adults to kiddos.

    Now, if you love this podcast, whether you've listened to all 300 episodes or you've listened to one and this podcast has helped you believe that your idea matters, that you have creative value, that the toy industry just isn't as closed off as it once seemed. Then thank you. I've done my job. And in that case, please leave us a rating and review.

    Tell me how excited you are for season six, how curious you are as to what's gonna come next.

    As we close out episode 300 of the Making It and the Toy Industry Podcast, I wanna give a nod to our 2021 TAGIE Game Changer of the Year Award. An award that told me at the time what we were doing with this podcast seriously mattered.

    We were changing the way that people could access information in the toy industry, break into the toy industry, [00:22:00] promote themselves in the toy industry, and I am so proud to have done that week after week for 300 episodes.

    I hope you'll continue listening with our new format and that you'll also follow along on our YouTube channel, where you'll find toy reviews and educational videos as well.

    As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I know there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly means the world to me that you keep tuning into this one. Until next time, I'll see you later.

    Toy people.

    Thanks for listening to Making It in The Toy Industry Podcast with Wade. Head over to the to coach com for more information, tips, and advice. 

  • 🎓 Unlock dozens of trusted factory contacts, develop your idea, and grow your toy company contact list TODAY by joining Toy Creators Academy®, learn more here.

Azhelle Wade
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