#183: How To Pitch A Show Idea To Hasbro in 2023 with Brandon Braswell

9 to 5 Warriors, and it's a nineties-inspired toy line that aims to recapture the magic of the Saturday morning cartoon era. The founder o 9 to 5 Warriors, Brandon Braswell, is sharing his experience pitching a show idea and toy line at the TCA Virtual Pitch Event, we'll discuss what he's done with the brand so far, he'll share his pitch video, and share tips for making your best IP pitch yet. Have you ever dreamed of seeing your show idea turned into a hit animated series or action figure line by the iconic toy company, Hasbro? Well, that’s a dream you share with the guest of today’s podcast episode, Brandon Braswell! Lucky for you, Brandon sat down with The Toy Coach to share his experience of building his toy brand and TV show, and ultimately pitching it to Hasbro at the TCA Virtual Pitch Event. 

Follow along Brandon's toy journey, including his early ideas, the mistakes he made along the way, and why he wishes he’d found Toy Creators Academy sooner! During this episode, The Toy Coach asks Brandon questions that YOU want to hear the answers to, including how he found funding to develop his first production run, how his show pitch was received, and how he built his following online. But that’s not all! You’ll also get to hear the exact tv show pitch that Brandon presented to Hasbro, featuring his brand 9 To 5 Warriors. If you’re a visual person, head over to youtube.com/thetoycoach to watch the entire pitch.

Don’t forget to SUPPORT 9 To 5 Warriors! >> Learn more about 9 To 5 Warriors by visiting www.9to5warriors.com and pre-ordering the action figures at Big Bad Toy Store. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Making it in the Toy Industry,
episode number 183.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to Making it in the Toy Industry a podcast
for inventors and entrepreneurslike you.
And now your host, a shell wait.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach
podcast Making it in the ToyIndustry.
I am thrilled to do thisepisode with my guest, brandon
Braswell, who's also a TCAalumni.
But Brandon went above andbeyond and really did more than
just develop a product.
He created an entire TV showand he did a really incredible
pitch that he pitched at the ToyCreators Academy virtual pitch

(00:37):
event.
And because so many TCAers andso many people that listen to my
podcast are asking about IPpitches and it is not my
specialty I thought let's bringBrandon on to share his
incredible pitch that really hadeverybody you know excited
about his line.
So, brandon, welcome to theshow.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
First and foremost, Hello, hello and thank you for
having me.
I love it.
I'm excited to be part of thismovement that you've created.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh, thanks, I appreciate that.
So first question I've got toask is what is the name of your
brand?
Tell us a little bit about it.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Sure, the.
So my brand is called nine offive warriors and it's a
nineties inspired toy line thataims to recapture the magic of
the Saturday morning cartoon era.
At least, that's what I put outthere into the world, and like
what that means to me.
The magic of the Saturdaymorning cartoon era is creating
toys that re, spark imaginationand make you want to build with

(01:32):
your hands or like, just getfully immersed and create your
own adventures.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
What was your favorite Saturday morning
cartoon?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I have so many, but Ninja Turtles in general was
like the biggest franchise forme.
Like I just know it took overeverything, like all my birthday
parties.
All sleep, oh Ninja.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Turtles in general.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
You said Ninja Turtles in general, yeah, yeah,
like I grew up with the classicslike term I mean transformers,
ei, joe.
Those are, of course, memorable, but I would say, like, ninja
Turtles have the biggest impacton my, my childhood.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, I remember I had a Ninja at a Raphael, I
think came to my birthday partyonce when I was a kid, but my
Saturday morning cartoon wasactually recess.
I probably was a little bit oldfor them back then, but I
remember I was obsessed withrecess.
Like every Saturday morning itwas like, oh yeah, recess is on.
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
That was a great show too, man, I think we're at.
We were spoiled.
Our generation and that's whatI'll get into like my pitch
circles around that era and whatI was saying is just like story
rich content, fun character.
Honestly, how many amazing toylines that are still today being
released and still today makingan impact in like the new

(02:50):
generation and mostly our peopleare age or now accounting for
like one out of every four toys.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Right, so true, okay, what is the essence?
This goes into the next area.
What is the essence and missionbehind nine to five warriors?

Speaker 3 (03:06):
So, like I mentioned that whole recapturing the
Saturday morning cartoon era,like, to me creativity is
everything Like re-sparkingimagination in the toys and that
was deeply rooted when I sat inthat thought like okay, why do
I want to create a toy?
Why do those toys you know frommy estuary years still resonate
with me today?
What is it about that?
I boiled it down to story andto me story was everything.

(03:29):
It's what creates, you know thedifference between a toy is and
a toys.
That made us and I wanted tostart there with when I created
a toy because I had, as I showedto you before joining the toy,
joining the TCA, I had no ideahow to make a toy, but I quickly
Google what I could do.
Yeah, it looked incredible,overwhelming and complicated.

(03:51):
So I started with what I knewand that's story storytelling.
So my essence is really like,yeah, just re-sparking
imagination, getting peopleexcited about it, and that
starts, started with me, thestory.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
And what inspired you with this idea?
What was that first thing thatmade you think, oh, you know, it
would be really cool.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Making a toy.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Really.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yeah, no, no, I was finishing your sentence.
But, I was in LA there was thisdiner and it was a cool little
setup that you wait for yourfood and there's a toy store
next door and at the time I waslike in my twenties I hadn't
never collected toys, wasn'tinto into toys.
At that point, like I had mytoys as a kid and I'm a grown up

(04:36):
, I didn't think twice about it.
But walking into that store avintage toy shop I was like
smacked with nostalgia and likewaves of memories came to me and
I was just like hit with somuch joy and like rush of
memories that I totally forgotand I was like what is that?
Like that sensation and, as Ialluded to, like, my background

(04:57):
is storytelling.
I'm a video and professionallymy job is to invoke some sort of
emotion through video and I wasgetting that emotion evoked by
a physical product and I neverhad that before.
So that to me was just like howdo I recreate that?
How do I capture that magicthat I just experienced?
And I wanted to create a toyfrom that exact moment.

(05:17):
I was just like I want to dothat for someone else, I want to
do that for the generationgrowing up.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
So like that's awesome, it's so funny because
you were inspired to create thistoy and then you look into the
toy industry and you're likethat's too complicated what I'm
going to do is something morecomplicated and build an entire
IP and world.
So if you're listening to thisepisode and you're actually
watching it, live with us onYouTube hello, I saw you there,
carla, and I saw somebody elsewith the name starts with an M.

(05:44):
She's new to our community.
If you have questions as we gothrough the pitch that we're
going to play soon, please throwthem into the chat.
I can see what you guys arecommenting and I will ask
Brandon your question slide.
So the next step after you, youhad this idea and you thought,
okay, I'm going to make the toy.
And then that's too complicated, I'm going to make the IP.

(06:06):
And then eventually you foundme and you joined TCA and you
came to the TCA virtual pitchevent.
Now this pitch video I hope thisis the right video because of
what I'm going to describe rightnow.
But this okay, this pitch videois actually the result of you
having just being on vacationand you were like I'm going to
be on vacation and I can't.
I'm afraid the wifi won't bestrong enough for me to pitch

(06:29):
and show my idea.
So you cut together footage youalready had of your brand and
created like a prerecorded pitch, and when I saw it.
I was like, oh my gosh, this isbetter than if you just pitched
it live and you even got thatfeedback from people at Hasbro
like, oh wow, this is the who'sthe best pitch I've ever seen,

(06:50):
right.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, yeah, I, you know, since I have the, the
superpowers of video editing, Idid want to even it out, like I
actually did do the one take andrecorded it, because I
rehearsed my pitch over and overand over and my fear was
exactly like I would run out ofwifi and I couldn't trim.
You know like it was slow.
So I did everything in one take, as if I was pitching and

(07:14):
showing the zoom, as I hadplanned, or my presentation, as
I had planned, and when I justput it together like yeah, I
mean at the end of the day, Ithink it captured my hopefully
my passion and the idea at theend of the day and it did
resonate with them, I believe.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, I hear something rustling in the
background.
Be careful of your mic and hearsomething going over it.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah, but okay, I want to play the video before
I do, because I want to talkabout what happened after you
pitched this video.
What were you thinking beforethe pitch event?
Like, were you excited to be apart of it?
What was going through yourmind?

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, honestly, this was my first opportunity to
pitch it professionally and youknow, with everything you know,
because at that point I alreadyhad all 10 prototypes, I created
the commercials which you'llsee.
I created, you know, theanimation which was which I'll
get into to like.
So you kind of alluded to likehow did I jump into it and I

(08:09):
took the longer route.
Well, unfortunately, like TCAwasn't around back then.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
This is like 10 years ago.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, I did whatever I could and navigated, you know,
oh, shiny light here.
Maybe I should do that, maybe Ishould do this, like I was very
oh.
I was Go ahead.
I was just excited to put ittogether and show it.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Okay, awesome, let's try to play this.
Let's hope the audio works.
If not, I might have to take myheadphones off.
So, introducing the nine tofive warriors.
Now, if you're just joining us,I just want to say what we're
about to look at.
Brandon Braswell had inventedthis toy show and toy line
called nine to five warriors,and this was his pitch deck that
he used at the TCA virtualpitch event when he was pitching

(08:51):
to Hasbro.
So let's hit, play so we canlearn from Brandon.
Is it going to?

Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's loading, hey.
Thank you so much for theopportunity.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Could you hear that?
Yeah, oh, you can.
Oh, you could hear it.
Oh, perfect, okay, startingagain.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Hey, thank you so much for the opportunity to
pitch.
First and foremost, I'm excitedto share this passion project
with you.
My name is Brandon Braswell andI'm the creator of nine to five
warriors.
Nine to five warriors is anineties inspired toy line that
aims to recapture the magic ofthe Saturday morning cartoon era
.
To me as a kid, there's nothingbetter than diving into a bowl
of cereal and watching myfavorite cartoons.
To see what the characters gotthemselves into or how they

(09:34):
eventually saved the day was agreat experience.
But to me, the real magichappened when the shows ended
and I took the adventuresoff-screen and into my own hands
with the toys.
To me, story is everything.
It's what brings the charactersto life, it's what sparks
imagination.
It's what creates theunbreakable bond that last
generations.
To me, is what sets thedifference between a toy and the
toys that made us so.
When I went out to create myown toy, I started there.

(09:56):
This is how nine to fivewarrior story begins.

(10:45):
So meet Alan McMillan.
He's your typical Toys R Us kidthat never quite did grow up.
He's stuck in the uncreativeoffice in a cubicle working that
nine to five grind.
You might know the feeling, butyou know it's based in the 90s,
so there is no Instagram tokeep him distracted.
In the interim, he actuallyspends most of his time creating
his own action figures made outof office supplies and leftover

(11:05):
food.
He wages his imaginary battlebetween the water cooler
commandos and the break roombandits.
It was all fun and games untilone freak accident involving his
Japanese energy jink, jensei,sparked him all to life.
Now Alan is calling the middleof a real world battle for total
office domination.
It'd be a miracle if he getsany work done, basically.
So now that you know a littlebit about the backstory, I'd

(11:27):
love to introduce you to thetoys.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
Finally, a reason to go back to the office,
introducing nine to fivewarriors, an exciting new toy
line created for the Toys R Uskid that never grew up, offering
10 unique characters that areperfect for your cubicle or home
office.
The nine to five warriors areavailable through Big Bad Toy
Store.
In the battle, alongside majoreraser and the water cooler
commandos as they keep the peaceor wreak havoc with Colonel

(11:52):
Custard and the break roombandits, choose your side as
these two forces clash overtotal office domination.
Warning do not leave unattended.
Each figure sold separately.
When you punch out, they comepunching in.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
These are the good guys, the water cooler commandos
, led by the fearless majoreraser here in the water cooler
commandos know that theirexistence was a mistake and that
they're there to maintainoffice peace and keep their
existence a secret.
They know that if the worldever knew of them or the power
of Jensei ever got into wronghands, humanity could crumble.
So he and the ragtag group ofoffice supplies maintain the

(12:31):
office peace and keep theirexistence a secret.
It'd be an easy day's work ifit wasn't for the evil
mastermind, colonel Custard.
He and the break room banditsscour the office, searching for
Jensei and creating new minionsalong the way.
They're hell bent on totaloffice domination and seeking
revenge against the wastefulhumans that once tossed them
away.
So, going back to the 90snostalgia all 10 of these

(12:53):
characters are sculpted by ScottHensley, the man behind 90% of
the toys I grew up with.
He hand sculpted them andbrought that unique, special
feel that is not only new buthas that familiar feel to them,
which was important to me to gointo the target demographic,
that nostalgia chasingmillennial that now counts for
one out of every four toys beingsold a $9 billion marketplace.

(13:13):
So this was all donestrategically to combat the
difficulties of launching a newbrand.
I grounded it in familiarsetting and filled it with
nostalgia that they're searchingfor.
This project started 10 yearsago where I focused on story,
with comic books and tradingcards and a bunch of other fun
products.
This is all self finance and Icurrently have the initial 10
prototypes and I'm working withBig Bad Toy Store to take

(13:36):
pre-orders.
I believe this is just thestart of what's possible with
this concept from the comics tovideo games, to TV series and
movies.
I'm now at a critical pointwhere I can continue down the
path.
As an indie toy maker or withthe help of a partner like
Hasbro, I can ensure that Nineof Five Warriors is a catalyst
to the next generation ofSaturday morning cartoon
cartoons for the kids growing uptoday, and I'd love the

(13:58):
opportunity now to answer anyquestions you might have or
discuss further.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Thank you, I mean I mean so great I'm sure I'm about
to minimize this and come up toso many questions for people
that are watching live, but so,yeah, I have so many.
Okay, so, Yasmin's here, I'vegot someone by the trivia game,

(14:23):
Carla Maro.
So, guys, if you have questions, please ask them.
Brandon's here to answer them.
But okay, amazing pitch it was.
So it was interactive.
You called out the company.
I mean I always teach you guyslike put the company name, like
in the presentation, but likeyou were like I did one better
and I'm just going to call outtheir name.
What was the feedback?
As soon as you have that, youfinished that part of the pitch.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
So what was great too , like I said, this is like the
first time presenting it period,like professionally, like that,
and everything all at onceRight.
What was great is, like theirreaction to things that I hope
that they would catch up on.
You know, they mentioned thingsthat are not in the
presentation, like oh, thisreminds me of that specific toy,
like Ninja Turtles, this isHasbro and it's.
I thought that was really cool.

(15:05):
He's like I get this sensationof that, this, this and that,
and he also said like I couldsee the Potential of the story
going this way and that way.
You know, like all I wanted todo is kind of provide like Kind
of guide rails of like this iswhere I'm headed, or at least
the potential, what it could be,but For me it was.
I don't want to overload youwith everything, but yeah.

(15:28):
The possibilities could beendless and I like the feedback
that, like I saw a light in hiseye, that like saw that, oh,
this could be that, this couldbe this, you know I that was my,
my, my, feedback.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
I did see that.
I hope so.
We do have a question coming in, guys, keep them coming in.
The first question I want toprompt you with, though, is
you've been developing this overten years, right?

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, but with that caveat of like stopping and
going.
Yeah, basically like it.
I think, as you can see, I'mlike I have a lot an
overachiever like to say that,yeah, perfection to my own
demise, because are you a Virgo?
No no.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Wow, you know the detail so okay.
When did you start doing thetoy part of it?
Because the next question thatwe have from Paulette I'm gonna
bring that up on the screen ishow did he get the prototype
made with, considering the costsinvolved?
So, yeah, let's talk about likewhen and how you got that
developed.
When did you start the toy part?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Sure, so the toy part started in 2020.
Like most of us, you know,we're kind of abruptly stopped
because of the pandemic and Iwas in travel business and
obviously travel died and I waslike Let me utilize this
opportunity.
That's been like scratching atthe back of my head.
Like I said, I started this 10years ago and at this point.
It's been years since I pickedit up again and I'd always keep

(16:52):
thinking like I should start itagain, I should do something, I
should.
Let me look at the prices again.
Maybe they're not expensive.
Wrong, it was actually moreexpensive, but I was like, let's
try it.
Like whatever, let me at leastdo one.
So I chose.
I discovered Skinsley, who Italked about in a pitch, and
he's the sculptor behind NinjaTurtles.

(17:12):
He did like all the bad guyshe's did you know Star Trek Exo
squad, like practically streetsharks, like so many toys that I
literally grew up with.
And and when I discovered I'mlike he's perfect, like it's
already nostalgia, it's already90s based.
I wanted it to be hand sculptedand To quickly also answer.

(17:33):
I did attempt in the past and Imade a lot of expensive
mistakes Hiring the wrongfreelancers, going a different
route, not receiving my productafter paying for it, like
there's a lot of trial andtribulations that like you do,
which like wait, say that lastpart again.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You broke up after trials and tribulations.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Oh that you.
You clearly state this in theDCA like the do nots, the top
ten do nots.
I was basically like check didit?
Because obviously you getexcited, you want to create
something and again withoutguidelines.
You know how you just you justfollow the wrong pieces.

(18:12):
So sorry I'm long-winded, butno.
I find Scott and we settle on aprize.
It was expensive and I decidedto do one figure.
That process takes a couple ofweeks, months Maybe, and I
received that figure like Igotta do another one that was an
amazing.
To have it in your hands, tohave it come to life, you know

(18:33):
yeah so yeah, dancers, like,what made me decide is, since I
already had the animations, Ialready did the wax facts, I
already did the comic book, Idid all these things besides
actually attempt to make thetoys.
It was to me just Let me try togo fully out and actually make
a toy and follow the procedures.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
So I I wouldn't be around.
I want to talk a little bitabout the cost of those
prototypes, though, becausePeople listening might be like
oh, but seriously, like, how didyou fund it?
And I want to do this from theperspective of someone who also
started their own business this,the toy coach, but also, prior
to this, costumize me.
And when I started myproduct-based business, which
was costumize me, I workedfull-time and I very

(19:16):
intentionally set aside a budgetof money every month so that I
could invest that into mybusiness.
And then, when I did the toycoach, it was a budget of money
that I set aside and once I hada certain amount, I was like
okay, I can do this.
Is that how you manage to Toafford your prototypes?
Or did you do grants?
Did you do any Kickstarter's oranything like that?

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Since I went.
I have multiple answers to that, of course, because the first
one was strictly like it was2020.
I don't know if you rememberaround that time, like
cryptocurrency and all thisother crap is happening, yeah,
and I took it in crypto and itgave me a little bit of extra
money, so that was like a luckystrike.
I wanted to, but Everythingelse I funded previously to that

(20:03):
with the wax paper products, westill cost a lot of money to do
.
That was all you know, puttingaway money and just like, okay,
if I'm gonna make the initialstep, let me just try.
Okay, it's $800 here, okay,$1200 there.
Like it adds up very quicklyand it was very overwhelming.
And again, without theguidelines, I kind of kept on
spending money and wasting money.

(20:24):
But truthfully, even when Imade all, 10 eventually I got
smarter, I got better, I foundbetter prices, I understood more
ways to save money in the longrun, but ultimately, I did spend
a very pretty penny on creatingall these prototypes.
It's kind of no way of all, butI did 10, not one Give us some
tips around that.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
What if you can remember three tips of how you
learn to save money?
Yeah, prototype one, aprototype 10.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, I want to preface to that.
We live right now in a day andage or like anything is possible
and there's so many cool toolsthat you can do, whether it's
building your own website orcoding or like anything like
that Like you could take thepower in your own hands as well
as find cheap, affordablefreelancers Outside of the
United States.
So one of the first things Iuse was, like freelancercom.
This was before Fiverr.

(21:12):
Fiverrcom is as well, you know.
Like yeah, but this is a caveatto like, as you warned in your
your courses like sometimes youfind the wrong freelancer and it
kind of Waste more money.
You have to do your duediligence and like look at prior
examples, make sure thatthey're really and actually know
what they're doing, see if theydeliver.
They're over promising and youknow the virtue is always like

(21:34):
if it's too good to be true,it's usually because it's not
gonna happen.
That's not true.
I had a team that you knowpromised me to make all 10 for
$800.
What, which is insane, likelet's just be realistic and they
handed 10 products at the end,like 10 miles, they're not 30
printable, they were not toys,they were not nothing, but that

(21:55):
was like a way to make dollars.
Of course, I was just anxiousto make.
But, um, so To save money, Imean, honestly, try to scrap
together.
Like what are you naturallygood at?
Like for me, video comes intomy wheelhouse of power.
Like I know video and I know Ican create something.
I can create something thatconveys.

(22:16):
Maybe I can use it to barter.
You know people need video.
Maybe, like I, honestly, I'm ahustler so I try to work my way
around every situation To avoidspending so much money.
So I offered barter situationsat time.
I offered, you know, or justsaving or doing extra freelance
work on the side so I could payfor it.
Like yeah, there's, like notlying, like there's so many

(22:38):
different opportunities.
So even if you see one path andit's very expensive, like just
keep searching, keep Utilizefiber, utilize freelancers,
utilize different communitynetworks there's always someone
willing to do it for cheap orfree.
Or like there's partnershipsyou can come up with.
Like that's what I honestly cansay just try everything as soon

(22:59):
as Brandon gets his.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
It is inventory.
We've been talking about apartnership swap on our end to
like We've been talking, so youknow there is always an
opportunity.
I Really thank you so much forsharing that and and the the
other tip that I know I'vementioned in TCA is well, one in
TCA I do have a the kind of abreakdown of what these things

(23:25):
normally cost so you can compareand then, but then I also
always say, like get Threeprices, like get prices from
three people so you can kind ofgauge, like, alright, if this
person's done this before andthis person's done this before
and they're charging this much,maybe this person charging eight
hundred dollars for ten figuresis out of their mind, you know
there are just a yes, to get thequick money you know, and.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
I want to touch on that again too, because I'll be
ugly.
You know, transparent.
One of my prototypes cost fivethousand dollars alone for one
car, then another car model you.
I won't even go into this.
Yeah, because some are handsculpted and some are 3D modeled
.
There's a mixture in prices andthe time frames and the

(24:12):
technology allows, but once$5,000 alone, the other one
could be.
One is like I think I onlyspend around $800.
And the quality of the thingthat was digital but there's
like so many things, but alsobecause of the pandemic, $5,000
is the initial, let's say.
People, also freelancers, theirartists themselves.

(24:34):
They're willing to negotiate,especially if you're trying to
do more than one, and also forwork too, as I was, I did get
three prices.
I always try to just find thebest solution, but again, if
it's too good to be true, justavoid that one.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
That point about freelancers offering a deal when
you do multiple is a greatpoint.
Even me as my own serviceprovider.
When you have to choose betweenwhen it's one client giving you
multiple projects, you're morelikely to say yeah, I'll give
you a break, because if I don't,I have to learn and onboard a
whole new client.
So it's like sometimes it'slike it's actually easier if we

(25:13):
develop another thing together,because I understand you and I
know what you're looking for.
I know the vibe of thecharacter, whereas if I get a
new client, it's kind ofstarting over and sometimes
don't you think in the toyindustry it's also.
If they really just want towork on your project, they're
like, all right, I'll give you abreak.
I'll give you a break becauseit's really cool.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
That energy of wanting to work on a project
from a buyer's perspective.
Let's say I have three quotes.
If I have really expensive, onethat's just kind of cheap, and
then one in the middle that'skind of higher but still
relatively affordable.
If the one in the middle isexcited about it, I'm going to
pay that extra dollar.
Or even if this is the higher,I'm going to pay that extra
dollar because they aregenuinely taking the excitement.

(25:54):
Oh, I could do this.
I could see the firing off, andto me that's a guarantee to be a
better output, Like versustaking someone like.
Yeah, this is my charge, here'sthis, here's my invoice.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
You can see it sometimes in the work.
If it says something ashands-on as a hand sculpt, you
can sometimes kind of see it,the passion behind it.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Absolutely, and that was cool, is that?
That's exactly what did happen.
I chose two different sculptors, kind of going at
simultaneously With Scott.
I saw his excitement.
He's been doing this for years,you know, and I saw in the
background.
he was bringing those out indifferent chips and he would
create weapons out of the paperclips and other things.

(26:38):
And I saw his brain going offwith the imagination just
working on how could this be acool thing?
And the same way in the digital.
And I saw him light up withcertain characters and it was
like that's the energy you kindof want to stay in when you're
creating something fun.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh my gosh, I just realized that that's the top of
a coffee cup.
I'm not so brilliant, so funny.
Okay, let me go quickly into afew other things.
I have so many things.
I don't know if we can talkabout this.
Where can you buy this linenine to five warriors right now?
Is it currently available forretail sale anywhere?

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yeah.
So I initially launched apresale for all 10 at one, and
it's the kind of thing you don'twant to do.
You want to start with one andkind of opened up.
But I was ambitious and I waslike not many people have video,
Maybe they can?

Speaker 1 (27:29):
You hadn't taken TCA yet.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
So we know the story, but so only four are going to
move through production, right?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
now Only say that again you broke up.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Only four will be moving through to a production.
So those four we orderedthrough Big Bad Toy Store and
that was another gamble I tookwas like you can go the
Kickstarter route and againbeing kind of doing this for a
little bit, like I know thebenefits of going the
Kickstarter route is like hey,you get the majority of the

(28:01):
money, but the caveat is you'regoing to get a shipment from
China eventually, a really largeshipment from China, a palette
You're going to need to put thatpalette somewhere or, sorry,
that's warehouse space You'regoing to break.
You're going to have to havepackaging.
You're going to have to breakthose down.
That's, that's man hours andstuff that, like I just knew I
didn't want to take away from a,my, my main job or things.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
I just didn't want to do Like I'm not going to sit
there.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
I'll probably make a mistake.
I'm dyslexic.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
I'll send it to the wrong place.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
I partner with a retail like Big Bad Toy Store, I
figured I can leverage theiremail campaign and their
audience reach.
They're well known within thetoy industry.
They obviously have a factory.
They have I mean warehouse.
They obviously know how tohandle packages, they know how
to like ship it out and they canhandle everything.

(28:49):
What that meant is a smalleramount of money actually goes
towards me, like they're buyingit at a wholesale price.
Yeah, that was, I don't want tosay another mistake, but I
probably will go the Kickstarterout for the remaining six,
because I still want to make theremaining six.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
And like the consensus, like everyone keeps
DMing me hey, when's, when arethey going to be available?
When's the Kickstarter, when'sthis like?
So I know that the demand isthere, but I want to still just
get these four out to show thatI can actually deliver on my
word, you know.
And plus, I want to make thedamn toys already.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
These are the four right here.
These four are these ones.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
So two good guys and two bad guys, the leaders of
each and you know, like thesidekicks.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Awesome Love it Okay.
So when do you have a plan foryour Kickstarter?
When's it going out?

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Right now my focus is just getting to production.
So I just got the paint mastersenough.
I'm going to send those off toChina then start tooling.
Tooling's probably going totake, you know, 45 days X amount
of time.
Then it starts the productionprocess.
So I'm praying, you know,before just November or even
October, like, and I canactually have these done, but

(30:05):
we'll see Everything's reliablein China.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I do want to hail you for the focus, because I mean
obviously even myself and I'vedefinitely seen some TCAers want
to do everything at once, likewant to have a book and want to
develop a show and pitch it, andwant to have the product and
and sell it in retail and tosell to consumers and want to do
all the things at one time.
But I really admire the factthat you're able to focus and

(30:30):
say, okay, I have these retailsales, I'm going to focus on
getting that done and then we'llmake a plan for Kickstarter and
not overdo over stretchingyourself to make sure you can
deliver high quality.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, and it's always kind of been like that.
Yes, I jumped around, but timeand like it's just.
That's my personality too.
But even when I first started Ifocused just on the animation,
Like I wanted some how they weremade.
You know, I created a 60 secondanime show that doesn't exist

(31:00):
yet.
The show open, basically socatchy theme song, show, how
they were made, some actionshots, and I focused on that.
I said let me get that throughthe line because to me that's
important when I'm going toactually go to producing it,
which was the next thing was toproduce the wax packs to trading
cards, Another element toexpand upon the story.
I want to then the comic bookto expand upon the story yet

(31:24):
again.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
And adding to Paulette's question which I
pulled up here, asking are yougoing to manufacture or are you
going to license?
Clearly you're manufacturingthe toys, but would you like to
license the show?
I'm guessing?

Speaker 3 (31:37):
I'm very open to everything.
I kind of see it's one of thosethings that like the bright
opportunity that will presentitself.
Thanks to your course, Iactually learned a lot more.
Like I knew I was asking forthings in the universe, like I
want to be able to do this, andyou start seeing like oh, that's
actually a very smallpercentage.
Like you people don't reallyrealize.
Like okay, you're selling to, asyou put it, like here's your

(32:01):
four to 5% of a sale towholesale Back to this amount of
50% and the retailer is makingthis percent Like it's kind of
you're like trickling down, butit's never been about money,
it's like just getting the ideaout Because, like, my mission is
out there, like the story isout there, hopefully it's

(32:23):
invoking and hopefully it is thecatalyst to the next generation
of Saturday morning cartoons.
As I started this saying, it'slike our generation had that
luxury of so many differentshows and I truly believe that
the toy industry is in the statethat it currently is because no
one's taking the risk andinvestment and creating new IPs.
Like we keep doubling.

(32:45):
Because, again, when you reallythink about like in my pitch I
say one out of four, everyadults are contributing to the
sales of toys 9 billion dollars,yeah, when you're asking why?
like, that's because themarketing and stories and
everything was established over20 years ago.

(33:06):
And good, it's story mattersbecause the show and it was not
Netflix back then, so it didn'tjust suck you in and series
after series after series, youhad time to Maybe and play with
your toy.
From that point on, you tookwhat you saw on TV Characters
and storylines but you createdyour whole new ones and that's

(33:27):
what resonated and that's whatkeeps them buying it today.
That's what kept me.
That's what created that sparkwhen I picked up the toy in the
toy shop.
So if toy companies really payattention to that and stop
trying to go on like a fad orsomething, like a widget, some
sort of magical thing or an apppairing device and things that

(33:47):
you know are just Passive, likefocus on story, because
everything's about Itself was awhole.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Now I've got a hole.
I'm pulling down Ken's photoquestion because now what you're
asking leads it into Yasmeen'squestion.
She wants to ask how did it gowith Hasbro?

Speaker 3 (34:04):
so I Got a follow-up and they said it.
Since his department was, Ibelieve it was like what toys
and he wanted to pass me on Amen.
Yeah, I got the email to bepassed to entertainment and then
it like fills away and Then Igot an email from the
entertainment department sayingthat someone's been changing
head, head positions.
You know Clearly a change ininfrastructure or whatnot.

(34:27):
Like the guy that I pitched to,yes, did ask entertainment.
But yeah, mark.
Yeah but unfortunately then thatperson got changed out and I
Should maybe follow up like yeah, I was literally about you?

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Oh no, absolutely not watch.
Watch.
Somebody from Hasbro watchesthis video and they're like, wow
, he just, he, just he justdropped us, he didn't even.
I would recommend following upwith Mark and saying hey, I know
there were a few changes inentertainment.
I still really believe in thisline.
I know you were really excitedabout it.

(35:02):
Is there someone new you couldput me in touch with so that I
can pitch this to them?

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Correct, he's a chat GPT.
I know I mean you guys gel GPTdid I just told you what to say
okay, this goes back to the, thecaveat of this entrepreneur
mindset, as you said like yeahkind of.
And then you have this, youknow, imposter syndrome.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
So that's why you say you don't have to tell me.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
So that's something I definitely like.
The biggest trouble is that,like cast aside any
Manufacturing issues or teamissues, freelancing money
wasting, like the biggest thingis imposter syndrome and that is
Everyday like oh, it isactually really good watching
everybody.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, watching the bitch like this should be on TV
right now.
Everybody in the comments islike what?
All right, we have a few morequestions.
I'm gonna put one up from Ken.
Ken wants to know do you have afollowing for your toys or for
your brain?

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Sorry, I Slowly build it on Instagram as Ellen.
I was just talking aboutInstagram.
I have a catch-22 with socialmedia like and coming from them
Really quickly, like if you'reinvesting so much into social
media, like there's somethingthat you just don't own you
don't own it.
Algorithm very quickly and thenyour content dries up.
What I found is that as soon asI started investing you know

(36:18):
$500, you suppose of course itengages and I got massive
amounts of followers.
I got great comments.
As soon as I stopped paying,the engagement fell through.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Like, just found a, like I'm not gonna keep spending
money which is very expensive.
I spent like $2,000 inmarketing alone, which then I'm
like that's not that muchcompared or how much a company,
but I'm like that's $2,000 Icould put towards a product or
put towards another Prototype ora comic or something on an
artist, something else.
So the following is there.
It's scattered, you know, ticktock, facebook groups, all that

(36:51):
stuff.
Thankfully, I Did my duediligence of launching a while
ago and embedding myself in thetoy community, which at the time
was a lot of art toys anddefinitely toys that were just
literally created by artists.
They didn't, they were thevinyl community, etc.
So my following is within thereand I do well anytime I do post

(37:13):
on Reddit, let's say like I seethe post and engagement and
keeps me going.
But yeah, I don't know what asignificant amount of following
is.
I remember you even you mighthave said that in the TCA or
something and the past yeah.
People with hundreds ofthousands of followers still not
, Don't know, it's still notenough for an IP.

(37:34):
You know like oh yeah, yeah, Idid have.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I've shopped IPs for licensing that had like hundreds
of thousands of followers, andstill they're like nah, it's
timing also, though, because ifit's like too old, if it's not
really trending right now,licensing is so trend driven
like.
So yeah, and I would say, ifyou're not gathering emails from
those Con, those, thosefollowers of yours, you should I

(38:00):
would invest money inretargeting ads that lead them
to a landing page to sign up forthe Next drop of characters
that are gonna be available to,say, for sale, so that you can
own those contacts, get email,get phone number so you can text
and email.
I would definitely use themoney to Collect what you

(38:20):
already should own, and you'retotally right like it's not.
It's not safe to build abusiness on Instagram.
The past couple months I reallydidn't use Instagram as much
and I'm I'm really trying tomove away from like relying on
that platform for visibility andinstead like Building the email
list, building the podcast, butlike you got to take people,
yeah, away from the platformsyou don't own.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Essentially, 100% and I that is something that like I
Do, and I just need to focusharder on doing so yeah.
Easy and it's it's time.
It's not only time consuming,it just cost money, as you're
saying.
No, it's like Right now I'mstill trying to pay for the
production, like yeah, I raiseda good amount, but I still have

(39:06):
to pay out of pocket.
And, yeah, the beautiful thingis is that, like right now, like
again with the focus, I want tofocus on getting them through
the finish line, because I thinkonce they're in people's hands,
then I get you know the Naturalmarketing being done.
You know like people are gonnado unboxings or reviews, or just
like you know yeah, hopefully.
I Like die-hard that I get DMslike hey, what's going on, like

(39:31):
this is a new character.
Those people hopefully will bemy champions and champion the
brand.
I'm just trying to get to thatpoint.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
You've got well.
You've got a lot of fans here.
This is what people are sayingabout your video awesome, you
know we're seeing that was fivestar.
But we do have another question.
And wow, you put a lot of workinto your brand, you know people
are loving the video.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
And if you guys are watching live and you have more
questions, I think we have alittle bit more time, so toss
them in now.
The last big question I havehere is from Scott.
Yes, was that.
Were there any significantdesign changes or alterations as
you went from preliminarydesign to sculpt to prototype,
and were you open to thingschanging?

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, every, every single time, I work with a new
artist and a different medium.
So, meeting like 2d toanimation, from 3d image to 3d,
my like, every single time,shifting from artists or medium,
it's always a design iteration,like there's always something
that comes up like, for instance, major Like arm wasn't long

(40:37):
enough to bypass his thighbecause the bow like it's little
things like that.
Or even just, oh, scotchiesbeard was just a little too long
so to interrupt it with thetape thing.
Or this is a differentexpression that we could try,
because it actually conveys, youknow, the Like how do you make
a toy out of a can?
And His facial expression is hiswhole thing and the, the nuts

(41:02):
inside are you know the wowfactor, I guess.
And it was one of thosecharacters that was the biggest
challenge of making how do youmake a toy out of a can.
But that Because we did thework and the do you listen the
thinking behind it expression,he became a popular character
when I I personally was likehe's the last character I'm
Gonna do, like I, I was a like II don't say interested in

(41:25):
making it, so I just didn't knowhow to make a toy, so that that
was a really cool experience tosee, you know, artist
interpretations, me learning andthen my Interpretations.
Once I had a physical thing andme being the creator like okay,
I think this expression canwork because this leads to his
personality, etc.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
And who did like these?
Like you have a wholecommercial, do you have episodes
done?

Speaker 3 (41:47):
No, not ever says those are.
Commercial, like I have a Bible, just in case people ask for a
pitch.
There's things I have, you knowlike comics like.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah are these full?

Speaker 3 (42:00):
how many comic stories you have done I have one
that's published and a couplethat are written, but I Want to
get the first one out and seehow that does before you better
follow up with has.
I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Hey, mark, I mean yeah, I mean yeah, okay.
Well, I mean I'm some sorry.
I'm speechless at how I I meanI knew it.
I mean I've seen it before,obviously, but seeing it again
is just this big refreshreminder, that of how incredible
you are and how much you'vedone with this brand.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Okay, In hindsight, what I want to add is, like now
learning from that and againgoing through the course and and
listen to different podcast is,at the end of the day, it's
like a toy company is going tobe Worry about one thing how to
move that product off a shelfand I really want to drill that

(42:56):
down in the pitch.
Like in hindsight now looking,I kind of want to drill that in
more and focus on About likestory, like people need to take,
invest the chance in creatingstory right now, because that's
what's gonna like build thatconnection and that pushes out
those Toys today still to thoseadults that are Brainwashed from
night of 20 years ago you know,as I talked about how licensing

(43:20):
is such a time-based thing,since you pitched, more and more
toy companies have leaned intowanting to be entertainment
companies.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Now they have an outright set it.
It's kind of an analysis thateveryone in the industry is
making, based on the cut, thePositions that seem to be
getting laid off, and then thepositions that seem to be
getting added to most toycompanies.
As well as things like theBarbie movie, I think there's a
Rubik's Cube movie coming out, Iknow Hasbro has a movie I can't
remember they, but the the HotWheels TV show.

(43:48):
More and more toy companies arelooking at a way to turn their
brands Into IPs, so I think thatis a great opportunity for
someone who has Developed a fullbrand with a solid story that
makes sense and is interestingand design the toys with it.
I mean it, you know, for acompany looking for something
new, this seems like ano-brainer.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Which is it's funny, like, like I said, my business
has been in video for years andthis is part.
I've been saying this for yearsEvery company moving forward is
gonna turn into a media company.
Yeah, you look at red bull, likered bull was kind of a pioneer
of this.
Like they sell I mean energydrinks, but at the end of the
day they have like a red bullchannel.

(44:32):
Dirt bikes skydiving, all thesethings are jumping off Plains
and like there's so much contentbehind that because it's fuels,
the brand, is more commercials,basically its real estate, like
its content, that's just beinggenerated.
Then people are taggingthemselves in red bull.
It becomes a movement.
So to go back, like Hasbro Idid listen to podcast as well as
Mattel they were bothTransitioning into moving their

(44:55):
company into more of a contentdriven.
They want it.
Specifically, they said, like Iwant to do what Disney plus or
Disney's done with the Star Warsfranchise or Disney's done with
the Marvel franchise.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Where did you hear that what?

Speaker 3 (45:07):
show.
It was a podcast with Hasbroabout most One of those like
entrepreneur podcast about like,but he specifically said he's
gonna move towards content andthat's why Transformers came out
and that's what.
Like it's been out, but likethey're tying in G, g, I, joe
and all these like.
That's the reason to do becauseyou can make billions on toys,

(45:31):
but you can also make billionsjust on IP, making the movies,
the TV shows, like in a perfectworld.
I need to do a medium article.
Remind me to mm-hmm.
The streaming and the toyscompanies need to come together
like.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
Yes, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Love to pitch is that like.
Listen, guys, you have thisfreakin amazing Service called
Netflix that pushes out content,everything they push out.
That's supposedly number one Onthe week instantly, yeah,
clearly gonna get high, highthat with the toy and you got a
million Billion-dollar success,you know how do you afford to
make all these videos thoughLike that, like the like where?

(46:12):
That's me, that's just me doingit.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Oh wait, did you record, you film all these?
Yeah.
Yeah, and the lighting thelight so good.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Thankfully my buddy does the lighting so.
Thankfully it's again this Ithink you have a podcast,
literally, or a module to likestep into your own power, like,
what can you do?
Yeah, mm-hmm.
Double it in toy.
So this is what this is what Ican honestly do and, obviously,

(46:43):
toys need content.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
That's what I was leading to yeah, and I think I
also have a podcast episodesomewhere about it too like the
puzzle of you find what you'regreat at, combine the things you
love with that to build whatcompany or brand you should
create.
Oh Wow, I mean Congratulations.
I mean I know you haven'tachieved what you want to
achieve yet, but to everybody.
I feel like you can't okay like, like I am pretty good yeah

(47:12):
you're doing it really.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
You forget cuz you're like waiting for them.
Myleson of it for me, have thatvision of someone like a little
kid picking it up in the toyaisle.
You know like until I'm thereit's not done, but I'm like no,
it's actually making amazingprogress.
Yeah, the journey.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Honestly, I think that I'm I don't.
I can't see the future, but Ido believe if you had this
product ready to be at aspecialty show there, a lot of
people would be drawn to it andyou might get a few orders,
which I feel then you'll be onthe shelf and you'll have that
feeling like, oh my gosh, I didit, you know it's done and I,
just as we close, aaron had onecomment for you.
I want you to see it.

(47:49):
She said she feels you assomeone trying to promote their
own IP without paying Facebookfor ads.
It's rough out here.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
No one sees my stuff, it's true, I see, community,
community, community, like seeagain when I was talking about
bartering.
It's just networking is.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Everyone like a we should have like a barter
Wednesday on, like every monthor something, in the group where
we all post what we're good atand what we need help with.
We could just bar.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
There's so many things like that that happened
like locally, that like a littlepop-up set, you could see that
become successful.
It's no matter what you're like.
Like, I'm telling you, theclients and I work with these
are billion dollar I meanmillion dollar companies and
stuff like that.
They're always struggling withthe same thing on Instagram
everyone's playing on it Likethere's not a isn't?
There's no need for everyone tobe on the same space.

(48:36):
So you have to kind of createyour own space and that looks
smaller, that looks more likeGorilla warfare, that's getting
clever with it, that's like, forinstance, like you just did the
Um trade show at Astra and youhad like really great takeaways.
That is the style I would do itto create little take away city
bags.
Like for me, hold on you're.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
you just got really far away and really quiet Can
you come closer.
Hello, come louder and closer.
Perfect, can you hear me?
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (49:06):
All right, perfect.
So basically, createExperiences, create things that
are takeaways, create thingsthat will help, hopefully that
someone gets it.
They want to take a photo of it, that they want to share it on
their social media.
Take, do whatever it meanspossible.
Just really think outside thebox, because if you only are
thinking about social media inthe next post Like that's where

(49:27):
I was and the lack of feedbackWhether it's a like or a share,
like that gets to you, you thinkit's not good enough.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
You think it's you.
Yeah, like.
That's gonna share what you'retalking about my showcase as an
example and ignore my messydesktop.
But yeah, you know, this is agood point and thank you for
saying that, because part of meI think we were talking
beforehand and I was like Idon't know, like is is an event
like this Valuable?

(49:53):
Like is this something I shouldbe spending my time and money
on?
Because it's not like, it's nota profit driver.
But if we looked at Instagramand Facebook like that, we would
never we never look atInstagram.
We will spend all day on it andwe'll be like it's fine.
It's fine it's getting likes,but you're right, something like
this that brings peopletogether in a small, intimate
way but also creates Like aphoto booth opportunity or an

(50:18):
Instagram, honestly opportunity,yeah, photos and feel fun and
cool in that is how you createthat sense of community and that
interest in your brand.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Yeah, and one of the things, too, is like what's cool
is like.
My mission, like I said, is tocreate that in the Imagination.
Let people spark.
It's already happening to.
I get DMs of people creatingtheir own characters.
There's really.
And, like this, dude theirsketches and they're like it's
just, I'm like, yes, I'm doingit like something's working
whatever I'm doing, and it'smaking sure that I appreciate

(50:50):
those moments.
I'm saying this out loud so Ican yeah, appreciate those
moments.
It's actually happening.
It's not like I have to waitfor the toy to be out there
already.
It's not out there no one'stouched it but there it's
already, invoking that energythat I put out there.
I can't wait for the TV show.
This looks like something Iwould have watched with my dad.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
This feels like.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Christmas comments are like just like that, oh my
God.
And like yes.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
You're doing great, You're really doing great.
As soon as your toys are out,actually as soon as you have
that production approved, maybewe should get you out of press
release, Go back to module sevenand get that press release out.
I'm sure the toy book would beall over the floor about it.
My last question for you iswhat toy or game blew your mind

(51:36):
as a kid?

Speaker 3 (51:38):
Out of all the questions, this was like the
hardest one for me Because Istill because our generation was
so lucky Like I could thinkabout a million Like Chrissy,
like Krippy crawlers,tamagotchi's and Nintendo itself
.
Like there's so many coolthings that we played with and
like I mean I already said theNinja Shows.
It was a big impact in my life.

(51:58):
So I'll lean towards thingslike maybe they were forgotten.
Like Krippy crawlers I justremember good memories with that
of like being in the roommaking little creations and
waiting for the light bulb todie off and somehow burning
yourself on it.
Like those are the silly things.
That's to me, is again kind ofwhat's missing in today.

(52:19):
Like there were such creativetoys back then that it's just
like let's see what happens.
There was no data.
They're not waiting forInstagram trends and all this
other stuff.
Like who would have said thiswould have been a hit?
People just took chances andgot made and if it had the good
intentions that it was a cooltoy, then obviously it stuck.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Go back.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Krippy crawlers.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Krippy crawlers.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Aw, you made me feel so basic with my poly pocket
answer.
But yeah, Krippy crawlers no,but Mighty.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Max, for the boys too .
That was such a cool one too,Mighty Max.
Yes, I literally had to go tomy room, which is like full of
all the toys, Like which one wasthe most memorable, Aw that's
awesome.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I'm glad I gave you some time to think about it.
Well, brandon, thank you somuch.
Is there anything else you wantto share before I let you go,
even if it's just how to buynine to five warriors or if it's
any other tips you want toshare?

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Since this was about pitching IP story story story
Even if your toy doesn'tnecessarily have a story and
it's an experience, pitch thestory of how you came up with it
and pitch the story of how youwould feel or experience said
toy Like.
Again, watching my pitch, it'sa story.
It's not like targetdemographic.

(53:33):
Next slide you know, yeah, youknow direction, slide.
This is how you'd like.
This is where I'm at, Likeeverything was just a
progression and a natural flow.
And because I trust me, I'velooked a million times.
That's how I discovered you.
Uh-huh, googling, pitch a toyand I found your site and all
that stuff Like there's.
You're going to find a milliondifferent answers, just like

(53:54):
anything.
It's just like what's the rightway.
Just tell a good story and nomatter what, you'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
I support that.
If you're in my email list, youknow all I do is tell stories
all day.
I'm like so today I went toMexico and then at the end it's
like that's how you develop atoy idea, like when did she
combine a toy idea with Mexico?
How did she do that?

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Yeah, that's me.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
That's how I tell a story.
No, this is great and actuallyI'm sorry.
I have to ask you one morepiece of advice.
Do you have any resource forsomebody that is struggling to
or maybe they don't even knowthey're struggling Some like a
resource that tells people whatis a good story?
Do you have you?
I mean, I know you learn thisbecause you're in video editing,
but there must be a book or asite that you reference when

(54:39):
you're like is this story toldright?

Speaker 3 (54:42):
I think this is what I'm going to hammer it in on,
especially in the story world.
There is ways to write a script.
There's ways to write a story.
Three-act structure this don'tintroduce too many characters at
once Three-act structure.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
What?

Speaker 3 (54:55):
OK, but that's what I'm saying.
Just ignore all of that,because at the end of the day,
everyone's got an opinion.
What makes a good story is thatdoes it light you up?
Every time you tell it, does itlight you up?
And then your light is good.
The next person they're goingto get lit up.
They're going to rememberwhatever bit of it that lit them
up.
They're going to retell it,hopefully.
So yeah, there's a millionresources, there's a book

(55:17):
literally called Story thattells you how to dive into
character development, all thesethings.
I read it.
I took some takeaways, but thethings that matter the most is
is it a good story?
You'll light up and then you'llfeel passionate about making it
, passions everything, just likea toy.
You want a toy because youthink it's going to be a hit and
you have no amount of it.

(55:38):
Just because it lights up andit uses a thing, it's going to
fail because there's no coreconnection to it from you.
So how's the next person?
You know?

Speaker 1 (55:47):
Thank you so much, brandon Toy people.
This was an incredibleconversation.
Brandon Breswell, the creator,founder, video editor, toy
designer I mean toy or toy lead,toy designer right, because you
had help.
Right that your sculptorsworking with you, but yeah, four
nine to five warriors.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
Go ahead.
I just learned how to sculpt.
I'm so proud of myself.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Oh, excuse me Now.
Toy designer Brandon Breswell.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Now that's one more thing Going YouTube and learning
man, I honestly stopped myselfso much because I thought it was
hard.
I got an eye 3D sculpt.
Yeah, no bad sculpt for 15bucks.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
No mad sculpt.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Yes, I'm going to hammer down this Do this right
now.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
I'm going to download it right now.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
Use your AI generation, put your ideas out,
get a reference point and thenjust play on an iPad and I
guarantee you, there's like aYouTube thing that I watched.
So it was like three hours long, granted, but after three hours
I became a master.
What?

Speaker 1 (56:49):
OK, you've got to share that link and I'll put it
in the show notes for thisepisode.
Everybody who's watching onYouTube.
You got it first.
You know everybody else to thepodcast is going to have to wait
.
So subscribe to the channel andbasically we don't even have to
summarize the episode, becauseBrandon did it so beautifully
but story.
That is the summary of theepisode.

(57:09):
So your job today, if you'relistening to this podcast, is to
download.
No mad sculpt.
No, I'm kidding.
No, it's to work on the storybehind your toy brand or your IP
brand that you're working on,and maybe say it again to
yourself and say am I really litup about this?
Does this really excite me?
And if it doesn't feel free tochange it, don't be afraid to

(57:30):
change things.
Thank you, brandon, it was apleasure interviewing you.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Thank you for having me.
This is exciting.
I'm going to go over the Hasbroand write other emails.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Get it done.
Ok, take care.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
Thank you, have a good one.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Well, there you have it.
Toy people might interview withBrandon Braswell.
Now, if you're just listeningto this episode and you wish
there was some visual to goalong with it, well, you are in
luck.
There is my friend.
Head over to youtubecom, slashthe Toy Coach and search in our
podcast playlist.
There is an entire playlist forthis podcast where you can find
the full video of the episodeyou just listened to, so make

(58:10):
sure to check that out.
Also, if you want to grab anyof the links mentioned in this
episode, head over to thetoycoachcom.
Forward slash 183.
And, of course, I want you tosupport nine to five warriors.
You can go to nine to fivewarriorscom or go to the Big Bad
Toy Store and search for nineto five warriors.
Purchase this product.

(58:30):
Let's support our fellow toypeople who are taking chances
and developing product that theyknow people want and they know
people will love.
We've got to support each otherout here.
Before I wrap up, I've got toask you if you're listening to
this podcast.
You love this podcast.
You haven't let and you haven'tyet left a review.
What are you waiting for?
Your reviews keep me motivatedto keep coming back week after

(58:52):
week, but, more importantly,they help this podcast reach
other people like you.
So please, wherever you'relistening to this podcast, go
over and leave that review, asalways.
Thank you so much for spendingthis time with me today.
I know your time is valuableand that there are a ton of
podcasts out there, so it trulymeans the world to me that you

(59:13):
tune into this one Until nextweek.
I'll see you later.
Toy people.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Thanks for listening to Making it in the Toy Industry
Podcast with Ajal Wade.
Head over to thetoycoachcom formore information, tips and
advice.