This Toy Company Wants to Hear Your Ideas

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: All right, Stephen Key here, and I have a very, very, very special guest, a company that's looking for toy inventions from you. So I called Phil, Phil, Phil, what's the name of your company? Creative Brainworks. And we're going to talk a little bit about it, but you said yes, you want inventors to send you some fantastic toy ideas. Is that correct? That's correct. There's [00:00:31] Phillip Elliott: always a lot of great ideas out there and people just need to send them our way and we're happy to [00:00:37] Speaker 1: bring them to life for them. Now, everyone, I warned him that this is probably not going to be a great idea, but he's going to put down his, we'll give his contact information down below so you can reach out to him, but let's make sure you're sending him good ideas. We'll talk about what that is in just a minute. So Phil, um, you've got a great new company. It's pretty exciting stuff. I think it's your, um, what's your tagline social? What is it? Social, social nonstop on the go gaming, social nonstop on the go gaming. So what is that? Tell me what the, what does that all mean? [00:01:13] Phillip Elliott: So it's a game where you think about, you're hanging out with your friends and you can pull something out, have some fun and, uh, have a little competition amongst each other. So I have some laughs, have something that you can go out there, pull people together and really, uh, enjoy life outside of, uh, looking at your phone all day. Or if you know, if it's for kids, you know, you think about, they have their face into that YouTube channel all the time. It's, it pulls them out, draws everyone in to play a game and challenge them in a fun way. [00:01:50] Speaker 1: Okay. Let's talk about your company because you're, you're a fairly new company, but you have a lot of experience in retail. So let's talk about your past and, um, about your company. And yeah, let's start there. [00:02:02] Phillip Elliott: Okay. So I have nearly, uh, 20 years in the, in the retail business. So I was a executive with Kmart and Sears and, uh, ran the toy business there for a number of time. And then I was a senior executive over at, uh, Toys R Us for a period of time as well. Um, I took that experience and I started, uh, after I left the corporate world, I, I looked for ways to bring people's ideas to life. And so I, you know, I took some time off and I came across some people that had these ideas and I said, you know, I can help them and how I can help them was, you know, I, I have an understanding of, uh, how to get things produced in, in China. Um, you know, with factories, I have designers that I work with to help tweak ideas because people have ideas. Um, and I've found it needs to be tweaked just, you know, a little bit here or there to help them bring it to life, to bring it to retail, because, um, and that helps with production. It helps with people's understanding how to, um, play the game or utilize the toy or whatever, whatever their concept is. And so I started dabbling with that for a period of time. And then I came across, uh, Anthony, my business partner now that had an idea with, um, this game as a toss game at the time. And he had a hand sample of it. And it's a great story. It's on our website of, of how he came up with the idea and how we actually met. And, uh, from working with him on that, we saw, we had something really special here. Okay. And so then we decided to partner together and we launched, um, our first game being bag buckets. Um, and we were national distribution right out of the gate. And, and a lot of ads do with one, um, the, the item was unique. The item was familiar, but it also had a great story behind it. So those three facets really help an item, uh, resonate with buyers resonate with consumers. And then also I had an understanding of how to bring it together. And so by bringing it together, I, you know, from tweaking it with a designer to finding the right factories, because even, even though you have an idea of what factories to go with, it still takes you two, three, four, five, six different factories to really figure out the right factory for a particular item. Um, and then we decided to launch a Kickstarter on, which that's a whole nother story and a, and a great win there. And from there we were national distribution in Toys R Us. And then there's the storyline. And then the next year we launched a second item and then we're continuing launching more and more items. And then, uh, at Toy Fair, um, that's where we actually first met and you came through with some video content. And I kind of, I spoke to, I think a few of your inventors. So InventRight, name's Phillip Elliott, one of the founders of Creative Brainworks. We're looking for your, your ideas to help bring them to life and make your dreams come true by seeing your products on the shelf, online, seeing people enjoy them because once you see your product being enjoyed by someone else, there's nothing better than that. And we're here to see what we can do to help you out. And that's where we met, um, Corey and Corey helped us bring, uh, he has some great ideas that we saw could resonate with not only our story and our brand and our brand is B3 nonstop on the go gaming, where we can play anywhere at any time. Um, so we saw there was a great fit between his ideas, his concepts and his passions for, um, creativity. And so we, um, started working with him on, um, one of the items that we spoke about earlier was finger rockets. And, and we've actually brought that to life. We're launching it, um, right now on Amazon and we have more items in the pipeline from Corey and Anthony and my motto is for people that have their ideas and concepts, if it, if, if it hits the rules right criteria that we talked about, we are going to not only champion them and champion their idea and we're going to bring it to life and, and they're going to be recognized for it. Well, Corey, of course, one of our students [00:06:34] Speaker 1: at invent, right. And he gave me, he, he sent me a little note and he showed me his product and I saw it. I thought, this is really simple, clever. Everybody gets it. And I asked them, I said, Corey, congratulations. He said, well, thank you. And I said, uh, you know, the toy industry is really tough. He goes, you know, I don't know about that. I kind of like it. And I've got another idea that's coming out. That's even better. So he's, you've got him really pumped up over, you know, he's excited about it. So I cannot thank you enough, but let's talk about, because we have a lot of people that are watching this video and they love to submit ideas to you. What is the correct way to do this? Do you, do you need a sketch and a napkin? You need a prototype? You need a video? What do you need [00:07:20] Phillip Elliott: for you to evaluate an idea? Well, there's three things that I would say would be very helpful. One is some sort of visual of the item. It could be a sketch, could be a drawing. It could be an actual hand sample, but something to say, this is what they envisioned the item to look like. The next thing is the story behind it. You know, how did they come up with the idea? What triggered their thoughts and concepts? You know, there's a lot of different inventors that actually I'm going to diverse digress a little bit, but when I, when I was on retail side, some of the best ideas came from people that were experts in the category. And what I mean by that is give you an idea. If you look at some of the, the baby inventions, who came up with those ideas? Mothers, right? Just like Anthony's concept with bean bag buckets. How did he come up with it? He was on the beach with his kids and he was looking for a way to entertain his kids. And that's how that started. So for inventors, how, how and why do they come up with their item? Because again, it goes back to stories. People love stories. People love helping people that have great ideas and stories. So that resonates to the product and the concepts. And then also the category category is very important. Give you an idea of board game category, board game category is a very challenging market. And we, you know, you know that there's some very key leaders in that like Hasbro spin master and so on. So it's very tough to get on that wall and breakthrough in that market. So it's understanding how are you going to be able to not only bring the item to life, but how are you going to get people to want to buy and communicate it properly so it doesn't fall into the noise. And then it's just a loss because there are so many very good concepts that do get lost if they don't have the right momentum. [00:09:13] Speaker 1: But tell me about this. So you've got a certain category. It sounds like it's social, fun, maybe outdoors, maybe indoors, but it sounds like you're bringing people together to have fun. If I have a doll, is that a good fit for you? If I have the new talking doll, is that a good fit for [00:09:33] Phillip Elliott: your company or not? What I would say is it's not our primary category, but I can still help someone. I can guide them in the right direction. I can help evaluate it and see where to go. The talking doll category is another tough category in that one item vendors is very challenging. One item vendors are one concept that a person has that might be brought into their company or within our company and you don't have any other footprint on that counter. So that's where it's tough. How you and I both know in the toy industry, it's tough to break through in certain counters on the marketplace. But that doesn't mean you can't go into specialty. You know, you can't, right? So there's a lot of other avenues, especially in today's world with social media. If you have the right item and the right concept, it can be brought to life and it can be communicated in a way that it's never been able to be done before. So via social media, via potentially a Kickstarter and how to guide through those waters. So there's many more opportunities for for an item, but there are certain areas and categories that is much more challenging to bring something to market than certain other categories. It sounds to me that you're very flexible. [00:10:55] Speaker 1: Is it because of your size, Phil, that you're flexible, that you're you're willing to look outside maybe your category that you're successful today and you're looking for to look at everything? Is that true or not? [00:11:08] Phillip Elliott: You know, I would say it goes back to what my father once said to me when I was younger. And he said, if you go into something with a no answer, you're going to close too many doors and many possibilities to be quite frank. And I led that way all through my life in my retail world and so on. You look for ways and you look for people and ideas that are different and unique. And that's why, you know, I'll give you an example. My first time as a buyer, I went to Hong Kong. I had more meetings with more factories than I think any buyer ever had. I was saturated with meetings from seven o'clock in the morning to seven o'clock at night. And my display room was full of displays and boxes of items and so on. And at the time, my DMM said, what are you doing? Why are you meeting with all these vendors? And I said, because there might be something out there that I've never seen before, or I might get a better price. So all these inventors and ideas, they're probably, it's so challenging. And now they'll walk through the toy show and big companies will push them off to the side saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'd rather look at it and give them my honest and candid feedback. Spend the time and say, look, I think this is an item that could be something. Or you know what? It could be, but it might be outside of our scope. Go here. Or this could be a home run. Let's try it. [00:12:30] Speaker 1: Okay. So I've got this great idea. Maybe I build a prototype. How important is to show a video how it works? Is that important to you? [00:12:39] Phillip Elliott: I would say it's not important, but it always adds value, right? So it's not necessary to see through what it could become because it goes back to again, what category is in, what type is it? Is it a game? If it's a game, I don't need a video or, you know, what technology does it bring? And so I would say, again, it adds value, but it's not necessary. [00:13:07] Speaker 1: Okay. What about intellectual property? Do I have to have a patent, Phil? Everybody says, I'm watching Shark Tank. It's Friday night to tell me I need a patent on everything. Is that true or not? [00:13:20] Phillip Elliott: No, it's not true. It's not true. What I would say is depending on the IP, it might be worthwhile to get a provisional. And then what a provisional patent is, you probably explain that to your group, but more or less it is. It protects you for a year. So it puts you first in line. You know, it might cost you 500 to a couple thousand dollars, depending on, you know, how you approach it, your attorney or yourself. And then if you see that it becomes something special, well, then you can, you know, pursue it and go after and say, you know what, this, this, um, this item is going to be, or I have these suppliers on board and I see that it's going to be a win. It's worth spending 10 to $20,000 on a patent. [00:14:05] Speaker 1: Okay. So let's talk about, um, I'm an inventor. I'm going to a toy show and I, and I have prototypes and I want to meet with you. Okay. Do you have time to meet with me at a toy show at all? Is that [00:14:19] Phillip Elliott: too busy for you? You know, I do have time. And what I would say is it's better to reach out to me to say, look, I'm going to be at the New York toy show. Do you have 15 minutes? Do you have 20 minutes? And if you come by and we haven't set up a meeting, I'll say, come back on Monday or come back on Tuesday at this time. And I'll find time to meet with you. Cause I've, I've had people come by and just impromptu, uh, and I'm the doors open and if I have time, I'll meet with you then. If not, but I would say it's walking the show in today's world, keep that idea you have under wraps, only share it with people that you're confident aren't going to mimic the item because it happens. [00:15:01] Speaker 1: So wait a minute, Phil, you're telling me if I'm an inventor, should I get a booth and show all my ideas to the public so everybody can walk by and see all my ideas? Is that a good idea or not? [00:15:13] Phillip Elliott: That's a very bad idea. That, that is something that I would not do for sure. Because, you know, we, we have people that copy our items after they see some level of success. I had one with our blitz game that we added pong balls to it. This guy found a way around our patents and you know, now he has a cheap knockout version that he added pong balls and bean bags to his item. And it's, it's a piece of junk to be candid. And it's just the lack of innovation and ideas from some of these toy companies. They'll do everything they can to one up you and quickly get it done. [00:15:51] Speaker 1: All right. Okay. I've got one last question. I reach out to you. Um, is there an email? We'll put it down below. So there's probably an email to get to you. Is that the best way? That is the best way. Yeah. Okay. So I send you an email. I'm really excited, Phil. I'm so excited about this that I send it off to you and I don't hear anything back from you for 24 hours and I'm flipping out. Should I wait another 24 hours or should I say, wow, this is going to take a little bit of time. How patient should I be? [00:16:26] Phillip Elliott: Well, what I would say is, is time is relevant and relative. I mean, so what I mean by time is relative. When we, as a person I'll speak and we have something that we want to showcase and we're all excited about our timetable is different than the person we're sending that to because if you think about all the ideas and concepts they have. So when I receive something, you know, I would say, give me, give me the week to respond to you because you know, I could be traveling. I could be, um, in line review meetings. You don't know where I might be. And so I want to give, I want, you know, I want to give one, your product, the thoughtful process into my mind. And then two, give you a nice response back. So what I would say is give me a week. [00:17:12] Speaker 1: You are so kind. I'm just blown away. Phil, thank you very much. Um, I love your company. I love your attitude. Um, you're truly a hero to inventors. They're going to absolutely love what you're all about. Everyone, we're going to put a lot of products up on the, up on this video watch. And also I want to tell everybody Christmas is coming up, right? You have to support fellow inventors, great companies that embrace that. So if you know anybody that would love some of these products that your company is producing, buy them. There's your plug. I'm plugging for you. Awesome. We always got to help each other. Phil, thank you very much for coming on. All right. Thank you, Steven.