How Creative Puzzles Spark Connection: Valerie and Cortney’s Journey

EP59_03-01-25_Valerie and Cortney

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Toy Business Unboxed, your gateway to the secrets of the toy industry. Here, Jason Hsieh, a toy entrepreneur and expert in the field. “Every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son.” “60 percent of all toys last year were sold on Amazon.”

“Be passionate about it. Because it’s a road. It’s a journey.” “Like when you have an idea that you think is gonna somewhat change the world, make things better, I’d say go for it.“

Jason Hsieh: welcome to another episode of Toy Business Unbox podcast. Today we’ll dive into a story of creativity’s, connection and play with Valerie and Cortney from Large As Life. Inspired by the wonder of nature and the power of shared experiences they set out to design the puzzle that ain just fun, but also educational, [00:01:00] durable and also engaging for people of all ages. Thank you so much for being on the show today and will you mind sharing a little bit about how you started the company and what inspire you to bring the company to life?

Cortney: Definitely. I’ll take that one if that’s okay. So Valerie and I are sisters-in-law. And we both live in Idaho and living in Idaho, depending on your political opinion, that’s either a blessing or a curse. But for me, one of the blessings of living here is the proximity to America’s first National Park, Yellowstone. And so one summer I was vacationing Yellowstone with my four children, and we went into the old Faithful Lodge gift shop.

And as I was looking for something memorable to purchase, that would be easily integrated into our lives. ’cause that’s really important to me. I really wanted to integrate naturally. I couldn’t find anything that really piqued my interest. And I saw some of the stay away from the bison signage that peppers the tourist sections of the Yellowstone National Park, and I thought the perfect gift. The perfect souvenir would be a life-sized bison floor puzzle because so many people are intrigued by bison, intrigued by their beauty of their size, their [00:02:00] majesty, but they always get injured by getting too close. And so I thought if someone could take that puzzle home and put it in their front room and just share it and recreate those memories that they made in Yellowstone, was something that is so iconic, that would be the perfect souvenir.

And so that was really the genesis of the company. And then my husband talked to Valerie’s husband ’cause they’re brothers about this idea. And that’s the genesis of how this journey started.

Jason Hsieh: And now I think you have more than just bison, correct?

Cortney: We don’t have bison yet.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, you don’t have bison yet? Okay.

Valerie: Hopefully someday Different direction. Yeah.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So what are some of the animal that you have in your catalog right now?

Valerie: So we currently have a king penguin and a koala and a red panda. We are really close to being done and ready to launch soon. Our life-size bald eagle. And then we are thinking of maybe doing a baby giraffe next that’s on the front for that line. And then within this year that we had [00:03:00] started this, we came up with two other kind of unique but symbiotic puzzle lines as well that we’ve been working on simultaneously.

Jason Hsieh: I see. Okay. Okay. Before you started the puzzle company, have either of you have like background in like puzzle design in past or what was the background?

Cortney: I’m a lifeline educator, so I have a bachelor’s from BYU and a master’s degree from Harvard in education. And so I’ve always gravitated towards puzzles and activities that are cognitively research based, beneficial activities for kids. So we’ve done lots and lots of puzzles and we just see the value in them. And so that was where we came to this from, was my background in education. Both of us being parents of four children, Val’s Background in photography and graphic design. And so it just happened that this came to fruition with those two lenses through which we view the world mothers and then professionals.

Jason Hsieh: I see. And I think your puzzle is also designed to be more than just activity. They’re also a experience in itself because of the sheer size.

How are some of the feedback that you [00:04:00] have in getting either from the customer or retailer about your particular product line that you would like to share?

Valerie: Yeah, so we’ve been getting some really great feedback. Some that we expected because of the way we designed it and some that’s been just really positively surprising and exciting to hear a little bit. So our puzzles are designed to be more than just an activity, as you said. I’ve learned that as when I put a puzzle out at a family gathering, for example, or a gathering of friends that puzzles inherently cause people to gather together puzzles out, people will start coming together to the table. It brings people together to put a piece in as they’re chatting. So puzzles have this inherent gathering property already, I feel like. And then we wanted to take it a step further, and so we added to our largest life animal puzzles, trivia questions on the back of each piece.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. Nice.

Valerie: So that there’s a communication and conversational element to that gathering that really brings people together. And what’s been really cool to see are [00:05:00] some people that maybe we wouldn’t have expected to be super interested in these gatherings. For example, I’ve seen teenage boys who normally wouldn’t wanna jump in on puzzle fun with a family suddenly start coming into the room and engaging once they hear the trivia questions being read and they certainly now they wanna participate and be part of the group.

I’ve seen an uncle who was not really a puzzler, wasn’t gonna participate who decided oh he started coming in and hearing the questions. Then he wanted to read some to his family members and he started participating that way.

 We’ve gotten a lot of actually really great feedback from grandparents. Originally what was on our minds I think was families, bringing families together, classrooms, that kind of a thing. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from grandparents saying how much they love these because it gives them something that they can easily do with grandchildren that is engaging for the two of them to do together. Trivia questions inherently begged to be read to another person, so they’re asking to each other. They’re learning together, and both the children and the grandparents [00:06:00] are learning things together that they didn’t know before and that they’re finding it interesting.

Jason Hsieh: I see. Thank you for sharing that. And I know you have a live example. For the listener that’s listening feel free to check out our YouTube channel for the actual video as well. But will you also share how does it look like and the whole scale of the puzzle that you designed?

Valerie: So our animal, our life-size, largest life animal puzzles, which is the line that we started with, I don’t have a whole puzzle done here. These are what the boxes look like. There’s a number of different pieces that are large and there’s a trivia question on the back of each piece. In addition, there’s a color.as you saw on the back, and that allows the puzzle pieces to easily be separated into sections of adjacent pieces so that, kids can have a more manageable section to do at a time or they can break it apart and make it a really collaborative activity. Younger kids can sort by color first and then work on those pieces, and groups can take turns working on some before they bring it together.

But I do have, one of our other lines [00:07:00] is called Learn About Life, and they’re rectangular puzzles on a variety of topics we’ve only had one out so far, but we have a bunch more that are coming and they have trivia questions on the back as well. And this is our Christmas learn about life puzzle.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, whoa. Yeah. That’s pretty big. Yeah.

Valerie: So they’re two feet by three feet and they’re very busy and this is just a half cut puzzle so I can flip it around and show it. And you can see there’s trivia questions, different colors on the back of each piece, all about Christmas. And then it also offers a seek and find element because each trivia question, there’s an illustration of that trivia question or a nod to that specific piece of trivia in the completed.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.

Valerie: Once they put it together, they can look through together and each try to find it like a C and find, so it’s this multilayered activity that they can do.

Jason Hsieh: I see. Yeah, very interesting. So it’s more than they have more activity to do after the puzzle is completed as well.

And I [00:08:00] think the common the struggle with the puzzle sometimes is the kids lose interest after the puzzle is complete. That’s I think that’s common even with my kids, that after they finish the puzzle, they kind just frame it. They’ll frame it on the wall, but they don’t really play or interact with it any anymore. And I think one of the very unique aspect of your particular puzzle line is the trivia and also other activity you can also do as part of the putting the puzzle together.

What is your inspiration taking this interactive approach when it come to creating and designing your puzzle?

Cortney: So we wanted to create something that obviously harnessed our kids’ attention because our kids are saturated with so many things that are clamoring for their attention. And most of it is not multisensory. It’s just very one dimensional. It’s usually technology and that only increases as they grow older. And so we really wanted this to be an immersive experience on a lot of different levels, tapping into a lot of their senses. Whether it was allowing a child to see the scope and size of an animal or re practice [00:09:00] their reading to, reading the trivia, sorting their colors, finding things within the actual picture.

So just really engaging them on a multiple levels of cognitive development, regardless of their age. There’s something really beneficial and meaningful for each of the children that participate in this, and we really intentionally tried to make it a multi-generationally timeless that it doesn’t matter how old you are, but there’s something that you’ll find that’s enjoyable in producing the end product, which is this amazing piece of art or photography if it’s the animals, and just really ensuring that these lasted throughout multi-generations that if they’re so well made that a child can put it together as a child, but it should last for them to put the puzzle together with their own children and their own grandchildren because of the intentionality with the product development and that these are so well made and they’re entirely made in the United States, which I think is, a huge added layer.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. And actually not a lot of to manufacturer it is manufacturing U.S anymore ’cause of the cost and other related to manufacturing us [00:10:00] just make it a little bit more difficult. Was that decision also intentional from the start that you want to make sure the line is made in U.S?

Cortney: It was, yeah, it was very intentional. So one of the things interesting enough, Val just found this piece of trivia is that Rooters released an article that highlighted the fact that in 20 24, 79% of the toy sales in the US were composed of Chinese made goods and so the fact that as we look at the political climate and just the potential tariffs that we have a product that is solely made in this country ’cause we’re very aware of our global footprint. We’re very committed to sustainability. We’re a member of 1% for the planet, so making a product that we can be proud of, that it’s produced by people who have livable wages, that have workforce protections, that we’re not transporting these globally across oceans and seas and adding to the global footprint product of lion’s impact on the environment was really an intentional decision.

Jason Hsieh: I see. So you also help with the sustainability aspect of the brand as well. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I think like one of the thing [00:11:00] we mentioned before the interview is also about inclusivity, which is a big theme of your design. And you mentioned a little bit of it earlier.

Can you share a little bit more? When you design the product itself, how do you ensure the kids of different ages and different ability can all participate together when they’re interacting with your product?

Valerie: Yeah, so similar to what I was mentioning people from all the way from young kids who know their colors or are learning their colors all the way up through grandparents can participate together and it’s enjoyable for all of them. And that was important to us. ’cause as we were thinking about, how do we, when we were thinking about producing a product that helps people connect in today’s digital age, that’s a struggle sometimes. And so when we wanted to produce something and put something out in the world that really helped people connect with other people, if you think about the people that are most important to you or the people in your family or your friend group, the people that you love.

They’re not all your same age generally, right? I think of my family. I have young kids, I have a teenager. [00:12:00] I have my parents, my in-laws a big variety of ages. Same with neighbors. Our neighbor across the street, their grandparents, and they love our puzzles and they do ’em with their grandkids, and my kids love these neighbors and they go over to their house just to hang out and get a bubblegum out of their bubblegum machine and do a puzzle together, or read a book or something like that. I think there’s something special between these intergenerational connections and with our puzzles, because you can start out flipping ’em over.

The youngest can sort by color if you want. You can do small groupings at a time. Because of that, those color coded sections, they’re also coated with a shape, if you wanna say case sort, all the triangles. If your child’s learning shapes, for example. So those can be separated out. And also kids of different ages really work together because the kids who can’t read yet need someone older to read to them, read the trivia questions to them. That’s really been a really cool aspect of our puzzles, is this inclusivity in terms of ages and [00:13:00] abilities to be able to participate in whatever way they can.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, I think that just like you mentioned, the design itself is very intentional to bring different type of interactions and interactive between the sibling, between the families, between the, especially the teenager and the younger.

I personally have three kids myself in these kind of spend around ages 14, 11, and seven. So they have very different interest when it comes to activities. Putting together like a product like yours can really bring the family together.

And so the next question I want to talk about is, I know launching a brand is never easy. What has been some of your biggest challenge as you are growing the brand Large As Life?

Valerie: I can start with this one and Cortney fill in, if you have any other thoughts too. A big challenge I think has just been getting people to know that we exist. That’s been one of our challenges. There’s a lot of stuff out there and so getting people to know that our new product exists. In this first year of business where there’s been so many other things, we’re also been trying to juggle product design, development, all of that. So [00:14:00] that’s been definitely a challenge in some way that we’re working through and trying different avenues. I think maybe one of the biggest challenges we have is be, like you mentioned, these puzzles are so multi-layered and so intentional. They’re more than just a puzzle. It’s not a busy activity to just keep a kid busy for a few minutes and it’s to use some creativity and we’re gonna keep trying to channel that creativity to know how to get that out into the world, what they really entail, and how unique and innovative they really are.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. Cortney, do you have anything else to add?

Cortney: No, I would just echo that sentiment, that just being able to find our voice in this really crowded market that our product is really well made. It’s very specific to meet a certain need. We have three different product lines. So we have the largest life, which is the life science trivia puzzles for the animals.

And the genesis of that really was to inspire And then we have the joke line puzzles, which they are illustrate jokes on the front. And the jokes are [00:15:00] down on the back. And that is the Laugh with Lifeline, and that is to inspire joy. So inspire, awe, inspire joy. And our third line learn about life is to inspire curiosity that we are fostering a love of learning and just learning our history, learning our reality in all these different directions.

And so that intentionality of inspiring joy, curiosity. And awe is something that we want all families to have in their homes. We really feel proud of this product. We expect people when they bring it in that they’re pleased with their purchase. We’re asking people to spend hard earned money and integrate something into their lives.

And it’s something that we are proud to have created, that we really feel like it’s going to impact people and it’s going to help children and it’s gonna help families come together, and it’s going to make kids smarter and so many different layers of cognitive benefits with regards to a child participating in this experience of putting together one of our puzzles is so beneficial.

And we’re proud that we have created these. We’re proud that people can buy these. And we [00:16:00] just really stand by our product on so many levels as mothers, as business women, and as citizens of the United States. This is a Made in America product and everyone that produces it is proud of the work that they’re doing and the end result.

Jason Hsieh: In 2025 and beyond, what are some of the additional product that you are currently working on, and what is the vision for the company going forward?

Valerie: Sure. So 2024 was our year to just start. That was the first year we had product out. First year we had a website built all of that. So that was our big learning curve, just getting started. As Cortney said, she has a background in education. I have a background in photography and some of these things that were definitely super helpful in this product design and creating this product. But neither of us had manufactured experience. So this was a whole new ball game to get that rolling.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah,

Valerie: 2025 is our year to expand our skews, so we have, a couple coming out in the largest life animal design, and then [00:17:00] the laugh With Lifeline, we’re gonna continue doing the 72 piece, two foot by three foot puzzles. We’re also gonna be doing a number of thousand piece tabletop puzzles. They won’t have a joke on the back of the piece, but they’ll have an insert included. Yeah. In that puzzle so that people can still, who wanna do a thousand piece puzzle, those kind of puzzlers can do that. And then read the trivia questions and still find it in the artwork when they’re finished.

Those two lines are both gonna be expanding to having a thousand piece puzzles and 72 piece puzzles. And we have a number of different topics that are currently being worked on by various artists. We’re very intentional about the artists we select to, we take a long time looking through artists and who can catch our vision of this and that kind of a thing. And so we have a number of different artists with unique art styles that we’re really excited to show the world in our laugh with life and learn about lifelines as well, a number of different topics coming out.

Jason Hsieh: I see. Thank you so much for sharing that.

And on the marketing side, what has been working well so [00:18:00] far? Any particular strategy, channels or things you have tried so far with the brand that’s getting attractions?

Cortney: Val’s been really good about reaching out to influencers. And so we’ve partnered with some influencers and we’ve gotten a lot of traction as they’ve spotlighted our puzzles, especially those who are homeschooling, those who are mothers. We’ve had a lot of success with that, and so that’s been an intentional thing that Val has tried to foster. Noise and awareness. Go ahead though val, what were you gonna say?

Valerie: Oh, I was gonna say something similar that’s kinda what popped into my head. We’ve had some feedback that the largest life puzzles, especially ’cause they’ve been out the longest, so they’ve gotten a little bit more traction. The Lifesize animal trivia puzzles have been really great for homeschooling families. We’ve had some women on Instagram who have homeschooling accounts that share information on how they teach their children different units they have going on. Those have been really helpful to help get the word out. And there’s been one of those who created her own unit on Penguin study and then said, Hey, I’d love to bring your puzzle in as well and integrate [00:19:00] that into our penguin study. That is really helpful. We’ve had a few instances like that, that have been great. And as I mentioned, I’m learning how important they are with grandparents and so there’s some grandparent accounts that I’ve been connecting with lately who are gonna reach out and share who have gotten a puzzle from us and said, I did it with my grandkids, and we both had so much fun. We loved it. I can’t wait to share about it. So I’m hoping that continues to be a helpful avenue to get the word out to people.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, I think because of the puzzle is very unique and you have a lot of different unique feature, so definitely have a shareability aspect of the product. And I know puzzle is also a fairly competitive categories of product as well.

How do you stand out when you are competing with some bigger puzzle company that has been around for much longer? Do you have any specific strategy that you’re trying to use to make sure your people can understand and grabs the concept of your puzzle versus some of your other competition in the industry? What are some of the strategy you have been trying for that?

Cortney: So I [00:20:00] think one of the things that sets us apart is it’s so unique. There’s not another puzzle line that does what we do. And so the fact that we’ve really established our niche in competition with other puzzler companies that have been around for a while is really validating to get industry recognition as well with regards to the Astra Award.

So one of our first products. The Lifesize Penguin was nominated for an AstrA Play award with two other companies that have been around for years. Really established global companies where our competition for the one award that our little Penguin puzzle was nominated for. And so in that moment, I think we really got a lot of a validation that we thought this was a great idea, but to have experts acknowledge that it really was a great idea, felt really empowering and validating and reassured us that we really had develop something that we could be proud of and that really was gonna be competitive because we are in a saturated market, but there’s nothing being produced like we are producing. And that was validating when toy experts acknowledged that.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, congratulations again on being the [00:21:00] finalist for the ASTRA Play Award, and I think that’s also where we met last year in person.

Valerie: Yes. Yeah.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah just like you say, it is not an easy one to get. That’s a lot of other company that’s also try to apply for that.

And wrapping up in today’s interview, if you had to share just one piece of advice from someone that’s getting started in the toys and game industry what would that be? And I guess each one of you can take some time to share about your perspective.

Valerie: Sure. For me, I would say if you were gonna spend the time and the effort and the energy, ’cause it does require a lot of time, effort, and energy. Make it something that you feel really proud about and that puts something good into the world. There’s a lot of stuff out there. I think it’s easy to feel that way. Maybe especially as Americans. There’s just a lot of stuff we consume a lot as Americans and I felt like if I’m going to be creating something and putting it out into the world, it has to be something that I feel really good about that I’m adding to the [00:22:00] enjoyment, the awe, the joy, the curiosity of people’s lives. Helping to inspire. And I would just recommend to anybody else starting that they find that too. So rather than just looking for something that they think is gonna sell, really dig deep and say, how does this improve the lives of the people who are the consumers? And that really just continues to provide motivation for every day throughout the process. As challenges come and ups and downs come.

Cortney: I think mine, similar to what Val has just said is create something that matters. Create something that matters that just isn’t gonna be discarded, but it really impacts the consumer on a level that is really profound and really meaningful. I really I love all three of our lines, but I’m partial to the largest life because it really exemplifies the amazing world that we are a part of. As you look at these animals and you see the scope and the beauty, and learn about them individually through the trivia questions, and just take in this magnificent creature that is so diverse from any other creature on the planet, and to know that their wellbeing is directly influenced by our [00:23:00] efforts, our lack of efforts, and just how we’re all interconnected.

And so I think that’s what I would encourage someone to do is find something that connects you with the other inhabitants on the planet, whether it be people or things. But we just, we’re all in this journey together and we wanna make each other’s journey better. And if your product makes the journey better for someone or something, then it matters. And so to have the courage to pursue that.

Jason Hsieh: I do agree with that as well. For our listener and viewer, how can people find you online?

Valerie: So currently we’re working on creating a parent company that will have all three brands underneath it. We just had, we thought we were only doing larges life, and then we had these other two ideas spur off of that. So now we’re get, we’re in the process of creating that parent company. When that’s done, you’ll be able to go to any of the websites and it’ll reroute you there. But currently we have three separate websites, three separate Instagram accounts.

You can go to largeaslife.com for our life-size animal trivia puzzles. You can go to learnaboutlife.com for our [00:24:00] rectangular trivia puzzles, and you can go to laughwithlife.com for our joke puzzles. I have a joke on the back of each piece. And then on Instagram, we’re active on Instagram and somewhat on Facebook but especially on Instagram. And so that is just the name of our company with puzzles. So on Instagram, we’re @largestlifepuzzles, @laughwithlifepuzzles, @learnaboutlifepuzzles.

Jason Hsieh: Thank you so much.

And for our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in this episode of Toy Business Unboxed podcast. We hope you have enjoyed the conversation and find it insightful and inspiring. If you like what you have heard, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform so you’ll never miss an episode. We really appreciate your support and we love that you can leave us a review and share the podcast with your friend and colleague.

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This is Jason signing off on the Toy Business Unboxed Podcast and we’ll see you in the next episode.