How Toy Business Unboxed Started: Exploring the Secrets of the Toy Industry with Jason Hsieh

EP00_TBU_02-14-24_Jason Hsieh

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, will guide you through the enchanting world of toy design, marketing, and manufacturing. Now let the unboxing begin…

Jason Hsieh: to toy business on box, the podcast that dive into the hearts of the toys industry. I’m your host today, Jason Hsieh. Today we’re actually doing a very unique term. So instead of me being the host, I will be the guest sharing some of my experience in the toy industry and joining me today in this.

special episode is my sister, Annie, who is also the chief marketing officer here at toy launch, who will be interviewing me instead of the other way around. And together we’ll share some insight into some of my personal background and my career experience in the toy industry. First of all, thank you so much, Annie, for being on the show today.

Annie Hsieh: Yeah, I’m so happy to be here. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, so this is awkward, you can go ahead and take it away with the question. 

Annie Hsieh: Yes, I’m going to ask you a lot of questions today [00:01:00] in this episode. First of all, Jason, you’re usually in the host seat. How do you feel about to be the one answering the question today?

Jason Hsieh: I think it’s going to get some time to get used to, but, so I will be doing more talking than just asking questions today. Apparently. 

Annie Hsieh: Okay, that’s great. So let’s start with toy launch. Can you share a standout moment that truly capture the magic of blending creativity with digital marketing and the toy industry.

Jason Hsieh: I’ve seen the stand up moment is really working with a lot of different toys, a brand owner currently with toy launch with including our own in house brand, which is Lucky Kid, which we’ll talk a little bit about today. We also manage a total, a little bit under about 10 different brands. So really is the dynamic of working and understanding the Listening to the story behind all the different toys brand that we’re currently working with and also understanding the passion behind the owner.

When they first created the product, I find it very [00:02:00] interesting. And how can we make sure we can showcase the stories, the passions, the reason, and the mission behind a lot of the brand that I work working with the digital marketing side. And I think that’s really a very. Interesting and also a very challenging moment for for our teams and also for part of my role here at Toy launch. 

Annie Hsieh: For those who may or may not know, LakiKid is a passion project for you. So how has your personal experience as an autism dad shaped the mission and the product of LakiKid? 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, so I think some of the listeners may or may not know, but my background is really in, back in 2013.

That’s when we first heard about our son’s diagnosis was autism, ADHD. And back then we were actually living in Japan. But unfortunately, in Japan, and actually a lot of the Asian countries the same, there’s a huge taboo around disabilities and mental disability like autism and ADHD in general is It’s a huge taboo topic.

So a lot of [00:03:00] the family doesn’t talk about it. That tend to lead to lack of resources and lack of opportunities. And to give you a actual stats back then in 2013, when we’re living in Tokyo, which is one of the largest metropolitan area in the world, but. We can only find two therapy center to take our son to for therapy for because he was nonverbal back then.

And so we have to make the hard decision to figure out what is best for him and for our family. So we decided to move to United States. I think it was back in 2015 ish. And then there’s a whole different set of problem that arise once we move to U. S. Is because U. S. A lot of us know insurance is really hard to navigate, and a lot of the therapy that was needed for our for my son, Keanu, that was really not cover under the insurance.

So I need to figure out a way on top of it. The day job I was in to really provide for the family. So that’s where kind of the idea behind Lockheed kid first come in fruition is [00:04:00] when I want to create a business on the side that can help kids like my son and other kids like him with the product that we’re designing and providing to, to the community.

So I think that’s definitely a long term passion of mine and really trying to provide product and services. To help the committee, the special need communities and create product that not only support the sensory needs, but also bring joys and comfort to the Children’s and their families. And I think every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son and also really aiming to make the daily challenge just a little bit easier for the families like us. 

Annie Hsieh: So being the founder and the CEO of LakiKid can involve social entrepreneurship, can you share a specific moment where you feel the impact of LakiKid can on families and the autism community? 

Jason Hsieh: I think when back then we have, I think two years ago, that’s before COVID, we used to have [00:05:00] a parent communities of about three or 4000 parents in our parent support group.

That is where we tend to, we interact with a lot of. I will say a lot more often with our communities this year. We are trying to see if there’s any other thing we can do again for the communities. But I think that’s one of the pivotal moment when we used to have that parent support group and seeing all the parents and seeing most of them is actually moms that share with us on the struggle they’re having on the date.

Day to days and also sharing their struggle with their kids, with their families. I think that will be the moment. I feel like we have a lot of impact with the family that we’re working with, not only just providing the product to them, but also providing resources, providing support, providing advice as a follow member of the communities.

Because we are also parents with kids with special needs and having that kind of community [00:06:00] involvement. I feel like it’s a really special moment. Unfortunately, we need to pause that parent support group a couple of years ago because of COVID and that we run into a few financial situation with the company.

So we are not able to continue running the parent support group. I would say that was, that’s one of my that’s one thing I’m still thinking about. Maybe starting again in the future. Once we are in a better shape of financially, but I will say that was definitely a very special moment for me as the entrepreneur, also for a lot of the team member that’s involved in that project to create and create content for the parents of Google, because I remember back then, we not only just have a parent support group, we also have an ongoing actually podcast site.

Today’s podcast, but instead of talking about business, we’re more talking about like parenting for kids with special needs. And we try to create a lot of content around that, which we’ll try to do it again this year in 2024 for lucky kid as well, trying to repositioning ourselves and trying to come up [00:07:00] with a new social media content.

That’s definitely something I want to provide and create more of that can be beneficial for the special needs family that. That LakiKid we as a brand really serve.

Annie Hsieh: Yeah, I do remember those times. And that’s shift gear a little bit. So as the chief toy officer of toy launch, we’ve been deeply involved in the omi-channel marketing. Can you highlight a strategy that has significantly impacted brand success? 

Jason Hsieh: It depends on.

The type of brand and where the brand currently stand, because we work with brand that’s, like brand new startup, they don’t really have a lot of present yet. And all the way to, to, to brand that already have a full product line and they already have some kind of retail person, but they just need some help with the digital marketing or the online side.

And on that side, we’ll really try to look at each brand and see where they’re at currently. What kind of. Available asset that we can use to [00:08:00] really empower them. So different marketing channel. And one of the main focus we’re currently working on with a lot of the brand is really on optimizing the Amazon channel and Amazon channel in itself.

There’s so many things to consider when it comes to SEO. That’s also PPC. That’s also ongoing optimization. You need to optimize your. Hero images, secondary images and the rest of the product detail page, and also try to feature product in a way. And we are also in, inside toy launch. We’re always looking for innovative marketing ideas and innovating strategy that we can try to implement, not just for our in house brand, lucky kid, but also for other brands that we’re currently.

Working with, and I seen the main strategy is. Really trying to figure out where the brand is currently at and what are the lowest hanging fruit that we can implement that will have the biggest impact for the brand. It could be if they already have an email list. So then maybe doing an email marketing campaign will be very beneficial by driving some [00:09:00] external traffic into Amazon’s platform.

But if they don’t have an email list, if they don’t have all that present yet, then maybe the best place to start is to create that foundations to make sure. All their social media presence and the person on the Amazon channel or whichever other channel they are on is consistent across the board.

Yeah, so I think the strategy will really depends on the brand and where they are at in their journey. 

Annie Hsieh: So we talk about sales. We talk about marketing. But the big question we have just like ourself, LakiKid and entrepreneur is the financial side of stuff. In your extensive financial background how have your financial skill played a role in understanding the business dynamics of the toy industry?

Jason Hsieh: I’ve seen this apply not just for toys industry, but also for majority of the other e commerce brand as well. Because e commerce, I would say, is really a cash Intensive business model, because the more the business grow, the more money you need to put back into the business to buy more and more [00:10:00] inventory.

And sometimes that’s where, even myself, sometimes I struggle with the constant cashflow management to make sure we’re having enough cash for operation, but also having enough cash for inventories and also having enough cash for doing advertising and all the other things that’s constantly involved.

That’s required to operate a successful toys brand or any other e commerce brand, but one of the biggest thing I feel like with my background, which I was in finance for over 10 years is doing like more comprehensive financial analysis and really trying to figure out what is the profit and loss, what is the profitability and how can we reduce.

The cost on the ongoing basis, and I think this is something that a lot of the business owners sometimes tend to overlook. It can be intimidating when it comes to finance, looking at financial statements and looking at all the numbers. And I know a lot of business owner that this friend of mine that can.

Be [00:11:00] overwhelming. But I think it is critical to have these basic understanding of your income statement, your cashflow statements, and also your balance sheet to see where your business is currently at on the monthly or you, you need to have a reason. The minimum, it should be monthly and you should also review at a quarterly and annual basis.

So understanding the kind of the financial intricacy behind the manufacturing side. And also there’s distributions and there’s also marketing we in the toy industry is definitely a lot of things to consider, but I think by having the right picture and reviewing those financial data on an ongoing basis will really enable the business owner to have to make the right decision to make sure the business operation is first cost efficient and ensure the product could be launched successfully.

By having and planning all the cashflow ahead of time, because [00:12:00] as we all know, it does take a lot of cash to launch one product. Especially for a business like us, we’re bootstrap. We don’t have VC back investor that’s just with millions of dollars infusing into the business for, especially for a bootstrap company like us.

Sometimes that’s where the balance needs to be is like, okay, I want to launch it. Cool. Let’s say three, four or five product this year, but how much cash do I need to be in the company cash reserve in order to launch all this upcoming product? It’s definitely a very, sometimes very difficult decision to make, but also a very important one to make in order for the business to grow.

Annie Hsieh: So reflecting on your time at Inspiration Inc. and BE Aerospace how have your experience in cost accounting and financial management shaped your approach to run business?

Jason Hsieh: I see my background in cost accounting and financial management is just really to help me to understand like the importance of financial planning and financial [00:13:00] analysis. Especially when you come to managing a e commerce business, because there’s so many money flowing in and now sometimes, for example, each time you order like a container, we’re talking about a lot of money going out, but usually you don’t see the investment until a few months back when you have.

The production finish, you have the older product ship over the oceans from China to us. If your manufacturer is in China, and then you also need to wait the product to arrive at Amazon’s warehouse. If you sell on Amazon and get over time, get that kind of get that cash back into the business. So having I think some of my background and experience in finance and also cost accounting does help.

With a lot of my decision making on running the current business. But I also think it’s I know I’m always learning on the daily basis. And with e commerce and with digital marketing, it changed so fast and you evolve so fast. Sometimes I struggle myself to keep up with all the changes and just.

With Amazon alone, they [00:14:00] changed their platform on a consistent basis. Amazon advertising always changed, Amazon SEO always changed. So keeping up with that and also applying some of my previous experience to my current role as a CEO and the Chief Toy Officer behind Toy Launch and Lucky Kid, I think that is really beneficial.

But the main key is to have that ongoing learning and just keep, I think the willingness. To keep on learning and keep on adapting is really important.. 

Annie Hsieh: And that’s why we’re really aspiring our team member tools to keep on ongoing training each of us have, and back to the podcast, this podcast, Toy Business Unboxed.

What inspired you to start the podcast focusing on the toy industry? 

Jason Hsieh: I think the desire is even so we have been operating our own toys brand since 2017, but we haven’t been really involved in the industry as a whole. Like we are not really making, we haven’t been really reaching out and connecting [00:15:00] with other businesses in the industry.

So the podcast is really born out of the desire to not only share. A lot of the, a lot of the story behind the toy industry for both the newcomers or veterans, but this is, I also want this to be a platform to share inside trends and a lot of the like creative process behinds toys creations. And that’s why a lot of the interview we’re doing is we’re interviewing with the founder, we’re interviewing with the CEO and the people that’s behind the initial concept of the product.

And I find some of the stories very. Insightful and very interesting. I remember the interview was Parker was a hedgehog. His story is also very interesting because he was an educator and the way he come up with his product, the journey, the experience he went through.

I want to share that with the audience. And also for self selfish reason is I also want to connect with a lot more people in the toys industry and what are the better, there’s no other better way. to connect with people by just [00:16:00] interviewing them for 30 minutes and learn and hear all the story they have in their own journey.

And I also was very interviewing with other veteran in the toy industry Matt I was design edge. He has been in the toy industry for 30 years. So that’s a very, that’s a lot of very insightful content. I was able to learn from him and learn from other expert and other veteran in the toy industry.

That’s a lot longer than I have and really trying to absorb. So this is really also. My way of learning, like when we talk about the ongoing learning and ongoing kind of professional development for myself, I seem, I want to use the podcast as a platform to do that, to connect with other entrepreneur, to connect with other toys, professional, and also use that as a learning opportunity to, for me to learn a little bit more about the industry.

And also just trying to learn from other business owner and other entrepreneur or other professional in the industry to really also level up my [00:17:00] own own business development as well. 

Annie Hsieh: Yeah, I agree. We only do this for, not that long. And some of the episodes, I find it very interesting.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, we actually just started in the beginning of 2024, but the goal of the podcast is we want to be consistent. We want to publish and at least an interview at least one guest per week. That’s the goal right now.

And I think we’re on track to do that. We already have. Five episodes so far. And for those of you are listening to this episode, maybe a few years down the road, we might have a lot more episode and a lot more story. And we’ll also try to summarize and put that all into a very digestible format on our website.

So people can also look at the past episode, but the whole idea is to, I want it to be a learning platform for the people that’s interested to learn more. e commerce to learn more about toys industry on how, like how do people have success. And it’s not just about success. I think the important is also sharing some of the failure [00:18:00] because entrepreneurship.

Is a lot of you’re going to have a lot of struggles and it’s going to be scenes that come up. It’s not always going to be rainbows and all that is always going to be moments of truth. And those moments is where we can really learn from each others and hopefully not making the same mistake as the people that came before us and really learn from those mistakes as well…

Annie Hsieh: that’s very true. So how about at this moment, can you share a recent trend that you just learned that’s fascinating or game changing? 

Jason Hsieh: I think the current trend is definitely into a lot more sustainable and eco friendly toys. That’s the trend I find is getting stronger and stronger. And also there’s also a trend on creating more I’ll say for example, the Lucky Kids product.

Product that will also support social emotional learnings or product that also like some of those specialized product was specialized toys. And I know there’s also a different trend of trying [00:19:00] to create product that can be also fighting for attention because I know we all know the kids is spending more times on the iPads nowaday than actually interacting with the toys and some of the physical.

Surrounding and I know there’s there’s a few companies and of course, we will be trying to bring them onto the podcast is they are also using some technology to embed into the toys virtual reality, like VR technology. There’s also other technology that people are trying to put into the. To the toys.

So in the design itself is almost like in I’ll say like an inter integration between the digital space and the physical space. So when the kids is playing on the iPad, they can use the iPad to interact with the toys or interact with with the object. So I think that’s definitely a trend that we are seeing more and more.

And of course we have a few more company will be interviewing that is also looking. They are creating interactive robot that they can use with the kids. And I think that we’ll [00:20:00] have a lot more very interesting episode talking with other toys entrepreneurs and talking with different type of toys creations.

And the trend is definitely different. And that is just, that’s just on the toys. On the board game side, on the game side, that’s like whole different kind of trend. And that’s something I’m also learning more as I’m Connecting with other people in the board games industry and understanding the trend behind that.

And that’s also a very interesting because that’s something that here at Lucky Kid, we don’t design board game yet, but that’s a whole different kind of industry that’s like a lot of the whole, they have their own trend almost, that’s a little bit different than toys, but the audience is similar, they are still trying to sell to kids and still trying to make it.

Educational and try to make it interactive, but I would say the trend and the challenges for toys and games could be a little bit different, but there’s also a lot of a scene that’s that’s similar that we can also learn from each other as well. 

Annie Hsieh: Yeah, even nowadays, my daughter’s is on the younger side, but playing with her [00:21:00] toy, I was like, Oh, wow, this is amazing.

I can’t believe how the toy had transformed from our age to hers. I couldn’t imagine what’s going to be like down the road. In 10 20 years, so as we wrap up this episode if you have to share just one piece of advice to someone Who’s just getting started in the toy industry? What would it be? 

Jason Hsieh: I would say this is the piece of advice not just for the toy industry But just entrepreneurship in general embracing the failure as a stepping stone to success is the key and toy industry is also highly competitive and it changed so rapidly.

So I think one of the key thing is need to be as an entrepreneur is definitely need to be resist resilience and be adopt like adaptable to. To the new changes and also like I mentioned earlier, continuous learning on the trend and continuous learnings on what is really going on and also connecting with other people in the industry.

[00:22:00] And so we can truly learn from each others. And also trying to learn from the actual customer as well. I talking to the customers and interacting with a potential customer. I think it’s also going to be a key for the success of the business on the long run. . 

Annie Hsieh: Then thank you for sharing all the great information.

I guess we’re going to wrap up this episode. 

Jason Hsieh: Okay. Yeah. For those of you that want to see some of the resources we’ll put we’ll put all the information in the show note for the episode, but thank you so much, Annie, for being on with me for the podcast and sharing sharing all this information with our audience. 

Outro: You’ve been listening to Toy Business Unboxed, hosted by Jason Hsieh. Thank you for joining us and exploring the fascinating world of toys and the ingenuity behind them.

To stay updated with the latest episodes and continue your journey into the toy business, remember to subscribe and follow us. If you found today’s episode insightful, please leave a rating and review and share this podcast with others who share your passion for toys. Until next time, stay curious and keep [00:23:00] innovating.