Episode 50 - Matt Nuccio This Toy Developer Wants You To Program Your Brain's Creativity

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is Stacy Lauren. So this is exciting. Today's guest is someone that I've actually had the good fortune of meeting a few. I think it's been a few months ago, and he's actually helping me build a product that I've been designing. And it's been fun getting to know him and all of the amazing things that he does in his company. And I just felt like it was the perfect time to bring him on because he is definitely someone that does the thing and everything he does. So I just wanted to welcome Matt Nuccio to the show. Hey, Matt.

Hey, Stacey. How are you today?

I am doing great. How are you?

So far, so good. Still early, though. I'm waiting for the coffee to kick in, and then. Then I'll. I'll give you a better answer.

I'll ask you then in the middle.

Well, if we could start off, I'd love to just have you share your story with the listeners about you and what you're about.

Sure. I mean, where do you want me to begin? It's a long story.

Your childhood dreams? No.

So pretty much it's a good question because this is a podcast about doing the thing, so I think pretty much whatever you think would be relevant to that. So different things that you've done or that you're doing now that sort of represent that. So just. Yeah. More about you, essentially.

Sure. Well, I guess, you know, the thing. Right. So I guess let's define what that thing would be for what I. For what I do. You know, at the end of the day, it's just about. For me, it's being creative, having a good creative outlet and. And being creative in a way that solves problems, you know, create solutions both in the physical sense and in the, you know, in the ethereal sense. You know, we're creating from nothing, usually. Right. We're creating products. So I do a lot of toys and gifts and. And we also do products for food companies. And housewares and hardwares. But you know what we do is we have to analyze something, look at it, figure out how to make it look cool, how to make it affordable, and how to make it so the consumers will get it and it will function and they'll do what they want to do and keep them happy for a long time. And where did that stem from? How did I start that? Well, I was really just fortunate to grow up with some very good parents. My father started working in the toy industry in 1969. He worked for a company called Aurora and then Ideal Toys just doing graphic design. And then he moved over to a company called HG Toys the year I was born, where he kind of took a VP position. Well, not kind of, he did. He took a VP position in charge of design and marketing. And he was there until I was in high school when the company was bought by another company in Chicago and they started Design Edge out of the family garage. And I was, as I often say, drafted from day one whether I wanted to be there or not. A 14 year old kid. Now I want to go hang out with my friends, but instead I'm sitting in the garage doing paste up mechanicals and cutting things out with exacto knives and gluing things down and inhaling a lot of rubber cement. It was some good times.

But the creative part, the solutions were always there. My mother, she was an art teacher and art was just always around us. Art and music and just a real emphasis on being original and creative. We weren't always just taught to just copy things. It was always like how can we improve upon things and really apply it to whatever it is we were doing. And I don't know, does that sort of answer some of your question?

Yeah, that gives me a good foundation. It's funny because when I first was asking you to come on, I was thinking more in terms of you because I see how you do do the thing with your business, right. But then I didn't even think of it from the perspective of you helping others do the thing by what you're helping them create. So you're literally like doing the thing really every day, every time you take on a client and you're, you're like.

I always say like, you know, like my clients are the lead singer, you know, I'm the lead guitar player, I'm background like helping them out but you know, but not taking the spotlight. You know, we are, we're the back end to dozens and dozens of companies. You know, we do everything for them. Their design Their engineering, their manufacturing. I set them up with distribution, you know, get them in front of buyers, you know, everything that needs to get done, you know, and, and I gladly do it from behind the, behind the curtain. It's, it's, it's too exhausting to be. For me to be in the front of everything, you know, I'm quite happy making other people's dreams come true.

Yeah, I love that. I think that's, it's why you're successful. Right. Because when you care more about the person that you're working with being successful than yourself, then it's like it kind of ripples on to. It ripples on to everything for you too.

Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, I mean, I don't sit down and think of it that way exactly. I just naturally get excited when things start happening for people like, and they get excited. It's good times. It's really, you know, it's. Product development is a roller coaster, you know, it's, you know, it's some serious highs and some serious lows. And when you finally get something to market, there's no, there's nothing better than that, you know, it's to see something that you had thought of six months a year, six years ago, whatever, finally on a store shelf or on a retailer or available on Amazon and you can touch it and hold it and people start talking about how great it is. It's awesome. It's a great feeling.

Yeah. And so can you give a little bit more example of what your business does just so everyone understands exactly what you do?

Sure. We are a one stop shop product development company. So what does that mean? People come to us with a concept and we will then design it, engineer it, get it costed, manufacture it and set them up with distribution channels through sales reps, organizations and or distributors. So it's, you know, from A to Z, as they say. Yeah. So, you know, somebody has a good idea and they bring it to us, you know, we'll, we'll turn it into a reality, you know. But it has to be a good idea. That's the other thing. You know, it's, it's. If the product doesn't have merit, it's not a fun experience.

Right?

Yeah, it's got to have a clear, you know, a clear channel to success. It's very similar to like say the music business. Right. First you got to find the song. Right. If you don't have a good song, you don't have anything. So, you know, we listen, I listen to a lot of Bad songs. The not so far. The not so fun part of my job is telling people that, you know, they have a bad song, you know, or their, or their baby's ugly, whatever.

And. Yeah, and some people, you know, will shrug it off into a two second conversation. Other people will get very offended. And a couple of times I've had people screaming at me and I'm just like, I'm sorry if I, if I don't see it, I don't see it. I can't, I can't help you. You know, And I still wish some tremendous success. And, you know, just, just because I don't get it doesn't mean someone else won't. But I can't get behind something I don't, I don't get.

Yeah. Yeah. And I really like that. And I think that was cool, like when we were working together, because I had, I had a prototype for the product and I ended up getting it at a toy store just to kind of start using the functionality to make sure that it works for me. And then I liked that you wanted me to send it to you too, so you could, you could use it and test it out. And then I think a lot of your ideas came from you actually using, using it.

Yeah, Yeah, I totally took it home and I used it and you know, I needed to, I needed to make sure it was something that I would use. And I, and I did. And I, and I totally get the merit of it. You know, I don't want to get too far into it because, you know, we obviously don't want to expose what it is before it comes out. But. Yeah, but there's been other times when I've had people send me stuff and then I'm like, oh, this is not what I thought they were talking about at all. Or it's not translating well into the physical. It's something that's just way too ethereal.

You know, it's hard. It's, it's, it's. Again, you use music or movies as a reference. It's, you know, lots of movies and songs come out every single year. And, you know, very percentage wise, very few are successful. It's not that easy. Even sometimes people think, well, it's a matter of money. I'm like, not necessarily every year there's some Hollywood blockbuster that tanks this opening weekend. It happens.

There's no true formula. There's ways to maintain success once you've found it, but when you're starting something from, from the ground up, you know, you have to prove it beforehand. You know, you can, if you've got a successful brand, you know, you can use analytics and have some strong marketing to keep it afloat. But out the gate, you know, it's really, it's, you can try to mitigate as much as you like, but it's still, until the public gets it in their hands, there's no telling where it's going to go.

Yeah, so true. So have you noticed any, any common characteristics with the people that you work with that are the ones that are doing the thing, you know, where they're coming to you and then they're successful? Have you noticed anything that's kind of trends with like who your, your avatar is?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's that the entrepreneurial spirit really, you know, they also tend to get very excited about, about the products that they're working on. But the more successful ones aren't.

Married to it per se. That, that's always, that's the hardest thing when people really fall in love with something very early in the development. It's not completely fleshed out and then they don't want to change anything because it's, you know, it's been that way and that's the way they remember it. And things have to change sometimes because, you know, sometimes simply the costing doesn't work. And you have this great idea, but you wanted this very specific way and you're in love with this very specific part of it that can triple the price of it. And you know, maybe you'd sell these all day long if they were 20 bucks, but no one's buying it for 100 bucks.

Yeah.

So one of the things would be just really being open minded and flexible with not so rigid, basically, it sounds like as a characteristic.

Yeah. And open minded's a good term, which I always kind of. Actually I kind of find it funny because it tends to imply like some sort of, you know, I always feel like someone's open minded sounds like it's a pleasant way to be, but I think open minded is harder than people realize. Right. You have to sometimes, you know, go against your, your innate feelings of something. Right. So sometimes you have to, you know, understand that your baby is ugly. Right. And things have to be changed and. No. And then sometimes these things happen in many parts of the development process. It's not just like this isn't just me dictating from like, you know, behind some drafting table. Like, no, it's got to look like this because, you know, I'm the guru and I think it should look like that, no, no, Sometimes these changes get barked to us from way further down the road. You know, a retail buyer, my code's great, but you know, I need it for 30% less now. We've got to make some major changes, you know.

That can be impactful and it can really sometimes dilute a product, but sometimes it can improve a product because you're forced to streamline it.

Yeah. And so I don't know if I've told you about the podcast in terms of like what, what I'm doing with it, but pretty much the idea is that everyone's got a formula for how they do the thing, right. And it's kind of been coming out through the interviews that a lot of this common patterns keep coming up, you know, which is kind of cool because it's like literally I'm, I'm coming like through these interviews, I'm able to like see how you could channel these things to be able to do the thing. And you're bringing up a really good piece of the formula which, with this open minded piece, because something that's been really common throughout is really letting go of your ego, you know, to be able to just keep your mind open, be flexible and pivot when needed. So yeah, I'm glad that you're able to verbalize that so well.

And some of the best companies I've ever worked for, at whatever stage they're in.

Really allow their employees to do what their employees do. And some of the worst ones are the ones that are completely micromanaged.

And I can tell those are going to sink when I start working with them, when they're involved in every little bit and piece and they have to oversee it and they have to. Yes and know it. And you know, usually these people, not only are they not allowing the people that work for them to do their thing, they're also loading themselves up with so much responsibility and so much decision making that they slow things down and they force themselves to second think everything that they do. So, you know, there's an anti the thing. It's micromanaging. That's. It can destroy you.

Yeah, I think that's a really good, that's a really good point. I actually did that a little bit too much with my last business. And that's kind of one of the big things I want to change as I move forward is, you know, that, that like thinking that people have to come to you for everything, you know, and really being able to empower people to be able to be able to be more confident with their Decisions.

Yeah, but it's tricky because at the same time, if you're the owner operating a business, you kind of want to know what's going on all the time. Right. So the opposite of micromanaging is like rogue employees who just start making all these decisions behind without even talking to you about it. And especially in an earlier stage of a company, Right. When you're really in that early throes of being an entrepreneur and you've got two or three people working for you, or, you know, even as much as 10, you know, it's. It can be dangerous to give them too much power. So, like, how do you balance that? Right. I don't know what the answer to that is, but I guess it's just good teamwork. But then you can get bogged down in meetings all the time. Right. That's the other thing I see. Like, you know, they want to have a meeting over everything. And you spend, you know, five out of ten, eight hours a day in meetings. And most of those meetings, like just sort of are a waste of time because you discuss two things and then someone's got to email somebody about something. And like, if you really chop that, all the dead time in the meeting, four hours of meeting, maybe 30 minutes of it was truly productive.

Yeah, I know. One of the things we started doing was we did these like 10 minutes standing only meetings. So then you didn't get. Well, this is before COVID you know, you didn't get like stuck sitting down because otherwise once you're sitting, you're toast. You know, that meeting is going to be an hour pretty much. Well, so let's talk more about when they come to you and they're excited. That's. It's kind of cool because you have such a good insight into people. You know, when they're coming to you, they've got this new product and you know, they're excited about it. So the excitement because another piece of the formula is the why, you know, like having to have a why you want to do something. Do you think it's coming from like that place? It's like, I really want to do this. Like, like, for me it was. We won't give exactly what the product is, but it's surrounding habits because for me, that's so important because I let go of all that stuff for a while and didn't take care of myself and all this stuff. And so for me, that's like a huge piece of why I'm excited about this product. Because it's been so important for Me in my life. Like, is it, do you find that's a common thread where people have some kind of reason that they've, they've chosen this product or is it coming from something else?

Well, that certainly can be a reason. Right? That's, you know, obviously if there's a good story behind a good product is, is great. Right. But it's not always the reason. And I found myself often, many times I have to sort of step back when someone comes to be very enthusiastic because until I truly know what the product is and, and feel I can get behind it, I have to be careful not to be infected by their enthusiasm because, you know, I don't want to just help them because they feel like they've got, you know, they've got the passion for it because that passion could be applied to the wrong product and you know, could kill everything, could destroy everything. You know, if it's, you know, just because you're excited about something doesn't necessarily mean it's great.

Yeah, that's true. And then when they're, when they're coming to you and they're excited, is it like, what do they get? Where does that excitement come from? Do you know, in terms of, have you noticed any common thread there?

I mean, it's all over the place. You know, some people.

You know, on the, on the positive things, you know, people sometimes like they stumbled upon something that, you know, hasn't existed or has a need. Those are always great.

Sometimes that enthusiasm just comes about by the fact that they're, you know, they've made a big life change and they, and they want to try something new and they've gotten something that's strong that they can get behind and it's given them new purposes which is, you know, always fantastic.

But then sometimes that enthusiasm just comes from an overinflated ego. Right. You know.

Some people will literally pitch me every thought that comes into their head.

And I'm like, yeah, you should really sit down and cross some of those things off before you talk to me about them, you know.

Yeah. And then so when you see the person, then you make the product for them. I'm assuming there's a percentage succeed and there's a percentage that don't. Like, have you seen anything with the people that do succeed that has been a commonality with them in addition to being open minded and having a purpose and all that stuff?

Well.

The best way to succeed in any retail environment, Right. As a startup company is to not be a one item company. Right. So anybody who wants to try and get into, you know, having a company that manufactures goods, whether they be toys, games, gifts, housewares or hardwares.

They need to be aware out the gate that they need a line because buyers aren't going to look at single items. And plus if one, you're increasing your chances of success because if one item tanks the other other item or two or three can help keep the company afloat.

Of course, if you've got five bad items, you have five bad items. But if you have five great items, you have five great items. But this is the reason why large retailers won't even meet with one item companies.

Walmart doesn't want to be making the papers again for putting some small startup out of business. When they ordered, you know, 400,000 units of something and that person was super excited and had to remortgage their home to pay for it, only for it not to sell and put them out of business.

Yeah, definitely. So the line had them. Having a line of products helps. And then is there anything that you've noticed like with the person that helps that like, you know, some people come and they're scattered and other people are probably, you know, like really organized or is there, is there anything kind of trait wise with the people?

Sure, sure. I guess I answered that wrong for the theme of the podcast, but.

Well, no, honestly I think it's great, Matt, because like I was thinking about it as I didn't even think about this when I first asked you, but as you were talking about what your company does and obviously I know what it does, right, I'm using you, but I'm like, oh, it's actually kind of cool that you're on here because I literally, this podcast is teaching people to do the thing and I've had a lot of business owners on here because that's my world. And granted, do the Thing is also traveling and it's starting relationships and it's meant to be other things besides business. But I do have a lot of people on here that do you want to start into business? And so I'm imagining that if someone listening is like, I want to start a business and then all of a sudden your interview makes them think of a product that they want to do, then now I'm giving them a resource that they could reach out to to help create the product. So anyway, I'm glad that you talked about it from that perspective because I think that I want to give people resources for ways that they can start businesses. So anyway, just to answer that, it wasn't wrong. It was just. I wanted more.

I think being flexible is probably the number one thing.

It's flexibility. It's patience.

It's this weird combo of being able to move really fast and be patient at the same time, which doesn't sound like it would. It would work. But those seem to be the people that I see have success. Like, they, they know they have to get this done really quick and they gotta. The mistakes are going to happen because they are moving quick and they are new and they are bootstrapped. And then, and then when those, you know, things don't, you know, when things don't happen, they have to be able to, you know.

Absorb them. But at the same time, they also have to understand the patience part comes in and it's like they have to also stop and understand and learn and not just move 500 miles an hour.

Yeah. So it sounds like. Are they like the type that are learning from. From any kind of mistake or any kind of problem that comes up? Does it seem like.

Yeah, I would say that the type of person that can learn as they go along and they're paying attention.

Yeah, I like that. I like that. And then what do you. Are you open to sharing any of the stuff that you do? Like, what are the. Some of the coolest products that you've helped kind of put out in the world?

I mean, there's so many things that we've done over the years. It's, you know, where do I even begin? I mean, we.

You know, I mean, we. I can't talk about anything I'm working on right now because that's, that's in general, as you aware. So the larger companies were usually two to three years out. So. But, you know, in my career, we've helped launch Angry Birds. We did, we worked on Tickle Me Elmo, we Pogs, we did wearly, the Power Glove, relaunching of Creepy Crawlers. We've worked on monopolies and saris and.

Countless other famous board games. Worked with brands such as, you know, Barbie and Disney and Marvel.

You know, and then we also do a lot of food companies, like I said. So we work with, you know, Dunkin Donuts and Buffalo Wild Wings and, you know, countless, you know, pizza chains and fast food chains. And, you know, my big joke is that our clients range from Hasbro to Hooters, because it's true.

So, yeah, the client base and the products, you know, been across the board. And it's, it's. We've worked on such a wide variety of things And. And, you know, there's. There's tons of success stories, but, you know. But what is a success, and at what point is it deemed a success? Right. Sometimes it's, you know. You know, because the products turned into gigantic, you know, gigantic numbers that become an institution. Well, that can take 20 years. Right. For something like that to become, you know, part of the American lexicon. Like, you know, everybody knows what that product is.

For every Monopoly, there's some game that you've never heard of that's probably just as good. It's a hard question to answer.

How do you deem something a success? I get excited about the small successes as they're happening more so than the stuff that's become the pedigree of what we've worked on.

Yeah, I like that, because I think that helps you celebrate more, you know, and not so focused on an outcome, but you're focused more on the process in a way.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's all about the process for me. You know, I have no interest in.

Having a big showcase of, you know, everything that we've ever done. But that's me in general and everything. It's. You know, I've also a musician. I've been in bands, and I like the songwriting process and the recording process. I can't. I mean, I don't mind playing gigs and playing out, but I don't really get into it. It's not my favorite part of things. I feel like I'm just a live jukebox at that point. And I really don't like doing cover songs.

Yeah.

Personality.

So you have such a huge creative side. Do you have a. Do you have a method like, before you're about to do something creative, that you get yourself in that headspace, or does it just come naturally to you?

I think I'm like, that switch is just permanently on.

Yeah. In fact, to the point where it's like a detriment on other things in my life, like when I have to sit with my accountant and I'm like, is there a creative way to do this?

Yeah. And so do you think that's because since you were 14, you were, like, having to be a part of doing this. So it's just. That's how your brain operates then, where you're just. Or was it before then even.

It's even before then. I mean, it's just. It's just. It was really just heavily promoted by my parents, you know, and they're. They're very creative themselves. And my grandparents on both sides were artists as well.

So, you know, that creative, you know, we always put more value on the creative than anything else. I'm talking like, people always like, oh, Matt, you're an artist, you're a musician. I'm like, I think I'm more creative than I am technically good at any of those other things. I'm not, you know, good musician. I'm a. I'm a good draftsman, but I'm not great, you know, I'm not, you know, I think if I purely had to, like, make my. My living as a landscape or portrait artist, I would. Wouldn't be doing too well.

You know, but as far as, you know, being creative and finding new solutions for things, I just love that, you know, any. Anytime we can change something up and get away with it, you know. Totally. That's the. That's the exciting part.

Yeah. Do you know, have you. Have you thought back or. Maybe I'm giving it to you now. But, like, what was like, the number one thing your parents did to nurture. Nurture that for you?

Geez.

I don't even know. It's really. It's really hard, you know, I mean, there's some, you know, my parents are a big part of it. But, you know, culture was, you know, pop culture and the things I was into as a kid as well. I mean, I can. I clearly remember being obsessed with sergeant Pepper as a child, like, really young. Like, I think I was going to preschool and I'd come home and I had this Sesame street record player, and I would put it on the Sesame street record player, just like, sit in front of the record player and, like, flip through the COVID and, you know, look at all the famous people on the COVID of sergeant Pepper and read the lining. And then I slowly learned more and more as I got older about how they were just changing things. And it was, you know, the reason it was such an important album because it was designed to be done in the studio and not have to be repeated live. So they got to try all these new things and it really changed the face of music. And I mean, that always. That always inspired me to, like, you know, how do I apply those sort of things into anything that I do? And it also was the beginning of something that to this day gets me excited is I really like, the first of anything, you know, I don't care who's a better basketball player than Jordan, because Jordan was the, you know, the original super basketball star. And as is Babe Ruth or Muhammad Ali. Right? And the Beatles Art of music, like, those are the Guys that get me excited. Like, I know there will always be somebody better than them and their records will always be broken, but they were the first to really, to really do that. Right. And I feel like that's, that's an important thing like because those are the people that get into it because they have a passion to create and they're not just competing. Right. Like Tony Hawk didn't like become this world renowned skateboarder because, you know, he saw a clear path to being a millionaire. Not at all. He's really just into skateboarding and trying to, trying new things and trying to break, break the mold. And it just, things happen around them because if you could be. That's, that's a scene. Right. And that's how scenes get created. And you know, I like to be part of a scene or you know, in the forefront of a scene and especially. And I feel like toys have been blossoming in the last 20 years. You know, when, when I finally started becoming of age in, you know, early in the early aughts, you know, all of a sudden we're doing all these collectible toys that, you know, for, for 40 year old guys in their basement, you know, that, that we weren't working on 10 years prior. In fact, I remember growing up and you'd hear that the Japanese adults would buy toys and read comic books and people just thought that was the strangest thing. Fast forward to 2022 and you know, yeah, full grown adults go to Marvel movies and collect and go to Comic Con and collect action figures and you know, it's, we've. Toys are no longer just for children.

Yeah. It kind of adds to that playfulness and kind of opening up other portals, I'm sure to be able to have that.

Yeah. And I think that.

These are all sort of firsts and they're growing and it's. The industry's moving and it's expanding and it's like I'm happy to be part of that wave that's blowing through it and that, that inspires me.

Yeah, I love that. Oh, do you mind sharing. We talked about this on our coaching call.

When we were talking about the product and doing that. Do you mind sharing that biography thing that we talked about? Are you open to that?

I'm trying to remember which biography thing.

We were just talking about how you like. Another piece of the formula is people educating themselves and then nourishing their mind with good positive stuff. And that really helps them do the thing. And it also could help you help others do the thing. And I'm just thinking what we talked about with you reading people's biographies and.

Saying, oh, yes, yes, yes. That's what you mean by biography. So I'm like, starting to think, like, did I write a biography that I didn't know about?

So, yeah. I am also obsessed with reading autobiographies. Not just.

That's right, autobiographies.

I devour autobiographies. I. I want to hear from the person that did it, how they did it, and, you know, what they had to give up to do it and.

What came of it once they did do it. And yeah, just like one after the other, I read them.

Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, it's great. It's great. Well, I mean, that's really fun for me, but sometimes I've read so many that now I'm starting to blur some of the stories together. So.

Yeah, I think it's cool, though, because you're probably blurring them together because you're seeing the common patterns. Right. You could probably help me write the book.

Well, if you need to write an autobiography of, you know, a British rock star from 1960s, I can easily start off the opening chapter talking about, you know, how. Talking about how your hometown was obliterated by the Nazis and you had to wait online to get bread. And then this is how you related to the blues. Right? This is how these guys, every single one of them starts off with that.

Yeah.

Wow.

So, yeah, no, I like, I like that. And I remember. I remember you telling me that, and I was like, oh, that's a huge piece of who you are because you're. You're absorbed. Your whole mind is getting, you know, exposed to all these different people. And like you said, like, how they. How they reach the point that they did and what they had to overcome. And I just. I find that. That stuff so fascinating, you know, to me.

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's obviously to me too. It's.

Sometimes I don't even think these people know how they. They got to where they're at, you know, and then they act like it was all happenstance, but it's not always true, you know? Yes. You know, being in the right place at the right time certainly can help, but it's gotta. There's got to be something special beyond that, you know, something that allowed, you know, any of these things that we're talking about. Right. It just maybe your ability to be agreeable. Right. Or your ability to not micromanage. But then, you know, some of these guys were micromanagers. Like, I Think we even spoke about.

Miles Davis. Because I think when I was telling you that, that was particularly good one. Yeah. He was like, notorious. Like, you know, you don't screw up in his band. Same thing with Frank Zappa. Like, you know, he'd find you if you. If you missed a note on stage.

Mm.

But these are men that were just purely. I mean, they are their products, too, so it's a little bit different. Right. So you're a bad reflection on them as a name, not just as a product. Yeah.

So speaking of that. And you can channel through the autobiographies or your own experience or the people that you've helped do the thing, but, like, what do you think's the hardest thing for people to do the thing?

Just to start doing it is the hardest thing. It's like anything else. It's like exercise. Right. Or like jumping in a cold pool. Like, you know, you're like, ah. Or when you're like, tomorrow morning, I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go to the gym. And then you wake up and you're like, yeah, maybe not today. Tomorrow. It's the same thing. These traits are in us on many different scales. The daily scale, like, should I go to the gym? And also the ambitious scale to start your own company. I also think people are initially inherently lazy as a defense mechanism. That's their way of just not doing something. But just like all those things I just mentioned, you know, once you start going to the gym for three or four days in a row, you can get onto a streak. And the same thing is going to happen with, you know, trying to fulfill a vision. When you're trying to create something.

You have to get in the swing of things.

Yeah. So when someone doesn't want to start something, but they really do. Right.

Like, I really want to go to the gym, but I don't feel like it today. Right.

Yeah. What do you think could get them to do it?

I think they need to realize what they're doing. That's the hardest thing. They have to just sort of break through that barrier. You gotta be like, you know, am I not starting this because I don't want to, or am I not starting this because I'm scared and I'm covering it up with laziness?

Or do I really not want to do this because I just don't feel like doing it? Once you turn on, you know, you can't really turn this off. You have to keep going, and you have to be prepared for the. For the long Haul, But I don't know, it's a fun ride. I don't know why anyone running away from it, you know, just, just go for it, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's going to change your life, you know, and you can really steer yourself into a better situation by learning while you go along. Like if you decide you're going to start a company or you're going to create a business or invent a product and bring it to market, you know, you're going to learn a lot about yourself. And if you're not in the process, well, then you're doing something wrong.

Yeah, I like that. I like that. Okay, so this has all been great. If you have one piece of advice to give to people on doing the thing, what would it be? Your number one piece of advice?

My number one piece of advice about. I mean, not to sound like a Nike ad, but just do it.

Awesome.

Just do it.

Do you have anything else that helps you do the thing?

Well, one thing that I do is I always make sure to ask if I don't know something. So if somebody mentioned something and I don't know what they're talking about or I'm not sure about the reference, I will ask like, oh, what is that? I never heard of that. Or tell me more about that. Which sounds like such a simple thing to do. But I'm surprised by how many people don't. In fact, sometimes, because with my friends, I'll always call them out, like when, when you know something, a question. If someone says something and I'm like, what is that? I never heard of that. And then they tell me, then I'll be like, I talked to my, the other two or three people with them. Like, you guys didn't know either, but you kept, you kept your mouth shut. Like, why? Because people, they think it's embarrassing to ask, ask like simple questions. So don't be scared to ask simple questions.

Yeah, I really like that because do you think people, they're just afraid of looking dumb or what do you think that is?

I don't know. I just feel like, oh, I just learned something today. I get excited. I'm like, oh, cool. You know, maybe I should have known that. But whatever.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think that's good.

Yeah. So that's the one extra tidbit I want to add.

And then is there anything that I didn't ask you that you wish I asked you?

You know? Yeah, I guess I would say what happens when someone's Got the ambition, but a bad concept, right? Because we sort of touched on that earlier.

I think they have to return to the proverbial drawing board and just keep going until they finally have something that's good. Because I think oftentimes when someone's been told their baby's ugly like 10 times and that's that, that's it, they don't think to. Maybe they got to try something else. You know, just if you fall down, get up again, but don't get up and do the same thing, right? You're just repeating. You're going to repeat all the same mistakes. Maybe you need to improve upon your business plan or your product concept. Maybe you need to have a whole new one, you know, because your ambition, great, and that's going to be a big driver. But you have to have, you know, you have to have more things in a row and ready to go than just the pure gut feeling that you're going to make it despite, you know, what the concept is.

Yeah, that's so good. And then let's say somebody wants to learn about, more about you and what you're doing, but also maybe they're interested. They're like, oh, I have a product idea. How does this work? Can you explain how, how that, how they can reach out to you and what you'll be expecting from them and that type of thing?

Well, I'd expect to want to talk to them. That's, that's the first thing. You know, I'm always open to a conversation. Let me get a sense of, of what they have and what their means are and get a sense of if I think they can do what needs to be done. Of course, there are more options than just bring something to market yourself. People can always license things or just develop it halfway and turn it over to somebody. There's different levels so that get a sense of what this person truly wants to do. As far as getting a hold of me, you can email me@mattesignedge.net, or you can go to our website, which is designed.net for some reason, a lot of people reach out to me on LinkedIn. So.

That'S. For some reason, about five years ago, I had like 2,000 followers on LinkedIn. Then all of a sudden it just started shooting up. So 20,000 something followers.

Wow. Oh, my God.

How did you do that?

I don't know how that just started snowballing at one point, you know, because it was pretty, it was like, you know, in that 2000 thing for like years. And then I think it was, you know, a couple of TV appearances, radio shows, podcasts.

And then, you know, when you post stuff, people share it, more people come along and they click it. Plus, and I think I'm pretty highly visible, especially in the toy space. I sit on a bunch of boards and I volunteer a lot. I sit on the board of directors, executive board directors of United Adventures association of America, which is the world's largest inventor advocacy and education group. It's a nonprofit that was born out of the U.S. the United States Patent and Trademark Office. And we get a lot of visibility and so people tend to find me through that as well.

That's so cool. Well, good. Well, yeah, you guys reach out to him if you have a product idea.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. I have enjoyed working with you and I'm still enjoying my tenses. I have been enjoying working with you and yeah, this has been really valuable. I think you gave great, great insight.

So thank you for having me on, Stacy. I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answers? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.