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Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome backr Lisia. You have a very
Speaker 4: special episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah we're back again.
Speaker 4: Yeah for sure. So the thing wither Lisias, that we
Speaker 4: try to cover every area of business and finance, and
Speaker 4: there's always something just when you think you covered something,
Speaker 4: that's always crazy it's to cover. So today's going to
Speaker 4: be something that we haven't covered at all yet.
Speaker 3: Now, I mean it's like one of them topics that
Speaker 3: we don't ever even think about. Really, I scratched my
Speaker 3: head thinking About'm like, oh damn, yeah, now there's money
Speaker 3: in that. Okay, it's money. It's money and everything for sure.
Speaker 4: So we have a very special guest today, Chantelle Callaway.
Speaker 4: First and foremost, thank.
Speaker 2: You, Welcome, welcome, so blessed to be here. Thank you guys.
Speaker 4: Yes, so the creator of Rhyme Antics, which is a
Speaker 4: board game based around hip hop that promotes uh literacy.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3: I love that education.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So she's been all over the place. I see
Speaker 4: you have Black Enterprise, right up, congratulations, the Breakfast Club,
Speaker 4: and then he was on Brilliant Idiots as well, right I.
Speaker 2: Was, yeah, moving shout out to Charlotte.
Speaker 3: Now this is the full circle.
Speaker 2: Now I always wanted to be here, That's what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So, yeah, so it's a really big deal. She's
Speaker 4: one of id some you one of only three black
Speaker 4: board game designers to make it to big box.
Speaker 2: No, I'm one of three Black Toy Black Toy company
Speaker 2: owners to ever get into. But Lonnie Johnson is an inventor,
Speaker 2: and doctor Johnson has a game company. But then I
Speaker 2: have a game.
Speaker 3: As well, the super Soaker fans. Oh yeah, a bunch
Speaker 3: of those.
Speaker 4: And then we're gonna talk about your target deal that
Speaker 4: you just closed.
Speaker 3: On, Big time, big town.
Speaker 4: Amazing for sure.
Speaker 2: So twenty has been great so far, it's.
Speaker 3: Gonna keep going.
Speaker 4: So back up a little bit, all right, So what
Speaker 4: made you want to do? First of all, can you
Speaker 4: just explain briefly, like what exactly is the game like
Speaker 4: in detail?
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. Rhyme Antics is a dope party game. It's
Speaker 2: also a classroom game. And so it's a vocabulary game
Speaker 2: inspired by hip hop where you have to rap in
Speaker 2: proper English. So you have to spit bars in proper
Speaker 2: English and two teams rap battle in like a cipher setting,
Speaker 2: and it's like facilitated by what you call the scorekeeper,
Speaker 2: who kind of is like the MC between the two
Speaker 2: teams battling. But you just got spit bars in proper
Speaker 2: English while you listen to these music instrumentals. Is really fun,
Speaker 2: but it's very challenging because it makes you think and
Speaker 2: use your brain, which is something a lot of us
Speaker 2: aren't doing these days.
Speaker 3: So you can bring us into the classroom.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, yeah, a lot of teachers are using it
Speaker 2: just to engage the kids. I actually created a curriculum
Speaker 2: around the game, and I teach literacy programming at boys
Speaker 2: and Girls clubs.
Speaker 3: Oh nice, Is you have background in education, No, it's not.
Speaker 2: I'm just I was a scholar. Like in school. I
Speaker 2: did very well in school, and I always was an
Speaker 2: avid reader, and I always had like an affection with
Speaker 2: like words. I love words, I loved vocabulary. It was
Speaker 2: like my favorite subject in school. And then I'm a
Speaker 2: hip hop head.
Speaker 3: So we got that in coming.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I'm a huge hip hop head. So you know,
Speaker 2: lyrical geniuses really fascinate me and inspire me. And so
Speaker 2: I created the game for the inn wrapper and all
Speaker 2: of us because I have no bars.
Speaker 4: So the game is mostly based to help English.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, definitely, yep.
Speaker 4: And okay, so what was the process of actually getting
Speaker 4: a game up and running. A lot of time people
Speaker 4: have ideas in the head and it could be a
Speaker 4: variety of different things. But It's one thing to have
Speaker 4: an idea, and it's a no thing to actually bring
Speaker 4: it to market and actually have a product. So what's
Speaker 4: the process from Okay, I think this is a good
Speaker 4: idea to where you're at now.
Speaker 2: So first it was like an idea, just an idea
Speaker 2: that sat in my family for about seven years. My
Speaker 2: dad came up with this call and response rap game
Speaker 2: during Thanksgiving, and we as a family were just really
Speaker 2: tired of playing like Taboo and Catchphrase, right, because we'd
Speaker 2: been playing those games for years and they're fun, but
Speaker 2: you know, we just was tired of it. So my dad,
Speaker 2: who's an amazing creative genius, kind of came up with
Speaker 2: this call and response rap game, and every time we
Speaker 2: got together thereafter as a family, we always wanted to
Speaker 2: play the game because we have so much fun playing it, right.
Speaker 2: And then so it sat in the family for a
Speaker 2: long time, and I believe it was when Words with
Speaker 2: Friends came out and I started to pay attention to
Speaker 2: like the game market in the industry, and I saw
Speaker 2: how much obscene amounts of money that they were making
Speaker 2: like Words.
Speaker 4: With Friends, and how much money did they make.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, they were making like two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars a day just hop downloads and what's
Speaker 2: words were friends?
Speaker 3: You don't remember that? No, that game was crazy.
Speaker 2: It was like crap scrabble. It's a digital version of scrabble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still remember my high school I nowhere. It
Speaker 3: was like two D and sixty nine points.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like it's really fun and engaging. You can
Speaker 2: play it on cross platforms talking with your friends. And
Speaker 2: I was like, but wait, this is just Scrabble and
Speaker 2: a digital version. And then they came out with draw
Speaker 2: something which was pitchionary as a digital version, and that
Speaker 2: was killing them. And then you know, it's really when
Speaker 2: the games online, mobile app games really started to bubble,
Speaker 2: and I started like thinking, like, okay, all these games
Speaker 2: that are coming out are really just reiterations of things
Speaker 2: that already exist. There was nothing really new. And then
Speaker 2: I started researching board games and I saw that everything
Speaker 2: had kind of just been around for a really really
Speaker 2: long time. There was no real innovation until I believe
Speaker 2: the game Cards Against Humanity came out and then you
Speaker 2: saw like a kind of a resurgence of like this
Speaker 2: fun party game. And so it's interesting because the board
Speaker 2: game market specifically has been on a steady increase over
Speaker 2: the past five years. So when people is a very
Speaker 2: viable market.
Speaker 3: I mean it's interesting because like when I think when
Speaker 3: especially this generation is things games, they think in video games,
Speaker 3: but you looked at it and said, now I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go in this route, and I think one of the
Speaker 3: reasons for the rise. And maybe I'm wrong, but it's
Speaker 3: like that brings families together.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, like it's just not like the thanks and everything,
Speaker 3: like everybody has a game night, So to have something
Speaker 3: like this where you tie hip hop in is super.
Speaker 2: Dope, right, And so you know, I used to be
Speaker 2: an event planner prior to you know, starting this journey,
Speaker 2: and that's really one of my passions is like to
Speaker 2: see people have a good time together. And then the
Speaker 2: learning aspect of it was like, okay, so what's better
Speaker 2: than having people laugh and learn at the same time.
Speaker 2: That's pretty dope, especially in an era where like, you know,
Speaker 2: cell phones are really corrupting our brains and we're not
Speaker 2: really learning. Our ability to retain information is really decreasing,
Speaker 2: and so like you know, you have to actually tap
Speaker 2: into your cognitive skills, fluid intelligence, and think and so
Speaker 2: it becomes challenging, but it's really fun.
Speaker 3: That is I mean, we got to use proper English.
Speaker 3: That's pretty challenging, all right.
Speaker 4: So you're come with the idea it's in the family,
Speaker 4: but what's the next steps to actually make it into
Speaker 4: the business.
Speaker 2: So so it's crazy. So it was just idea. Then
Speaker 2: it was a word document that I just like started
Speaker 2: to I, really, this is God working through me, okay,
Speaker 2: because I have no experience whatsoever. I went to school
Speaker 2: for marketing, but as far as game development, I went
Speaker 2: and bought maybe like ten games, all different games, and
Speaker 2: I just kind of laid them out, looked at the
Speaker 2: how to play, the methodology, and then I just started researching,
Speaker 2: like how to create a game? The thing is whatever
Speaker 2: you want to create, Like there's so much information online.
Speaker 2: There's really no excuse of why someone can't do something
Speaker 2: because everything's online. You know, a general blueprint of how
Speaker 2: to do it, and then you just modify as you go.
Speaker 2: But really it was like the methodology on the how
Speaker 2: to play, and then I just started putting together and
Speaker 2: then I started organizing these focused groups with just friends
Speaker 2: and family, different people whoever would have me Like I
Speaker 2: was just calling people. So I organized over a period
Speaker 2: of like three years, maybe like seventy focus groups. I
Speaker 2: would just host house parties. I would crash parties. I
Speaker 2: would bring the game. I'd ask people if they would play.
Speaker 2: The crazy thing is did not look like this. It
Speaker 2: was in a shoebox. The packaging was terrible. The music
Speaker 2: I had it on this big bulky microphone thing.
Speaker 3: In my mind, I'm drawing this up. But it comes
Speaker 3: chante with a shoebox and a speaker inside. Yes, So
Speaker 3: this is why your event planning comes into play, right,
Speaker 3: you're organizing people with a prototype. Are you looking at
Speaker 3: you like you're crazy? Never?
Speaker 2: They were always really receptive, and I mean I believe
Speaker 2: that's one of the things that made me keep going
Speaker 2: like I have something, because I would really, you know,
Speaker 2: people had a great time, and so they'd be like,
Speaker 2: you really had something, And then I would have them
Speaker 2: fill out a little survey like what did you think,
Speaker 2: what would you change? What would you you know? And
Speaker 2: so at the end of like three years, as I
Speaker 2: kept going, I had a big stack of what I
Speaker 2: needed to change, and I would just modify it as
Speaker 2: I go. And then when I moved to New York
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. So I moved to New York with
Speaker 2: the sole purpose of like just growing the business and
Speaker 2: really taking it to the next level, because I had
Speaker 2: hit a ceiling in Boston, where I'm from, and I
Speaker 2: just felt like I couldn't grow there. So I was like,
Speaker 2: this is a game for hip hop. I'm moving to
Speaker 2: New York, the birthplace of Yeah. I was like, I
Speaker 2: gotta go to New York because that's where it's gonna blow.
Speaker 2: And so I moved here and just things started happening
Speaker 2: for me. So it's really been a great blessing. So anyway,
Speaker 2: I'm still in prototype phase when I moved to New
Speaker 2: York and then, I mean I moved here with absolutely nothing.
Speaker 2: I don't know if other people heard my story, but
Speaker 2: I moved here with I left a very comfortable situation
Speaker 2: in Boston to move here with nothing. I was like
Speaker 2: stayed in shelter. And I found this really dope accelerator
Speaker 2: program that had all these different pitch competitions, and they,
Speaker 2: you know, prepared me for the pitch competitions and I
Speaker 2: want all of them. And so I was able to
Speaker 2: get some seed capital to hire a professional packaging designer
Speaker 2: and she just so happened to have worked for Hasbro.
Speaker 3: Can we talk about what a pitch competition is?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yeah, So like what how do you find them? Like,
Speaker 3: what is what is the preparation for? What is that
Speaker 3: like going through it?
Speaker 2: So pitch competitions are everywhere you can go on like
Speaker 2: for any entrepreneur trying to like just see if their
Speaker 2: business has any feasibility. There are meetups in every state,
Speaker 2: So meetup dot com. That's where I discovered these different
Speaker 2: like pitch meetups. And they'll always be investors there who
Speaker 2: will give you feedback, just like shark Tank little mini
Speaker 2: shark Tank events in every state, And like I said,
Speaker 2: meetup dot com you can find them right on there.
Speaker 2: That's where I found them. And the way you prepare
Speaker 2: is you watch a lot of Shark Tank. That's what
Speaker 2: I did, No, you know, honestly, watching shark Tank is
Speaker 2: really what prepared me.
Speaker 3: So a lot of nights in the mirror, like preparing, yes,
Speaker 3: and just.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of information online, especially now
Speaker 2: after shark Tank's been so successful, Like I had the
Speaker 2: perfect pitch, how short it should be, how quick you know,
Speaker 2: how quick you have to engage and just you know,
Speaker 2: tell the investor the problem you're trying to solve, and
Speaker 2: you know why you're the solution. And so you know,
Speaker 2: my angle was there's nothing like this board games or
Speaker 2: recession proof, you know, like all those things that are
Speaker 2: unique about the product. Yeah, and I won three of them,
Speaker 2: and it was it was just super dope. And like
Speaker 2: I said, I was able to get enough money.
Speaker 4: To how much money did you get.
Speaker 2: Over twenty thousand? Okay, I won three different competitions and
Speaker 2: it was accumulative of about twenty thousand dollars and I
Speaker 2: was able to hire a professional packaging developer who worked
Speaker 2: for Hasbro, and then I had this professional packaging And
Speaker 2: then the next step was I did an indiego go
Speaker 2: campaign because I was I was sure at that point,
Speaker 2: like I officially have a product I can sell and
Speaker 2: bring to the marketplace and I know it will sell.
Speaker 3: Can you just explain what indigogo is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So indiego go is like Kickstarter. It's a crowdfunding
Speaker 2: campaign where you test out your idea or your product
Speaker 2: to see if there's a need for it, like if
Speaker 2: people will actually buy it. People you don't know, because
Speaker 2: we know your family and friends are gonna support you,
Speaker 2: maybe right, And a lot of times friends and family
Speaker 2: can be biased because they love you. But these this
Speaker 2: is for people who don't know you, you know, who
Speaker 2: actually are really might be interested in the product you have,
Speaker 2: and it really tests to see to give you some
Speaker 2: successful traction, and that's what it did. So I just
Speaker 2: want to really speak to people about crowndfunding campaigns. They're
Speaker 2: really really important. That's really the first step before you
Speaker 2: go out there and put a bunch of money into
Speaker 2: something you don't know it's gonna work, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So you got to organize a campaign. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of planning that goes into that. I mean,
Speaker 2: it took me maybe like eight months to prepare for
Speaker 2: that of just gathering people's information. All the people I
Speaker 2: focused group tested. I had all their emails and just
Speaker 2: different events, I had people networking. I had saved so
Speaker 2: much maybe like two thousand names, and so that was
Speaker 2: really like the core of my.
Speaker 4: So I like, I like the idea that you said
Speaker 4: that you did the focus groups, going back to that
Speaker 4: because that's something I even like major corporations do. But
Speaker 4: it's like you got to be creative as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 4: So to start out small and to say, okay, well
Speaker 4: I have friends and family in the area, and I'll
Speaker 4: just have like house parties you see that, like with
Speaker 4: jewelry stuff like that, and it's like you're actually testing
Speaker 4: it and hopefully you get like honest feedback and then
Speaker 4: you can kind of tweak it. That's people pay millions
Speaker 4: of dollars for market research. What is market research before?
Speaker 4: And that's important to a lot of times people have
Speaker 4: idea and they just go to the public with it,
Speaker 4: but it's not tested yet, So you're testing it in
Speaker 4: the small sample size before you're actually taking it. And
Speaker 4: then I like the idea that you said that you
Speaker 4: kept the data. Were talking about data a lot kept
Speaker 4: the data everybody. So now when you finally have it
Speaker 4: worked out, you can reach out to those people to
Speaker 4: see if they want to support financially. Right, because you
Speaker 4: know them and they've already you know, tried the product out,
Speaker 4: so they'll probably be more receptive to financially support than
Speaker 4: somebody that doesn't know what they've never heard of it before.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Do you have a team or are you doing this
Speaker 3: all independent? Because it sounds like a lot it's.
Speaker 2: A lot sometimes I think back of like how far
Speaker 2: I've come and how much work I've actually done, because
Speaker 2: people like you deserve, you know, the success you're having now,
Speaker 2: You've worked really hard, and I'm just like, you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of times it didn't feel like work because
Speaker 2: it's my passion, so it's felt like, you know, just good.
Speaker 2: But when I think about how much work I've actually,
Speaker 2: like those years of those focus groups, you know, having
Speaker 2: no money, all the chicken I baked for those house parties,
Speaker 2: you know, shout out to my sister helped me with
Speaker 2: the chicken. But you know, just I've put so much work,
Speaker 2: in time, sweat, equity into it in my own capital obviously,
Speaker 2: But what was the question s, So.
Speaker 4: How much money were you able to raise from Indiegogo?
Speaker 2: Eleven thousand dollars and so I pre sold my goal
Speaker 2: was ten That's always kind of a good place to
Speaker 2: start ten thousand. A lot of people see these crowdfundings
Speaker 2: campaigns who have like raised millions of dollars and that's
Speaker 2: like they put so much money into the marketing for
Speaker 2: those things. But a good rule of them is kind
Speaker 2: of start at the ten thousand level. And again, having
Speaker 2: that data a core you know, list of people who
Speaker 2: you know will probably support the product is really good,
Speaker 2: and then just the right commercials. A lot of things
Speaker 2: that go into it, the planning process, so never never
Speaker 2: just think you're gonna throw up a video and a
Speaker 2: bunch of people. The money is gonna come falling in
Speaker 2: and a win.
Speaker 4: So you had to make a commercial.
Speaker 2: Yes, had to make a.
Speaker 4: How did you do that? What was the process for
Speaker 4: doing that?
Speaker 2: I hired a videographer.
Speaker 4: I just did it.
Speaker 2: I wrote everything, you guys everything. I'm a wonder woman,
Speaker 2: so you can check it out. It's still up on YouTube.
Speaker 2: But I organized people. I like did this scene where
Speaker 2: I crashed a game night and I took the cards
Speaker 2: out their hand and I was like, nah, y'all need this.
Speaker 2: It was so corny, but it was funny and but
Speaker 2: like it really got a response out of people. So
Speaker 2: I ended up pre selling three hundred units of the
Speaker 2: game based on just one prototype that I had.
Speaker 4: So on indiegg it's like a million different things. So
Speaker 4: how do you get placed?
Speaker 2: Like you place yourself? You just uploaded as far.
Speaker 4: As all right, I go to Indiegogo, like I assume
Speaker 4: the most popular, the ones with the most tractions come
Speaker 4: in the first page or the like you type in
Speaker 4: like game or is it like under categories stuff.
Speaker 2: Like categories category it's board games, then there's video games,
Speaker 2: and they have toys and they have projects they have
Speaker 2: It's basically like what's that GoFundMe, but for businesses, so
Speaker 2: you could do a GoFundMe too. People have done that.
Speaker 2: But Indiegogo specifically and Kickstarter are where you know, most
Speaker 2: like products launch. But the difference between Kickstarter, which is
Speaker 2: way more well known than indiego go is a Kickstarter
Speaker 2: has all money in rule where like you have to
Speaker 2: raise that fundraising goal or all the money goes back
Speaker 2: to the backers. Even if you're like a dollar under
Speaker 2: your goal, all the money will go back if you
Speaker 2: didn't raise your goal. Indiegog you get to keep all
Speaker 2: the money you raise.
Speaker 4: And they become equity partners. Right, No, they're not. It's not.
Speaker 2: There are a couple of other crowdfunding I believe sites
Speaker 2: that do take equity, but not not Indiegogo or Kickstarter.
Speaker 4: So it's just support. Did they get anything for it?
Speaker 4: They do get a percentage, yes, a percentage of the game.
Speaker 2: They get a percentage of the total amount that you raise.
Speaker 3: So like if you raise ten thousand and three something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, Indigogo took a percent.
Speaker 4: People that pay, they're just paying support they actually get.
Speaker 2: So there's different levels. Sorry I skip that part. So
Speaker 2: there's different levels of backing packages that you offer to
Speaker 2: your people. So it might for five dollars you get
Speaker 2: a thank you for you know, a dollar, you get
Speaker 2: a shot out on whatever. And then I had you
Speaker 2: could get one game. Some people got two games, two
Speaker 2: games and a tea shirt. The thousand dollars level was
Speaker 2: four games, and then I would give a small donation
Speaker 2: to the Boys and Girls Club. So I had a
Speaker 2: philanthropic edge to it. And so that's how you design
Speaker 2: your packages that you know to best intrigue your your backers.
Speaker 4: I guess, okay, so you raised a ten thousand, You
Speaker 4: had a twenty thousand originally which helped you. Then you
Speaker 4: raise additional ten thousand. Yes, now you're like thirty thousand
Speaker 4: that you raised, So what happens after that?
Speaker 5: I'm living in New York and I'm.
Speaker 2: So what happened after that? So after that? After so
Speaker 2: I had a rough time. So after the campaign was over,
Speaker 2: now was manufacturing right? And so finding the manufacturer. So
Speaker 2: if you've ever manufactured a product or tried to get
Speaker 2: a product developed in the US, you know, the pricing
Speaker 2: compared to China is like a huge, huge difference, right,
Speaker 2: So for me to produce this product here in US
Speaker 2: would be about fifteen dollars a unit versus China, where
Speaker 2: it's five. So I had to find a manufacturer in
Speaker 2: China who was like and I was recommended. Thank god.
Speaker 2: I had like a kind of an agent at the
Speaker 2: time who was trying to help me shop the game
Speaker 2: for a licensing deal, and so he knew people and
Speaker 2: he introduced me to a great manufacturer in China, and
Speaker 2: I just got really lucky. But I did everything, which
Speaker 2: is crazy, via email, never had one conversation with these
Speaker 2: people to come up with the proper specs and everything
Speaker 2: I wanted, And it was really seamless.
Speaker 3: Dealing with those was a quick process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very quick. They send you a sample
Speaker 2: and then you go back and forth about you know,
Speaker 2: the specifics you want, and then you come up with
Speaker 2: the final product.
Speaker 4: What.
Speaker 2: It took a whole year though to get the indie
Speaker 2: Go Go packages to my people though, because this game
Speaker 2: has so much copy in it that we kept finding mistakes,
Speaker 2: and every time I found a mistake, I would have
Speaker 2: to you know, stop the production process, have my graphic
Speaker 2: designer fix it recent and so it was like that
Speaker 2: was a real like tedious nightmare, and so we finally
Speaker 2: kind of got it right. And you know, sometimes I
Speaker 2: still find little errors once in a while and I'll
Speaker 2: just fix it. I'm just being honest, like little tiny ones.
Speaker 2: I'm very detailed oriented. But it's like this game has
Speaker 2: over two thousand words in it, you know alone, and
Speaker 2: then just all that. But these are the things a
Speaker 2: lot of people don't know. There's plenty of products on shelves.
Speaker 3: There's like little that's the update division. We got the update.
Speaker 2: Division, right, Yeah, this is perfect now. So anything you
Speaker 2: get now is perfect.
Speaker 4: So when you first started selling, you was selling it
Speaker 4: direct to consumer online.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, I was direct to consumer online, yep. And
Speaker 2: then I started immediately like going after stores. So like
Speaker 2: I got into a couple of stores in New Jersey,
Speaker 2: I think was my first retailer, and then I was
Speaker 2: in Boston and then you know, now I'm in forty
Speaker 2: five stores now.
Speaker 4: So when you go to stores, how does that work?
Speaker 4: Is it? Like on consignment or they have to buy
Speaker 4: it from you.
Speaker 2: They buy it from me. Case order ten units is
Speaker 2: the minimum, and you know, I really try to push
Speaker 2: two units on a store, but you know you could
Speaker 2: when you have like when you're shopping it to like
Speaker 2: chain stores like Newberry Comics, who's one of my biggest
Speaker 2: chain stores right now. They buy a couple of cases
Speaker 2: per store, So that's when the money starts to come
Speaker 2: to the cases selling, you know, and they're going through
Speaker 2: them and they're reordering.
Speaker 3: That's now you're shipping those out yourself. Correct, So you're
Speaker 3: a distributed everything.
Speaker 2: I'm the wonder woman.
Speaker 4: So you're getting it from China. What's the turnaround time
Speaker 4: for that?
Speaker 2: Forty five days days? I was like, okay, yeah, so
Speaker 2: let me tell you this. Last Christmas late on the
Speaker 2: on getting it in. So for holiday you have to
Speaker 2: have your orders into China by like June in order
Speaker 2: to get it here on time for October because everybody's
Speaker 2: shipping at that time. And so this past year I
Speaker 2: missed the mark and so I had to have the
Speaker 2: games shipped to California, picked up by a truck and
Speaker 2: transport it here to Jersey in order to get it
Speaker 2: here in fourteen days, because if it ships to the
Speaker 2: east side, to the East coast from China, because it
Speaker 2: has to go around Africa, it takes a full month
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, So how is it now with the coronavirus?
Speaker 2: I'm thinking now, like, yeah, so that's funny you ask.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of companies are going to be
Speaker 2: affected by it. But my manufacturer, who I just touched
Speaker 2: base with a couple of days ago, said that they're
Speaker 2: fine so far.
Speaker 3: Ok.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, I can imagine if it really
Speaker 2: gets out of control that it might be a problem
Speaker 2: for some other business.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean if it does, it is doing manufacturer
Speaker 3: here in the States an option for you, or it's going.
Speaker 2: To try to I can't even think of that now.
Speaker 4: So that's that brings up a broader point because a
Speaker 4: lot of times people, especially like the political season and
Speaker 4: like apple things of that nature. I remember a few
Speaker 4: years ago and like it's like bring jobs back to America,
Speaker 4: produce stuff in America. I remember I forgot who it was,
Speaker 4: but I think it was I think it was with
Speaker 4: Tim Cook or one of these guys, and he was
Speaker 4: saying impossible, like you can't we can't because the cost
Speaker 4: in China and Asia, it's not even possible, like to
Speaker 4: make a profit in America is so much higher. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's true on your level.
Speaker 2: So I mean, you know, at five thousand units I
Speaker 2: order these, I'm paying like, you know, four dollars landed
Speaker 2: here delivered.
Speaker 4: Yeah, shipping and everything.
Speaker 2: Shipping and everything. Yeah, So if if I were to
Speaker 2: get this produced here, like I told you, the starting
Speaker 2: price is fifteen dollars per unit versus four.
Speaker 4: Not including shipping, not including so you're looking like twenty
Speaker 4: twenty dollars.
Speaker 2: So I would yeah, and so I would have to
Speaker 2: charge my customer, you know, fifty exact.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm thinking, like that the price of the
Speaker 3: game is gonna have.
Speaker 2: To go up, right, which no one's going to buy
Speaker 2: the game for fifty dollars.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a tough sell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I feel bad for whoever may be affected.
Speaker 2: But let's hope it gets contained and we don't have
Speaker 2: these issues.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, Well it's something like I said some other
Speaker 4: thing on a broader scale tool for businesses, like we
Speaker 4: have to find a way to compete because it's not
Speaker 4: going to happen and more and more products is just
Speaker 4: gonna be made an Asia and China because it just
Speaker 4: makes sense financially. I mean, it just is what it's
Speaker 4: trying to make a profit. Yeah, it's it's like it's
Speaker 4: no brainer. All right. Well, in the next second, we're
Speaker 4: going to talk about the business behind gaming industries. A
Speaker 4: billion dollar industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we've all been part of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, something that people should be aware. All right, So
Speaker 4: you know, I talk something about the business, but I
Speaker 4: had a question. So, yeah, you said that big what
Speaker 4: is big box?
Speaker 2: What is that big box? Are you know your targets Walmarts,
Speaker 2: Barns and Nobles, Okay, the huge department retail stores.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, so there's only three black game makers.
Speaker 2: That are in so uh no. So when it comes
Speaker 2: to the board game category, I'm the first black female
Speaker 2: board game inventor with a provisional patent. So I've gotten
Speaker 2: some backlash with people say, no, my homegirl invented a game,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, well I've never seen her game.
Speaker 2: And if you did not do the work to get
Speaker 2: it in stores, to get a patent, to do everything
Speaker 2: you need to do to get the exposure and to
Speaker 2: make it a real product, then I'm sorry, we're gonna
Speaker 2: just argue about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm like thinking about that, Like the intellectual property,
Speaker 3: So how long did that process take and what exactly
Speaker 3: did you trademark and make it?
Speaker 2: So I have three protections on this. So it's copy written.
Speaker 2: That means every single word you see has been copywritten,
Speaker 2: submitted to the database of copywritten literary pieces individually. Well,
Speaker 2: the so the how to play.
Speaker 3: No, okay, I'm saying, like not eat in the cards.
Speaker 2: So all the cards in there, and the how to
Speaker 2: play document that's copy written. I own it. My name
Speaker 2: is on it. You can't plage your eyes or duplicate it.
Speaker 2: And then there's a provisional patent. And so there's there's
Speaker 2: two types of patents you can get on a product.
Speaker 2: It's a utility patent or design patent. And so a
Speaker 2: provisional patent is the first step which protects you for
Speaker 2: a full year. It's very cheap for a small business
Speaker 2: with not a big budget, like a poor man's patent basically,
Speaker 2: and you can keep renewing your pal patent year after
Speaker 2: year after year for a very small price just to
Speaker 2: protect your invention. And so I recommend that to everybody.
Speaker 2: And this is something like I did all on myself
Speaker 2: because I like to read. And so you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of times we waste a lot of money paying
Speaker 2: folks to do things where we can really just do
Speaker 2: it ourselves if we just read. And so that's why
Speaker 2: I am a huge advocate for literacy because a lot
Speaker 2: of service businesses make money off like people's laziness to
Speaker 2: not want to read, you know. And so it's provisionally patent.
Speaker 2: It has a copyright and it has a trademark.
Speaker 4: So what's what's provisionally patent?
Speaker 2: That's the temporary one that you have to renew every
Speaker 2: single year. Okay, okay, And so like I don't know
Speaker 2: if you watch Shark Tank, but you'll you'll often see
Speaker 2: hear people say I have it's patent pending, which is
Speaker 2: the same thing. It's a provisional patent. Even on products.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you'll see patent pending, and that just means they
Speaker 2: have a provisional patent on the product.
Speaker 3: Does it have become.
Speaker 2: Yes, it can if you want to. And that's like
Speaker 2: that costs a lot more erners.
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Speaker 1: Illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in
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Speaker 2: It's money to turn it in, and it's very long.
Speaker 2: It can take like five to.
Speaker 4: Seven years to make it permanent.
Speaker 2: To make it permanent, yeah, I don't know why it
Speaker 2: takes that long. I guess they go through the whole
Speaker 2: database to make sure it's really, you know, unique in
Speaker 2: your product. But a provisional pattern really is fine to
Speaker 2: protect sixty five dollars.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you did it yourself.
Speaker 2: No, I did it myself.
Speaker 3: You read the globook.
Speaker 2: A trademark also, yes, I did the trademark myself. And
Speaker 2: people should know. Also, when you're trademarking a product, there's two.
Speaker 2: There's a state level trademark and then there's a national
Speaker 2: trademark that's permanent. And so I have a national trademark
Speaker 2: through the government and it gets published in what's called
Speaker 2: the gazette and that's where like any company can just
Speaker 2: type your name in the database and it comes up.
Speaker 3: What about globally? So like if you said the national obviously,
Speaker 3: so like somebody in London decides to come up with it.
Speaker 2: Not protected overseas, that's.
Speaker 3: Not don't try that, right, We're coming to London. We're
Speaker 3: going to be sure.
Speaker 2: And I do worry about that, honestly, because you know,
Speaker 2: I made my Chinese manufacturer sign an NDA. Don't I
Speaker 2: don't know people like, oh, they won't even protect you.
Speaker 2: If they want to do it, they'll do it. But
Speaker 2: it's like I've made them sign DX and you will
Speaker 2: not you know, duplicate this.
Speaker 3: We see that happen a lot in clothes for sure,
Speaker 3: Like people who create clothes here and we don't trademarket
Speaker 3: in every country and pops up in another country, it's like,
Speaker 3: oh that's mine, Well they protected in that country.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think clothes are a lot easier than a product.
Speaker 2: But if I see this game bootleg selling on Canal,
Speaker 2: we got.
Speaker 3: A problem street the street.
Speaker 4: So you got to deal with Target, right I did?
Speaker 4: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 2: Big bodes so excited. So yeah, Target just committed last
Speaker 2: week to four hundred store tests this June. And it's
Speaker 2: really exciting for me because, as I mentioned, I am
Speaker 2: one of three black Toy Company and the Toy space
Speaker 2: who have ever made it to Big Box. So the
Speaker 2: Lonnie Johnson, the doctor, Lisa Williams, she had a doll line.
Speaker 2: I think I said games, but she has a doll line.
Speaker 2: Lonnie Johnson invented the super Soaker, and I invented this
Speaker 2: dope game, and so it's really exciting. One of the
Speaker 2: things I spoke to Black Enterprise about was like the
Speaker 2: fact that you know, black owned businesses occupy less than
Speaker 2: one percent of the space and Big Box, and it's like,
Speaker 2: are we just not, you know, trying to get in there,
Speaker 2: or are we being shut out or like and I
Speaker 2: really don't know the answer. I just know when I
Speaker 2: started developing the product, that was always my goal was
Speaker 2: to get in Big Box and.
Speaker 3: Achieve that Big Box. So you said it's two year process,
Speaker 3: but it has a lot to do with when you
Speaker 3: submit and to be a part of the Big Box company, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I won a pitch competition with Target and
Speaker 2: they flew me down to Dallas and I got to
Speaker 2: pitch the whole Target team and they really loved it,
Speaker 2: and so it's a deal two years in the making
Speaker 2: that that just closed. And so I'm just I couldn't
Speaker 2: be more grateful for the opportunity. Just like when I
Speaker 2: walk in Target, and I because I used to go
Speaker 2: and Target in the in the developing process and just
Speaker 2: stand in front and manifest and be like, my game
Speaker 2: is going to be on these shoves. I sort of
Speaker 2: guys crazy.
Speaker 3: I would just start putting it up on the shelf.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I have pictures back in the day on my Facebook
Speaker 2: of me putting the game on the shelf and saying
Speaker 2: game nights.
Speaker 3: You know, next big game, I try that new game
Speaker 3: on that shelf.
Speaker 4: So so how does that work? As far as like
Speaker 4: the distribution, they it's the same thing as the store.
Speaker 4: They just buy in bulk more or yeah, you have
Speaker 4: to day, how does that work?
Speaker 2: They buy it in bulk from a distributor, So I
Speaker 2: have to work through a distributor. Big Boxes don't buy
Speaker 2: directly from you. You have to work with a distributor
Speaker 2: who knows all the compliances and the shipment and you
Speaker 2: know it. It's like all this paperwork process.
Speaker 4: Then distributed it gets a portion correct. Okay, so it's
Speaker 4: it still getting shipped from China the same same factory
Speaker 4: or different factory. Now same factory, except for now it's
Speaker 4: just you're not involved in that process anymore. It's going
Speaker 4: from the factory to the distributor correct okay, and then
Speaker 4: the distributor is distributing it to Target. Correct okay. So
Speaker 4: how do they do do they?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 4: See, like how it does that? First they give you
Speaker 4: a commitment that we're gonna buy this amount first, and
Speaker 4: then what do you mean all right, this is like
Speaker 4: we want to buy five thousand games? Right? Do they
Speaker 4: do that all a front? Or they say, okay, we
Speaker 4: buy a first thousand See I.
Speaker 2: Oh got what you're saying now. Yeah. So they they
Speaker 2: submit a po for a certain quantity and you have
Speaker 2: to deliver, and then after the delivery is when you
Speaker 2: get paid. So it's not even like you get a
Speaker 2: check right after the purchase order. And some companies are
Speaker 2: like ninety days, but I think Target is like one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty days. Yeah, big boxes, The bigger you get,
Speaker 2: the longer it takes for you to get your money.
Speaker 2: Ain't that's something?
Speaker 4: So what's the what's the success? Like we will be a
Speaker 4: success as far as like seventy percent of them of
Speaker 4: the game sell eighty like what's.
Speaker 2: Looked at for one hundred. I mean they have to
Speaker 2: they have to be moving quickly in order for them
Speaker 2: to reorder. And that's the point. You want them to
Speaker 2: order quickly. And so, so what happens is your distributor
Speaker 2: keeps a large quantity on deck so that when the
Speaker 2: order sells out from target, they can just fulfill quickly.
Speaker 2: So the distributor buys from me a larger quantity than
Speaker 2: what Target is purchasing, so that they always have enough
Speaker 2: to replenish.
Speaker 3: What about licensing in the toy industry, I know that
Speaker 3: there's like the big four like Hasborough, tel Lego and
Speaker 3: who else. So in the game space, is that something
Speaker 3: you you've ever thought about?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I've actually been offered to licensing deals that
Speaker 2: I turned down this past summer twenty nineteen. I was
Speaker 2: so that the big game companies are spin Masters actually
Speaker 2: second to Hasbro, and they offered me a licensing deal
Speaker 2: and I did not take it because I'm a new
Speaker 2: product and you know, my sales weren't extraordinary enough for
Speaker 2: me to have a lot of leverage with that negotiation.
Speaker 2: And so and I just believe in myself that I
Speaker 2: can do it. But when in the beginning a licensing
Speaker 2: deal is not going to be lucrative because they're totally
Speaker 2: just like trying to, I feel take advantage even though
Speaker 2: they have the distribution, the worldwide distribution. They do have it,
Speaker 2: and it would have been, you know, a great opportunity
Speaker 2: if the numbers worked. But I'm somebody who like believes
Speaker 2: in myself and my abilities, so I believe, like I
Speaker 2: can sell a million units on my own, and so
Speaker 2: that's what then then I'll have more negotiating power.
Speaker 3: That is going to be different then, right.
Speaker 4: Nice thoughts as far whereas some people will say, like
Speaker 4: everything should be got direct to consumer because obviously when
Speaker 4: you get bigger, like you said, now you got a distribution,
Speaker 4: you got to switch some profits with them. So was
Speaker 4: that something that you thought about or it was like
Speaker 4: a no brain in once target, It's like I got
Speaker 4: to go through this.
Speaker 2: I mean, director consumers is great, and it really is
Speaker 2: the bread and butter because that's where your margins are at,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like you make the most
Speaker 2: selling direct cutting out all those people, but the big
Speaker 2: boxes where you get you know, fifty thousand units at
Speaker 2: one time. I mean, that's that's crazy. So I like
Speaker 2: to spread it, you know what I mean. I like
Speaker 2: to walk into a store and see my product in
Speaker 2: a store like I did. That's that's us right there,
Speaker 2: because it's for the culture, it's for the community. It's
Speaker 2: a black owned product. So it means a lot for
Speaker 2: me to be able to see that and do that
Speaker 2: and show other people that it can be done.
Speaker 4: So if you sign to like one Big box, is
Speaker 4: it like exclusive? Like can you go to Walmart now?
Speaker 4: Or you can go in Target?
Speaker 3: I can Okay, there's no exclusivity in it. No, no,
Speaker 3: just hit a lip with the box. So this has
Speaker 3: been a ten year journey, not always ups, a lot
Speaker 3: of downs, and a few times you thought like I'm
Speaker 3: done with this, I can't do this anymore. You want
Speaker 3: to talk about some of the pitfalls.
Speaker 2: You've had, yeahs, Yeah, there have been a lot. So
Speaker 2: there was four times I can think of where I
Speaker 2: was I was really ready to quit, like completely give up,
Speaker 2: I like shelf the game, or I was just like
Speaker 2: done because you know, ten years is a long time.
Speaker 2: And even though you know I've always had the passion
Speaker 2: for it really working with the kids is really what
Speaker 2: has kept me going because my program. I mentioned that
Speaker 2: I run at the Boys and Girls Club. When I
Speaker 2: work with kids, it's just the kids are my happy place.
Speaker 2: I love children. So playing with the kids and seeing them,
Speaker 2: you know, and gage and getting excited and you know,
Speaker 2: come to my program and be excited to play and learn,
Speaker 2: that's really rewarding for me. But I would say though,
Speaker 2: the most, the deepest time, like when I was really
Speaker 2: gonna give up last time was last year. And I
Speaker 2: was in twenty nineteen, right before Nipsey Hustle died. I
Speaker 2: had just finished a real estate my real estate classes,
Speaker 2: so I was going to be a real estate agent,
Speaker 2: and I was like I'm done with this, you know,
Speaker 2: cause the year before I had some issues with inventory again,
Speaker 2: I didn't get my inventory was my inventory was stuck
Speaker 2: in customs for two months and I didn't get it
Speaker 2: out and it was just some random thing, like I
Speaker 2: didn't do anything wrong. It was just like some random things.
Speaker 2: Someone didn't do their job, and I actually had to
Speaker 2: go in there and do their job for them and
Speaker 2: to get my shit released. And I was like just
Speaker 2: done because my inventory didn't get released until two days
Speaker 2: after Christmas, so I had missed the whole holiday, and
Speaker 2: none of my retailers had product, and they were like,
Speaker 2: what's going on. It just made me look so bad,
Speaker 2: you know, And I was just like done because at
Speaker 2: that point too, you know, like I've been broke for
Speaker 2: a very long time, you know, just putting everything I
Speaker 2: have into the business and making it work. And so
Speaker 2: I was going to be a real estate agent and
Speaker 2: I was done with the product. And I swear like
Speaker 2: every time I've wanted to give up, like God will
Speaker 2: just throw me these lifelines like out of the blue,
Speaker 2: like no, like this is here, which this is what
Speaker 2: you're here to do. And so I Nipsey Hustle died
Speaker 2: and I already knew who Nipsey was because I am
Speaker 2: a hip hop head and I had heard him and
Speaker 2: like a lot of motivational stuff, but I didn't get
Speaker 2: a chance to look at that, like to listen to
Speaker 2: the album. And when he died, obviously I got to
Speaker 2: listen to the album. And that album like fired me
Speaker 2: in a whole nother level that I had never been, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that had never been inspired like dedication and young niggas
Speaker 2: like the like I mean, it's just like I always
Speaker 2: get emotional when I think about it because I remember
Speaker 2: like where I was at, like spiritually, how I felt,
Speaker 2: and then how the album made me just like get
Speaker 2: back on it and be like, Okay, I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 2: I'm here to do this. And I met Charlemagne the
Speaker 2: God like two weeks later, and then like life has
Speaker 2: just been really great since then.
Speaker 4: He's been a supporter, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a big supporter of the game. He's like
Speaker 2: he's helped me so much just because he believes in
Speaker 2: the product. He believes in me, and he's just been
Speaker 2: a big, big supporter and how you meet him. So
Speaker 2: I used to be a bartender for this catering.
Speaker 3: Like seven jobs a.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I was a bartender for this high end
Speaker 2: catering company in New York and we only, you know,
Speaker 2: did like really five star events in the city. And
Speaker 2: so every event we did there was always like celebrities there,
Speaker 2: and I was like, you know what, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: take these because we're not because they're always high profile.
Speaker 2: They always tell us we can't do certain things, you know,
Speaker 2: because a lot of people I work with, they're like
Speaker 2: actors and actresses and everybody's always trying to get on,
Speaker 2: you know, and so I was like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to bring my game to every event
Speaker 2: I work and see if something happens. So the Dad
Speaker 2: met Charlemagne, it was a radio City Hall event. I
Speaker 2: think it was like the YouTube Awards or something. And
Speaker 2: I actually, I don't even think he knows this that
Speaker 2: I was working like I was working. I was a
Speaker 2: bartender in the far and I was like, yo, that's
Speaker 2: Charlot Mane. I left my post. I was like, I
Speaker 2: might get fired today, I don't care. And I went
Speaker 2: downstairs and you should have seen how many stairs. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you haven't been a Radio City on
Speaker 2: music Hall, but there's mad steps and I had to
Speaker 2: go all the way to the basement back up. I
Speaker 2: ran down, got the game, came back up and walked
Speaker 2: up on him and just like pitched him. And I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, I really love to come on
Speaker 2: the Brilliant Idiots and talk about I wanted to say
Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club, but I was like, he ain't gonna
Speaker 2: have me on that. I'm not that big yet, you know.
Speaker 2: But I was like, you know, I really would love
Speaker 2: to come talk about my product and he was like
Speaker 2: he was like okay, yeah, and I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: I've met a lot of celebrities before, so I didn't
Speaker 2: know if he was if he was bsing me or not,
Speaker 2: but he gave me his number, like right on the spot.
Speaker 2: We exchanged personal information.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh shit, he's not playing He's walking
Speaker 5: with me and I that was like so real, and
Speaker 5: I just really appreciate him for that because when after
Speaker 5: that interview aired, I sold like four hundred units the
Speaker 5: next day and then every day after that.
Speaker 2: It just started trinkling down. But I mean that interview
Speaker 2: alone with nothing else, got me through like the whole
Speaker 2: summer with sales, consistent sales, and it's just crazy the
Speaker 2: power of like what an interview can do and the
Speaker 2: power of his influence.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's that's a great story because it's like
Speaker 4: a lot of times people are scared or they just
Speaker 4: you know, make it. They psyche themselves out and they
Speaker 4: had like this person's not going to want to listen
Speaker 4: to me whatever. One it's like worst possible case scenario.
Speaker 4: You just you're back to the way you originally started. It's
Speaker 4: like they just brush you off and it's like all right,
Speaker 4: but you would have never spoken to them anyway, right,
Speaker 4: But best possible case scenario could be changed, life changing man.
Speaker 2: And it really was. And I really encourage people just
Speaker 2: you know that the fear is what prevents us from
Speaker 2: always moving and moving on things or doing things. And
Speaker 2: I know one of my biggest character characteristics, one of
Speaker 2: the best ones that has gotten me to where I am,
Speaker 2: is I'm very fearless, like.
Speaker 3: I'll do apparently. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I used to direct that energy in the wrong way,
Speaker 2: but I'm directed it the right way, and I just,
Speaker 2: like you know, I go for it. And I've hardly
Speaker 2: ever been told no in my life, and I always
Speaker 2: I come from a place of yes, so I always
Speaker 2: believe someone's going to tell me yes.
Speaker 3: There you go. So you are also the publisher of
Speaker 3: this game. Now we spoke to ash Cash. I tell brother,
Speaker 3: ask Cash about publishing the book. What's the difference. What
Speaker 3: is the process of publishing an actual game?
Speaker 2: So publishing really isn't that much different from like, like licensing.
Speaker 2: If someone offers you a licensing deal, publishing deal, they're
Speaker 2: all like weight like vehicles for another company to get
Speaker 2: your product out to the masses. But when you self publish.
Speaker 2: It's just you're doing everything on your own. So I'm
Speaker 2: the marketer, i am the I'm the everything. I'm the CEO,
Speaker 2: I'm the CFO, I'm the COO and all that for
Speaker 2: the game. And so I don't really need anybody like that.
Speaker 2: I do need a team, and so I'm working on
Speaker 2: that right now, like a marketing team to kind of
Speaker 2: we're learning the digital marketing and the customer acquisition and
Speaker 2: the conversion rates and all that science right now. And
Speaker 2: so I'm building a company. I don't and I self published.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't need anything.
Speaker 3: So can other board game developers come under your publishing.
Speaker 2: Company or No, I'm not. I'm not at that point yet. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not offering that service.
Speaker 4: Hit gotcham, I think you might have just.
Speaker 5: Ga me.
Speaker 4: Light bulbing on.
Speaker 3: We're trying to say some business right.
Speaker 4: All right, so you got the business side of it.
Speaker 4: And the last time we're gonna talk about the scaling model,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go into depth about the actual in the
Speaker 4: workings of the game. Okay, So can we talk about
Speaker 4: the game in a little detail. So it's a board game,
Speaker 4: it is, right, but it uses hip hop lyrics like
Speaker 4: from like rappers.
Speaker 2: No, it's just a random kind of phrases that are
Speaker 2: kid friendly or if you're playing with adults, you can
Speaker 2: you know, make an adult version, which it always goes there.
Speaker 2: But so basically there's these three levels of difficulty easy, Intermedian, intellectual,
Speaker 2: and you get a kickoff rhyme verse. So the two
Speaker 2: teams battle each other. You get a kickoff rhyme verse
Speaker 2: and it might say like I like to meditate or something,
Speaker 2: and then your team has sixty seconds and each person
Speaker 2: on the team has to freestyle their own bar, like
Speaker 2: one creative sentence. The last word has to rhyme with meditate.
Speaker 2: So meditate is like an intellectual level.
Speaker 3: That's that's tough. I'm thinking, like, yo, come on, it's
Speaker 3: really not though meditate wait rate see, I mean I'm
Speaker 3: a hip hop.
Speaker 2: Right, so you already got it.
Speaker 3: So it's a.
Speaker 2: Rhyming game, you know. And so yeah, so it's a
Speaker 2: rap sidher game. There's a my your phone, there's an
Speaker 2: app you download that plays the music instrumentals, or you
Speaker 2: can go to our YouTube page and there's a bunch
Speaker 2: of instrumentals there, and you guys are just basically freestyle rapping.
Speaker 2: But the catches no slang, you have to use a
Speaker 2: proper English word and you get points.
Speaker 3: That's tough. So if you slang what like how does
Speaker 3: that need describe it?
Speaker 2: Well, we just don't get a point, okay, but people
Speaker 2: often do it. But and it's what makes the game
Speaker 2: fun because then it's like you get into the debating
Speaker 2: like that wasn't the word and you know it gets
Speaker 2: It's the drinking game version of it where if you
Speaker 2: don't get, if you don't hit the rhyme word, you
Speaker 2: got to take a shot. It's like really fun. But
Speaker 2: the beauty of the product is very versatile because it's
Speaker 2: an adult party game, or it's for kids in the family,
Speaker 2: or teachers can use it in their classroom. It's great
Speaker 2: for artists development, it's like a great corporate ice breaker.
Speaker 2: It's just really dynamic.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking like when you said in the classroom, I'm
Speaker 3: thinking like especially like on Fridays I'm in elementary school,
Speaker 3: liked afternoons, it's just like game time, like especially in
Speaker 3: the lower grades. But like this is definitely somewhere where
Speaker 3: they can use some of the words and even teaching
Speaker 3: spelling words right like after you use the word like
Speaker 3: trying to spell it, like I think this is a
Speaker 3: great idea. Are you creating deals with school districts or
Speaker 3: is that something?
Speaker 2: So that's like, uh, this year, I'm really focused on
Speaker 2: the educational sector and like that revenue stream because over
Speaker 2: the holiday I had two principals order like bulk orders
Speaker 2: for their school and talk to me about how like
Speaker 2: they get a budget and they can order, like you know,
Speaker 2: a whole school district can order cases of games, And
Speaker 2: it was I always knew it was there, but I'm
Speaker 2: really paying attention to it now, like because it's a
Speaker 2: unique product that every teacher wants for downtime in their classroom.
Speaker 3: There's definitely a bunch Like I see it every year.
Speaker 3: It's the same games that come in. It's like shoot
Speaker 3: some ladders, but not it's the same games every year.
Speaker 3: You know what happens to the game? It gets destroyed
Speaker 3: and they just re order it. If they do something
Speaker 3: like this, it's going to be obviously like the teacher
Speaker 3: can keep this on their desk or in their desk,
Speaker 3: and it's like we can.
Speaker 2: Actually request to play exactly, No one's requesting shoot.
Speaker 3: No, it's a fact. It's dope to hippo, none of that.
Speaker 4: Lyricists back in the days, at least they used to
Speaker 4: like actually read, like to improve their rhyming skills. Like
Speaker 4: I remember, like I forgot I think not somebody somebody.
Speaker 4: I used to read the dictionary to learn different words,
Speaker 4: the wordplay. So a lot of time people look at
Speaker 4: rap and it's like now a lot of rappers don't
Speaker 4: really do that, probably but originally successful ones.
Speaker 2: Do though, Like I watched every Breakfast Club interview and
Speaker 2: I think like Little the Baby was like the last
Speaker 2: one I watched, and he was just talking about how
Speaker 2: much he reads. And you can hear it in his lyrics.
Speaker 2: You can hear who reads and who doesn't. You know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Because a great lyricist is very smart.
Speaker 2: It's very intelligent. Like there's there's definitely like intellect behind.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's still some lyricists.
Speaker 3: And you gave us your top You ain't hear the
Speaker 3: ho top five? You want? You want to get us
Speaker 3: your top five, real quick, top five, no pressure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm good because it will never change.
Speaker 3: Five, no order, the top five, no.
Speaker 2: Order, Well Hove is number one, nas Park, Black Thought
Speaker 2: and the Riz, the Old Dirty bastard. You got rickon
Speaker 2: the chef and me t h the whole, the whole
Speaker 2: he said. I couldn't get that, but I mean it's
Speaker 2: the whole woo tang. I can't.
Speaker 4: All right, So your nineties she's eighties nineties good, But yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean I think some rappers, like like I said,
Speaker 4: the j Coles of the world, the Kendrick Lamar's in
Speaker 4: the world, they lyricists that they take pride, even Drake
Speaker 4: takes pride in what they what they put in My
Speaker 4: top ten.
Speaker 3: Electronica is another guy.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I wish we could hear more.
Speaker 3: It's coming. I was coming. I got the cow down
Speaker 3: on my phone. When you put the forty day tweet.
Speaker 2: I put a town down, so so excited about.
Speaker 3: That twenty seven days left because.
Speaker 2: That Exhibit C is one of my favorite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Exhibit AC. I think it's just incredible.
Speaker 4: So it's dope, like even a platform for the podcast
Speaker 4: a lot of stuff that we always use, like hip
Speaker 4: hop lyrics and stuff like that. So I think it's
Speaker 4: it's dope to actually tie in culture and music with learning, right,
Speaker 4: because they kind of go hand a hand. Like I said,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's gotten a little away from that. Now,
Speaker 4: with music, you could just make up a word if
Speaker 4: you want.
Speaker 2: But I know it is. But but you know, I
Speaker 2: think it's popular. They actually inducted into the Encyclopedia for real.
Speaker 2: It's crazy looking at that soda.
Speaker 4: Looking at da I mean, but that's part of that's
Speaker 4: part of that, that's part of culture. It's part of
Speaker 4: It's like it's a word now in the dictionary. So
Speaker 4: I'm not even married about that. But I mean, just
Speaker 4: like when you're just not even making a word, just
Speaker 4: like mumbling. Really, that's what I'm like. You could just
Speaker 4: sign it sound, which is cool. I mean, it's a
Speaker 4: form of music, I guess, but it's not like you're
Speaker 4: not going to learn too much from just sonic sounds
Speaker 4: people making with it.
Speaker 3: We learned a lot through the music man, Like I
Speaker 3: tell everybody like Shoty only talked in rhyme for like,
Speaker 3: I feel like throughout high school that's all you did
Speaker 3: was talking ron like if you ain't know the lyrics
Speaker 3: and you had no idea what he's talking about. But
Speaker 3: you know, I know a lot of raps, so I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm into of them. I'm like, yo, this is with children.
Speaker 2: Children learn through like repetition and rhyme scheme and like
Speaker 2: using music as like a platform. That's how they retain information.
Speaker 2: Like I don't know if you remember, like when we
Speaker 2: used to learn did you ever learn fifty nifty United States?
Speaker 3: A song?
Speaker 2: It was like fifty nifty United States? It was a
Speaker 2: cozy song, but because it was taught in a music platform,
Speaker 2: you remembered it.
Speaker 3: You did that in Boston, Yeah, from the different out there.
Speaker 4: Shout out to we got a lot of support out there.
Speaker 4: Shout out to the whole New England, Providence, Boston, Northeastern Connecticut. Yeah,
Speaker 4: everybody in the Northeast, so appreciate. So what's the scaling model, Like,
Speaker 4: what's the scaling idea for the game moving forward?
Speaker 2: Well, like I said, right now, we're really focused on
Speaker 2: the marketing piece. Learning that the science behind the digital marketing,
Speaker 2: the SEO. It's really important, but it is really a
Speaker 2: science and a process to like learn it. And I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not really tech savvy. I'm a creator,
Speaker 2: So I'm having to learn this just so that I
Speaker 2: know what someone sells me on when I go and
Speaker 2: hire somebody to perform that duty for the business, I
Speaker 2: have to know that they know what they're doing, because
Speaker 2: you can definitely get there's a lot of people who
Speaker 2: proclaim to know how to do SEO and know how
Speaker 2: to do your Google ads and the click funnels and
Speaker 2: all that, and then they really don't. So I'm someone
Speaker 2: who likes to learn a little bit and then go
Speaker 2: out there and find someone to do it. So that's
Speaker 2: a really big piece of the business. So because we
Speaker 2: can scale significantly if we do that right.
Speaker 3: Any thoughts are going digital at some point, like having
Speaker 3: an Apple rhyme antics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's already an app that acts as a
Speaker 2: companion to the game because it plays the music instrumentals.
Speaker 2: But in the beginning I did want to do a
Speaker 2: full app version like the game The Words with Friends.
Speaker 2: But now I'm actually looking into making it Alexa adaptable.
Speaker 2: There's this really cool company out of London I just
Speaker 2: learned about while I've been doing some research, and they're
Speaker 2: making board games Alexa adaptable, and so I'm thinking, like
Speaker 2: it would be so dope to have this as an
Speaker 2: Alexa game kind of hosting the party and like Snoop
Speaker 2: Dogg's voice, what like that would be so cool, Like
Speaker 2: imagine like soup dog is like Snoop Dogg's.
Speaker 3: Voice is like hosting the park the Hologram pop up, right.
Speaker 2: I got stop playing.
Speaker 3: That's dope, but that would be that would be really dope.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so this is dope. You have ideas to
Speaker 4: make new games or you just want to just double
Speaker 4: down on that.
Speaker 2: I cannot think about a new game.
Speaker 3: I got one for you. We'll talk after that, okay.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm really good at creating games, just because
Speaker 2: now I know, and I have been approached by a
Speaker 2: couple of people to develop some games for them. But
Speaker 2: it's just important for me to make this one a
Speaker 2: huge success. First. I do want to release future editions
Speaker 2: of it, Like I can do it in Spanish, so
Speaker 2: that will probably be an iteration I come up with.
Speaker 2: I can do it in French and we can definitely
Speaker 2: do lots of themes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen you with some celebrities doing a game.
Speaker 3: Who is the best at doing romantics?
Speaker 2: I would have to say Charlot Man.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, Charloe is just funny.
Speaker 2: He's just off top, just funny. So he yeah, he's
Speaker 2: really good at it.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for joining us. This is really dope episode.
Speaker 4: I'm sure people find value out of it? Can you
Speaker 4: tell them how they can get the game social media handles,
Speaker 4: all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I am little miss Callaway on Instagram, L
Speaker 2: I L underscore M I S S C A L
Speaker 2: L O W A Y And I just want to
Speaker 2: let everybody know if you have questions about the invention process,
Speaker 2: I'm always like willing to help anybody, and people hit
Speaker 2: me up all the time and I answer questions, and
Speaker 2: I do free consulting, not consulting, but I you know,
Speaker 2: I'll guide you the best way I possibly can. And uh,
Speaker 2: it's rymantics dot com and it's rhyme antics on all
Speaker 2: social media handles exactly how it's spelled. Our h y
Speaker 2: m me antics dope dope.
Speaker 3: Shout everybody on Pictreon dot com. You know that's our
Speaker 3: proud pay program.
Speaker 2: And I want to shout out s B for you.
Speaker 3: Know the Bullard that that is Philly's own shout out.
Speaker 3: Shout to Sean Bullard.
Speaker 4: That is a form phy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Philly, that was that was a great title. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we shout everybody on Patreon dot com. You know that's
Speaker 3: our provacate pay program where we offer extra services, extra episodes, transcripts,
Speaker 3: our early editions of the episode. So if some people
Speaker 3: can't wait to Tuesday, they got to have it before,
Speaker 3: so you can get it there and shout to everybody
Speaker 3: who's supporting the merch on your leasia dot com. Everybody's
Speaker 3: been asking for our tracks. Those are up there. The
Speaker 3: university shirts are up there, the t shirts are up there,
Speaker 3: and we got some exclusive merch for our patrons, so
Speaker 3: patrons be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channels,
Speaker 4: Apple channels and yeah, the merch that we have on
Speaker 4: right now, actually Eyo University merchant up there. So we
Speaker 4: got to get your shirt. We got we've run out
Speaker 4: of shirts.
Speaker 3: I think I got some.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we'renna get your shirt for sure. So yes,
Speaker 4: thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you
Speaker 4: next week. Peace.
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