OTS 34: Creating Appropriate Tools For Kids Featuring Ralph Schrader, OTR/L of Hungry Cutters
- Jayson Davies
- Jul 7, 2019
- 27 min read
Updated: May 13
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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 34 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.
In this episode, Jayson interviews Ralph Schrader, OTR/L, a part-owner of a therapy clinic in New York and creator of the toy brand, Hungry Cutters. Ralph set out to create toys designed to facilitate developing fine motor skills in the kids he treats. Now, he is sharing those toys with us, along with a few tips for anyone out there who may be interested in developing their own toys. Listen in to hear about:
How Ralph started to develop his own toys
What drives the development of these toys
How toys are tools for therapists and parents
A few tips on how you could turn your self-made toys into a business
Where you can find the toys Ralph has created (*hint*, scroll down for Amazon links)
If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, and please share with your colleagues!
I hope you enjoy this episode! Be sure to check out the resources below.
Links to Show References:
Quick reminder: Links to Amazon.com and other websites on this page may be affiliate links. Affiliate links benefit the OT Schoolhouse at no additional cost to you. I appreciate your support by using these links.
The below references were mentioned throughout Episode 34
Hungry Cutters Scissor Magnets (Amazon)
Get 10 magnetic "Hungry Cutters" that stick to scissors and make cutting fun!
Hungry Cutters Apple Picking Game (Amazon)
Play-based learning at its best with this game that encourages proper scissor technique as kids pick apples with a pair of tong scissors.
Hungry Cutters Pegcasso Build & Drill Set (Amazon)
Use over 300 pieces to facilitate fine motor and visual perceptual development among your students.
Find free, printable templates for the Pegcasso Build & Drill set at HungryCutters.com
Be sure to subscribe to the OT Schoolhouse email list & get access to our free downloads of Gray-Space paper and the Occupational Profile for school-based OTs.
Have any questions or comments about the podcast? Email Jayson at Jayson@otschoolhouse.com
Well,
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Episode Transcript
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Amazing Narrator
Jayson, hello and welcome to the OT school house podcast. Your source for school based occupational therapy tips, interviews and professional development now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jayson Davies class is officially in session.
Jayson Davies
Hey everyone, and welcome to the OT school house podcast. My name is Jason Davies, and I want to welcome you all to episode number 34 today we are going to leave it a little lighter. We're not going to dive into any other research. Today, we're actually going to be talking about toys, which is only appropriate, given that it is summer, by the way. I hope you're all enjoying your summer, if you get a break, if not, I hope you're enjoying still working with the kids, whether it be in the clinic or in their home. I know some of you are doing groups as a side gig during the summer, so I hope you're all having a great start to your summer. It is now July, actually, and so I hope you're all enjoying that and had a great Fourth of July. So going forward today, we actually have on the show Ralph Schrader, and he is the founder and creator of hungry cutters. Many of you have probably seen his some of his products that he has on Instagram, whether it be my Instagram, someone else's Instagram, or maybe you've shared it on your own Instagram. But he has actually been developing several toys for therapists specifically to use with kids, and so it's going to be a pleasure to have him on the show. I really enjoyed getting to know him a little bit, and I think you will enjoy hearing what he has going on in New York City. So I'm just gonna let him take it away, and we are going to have a good listen together. So everyone, this is Ralph Schrader from Hungry cutters. I hope you enjoy the episode. Hey, Ralph, welcome to the OT school house podcast. How are you doing today?
Ralph Schrader
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Jayson, definitely. So.
Jayson Davies
I know I can see, not all the listeners can see, but you're actually at a clinic that you own, right?
Ralph Schrader
I am part owners. I've taken a step back from it to pursue this toy business. But, yeah, I've been a part owner since 2005 of my best friend David Green.
Jayson Davies
Gotcha cool. That's really cool to be in business with a good friend. That's great that it worked out for you.
Ralph Schrader
I know, yeah, it's it's more of a marriage.
Jayson Davies
Well, that's a good way to do it, man. So before we get into hungry cutters. How about you tell us a little bit about your background into occupational therapists or occupational therapy. How did you come across OT?
Ralph Schrader
yeah, of course. Well, so I've been an OT for 20 years. I've done peds throughout, I would say, my whole career. I feel as though I didn't choose peds. The peds life chose me. So when I first started, I went through a job placement service, and I really wanted to do more orthopedic stuff. I want to go into hand therapy. But at the time, the recruiter, this was, you know, late 90s, he really directed me towards going into peds, you know, he felt that's where federal funding was going towards and orthopedics and adults were getting a lot of federal cuts. Federal funding was really, they were really making cuts in that area. So the time being, in my late 20s, I had a six figure debt from both undergrad and grad school, I really had to, I mean, honestly, start making money. I wanted to get married. I wanted to start a family. I still tinkered with hand therapy at the same time. I was also a saxophone player, but that wasn't happening, you know, I thought maybe I would have a niche working with older musicians, you know, many of whom had strokes and had to get back to their occupation. You know that being a musician at the time, most people had no idea what ot was. You know, new grads today on Instagram make the joke and close these memes of patience saying the infamous. You know, what's ot Are you? Yeah, you're gonna get my son, my three year old a job, but, but back then, I mean, if you can imagine, we often, I mean, we often just told people, you know, we're like PT, but, and we were, and it was really a four part to do that to the profession. But, you know, I remembered my saxophone teacher at the time, asked me, you know, what, what were my plans? You know, as I was getting older, and I told him, You know, I was going to OT school. And I figured I was going to have to engage in this conversation of explaining to him what ot was. But he mentioned that one of his friends, and, you know, these are guys that were up in their 60s, 70s, he said, Oh, yeah, of course, I know what ot was. You know, this famous piano player who doesn't mind me talking about the same. His name is Barry Harris, one of the top, you know, jazz musicians in the world, had a stroke, and he told the story of how he owed his life to OT that ot brought him, you know, was allowed him to get back to playing the piano. So. It was at that point I had this like, you know, you read a moment where I had chosen in my profession, you know, so I did Pete's for a couple of years. I started doing home care. And I feel like that was probably my first step towards being an entrepreneur. Was to do home care full time, you know, many back then, you know, had a job at a school. They relied on the profession, the employer, to provide, you know, insurance, health insurance, a pension. So for me, that was the big risk was, you know, putting money aside to pay for my taxes to contribute to a pension. You know, the risk of having cases not having cases, you know, of course, like during the summertime, that caseload drops and you have to start all over again in September. But, yeah, you know, I, I went into peds. You figured 20 years ago, this whole sensory integration, sensory processing thing was fairly new. I mean, you have people, of course, like, you know, Lucy Miller, who they were, you know, deep into their research of sensory processing. I took some courses from with her, you know, Renee Okoye, out here in New York. She owns a dove Rehab Center. She was doing some fabulous things, but it really wasn't mainstream. And when you would try to explain it to people, they just were like, What the hell are you talking about? You know.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. And so, the gym that you or the clinic you have, would you call it a quote, unquote, sensory integration type of clinic.
Ralph Schrader
Yeah, absolutely. You know, we have a couple of hospitals nearby, so they it's almost like an unspoken agreement where they do more of the orthopedic stuff they're dealing with, you know, children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and we're taking on those children that are on the spectrum, that have, you know, si issues.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, gotcha. And I don't think we mentioned it yet. Are you in New York? Where about?
Ralph Schrader
I live out on Long Long Island, or as we say, out on Long Island, Long Island. So excuse my New York accent, but our center is up here in Westchester, in White Plains. David, he lives up here in Westchester, so I commute, and it's a pretty far commute, which is taking its toll on me, both financially and physically, I get that, but a good hour drive for me.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, that's what I used to do, too, about an hour and 15 minutes. So I understand. I just moved closer this past year, actually, and I went from having an hour and 15 to a 10 minute commute. So.
Ralph Schrader
Loving it, yeah, that definitely has its worth, exactly.
Jayson Davies
So, all right, we got a little background on you. You know, you started, you've been doing peds for most of your career. You've got this clinic now that you you've been a part owner since early 2000s right? Yep, 2005 great. So now I want to jump into the the hungry cutter side of this. You know, many people listening to this, I'm sure have seen you, whether it's on Instagram, I know that's where I follow you most. Is on Instagram, and we see some of the stuff you got going on. So how do you go from owning or part owner of a clinic now to getting into that toy business?
Ralph Schrader
Yeah, you know first, let me start by saying thanks to you. I think, you know, I'm late to the I never really got involved in social media, so I just started with Instagram, probably in August, and I think you were the first one, one of the first people, not the first to like repost one of my toys.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. I think also.
Ralph Schrader
Right, yes, exactly. Wow. Look at this. I felt like a superstar then, because you had your podcast, and I listened to a few of them. So it was very humbling, and I very, very much appreciate that. But to answer your question, you know, over the last 10 years, I really took more of an administrative role up here at our center, and it's not me, you know, yeah, I mean, I really had to learn all about insurance, payroll, state regulations, labor laws, audits, etc. And to be quite honest, between that and just treating I was burnt out. And to keep myself mentally stimulated, I started, you know, just making toys, you know, out of anything, foam, aluminum foil, I mean, just anything. And I remember now trying to teach children how to open and close scissors. And I constantly sat there, you know, here I am now approaching 50, opening my mouth, you know, open, you know, chop, chop, chop, and it didn't work.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Ralph Schrader
When I, when I drew a crocodile on a magnet and put it on the magnet, the kids were, I mean, their eyes just, I mean, open so wide, and they got it, you know, yeah. And what happened is, one of my, one of my first sessions, a new family came in, and one of our first sessions, I used these, you know, self made magnets. And the parent was sitting behind watching, and I saw her on her phone, and shortly after, she said, you know, Ralph, I can't find these, you know, because I call them hungry cutters at the time as well, just as a joke, pretty much. So they can't find these hungry cutters on Amazon, you know? And I probably said, Well, you know, you're young. Here they are. These are the first ones. They're not for sale yet. I would love to, you know, make something like this, but they're just something I use. And she was an attorney, and she pleaded that I do something about it, you know, she's like, Ralph, this is a great idea. You have to do it. You have, you know, I'll help you figure out how to protect your idea. But you really should try to, you know, move forward and get this created. And at the time, I had several other toys too, not just that, but, yeah, that's, you know, and I, again, I just got to a point where I kept on showing other therapists. And I think my turning point was my partner said, Look, if you don't do it, I'm going to do it. Yeah. So I yeah, I just went ahead and moved forward with it.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, to be honest. I mean, when I first came across hungry cutters, you know, like you were talking about back in August or so, I saw the peg cost award, and I heard the name hungry cutters, and I was trying to put two and two together. I was like, this, doesn't I understand the name hungry cutter? Like, I'm thinking of scissors and stuff like that. And it wasn't actually, until, I don't know, maybe a month or two later, that I finally saw on Instagram the actual hungry cutters themselves. I was like, Ah, now it makes sense.
Ralph Schrader
Yes, and that's good that you point that out. You know? It's like, I'm one of those people, as many of us are, especially, I think some OTs, you know, you run into analysis paralysis, you know. And I just was like, you know that we could do this with it, you know, they're too thick, you know, they come off too easily. I have to tell you, the first hungry cutters that actually went on Amazon were not the ones today. Oh no, and I just was losing sleep over it, and I recalled all of them back, had them shipped to my house, and I made some changes. The original hungry Carters did not have a magnet on every magnet, if that makes sense, the magnet that sticks to the actual blade of the scissor and then attaches to the little critters. It was one magnet, and you attached each critter to it, okay, but they were coming off easily. And I said to myself, You know what? I could just hear the, you know, these, the older therapists complain they come off too easily. So I called them back. I could recall them all back and had each, each critter with a magnet attached to it, okay, but going back, I don't know if I answered your question as far as what drove me, you know, to go towards into this industry, you know, Toys R Us closed, and E commerce. I mean, e commerce is just huge, growing so much. Things like Amazon just made it possible for someone like me to, you know, bring our ideas to life, absolutely, if it wasn't for Amazon, I would be at the mercy of, you know, the big wigs of these corporations, and just trying to get my foot in the door. And that doesn't happen unless it's, you know, like the old adage, you know, it's who you know. It's not so much what you know. Exactly, Amazon opened that door for a lot of us, and, you know, we are now in a market where it's not so much the brand name that sells the product, it's that social proof. You know, people going on Amazon, on Instagram and saying, Hey, I bought them. They're great, you know, and all that social verification from professionals, you know. You know, my goal with my toys, it's, is to spread it like a first set, give it to therapists, you know. And hopefully therapists tell their parents, their friends, teachers. So that's the strategy. So it doesn't matter if it's Ralph, you know, who's selling the toy, or, you know, not to like fish a price, or any of those. You know, what's going to make that what's going to decide, what's going to allow a person to make that decision? Is that social proof, five stars versus two stars?
Jayson Davies
Absolutely, absolutely, it's the two things. I mean, I think I told you in an email when we were getting in contact. You know, I honestly thought, when I saw the Picasso board set that first time, I almost thought that it was like, Fisher Price or something, having an OT brand type of company where they're trying to sell to therapists, in a way. And it wasn't until I saw the actual hungry cutters that I was like, Wait a second, this has got to be an OT coming up with this. And so like you talk like you're talking about that social, you know, connectedness on social media, people sharing your products. And again, as occupational therapists, we're one of the few professionals that use toys as tools, and it's got to be something good. I mean, because we're not using it, you know, we're not giving it to our kids. So to play with two days and then toss in the toy chest and it's gone. We need to, we need to use it year after year because, you know, public funding and all that good stuff in schools, it's minimal. And even clinics, I mean, we don't have that much money to spend on a bunch of tools.
Ralph Schrader
So I, I make that joke all the time. I say, a physician has his stethoscope, a carpenter has a hammer as an OT I have my tongs and scissors. Yes, these are our tools, absolutely
Jayson Davies
so, all right, so we talked a little bit about the hungry cutters, you know, and you talked about how those are basically these little animals that connect to scissors through magnets and use those to help kids learn how to how to cut. What other things do you have out there? I've been mentioning Picasso, but probably not everyone knows what that is.
Ralph Schrader
Yeah, so the Picasso, um, is a drill toy that comes with pegs, and then there are many out there, so it's nothing in that sense that's original. But when I saw it, you know, because there's some toys out there and it's nothing original that are just out there. So in other words, if you want to start your toy a toy company tomorrow, you can find a manufacturer of blocks and call it Jayson block set. Yeah, but the key to doing that is, you know, you have to differentiate yourself from the others. You know. Why should I buy yours over? You know, someone that's been out there for years, and the other drill toys that are out there, I just felt, you know, they were great, but they could be a lot better. And in the Picasso's case, what I did was I added templates to them, or if you some people call them activity boards, I've added some, you know, rubber bands. And more importantly, the one advantage I have, I would say, or the one thing that separates me from the larger corporations, is any product that I come out with. I consider myself married to that toy or that product hungry colors I consider a tool. I marry myself to that. So with that, I mean, like today, for instance, you know, I posted a template of the letter W that could work with the Picasso board. And I saw that we use, yeah, yeah. So we use rubber bands to, you know, give that proprioceptive feedback. I use the string just to kind of get that directional flow of letter formation. And I'm able to add, you know, characters and cartoons, which I love doing, you know. And I have, you know, my my dad involved, who's an artist. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, that's one of the reasons I got into toys, you know, just to go back. I mean, my dad is an outsider. Will call him a hoarder. But if I told you that he's been collecting the Hess trucks amongst others, for the past, you know, 30 years, I wouldn't be exaggerating. So to this day, I still get a Hess truck for Christmas. Nice, you know. So we collaborate on a lot of ideas. He helps me, you know, with the prototypes and designing them. But, yeah, that's cool.
Jayson Davies
Well, it takes time, and especially to come with prototypes. You're you're talking about using Styrofoam. I'm sure you use cardboard. I mean,
Ralph Schrader
yes. So I recently posted a picture of a bee toy that's coming out. And I, you know, I came up with the idea of designing a honey comb on top of the rim of the container. And the only way I could come, you know, design, this prototype was out of aluminum foil. So I really, like, I basically wrapped this aluminum foil around it. I had to be already done. I placed the bead on top of it. I contacted one of my manufacturers out in China, and I, you know, showed her this picture. I said, can you make this? And a half of three manufacturers I work with, one of them laughed, and, you know, sent this emoji, like, you know, smiley face with the tears coming down. Like, like, in other words, what the hell is this? That's funny. It was like, maybe four in the morning. Because you have to realize it's, you know, four in the morning. Here, it's four, four in the morning in New York. It's 4pm out in China. Okay, so, um, you know, I'm half asleep, somewhat delirious, but in my right state of mind, I'm sending you these pictures. And she was, I don't know what this is. I'm like, come on, you could figure it out. So that that's one of, one of the first clues as to, you know who you should work with as someone that wants to take the time and try to figure out what your idea is. So I sent it to another person, and within minutes, she sent me a three, you know, 3d rendition of what I was thinking of. I said, That's it. That's it, you know, she, she helped me with the dimensions. You know, we went back and forth and, yeah, I.
Jayson Davies
That's cool. All right, so you got a few manufacturers from China that you're working with. So everything, do you have? Everything shipped directly to your house then?
Ralph Schrader
Good question. And going back to what made me decide that I would be able to compete in this multi million the billion dollar industry, you know, storage is one thing you have to think about. You know, back in the day, you would have to rent, you know, have a warehouse and store these products. Today, with the brilliance of Amazon is you can have your product made in China or wherever it is. I mean, there are other competing countries out there, such as Vietnam, India, Thailand. You could have your product made out there. And if you can anticipate how many you're going to sell, you can have that product shipped right to Amazon and not have to worry about storage. Yeah, you know, the only trick to that is, you know, after a year, which recently changed. It used to be six months after a year, Amazon charges these enormous storage fees that literally render your product. I mean, it'll put you out of business if your products are still there. Gotcha. But if you can strategically plan how many or how much you'll sell in that year, it's a great deal. You know, you don't have to worry about storing your product. I mean, you can go right from China to the to the Amazon warehouse, you know. But it's prior to that. It's knowing and giving the okay that your products ready.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, that's the challenge, definitely. All right, so I want to go back. We didn't talk about one of the toys yet, and that is your you have, like an apple tree. I haven't played this one yet. Tell us about this.
Ralph Schrader
So the apple picking tree, I think, is that bridge to using, let's say, play doh scissors, plastic scissors, to real scissors, or just kids who are not interested in using actual scissors for cutting, their tongues that are that work like scissors. You know, they have that hinge that pivot in the middle and they act as scissors, but the idea is to pick the apples off the tree without knocking them down. So the added benefit, which I use with a lot of my kids that are impulsive and just very disorganized, is to slow down, you know, try not to knock all those apples off the tree at once. The apples are designed that they're close together. So if you're using that pronated grasp, you know, with your palm first facing down, you're more inclined to knock all the apples down. So it really requires a delicate, you know, careful approach to taking them off. And the other side is a little bit easier, where the apples are spaced out further apart. But, yeah, I recently, I think it was last week, an OT on Instagram forwarded a text message from a parent who has a child that's on the spectrum and really had no interest or idea on how to use scissors, just the opening closing aspect of it, and she ordered the apple picking toy, you know, as a recommendation from this therapist. And the mother texted her back in tears that for the first time he was opening and closing, had such an interest in picking these apples, you know, nice. So I like it. Yeah, I've had some criticism from the OTs I work with here, but I love them. Definitely. That's another Yep, go inside.
Jayson Davies
I was gonna say what I like about it is like you were talking about it requires that precision for the kid to slow down, because we have too many kids that don't know how to stop and don't know, I mean, I know this is the next step, going beyond, you know, just trying to get an app off the tree with the scissors. But I mean, when you actually get to the part where they're cutting paper, kids don't know how to cut corners, they don't know how to stop cutting, they don't know how to turn the paper. I know that's the next step, but that's where you're you're starting with this apple picking is it's very precise movements that they have to make and be conscious about what they're doing.
Ralph Schrader
Well, said Jayson, I should use that for the promo.
Jayson Davies
There you go. Man, help in any way I can. Thank you. All right, so. Man, we talked about most of the toys, talked a little bit about entrepreneurship, but what sense of fulfillment do you get from all of this?
Ralph Schrader
Another great question, like I said, I was really at a point where I was getting burnt out, you know, treating and I'm someone that, you know, I'm constantly coming up with ideas, you know, to the point that it's annoying. You know, my wife's getting really tired of it. You know, I'm coming out of the shower. I got an idea, you know, what do you think it is? And she's like, Oh, just leave me alone. I have to go to work. But when I come up with these ideas, and some of them I can put together with some, you know, some of the toys you have and, you know, right at your disposal, I love putting together. There's something, or getting a prototype and just racing to work to try it out on some of my kids. And nothing's better than seeing a kid smile, or better yet, ask for that toy the next day. You know, I remember once, I think was about a year ago, I had the apple tree, a different version of it, which I hope to one day put in production. This is, you'll love this one, but I had a model of it, which I worked really hard at at home. And when I brought it to a school, like, three kids were jumping on it, and the teacher said, you know, he only brings this, you know, all he's doing is really, you know, testing out his toy. And I'm also doing therapy. But you're right. I get the added benefit where, you know, I have this is research and development. My biggest critics are the other kids, you know. And some of the things I've come up with kids over time, I've said, Nah, I could do without it. But the Picasso is my O, my go to what I love about that one is, you know, the kids can grow with this toy, you know. And that's, that's really what I try to do when I post all these different templates and ideas, is that, you know, you don't have to shower your kid with toys. You know, I see a lot of kid parents with children that have, you know, some issues that they're working on. They feel the answers to constantly shower them by the toys. I mean, they have it. They have a toy store, yeah, yeah, or an app store, you know.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. It's funny. You actually mentioned that because they're, I can't remember. I didn't read the research, but someone was sharing with me, you know that recesses need to be longer because it takes kids a long time to get bored, and if you keep feeding them a new a new toy, they never get bored, which never facilitates creative thinking. And so, you know, if you give them that Picasso, and you know what, maybe they start to get bored with a drill. Well, now they're gonna have to figure out how to use the screwdriver, or how to use the rubber band or the other piece of plastic to build.
Ralph Schrader
Well, they say, you know, the average, the average child puts that toy in the corner within two weeks. So after two weeks, the child is done with the toy. So my goal is to try to bring that toy back and say, take a look at it differently. Turn it over, right. Turn it around. What happens if I give you some rubber bands? What can you do with it? Now, you know, absolutely, and I love toys that have a three dimensional aspect to it. So that's where the Picasso comes in, again, where you can build and, you know, a lot of our kids, like you mentioned with the apps, you know, it's just a two dimensional world, you know, I want them to, you know, feel things, you know, get acquainted with depth perception. You know, how tall is that thing behind it? Yeah. I mean, how many blocks have to put on top of the one that's behind it that I can't see? So, yeah.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. And I was, you kind of mentioned it a little bit, but I want to go into a little further. Is that on your website, you have two different types of templates. Not only do you have things that you can print out and put right on top of the Picasso for people to kind of just use as a picture board, per se, but you also have pictures up there that you could potentially print out and have the kid copy like you have different diagonal lines and things that kids need to somehow copy. So you would put the picture next to the Picasso and they would have to copy it. So for anyone out there, if you have it, be sure to check out hungrycutters.com because he does have those templates that you can just print out, or even just show the kid on the iPad and have them copy it. So, yeah, definitely. Alrighty, man, well, I'll ask you one last question, and then we'll, we'll get back to our day, and that is, what would you suggest for the OT out there that maybe has an idea for for a toy, or even if it's something like starting a clinic or something, what's that first step that you would recommend to that therapist?
Ralph Schrader
Well, I would say, be prepared to, as I've used the word many times, get married to that idea, you know, as another adage, I like to use, you know, I work 80 hours. I don't have to work 40 for someone else. You know, I literally have been working seven days a week for the past 20 years, and my wife and kids. Could tell could, you know, could tell you that as well. But to answer your question, what would I tell them? I would say, get familiar with business. 101, you know, unfortunately, I feel like ot going to OT school. They really don't prepare you for management, entrepreneurship, um, you know, just how to run a business, just simple business terminology, like, what's a bill of lading? You know, what's you know? What are shipping terms as as you know, such as FOB freight on board, you know, COVID. Container terminology, uh, full container loads. And let me tell you, if you don't know these terms, and you start, and you inquire to a manufacturer on getting your product developed, they they'll just ignore you if you don't, if they're, if they're giving you these acronyms and initials, and you are responding, I don't know what that is. And to be quite honest, when I first started, I didn't know what they were. Yeah, you know, someone asked me, you know, give me your AI file. And I was like, what is that? Artificial Intelligence? I mean, ai file, you know, luckily, we have Google, so, you know, it's Adobe Illustrator they wanted an Adobe Illustrator file. And, you know, what's MOQ? They know, they will, they will ask you, what's your MOQ? So I didn't know what that was, you know, minimum order quantity. So what are the you know? So first, I would recommend that you become familiar with simple business terminology. Second, you know, look into, how do you want to protect your idea? You know, there are three ways, I guess, you can protect that idea, you know, getting a trademark, getting it copyrighted. Or, you know what I'm trying to do, getting it patented. So if you're, if you have drawings, music, literature, you know, chances are you're going to want to get a copyright. If you have a unique name, like I like my hungry cutters name, you know, I want to get that trademarked. If you have a unique logo, like a Nike swish symbol, you know, you want to get that trademark so people aren't using that. And at the same time, with your trademark, you know, people can't copy the name in similar ways, you know. And finally, a patent. You know, if your idea is good enough, you at least want to get a patent pending status. So pretty much you're telling people, Hey, you know, stay away. Yeah, you have a year to follow through with that patent, which is very expensive, but for a year you can have a patent pending status. And in that year's time you really want to, you know, present your product to the public, and you want to present it strong. You really want to get it out there and bombard the public with it, at least, get that name out there so everyone's
Jayson Davies
talking and let them know, is yours? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Ralph Schrader
So at the very least, if, at the very least, if someone's copying it, they'll say, You know what? That's a copy of hungry cutters. I've seen them do it before, you know.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and especially in the toy business, I can imagine, because, I mean, you know, Fisher Price and all them, they just have people out there scrolling and looking for ideas that people maybe got that patent yet. And so they had, they had the money, you know. And if they got, if they got wind of your idea, and it's not patented, you know, they can have it out tomorrow, versus it takes you some time to get it out there.
Ralph Schrader
That's and you bring up a good point as far as giving advice, you know, if I had to do it differently, and I'm exploring those options now, and I and I'm in talks with several companies, you know, it's an expensive undertaking to say the least. You know, I've spoken to and I'm on a few blogs of inventors, or, you know, toy designers and so forth. And someone's eight years into this, 800 grand into it. Now I'm not, I'm not anything like that, but it just goes to show you that this can, you know, you can really go down a rabbit that's hole with this? Yeah, so I would recommend that to reconsider this undertaking. And another good alternative is to get your product licensed. And by that, I mean, there are a lot of toy companies that are open. They want people like us, you know, that have ideas, and today, you can easily get a 3d rendition of your idea. It's not expensive. You can reach out to someone on, I think, Upwork, you know, they have a lot of freelance graphic designers, those that are familiar with Adobe Illustrator, you know, some are overseas, so they're really inexpensive. And you can put your idea, you know, into design. You know, it looks like the real thing, yeah, you know, years ago, you would have to get that drawn by an artist, and doesn't look it, but you can get a 3d drawing that looks like the real thing and present it to a company, and if they're interested, they'll contact you back. And with that, the other piece of advice I would give is, when you do contact these companies. They may not respond to you, yeah, and you have to be persistent. And they may tell you it's not a good idea, or they're not interested, and that, but that shouldn't, that shouldn't now make you feel as though you need to, you know, junk that idea, because what's a bad idea for them today may be great tomorrow. So the perfect example of that would be like if I had a toy that had a unicorn that, you know, somehow incorporated a unicorn. Maybe five years ago, they weren't interested. But today, everyone's making something with a unicorn. Of course. Of course, unicorns are hot right now. Yeah. Remember, 10 years ago was the narwhal. Everyone was the narwhal song came out. If he had, if he had a toy with a novel, they probably would have jumped on today, I don't think, I don't think that narwhal sort of thing. It's unicorns again, yeah, it's like Baby shark. Keep in mind, yeah, exactly, yeah. Great example. 15 years ago, I'm scared to show up there. I don't want a shark, you know. So just because the idea is not good today doesn't mean it won't be a good, a great idea tomorrow. So just don't give up.
Jayson Davies
Absolutely. Man, all right. Ralph, well, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I'm so happy to see you using your ot skills to have a different type of effect that we don't see a lot of OTs in. And so that's really cool to see what you're doing and to have that, that ot lens on toy development, just super cool. So we'll be sure. We'll be sure to share links to hungry cutters, as well as the Amazon links for all the different toys on the show notes. I mean, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Hope we can stay in touch. Oh, absolutely.
Ralph Schrader
Jayson, thanks so much for having me. This has been such a great experience. I loved your podcast. I listened to them while I'm in my car going from patient to patient. So thanks for the work you do. Great.
Jayson Davies
Thank you, man. We'll have a great rest of your Saturday, and we'll talk to you later. All right. Jayson, all right, everyone. Well, that is a wrap on episode 34 the OT school house podcast. If you'd like to see some of those resources that we were talking about, head on over to OT schoolhouse.com forward slash, Episode 34 I want to give a special shout out and a thank you to Ralph for coming on the show and sharing a little bit about some of the toys that he has created, why he doesn't and a little bit honestly about how he does it, in case any of you out there are interested and have some ideas for toys that you might be able to build one day. So with that, I say thank you so much. I appreciate your time, your energy and the fact that you listen to the OT school house podcast and continue to learn. We'll see you next time on the podcast. Take care.
Amazing Narrator
Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast for more ways to help you and your students succeed. Right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed.
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