5 Things We Did to Turn an Idea Into a Reality
It was a little over a year ago when it happened. Staring at the ceiling, lying awake in the wee hours of the morning, moments after our then 3-month-old son finally went back down to sleep, I had a breakthrough of ideas that would help the development of a card game that my family and I were in the midst of creating. The immediate rush of excitement was incredible — this was a “light bulb” type of moment after all. But what followed was months of work, creative struggle, and risk-taking to eventually turn our idea of Top That Toast into the tangible product that now exists.
In the past year of the game’s development, I’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined. So I believe that if at least one of these tips can help get you that much closer to making your idea a reality, then I’ll have helped repay those individuals who have helped guide our product’s creation.
1. Believe In It
Honestly, we all have great ideas. Idea-generation is generally not an area that is lacking in society today. What is lacking is the link between ideas and actual creation. I truly believe that what stops many people today is the fear of failure. Fear of rejection is real, and it makes sense. We make decisions each day to not buy things or support companies. But satisfying everyone should never be a company or organization’s goal anyway.
The biggest supporter of believing in your idea is Seth Godin. Seth is a successful businessman, author, and teacher. One of his biggest arguments is that the more outrageous, or unique, of an idea you have, the more reason it deserves to be brought into existence. The fact that your idea or product is not for everyone is precisely why it deserves to be made.
Your idea may not be the thing that solves a problem for everyone. But that’s completely okay, and that may be what sets your idea apart.
2. Know The Industry
This should go without mention, but if you plan to hit some level of success in an endeavor, you should arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible. In the case where you are entering an industry or line of work that is new, then you should especially become a student of the game. Know the players. Take note of what brought them success; pay even closer attention to what didn’t work for them. And interact with them whenever you get the opportunity. The Internet has made this easier than ever before, and it’s shrunk the knowledge gap that used to exist between the makers and consumers.
In 2013, a whole two years before we even launched a website for Top That Toast, I reached out to Max Temkin via email to ask him some questions about how his team manufactured their card game. You might not know Max, but you most likely have heard of the card game he and his friends made, Cards Against Humanity. This card game is undeniably the most successful indie board game in existence, and I didn’t know Max at all. But despite this, he responded to my email. That interaction led us to work with Ad Magic, our printer, and it’s helped us get a foot in an industry that would have otherwise been foreign.
When we made the decision to launch the game with a Kickstarter campaign, we made it a point to understand the Kickstarter user-experience as much as possible. That meant backing multiple projects to see how the experience felt as a backer, interacting with people on message boards, and researching everything from creating campaigns to handling product fulfilment. Every step along the way, we learned more.
3. Collaborate
As you begin your project and start putting in the work, your time will be at a premium. While Top That Toast is a family creation — the efforts of myself, my wife Casey Ann, my sisters, Jeannine and Jenna, and our dad, Big Joe — we knew early on that creating relationships with other experts would put us in the best position to create a game we could be proud of.
While writing and creating the concept of the game, we knew that we wanted the look-and-feel to be professional. Could we have taken a chance on our own Photoshop skills and created a design? Sure, but we knew an investment in the design would only increase our quality. So we enlisted the graphic design expertise of Philadelphia-based Random Embassy, and they delivered a logo and artwork that is stunning. The result is that most people, upon seeing the game, want to know more. They’re drawn in, captured by the aesthetic. The benefits of that collaboration are numerous: we saved time, the quality of the game was elevated, and we created a great relationship Random Embassy.
4. Be Generous
Generosity in this case is two-fold. It requires not only sharing your idea but also being completely open to criticism. Your idea, no matter how much effort you invest, does not define you. Likewise, any critical feedback you receive will likely be focused on your product or service — not you.
After all, you believe in your idea, and you know it’s not for everyone.
5. Put In the Time and Have Patience
Look around the town you live in and take notice to all of the businesses that you encounter on an average day. For every Silicon Valley startup that strikes it big, there are hundreds of other businesses that are under the radar of the average person, yet still successful by any number of measures. Booming success may not happen overnight for you, but long term growth certainly can.
We spent over 10 months developing, designing, prototyping, playtesting, marketing, campaigning, and eventually producing the game. We held meetings at night, after the baby’s bedtime, or on weekend mornings where we could carve out 2–3 hours together. Sometimes, things moved slower than we wanted. We all have day jobs, and you likely do too. If you put in the time though, you will see progress and hit milestones that will reinforce your belief in your creation.
How you measure success is up to you. With Top That Toast, we can look back on all of the time and effort we’ve put in, the risks we’ve taken, and know that something we created is now out in the world and could have a positive impact on other people. And for me, that’s a big success.
