What Makes an Idea Stick? Secrets from Two Creative Powerhouses

What if your next big idea wasn’t just creative—but also wildly successful? In this episode of Your Creative Mind, I talk with Gavin Lawler and Neal Hoffman, two brilliant minds who have turned their creative visions into real-world wins. From innovative storytelling to building brands that capture hearts and imaginations, they share practical strategies for making creativity work—in business, art, and life. You’ll hear how they’ve navigated challenges, leveraged the power of persuasion, and turned passion projects into thriving ventures. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an artist, or someone with a dream waiting to take shape, this conversation will give you actionable steps and fresh inspiration to move forward with confidence. Tune in and get the creative edge you’ve been looking for!

Gavin Lawler is the founder of Inno8 Creative Academy, the home of Creepy Cute Collectible and winner of the 2025 Collectible Toy of the Year from the Toy Association.

Innov8 Creative Academy is a trailblazer in crafting distinctive collectible toys and characters. Renowned for their innovative designs and captivating storytelling, Innov8 ignites the imagination and sparks creativity. With a passion for pushing boundaries, they create more than just toys—they craft worlds. Their mission? To inspire wonder, foster creativity, and bring joy to collectors across the globe.

Neal Hoffman is a Shark Tanker and the CEO of FanRoll Dice. He’s also the creator of the Mensch on a Bench, the most publicized brand to ever come out of Shark Tank.

FanRoll offers premium dice sets for tabletop RPG fans, collectors, and dice lovers. The Catan Masterpiece Series, fully funded on Kickstarter in just one hour, showcases their commitment to quality. Whether you’re playing Catan, D&D, Pathfinder, or other games, FanRoll’s dice combine stunning designs with perfect balance. With materials ranging from acrylic and metal to resin, gemstones, and glow-in-the-dark, each set enhances your gaming experience. Trust FanRoll to provide dice that are as beautiful as they are functional.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-lawler-817457b3/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neal-hoffman-8a2306/

https://www.kreepycollectibles.com/

https://www.wellbeingheroes.com/

https://fanrolldice.com/

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Episode Transcript

This podcast is all about using your innate creativity and mindfulness to build a life

Izolda Trakhtenberg: This world is easy for me. You just got to a look at every villain that ever existed and, look for inspiration and make them cute. So there’s no secret sauce to this.

Izolda: Welcome to your creative mind. I’m Izolda Trakhtenberg and this podcast is all about using your innate creativity and mindfulness to build a life you love. Whether it’s through writing, music, dance, theater, or any creative pursuit. We’ll explore how to tap into your unique potential to transform your work, relationships and daily life through inspiring conversations with world changing artists, entrepreneurs and innovators, or actionable insights. In my solo episodes, you’ll learn how to focus your energy, ignite your creativity, and bring more joy and purpose to everything you do.

Izolda: Hi there, this is Izolda Trakhtenberg. For the your Creative mind podcast. You might remember that I am doing a special set of episodes. Instead of deep dives, I’m doing sort of mini interviews with a bunch of really amazing creative entrepreneurs. People who own companies that are designed to help other people be entertained and learn and have fun and get creative themselves. I am here with Neal Hoffman and Gavin Lawler. Yeah, Gavin rightly, he had his arms in front of his little badge thinking he doesn’t need you. And then he moved them so I could see his name. Thank you for doing that, Gavin. Yeah, that’s it.

And so we are here talking about a couple of different things. First of all, Mensch on a bench, you might remember that you also might like, if you follow the show, you might like Dice. And if you like the Dead, specifically Deddy Bears. We have some things to talk to Gavin Lawler about. So I would like to welcome Gavin and Neal to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome.

Izolda Trakhtenberg: Thank you so much. Just lovely to talk to you.

Gavin Lawler: Just happy to be next again.

Izolda: Ah, mutual admiration society.

Gavin Lawler: Good.

Izolda: I love it.

Okay, so let’s start with you, Neal, because I know you’ve gotta go. This show is very real. It’s exactly what you get. Talk to me about Dice. What is it that made you go, you know what? I’m gonna make dice, but I’m gonna make them in a way that people are going to get obsessed with. Not just the product itself, but the extra special touches that you put in to make people get very, very excited to use them, to collect them and to have them in their lives.

Gavin Lawler: All right, well, first of all, I am a geek. I love this world. I grew up, professionally on GI Joe, and for GI Joe, it was same thing, really deep diving into the individual Characters the brand and delighting the fans. And when I bought metallic dice games, I rebranded it as Fan roll to serve the fans. And now we really try to understand what people are passionate about and blow their minds. Dice are commodity. they’dime a dozen. And how can we flip that on its head and make a die so cool and unique that you need to bring it with you and it adds to your gaming experience?

Izolda: Okay, I love that you call dice a commodity, because I know people who will fight for the dice they love. They’re just getting into it.

So I want to ask you to think about this next question as I talk to Gavin for a second. I want to know from you, you say you’re a gamer, you say you’re a geek, which is great. Yay. I host a game night every, well, month now. But anyway, tell me what you think. Just think about it. Tell me what you think makes up a person who is the kind of personality who would get obsessed with games and get obsessed with the products, the commodities of those games. So think about that while I speak with Gavin.

Neal: Gavin created Deddy Bears and now has a huge product line

Izolda: Gavin, I am in love with Deddy Bears. I would love to ask you, because this is a podcast about creativity, what made you go, yes, I’m going to create bears. And they’re not all bears. There are a lot of different kinds of creatures here that are just a little bizarre and that lots of people who. I guess the way to look at it is the sort of aura I’m getting is people who might feel like they’re outsiders might see themselves in, if you see what I mean. Talk to me about what inspired that and how you went from the inspiration to creating the first one and now to this huge product line.

Gavin Lawler: Thank you for having me on the show. for those of you who don’t, understand the Irish accent, I apologize. so my name is Gavin, and, for 15 years now, I’ve been inventing products, toys. I have this kind of weird relationship with Walmart in Canada, where they had asked me to design some Christmas products, Plush. we had some relative success there. And then they came to me and they asked me to design some products for, ah, harvest Halloween. so within 36 hours, I created Dy Bears. Within six months it was in store, and within two days we had an 85% sell through, which was really important because it kind of gave me a green slip to go back to the rest of the global trade and say, look, guys, I’ve got something. It worked in Walmart. Look at my sales data from the first two days. And, we went from 400 stores to 65,000 stores in 50 countries in 18 months. I think your question was exceptional. Which is, you know, is it slightly for the alternative or. there’s a background to Deddy bears. it’s not quite horror, and it’s not quite Disney cute. It’s somewhere in the middle. It’s in this middle lane. We call it creepy cute. and whether like it or not, the world has changed. and everybody in the thoughts of our business is that everybody has a place. So even daddy bears have a place with the kids.

Izolda: You know, I love that. And my husband’s moniker for every social media thing is awful cute. And he’s an artist and a clown. So, yes, I love that. I will come back to you because I have so many other questions. All right, Neal, what are your thoughts before you have to run? Do you remember the question?

Neal: I think Gavin and I serve similar consumers

All right, cool. Here’s Neal with the answer to that question.

Neal Hoffman: I think Gavin and I actually serve kind of very similar consumers. Right. We serve people who don’t feel accepted by mainline society. I describe it as if you had a great high school experience. You’re probably not somebody I want to be friends with. Right. Good for you. That life was easy. but you. Those people who had challenges and are unique and different, we come together, and a lot of times we come together in my world over a gaming table, and we share that experience together, and it’s a fun experience, and we bond over it. And if I could put out products that make that more engaging and interesting, I think that’s what I’m doing.

Izolda Trakhtenberg: Well, you’re a genius, bro.

Neal Hoffman: and, I mean, I’ve been looking around the showroom. Hundreds of items that are coming out of Gavin’s mind. The, most creative dude I’ve worked with. we’ve worked together for over 10 years. and I will tell that story real quick, and then I’m gonna go, if that’s okay. Can I swear on your podcast?

Neal Hoffman and Gavin Lawler have been partners since 2007

Okay. I’ve been do my Gavin impression. So I went to business school, and I went to business school to make toys. Everybody knew that. This guy, David Dunleavy from Ireland reaches out to me. He says, hey, there’s this company in Ireland that’s doing ferry doors. They’re killing it. I want you to talk to this guy, Gavin Lawler. And I’m like, okay. And he reaches out to Gavin, Gavin reaches out to me. We go to dinner, and the first time we met, like, I fell in love with this guy. And I’m like, so man, how do you know David Dunleavy? He’s a good friend of mine. Goes, who the fuck is David Donad Davy? I was like, you know, David to introduced us. He goes, o, that fucker just emailed me website. David Dunleavy. Didn’t know him, just thought that I should talk to him and sent an email into your website. And thanks to that one random encounter, we had dinner that night and we’ve been partners ever since. So this is a shout out. I’d like to dedicate this podcast to David Dunleavy.

Izolda: Ah, Neal, thank you so much. That was brilliant. That’s a real exercise and a real lesson in the power of yes. You know, like, yeah, go ahead, introduce us. And look, it’s a 10 year long and counting partnership. I’m sorry he had to leave. You two are hilarious together.

You actually inspired me to do that. I had to put in a mailbox

So Gavin, I’m looking around and I’m going, oh yeah, first of all, fairy doors, love them. Love fairy doors. You actually inspired me to do that. I had to put in a mailbox in front of my house and I went, I’m gonna find little thing. And I had a little, a whole little fairry thing around the cement around the mailbox because it looked ugly. And I decided I was gonna make it pretty. So I had little houses, little fairies, little fairies flying. So it was due to your inspiration, which I didn’t know then, but now I do. So very cool.

So talk to me about this notion with. As I’m looking around I’m going, I want one of those and I want one of those. Are there themes and if so, what are the themes around the different characters of Deddy bears and some of the other ones that as you said are creepy cute?

Gavin Lawler: Look, I mean this world is easy for me. You just got to look at every villain that ever existed and look for inspiration and make them cute. So that’s there’s no secret sauce to this, right? Kids today, the traditional toy, the traditional play is dipping. And they’re looking for almost kind of alternative play. Something that gives them that dopamine hit when they open the bag and they can collect. In terms of theming and your question, I typically look, I mean I can do like a biker club theme or I can do like an animal club theme. It’s so easy for me. It just comes natural to me. I suck at so many things. I just really happen to be good in the creative space. So theming is definitely. I sit down and I look at two or three series Per brand, every week. And I just pick a theme in my head and I sketch into that theme. It’s that simple for me. Now I struggle with lot of other things, like Neal had mentioned there, you know, that, know some people that didn’t have great college experiences and all that I grafted all my life. But, you know, I never really felt like I fit in, right? So now was my time because I’m fitting in with my product design, right? So that’s my acceptance for me, like, you know, so I like to show the world my designs. So if you’re looking around here, you’re seeing we’re at New York Toy Fair 202. And, we got, we got eight brands on launch. We’got like thousands of stores. And, you know, someone behind me you’re looking at there is a brand called Limbs, and it takes its inspiration from A Nightmare Before Christmas. One of the most popular characters in that was, this kind of limby character called Jack Skellybones or Jack Skillington. And nobody in the whole trade took advantage of that poseable, plush, limy style of a brand. It existed in a character. But I, I saw a world past the character and into almost like a brand where I can create multiples of characters across multiple of series and honestly, just like brighten up people’s lives. That’s what the brands do. They absolutely do. Not everybody can just want like the cute stuff, right? I mean, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this side of things. It’s creepy cute, you know, and it’s accepted, in this day and age, it’s mass industry. It used to be alternative. It used to be like, you’d have to hand pick stores to go to. Now we can walk into Walmart or Target or Five Below and buy it. So, you know, it’s a good space to be in. And we like to think we’re market leaders in this space.

Izolda: That was very businessy of you. Thank you.

So, you know what’s interesting to me as I’m listening to you talk about this and you’re saying people who don’t belong, belong here. And that’s fabulous and I love it. And especially kids seeing themselves like my husband, when he paints or draws, if you ask him to do a self portrait, it looks nothing like him. It’s a very caricaturized version of who he is. He’s a beautiful man. If, if, Robin Williams, Ralph Fiennes and Harrison Ford had a love child. That’s my husband. Like, seriously, I can show you pictures but he doesn’t see himself that way. And yet here you have done this thing where you are giving people, as you said, creepy cute. But it’s not just that.

Izolda: To me, they all have a personality. Each one of these, as I’m looking around at them, has a very particular personality. And my husband was a clown with the circus. So I’m looking at Juggles and I’m like, oh, yeah, Juggles is perfect. But at the same time there’s a personality to it.

And I guess the next question is, when you’re in that space and you’re creating and you’re following your curiosity, do you see it here and you go further or do you see the entire thing and then have to work your way backwards?

Gavin: I mean, that’s, I’m going to be honest with you, like incredible questions, like they really are. They”re some of the best that anybody has ever asked me. Because not only do you, you’re honestly trying to do two things, you’re trying to poke holes, which is amazing because it really makes me think about my answers. Ah. And I suppose coming out with my truth. Right? So thank you for the questions. They are phenomenal. What you probably don’t know is that amongst my 250 intellectual properties. So we call them IP’s right they’re brands, right? I have a philosophy, right? It’s FBO. And I live my life and my product building life by this philosophy. It’s first, best and only. I will always be the first in the market, the best and the only to deliver multiple unique selling points. So every time I sit down, just as you say, to start sketching, I typically see the whole thing. The whole thing, but it starts with a name. And then I can see the characters, I can see the styling, I can see the colors, I can see the world that they live in. I almost, in my head, think about a cartoon series or a feature film. Before I even look for the characters, I think about how it will operate, you know, what style, what kind of personalities will they have, what kind of individual characteristics within their bios? Because everything I do has like a bio, right? They all have characteristics and interesting points about them. But what you probably don’t know is that away from the creepy, we’re very focusing on the creepy cut here is that Amongst them. My 250 IPS, we own a brand called Welling Heroes, which is, pajamas and socks that are for, kids that can’t sleep. Right? And that kind of thing. And we wrote with some Disney Riders, for instance, on a product called Magic Pajamas, which is beautiful. It’s cute, right? It’s so far from this creepy world, right? What I do is I create ip. It’s not all about the creepy. The creepy just happens to be trending right now. But I like to see ourselves and my company as more rounded in we have a rolodex of IP based on what trend comes at us. And that’s why we will have sustainable successes, because we can hop in and out of all different types of trends. Right now, summer wean is the trend. It’s Halloween at summer and I’m capitalizing on that. And we’re milking the cow from a business perspective and we’re not missing the bucket. So we’re monetizing. And that’s our job as business people, is to monetize. Right? We just happen to be really, really nice people, if I do say so myself. We connect, we connect well with people and we put our people first. But look on gone off point, your question is, the answer to your question is if I like something in my head and if I start to sketch it, I can see six years into the brand. That’s how I operate.

Izolda: Okay, I need you to teach me how to do that, please. Because, you know, in listening to you, I’m going, okay, so you’ve got the vision, which is great. But what’s interesting in listening to you is that you’re not just the visionary, you’re also an implementer. And having that ability to do both of those, I think is key to any successful venture. Either you need a partner who can do that and be your foil, or if you like, you can do it yourself. Which one takes precedence? At any one time when you’re designing, when you’re bringing things to market, do you fight within yourself or do you go instinctively for what you believe is going to be that vision?

Gavin: It’s, everything about me is impulsive and instinctive. I’m not even going toa waffle on, on that answer. That’s. It’s impulsive and it’s instinctive. I go with my gut feeling and that’s, that’s have been my ethos for life. I’ll always look at people, I’ll ah, look into the eyes and I’ll see into their soul and I’ll decide whether they’re a good fit for me. It’s like trying on clothes, right? Some workouts, some don’t, but that’s how we roll.

Izolda: Okay, I love this. And I just saw back here that you have won collectible of the year, which is amazing. So I’m like looking around going, this is cool, this is cool. And I went, collectible of the what? So talk to me. What does that mean to you to have won this really lovely prize?

Gavin Lawler I’ve been thinking about this like. So on what day is today? Today is Sunday. So Friday night we. Yeah, it’s been 36 hours since the biggest moment of my career, the toady awards toy of the year. You know, I had blanked it out of my mind. I flew my team in from Ireland to give them, you know, they deserve some good downtime. And we went to the awards with absolutely zero expectations. And I mean, zero expectations. my wife was with me, which was amazing. And she turned around to me, she goes, what if you did win? And I was like, shut up. I was like, I was like, excuse my language. But I was like, it’s not gonna fucking happen, right? It’s just. Just don’t even talk about it. Just enjoy your dinner. Like, do you have a speech? No, I don’t have a speech.

Izolda: What?

Gavin Lawler: No, we don’t. Like, we’re not winning. We’re up against Lego and Pokemon and Disney. We’re not winning. Little old us from Ireland, like, you know, by cry, when our name was called, I nearly hit the floor. I nearly hit the floor. I had to be shaking, like physically shaking to almost get up out of my chair. Like, I was like, what the. Was that our name? What did they just call our freickin name? Like, it was hilarious. It was funny, it was beautiful. My whole team literally broke down into tears. It’s been a difficult ride to get here. That is the pinnacle of my career. Money comes third, people comes first, product comes second. That’s the way I operate. That’s the way I’ve always operated. So what does that mean? It means that the fact that the product becomes before the money, that means more to me. That award means so much more to me than any money or any financial stuff that comes off the back of it. Yes, it’s important, but the award means everything to me. It really does. It’s like finally I have acceptance. And even when my self belief, self, esteem is on the floor, my self belief is the roof. So I believed on myself and I backed myself. And that man has just left there, Neal Hoffman. I rang him three years ago, I picked up the phone to him and I was two days from closing the doors of my company and I said to him, do you want to invest? And he just said, what do you need? He just said, what do you need? You know, and because he believed in me as well, you know, so that’s a little bit of thing. I just saying hello. So this is hopefully, you know, it’s difficult for you guys to see me or to read, whether I’m being genuine, you know, through a podcast or listening to me. But, to have people like that and relationships like that, it’s everything, you know, that’s why I continue to put people first. And, you know, not that I don’t care about the money. It is important, but that award means everything because I bear the scars of entrepreneurial war. And, anybody that tells you it’s easy is a fucking liar. It ain’t easy, but, baby, it’s worth it. If I could see into 12 months, that’s. That’s where my curiosity is. It’s, you know, which one of the brands is going to be the one?

Izolda: So a couple last questions. First of all, somebody wants to know more about Deddy Bears and the work that you’re doing. Where do they go?

Gavin Lawler: So you just go to www.creepycollectibles.com or, you can go to my LinkedIn page and look for Gavin Lawler. L A W L E. Or.

Izolda: Awesome. And I’m gonna be friending you on LinkedIn. and then I ask two questions of everybody who comes on the show, and I find that even though they’re silly questions, that they can yield some pretty profound answers. So the first question is, what is it that gets you up in the morning? And I don’t mean an alarm.

Gain Lawler: Honestly. I kind of want to bring you home with me. The questions, man. think. I think, you know, it’s. It’s this feeling. It’s. It’s a feeling to be in a position to change people’s lives. It’s the attachments I have to my company, the attachments I have to my people. And knowing that I’m putting bread and butter and food on their table and taking care of their families, that’s what gets me up. You know, it’s a privilege. It’s an honor. It’s hard, but, again, I’m hoping you’re seeing the sincerity. I me, it’s. It’s all about the people. That’s what I go up for.

Izolda: Okay, I know. I know Irishmen are supposed to be full of blarney, but I can tell that you are absolutely sincere and you’re fabulous. So I would take you home with me, too.

All right, so here’s the last question. And, Gavin, I’m so grateful that you took the time to be here and to talk about this. And I, want one of everything. So, just so you know, I’m just gonna stand here and ogle all of the things that you have. because I’m an immigrant to this country, and when I came over, there was no when to teach me English. So English is actually my fourth language. And I’m telling you this because I felt like such an outsider for so long, and there wasn’t anything to represent someone who feels like a caricature walking around, you know? And so looking at your products, I’m going, yeah, this. There are so many kids out there and adults who feel like they don’t belong anywhere. And when they see something like this, that can be something that they can hang their hat on, it’s really powerful. And I’m really grateful that you’re doing this. So thank you for that.

Here’s your last question. If you had an airplane, environmentally friendly, of course, that could sky-write anything for the whole world to see, what would you say?

Gavin Lawler: I would say hug, someone. Hug someone. That’s it. Love. Hug someone. Something like that. Something cheesy. Something that you wouldn’t expect me to say. Being honest, you know, you’re getting into my deeper emotional state here. But, you know, there’s just. Just not a. Enough love in the world. If everybody just woke up in the morning and just looked at the person ahead of them and had a good day just by hugging people or, you know, it’s crazy world. Right, Right. It’s a crazy world. Not everybody agrees on everything. There’s so much disagreement. There’s so much, you know, going on. So it’s. I think the word love, you know, it’s so powerful, and it changes people’s lives, and there’s not enough. It. There might be an awful lot of people to talk about it, but implementation. That’s what I mean.

Izolda: Okay, that’s fabulous. And. And, I have done over 700 interviews, and you would be surprised at how many people say just that, that they’ll just say love each other. So I’m grateful that you added to that, to that group of people. So this is older Trakhtenberg, along with Gavin Lawler with the Incredible Deddy Bears. You need to find creepy collectibles. because these are so cool. I am super grateful that you took the time, Gavin, to be here. Thank you so much.