Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Avanti Paul. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Avanti, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

After spending 20+ years growing and turning around operations and teams in corporate America, I took a break to do something on my own. I have two young children and moved to Alabama from Brooklyn to be closer to family. My three-year-old is a master builder, creative and methodical with her designs and my son in addition to illustrating intricate comics and running science experiments is becoming quite the pancake maker. As someone who grew up in a society that had very clear gender norms, it was heartwarming to see my kids learn and play freely.

I launched a toy store and quickly saw a gap in the marketplace for diverse, multicultural, inclusive toys. Although the larger toy brands have changed their marketing and designed a few inclusive toys, there aren’t a lot of toy stores that have these values at their core. In speaking with parents and researching trends, I realized that this small market is growing. One mom talked about how hard it was to find a gender-neutral doll house for her son, another talked about wanting to play with blocks and not dolls when she was a child and a dad talked about how he wanted to find cool construction activities for his daughter.

When I started sourcing toys, I read story after story of other women who had struggled to find educational, inclusive, multicultural toys and so started their own line of toys and activities! One of my favorite women-owned brands, Sootie Limetree, handknits dolls in all skin tones for babies. She uses recycled yarn, known for regulating body temperature and promoting good sleep and has clever, fun designs like a strongman doll with a rose tattoo arm. Finding someone like her and having the opportunity to showcase her work is so rewarding.

Although we are in our early stages, we are motivated to build a more inclusive world, one toy at a time.

Avanti, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It is a bit of a stretch to go from 20+ years of growing and turning around operations and teams in Corporate America to a toy store but not uncommon, I think! I realized that what I loved in all the roles I had was seeing and supporting talented individuals have access to the opportunities they deserved.

Opening an inclusive toy store is my way of doing this in two ways – supporting small toy brands that are often women owned by showcasing them and their amazing creations and promoting these toys that build empathy and create awareness through inclusive play at a very young age.

We carry a collection of toys that are diverse, gender-neutral and multicultural from socially conscious, small shops from around the world. We intentionally seek out toys and activities that represent a variety of cultures, ethnicities, abilities, and backgrounds, for children to learn about and appreciate the world around them. We keep the parents in mind and look for toys that are easy to clean, tidy, store and travel with.

Our have designed our collection and services to help parents, family members and friends
1. Find Meaningful and Inclusive Gifts – We do all the research and only carry toys children and parents both love.
2. Make Gift-Giving Special – We giftwrap and write personalized notes making it convenient for family members like grandparents, aunts and uncles who live in other cities.
3. Never Miss a Special Occasion – We send reminders for birthdays, holidays with toy recommendations for their age which parents love for nieces, nephews and children of their close friends. We know that grandparents with several grandkids also appreciate the recommendations since it can be difficult to find truly special gifts year after year.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I entered the world of social media with Presently Goods. I actually studied marketing in Business School and yet feel so out of my element when it comes to marketing it today’s world. Needless to say, I wasn’t really active on any social media, had to learn and am still learning on what works to build followers, provide authentic content that is meaningful to them and promote our mission of inclusive play and gift giving.

I took several classes online, leveraged workshops and local organizations to help me refine my approach and social media strategy. There is a wonderful organization here called CREATE that primarily focuses on the community of arts and has several learning sessions to help creative entrepreneurs.

I started with content that I loved creating but have not shifted to content that our customers are looking for that we can provide. I include more photos vs visuals, calls to action and am continuously working on messaging to show how we can solve our customer’s problems around inclusive toys and gift giving. I have metrics that I track on reach, engagement and associated costs all while having realistic expectations on the use of social media. My advice to anyone else starting out is to be clear on the purpose of social media channels and how they can help you so that you can use it effectively for your business.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I pivoted twice in my career and several times in life! I left a long tenure at a financial services company in New York to be with a life science non-profit organization in Alabama. I wanted to be with an organization that was mission based and feel like I had an impact on the world and the community we served. After my time there, the biggest pivot I made was starting out on my own in my mid-forties. It feels like starting over with so much to learn, and while it’s liberating to pursue your own vision, it’s difficult to be patient in the beginning while growing your company. I spend the first several months learning about what I needed to learn – researching the industry and market, sourcing toys, figuring out inventory, optimizing the website which I am still doing, improving the user experience, creating a digital marketing strategy, figuring out taxes, writing policies and so much more. It can be overwhelming but also quite exhilarating!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://presentlygoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/presentlygoods/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/presentlygoods/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avanti-paul-b586823/

Image Credits

1. Picture of Pop Up – Photographer Sherah Neilson, 2024
2. Peekaboo Tower – Photographer Petit Collage 2023
3. Circus stacking dolls – Photographer Leo & Friends, 2023
4. Espresso – Photographer Mentari, 2023
5. Worldwide Buddies card game – Photographer Worldwide Buddies, 2024