We were lucky to catch up with Sylvia Edwards recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sylvia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?
Thank you so much for having me! I am also excited to share some of my stories with y’all. I have lots of heroes, but the one that stands out the most when I think about my life and mission is Fred Rogers. Not only was he a hard worker and pioneer in the industry but he was a beacon of hope for children all across the world. He taught kindness, compassion and love as fundamental tenets for a well-crafted life. In politics, he helped convince government funded agencies to fund public programming because of how it benefited those of lesser incomes or underprivileged status. On the screen, he taught us that human instincts such as love and anger are manageable and that we can control our emotional impulses. He taught us how to internalize and recognize our own feelings, so that, as he quotes, “a girl can someday be a woman, and a boy can someday be a man.” He influenced my journey personally, because as I grew up I started to notice the relevance in emotional maturity and control in effective leadership. I hold compassionate and respectful communication in the highest regard, and try to treat everyone I meet like a neighbor. As I lead my staff of 25 people, they say such rewarding things that help me realize how hard it can be to find a kind and caring boss. We have employees who have worked here for 10, 17 and 20 years, and I think part of it has to do with our leadership styles. Due to Fred Roger’s influence, I embraced my own love of helping others (maybe that’s a Big Sister trait – I am the eldest of 3). I vividly remember another instance when Fred Rogers said something encouraging in times of loss or disaster, that when you encounter a tragic scene, like a car accident for example, he advises to “Look for the helpers” and this meant a lot for me as a quick way to shift mentally into gratitude. Lastly, in Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, he taught respect to all facets of personality. I absolutely loved how he used puppets (an item I sell daily) as vehicles to convey such deep ideas. As he quotes “I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” I live my life with these philosophies and he is my main hero and inspiration.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Well sure! My name is Sylvia, and I am the founder of kidOshoe and co-founder of the Wind-up Café and Art Gallery, as well as the General Manager/CEO at Terra Toys, the 46-year-old business my parents founded in the 70’s. I went to college at Texas A&M and earned a leadership certificate through The Corps of Cadets. I also operate a small candy company called the Candy Connoisseur. What got me into the toy industry was a combination of my desire to run a store, and the fact that my parents had founded a cool toy store that I grew up in. When I went away for college, I was under the impression I would start my own business from scratch, but after a brief attempt at other careers, I came back to Terra Toys to help my parents run (and expand) the company. I came in with the mission of taking it another 50 years, scaling and improving the already wonderful foundation. If my parents had, say, been dental hygienists, I would absolutely not have joined the family business. The toys, the bubbles and the happy content drew me in and kept me there. Terra Toys is known for having unique handmade toys, typically wooden or classic- think bouncy balls, spinning tops, yo-yos, etc. We buy from over 2,500 different vendors and the store stocks over 100,000 SKUS in the 15,000 square feet we rent on West Anderson Lane. What sets us apart is a unique, European and middle eastern inspired aesthetic, as well as our impeccable staff and customer service. We teach all of our sales staff the cognitive benefits of the toys we carry, and almost like our own Mister Rogers show, we demonstrate how and why these toys enhance a child’s life. One more quote that Fred Rogers so eloquently said, “Play is the Work of childhood.” We at Terra Toys fundamentally understand that, and can therefore convey to our customers, how this building block set for example, will help their spatial reasoning skills, or this game will enhance fine and gross motor function, and so on. The store is often called by our customers the “whole foods of toys”, meaning they can blindly shop and can leave trusting they have something good. We are extremely selective with the toys we sell, and when we go to trade shows, we actually play and test the items to our standards rather than seeking something with a high profit margin. Trust and consistency has been an essential part of Terra Toys’ success. I founded in 2010, a children’s shoe store called kidOshoe. Like Terra Toys, our motto is “grow up with good shoes.” We carry some of the most comfortable, durable magical shoes made by man and I am so honored to be able to import these shoes from Spain and Italy to US customers. In addition to those stores, I also run and operate a clothing store called Dragonsnaps that carries heirloom USA made cotton clothing for children, and I run a Cafe and Art gallery that sells only organic espresso products and beautiful curated art by local artists. I am the curator of the gallery and I get to make up themes every quarter, in which we display themed art appropriate for family homes.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was to be like -exactly like- the original founders. Most companies need “re”-“founders”; someone who can respect the infrastructure and mission, but who can enhance the vision and provide fresh air to an old area. My parents, being the founders, often expect me to respond or solve potential issues or growing pains the way they would. But I know I am not them, and trying to fit in their shoes would be difficult. As their daughter, my instinct is to try to emulate them, learn from their mistakes, and while I still do, I also am working on unlearning the idea that you have to be a carbon copy of your predecessor. You can be different and still succeed.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
A story that potentially illustrates not only my resilience but the collective resilience of all business owners, was 2020. We had many family fights that year. We were writing and rewriting the script and operations manuals for how a mom-and-pop toy store would continue to staff and serve customers during a global pandemic. We had too many cooks in the kitchen, and ended up having a moment in which I forced my parents to name a head decision maker. From that moment I went to the 9 staff I had, and asked them what would work for them. We then proceeded to create a whole new way to shop toys during a pandemic. During November and December we were very busy. We had enforced a capacity so customers could still socially distance and shop for Christmas presents. We also enforced a no-kid hour, where children were not allowed in the store, which looking back on is insane, but it helped the staff so much because we had new rules about how to re-shelf toys that were touched and/or put in a kids mouth and the implications of that. We were all coping and freaked out, but we stayed with it and persisted. We created personal shopping sessions on the phone, we created our very first website with e-commerce. (Yes 2020 was the first year Terra Toys sold toys online.) Now that we have a stable website our sales are nationwide, and after the worst of the pandemic was over, we were celebrated all around Austin for our Covid policies and protecting families and children. Thank you for the interview.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.terratoys.shop
- Instagram: @terratoys @kidoshoe
- Facebook: @TerraToys