I Make Sex Toys is exactly what it says on the tin. I make Sex Toys. for a living, and now I talk about it. I'm Wayne, and for the last 22 years I've been designing and making electric sex toys in a workshop in Watford. This podcast is about the making, not the using.
That's the bit nobody talks about. Everyone wants to sell you the product. Almost nobody wants to tell you what it's actually like to run a small British manufacturer in a niche industry, ship a trade stand halfway across the world, deal with customs, fend off the copycats, and still find time to sketch the next idea in a little black notebook. That's what you get here. The trade shows, the near disasters, the competitors, the 3am panic, and the genuine joy of building something people love.
It's founded, it's honest, and it's occasionally a bit daft. If you make things, sell things, or you're just curious about how a business like this really works, you're in the right place.
New episode on the second Tuesday of every month.
Caz and Rachel got sent to the pool. That was probably a mistake.
We took E-Stim Systems back to the ANME show in Burbank, and the show itself went brilliantly. Getting there was the problem. Two crates, shipped a week early, got stuck in customs at LAX and never made it to the show floor. So our entire stand arrived in Los Angeles in two black hand luggage bags and an iPad. It worked.
Listen: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or press play above.
Read more: Adult Supervision Required | ANME, DHL and a Trade Stand in Two Bags
Most people who deal with E-Stim Systems never actually speak to me. They speak to Kay. She runs the sales, answers the phones, handles the emails and the live chat, and quietly built our wholesale side from nothing. So for once I handed her the microphone. We recorded it in a Barcelona hotel room the night before a trade show, with a brew and no real plan, and got into all the bits nobody tells you about selling adult products for a living.
Listen: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or press play above.
Read more: Your Box Has Knobs!! Meet Kay, the Sales Director Who Built Our Wholesale Side
Content note: this episode talks openly about mental health and anxiety, and includes a brief mention of losing a friend to suicide. If you are struggling, please talk to someone. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans are there day or night, free, on 116 123. You are not alone.
Nobody talks about the 3am wake-up. The one where your brain builds a perfectly logical argument for why the whole business is about to fail. After 22 years I still get them. So this one is me talking honestly about the mental side of running a small business, and why there are still 34 new product ideas in my notebook.
Listen: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or press play above.
Read more: The 3am Spiral | Business, Mental Health, Competitors and Trolls
Hello. I'm Wayne, and I make sex toys for a living. Not the fluffy, battery-powered novelties you'll find rattling around a motorway service station, but proper electric ones, designed and built by us at E-Stim Systems, in sunny Watford. I've been...
