Podcast appearances and mentions of michael mindes

Episode sponsored by Words with Gravity through Tue, November 5 2019 10:59 PM MST.  Gamer Leaf sits down with Michael Mindes of Tasty Minstrel Games to chat all about Emperor's Choice Deluxified Edition that'll be on Kickstarter through Fri, November 8 2019 10:00 PM MST. Kickstarter Corner can be found on our website! Emperor's Choice Deluxified Edition GIVEAWAY link will appear here!

Ok, I admit it, I'm a nerd/geek!  There...now you know. Michael hit all my nerdy geek buttons!  He makes games for a living, he named his company after an obscure Monty Pythons reference that only TRUE nerds/geeks will understand!!!  WARNING NERD CONTENT...all "cool" people should move on to a less nerdy episode, you have been warned. Michael Mindes is the Founder and CEO of Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG) which is a multiple award-winning publisher of hobby board games. In this capacity, he grew TMG from a side business into a company approaching $2,000,000 in annual revenues, a team of 10 people, and all without any outside investment. TMG seeks and found a symbiotic relationship with gamers, giving them the games that they want and they in turn allow us to continue to do what we love. TMG has achieved this through a combination of: Fantastic Production Customer Service Direct Email Marketing Social Media Content HIGHLIGHTS: Financial Management - arranged for pre-ordering and pre-payment for games from major retailers in combination with our manufacturing terms to significantly reduce our need for finances dedicated to maintaining inventory levels. Inventory Forecasting & Health - developed internal data analysis tools to forecast and determine the health of our inventory in relation to our sales. This has allowed us to reduce our print run sizes without running into shortages and protect our cash flows from overproduction. Leading Lean/Agile Initiatives - brought company-wide embracing of single-project flow to TMG. This allowed TMG to dramatically increase the number of games that we could publish while increasing overall quality, and reducing production defects. Michael Mindes Vroom Veer Stories Age 4 or 5, made up new rules for candyland Started playing Chess with his dad; and joined the Chess club Played Magic the Gathering and qualified for 3 pro tours Spent two years "going to college" without attending class Awkward talk with parents about "blowing off" college for two years; surprise outcome Worked as a financial adviser for four years; started a games publishing business on the side 2015 started working on Tasty Minstrel Games full time Served as company tech adviser during the taping of "Harbour"  on Will Wheaton's TableTop Michael Mindes Links Tasty Minstrel Games Website

Host Richard Bliss and Co-Host John Coveyou are joined by Michael Mindes from Tasty Minstrel Games. Michael had just launched and cancelled a Kickstarter campaign because he knew he had done something wrong. Within two hours of launching the Kickstarter campaign, Michael knew they had missed on the offer and needed to take immediate action. Within three days, Michael was close to his funding goal, but knew they needed to pull the plug. If they had crossed the funding goal, he would have felt morally committed to follow through.He refers to it as a micro-failure. What Michael saw as valuable was not recognized as something people were willing to pay for. This episode Michael walks through the mistakes made and what they are doing to fix them for the next campaign.

Michael Mindes is the Founder and CEO of Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG) which is a multiple award-winning publisher of hobby board games. In this capacity, he grew TMG from a side business into a company approaching $2,000,000 in annual revenues, a team of 10 people, and all without any outside investment. As of October 17th, 2016 - TMG has receiving $2,546,682 in funds from Backers on Kickstarter from 26 individual hobby board gaming projects.     Podcast Highlights Who is Michael Mindes? Michael started off when he was four years old playing games like Candy Land and trying to figure out ways to make the game better. He graduated to chess as he got older and later on to Magic: the Gathering. In the early 2000’s, Michael discovered German style board games like Settlers of Catan. Essentially, Michael has been immersed in the world of games for the last three decades. What made you decide that making games could be a business? Michael originally decided to become a financial advisor after becoming a father instead of going into the games industry. The depressing nature of the financial industry eventually got to him, and his wife encouraged Michael to pursue his dream of making games of his own. Michael began by identifying the things that he had to give up before starting his own business. He knew he couldn’t sacrifice time with his family or work, and so he had to tailor his life to make it work. We are currently in an environment where the cost of business is extremely low. In order to be successful, you have to compete with people who are willing to work crazy number of hours. If you don’t have that passion, you will probably not be as successful as you hope. How do you feel about the thought process of getting started? If you can’t get over the six month speed month and it’s not really going anywhere, you may not be in the right space or you just may not be good enough. If you want to be in a specific industry, start in a place where you can work closely with someone who has done what you want to learn. Especially if you are young. Don’t expect success overnight. How does an entrepreneur deal with obstacles like upfront costs? A lot of the obstacles that are out there as a way to make it okay that you are not putting forth the effort. The technology to get people’s attention is essentially free. You can’t sell something until you have someone to sell it to. Getting eyes on what you are doing is how you learn if you are moving in the right direction. How did crowdfunding come into your business? Michael’s first watershed moment was when he was first starting out. He posted a picture of a pile of board games that he wanted to give away, and then asked people to sign up to his email list in order to sign up. He had 700 people sign up in 2 days. Michael’s first kickstarter was the second. He was terrified of the implications of the kickstarter failing but it ended up succeeding and validating his ideas. What was the growing process like? Michael describes his business’s maturing process as moving a mountain. To move a mountain, you pick up one piece at a time and keep going. What does the game making process look like? TMG treats board games the same way that Simon and Schuster treats books. They take ideas that designers submit, separate the ones they think have potential and work together to develop them. From there it’s about coordinating with retailers, manufacturers, and shippers to figure out a solution that’s profitable for everyone involved. The turnaround time for a project can be anywhere from two months to six months, and sometimes lo

Episode 89 - Michael Mindes and I sat down to talk last week to talk about his company Tasty Minstrel Games which he founded in early 2009.

Episode 89 - Michael Mindes and I sat down to talk last week to talk about his company Tasty Minstrel Games which he founded in early 2009.

It’s important from time to time to offer some differing perspectives on leadership styles and management styles that work really well within their context. On today's show, I chat with Michael Mindes about a unique and non-conventional approach to leadership... that really works! Michael Mindes is the Founder of a multi-award-winning company of hobby board games, which he grew from a side interest into a multi-million dollar business. Michael’s company, Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG), exists to heal the world by providing games that strengthen family unity, communication, and love. There is also a particularly interesting aspect to the way in which Michael runs his office based team. He has implemented a 'self-directed’ approach where there is no hierarchy and each team member is self-organized. It has proved to promote a happy, productive work environment and continues to make Michael’s business thrive. Show Notes: YourBestManager.com/MichaelMindes

About Michael Mindes In the winter of 2004, Michael decided to start publishing board games; he felt this would be a good way to channel his creative energies, work within his passion, and make a living. His is wife was 100% in support of him and he even had an extraordinarily good game to publish in Gheos, which was later published by Z-Man Games. Yet, as often happens with grand plans and schemes, life came along and changed his course in a fantastic way - his wife was pregnant with their first child. This was even more exciting than publishing board games. However, it threw a financial security monkey wrench into the publishing plan. Both he and his wife wanted her to be able to stay home with their children - that meant he needed a stable job with good income potential. Michael knew he could have the option to work with his father providing financial advice. He know he would be good at it, enjoy it, and gain fulfillment through planning for and protecting lifestyles in retirement. His wife would be able to stay at home, and they could live a comfortable life with relative financial stability. On the other hand, he REALLY wanted to publish board games! Although he chose this route as his family grew - and it proved to be the right financial decision at the time - Michael's heart was still set upon the business world surrounding games. Finally, in March of 2009, he decided to give publishing a chance - in his extra time outside of being married, having two kids, full-time employment, and building a house…Tasty Minstrel Games was born. As of October 17th, 2016, TMG has receiving $2,546,682 in funds from Backers on Kickstarter from 26 individual hobby board gaming projects. Michael has grown his side passion into a multi-award-winning publisher company of hobby board game and a multi-million dollar business. Connect with Michael Mindes http://playtmg.com/ Twitter Linkedin episode 292

About Michael Mindes In the winter of 2004, Michael decided to start publishing board games; he felt this would be a good way to channel his creative energies, work within his passion, and make a living. His is wife was 100% in support of him and he even had an extraordinarily good game to publish in Gheos, which was later published by Z-Man Games. Yet, as often happens with grand plans and schemes, life came along and changed his course in a fantastic way - his wife was pregnant with their first child. This was even more exciting than publishing board games. However, it threw a financial security monkey wrench into the publishing plan. Both he and his wife wanted her to be able to stay home with their children - that meant he needed a stable job with good income potential. Michael knew he could have the option to work with his father providing financial advice. He know he would be good at it, enjoy it, and gain fulfillment through planning for and protecting lifestyles in retirement. His wife would be able to stay at home, and they could live a comfortable life with relative financial stability. On the other hand, he REALLY wanted to publish board games! Although he chose this route as his family grew - and it proved to be the right financial decision at the time - Michael's heart was still set upon the business world surrounding games. Finally, in March of 2009, he decided to give publishing a chance - in his extra time outside of being married, having two kids, full-time employment, and building a house…Tasty Minstrel Games was born. As of October 17th, 2016, TMG has receiving $2,546,682 in funds from Backers on Kickstarter from 26 individual hobby board gaming projects. Michael has grown his side passion into a multi-award-winning publisher company of hobby board game and a multi-million dollar business. Connect with Michael Mindes http://playtmg.com/ Twitter Linkedin episode 292

About Michael Mindes In the winter of 2004, Michael decided to start publishing board games; he felt this would be a good way to channel his creative energies, work within his passion, and make a living. His is wife was 100% in support of him and he even had an extraordinarily good game to publish in Gheos, which was later published by Z-Man Games. Yet, as often happens with grand plans and schemes, life came along and changed his course in a fantastic way - his wife was pregnant with their first child. This was even more exciting than publishing board games. However, it threw a financial security monkey wrench into the publishing plan. Both he and his wife wanted her to be able to stay home with their children - that meant he needed a stable job with good income potential. Michael knew he could have the option to work with his father providing financial advice. He know he would be good at it, enjoy it, and gain fulfillment through planning for and protecting lifestyles in retirement. His wife would be able to stay at home, and they could live a comfortable life with relative financial stability. On the other hand, he REALLY wanted to publish board games! Although he chose this route as his family grew - and it proved to be the right financial decision at the time - Michael's heart was still set upon the business world surrounding games. Finally, in March of 2009, he decided to give publishing a chance - in his extra time outside of being married, having two kids, full-time employment, and building a house…Tasty Minstrel Games was born. As of October 17th, 2016, TMG has receiving $2,546,682 in funds from Backers on Kickstarter from 26 individual hobby board gaming projects. Michael has grown his side passion into a multi-award-winning publisher company of hobby board game and a multi-million dollar business. Connect with Michael Mindes http://playtmg.com/ Twitter Linkedin episode 292

About Michael Mindes In the winter of 2004, Michael decided to start publishing board games; he felt this would be a good way to channel his creative energies, work within his passion, and make a living. His is wife was 100% in support of him and he even had an extraordinarily good game to publish in Gheos, which was later published by Z-Man Games. Yet, as often happens with grand plans and schemes, life came along and changed his course in a fantastic way - his wife was pregnant with their first child. This was even more exciting than publishing board games. However, it threw a financial security monkey wrench into the publishing plan. Both he and his wife wanted her to be able to stay home with their children - that meant he needed a stable job with good income potential. Michael knew he could have the option to work with his father providing financial advice. He know he would be good at it, enjoy it, and gain fulfillment through planning for and protecting lifestyles in retirement. His wife would be able to stay at home, and they could live a comfortable life with relative financial stability. On the other hand, he REALLY wanted to publish board games! Although he chose this route as his family grew - and it proved to be the right financial decision at the time - Michael's heart was still set upon the business world surrounding games. Finally, in March of 2009, he decided to give publishing a chance - in his extra time outside of being married, having two kids, full-time employment, and building a house…Tasty Minstrel Games was born. As of October 17th, 2016, TMG has receiving $2,546,682 in funds from Backers on Kickstarter from 26 individual hobby board gaming projects. Michael has grown his side passion into a multi-award-winning publisher company of hobby board game and a multi-million dollar business. Connect with Michael Mindes http://playtmg.com/ Twitter Linkedin episode 292

Michael Mindes has opened up his books and shared the inner finances of his game company, Tasty Minstrel Games. He has done this because he is selling equity in his company through crowdfunding platform Microventures. We don't talk about his company, its revenue, or its products. Instead, we focus on the process and decision to take a small board game company and offer up equity as a reward instead of product. The conversation is illuminating about what can and can't be talked about when choosing to use crowdfunding to raise equity. Michael is always a great guest with an interesting take on what the future might hold for others.

Michael Mindes is the Founder and CEO of Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG) which is a multiple award-winning publisher of hobby board games. In this capacity, he grew TMG from a side business into a company approaching $2,000,000 in annual revenues, a team of 10 people, and all without any outside investment. TMG seeks and found a symbiotic relationship with gamers, giving them the games that they want and they in turn allow us to continue to do what we love. TMG has achieved this through a combination of: * Fantastic Production * Customer Service * Direct Email Marketing * Social Media Content HIGHLIGHTS: * Financial Management - arranged for pre-ordering and pre-payment for games from major retailers in combination with our manufacturing terms to significantly reduce our need for finances dedicated to maintaining inventory levels. * Inventory Forecasting & Health - developed internal data analysis tools to forecast and determine the health of our inventory in relation to our sales. This has allowed us to reduce our print run sizes without running into shortages and protect our cash flows from overproduction. * Leading Lean/Agile Initiatives - brought company-wide embracing of single-project flow to TMG. This allowed TMG to dramatically increase the number of games that we could publish while increasing overall quality, and reducing production defects. Michael Mindes Vroom Veer Stories Age 4 or 5, made up new rules for candyland Started playing Chess with his dad; and joined the Chess club Played Magic the Gathering and qualified for 3 pro tours Spent two years "going to college" without attending class Awkward talk with parents about "blowing off" college for two years; surprise outcome Worked as a financial adviser for four years; started a games publishing business on the side 2015 started working on Tasty Minstrel Games full time Served as company tech adviser during the taping of "Harbour"  on Will Wheaton's TableTop Michael Mindes Links Tasty Minstrel Games Website    

We interview the awesome dudes, Seth Jaffee, Michael Mindes, and Andy Van Zandt, from Tasty Minstrel Games (www.playmtg.com) at SaltCON 2016. We've got the insights from a game designer, an owner and a developer.   Seth caught us up on his game designs, his work on the Eminent Domain series, and his future releases. Michael talks about the latest releases of TMG and what we can expect in the near future. Andy talks about what it means to be a game developer, his latest projects, and how he likes living in Utah.  Don't miss a second of this insider episode.

Paul Cosca brings you another great interview. This time he’s talking with Jeff Cornelius and Nathan Cornelius, from Cosmic Wombat Games. They discuss the publisher side of gaming and their current Kickstarter project, Campaign Trail, Kickstarter through October 8, 2015.   Patreon Sponsor Michael Mindes Thank you very much, Michael, … Read the rest

02:47 - Martin Grider Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog ActionChess Go Tetris For The Win Catchup Abstract Puzzle @abstractpuzzle   09:29 - Interaction Design and Mechanics Make it Playable, Then Add “Juice” 12:25 - Designing for Mobile vs Board Games Touch Interaction 14:30 - Converting Board Games to Mobile Getting the Company on Board Michael Mindes @MichaelMindes For The Win Kickstarter Carcassonne Ascension 17:09 - Copyright Infringement (Cloning) Settlers of Catan Threes 2048 Triple Town 20:54 - Protecting Your Ideas and Partnering with Publishers 23:19 - Getting Help as an Indie Game Dev Marketers, App Store SEOs, etc. 27:02 - App Shopper 28:24 - Technical Aspects of Game Development Cocos2d UIkit SpriteKit Unity Unreal Engine 34:31 - Physics 36:12 - The International Game Developer's Association (IGDA) 39:47 - Catchup Picks Hunter Loftis: We Will All Be Game Programmers (Pete) Indie Game: The Movie (Pete) Eurogames (Pete) The Changelog #151: Rust with Steve Klabnik and Yehuda Katz (Pete) A Swift Guide to Rust (Andrew) Arduino Esplora (Andrew) Analogue Nt (Andrew) L3D (Martin) Game Developers Conference (Martin) GameLoading (Martin) Top Hat (Martin) CumulusPRO Commercial Grade Anti-Fatigue Comfort Mat Area Mat (Jaim)   iPhreaks T-Shirts are available via Teespring! Visit teespring.com/iphreaks to reserve yours by Wednesday, May 6th! T-shirt styles include: unisex up to 3x, ladies', hoodies, and long sleeve tees. Teespring also offers international shipping so that all of our listeners have a chance to buy!

02:47 - Martin Grider Introduction Twitter GitHub Blog ActionChess Go Tetris For The Win Catchup Abstract Puzzle @abstractpuzzle   09:29 - Interaction Design and Mechanics Make it Playable, Then Add “Juice” 12:25 - Designing for Mobile vs Board Games Touch Interaction 14:30 - Converting Board Games to Mobile Getting the Company on Board Michael Mindes @MichaelMindes For The Win Kickstarter Carcassonne Ascension 17:09 - Copyright Infringement (Cloning) Settlers of Catan Threes 2048 Triple Town 20:54 - Protecting Your Ideas and Partnering with Publishers 23:19 - Getting Help as an Indie Game Dev Marketers, App Store SEOs, etc. 27:02 - App Shopper 28:24 - Technical Aspects of Game Development Cocos2d UIkit SpriteKit Unity Unreal Engine 34:31 - Physics 36:12 - The International Game Developer's Association (IGDA) 39:47 - Catchup Picks Hunter Loftis: We Will All Be Game Programmers (Pete) Indie Game: The Movie (Pete) Eurogames (Pete) The Changelog #151: Rust with Steve Klabnik and Yehuda Katz (Pete) A Swift Guide to Rust (Andrew) Arduino Esplora (Andrew) Analogue Nt (Andrew) L3D (Martin) Game Developers Conference (Martin) GameLoading (Martin) Top Hat (Martin) CumulusPRO Commercial Grade Anti-Fatigue Comfort Mat Area Mat (Jaim)   iPhreaks T-Shirts are available via Teespring! Visit teespring.com/iphreaks to reserve yours by Wednesday, May 6th! T-shirt styles include: unisex up to 3x, ladies', hoodies, and long sleeve tees. Teespring also offers international shipping so that all of our listeners have a chance to buy!

This is part II of a two part series of my live Gamestorm Coverage 2015 with Jim and Eric of the Punching Cardboard Podcast. This is actually the precursor to our Part I. This first section was more of an editing headache for Jim so we released the round table discussion with Michael Mindes and Mike Selinkter first. Part II has a lot of different guests rotating the two guests chairs as we record. I had a blast collaborating with Jim and Eric on our first remote podcast and look forward to working with these guys on other projects in the future. Here's the list of guests in order:   J. R. Ralls (Citizen George) & Robert LaCosseKnob CreekRhiannon LouveMichael Mindes (TMG Games) (First Appearance)Dave Howell (Penny Gems)Tim Eisner & Ryan Sisher (March of the Ants), Special Interviewer: Kate ReidMichael Mindes (Second Appearance)

This is Part 1 of a two part remote podcast at our local gaming convention, Gamestorm. This podcast represents two firsts for me in my short career as a podcaster. This is not only my first remote podcast, but also first time given the opportunity to collaborate with another local podcast Punching Cardboard. After a mis punch of a button and a false start, we get things rolling with a round table discussion with none other than Michael Mindes, the owner of Tasty Minstrel Games, and Mike Selinker, President of Lone Shark Games, and designer and developer of many board and RPG games over the years including Betrayal at House on the Hill and Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The chatter in the background is from the designers reception that was going on at the same time. I hope everyone has as much fun listening to this as we did recording it.

An interview with Michael Mindes of Tasty Minstrel Games.

Michael Mindes owns board game publisher Tasty Minstrel Games, publisher of hit titles such as Eminent Domain, Scoville, and Dungeon Roll. You may not have heard of some of their titles, they’re not household names like Monopoly (who actually like Monopoly?), but he’s a known quantity in the board game community. Michael has figured out […] The post MBP #26: How to Raise $962,575+ on Kickstarter with Michael Mindes appeared first on Microblogger.

Full shownotes at: http://todayinboardgames.com/wir9

For our thirteen episode, we talk to Michael, head of Tasty Minstrel Games

Michael Mindes has his 8th Kickstarter project currently on running. He provides advice and insight into what is more important, a lot of backers or a lot of money.Listen in as he lets us in on his secrets

Michael Mindes and I sit down to discuss their latest approach to finding success on Kickstarter with For the Win. Michael has some interesting ideas and insights on how to be successful on Kickstarter.