Welcome to the Manaverse Podcast
The Manaverse Podcast is where we explore what it takes to build a successful friendly local game store! Since 2015, I’ve been interviewing a wide variety of game store owners and industry professionals doing some really interesting things in the world of trading cards, minis, games, and more.
If you want to learn how some of the best game retailers in North America have built their businesses and local communities up from the ground floor, you’ve come to the right place!
MVP061: Building Mind Sculpt Games From The Ground Up
In today's episode of the Manaverse Podcast we're talking about Great Bend's newest game store, Mind Sculpt Games. So new it doesn't exist yet.Usually, I interview game store owners that have been in business for a few years and have found some success already but...
MVP060: The GameBoard – How To Make Your Customer The Hero With Lynn Potyen
In today's episode of the Manaverse Podcast, our special guest is the most excellent Lynn Potyen.Lynn is the owner of the The GameBoard in Sheboygan, WI and in the words of the Geek and Sundry...
MVP059: Guardian Games Portland and Fostering a Magic Community with Gene Joo
Guardian Games Portland, the Grandest Game Store in Portland is the subject of this episode of the Manaverse Podcast. Gene Joo is the special guest today, he's the Magic Department Manager of Guardian Games in Portland, and he shares the strategies that he's used to...
MVP058: Business is War – Mark Koh on MegaCorp
Megacorp was created and designed by Mark G. Koh, a serial tech founder with a lifelong love of card games and business. Growing up in Singapore, southeast Asia, Mark discovered tabletop games at an early age of 8- beginning with Advanced Dungeons and dragons. He...
MVP057: Round Table – Breakout Games, Surprise Winners, Unexpected Stinkers, And The Lessons Of 2016 Round Table
In this episode of the Manaverse Podcast, the hosts of the show look back on 2016 and do a postmortem report. It's always a good idea to look back on what went right and what went wrong. You can learn some very valuable lessons from your past if you have the data and...
MVP056: November In Review, Plus A Special Announcement
The round table hosts of the Manaverse Podcast come together to discuss the past month. We live in exciting times and November has been an interesting for the guys. John Coviello, Wayne Mittlesteadt, Gary Sproul, and Tom Traplin share their experiences and lessons...
MVP055: Round Table – How To Move/Renovate Your Local Game Store Without Going Insane
Every owner of a profitable game store will eventually face a difficult decision. Do you move your store or do you expand? Well, lucky for you this episode of the Manaverse Podcast covers both! Gary Sproul from the Haunted Game Cafe and John Coviello come on to share...
MVP054: Round Table – Why Game Stores Fail
In today's show the hosts of the Manaverse Podcast discuss the reasons why game stores fail.Some percentage of businesses fail. The question is how do you make sure that your game store isn't one of them?The sad truth is you can't protect your business from failure...
MVP053: The Problem With Pucatrade
The problems with Pucatrade are the subject of the show today, specifically the release of the Future Site update and the effects of its crumbling economy. After a fundraising campaign and many months of development time, Pucatrade's newest incarnation has left many...
MVP052: Optimizing Your Product Mix
In today's episode of the Manaverse Podcast Wayne hosts John and I at Dueling Grounds in Toronto and we discuss the variety of ways a game store owner can build their shop's inventory. We go over the product mix matrix suggested by a listener of the show which is...