Tips and Tricks for Successfully Inventing and Licensing Products With Lisa Lloyd, the President and CEO of Lloyd Marketing Group

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | deezer | Amazon Music | iHeart Radio | Radio Public | tunein

Lisa Lloyd is the President and CEO of Lloyd Marketing Group. Her success began with her idea for a barrette while working for the CBS affiliate in Tucson, AZ. A short 13 months later, she had patented, manufactured, sold to stores, and ultimately licensed the patent to Scünci for 20 years of regular income. The product is now sold in stores around the world and has generated over $20M globally!

Since then, Lisa has licensed 6 more products to major distributors including Goody, Scünci, and Helen of Troy. In 2007, she in-licensed a patent from an inventor and took on the challenge to further develop, patent, manufacture, and launch a new line of plush products called TC Pets, for which she has won numerous awards—and was even featured on the ABC reality show Shark Tank, where she won the coveted investment of “Shark” Daymond John, the CEO of FUBU.

Lisa has spent nearly two decades as a speaker and trainer on innovation, licensing, and business tactics. She has been a featured lecturer at universities like the University of Arizona Eller School of Business and Entrepreneurship, ASU College of Engineering, and the Arizona Intellectual Property Association’s continuing education program for patent and trademark attorneys. She has also won numerous awards for various pitch competitions, including Rice University’s “Rice Alliance Business Plan Competition” and “Pitch it to the Pros” with Discovery Channel’s Billy Mays.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • How Lisa got started in innovation and licensing products
  • What Lisa did after licensing her first hair product
  • Lisa shares her experience pitching on ABC’s Shark Tank and working with Daymond John
  • Why Lisa started manufacturing products and guiding other inventors in licensing products
  • Why some inventions don’t get licensed
  • Lisa talks about her programs and work in helping people invent and license products
  • How confidence—or the lack thereof—impacts an inventor’s success
  • Where to learn more and get in touch with Lisa Lloyd

In this episode…

Innovators come up with great ideas for products that are meant to meet a certain need for people. If the idea is commercially viable, you stand a good chance of finding investors and manufacturing the product. But, you may also find it ideal to license your product to another company and earn a regular income from product sales made by that company.

However, not every idea can be licensed. This could happen if the problem you’re hoping to solve with your product just isn’t big enough to warrant the purchase. It could also be because the idea is poorly defined and doesn’t solve people’s pain points—and, if this is the case, your idea may not be commercially viable considering all the costs associated with production.

Lisa Lloyd, the President and CEO of Lloyd Marketing Group, is Rich Goldstein’s guest in this episode of the Innovations and Breakthroughs Podcast, where she shares her tips and tricks for successfully inventing and licensing products. She also talks about her experience pitching at ABC’s Shark Tank, the importance of having an invention support community, and why some products don’t get licensing offers.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Goldstein Patent Law, a firm that helps protect inventors’ ideas and products. They have advised and obtained patents for thousands of companies over the past 25 years. So if you’re a company that has a software, product, or design you want protected, you can go to https://goldsteinpatentlaw.com/. They have amazing free resources for learning more about the patent process.

You can email their team at welcome@goldsteinpc.com to explore if it’s a match to work together. Rich Goldstein has also written a book for the American Bar Association that explains in plain English how patents work, which is called ‘The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent.’

Intro (00:09):
Welcome to innovations and breakthroughs with your host Rich Goldstein, talking about the evolutionary, the revolutionary, the inspiration and the perspiration and those aha moments that change everything. And now here’s your host, rich Goldstein, rich golds here, host of the innovations and breakthroughs.

Rich (00:34):
This podcast, where I featured top leaders in the path they took to create change past guests include Rex’s is Ari Stephen Key and Louis Foreman. This episode is brought to you by my company, Goldstein patent law, where we help you to protect your ideas and products we’ve advised and obtain patents for thousands of companies over the past 26 years. So if you’re a company that has software or product or design, you want protected go to GoldsteinPatentLaw.com, where there are amazing free resources for learning about the patent process. And you could email my team@welcomeatgoldcnpc.com to explore if it’s a match to work together. You can also check out the book that I wrote for the American bar association that explains in plain English, how patents work it’s called the ABA consumer guide to obtaining a patent. I have yet today, Lisa Lloyd, Lisa licensed the first product at 23 that generated over 20 million in sales.

Rich (01:27):
She’s licensed seven products, more that have generated over 30 million in sales. She successfully pitched the sharks on shark tank and landed a deal with Damon John and together they landed her product and more than 400 stores. She helps entrepreneurs to understand how they too can pursue their inventing dreams by successfully licensing and launching their products. I’m just honored to welcome here today. Lisa Lloyd welcome. Lisa honored to be here. I’ll say my pleasure. So I guess let’s reel it back to how it all got started. So paint me a picture. You at 23 what’s going on in your life? Really bad hair day. Okay. and what else, if we’re going to get visual and really put ourselves into that moment. So being a picture for me, what’s going on at that moment?

Lisa (02:20):
Sure. So I was in the Navy and the Navy is one of the only branches of military of service that require you to cut your hair off during bootcamp. And I just left it short. When I got out of the military, I got a job at the CBS affiliate in Tucson and ad sales, and I was letting it grow out. And through those really ugly in-between growing hair days, I would wear it up often in a French twist. And my friends, the on air talent would ask me how I did it. And I didn’t really understand what the problem was because you just twist it up. But as my hair got longer, I realized it required a lot more dexterity than maybe it would for someone with shorter hair. And I had seen a program, Oh, 60 minutes with Tom. I met ed Mark, who’d invented the topsy tail and talking about her own team, millions of dollars that she had made.

Lisa (03:10):
And I thought, well, my God, if she can do it, I can do it. I’m going to create a product that helps make this French twist a lot easier. And at the time, the only way to get a French twist was with a lot of body pins or go to a salon and have them do it. And it was still a tremendous amount of Bobby pins and a lot of work. So I invented this for, at the basically just closed up around your hair, like when it was in ponytail and then you’d roll it up against the back of your head and put two pins in. And that was it. You were done, you had a French twist. So we manufactured, we being my mother and I, because again, I was 23 manufactured, 500 of them. We did a local commercial, a direct response type spot, got it on local cable.

Lisa (03:48):
And then another product came out called the hair Deni, which did more than just a French twist, but it was definitely a competitor. And we knew that we weren’t going to get there at the rate that we were with the money that we had. So we instead, I felt like I was backsliding. I felt like I was failing by going into licensing instead. But I had read about licensing in the back of David Preston’s book, patented yourself and learned a little bit about it and decided we’ll start calling on some companies. And at first I had a deal with goodie and then new Harbor made was buying them at the time. And so while we were in the process of fine tuning, the contract, she called and said, I’m sorry, Lisa, we’re going to have to put a stop on this. We’re being neutralized, which is what they called it at the time they were changing their business practices to, to align with the new process. And she couldn’t make a decision anymore, but encouraged me to keep going. So we found [inaudible] and licensed to [inaudible] and the rest is history.

Rich (04:45):
Oh, fantastic. And and that was life-changing for you? I believe. I mean, it was like what you were getting paid was way more than what you were making, working in production with the TV station, correct.

Lisa (04:59):
That is correct. I was making $13,000 a year as single mom at the time too. And an ad exec. And the first, the advanced payment I receive is for $20,000. So the very first check I got was significantly my entire annual salary.

Rich (05:18):
Yeah. That’s amazing. And so when you you know, I guess once that deal went through kind of what was the first thought about what you were going to do next? Or was it clear to you that you were going to continue continue on that path of, of creating and licensing products? Or what were you thinking?

Lisa (05:41):
No, I thought I’d never have another good idea. I thought it was so lucky. I, you know, I was really fortunate

Rich (05:50):
And that wasn’t true obviously, but I think it just the stop here for a moment and just note, I think that’s how a lot of inventors feel. And I think that’s one of the reasons why they get very paranoid about their invention. Sometimes they just rush ahead and do a patent, even if it’s not necessarily the next best mood w move to make. It’s because they think like, this is it, this is the baby. And there won’t be another one. And if, if, if I can’t maximize on this one that I won’t have another chance. And, and so it’s so interesting that you thought that true and, and obviously you went on to do so much more.

Lisa (06:31):
I don’t know that I struggled as much with the paranoia part. I actually had been in business and sales long enough to know that if you can’t pitch it, if you can’t talk about it. Right. So I made my peace with that early on with patent being patent pending at the time it was pre provisional applications. So we didn’t have that luxury back then. But I felt safe enough with the patent pending to go ahead and pursue the licensing and talk to other companies about it. And especially since I’d already been selling, I think it was just more for me. I, more of an imposter syndrome, I felt so fortunate. I felt like so many things just lined up for me because the entire process from the moment I had the idea to the moment I had that first $20,000 was about 18 months and so very part-time.

Lisa (07:22):
So I really didn’t know what I did. Right. I didn’t know what, if anything, I had done wrong. So I didn’t know how to duplicate that process. What I did know was that I really enjoyed licensing because for me, the best part of inventing was making the product, not running the business. So when we were making and selling them into stores in those first, early days that was just not fun for me. I felt like I was back in the business of being in business, whereas the creative juices and whittling and cutting things up and putting them back together that I knew I wanted to do again, but I didn’t know what my next idea would be. If anything, what I did know was this in those 18 months, my mother and I we’d gotten some publicity and done some things to try and market it for free as much as possible.

Lisa (08:12):
And as a result of that, publicity, a lot of people would call and ask for advice. And again, remember, I didn’t think I knew what I was doing. So I felt like the imposter syndrome telling anyone what I did. I was like, I’ll tell you what I did. I don’t know why it works, but if it helps you, that’s great. And what organically evolved out of that was the inventors association of Arizona. So our promise, my mom and I promised each other that if we got this licensed, we would start the inventors association of Arizona, which is a nonprofit here. And we ultimately then had two chapters. Our very first meeting, we had a hundred, a little over a hundred people attend. It was like 102. And we had 99 people join at $75 ahead, all learn how to do this. And the best part of that was I could invite other experts in like you to talk about intellectual property and explain it to us in a way that I didn’t feel responsible.

Lisa (09:02):
And over the years, what I saw were a lot of check boxes. Oh yeah. When, when an expert said do this and I could say, yep, that’s what I did. Right. Eventually it became more and more clear in my head what, what that process was that could be duplicated. And of course, then the rest is, you know, you just, you’re always thinking your brain doesn’t turn off. I already had relationships with the hair accessory company. So I brought more to them. And then they hired me to be vice president of new business development, which is really just code for head of innovation for the company. And we were at the time of $500 million company. So that was sitting on the other side of the desk. And I just continued to invent and work with inventors over the years.

Rich (09:41):
So this was at a scrunchie.

Lisa (09:44):
Yeah. So Spency hired me the people, the folks that goodie, which was on then of course, by Newell Rubbermaid and later called and had offered me some opportunities as well. They did license three of my products as well. And then I also licensed to Helen of Troy, both hair, accessory, and CO2 power to airbrush, which was a big departure and took much longer and a lot more money to bring to market. But altogether it’s seven so far.

Rich (10:15):
It’s funny. You, you, you wouldn’t expect that, but I know all of these companies, well, because I used to, well, for one, I used to sell beauty supplies and while I was in college I sold two salons, all of the different products that they use. So I was a wholesaler beauty supply. So Troy goody brush company, all of those companies were way back in the day, since we’re talking about back in the day, I might as well bring mine back in the day.

Lisa (10:46):
Exactly. Yeah. And, and the that’s a weird industry because there’s really only a handful of companies that cover a hundred percent of the market. And so you don’t have a lot of smaller boutique type companies that you can go licensed to if it’s a hair accessory, for example, that you think of. But it’s, it’s since grown, I’ve worked with many, many other companies, not just on my own products, but on behalf of my clients as well.

Rich (11:12):
Hmm. Amazing. And let’s talk about shark tank. I mean, how could we not, right. So we’re on the first season of shark tank and and I heard you tell a story before I’ve listened to some other interviews that you’ve been on and, and essentially Mark Burnett contacted you and you knew Mark Burnett’s history and different reality shows he was involved in and, and you, your first thought was no, that’s okay. I’m not interested. I’m not eating any bugs.

Lisa (11:44):
Yeah. Very close. I was, I was pitching TC Katz at a direct response trade show. I was invited to participate in a contest. I happened to win that contest at the show right after the contest. One of the produced one of Mark’s producers came to me and asked me if I would audition to be on the show. And that was when she said that it was Mark Burnett’s program. I’m like, yeah, no, I know survivor. I’m not willing to eat bugs for my business. And she said, no, no, no, that’s not what it is. And she said, I’m going to send you some links

Rich (12:13):
Before immunity though. You get immunity. [inaudible]

Lisa (12:20):
Thank you. And so, yeah, she sent me, I got a knock back in the office on Monday. I didn’t get caught up. I saw that there were several emails from her, but I didn’t have time to deal with it. Tuesday. I finally got through her emails and looked at some of the videos she sent from Dragon’s den in the UK. And it was just people pitching. And I thought, okay, this I can do. I got this. So I filmed on Wednesday. I did two nights, two day delivery got there in Friday. And they called me that following Monday and said that I was selected to, to come out to California.

Rich (12:52):
Hmm. And so you were in the first season. And so like at that point I guess like people that go on shark tank these days, they’ve seen the show before. They kind of know how it goes, but you didn’t have the benefit of being able to watch past episodes to know what to expect. Right.

Lisa (13:09):
I did not. And I, other than the Dragon’s done because it is very much modeled after that program. And when it was funny, because when they may be the offer, one of the rules that I don’t know what that, I’m sure they said it in one of the many meetings that we have leading up to it. But I didn’t remember was that we had the option to negotiate. It wasn’t just a taker to leave. It kind of deal. I knew that they would make an offer and that they could change the percentage. Like I’ll do it, but for this much, they couldn’t go below, but they could go above. And so they could change the amount of equity. For example, I didn’t know that I could come back and counter offer that. So that was news to me. I did get three offers and I ended up selecting Daymond’s offer and he brought Barbara Corcoran in on that as well.

Rich (13:57):
Wow. That’s great. And and so then from that point on you work together on the product, they helped you get into quite a number of stores with that product. No,

Lisa (14:11):
No. I did work with Daymond. He ended up contracting me to my company load marketing group to, he was getting a lot of, it was new for him as well. And they were also trying to figure out how to make it work. And on the first few seasons, very few deals ever got funded. So I kept waiting for mine to fund and it wasn’t coming in and he did other little things. Like he let me see, he was out of town and he let me stay in his home during one of the trade shows. And when I did the very last thing that he didn’t actually fund was I got an order from QVC and he paid for the $45,000. It cost for me to get that inventory to them. But for the most part, it, he didn’t actually fund the company.

Lisa (14:54):
Instead, we worked together on other projects. So when he was getting all these other submissions and he didn’t know what to do with them, my suggestion was to build an IP portfolio where we would in license. I’ll vet them, I’ll do all the due diligence. And let’s put a portfolio of products together and I’ll go out and pitch them under this new brand that we’re building shark. The shark group, I think, is what he calls it. And licensed all of that, a P and then split the royalties with those inventors. So we worked together on that project for about a year.

Rich (15:26):
And, and did you, did deals come out of that? Or, or how did that work out now?

Lisa (15:32):
Because most of the, again, this was the early days. It was funny because they told me to expect 10 million in viewers. And I’m sure they’re, they’ve surpassed that by now. But back then, we were lucky if we had a million people watching the program. So the brand wasn’t quite built yet. And I found myself spending more time explaining what shark tank was to people than I was gaining any real benefit from being on it. That brand wasn’t just, wasn’t really being any doors down at the time. I quit too soon though. I shouldn’t have I bailed out because I wanted to go move onto some other stuff that was just more productive. And that was taking so long. And frankly, I was broke. I mean, I had spent everything on TC pads. I, at that point I’d lost my home and I was rebuilding a new life. And I was in the process of moving from North Carolina to new Orleans and I just needed to do something else. So I wish that I hadn’t because of course, as you know, it grew and now it’s huge. And he’s got a wonderful person handling all of this licensing and doing other work with them like that now.

Rich (16:30):
Great. I imagine though, you learned a few things along the way by working with them patients. Right. You know, and, and exactly, you know, sometimes the lessons we learn Oh, you know, aren’t the ones. Yeah, exactly, exactly cool. But, but you have since then licensed many products on your own. And and and I think you you went on to then start producing your own products, correct? Like you, you licensed products for awhile and then you actually became the manufacturer of some of them. Correct.

Lisa (17:11):
So I did the, my second product right after the French Chester. I had a manufacturer rep come to me, a very successful rep who had a lot of money in the bank and said, whatever your next idea is, I want to, I want to sell it. And I said, I just want a license. At that point, I learned the process and I just wanted to duplicate it. It made more sense to me. And he said, no, I promise you I can sell it. And so we went ahead and manufactured. He invested in it and he was not able to get it in stores. And so I did end up going back to goodie. That was one of the products I licensed to goodie one of the three. And then fast forward, the next time I did, it was TC pets. And the irony is when I decided back, when it didn’t work with him, that I was never going to do that again.

Lisa (17:55):
And when TC pets came to me, it was actually called Bo pets. And it was patented. It had an issue patent on it by a woman by the name of Sandra Castillo. And she asked me if I could help her get it licensed. So I took it to some trade shows and pitched it to the people that I know in the business. And they all thought it had merit, but it was very large. And as you know, real estate and retail is calculated on dollars per square inch and $20 item. Yeah, exactly. And so it was just much too big for the price point at 20 bucks. They couldn’t, they couldn’t justify it. So I went back to her restructured our deal. I licensed her patent from her, and then I redesigned it and repurposed it as a toy. At which point we went ahead and started manufacturing and selling. And I was already in about 200 stores when I got on shark tank and following shark tank, got it into about another 200 stores before we ended up closing the doors in 2012.

Rich (18:53):
Got it. Cool. And, and so it’s interesting. When you, when you started out and people were calling you and saying, I have an invention, what should I do? And the way you described it before you said, well, you know, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I, I did the best I could to give them advice. And, you know, one thing that I guess when you and I previously spoke, it sounds like one of the things that you’ve figured out over the years was what it is that you were doing in the sense that it was more instinct at a certain point. You didn’t really know what the process was that you went through or how you came up with ideas and over time you decoded it. So, whereas maybe back then, you didn’t really know how to describe what it is you did, but you did know what you were doing now. You know how to describe the process, you know, how to explain to people. And as a consequence, you’re a great teacher and a great coach. You help people to, to, to really understand what to do next.

Lisa (20:01):
Thank you. I do. So one of the things that I feel is missing in a significant way from our industry for the independent educating the independent vendor industry is everyone’s kind of teaching the same formula, same model that I had created a course many years ago called. So you have a great idea. Now, what I went through the entire process, and essentially it’s been updated, but it’s still being taught this same essential information. And the number one, in fact, I had two coaching calls this morning. I both times it was someone who had already invented and patented and has their sell sheet and is now trying to license and just can’t get breakthrough that, that first step of connecting with someone and getting even a conversation to pitch it. And it’s too late. If you come to me at that point, I mean, I can tell you pretty much the same thing that’s out there because it’s good information.

Lisa (20:57):
You just, you can’t give up, you have to find the right company. You have to get there at the right time with the right solution. But when I talk to companies about why the invention failure rate is so high for an independent vendors, which is supposedly around 2% success, which is just a Bismal in itself, it might even be plated friendly. Yeah. There’s just no way to collect that data on. Fortunately, I have to be able to do that study, send it, but the reality is that the companies tell me over and over that the reason that they finally do get those pitches because they are listening and they are taking those pitches, the right companies are, they’re finding that the solutions are either not big enough, but in other words, it’s not a big enough problem. Doesn’t hurt enough for enough people that it’s just not worth them licensing or the second pretty close in, in terms of numbers of times, it happens 50 50 is that they show up with a solution that’s kind of poorly defined that solution.

Lisa (22:00):
Doesn’t really nail the problem. Maybe it’s not manufacturable, and maybe it’s not commercially viable because of the price point cost of goods, manufacturing, shipping. There are so many variables. If you don’t understand all of those and you invent for just your purpose, that problem you decided you had, that you felt like a lot. Maybe you talked to your mother, your brother, your sister, your neighbor. And they said, Oh yeah, that’s cool. Not that they’re biased at all. Right? But even giving them the benefit of the doubt. That doesn’t mean anything until someone who doesn’t know you and, and actually is in the right persona, that, that the market for that type of a product is willing to reach in their pocket and pull their money out. And so people invent poor solutions to maybe problems that aren’t big enough. And that’s really the challenge that I see.

Lisa (22:49):
So for me decoding, it, isn’t so much about teaching people, some new, not crazy awesome way to connect with companies and get them to listen to you because they are looking for products. That’s not the problem. It’s more identifying problems that are worth solving and then solving them dramatically better than all of that competition for that product. And if you do that really well, companies, they want to hear from you and you do get deals done. And I, even this morning, I was putting together a class that I’m teaching this week. And I went back to some zoom pitches that I’ve done with real companies on my own product. And it was just remembering how we address the problem. And in both cases, both of the videos I looked at, and I know all of them say the same thing at the end. This is, this is a really good, and this was a good pitch. I mean, this makes a lot of sense. I see the problem. In both cases, the companies don’t know how to make it. I shouldn’t say they don’t know how they go hire a contractor, but it’s outside of their wheelhouse of how they typically manufacturer. So I’ve had to pivot and I’m now working with a different company that already is in that type of manufacturing business. And we’re getting the deal done that way instead.

Rich (24:00):
So it’s about being a problem solver both before and after the licensing deal. And it’s about properly identifying the problem and having the best solution.

Lisa (24:10):
So let’s face it. If assuming that number is correct 2% or 98% failure rate in the large organization business with regard to innovation, whether it’s Proctor and gamble or Johnson and Johnson, they still have an 85, a 75 to 85% failure rate, depending on which study you look at when they launch new innovation and they have millions of dollars in their advertising and marketing, they have full-time R and D people that are professionally trained on how to innovate these solutions. And yet they’re still failing. And the number one reason is because they underestimate how hard it is to get a consumer, to make the switch from what they currently use. People are brand loyal and they don’t like change. So in order to get somebody to make a switch, and let’s just say, it’s me dusting the house, my sock, instead of now, you’re going to show me a Swiffer, which didn’t exist before.

Lisa (25:05):
And you’re going to ask me to take the sock off and not do it for free, but spend money. It has to be dramatically better than whatever that current solution is, whether it was free or paid for. So it has to have, in other words, enough, highly meaningful benefits that all add up to being dramatically better than the competition. And when you can define the problem and you get someone to agree with you, yeah, that’s a real problem. And then you show up with that wow. Solution that is dramatically better than all of the competition, because it has enough, highly meaningful benefits. They know people will make the switch, they decide to license and everybody wins because it sells in the stores.

Rich (25:41):
That makes perfect sense. And I’m on a rant there, but a good rant summary answer. Good like that one. And so in general, what, what, what else do you think that inventors need to know that you have been intent on, on teaching them to help them to be successful?

Lisa (26:07):
Sure. Well, two things, one would be that it’s as much a heart game as it is a head game. You can learn, you can go online and there’s so many great tutorials and some not so good to be very careful. But there’s some great teachers out there and there’s some great programs that you can learn and get it all into your head. But if you’re not around people that can encourage you, that you can celebrate every win. It’s not just a win at the end. When you go to market, whether that’s a licensed or choose to venture, it’s a win every step of the way. And if you stage gate that, and you celebrate those wins, it will help you persevere when you get the nos and the hard days and the days, and the anxiety shows up and that sort of thing. So I think it’s as much a heart game as it is a head game of people need to be part of a community that’s really important.

Lisa (26:54):
And the other is that again? No, one’s talking about this. And I hope to change this, but defining the problem is mission critical. It’s the very first thing to do. So you’re going about your day and all of a sudden you go, Oh my God, there’s gotta be a better way. The first thing most people do is what they either start to kind of make something real quick, or they go to an attorney to either do the research or, or do it themselves and then get it protected. But it’s so obscure. It’s so vague and they haven’t really defined the problem. And without a definitive problem, you won’t have a definitive solution for it. And so you can get off track very easily. And what happens is you start to show someone there’s a concept and they say, Oh, that’s, you know what else you could do? And then before, you know, it, they add this little thing and then they add this and it becomes so corrupted that people think that it’s not good enough to do one thing really well. And the reality is if you do that one thing better than anybody else, because that was your focus, that is your ear. And that is your value proposition, your differentiator. And the reason that people not only will license it, but consumers will buy it in the market. So staying focused, laser focused on defining that problem is the second one.

Rich (28:00):
Great advice. And so you’ve been I mean, you’ve been creating programs for people to help them understand how to invent, how to pursue their products for some time, but you’re doing something special coming up. You’re, you’re focusing on people that really wanna make inventing their full-time profession. So tell me about that.

Lisa (28:22):
So the invention accelerator is the result of the last few years working primarily in the, I had stepped away from working with independent inventors. It was just very difficult for me to scale one-on-one and it was the same questions over and over. And I couldn’t figure out how I could support myself and help people at the same time. So I parked that and I’ve been working with large organizations on front end innovation, which is what we’ve been talking about, defining the problem, identifying the solution that has the enough, highly meaningful benefits. And in doing that, I was exposed to a lot of research data, professional association, trade trade secrets will say, they’re not so secret, but secret from the general public. And I decided I really wanted to yeah, exactly. Your tricks packs, you know, what the pros are doing all day, even just to get to that 75 and 85% or 15 to 25% success rate putting on it, which way you look at it.

Lisa (29:25):
Right. so how do we move the needle? I want to make a difference and so want to take that information and bring it back to the independent veteran. It wasn’t quite sure how to do it. And I had several people ask me if I’d create a course and they knew a course, wasn’t going to be enough. I’ve done it. And yeah, it would be the best course I’ve ever taught based on all of these, of learning now, almost 30 years. But I knew it needed to be more than that. So we created a course. It’s called how to invent a new your pajamas real world guide to better products and bigger profits. And then there’s a group coaching call where everyone has the opportunity to ask an answer, get their questions answered by me, not by anybody else. So you’re learning from one another’s questions in addition to getting that time that still getting that one-on-one time with me.

Lisa (30:10):
And then we have a private forum for that. What I mentioned earlier, the opportunity to connect with each other, to share your wins. In fact, I ask all of our students to add hashtag when, when they’re going to share something, because if we don’t celebrate those together, we really, it gets disheartening and you’ll walk away, especially if you’re not surrounded by people in your personal life that are very supportive, they don’t get it. So there’s that we network with one another, we share, Hey, I use this person. They worked great for me, so that there’s a lot of collaboration and people aren’t making the same mistakes over and over again, because it’s everyone’s first time. They’re learning from one another as well. So it’s a combination of the inventors association. I started the one-on-one coaching, but in a group setting and the course all combined, and I’m finding it to be much more effective.

Lisa (30:55):
And I’m seeing the results finally that I really want. It makes it worth my while and their time. So when you’re launching in January, yeah. So we actually did a prototype course where a program, excuse me, I launched this last in November and we did the group. We did everything live instead of prerecorded. And I wanted to make sure that we had fleshed out what everyone’s questions were. And so everybody was participating in a little bit of a different way. And now we’re wrapping up. We’ve got our last class this week. That’s the one I was preparing for this morning. And in January, I’ll take it and make it more of an evergreen course. So people can watch it on demand and they don’t have to worry about being available. When I am like, I have one student that’s in Australia and I it’s a relatively good time for him.

Lisa (31:38):
It’s not the middle of the night, but it’s seven in the morning for him. So he’s looking forward to being able to go back to that when he can, and it’ll be constantly improved and it’s a lifetime program. That’s the other thing I drives me crazy when it takes a year or two years, if you’ve only purchased time with me for six months and that’s all I can afford to do and budget, I have to charge you again in another six months, this is you’re in, you’re in for life. So you come on the group, coaching call a year and a half later with an offer on a new product or that same product. We can all still help you

Rich (32:09):
Got it. And so this program is for people who want to be full-time inventors. And, and I wonder like, is it a confidence thing you think that would hold someone back from being a full-time inventor? Cause I imagine everybody would like to be a full-time inventor, whether they have the confidence to believe that, that they can do it right.

Lisa (32:32):
I love that you use that word rich. I, it is a confidence thing that leads to your success. I don’t think that people should quit their day job. Just like if you want to be an actor or a singer or an artist of any kind, you know, you need to make sure that you can support yourself. And this is the kind of business that’s very forgiving in that, you know, it’s very flexible and you can reach out most of the time with just emails. And if it’s one zoom call, you have to do, it’s a small interruption in your day versus Steven, keep your day job until you get that money coming in. Right? But the idea behind the program is this is a commitment to really be successful. And that might not happen overnight, but it’s an intention of, this is what I want to be doing all the time, full time.

Lisa (33:13):
And I’ll find a way toward that. And the reason I say, I like your word using the word confidence is because I find that when just going back to defining the problem, if I’ve done a good job, defining the problem, I’m a lot more confident in my solution. I’m a lot less concerned about when it comes time to pitch it. I’ve done. If I’ve taken all of these other steps that we go through, I know that even if it’s not the right fit for you, it’s a good fit for someone. And I need to continue to pursue this. You know, it’s solid and you have the confidence. You need to stay in the business and keep going. Great. So if people want to learn more about you again, in touch with you, how do they go about doing so best way to connect with me would be on LinkedIn.

Lisa (33:54):
Or, and you can just put in Lisa Lloyd or you could go to my website, which is Lloyd marketing group.com. And you can have a free 20 minute consultation with me. If you’d like right there on the website, you can book that time. That works best for you. Or if you do want to email me direct me, you can directly, you can email me lisaLloyd@lloydmarketinggroup.com. Amazing. Well, Lisa, I really appreciate you being here on the show and sharing everything that you have about your your journey and also about things that will help other people in their journey. So thanks so much for being here. Thank you rich, and thank you for doing a show like this. We need, we need good people out there to help get the word out on how to do this because people deserve to pursue their dreams.

Outro (34:43):
Thanks for listening to innovations and breakthroughs with your host, rich Goldstein. Be sure to click, subscribe, check us out on the web@innovationsandbreakthroughs.com and we’ll see you next time.

Is it Time to Protect Your Ideas?

Book your FREE Idea Protection Strategy Call

Join over 10,000 others who have asked us to help protect their best ideas and inventions.


Do You Have Intellectual Property (IP) You Need To Protect?

Your FREE Strategy Call is a pressure-free, no obligation way to get all your questions answered.
Goldstein Patent Law patiently listens to you, and then explains your options so you don’t lose your rights.
Call (718) 701-0700 or use the form below to secure your complimentary strategy call now.

By clicking Schedule Now, you agree to our Privacy Policy, including our Cookie Use.

No Obligation. Completely Confidential.

Popular

We're Social

Is it Time to Protect Your Ideas?

Book your FREE Idea Protection Strategy Call

Join over 10,000 others who have asked us to help protect their ideas.