Lisa Lloyd will be the first to tell you that she’s not a genius...though she certainly seems like one. She invented her first product at 23, a hair styling tool called The French Twister, which eventually grossed $20 million. And over the years, she went on to license seven other products; getting featured on Shark Tank, Good Morning America, USA Today, The Big Idea, and more before starting the Lisa Lloyd Marketing Group. She’s also the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at the Invention Accelerator, a program that helps busy innovators to get their ideas off the ground. But not all of those inventions turned out; in fact, Lisa had still been paying off the debt from one of her products until…pretty recently. And before she started inventing, there were no early signs of entrepreneurial greatness. She actually didn’t think she was smart enough to become an entrepreneur, period. In this episode, Lisa shares what she's learned over 30 years as an inventor and high-profile business owner. What were her most costly mistakes, and what did they teach her? What’s the key to persisting through prolonged periods of uncertainty without becoming cynical? And what are the two types of discipline that you need to keep moving forward as an entrepreneur?
Lisa Lloyd will be the first to tell you that she’s not a genius...though she certainly seems like one.
She invented her first product at 23, a hair styling tool called The French Twister, which eventually grossed $20 million. And over the years, she went on to license seven other products; getting featured on Shark Tank, Good Morning America, USA Today, The Big Idea, and more before starting the Lisa Lloyd Marketing Group. She’s also the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at the Invention Accelerator, a program that helps busy innovators to get their ideas off the ground.
But not all of those inventions turned out; in fact, Lisa had still been paying off the debt from one of her products until…pretty recently. And before she started inventing, there were no early signs of entrepreneurial greatness. She actually didn’t think she was smart enough to become an entrepreneur, period.
In this episode, Lisa shares what she's learned over 30 years as an inventor and high-profile business owner. What were her most costly mistakes, and what did they teach her? What’s the key to persisting through prolonged periods of uncertainty without becoming cynical? And what are the two types of discipline that you need to keep moving forward as an entrepreneur?
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Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:00:00]:
When we look at quote genius entrepreneurs, a lot of us might say to ourselves that could never be me. That Sara Blakely is Sara Blakely because she's, well, Sara Blakely. But if we set aside the mythic status of these entrepreneurial geniuses, what actually contributed to their success? What did they do differently from everyone else to make it big? Lisa Lloyd will be the first to tell you that she's not a genius, though from the outside she certainly looks like one. She invented her first product at 23, a hairstyling tool called the French Twister, which eventually grossed $20,000,000 And over the years, she went on to license 7 other products, getting featured on Shark Tank, Good Morning America, USA Today, The Big Idea, and more before starting the Lisa Lloyd Marketing Group. She's also the founder and chief innovation officer at the Invention Accelerator, a program that helps busy innovators to get their ideas off the ground. If you're a regular listener of the show, you probably correctly guessed that Lisa's journey wasn't easy. Not all of those 8 inventions turned out. In fact, Lisa has still been paying off the debt from one of her products until pretty recently.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:01:15]:
And before she started inventing, there were no early signs of entrepreneurial greatness. Lisa didn't actually excel in school. She actually didn't think she was smart enough to become an entrepreneur period. But through all of these learning experiences, she gained a staggering amount of invaluable insight about product or market fit, developing This week, I sat down with Lisa to hear more about what she's learned over 30 years as an inventor and high profile business owner. What were her most costly mistakes and what did they teach her? What's the key to persisting through prolonged periods of uncertainty without becoming cynical? And what are the 2 types of discipline you need to keep moving forward as an entrepreneur? I'm Katherin Vasilopoulos, and this is And So She Left, the podcast about incredible women entrepreneurs and the wisdom they gained beyond the corporate world. After working in the Navy, Lisa joined the CBS affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, when she was 23. Like many who go on to become entrepreneurs, she was working in sales at the time. But Lisa wasn't keen on staying there.
Lisa Lloyd [00:02:46]:
I was in outside sales, so I was always going from client to client. And I remember daydreaming one day about how she know if I had my own product to sell as opposed to someone else's. I know that it would be, something that I could put my whole soul into because I would be the person responsible for making sure that the transformation promise or the deliverables were actually given to the client, and I could control all of that. And I really wanted to do something spectacular. Was growing out, that in between stage was real ugly. So I wore it up in a French twist all the time. I didn't realize it was difficult for other people until they started asking me how I got it to look so nice every day. And it occurred to me, wow, if it's that difficult, I wonder if there's something that I can do to help other people.
Lisa Lloyd [00:03:37]:
So enter the French Twister, my first invention when I was 23. It took a couple years before it made it to market. At first, I decided to make and sell them. I sold my car and I used a tax refund, and I got some money from my mother to help me kick start the whole thing. And I started making and selling them into local stores. But, unfortunately, in that 1st year, someone came out with a competing product that was even a little bit better than mine. It did multiple styles, not just a French twist. And I thought, oh my god.
Lisa Lloyd [00:04:05]:
I'm done. This is going nowhere. What was I thinking? And I had read in the back of a book called Patent It Yourself by David Pressman about licensing, and I had never heard of it before. And just doing a little bit of research, realized that there were a handful of companies that already sold into the stores that I dreamed about being in, like Walmart and Target and at the time, Kmart. And I thought, okay. Let me go find some companies that could potentially license this product. Fortunately, in about 18 months from the time I had the idea, started making and selling it, ultimately, I was able find and acquire a licensing deal with Scunci, and the product went on to do $20,000,000 in sales. And I still felt like a fraud because back then, nobody talked about entrepreneurship like we do today, and licensing was for really lofty people.
Lisa Lloyd [00:04:55]:
And usually in the brand business, not so much in the product business unless you start talking about technology. So it was kind of a coup. And while I thought I was escaping with my tail between my legs and just accepting a licensing agreement, it actually became the beginning of what would become a very successful career in the business.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:05:12]:
That is very interesting because the the idea of licensing doesn't come to everyone, and it's not something that would be obvious to someone who is on their first product coming to market. What else did you invent? Tell me more about that.
Lisa Lloyd [00:05:23]:
Yeah. So I thought, this is cool. My job at KOLD was $13,000 a year. My agreement on that first product was for $60,000 a year. And I had to deal with my mom to split it, so I still only made 30,000. But compared to 13,000, that was a lot more money for me at that time. And I thought, gosh, I wanna do this again. Well, my mom and I ended up cofounding the Inventors Association of Arizona, which became a nonprofit organization to help other people do what we do.
Lisa Lloyd [00:05:53]:
The result of that was a lot of people coming to me on the side, plus there was a lot of publicity from the success, and it very organically developed into another side hustle of consulting. It wasn't really my intention to build this business into consulting and mentoring people. I just wanted to keep inventing and coming up with new products. So I started consulting on the side and then over the years, came up with 7 more products for a total of 8 that I've licensed doing mostly in hair accessories. I had the toy that I manufactured and sold that I was on Shark Tank with. I have a c o two powered airbrush. And the rest are all hair accessories that I've licensed to Helen of Troy, which has the Vidal Sassoon and Revlon brands, to Scunci, which is now owned by Conair, as well as Almar Sales, which had Suave at the time. Yes.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:06:43]:
Yes. And these are huge brands. These are this is not a small thing. Were you always like this? Like, as a child, do you remember any stories of where you were like, I'm an inventor and I'm an entrepreneur and all those together? That's what I'm gonna do when I grow up.
Lisa Lloyd [00:06:55]:
Right? No. In fact, if you had used the word inventor, I would have pictured, you know, Einstein with blacky hair and white men, you know, with blacky hair, and or Edison or Tesla. You you had to be some genius in science or math, which were never, I guess. In fact, I was a very poor student. When I was young, they didn't diagnose them. I'm 55 now. But when I was young, they didn't diagnose things like ADHD, and I didn't do well in school as a result. I was a very slow reader.
Lisa Lloyd [00:07:21]:
My retention was low, which meant my learning was slow, and I always felt behind. I was even in remedial classes in elementary and junior high. But I was always a problem solver because when you are stuck in the corner like that, you have to be resourceful to find your way out of problems that
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:07:39]:
Right.
Lisa Lloyd [00:07:39]:
Other people don't necessarily find to be challenging. And so whether it was just, you know, working out problems in my personal life or my professional life or whatever, I was always a problem solver, especially in marketing. And then when I had this first idea for the French Twister, I knew that was my calling
Lisa Lloyd [00:08:01]:
There was a period of time after TC Pets, which was the one I was on Shark Tank with, that I didn't even wanna talk about inventing for about 6 years because I lost everything from that product, which I'm happy to go into later. But, I was so disheveled and upset. I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown and an identity crisis because I had been successful with everything. And so stepping away from inventing, I was actually called on by a few different start up accelerators to become the entrepreneur in residence in Louisiana. So there were 3 different start up accelerators that I helped run as the EIR and got to know a lot more about the business side. Because when you're an inventor, you really just work on the front end, then you pass the baton and they take it and run with it, and you just receive these passive checks. But being a part of the startup accelerators, not only was I allowed to help them, but I had the privilege of learning from their business experience vicariously as well. So that really furthered, I think, my development, and I came back with a real a deep resolve to become an expert in learning and development and helping other people learn how to do what I did.
Lisa Lloyd [00:09:08]:
Because most of the time prior to that, when people would ask me why I was successful, I would say, I really have no idea, but I'll tell you what I did. And if it makes sense and it resonates, go for it. After going through the process and learning best practices for the start up world, even things like just lean business modeling. Right? I was able to take those and translate them and articulate for the first time what it was that I did right and didn't know I was doing right for so many years before TC Pets. So I took all of that knowledge, came back into the community, and started serving again, the inventor community with the assistance. And lo and behold, just in November, licensed another product.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:09:47]:
But tell me something. You said something before, and I wanna go back to that. You you were saying how, you know, all of a sudden you had all this success, but the one time that you fell and it just didn't work, and you're like, what happened here? So tell me about that process of, like, knowing that you're a success, but all of a sudden one thing that doesn't go well Right. Where how do you get back up from that?
Lisa Lloyd [00:10:07]:
I think I should do a 3 day seminar on just that.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:10:11]:
Yeah.
Lisa Lloyd [00:10:12]:
Time is part of it. Therapy was definitely part of it. I didn't realize that all of that success had created a bit of an identity that my meaningfulness or my value, my worth was based on. And
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:10:26]:
because you think you're one thing at one point, and then all of a sudden you're not that anymore. Yeah.
Lisa Lloyd [00:10:30]:
Right. If that's what you need to to be believed that you're meaningful and you don't have that anymore, what's left? It was really interesting when I was asked to be a speaker at an event in New Orleans for the start up community there. They specifically asked me to do a a talk on failure, and I was terrified. I don't think I looked up from my notes one time. But when I found out when I was done, I looked up and I had a standing ovation. And I started crying and I thought, okay, maybe it is safe to talk authentically about where you are and what you're going through. And it actually became a very important part of what I do now with coaching is that authenticity and and being transparent all the time, which is terrifying if you're and space inside of you that allows you to believe that you have meaning and value and worth regardless of what your conditions or circumstances or success is for that matter, then you can be transparent. And people not only see the good things, they see the the struggles, and you you present something that's real and achievable for other people.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:11:39]:
Can you go in more detail about what that moment in your life was like and what that failure was? Was it related to Shark Tank?
Lisa Lloyd [00:11:46]:
Yes. It was. So I was on the very first season of Shark Tank with a product called TC Pets, Treasure Chest Pets. And I had offers from 3 of the 5 sharks, and I accepted Daymond John's offer. He brought Barbara in. And I went for about 4 months with them doing their due diligence and vetting my company. And Damon funded one order that I got with QVC, but nothing else. And I was already bleeding out.
Lisa Lloyd [00:12:13]:
I hadn't been making money. I'd just been putting money into it for about a year and a half at that point. And I was bleeding out because it was 2010, which is right after the 2008 bubble, and my margins just kept shrinking. Magnets went up 700%. Textiles went up 400%. Fuel was crazy through the roof. So my margins were just disappearing. And, ultimately, I shut it down in 2014 even though I got it into 400 stores and was on national television and all these different shows, seemingly successful, just basically bankrupt.
Lisa Lloyd [00:12:46]:
I should have filed BK, but I didn't. And I just paid off the last of the debt, last year, so that was tough. You know? And it led to a divorce and moving around the country, which is why I ended up moving to Louisiana in the first place. I was hanging out in New Orleans, having a good time, trying to recover, and and just pull it together. You know?
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:13:06]:
Right. Right. I mean, you're laughing about it now, but back then, I'm sure it was not a laughing matter. And that must have been the first and biggest challenge for you as an entrepreneur and trying to navigate that whole experience because no one knows how to do that first time it happens.
Lisa Lloyd [00:13:21]:
Because most people aren't willing to talk about it, and we love the happy ending stories. And most of the time, you only get to see those stories after they've come back or had some sort of big win because, otherwise, there's no happy ending. And I need to hear more from people as they're going through it to know that I can survive it while I'm going through it.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:13:39]:
I agree. We we need to hear not the failures. They're not failures. They're learnings. But at the same time, we wanna hear that some people have had struggles. It's not always gonna be a straight line to the top or a straight line to success. It's a meandering line and ups and downs and we have to admit to that as entrepreneurs and then tell other people as well and share that experience so that we can have a realistic picture of what it means to run a business and have products come to market and not all of them making it.
Lisa Lloyd [00:14:07]:
Yes. Absolutely. And those were stepping stones Katherin hindsight, I learned more from that experience than I did from any of the success. Because like I mentioned earlier, people asked me how I did it, and I told them, I don't know, but I'll tell you what I did, and if it works for you, great. Now I can tell you why it worked and why the best practices should be implemented by anybody considering inventing and licensing because the Mhmm. The proof is there over and over again.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:14:33]:
And in your experience, the why it worked is probably the most important.
Lisa Lloyd [00:14:39]:
Yes. Yes. And I and I deterred from what those best practices were that made me successful by licensing. And in trying to manufacture, created this new learning curve, like starting all over and didn't have the runway for any mistakes to come up. I mean, I did, but not enough. You know? I put a 150 in, and I raised another 150. So we had a 100 or 300,000, and that still wasn't enough to stick it out until the market came back and we could become profitable again.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:15:11]:
Wow. Wow. What are your best practices?
Lisa Lloyd [00:15:14]:
One of them is to mitigate risks. Go figure. And one of the ways that we do that is by thoroughly validating the opportunities that we have in front of us. And I don't care if you're an entrepreneur and wanna build and scale a huge business whether it's product or service based or you wanna invent and license. You still need to validate the opportunity. And in my community of inventors, most first time reinvention are ordinary people with extraordinary ideas, you know, so it's a mom or a mechanic or doesn't Katherin. But this isn't their domain of expertise, just like stepping into TC Pets and making and selling it wasn't mine. So there's a learning curve there.
Lisa Lloyd [00:15:48]:
So some of those best practices are, for example, stage gate, the stage gate process that I use. And it's define, which means defining the opportunity, the marketplace, the patentability, everything necessary to make sure that there's a valid opportunity for you there, and then develop. Most inventors have that idea. They do a little bit of research, maybe a patent search, and look in a few stores and think, okay. There's nothing like it. And that's just never true. And then they jump into developing it, and so they skip that step. Once you develop with the right research having done before, which, again, most people don't do, you will develop something that we call wow.
Lisa Lloyd [00:16:26]:
It has to have the wow factor. It has to make people say, I wish I would've thought of that, and I I've gotta have that. If you under engineer, over engineer, or just don't think through all of the other possible ways something could be done better, simpler, faster, cheaper, then you haven't created a truly competitive product. And why would a company pay you for the exclusive right to sell something that doesn't really give them that competitive advantage? So the stage gate process is a great way to mitigate your risk, take the right steps, and be prepared to walk away. That's another best practice. You can't be so in love with your idea that you put blinders on. You have to love it enough to work hard because no one likes to work hard. Right? Beyond working hard, you also have to have something that there is a big enough demand for by enough people priced at the right price point that it can be commercially made and sold at large scale.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:17:19]:
Those are great, though. They're very good because they are applicable. They're applicable across the board.
Lisa Lloyd [00:17:23]:
Yes. I agree.
Lisa Lloyd [00:17:26]:
Yeah. I don't think I'm, I don't think that I'm a genius. I didn't create any of this. This is just like I said, I didn't know how to articulate why I was successful. I could just tell you what I did. Well, now after helping all the entrepreneurs and really getting under the the hood of the start up community, I was able to translate those best practices for the inventor in the same way. It's nothing new. Yeah. It's just packaged properly.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:17:46]:
And it sounds like you're using a lot of your professional experience then to build and build and build into the the next versions of yourself as an entrepreneur. There's no other way to go. You can't go backwards. You can only move forward in in that process. And also in that, I wanted to know more about your experience being on Shark Tank and what you learned from that.
Lisa Lloyd [00:18:07]:
Some of the things that I would love to say I can't say. I'm under nondisclosure. I will say that quick story that kind of ties it all together. I was sitting in the green room, and I was up next. And remember, it's season 1, so we're the first group of people they brought in since the pilot. And, apparently, no one was getting any offers. So the producers come running into the green room saying, the sharks aren't biting. The sharks aren't biting.
Lisa Lloyd [00:18:33]:
I said, what do you mean? They said, we need you to lower your evaluation and lower your ask, because they're we think that it's because of money that they're not making offers. I called my CPA and figured we did some number crunching, and I went back out there and offered a different amount. I was asking a $150,000 for 40% of my company. Damon offered a full 150 for 60% of my company, and that's what I ended up accepting. Mhmm. But I was bullied, I would say, and not, you know, in a in a way that I would be offended by, but I was definitely pressured to do something with my business that I didn't wanna do. And that happened more than once with the program. Again, obviously, I'm 55 now, and I've hindsight's always 2020.
Lisa Lloyd [00:19:16]:
Be a lot harder to pressure me into a corner. I probably would walk away before I would make those kinds of choices again. My intention really was to get the investor and not just the money, but the team. And unfortunately, that's not what happened. So in the end, I didn't get anything that I needed. In hindsight, if I had known that's how it was gonna play out, I would have played the game the way that they wanted it played with a different agenda just to get the advertising, and I would have really leveraged it much better.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:19:47]:
Think about all the people who are in these reality shows. The ones who are in the first seasons were at a complete disadvantage. The ones who are in it, like in Survivor 45 seasons later, they've had time to study everything, go through all the puzzles, understand what to do next. Like, the this is not the same playing field. You're I think I wanna I wanna bring up something, like, just as an entrepreneur, like, you've done all these inventions and you've had all this life experience. I I wanna dive into what you think was the most challenging thing for you over the years.
Lisa Lloyd [00:20:18]:
Being very deliberate and determined and disciplined to fight the fight, to get up every day, to do the research, to do the more mundane, boring part of the business so that you can have the big, fun, successful part of the business.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:20:34]:
Mhmm.
Lisa Lloyd [00:20:34]:
It's just that discipline. I was just telling my kids yesterday, in fact, if I knew that I was going to be successful, I wouldn't mind working 80 hours a week. But it's really hard to find the drive at this stage in my life because the older you get, the more experience you have, the more cynical you're tempted to become. And I realized how hard it is. And so it's terrifying to think about putting in that many hours of working that hard at at something that might fail. So really doing the work, just showing up and being consistent and disciplined is is still the challenge. It always has been, and it always will be. It's that fear of failure constantly.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:21:12]:
Yeah. I was gonna ask you, like, where do you get your drive now? Because you've been at it for a while and, like, we need to maintain that momentum. Where do you get it?
Lisa Lloyd [00:21:20]:
It's just a matter of taking baby steps. You know, how do you eat an elephant? And this is what I have to remind the people that I work with and coach now. It's a matter of just doing the work that's in front of you. Mhmm. Having the big picture and knowing what the big goal is, backing it out, building your roadmap, and then taking it one step at a time. And if at any point on that journey, you discover new data, new information that supports not pursuing it anymore, then you haven't failed. You've chosen to pivot or walk away, and that feels empowering. It's not fun, especially if you spent time and money on it.
Lisa Lloyd [00:21:54]:
But compared to the alternative of being a bulldog and trying to push through everything only to fail anyway, that's not worth it to me. So, again, going back to doing the research, getting the data, and proving everything out makes it a lot easier to then go and convince someone that this is an opportunity of a lifetime for them.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:22:13]:
I'm thinking about the concept of that discipline. And if you don't have it from the get go, is it really easy to develop that along the way? Because I'm considering people who have tried to get disciplined or have that in their life and then they just can't get there.
Lisa Lloyd [00:22:29]:
So there's 2 different kinds of discipline. I think in my experience, one that comes from a place in your head and one that comes from a place in your gut, that persistence, the drive that you can harness to be disciplined from your gut is a lot easier than when it's just heady knowledge. The the heady knowledge is very easily crowded out by all of those other thoughts of fear of failure. And what no matter what your background or experiences are in life, everyone is going to face that at some point on their journey, probably many times through the course of that journey. And then that's just the beginning of a new era anyway, and you start all over again, so in my case, with licensing. So I'm finding that when I work from just my head, it's not sustainable. I can't find the energy or the drive from inside me to persist through some of the more boring or even frustrating parts of the process. And they are there.
Lisa Lloyd [00:23:26]:
It's not like I love every single step of the way. My ex husband and I used to joke all the time, people want to have what we have, but they don't wanna do what we had to do to get there. What got me through all the times that I was successful up to TC Pets was really just that drive and that passion. And being very authentic and sincere when I asked questions about if someone said no, I asked why. But it wasn't to convince them they were wrong. It was to understand what I'm missing if indeed I am missing something or to uncover whether or not they misunderstood something I said that I can clear up and perhaps change their mind, but never with the intention of manipulating or being maniacal or anything like that. I wanted to learn, and I really believe that being a voracious learner has continued to make me successful over and over again. And and it's absolutely why I'm back on this track again.
Lisa Lloyd [00:24:19]:
So the discipline has to come from deep inside of you, but you also have to use your head through the process. And Mhmm. Knowing how to walk that line, I I don't know how to teach that yet.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:24:29]:
But I like what you're saying because I never thought of it that way. I never thought about the discipline portion of it being extremely like at the gut level. Mhmm. And if you don't have it at the gut level, then maybe you're never gonna have it. It it needs to come from that fire in your belly and really believing in what you're doing and what your mission statement is and that comes from there not necessarily from the head.
Lisa Lloyd [00:24:52]:
Right. I love that. Yes. Know your why. You can have lots of good ideas. That doesn't make them good enough. That's a very important point. Lots of ideas, but I don't invent all of them.
Lisa Lloyd [00:25:02]:
Sometimes they're too small or they're just not realistic in some way or another. Doesn't matter.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:25:08]:
Mhmm. Yes. Yes. You have to know which ones to pick, what, what has a better success rate maybe or having, like, a a better sense of all that. Yeah. When, when do you know when to walk away? Because you said that before, and I'm curious to know, like, what would be your criteria for that?
Lisa Lloyd [00:25:26]:
It's different for different people depending on when you start asking the question. So I'll have some folks come to me later in the process when they've already invented, protected, and they've been trying to perhaps license it and they're getting nowhere, they're getting ghosted or they're getting nos from companies. In those cases, my opinion is, look, don't spend any more money on it, but you've got the time. Why wouldn't you exhaust your options here by creating a hit list, which is what I call my prospect list, prioritizing that Lisa, and practicing on every single one of those companies until you hear a reason that is valid not to do it anymore. So perhaps, for example, one of those companies might say, oh, you know what? We just saw that launch in China last year at a trade show. It's already out there, and you didn't know that. We're already working on something similar, so we can't work with you. Okay.
Lisa Lloyd [00:26:15]:
Well, that company definitely can't be convinced, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. In fact, maybe that's the reason for going to one of their competitors and saying, look. If you wanna compete, I've got this. People think that inventing stops the minute you've got that product developed or idealized, you know, on a piece of paper with a virtual prototype. And that's not really the end of the innovation process. You are constantly innovating throughout the process all the way through closing the deal. You have to negotiate, for example. That's a lot of problem solving there.
Lisa Lloyd [00:26:47]:
So if you're early on, the best thing that you can do is know what the right questions are to ask. Keep an open mind. Be honest with yourself. Don't be so in love with your idea that you can't walk away, but don't give up on something that you haven't proven should be given up on. It's kind of a balancing act throughout the entire process. And there's
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:27:20]:
For someone who is in your position or someone who is looking to start a business or to invent something, what would you like to tell them?
Lisa Lloyd [00:27:29]:
Well, first of all, congratulations. It's very exciting. I love it. So I'm a little bit, biased about that. The first step goes beyond, you know, going online and seeing if anybody else is selling anything similar because one of the biggest mistakes I see within 30 seconds Lisa someone sitting across my desk. They'll say, I've done all the research. There's nothing like it. And in 30 seconds, I'm turning my computer around and showing them 3 items that compete with it.
Lisa Lloyd [00:27:54]:
Oh, no. So what happens is we get these unknown biases and these blinders on so that we tend to not see what we don't wanna see. And the best way to be successful in any business is to be brutally honest with yourself and face the real world. And if you're willing to fight the fight to overcome whatever those challenges are because they can be overcome, then go for it. So start doing the right research, asking the right questions, making sure that you've validated thoroughly validated the the market, the product, the opportunity with the consumer, all of those things. Make sure you've invented a solution, a wow solution that's dramatically better than all of the competition. You can license products that are a little bit of a one off, but it's very hard and and you're not likely going to earn very much. So I tell people all the time when they tell me they weren't able to secure a deal with any of the big companies that they wanted, well, you know what? Even a small deal is better than no deal.
Lisa Lloyd [00:28:52]:
You're this far into it. Why wouldn't you call 10 more companies and see what you can get out of it even if it's very little, $500 a year or whatever? You're getting a return on your investment, hopefully. So it's it's all about the research and then developing wow products. And I think we can change the industry because right now, statistically, less than 2 percent of all independent inventors who get patents make more than $1 than they spent on their product. Less than 2% are ever profitable. I believe that we can change that success rate if people would just take the time to get educated. And it's not a lot of information. It's some real basic best practices.
Lisa Lloyd [00:29:28]:
Unfortunately, you have to be careful because there's a lot of people out there that are more interested in in, like, selling courses or coaching programs or something like that than really teaching what those best practices are. But when you can learn from people who have been there and done that, that is an an outstanding way to cut the learning curve and dramatically improve your odds for success and change that 2% number.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:29:50]:
Thank you so much to Lisa Lloyd. You can learn more about the Invention Accelerator program through the link in the episode description. If you like the show, please rate, review, and subscribe to And So, She Left wherever you listen. Your feedback helps us to better serve current listeners and reach new ones. Head over to andsosheleft.com for full episodes, transcripts, an application form to be on the show, a list of upcoming guests, and more. And So, She Left is made by Cansulta and Ethan Lee. Cansulta connects entrepreneurs and leaders with a global roster of over 150 pre vetted consultants and experts, like Ethan and I, who can help organizations in any business area, from HR to finance to sales and marketing, and even innovation and product design. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. Our music is by Correspondence and Chris Zabriskie edited for your enjoyment.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:30:41]:
You can find a list of all the songs you heard here in the episode notes. I'm Katherin Vasilopoulos, and thanks for listening.