Transcript:

Ben Smith:

Hello, listeners. Welcome to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. My name is Ben Smith. Allow me to introduce my two co-hosts, the Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison to my Henry Ford, Curtis Worcester and Austin Minor. How are you guys doing today?

Austin Minor:

Good, good. How are you?

Ben Smith:

I'm good, I'm good. Of course, famous inventors is little bit of the theme here on the introduction. And Austin, I know you and I were chatting a little bit. We got some pretty inventive clients, so we wanted to maybe have the conversation about some inventions. So here's something that maybe people might be interested in today, right?

Austin Minor:

Yes, definitely. One thing we know about retirees is that while they've left the workforce, they have many useful skills and want to find something to do that gives purpose and hopefully adds a few dollars to the pocketbook. Almost everyone at one time or another comes up with a good idea or improvement for a consumer product. The problem is, most people don't have a clue what to do with those ideas, or that they even can do something with them. Even those without an education or particular skills can find equal success and joy in inventing a product.

One thing that we're even seeing in the marketplace are retirees inventing things with family members, even their grandkids. Imagine creating a product or idea that makes a lasting impact on the world, makes something easier and creates memories with a family member. But how do we do this? Our guest today has a very simple 10 step system that walks people through the process. It is simple, fun, and can be done whenever and wherever and at whatever pace someone would like. So this is exactly what this show is about. Bring your lifelong invention idea to market.

Curtis Worcester:

That's right Austin, and you teed us up there with our next guest. So our guest today is an award-winning inventor, renowned intellectual property strategist, lifelong entrepreneur, author, speaker, and columnist. He has over 20 patents in his name and the dozens of concepts he has brought to market have retailed in places like Walmart 7-Eleven and Disney Stores and Parks worldwide. And he's been endorsed by the likes of Michael Jordan, Alex Trebek, and Taylor Swift, which that's a popular one right now.

Austin Minor:

[inaudible 00:02:52].

Curtis Worcester:

Yes. He has defended his patents in federal court against the largest toy company in the world, Legos. So in 1999, he co-founded inventRight to teach others his unique process for harnessing the power of open innovation and the licensing business model. Again, his bestselling book about how to license an idea, One Simple Idea by McGraw Hill has been translated into six languages. So he's written more than a thousand articles about intellectual property strategy, product licensing, and entrepreneurship for publications online, including Forbes and Entrepreneur. Currently, he is part of the team responsible for launching a new sustainable packaging innovation that replaces the need to use plastic to carry beverages, and that is called Fishbone.

So with that very in-depth introduction, please join me in welcoming Stephen Key to the retirement success in Maine podcast. Stephen, thank you so much for coming on our show today. Well,

Stephen Key:

Thank you very much for having me, and thank you for that wonderful introduction. I've never really had a resume, but it sounds like I do have a resume.

Curtis Worcester:

You got one now. Thank you so much,

Ben Smith:

Steven. We just want to create a little CV for you. We understand your resume needs to be built a little bit more, so we just wanted to make sure all the things were in there for you. Steven, thanks for coming on the show. And again, we want to get into obviously the topic today about bringing your lifelong invention idea to market, and obviously having an expert to come and show our listeners how to do that. But of course, with our episodes, we always want get into you a little bit, understand a little bit of your background and your expertise. So I'd love to hear a little bit about your upbringing and how you were led to a career around commercializing inventions.

Stephen Key:

Wow. Well, where do I begin with that question? I can tell you I actually got into this business of coming up with ideas because I didn't think anybody was going to hire me. I studied economics in college, which I didn't like, and I was able to take an art class and I loved working with my hands. And I went home and I told my dad, I said, "I want to be this artist." And he goes, "That's great. What do you like to do? Do you like to draw?" And I said, "No." He said, "You must like to paint." And I said, "No." He said, "Well, are you going to be a sculptor?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Well, if you find something you really enjoy doing, you'll probably be a pretty lucky guy." So he gave me permission to jump off that ledge to find something that I love to do.

So I switched majors to art and went to another school, San Jose State University, and started to study art. And I realized very quickly I was not going to be this artist. So I took a little bit of what I learned in business and my creativity, and I started selling things at street fairs and county fairs and wherever I could set up a table really. So I didn't think anybody would hire me for anything because I really didn't have any skills. My parents gave me the ability to dream, but not the tools.

So I started just making fun things out of nylons, soft sculpture, easy to do and things I would just put a smile on people's faces. So there was no big plan here. I just wanted to make things and actually see if I could be creative and make a living doing it. So yeah, I guess it's a weird way of starting out. I have a learning disability, so it's hard for me to write. Although I am a writer, it's hard for me to pronounce certain words. I always mess up. So I just didn't think anybody would hire me. So I started my own job. That's how I started.

Ben Smith:

Understood.

Austin Minor:

That is very cool. And as someone else with a learning disability who struggles writing and sometimes reading as well, I can relate. So to be good in other areas. So talk to us a little bit about inventRight. What does inventRight do and who do they help?

Stephen Key:

Well, I was a pretty quiet guy selling things at street corners and county fairs and state fairs, and I was able to actually land my first job at 28 years old. My parents were very happy. And it was at a company called Worlds of Wonder where we launched the first talking teddy bear, Teddy Ruxpin and Lazer Tag. And that was my first job, and they hired me because I was just very enthusiastic, but they knew at the time I was a little bit different. And I learned about product licensing where you basically are renting an idea to a company that already has the shelf space and the manufacturing and the marketing. They have everything. They're in business and they need new ideas. So I learned about product licensing by watching the inventor of Teddy Ruxpin licensed that to Worlds of Wonder, and he was collecting royalties about a million dollars a month.

And I was living in China. I was Manager of Design at Worlds of Wonder, and my job was to set up the manufacturing facilities and making sure everything looked great when Teddy Ruxpin came off the production line. So I just learned about it and I started to think, well, wow, maybe I could show my ideas to companies. And it worked surprisingly well. It was really simple and I was really dumbfounded by it. And I started talking about it, how this process of licensing was really easy to do, and I met my partner, Andrew Kraus, and I realized everybody was struggling with this. They were starting companies and spending money and filing patents, and they weren't having a lot of success.

So how did I start inventRight? It was by accident really. I just wanted to talk about it. I found my voice. I was very quiet, but this is one thing I really truly love. So I thought, well, why not teach other people to do it too? So that's how it all started.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that, and I think we'll get into it as we keep going throughout the conversation. But I have one quick aside while we're still in the intro portion of the show, if you will. The state of Maine, so all three of us live in the state of Maine. We're a show about retirement in the state of Maine. So I have to ask every guest, do you have any connections to the state of Maine? You ever been here? Anyone up here other than us now? I guess we could check that box for you.

Stephen Key:

Well, yes I do. Yes, I do. I took my family. I have three kids. I took them around United States for six months because my business licensing ideas, you really don't have to be in an office. You can do it anywhere. And we ended up staying in a little town called Toddy Pond, and it was a nice little place that we could stay for a week and we could unpack and my kids could enjoy it. And we actually spent some time at Arcadia National Park, which is just amazing. And I think Bar Harbor, is that it? A lot of lobster too. I love seafood. So we had a wonderful time and the weather was spectacular. So yes, I have spent some time in Maine. It was a wonderful experience.

Curtis Worcester:

That's awesome.

Ben Smith:

Well, Steven, thanks for all that. And again, we obviously want to get into, we have lots of things we want to discuss with you, especially around bringing that idea to market. So want to start out with some basics here and just doing a little bit of bit of role play and say, "Hey, so I'm a retiree right now with a career idea, right? I've been thinking about this, I've really thought long and hard for a lot of years, but maybe I haven't done anything about it, but now I have money. I have maybe some time available to me, and I know you're the licensing guy, but what are some of my options if I want to see my invention go from idea to reality?" And then I'll ask the second part once you answer that part.

Stephen Key:

Well, the traditional way is that I'm going to start a company. I'm going to raise money, write a business plan, have employees and do all the manufacturing, marketing, fulfillment, yuck. That's just too much work for me. So what we're talking about is showing a company your idea, a company that has embraced the word open innovation. They're looking for ideas, and we'll talk a little bit more about what companies are doing that. And when you show them your idea, they take it, they license it or rent it from you, and they bring it to market and they pay you a royalty on each and every one they sell. It's called product licensing. It's been around for over 200 years. I think the sewing machine was the first product that was licensed, so it's been around for a long time.

So for someone that's a little bit older that has ideas or maybe you've had ideas or maybe you want to be creative, I think we're all very creative. This product licensing is really a perfect opportunity, especially for someone that in the next chapter of what they want to do. Maybe they have limited time, maybe limited funds, maybe they just want to just be creative and see something magical come to life. Because it's truly amazing when you have this idea and you actually see people use it. It's on TV, it's on the store shelves, and I love that you had mentioned maybe combining that love of creativity with a family member. We see a lot of people doing that, a lot of teams.

So for someone that is in that next chapter, this is a perfect opportunity for them. They can still be creative, they can still be active, they can still make an impact on some of the things that they love. We see a lot of people that have retired in the medical field, all different fields that want to stay in that field, maybe not day to day, maybe not as an employee or maybe running a company, but they still want to be in that field because they have that knowledge. So this is a great opportunity to take that knowledge, create something that hasn't been done before and let other companies bring it to market for you.

Ben Smith:

Steven, what I love about what you're saying there is way back in our show's history. I think like episode 14 or so, we were talking to somebody from CEI, which is basically a small business development center, helping people bring their ideas and create a business around it. But we talked about this concept of, Hey, I'm retired and I retired and I maybe don't want to have a 80 hour a week job, but I want to do something with my ideas. And we talked about the thought of, well, you almost need a right size success because what if your business is so successful that now you're managing a lot of people and your business is growing, you have to get funding. It's another thing that you have to do. And if you don't have that energy for it as you're in retirement, wind up and to wind yourself down to find that next successor.

So it's just a very challenging situation to go, "Hey, I want to [inaudible 00:14:01], the entire thing." That's why I like, obviously the thread we're going to get on today is that licensing conversation and where it is, because we went down a road that you start quickly going, "I don't know that a lot of people would want to go all the way through with their own company and build it, and what if it's really successful and now it's owning me at that point," right?

Stephen Key:

Well, you have to realize that everybody wants to run a company or not everybody has experience or maybe the money or the time.

Ben Smith:

Sure.

Stephen Key:

So regardless of your age, maybe those are things that are not things you really want to do. So I like the idea of leveraging the power of a company that they're really working for me. See, I like that and I like that I can also do other things with my life. I don't have to work 60 hours to run a company because to be successful today, it does take a lot of time, it takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of commitment, and I don't think a lot of people regardless really want to do that. So this is a perfect opportunity for anyone, especially if you retired and you still want to have some fun. You've worked so hard and you want to relax a little bit here, right? You want to relax, so sure. Why would you go ahead, have another career? I mean, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. The next chapter for me is to enjoy myself a little bit without working so hard.

Austin Minor:

So I know your program is about overcoming barriers. Talk to us about barriers people have to go through to bring their invention ideas to market.

Stephen Key:

Well, it's all about barriers, and I'm really, really happy you brought that up because I have a lot of barriers and I created something for me, something that I could actually do. And the biggest barrier that a lot of people think is that I have to start a business. Well, you don't. The second-biggest barrier, someone might think, well, I need a patent. Well, no, you don't. You could file a provisional patent application, which gives you a one-year patent pending status, which is enough to license an idea. It's very affordable. You can learn how to do it yourself. So that's not an obstacle any longer. The other obstacle, do you need a prototype? Sometimes people believe I need a working prototype and spend thousands of dollars to make sure it works Well, not when it comes to licensing. We like to teach people to test ideas with a one-page advertisement, a picture, a drawing, 3D computer generated sample of, "Hey, this product idea and this is what it solves." So you're selling the benefit.

So product licensing, what we've been teaching, it's all about testing ideas to see if the benefit is strong enough for someone to say, "Yes, I'd like to develop this further and take it to market for you." So it breaks down the barrier. So you can live anywhere, you could be in any financial situation. It doesn't require a lot of time, and you can reach out to companies today through platforms like LinkedIn and get to anybody. So are there any barriers? No. We see people license ideas that are as young as 13 years old and as old as 82. So it's for anybody, and you can live anywhere to do this. So I'm a big believer in breaking down the barriers, and that's why I created this program for someone like me.

Austin Minor:

Wow. Yeah, that sounds like you have an awesome plan for overcoming those barriers because I'm sure just me thinking through the process of trying to take an idea, I have to make it tangible and real. There's a lot that comes into my mind. But generally speaking, when you look at people's success with bringing things to market, do you know what the success rate is in general for people bringing their inventions to market?

Stephen Key:

I think it's fairly low. And I think it's low because of, I think people need to educate themselves a little bit, slow down, take a deep breath, and don't be so emotionally attached to any of your ideas. But sometimes you get blinded by it. So I'm a big believer in having a roadmap. We have a roadmap. A lot of people start without a roadmap. The first thing they do is maybe call a patent attorney out of fear. "I need to patent it because that's all I've heard."

So we just break it down and say, "Look, this is not difficult to do, but you need to educate yourself a little bit." We see a lot of success because we teach people to learn how to license products and learn how to create a lot of ideas. So you're really playing the numbers game a little bit.

I learned a long time ago that product licensing is really knocking on doors of opportunity and building relationships, and it's really about knocking on a lot of doors. We teach people to do that, but we also teach people to come up with a lot of ideas and not spend a lot of money on one idea. So you have that ability to not put all this financial or emotional, and the one idea and you can't let go. So we're all about testing ideas very, very quickly. And I learned that skill in my early days selling things at state fairs and county fairs. I needed to test that idea fast because if it didn't work, I wasn't going to be able to pay the rent. Real simple. So we teach people some really simple tools, very inexpensive tools that anybody can do just to test ideas to see if there's interest, and that's how we increase the chances of success.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that answer, Steven. And I want to you go right into my next question, and you're tough talking about educating people. And so again, as we mentioned, you've written five books around innovation, and again, your bestselling book, One Simple Idea has been translated into five other languages at this point. Again, in that book, you have a 10 step system that walks people through the process of bringing their invention to market. Can we just walk through that system and can you just give us a quick version of how that works?

Stephen Key:

Sure. You can find the 10 steps system in many of my books, on articles I've written, on a YouTube channel. I give it all the way and it's really fun. The first step is the most important step is really determining is my idea new? And you can do that by sitting at your computer and going to do a Google image search or a Google Shopping search and just see if my idea's out there.

So let's say I have a new hammer innovation. I could look at that micro category of hammers within a couple hours. I would know every hammer in the world and I would know the price point, the manufacturer, the materials. So I could sit there at my desk and study a micro category and really see if my idea is different enough. That's the first step. We call it step number one, study of the marketplace. That's really the first one. If it is different enough and do you have a point of difference, maybe you go to the next step. Now you could also do a prior art search looking for prior patents. I'm not really worried about it at this point. I just want to know is my idea out on the market? It's the first step.

The second step we teach is really about studying the market in such a way that when you're going to reach out to a potential licensee, which is a company that would rent it from you to really know who they are, and that's looking at their product line, that's looking at the materials, maybe looking at the reviews, really knowing the company kind of, they're not going to write what they're looking for and they're not going to announce what they're looking for. So you have to just study them a little bit.

And we also talk about how to design for companies a little bit. Sometimes you can channel your creativity by looking at a company, looking at their products and thinking, what are they going to do next? That's really targeting your creativity. So we talk about that in a second step, how you could study the market, understand it, look for other opportunities, and really how to develop your creativity a little bit more by doing certain exercises because I think we're all creative. In fact, every decision we make every single day, we're making creative decisions. People don't know that, but we all are. So we talk a lot about that.

We also talk about in the next step, step number three, how to evaluate ideas. Does it have a large market? Can it be manufactured? What's the retail price point? We start to really think, does my idea have what it takes for a company to take it? So we look at it, we evaluate it and just say, "All right, am I passionate about it too?" We try to find the next at that stage, do I go forward? Okay.

We also have a step where we talk about how do I market my idea? And I'm a big believer in that you sell benefits. What does my product do for you? And we talk about how to write a one amazing sentence that just grabs your attention. I want that product because it does this. That's the one sentence benefit statement. We talk about how to create that. We talk about features and benefits. We talk about how to put together a one piece advertisement for your idea, and sometimes you have a prototype, which is maybe a sample of what you're thinking about. But today, one of the barriers now, I can create anything. I can hire someone that can create a three D computer generated sample. I could take this sketch on a napkin and someone within an hour could make it look real.

So you put together this one page marketing piece and maybe a video, maybe yes, maybe no. But now it's I'm ready. Another step might be how do I protect it? I love it. I love intellectual property. I think it's wonderful tools. We have patents and trademarks and copyrights. It seems very daunting, but they're just tools. You read about them. But here's the easiest thing. You file a provisional patent application. It's called a PPA. You can file it yourself for about $60. Very, very affordable. I talk a lot about how to write one, the right way to license an idea. And so you've studied the marketplace, you evaluated your idea, you have built a marketing piece, you have protected it. You've made a list of companies that might want it.

How do you do that? You go down to the store and you find that shelf space where your product's going to be, and you're going to call all those companies. And we talk about how to reach out to those companies on LinkedIn because everybody's there. There's no gatekeepers anymore, but you have to approach them correctly. You have to be a little bit knowledgeable. You have to ask them, "Do you work with inventors?" Make sure they're inventor friendly. Do that type of work. Then you start to get the engagement. Then the next step would be how to negotiate a licensing agreement.

So they're really simple steps when you think about it, and anybody can do them. So you can find it in my book, One Simple Idea, and you could find it on my YouTube channel as well. So the steps are really easy. Anybody can do them. They're a lot of fun. It's all about thinking, researching, being a detective before you really do too much work, really before you spend a lot of money. You don't need to spend a lot of money. That's where people go wrong right away.

Ben Smith:

So Steven, I'll just speak to our listeners for a second. We can just put a little bookmark here right now on our show notes. We'll have a link to your books and your YouTube channel as well. So if somebody wants to just pause this video and go over there and look at the 10 steps more in depth, they can certainly do that. But obviously now we've covered your system here a little bit. And one thing you alluded to that you and I were talking a little bit about offline before was this theme you're seeing with grandparents inventing things with their grandkids. So love to hear a little bit about maybe an example you've seen of that situation. How did it go and what generational challenges did they run into?

Stephen Key:

Well, I'm glad you asked that question because this one particular grandmother was watching her daughter take care of her baby, and she was there as grandmothers do, and she was noticing that when her daughter was putting on the ointment on the bottom of the grandchild, it was messy. It was like, "Ugh." And I think we've all experienced that. And she came up with this simple finger glove. It's called finger shield, and she made it herself. She sewed it up out of a piece of fabric and it just slides over your finger, and that way you could take the ointment, put it on the little finger glove and wipe it, and then pull it off your finger and throw it away. Very simple, very easy, especially when you're traveling. It just made it easy. And she called it Finger Shield.

And she was able to follow a process and reached out to a company called Baby Brezza, I think so, and the person, there's David Contract, he's a good friend of ours. He's their marketing manager over there, and he's looking for ideas. The guy's wonderful too. And she sent it to him and she never got a reply back, and most inventors might go and go off to the next guy, but she didn't. We teach always follow up because things get lost. So she follows up about a couple weeks later, and he loves it. He apologizes, "I'm so thankful you sent it to me again." Now that product Finger Shield is packed out in every diaper bag that this company sells at Walmart because they pack it out and they sell it. So I think that's a simple story of a grandmother seeing a situation and saying, "Oh, okay, I've got the process. I know how to reach out to the company. I know how to build a marketing piece." And it worked beautifully, and I get to see that happen over and over again too.

Ben Smith:

Very cool.

Austin Minor:

That is awesome. Steven, I have to hear the story about the invention of the Bookie Cushion. Tell us how that idea came to be and how successful it has been in the marketplace.

Stephen Key:

Well, I'm really glad you mentioned that because I don't know where it is, but a young man contacted me and he really wanted to be an entrepreneur. I think he was 13, and he went ahead and built a lemonade stand. I love it. That's like the first step, right?

Ben Smith:

Absolutely.

Stephen Key:

[inaudible 00:28:45] was behind him. He sets the stand-up and he realizes at the end of the day, this is really hard to make a lot of money. I love this. This is really brilliant with this young man. He's 13 years old, and he comes back and he says, "Dad, I've got to do something else." So he thinks about, he likes to read and he's 13 years old, and kids are goofy and especially boys. And he comes up with this idea about, "Wow, what if I took a Whoopee Cushion and I made it into the shape of a bookmark? And so when I'm reading and I want to put it in, I'm stopped reading and I can put it into my book and I could close it and it would have a farting sound, right?" Okay.

Austin Minor:

Of course, as one would.

Stephen Key:

It's such a fun idea, and it's so clever. So he comes up with this idea and he's been watching my YouTube channels and he realizes, "oh wait, there's a different way of doing this." Because what he did, he built some of them them, his dad helped him get a few of them made. He went down to the local store, he rode his bike down to the local store, they took it and he realized something wasn't quite right and I loved the way he was thinking because they did take it and they were selling the couple, but how do you scale? How do you get this in a lot of stores? And that's how I was thinking too, but not at 13.

So he found me on YouTube. He called me up and said, "I need for you to help me." I said, "How old are you?" He says, "I'm 13 years old." And I said, "Do you have permission from your parents?" He said, "Yeah, I do." I said, "Okay." And he says, "I have a team member." I said, "Well, who's that?" He goes, "This is my 10-year-old daughter." I think this is even better. The whole family's involved in it now.

So he follows the process. We have a free program for kids called inventYes. And we enroll him in that. He walks through it, we guide him a little bit, and he builds that one page sell sheet, and he contacts the company called Fred & Friends that are looking for novelty gift ideas. And he tells them, "I'm 13 years old and this is my idea." And they love it, but they love it. And so now I think he's 15, but that product is selling that I believe Barnes and Noble, it sells at Kohl's. I think it's on Amazon. I think it's who knows where it's.

So he got to experience at 13, the process of knocking on doors of opportunity and taking a fun idea. And on Instagram, everybody's commenting. Teachers love it. Kids love it. It's a great gift. And now looking at this young man, his next round of ideas are changing, but he knows he can get to anybody. He knows the process. So it's one of those stories I try to tell everybody, you can do this, right? Follow the simple steps. And I'm glad that you brought that up because I'm very proud that someone so young was able to take some of this information and really use it.

Curtis Worcester:

It's an incredible story. So again, thank you for sharing that with us. And just as you were telling the story, I was thinking about what I was doing at 13 and it was not inventing products. I can tell you that. So I want to talk about some trends, I guess, in the industry of licensing and ideas. I guess the question is, has it become easier or more difficult to license your ideas than it was say 20 years ago? I think back to our conversation about barriers. I could see a barrier for someone right now saying, I don't know, maybe everything good's already been invented. There's so much stuff coming out. How can I be the one to think of something new? So I guess I'll just refer back to that question, I guess. Is it easier now or more difficult to license your ideas?

Stephen Key:

Well, it's interesting question. Can you come up with something new? I'm always dumbfounded too. I see some things I'm always like, wow, no one's thought of that before? So I do think there's opportunity is always going to be there because things do change. People are looking at different things. And so I think the opportunity to embrace open innovation creating ideas for companies is just getting bigger. It started in the toy industry. That's when open innovation really took hold. Eddy Goldfarb that did the chattering teeth shark attack, he was the first one to lead the path of open innovation and toy industry. Hasbro today, one of the biggest toy companies today, 60% of all their products have been licensed from people like us.

Ben Smith:

Wow.

Stephen Key:

And there's a lot of other companies that are embracing it. Some industries such as the kitchen very popular, have embraced open innovation. The pet industry is on fire. I don't care what the economy is doing. Everybody loves animals. The big shows coming up soon, Super Zoo, they're looking for ideas, hardware, DR, TV, seen on TV, you name it. The doors are opening up because companies have realized, look, I might have 10 people working for me coming up with ideas. They're going home at five o'clock and they're great. But what about the 10,000 people out there that have ideas that maybe if I open the door, they'll come to me and I'll find that next great idea? Because you don't know where it's going to come from, and it usually comes from someone that's not too close to the industry thinking differently. So the doors are opening in all different industries now.

Mow, there's some industries that are a little bit more difficult, tech industries a little bit tougher, software's a little bit tougher, hard to protect. And do you need a patent to license than I did? No, we talked about a provisional patent application. But has it gotten easier from when I started to today? And I'm really glad you asked that question.

One part has gotten a little bit more difficult. There's more companies need ideas, but the one part that I realized that a lot of companies, all of us are getting bombarded with messages and emails all day long. How do you cut through to stand out? That's a little bit hard. That's harder today. And we really talk a lot about that. We teach classes on and reach out to companies. When I was doing it, I had to mail things to people. But the one thing I noticed that when I was mailing everything to those companies, they always mailed something back.

Ben Smith:

Interesting.

Stephen Key:

Yeah, that's really incredible. So is it harder today? No, it's not harder. It's a little bit more complicated. I didn't have the internet when I was really doing a lot of it, but I was telling someone the other day, "Why don't you write a letter and send them a letter? I bet that I'll get their attention because no one's doing that."

Curtis Worcester:

Sure.

Austin Minor:

No one does it anymore.

Curtis Worcester:

Right, yeah.

Stephen Key:

So stand out. I think the opportunity is greater. I just think you have to navigate that world we live in today.

Ben Smith:

Steven, I know obviously what we do in our day jobs here, not just podcasters, but also doing financial advice. And obviously people will come to us and they say, "Look, I really need mentoring about retirement is not just mapping my money, but also I don't know what I don't know, and I don't know what I'm going to run into and I don't know what I should be thinking about. And maybe thinking ahead." There's all of those things that I think people are looking for, advice and mentorship.

I know obviously that part of your role and what you and your company do is mentor inventors at inventRight. So I want to ask a question about when someone says, "Look, I obviously can look up your steps and I can do some of that myself, but there's a lot of us that say, I don't have the connections. I don't know what I don't know next, and I don't know what I'm going to run into and I need some mentorship." So if someone came to you and said, "Hey, I'd like to hire inventRight for that mentorship process." How does that work? And what is generally the costs run to do that?

Stephen Key:

I'm really glad you mentioned that because today there's information on everything today.

Ben Smith:

Sure.

Stephen Key:

Okay. And we give it away freely with a thousand articles and books and YouTubes. I mean, I'm a big believer in education, but we don't see that much success from it, right? Because I think everybody, and I know you probably agree with me, information's one thing. How to actually implement it with someone that can make sure you're doing all the right steps is really how to accomplish those goals. So we have noticed that we get people intrigued by it, interested by it, get them in the game, but they usually come back when they hit, something doesn't quite go right. I'm a big believer that anyone that's been good at something, a professional has had help. They've had a coach, they've had a mentor, they had a teacher, they've done something.

You just don't learn it along the way. So no one is throwing a football at the Super Bowl by watching a YouTube channel. It doesn't really work that way. So we know that. So we have a program where we try to give enough information out so now you're ready. So when you come to us, you've got a foundation to really take off and you've made a commitment now. That's the individuals we're looking for that I'm ready. You've taught me quite a bit. I'm ready to make the next step. Now we're here for you.

So we have a hand holding situation because I know there's a lot of twists and turns. So we have a coaching program and we have different levels. Depends on how much time you have, depends on your budget. But really, what it's all about is having someone there that's going to help you overcome any questions you could possibly have. And that process we know works. We've been doing that for 23 years. That's where the success really comes from. So it's a handholding coaching program.

And then if you want more information, we have a lot of people that stay with our programs or stay with our company with different levels because sometimes it's now it's community. I want to be involved, I want to learn the latest steps. So we try to help someone at the very beginning with some simple tools, but we also know that if you want to be more advanced, you're going to need more help to get there too.

Our goal is also really quite simple. We don't advertise. So how do people find us? They find us by the good work that we do and they find us by the success that we have. So I think that's the best way for someone to find us. Someone was successful. So we fight for everybody. Everybody's important. Every idea is important. Everything that we see is important. Even if it's someone that's not in our program, we'll still help them because it helps the whole community thrive. So we just have a different way of looking at it because everybody within my company, inventRight, we're all inventors, we've all been there. We've all done it. We know the struggle. We know what it's like to see it come to life. So we feel for that person. And it didn't start out that way at the very beginning of this conversation, it all started with, "I just wanted to talk about it," and now we're doing a little bit more than just that.

Austin Minor:

Nice. That's awesome. Bringing it back specifically to our core audience, what has been your favorite invention idea you've seen from a retiree that's been successful in the marketplace?

Stephen Key:

The most successful retiree. That's a good question because we don't follow it that closely at age.

Ben Smith:

Sure.

Stephen Key:

We don't really look at it from that standpoint. I would say looking at my shelf, an older gentleman, I don't know... Let's talk about this retirement. Think for just a minute too.

Ben Smith:

Sure.

Stephen Key:

Because I'm at that age that my community, everybody's retired. I'm not retired, and I like what I do. And I think from my perspective, if you find something you truly like to do, you never really stop. So I don't know if there's really a stop and start if you're creative, you just can continue doing it. But this gentleman here that created the Whiskey Wedge, is a little bit older, he's probably my age, I would say maybe a couple years younger, and he actually has a different profession, or he did. He was I think a landscape architect and he came up with a very simple product and they sold a million units of this, a million units of glassware.

And retail's for about $25, and that means the wholesale price is probably 12.50. His royalty is probably 5%. That's pretty standard. So you're talking about 60 cents his royalty on each and every one they sell. So when you're selling a million, you can see the numbers. They're pretty substantial for something to have my cocktail in. So that's pretty crazy numbers.

Another gentleman, he's a little bit older and he does something completely different. This here has been in every theme park around the world. He tried to show this to companies early on. No one wanted it. Someone saw it for theme parks, I think at the circus, this created 10 million in royalties.

Curtis Worcester:

Wow.

Stephen Key:

It's just a fun little toy for kids that lights up and makes a nice sound. And he's a little bit older too. So we get to see a full range. I don't think I've ever really asked someone, "Are you retired?" I don't think I've ever even asked that question. But they're really a little bit older and I'm 67 myself going on 18, so I think they've fall in my camp.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that. I love that. Thank you for sharing those with us. Steven. I'll say thank you again to you again for the whole conversation. This has been so much fun. I do have one final question for you here, and I think I got a little bit of your answer, and I haven't even asked the question yet. I know you just said when you're creative, you don't think you ever stop. But obviously our show, Retirement Success in Maine, I want to ask, how do you think you're going to find your personal retirement success?

Stephen Key:

That's really interesting. I think having the freedom to really decide what you want to do each day and live the fullest life you can and being fit and being active and being curious. I think that's the catch. If you're curious of what's new, I don't think you ever grow old. So that's why this whole thing with being creative and being around innovation and new things, it really, I've been doing this for a long time, but I look forward. Mondays are exciting to me. I look forward to Monday. In fact, it's Sunday. I cannot wait till Monday comes around because I want to get in it, and there's never a stop time. At five o'clock I stop and I'm still this curious person, this kid that's like, "Hey, what about that? What about this?"

So I think to answer your question, it's just really finding something you really love to do and regardless of what that is, and have the time to do it and have the good health to do it in. So yeah.

Curtis Worcester:

I love that.

Ben Smith:

Steven, that's a fantastic answer. And as Curtis said, we can't thank you enough for coming on our show. And again, talking about, again, creative juices is being able to express ourself with whatever it's in front of us. And one of it might be invention, especially for pent-up creative juice that we've not been able to use in our daily career because it's been suppressed and not everyone's going to laugh at this idea. No one's going to take me seriously, but at some point in our lives to go, "This is for me. I need to do this for me."

So I thought it was great just hearing a lot of your ability to help people release that and to see things into fruition and make things a reality. So thank you for coming on our show today and sharing all that, because I know I'm inspired by it and I'm sure a lot of our listeners will be too. So thanks for coming on.

Stephen Key:

Well, thank you for having me and have me back whenever. I really enjoy the conversation. It helps to think of even about myself and what's important to me. So thank you for bringing it back to me to think about it too. So thank you so much.

Ben Smith:

Yeah, Steven, we will have you on again, I know that. Thank you. Thank you, and we'll catch you next time.

Stephen Key:

Thank you.

Ben Smith:

So episode 90, Stephen Key, right? So again, bring that lifelong invention to reality. I thought Steven did a great job just helping us. One is just process-wise, what do we have to do? Two is the inspiration. I thought that was really fun to hear some stories and hey, if a 13-year old can bring a Bookie Cushion to life, and if a grandmother can put a piece of fabric on a finger and sell that in every diaper bag in Walmart, I think there's some room for you and I out there to maybe bring something to market. So pretty fun to hear about these ideas. Also, I thought it was pretty neat. He didn't really bring it up much, but Steven Key's first thing was on the Teddy Ruxpin doll, which when I was growing up, that was a big deal because everybody had to have Teddy Ruxpin. So that was pretty neat, he was involved in it.

But with all of our episodes, of course, you can find links here to Steven's books. We'll have his website there for you to check out. I think you can probably Amazon on yourself. If you want to buy maybe that Bookie Cushion for a loved one, you can go ahead and Amazon and find that. But go to our website and go to blog.guidancepointllc.com/90 for 90, and you can find more about our show with Steven here today, including the transcript and some of the links we'll post for you. So thank you so much for tuning in. We learned a lot today. I hope you did too, and we'll catch you next time.