Episode 5 - Steve Ayre's Smile Glides: Bringing Joy to Mobility Aids - Inventor Smart Community App Spotlight

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi, Hi, Hi, I'm good Steve. Welcome, thank you to
the fifth.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Episode of Inventor Spotlight, brought to you by the Inventor
Smart Community.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
We're so happy to have you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I know that you've become a member of our amazing
inventor community, and when I read your profile and I
looked at your product, it was exciting for me to
have you on as a guest today. So the Inventor
Spotlight is just a service that we're providing for our
amazing inventors within our Inventor Smart community. And Steve, I'm

(00:47):
going to give you a second to just take it away.
I think you have the really cool product. I love
your backstory. I'm really impressed with how far you've come,
and I'm looking forward to you to share it today.
And I want to mention again, this is our fifth episode,
but you're the first male Spotlight we've featured, so we

(01:07):
did Yeah, congratulations for being the first dude on board.
We've done all these women inventors that it's been so
much fun. But I'm happy to have you as our
first guy feature. I don't think that means anything, but
we just want to mention we've had a lot of
female inventors, so it's nice to mix it up.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
A little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Welcome, Sure, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
So I just wanted to ask you to go ahead
and take a moment and describe your invention for us
and what inspired you for this particular product.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Okay, well, my invention I call it smile Glides, and
they are medical walker glides that will take the place
of those nasty, bacteria ridden tennis balls that we see
on all these medical walkers everywhere. I think people use
those tennis balls because there's just not any other option

(02:00):
out there. Really. The other options are little skis that
are about this long, and they don't work very well.
And so I thought I wanted to create something a
little more fun that people could have maybe a little
more with their personality involved with their daily life because
you have to use those most of the time, all
day long. So I invanted a product. Back when I

(02:24):
was thirty five years old, I was living in Florida
and enjoying the sun and a young professional and started
feeling very sick one day and kind it's hard to
talk about.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Take your time, Steve, It's okay, you know, I think
sometimes the ingenuity and the creativity for creative people comes
from our personal life speriences and the things that we

(03:02):
have to think about on a regular basis that maybe
other people don't. So this is why I was really
touched by your story and I was inspired to speak
with you today.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So let's just take our time. It's good.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
It's just really tough to talk about. I was feeling
pretty decent. Just in the afternoon, I started to feel
really sick. Sure, and made it to the hospital, and uh,
it was real like delirious. I didn't know what was
going on, and I couldn't figure out how to function.

(03:37):
Before I left my apartment, I thought I'm Type one diabetic. Also,
I thought maybe my blood sugar is low. So I
was trying to make a sandwich and I couldn't figure
out how to make a sandwich. And I thought, I
need to get out of here and get to the hospital.
And I was living alone, and I went to the
front door and I couldn't figure out how to open

(03:57):
the door, and it was like I was almost having
a stroke, and which I wasn't. But anyhow, I ittrove
myself to the hospital, which was about a mile away,
and apparently I parked in the emergency departments doctors parking lot,
which I didn't know that. And I saw a door

(04:19):
on the side of the building that was open, and
because it was a nice sunny day, and saw some
people in there sitting and they're having sandwiches and stuff,
and I walked in. It was just a little break
room for the doctors and nurses, and I just recall saying,
I don't know what's going on, and they all looked
at me, and then that's all I remember. And then

(04:40):
I said they said I had just collapsed on the
floor and was away right then. They didn't have a
pulse or anything, and brought me back, obviously, And so
I was in the hospital for two months there in Florida,
and during that time I passed away another two times.
And you know, they do a great job of bringing

(05:03):
you back. And what had happened is my kidneys had failed,
and so they put me on dialysis in the hospital
for that two months. For a normal dialysis regimen is
about six or seven hours three times a week if
you're a dialysis patient, and they had me on the

(05:25):
dialysis machine about eighteen hours every day, and they'd take
me off so I could eat a sandwich or something,
because my blood was so toxic that you know, they said,
we'd never brought anybody back with blood that toxic, and
so it was really miraculous that I survived. And during

(05:48):
that time I had to use a medical walker in
the hospital to learn how to walk again, because I
just I couldn't even function. And it just got me thinking,
you know that these things are tough, tough to have
to use, and so I thought, you know, laying there
in the hospital, I thought of all kinds of things.

(06:10):
But I wrote this down in my invention book and
let us sit. I got out of the hospital about
two months later, made it back to my apartment and
was going to dialysis, thinking that I could maybe get

(06:31):
my life back. And excuse me, it's okay. I was.
I was dating a wonderful lady and she was a nurse,

(06:52):
and I got home from dialysis one day and she
came home from work and she said, Steve, I was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer today. So I would go to

(07:23):
dialysis and she would go to chemo, and we did
the best we could. And she had a couple of
wonderful daughters, and I just I wasn't getting any better,
and we thought about moving in together and just decided
that it's better that I moved back to Michigan and

(07:47):
move in with my mom, and she was going to
stay there with her daughters because she felt if we
moved in together, you know, and she passed away, her
daughters would be living with her mom's boyfriend, and it
just it just wasn't going to work. And so we
made the adult decision just to split up at that time,

(08:09):
and I came back home, and she passed a couple
of years later, and so I just kept going going,
and I this was I think about when I was
about thirty seven. I was thirty five when I had
the kidney failure. And when I was thirty seven, I

(08:32):
was off of dialysis but needed a kidney transplant. My
kidney function was about eighteen percent, and you're on dialysis
anything below thirteen percent. So it was just in that
range where I was very, very sick, but insurance wouldn't
cover dialysis. And it was about at the time, about
eight thousand dollars each session, three days a week. And

(08:56):
so I got a phone call when I was thirty
seven from a girl that I went to high school
with and she had a younger sister that was my age.
This girl was two years older. And we grew up
in the same neighborhood here in small town in Michigan,
and went to elementary school together, and a junior high

(09:19):
school and high school and walked to school together when
we were little kids, and things like that. And she said,
and her name was Jill. And she said. Her sister said, well, Steve,
we lost Jill yesterday. And she was, of course my age,
thirty seven. She might have been thirty six. She was

(09:43):
married and had kids and had moved out of our hometown.
And she said, we spoken, talked with her husband, and
talked with her mom and her brother, and they she
was an organ donor. She said, Steve, we decided that

(10:03):
we'd like you to have anything from Jill that would
help you, because we know you're really sick, and you
know that's be nice to people because you never know

(10:27):
why they're going to help you out. So the next
day I was down at University of Michigan Hospital in
transplant surgery and they were going to transplant her pancreas,
which meant I would no longer be Type one insulin

(10:50):
been a diabetic, which I had been since I was
a child. And I thought, wow, you know how amazing
that would be, just to be able to eat something
and not get sick from it. And then they were
also going to transplant one of the kidneys, and it

(11:11):
turns out her pancreas was too damaged, so we couldn't
do that. So I'm still Type one diabetic. But they
did transplant one of the kidneys, and the way they
do that is they leave both of your native kidneys
in your in your body. It's just too traumatic to
remove them, and they put the transplanted kidney in your

(11:32):
abdomen and hook it all up and whatnot. And you know,
you take you know, suppression medications and lots of other medicines,
and I take about twenty different medicines every day with
diabetes and transplant and all the other stuff I've got

(11:53):
going on. And I'm fifty three now, so i've you're young.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, you're a young man.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, yeah, you know what. Sorry, I don't want to interrupt.
I just want to jump in. And you know, it's
just such a touching human life story, right, And we're
always inspired and encouraged by listening to other people's stories,
and like you said, just be kind everybody's going through

(12:27):
something that maybe.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
You may not understand right, but I do.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Despite your many challengeses and in your personal in your
medical life, you certainly show a lot of perseverance and resilience,
and we always admire those qualities in ourselves.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
As humans and also in inventors.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
So I love it that you've been sitting on this
idea for a few minutes, right from your late thirties
to now you're early fifties. So what was that after
a little medical recovery and healing of your heart, something

(13:13):
triggered that You're like, you know what'd have been sitting
on this for a while. What was it that kind
of re empted it to get where we are today?

Speaker 1 (13:21):
And I can't wait to see it?

Speaker 2 (13:23):
So if you want to give us a little demonstration,
that'd be great.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Sure. Well, the reason I had decided to do this
is I actually had just come out of two separate
comas when I was forty and a few years later,
I was starting to be able to think clearly, and
I tried to get a job and I couldn't get
a job. No one would hire anyone with my health conditions,

(13:50):
which is a real bomber. I mean, they want to
make money off us, but no one will hire us.
And it's really really difficult for probably every chronically ill
person our country. And so I couldn't find a job anywhere.
And so I thought, I'm going to try to invent something.
And after destroying a few home appliances and things like

(14:13):
that trying to make another invention, I nixed that and
moved on to this. And so I thought, you know
that walker I'm going to do because I kept seeing
the tennis balls everywhere and it's just everybody uses them,
I think, because everybody uses them, right, And it reminds
me of when I was a kid and I wanted
to go play with my friends and I'd say, well,
you know, so and so is going, and so and

(14:34):
so is going, and she's going, and you know, my
mom would say, well if everybody jumped off a bridge,
would you, And I think that's what people do with
those tennis balls. So I decided to make this product.
And I thought long and hard, and I thought, well,
I'll do something with flowers, something happy, and so I

(14:56):
came up with a flower pot. And this is the
little flower pot right here without the flowers. Okay, And
first and foremost, this little leg insert that goes in
the bottom leg of the walker is just like a

(15:18):
lot of the other leg inserts that are out there.
It just glides along the floor. And so when you
have the walker leg, this goes in here like that. Okay,
so your walker's going along the floor like this, And
I made it this shape, like an arcuate shape, just
so you could go in any direction, because the little

(15:38):
plastic skis that are out there are kind of like
little snow skis and they go straight and you see
people they'll be twisted this way and that when they
get hung up on things. And so this slides along
really nicely. And so I came up with this little
flower pot that just goes on the top of this
and you slide it down the leg like this and

(16:01):
it locks onto that little leg insert. So now you
can see that leg insert kind of acts as like
a little water tray maybe for the flower pot.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Looks like a flower pot.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, And so and the way you change that is
you take the walker leg off real quick with the
with the spring button that's used for adjustments of the
height of the leg. And so when it's all said
and done, well, the inside of it I made it
so you can change the flowers. Okay. You see all

(16:33):
those little holes in there, and so you take a
little flower or official flower, you put it inside one
of these little holes like so the bottom will stick
out here and you bend that this goes down, don't
see if we can see that. I've got some directions
here too, and that kind of sticks up through the

(16:56):
bottom there if you can see the bottom, yep. And
then you have one little flower, okay, And so you
do all of them, and when it's all done, it
will look like this getting messed up there with the camera. Sorry,
perfect so to look like that, and these three little

(17:17):
legs on the bottom locked into the little leg I
guess you could see better on the bottom on the
leg in, sir. So once that's all put together with
your favorite flowers, you just kind of slide this down
like this and you can twist it and I don't

(17:38):
know if you can hear that. Yes, it's got a
little click and now it won't fall off, so it's
not going to come off of there. And you just
put the walker leg back on the walker with the
little adjustment button and away you go. And you know,
you can have any flowers. So if you want to
change this, you just slide this off. You don't have

(17:58):
to remove the leg in shirt until it's worn through.
So you know, if you want to have yellow flowers,
here's one with yellow that I'd already put together. So
you take the red off, you just slide this on
and block that one in there. And of course I've
got other versions. I've got a little baseball here, and

(18:20):
they all do the same thing. They slide down and
just lock on the leg. I've got a little these
are a little fishing barber, like we all remember when
we were kids learning how to fish, if you're into
that kind of thing, and uh so that's kind of
how that works. And this this little leg insert, I
had it tested at at a company and they had

(18:41):
it go one hundred miles and it was hardly worn through,
so I think it's going to last a while. And
then of course it's when it's done, you just pull
this back out and replace it with a new one,
and then you put your flower pot back on there
what have you. And I kind of look at it
like how people change their shoes for the occasion, that

(19:04):
kind of thing, Like you might want to have a
flower pot in the for church or whatnot. And then
maybe you want to have a baseball to go sit
and watch a baseball game, like if you're an assisted
living facility or anything like that in the common area.
Just fun different things that you know, people can have
some fun with and show their personality and a little

(19:25):
bit more about themselves. So that's that's my product.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
I just think you're hitting all the marks today. You
have us emotional, right, I'm emotional. I'm so moved by
your resilience and your creativeness even under such adversity and
struggles personally and medically. Right, it takes a lot to
kind of really have to push through that, but you've

(19:53):
come up with such a fun, suite, adorable idea, right
just to be happy. I mean, just watching those little
flower pots go over that leg, I'm like, this makes
me happy.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, And it does help. It makes you smile. And
I take the walker around with me to launch and
to my doctor's appointments and things, and everybody smiles and
it makes it. It makes them happy, and it makes
me smile. And so my thought, my thought is, you
know that's contagious and that's a good for your your

(20:30):
mental uh, capabilities and just being a happy person. And
I noticed when I met the doctor's office and I
see people with walkers, or at University of Michigan, and
they're there, We're walking down the halls, and people are
just trying to get around them. It's just like someone
who's going too slow and and they just don't even

(20:51):
pay attention. And when you have something like this on
you're sitting in the doctor's office, people smile and they
get you involved in the conversation, and it brings those
people back into the conversation instead of just being the
person sitting there with the walker, you know. And a
lot of times we think of people with walkers as elderly,

(21:12):
but there's a lot of young people who use walkers too.
And I've had a lot of people see this and
want it, and they, you know, they asked me, where
did you buy that? Did you get that at Target
or Walmart? I want to buy that for my brother
or my my mom, or my grandma or my dad.
And I had the flower pot on there, and the

(21:33):
lady came up to the walker she said, those are
really really neat, but if you got a baseball, because
she was a big baseball fan, so you know, I
came up with a baseball and so it's just a
really fun way to express yourself. You know, like when
you go out to work, you wear work shoes. If

(21:53):
you're going to go to the to dinner, you might
change your shoes, or you're going to go play basketball
or something, and so that's kind of what it is.
And everybody's got a hobby that maybe they want to
talk about, and so just a way to kind of
express yourself a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yes, well, obviously you've demonstrated this product so well, and
you gave us a complete understanding of how it works,
what it's for, what joy it can bring, and the
designs that are endless around your product.

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
So we are so moved by your challenges and your struggles.
I mean, man, this is real life, right, Steve, just
real life stuff, and I really appreciate your candidness and
your vulnerability that you've shared with us this morning. I'm
really moved by all of this. And so let's bring

(22:46):
it up. Man, Let's talk about rat where has produced. Yeah,
we might freeze up a little bit. We have some
internet stuff. We're just going to push right through it.
So tell me, oh, I was just saying, you know,

(23:08):
we've we've we've, we've gone through the highs.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
And the lows.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Let's bring it back up. I'm curious of we're we're
at now? What are these triumphs? Talk about your success?
And I'm just I'm glued to your story, so please continue?

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Sure, well right now. You know, I when I started
on this, it was just a project. Just being chronically ill.
I wanted to have something fun to do, and I
went to Michael's craft store and bought a little flower
pot and so flowers. I glued them in there and
made this thing. And I thought, well that if it

(23:42):
were a real product, that would be pretty neat. And
so I went through the process of trying to find
through the sb d C and whatnot, trying to find
find a cat engineer. And so actually, before I did that,
I went to a tur patent attorney and showed him
this product, and I said, this is what I'm thinking

(24:04):
of doing, and so we filed a design patent and
so there's the design patent was issued and I thought, wow,
that's really neat. And that took a year or two
to get It takes a while to wait for those
and so I kept designing a little bit more with
the flower pot and found a cat engineer and took

(24:25):
my little prototype to him and kind of kind of
just met with him a lot, and I said, this
is what I wanted to do, and this is what
I want the flowers to do. And he was a
really great guy, and you helped me through that, and
we got three D prints done and then I thought, well, gosh,
I want to get an injection tool made, a plastic

(24:46):
conjection tool, so I can see if I can make
some of these, because I thought, well, I can't get
hired being chronically ill, I'll just do an internet online product,
see if I can do this. And so I was
sent to a tool maker. I couldn't. None of the
large companies would talk with me, just because they typically don't.

(25:08):
They're just especially here in Michigan, they're all jammed up
with the big auto and they just got so much
business they don't need me. And so I ended up
finding a tool maker that actually worked out of his
pole barn at his house as a CNC machine in there.
He used to work for a larger company, supposed to

(25:29):
be really good, and so he made this aluminum inserts
for me. That it's not a full tool. It's their
little inserts that go in what's called a mud unit,
which is a big box that goes into the injection machine.
We did it that way because I thought, well, if
I'm going to do other top piece, like other baseballs

(25:51):
and different things, maybe just prototype inserts are the way
to go. And so anyhow, long story short, the inserts
didn't work, and of course in the beginning he guaranteed
his work, and then in the end he didn't guarantee
his work, and so it was dealing with attorneys in
the whole nine yards, and that took another couple of years,

(26:17):
and it turned out I ended up getting it fixed
myself anyway, and he just backed up completely, which was
a real bummer, and it cost me a lot of money,
a lot more than it should have. But you know,
we got the tool working and found an injection company
that would make them. And so, you know, during that process,

(26:42):
while I was dealing with getting the tool working, and
then COVID hit and it shut the whole country down,
and all these injection companies lost half their staff. And
so when they opened back up, they said, we're running
twenty four to seven and have half our staff, we
can't do it. So I finally during that process, I

(27:02):
was filing other patents on this product and ended up
I've got this big stack of them. I don't know,
there's a bunch of them. So there's I guess there's
I've got five right now, but so how five? Yeah,

(27:25):
there we go. Well there's four of them. And then
they stopped giving up little booklets the US, so I
don't have a booklet for the fifth one. But so
I've got the five patents and uh issued, and I've
got another six or seven or eight patent pending on
on the baseball and a fishing bobber and a basketball

(27:46):
and different.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, and really incredible, What an inspiration you are.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Thanks, It's it's just you can't don't stop. That's my advice.
You just can't ever ever stop, because when you do.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
I was just going to ask you that with everything
that you've shared with us this afternoon, like, what's that
one piece of advice or that that just drives it
home for you?

Speaker 1 (28:12):
I Mean I kind of have my.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Couple of go to advice mantras that I use, so
just share with us, what what is that that that
advice for adventures.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
Well, I would say, first off, you have to believe
in yourself. And going through all of what I have
has taught me, you know, not to stop, not to quit.
You no, don't be a quitter. And you just have
to keep going. Even if you have days that you

(28:45):
want to quit, go ahead and quit for that day,
quit for two or three days. But you got to
get back on your horse and keep going. And you will.
And you have to believe in yourself. And I learned
that I I was surrounded by a lot of people,
friends and whatnot that just weren't inspirational and helping me

(29:09):
move this forward. Like they kind of smile and they'd say,
I know someone who had tried to invent something once
and then you know they lost their shirt on it
and ha ha, good luck. And so just hearing all
that negativity and I just got sick of it, and
so I kind of, I don't want to say I
isolated myself, but I kind of did a little bit

(29:30):
and just to get away from all of that so
I can focus. And you know, I would say to
anybody out there, you can do it. You can put
a product together, and you have to be patient and
you have to be extremely persistent, and you have to
have this never ending love of or Ford delayed gratification

(29:55):
that may or may not ever come. But the gratification
that you get I mean financial gratification when I say that,
it's the gratification that you get along the way is
when I got a patent issued, you know, I had
a three D print, and then I had a patent,
and then I had another patent, and then I had
other three D prints, and and now I've got about

(30:18):
eight or nine hundred units of the flower pot available,
some with red roses, some with yellow roses, that are
just getting boxed up right now at a local company
that are going to be ready for sale in the
next couple of weeks. And during that process that so

(30:38):
many nice people, and in every aspect. I didn't know
a thing about any of this when I started. I
didn't know what plastic injection was, I didn't know what
CAD was, I didn't know about any of it. So
it was a big learning experience for me. And so
I learned more with this than I did and I

(31:01):
think so it's just, of course a great experience. So
and I'd like to say that.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Sometimes two, oh, I'm sorry, I was gonna say.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Sometimes even to learning those hard lessons and learning the
hard way, it's difficult, but it's certainly is challenging and learning.
I wanted to circle back around. You know something that
you said that really jumped out at me. You said,
you know, don't quit or if you want to quit today,
just quit forward today, And that's kind of.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
One that I've used.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I'm like, all right, if you're just gonna quit and
give up, just do it today and get over yourself
and restart tomorrow. Right. So, I think that is really
strong advice. And and I want to touch base too.
I think sometimes are well meaning family and friends, you know,
they don't they're not inventors, right, they don't see that vision.
I'm blessed with an incredible support group, and but there's

(31:57):
been some naysayers along the way, like a little bit
outside of my circle, and my circle can tell me, oh,
this is awesome, is the best thing I've seen, And
then outside of that circle can be you know, you
know the horror story. Sorry, well you can't afford that.
You know how much that's gonna cost. Somebody's gonna rip
it off. You can't do that.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
And it just gets really cluttered, right.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
And just like any human being, that self doubt starts
to kick in. And maybe I'm not very good at this,
maybe I'm not an inventor.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
But then you talked about but then i'd get this
small win and I'd get.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
The cat in my hand, or i would get the
design right, or the packaging kind of worked out, or hello,
five patents came in the.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Mail that I mean, you have me in tears again.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I mean, you've just got me an emotional wreck today.
First of all, Steve, and I appreciate it keeps us
all human.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
So you know, i'd like to say too, a lot
of people don't. They can't envision things, of course, from
an idea in your mind into a product on the shelf.
And because I've shown this product to a lot of
those people now and they love it, of course, oh
my gosh, that is so cool and it's so cute.

(33:16):
Now I want to buy one, and so once they
see and so that's all it is, is a lot
of people can't put all that together, and which is fine.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
It's okays, not for everybody, not.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
For everybody, but.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
That's right and for the people that it is for,
and this is a great segue into why did you
decide to join us at the National Inventor Club or
the Inventor Smart Community, which is an app that our founder,
Brian Freed put together. I just thought it was a

(33:53):
mastermind brainstormed idea that he had to build a downloadable
app that's open to inventors and like minded creative artists
and individuals. Of course, there's a premium membership that you
can be involved in, and there's also a freemium ship,
so it's designed for inventors just like you, just like myself.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
It's kind of our own little social media. So what
are we doing on there?

Speaker 2 (34:20):
We're sharing stories, we're sharing ideas, we're sharing resources, connections,
what has worked for us, what hasn't worked.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's a safe place.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Where we can kind of open up with our ideas
and ask questions. So that is the Inventor Smart Community app.
Of course, you can go to the Google Play or
your Apple Store and download the app, easy to find.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
So, Steve, you've joined the community, and just give me
what do you think?

Speaker 2 (34:46):
What's your experience been just being involved with myself and
the group and like minded individuals.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Just like you. Yeah, it's been very, very encouraging. You know,
you're surrounded by people who want to see you succeed
at something like this, and a lot of other people
that are trying to do same goofy little things that
there's something different they want to try. There's professionals in
the group that have done it before and people like

(35:15):
myself who are just learning. And you know, I didn't
know about it. Actually I received an email from Brian
and I still haven't asked him who gave him my
email address. I need to find that out and thank them.
Because when Brian and I first had a Zoom call together,

(35:36):
I was really impressed by him and his being just
a just a genuinely good man, and he hadn't launched
the app yet and he said, I'm working on this.
I'm going to launch it in about two months. I
said great, And so when he did, I was a
free member for a couple of weeks and then then
you know, did the paid premium membership and since then,

(36:00):
you know, the group's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,
and I got, you know, got the email the other
day that we're past a thousand people now, and it's
just it's so encouraging and so awesome to be a
part of something like that. You can't find that in
in local communities. It's you know, you might have a
small little group, but this is a I'm talking to

(36:22):
people around the country and around the world and giving
some advice that I've learned along the way that's helping them,
and people are on there helping me. And it's just
a wonderful place where you can kind of lay yourself
out there and you know you're not going to get
skewered by you know, bad press, so to speak. And

(36:43):
so it's just a really great community. I would recommend it. Yeah,
it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Really and about Brian.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Brian's praises all the time, and I think as other
inventors have shared it, and even my experience with meeting
Brian and the National Inventor Club, the Mentor Smart Community app,
I mean, it's opened up this world of knowledge and
information and resources that I didn't I didn't even know
was available, right, And I think the way that everything

(37:17):
has been compiled into this app where you just familiarize
yourself with the app, go into the different tabs, the
different groups that are being.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Set up, just to ask questions. It's an open form.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
It's a very genuine and Brian is a genuine, trustworthy guide, right,
And I think every inventor you could have a horror
story of other agencies out there that maybe don't have.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Your best interest at heart.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
That since we're all adventures of all different stages, we
all have that same intention, right, We want to help
one another and we want everyone to succeed. And if
you're put something out there and it's a big hit,
everybody's going to encourage you and inspire you to continue.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
If you put something together and it's not driving with people,
you got people out there going. You know, I'm not
really sure about this, but that's the kind of constructive,
insightful information that that we need as a community, right, Yeah,
it really.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
I'd like to say real quick too. You hit on
something there. When when I'm doing this and I get
things in the mail all the time from companies that
are they want to license your product, and I looked
into them all, and I talked with the SBDC, and
I talked with a lot of local people and either
nobody knows them or their stories of people getting ripped off.

(38:42):
And there you look at their Better Business Bureau and
they've got one star and it's and so all this
I don't want to say junk mail, but it's all
flooding in and I'm thinking, well, gosh, maybe I should
just license this to one of these companies. But they
all want your money. And you get into this a
lot of it. You get into this inventor smart community,

(39:04):
and it's people who want to help you, and it's
people like that. They can get you in touch with
people like that that are good people, that are good companies.
And I'll tell you the interviews that you and Brian
and all of you do with other really successful people
with large companies and the USPTO and the SBDC, and

(39:27):
I mean these aren't, you know, jokes of people. These
are really top notch people. And I've never seen anything
come together like that ever. To have just that level
of executives willing to come on these shows and interview
with Brian and teach all of us a little something

(39:48):
and then give us their contact information to be able
to amaze it's really it's really amazing.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, when you're talking about the deputy director from the
United States Patent Trademark Office, okay, or people that are
in charge and decision makers at the sb SBA or
the SBCD. I mean, it's just that the amount of
guests that Brian has that are professionals, experts in their field,

(40:16):
you know, from crowdsourcing to being an influencer. How do
you get to an influencer information about Shark Tank. I mean,
the club really does cover it all. And our you know,
and I want to say too, our premium membership is
ninety nine bucks for the year, right or nine ninety
nine a month, whichever works for you. So for me,

(40:37):
I'm like, to me, it's a personal investment into my knowledge,
into my community and to support other people in the community.
So one hundred dollars for a premium membership for the
whole year gives me so much access to all this
stuff and just builds this community that supports the app.
So when we're talking about other marketing companies, listen, I

(40:58):
had one call me a couple of weeks ago and
she goes for eight to eleven thousand dollars. You know,
I'll make some calls for you and I'm like, oh
my god, I that that's so troublesome in so many levels, because.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
You know, some inventors will get really caught up in that.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
And maybe that does work for if you have the
finances and that's the path that you want to take,
that's wonderful.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
But if you don't, that could be a little scary.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
So, like you said, you almost conceded, well, maybe this
is something that I should do.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
And sometimes having too much money is detrimental because you
just you think the more I spend, the easier it
will be and the faster it will be, and you
just get caught up spending more money and more money
and more money. And so myself, I've been bootstrapping this thing,
and one of the reasons it's taken me so long
is because of course I just don't have the cash

(41:54):
to do it. And so which I look at now
is kind of a blessing because I probably would have
spent more than I should have in that respect.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
So, in a lot of these interviews that we're talking
to inventors and even myself personally, inventing takes time.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
It is not a quick overnight success.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
You know, I have a say and I'm like, well,
I'm ten years into my five year stretch, right, I mean,
it just takes right, takes so long. But I'm like
you I'm inspired by the little wins. When my patent
came in the mail man, forget about it, I was
just nuts right. And then when the second one came

(42:42):
in the mail, I was just as elated.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
I mean, it just didn't get old to me.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Or seeing a drawing come together, or an animation come together,
a product rendering come together, anything like this that gives
me those little baby steps of a little more advanced
maent in what I'm working on.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Personally, I love it. I just think it's a win.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
So I start wrapping this up today and You've got
us all in the fields of your story, and I'm
so happy about your product.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
I think it's uplifting.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
I think it's fun. I think it's smart, it's creative.
I think it brings joy. If I saw somebody with
a walker through the store with little flower pots at
the bottom, listen, I'm a pretty friendly kid. I like
to speak with people. I would probably approach some and
go where.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Did you get that? It's absolutely darling.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
So with that band said, I want to share two
more things with us. First of all, where can we
buy this amazing product? And I know you have some
units that are boxed up and ready to go.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Yep, they are right now. Actually I meet with a
place called the Arnold Center next Tuesday. And the Arnold
Center is an organization here in Midland, Michigan. Their website,
as you want to check it out, is Arnoldcenter dot org.
I believe, let me double check org. Yeah, Arnoldcenter dot

(44:10):
dot org. And they are an organization that helps mentally
and physically disabled individuals learn work skills and that kind
of thing. And they do some recycling and they've got
an indoor grow where they grow lettuce and things and
sell it at the local grocery stores, so you can
buy their lettuce and things like that. It's just a

(44:32):
wonderful place. And so I spoke with them, and they're
going to handle putting them in the boxes and whatnot.
And it sounds like they can handle the shipping as well.
They're doing some pickpackship stuff for some other small companies,
so I'm hoping they can handle the whole thing. And
so I had the flower pots sent from the injection

(44:54):
company to them, and so hopefully next week I get
them working on that and it'll take them I'll be
three or four days to put them in the boxes
and then they'll be ready to go, and I uh,
right now, I'm calling this smile Glides, so you could
go to smile glides dot com s m I L
E G L I d E s dot com. The

(45:18):
website's not up yet, it will.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Be and we'll be ready when when this airs and
the website will be ready.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
You want to give us your email address.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
In case somebody needs to contact you personally they have
some questions or want to do a bulk order or
something with you.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Sure, sure my email address and I put it below
my name there on the screen. Hopefully everyone can see that.
But it's okay, Steve Steve at smile glides dot com.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Perfect.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
I'd love to hear from you for sure.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Perfect Steve Steve Air. I mean, you have just really
enlightened me today.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
And I really I liked you right away when we
spoke on the phone last week and we had a
great conversation, and I've been really looking forward to this
Spotlight episode five podcasts today and you just blown me away.
I mean, I think that you're a great example of
perseverance and resilience, and you know understanding that in life

(46:18):
there are detours and distractions sometimes, but if you stay
on course, and you stay focused, and you believe in yourself,
and you surround yourself with people that want to see
you succeed and support you. And you quit for a day,
but you start back again. I mean, there's so many
takeaways from this interview today for me personally, and I

(46:40):
hope for those of us that are going to be
watching and inspired by you.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
I this will, this will resonate with me all.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Afternoon, sir, And I can't thank you enough for being
so vulnerable and so candid and so honest with us.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
And I just I love this interview.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Oh thank you. Really, It's been a real journey. And
before we go here, I wouldn't be here without organ donors.
And so I'd like to promote organ The website is
organ donor dot gov and it will take you be

(47:21):
able to click on your state to sign up to
be an organ donor. And it's a good idea. It
helps a lot of people and we need more people
to do it, so hopefully this product can help promote
that as well.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
I cannot stress enough the philanthropic energy that that you
have given us from your distribution center and now suggesting
and reminding us to sign up to be an organ donor.
I think that just speaks valumes about you, Steve Style

(47:57):
buy dot com to me, So.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
That's what we're here for. You know, people need to
help people, and that's just what it's about.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yes, yes, yes, Well you just have the coolest product.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
And I don't know why every senior citizen facility is
not going to be walking around with these. What a
great gift for the elderly or anyone that is even
has a temporary injury and that's using a walker. I
think it just it's uplifting, it's light, it's fun. The
variations are obviously an abundance, and I'm I'm assuming once

(48:33):
this takes off, you're going to have other versions and
you know, maybe butterflies and airplanes. I mean, I'm sure
you've thought of it all, and especially for children that
are using walkers. I'm sure you've already. You're already like
you're like, yes, we're already at it.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
We're already at it.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yes, all right, smile glides dot com and you can
also join us at the National Inventor Club. You can
just go to Google and find a National Inventor Club
dot com. You can go to your Google Play or
your Apple Store and find us at the Inventor Smart.

(49:10):
It's the Inventor Smart app. We are a community of inventors.
We welcome you to join us with your premium membership
or you're just your membership. We would love to have
you with us, just like Steve has joined us. I'm
in there and there's a bunch of inventors in there,
just with inspirational stories. But Steve Man, you've got me today.

(49:32):
This has been very insightful and delightful. So thank you
so much for joining us on your Spotlight interview. And
I will see you very soon and I'm looking forward
to our next interaction.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Great, well, thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
You're welcome, my dear, You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
All right, bye everyone, Thank you,

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Episode 5 - Steve Ayre's Smile Glides: Bringing Joy to Mobility Aids

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 5 - Steve Ayre's Smile Glides: Bringing Joy to Mobility Aids