Episode 12 - SEASON FINALE (it's out there)

So now your product is out there. Did you do it the right way?

Did you leave any customers out? Did you overlook anything?

Jack talks about what he almost left out and how it changed who he would sell the product to as marketing moved forward.

Contact: [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
So tell me if you've heard thisone before. I got this product.
I mean, it's done, it'sready. I know it has an audience,
but I just can't get it going. Can you just look at it
and fix it. I swear it'sgonna make a million dollars and I'll split

(00:36):
it with you. Oh the offersI get every time i'm out. Hi,
everybody, welcome back to the thirtyyear Overnight Sensation. I'm your host,
Jack Courage, and this podcast isa conversation, not a class.
If you're a novice inventor or wantto be an inventor, I'll take you

(00:58):
through the trials of designing, manufacturing, selling, and getting your product out
into the market. This prodcast isnot affront for a product development firm or
some company trying to generate money offof your ideas. It's about the trials
of inventing and it's not easy.But you can do it yourself. If

(01:18):
I could do with no formal training, you can do it. You just
have to be smart about it.The great Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman summed up
the secret two ideas in his case, ideas for screenwriting movies or novels.
But I use his secret for inventingand inventions. He said, nobody knows
anything every time out, it's aguess, and if you're lucky an educated

(01:44):
one. I live by that.Every day you cannot mathematically predict what or
who will be successful by any formula. And I like that on your best
day, you were just making aneducated guess, and you pray that all

(02:05):
the info you've acquired is enough.If it sounds like I'm being a bit
reflective, it's only because we arealmost at the end of my story for
this product, and which now trulyit's just the beginning for that product.
So let's see what I would change. Well, I'm pretty sure I could
have been nicer, but strategy wise, I'm pretty happy with the way it

(02:30):
turned out. I've taken you ona trip from the beginning of the idea
process to the prototyping, then patenting, the legal, the strategy, the
manufacturing, the launches, and nowthe product is out there. So why
did I do this podcast? WhenI started this podcast, it was for

(02:52):
me. Really, it was forthe twenty eight year old me and something
I wished I had heard when Istarted out, just to know I wasn't
alone. When I had a goodidea and everyone that was a decision maker
crapped on it to still keep going. And that's what's okay if you want
to make things fun or better,even if they are stupid things like hats,

(03:16):
handbags, snazzy backpacks. I trulyhope I've given you a look on
the inside of how products start andget to the market. Jack, you
left a lot out. Now,some of you might say I left out
this and that. Yeah, Iprobably did. If I got too much

(03:38):
into the minutia, well I wouldhave fallen asleep. There are other technical
podcasts out there to put you asleep. I was just trying to give you
an honest view of what I gothrough to put out a product. I'm
hoping new or mostly new inventors hearssomething and think, hey, this guy

(03:59):
had the same problems i'm having andhe got his product out, So maybe
I can take another shot at what'sbeen sitting on my bench for a year,
and I'm gonna get it out.I can do it too, So
let's talk about how blind I amphysically. I can't even see the big
E on the eye chart when youtake that iChart test, and I've worned

(04:21):
glasses since the second grade. Ican't get out of bed without even putting
my glasses on. So after allthese years, I'm kind of used to
not seeing things right in front ofmy face, and the head covering is
a great example of it. WhatI almost blew it. Let me tell
you the biggest mistake that I madewith this product, and then you can

(04:45):
think about it and like they sayback home, they'd say, boy,
that's a doozy. I created thehead covering for women because that was an
early parameter. However, now afterdeploying the product for sale, the product
is found new homes by word ofmouth. Strangely, it started again with
Angela many months after I had developedthe product for her and her staff.

(05:09):
She called me out of the blue. She said that she had just hired
a young man that had a lotof hair, and believe me, he
had a lot of hair. Shesaid, the head covering fit him,
but he had to jam it inthere and he spent a lot of money
on his hair. Could I makethe same design but just a bit larger?

(05:30):
You see, the problem wasn't thelength, it was the volume.
So you know, I knew therewas might be a problem. So I
said, yeah, I'd do it. Give me a couple of weeks I
reworked the design called my trust heseems fress PAM, and a couple of
weeks later I had a prototype theExcel, ready to go. After looking
at this employee's hair jammed into thehead covering, I needed that one last

(05:56):
final tweak, something a bit largerfor the volume. And now I had
the entire product figured out. ButI was still caught by his words.
It hung with me, and Idon't know why. He said he spent
a lot of money on his hair, and I was like, what's that
about My hair's cheap? It's ashort haircut, blah blah. First just

(06:19):
no. I never once considered theman market, even as an option.
It was never in the parameters fromAngela or Sarah. I just figured this
guy if Angela's was a one off, and I went on my merry way
Untell the Taco Bell incident. Ihad just picked up the XL mesh head
covering from PAM. I had aboutten of them in the car. It

(06:42):
was lunchtime. A little later,I figured I'd stop at Taco Bell.
Crap. The drive through was closeddue to construction and I could see the
crew dying in the heat outside paintingon the building. I went in and
ordered quickly rolled back out, andI will never know why I did what
I did next, Yeah, Jack, why did you do that? There

(07:06):
in the parking lot were the painterseating the lunch, sitting on upside down
five gallon buckets in the sun,but since they weren't working, I kind
of looked like they're on a picnic. Right in the middle of them was
this very large guy that I mentionedthat he was large because he was large
and he had a huge amount ofdreadlocks, I mean like predator dreadlocks.

(07:30):
And I don't know what possessed me, but I walked right up to him
in the middle of his workmates,and I said, excuse me, I
really hate to bother you, butI have something I created for you that
i'll give you if you like it. He just looked at me and didn't
say anything. And now I knewI was in it deep, so I

(07:50):
just said, wait a second.I walked over my car and I got
out to excel. I went rightback up to him, right in the
middle of the workmates, and Isaid, I know this sounds crazy,
but would you try this on?I made it for food service, but
it's so hot out here, Ithought it might help you. I pulled

(08:13):
out the head covering and you couldhave heard a pin drop in the parking
lot. I did a small demo, and before I knew it, the
guy was up and on me,and my last thought was, oh boy,
I embarrassed him in front of hiswork friends, and this is really
gonna hurt. The guy took itright out of my hands and he put

(08:35):
it on his head like he'd ownedone for years. And his words are
still clear to me today. Man, I need this. You know how
much money I spend on my hair. If I turned my head just once,
my hair will get in the paintand I have to stop and take
care of it. This solves somany of my problems. And he put

(08:58):
it on perfectly not to lose themoment. I asked, hey, how
does it feel? And he stated, my now number one selling point to
all men. The mesh is sogreat on the back of my neck.
My locks won't itch the back ofmy neck no more. I said what
he said, Yeah, everyone whowears locks gets the back of their necks

(09:20):
scratched. And this completely stops it. It's soft on the back of my
neck. So what else do youwant to know? And I said,
still worried about maybe possible backhand orone question too many. I said,
you mentioned the money about how muchyou spin on your hair. What do
you mean? He said his lockscost over one hundred bucks every time he

(09:45):
goes in and paint and construction hats. Screw it up? I said,
you wear this under construction hit andhe said he was supposed to have them
on right now because they were workingon the roof while they were painting.
But he this guy his hair workedon yesterday. He wasn't gonna screw it
up. So I said, wait, you said you'd wear this under your

(10:07):
construction hat right. He said theirmanager would be back later to check their
work, and he would put theconstruction hat on now because he had the
head covering to put underneath it.So I went to the car, got
him two more and gave him mycard and told me to call me if
he had any problems whatsoever. Sothis story gets better. I knew this

(10:28):
guy, Matt, he's in construction, and man, that guy has a
lot of hair and a lot ofdreadlocks. I went to him after this
event in the Taco Bell parking lotand I showed him the head covering.
He said almost the exact same thingsas the painter, and I never believe
in coincidences ever, But Matt waseven more clear, and he answered more

(10:52):
my questions I had thought of sincethe Taco Bell time, and it really
helped the design in the sales andmarketing aspect at the very least. So
thanks Matt. So this is whereI get back to being blind. It's
men. They were there the wholetime, but I just never thought of
this as a product they would wear, simply because I didn't know. I

(11:16):
had no idea about the scratching onthe back of the neck. I had
no idea about the cost of maintainingdreadlocks. I had no idea that hard
hats screwed up their hair and presseddown the back of their neck, making
an itch. I didn't know anyof that, But now I did,
And now the head covering would besold equally to men and women, when

(11:39):
I had previously knowingly left out men. Once that happened, of course,
the floodgates opened. Now I hadmarkets in nursing, construction, assisted living.
It would just keep growing, andI had only been focused on women
in food service. What a dummy? I mean, isn't that crazy?

(12:03):
I'm very lucky the same product butanother use, another overnight sensation. So
let me throw in one last hitbit on going full circle to an idea
and how it came back. Nowto my friend and model product model,
I should say Matt. He said, Hey, he was in a menage,

(12:24):
which in the Midwest, if youdon't have him, they're kind of
like a home depot or a lows. He was wearing the head covering and
a guy behind him stopped him inline and asked him, Hey, where'd
you get that thing on your head? You see, the guy wasn't a
construction guy. He was a headchef in there buying peanut oil for work
and knows the head cover. Hetold Matt, hey, I've got people

(12:48):
at work that could use that.See full circle. And the guy figured
it out for himself, so Mattwas right. He said he knew the
product was gonna be okay, thenI shouldn't worry. If a chef in
line at a Minard's can figure itout and want it, it was probably
gonna be okay. And I gottasay. When Nat told me that story,

(13:09):
it gave me the confidence after theTaco bell incident that it was gonna
be okay, that I had doneit. Now we could talk about how
you'll be able to see the headcovering for yourself. One thing I do
the very first minute I even thinkof developing a product, either me or
my staff or my investors, wegive it an internal name. In this

(13:33):
case, we called the head coveringthe food Doo short for food Doo Rag.
Presently, the name is being usedin some B to B businesses as
an identifier for the head covering,but as it grows in other markets,
I'm sure it will have different names. How will you know if it's mine
when you see it? I suspectif this product continues to grow, the

(13:58):
average person may become aware of theproduct in late twenty twenty four or spring
twenty twenty five, with the hopesthat it will be an everyday product in
retail, maybe sometime in twenty twentysix. Jack, come on, I'll
be retired by then. Because I'mprotected by various means, I do not

(14:20):
have to rush. This is adifferent type of product, and at this
point I'm not looking for the quickhit of a retail swoon. My patents
are good for twenty years. Now. I'm not saying that something doesn't happen
unexpectingly and then I can't control thatmakes it popular in retail ahead of you
know what I plan. Sometimes itdoes happen, but chances are I will

(14:45):
see a slow, steady growth withthis product, and if I stay lucky,
everyone will see it in a fewyears. You the listener have been
on the inside. At least,that's my hope. Part of fun of
sharing this story is that if Iam still right and this is an everyday
product a few years from now,you can say, hey, that's old

(15:09):
news. I was in on thatproduct in twenty twenty three, way before
you bandwagoners start talking about knowing it. I first envisioned this podcast as a
one time, six part podcast.Now this is the finale at episode twelve,
and I hope you've enjoyed it.Many parts of remembering this made me

(15:31):
laugh and angry all over again.But if it helped out new inventors moved
to the next level inventing, I'dsay I'm lucky all over again. And
so if all continues to go well, I'll be back in a few months
with a news season with another newidea that I've brought to the market.
So until next season, when you'rethinking of ideas, never settle, and

(15:56):
when you're struggling, I mean reallystruggle, just stay the course. Keep
in mind that's when most people giveup and quit. There's always another way.
I'm your host, Jack Courage thethirty year Overnight Sensation. Stay at it.