November 5, 2023 • 27 mins
Gene Keough, an Engineer and the inventor of the "Drill Paddle," shares his business journey. From providing advice on various aspects of the business to selling his product nationwide, even making international appearances, his story is one of determination and success. The Drill Paddle gained recognition on a Japanese game show, and Gene Keough continues to receive orders from around the world. He now inspires others, especially high school students, to create their business plans, explore retail sales, and take calculated risks. Don't miss his inspiring story!
Watch full video episode on youtube with host Brian Fried on Got Invention Show- CLICK HERE
--------------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Welcome to the Got Invention Show!
Listen to inventors interviews sharing their invention story to the world!
Are you patent pending?
Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate?
Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention?
Are you looking for a manufacturer?
Do you want to raise money or find an investor?
Do you o can be used to: Post to your social media add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Inventor Expert, Founder of Inventor Smart and National Inventor Club, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews. https://gotinvention.com Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com Host Inventor Expert and Mentor Brian Fried: https://brianfried.comwant to sell your invention?
Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of!
Your video can be used to: Post to your social media add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Inventor Expert, Founder of Inventor Smart and National Inventor Club, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews. https://gotinvention.com Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com Host Inventor Expert and Mentor Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas! The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
Watch full video episode on youtube with host Brian Fried on Got Invention Show- CLICK HERE
--------------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Welcome to the Got Invention Show!
Listen to inventors interviews sharing their invention story to the world!
Are you patent pending?
Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate?
Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention?
Are you looking for a manufacturer?
Do you want to raise money or find an investor?
Do you o can be used to: Post to your social media add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Inventor Expert, Founder of Inventor Smart and National Inventor Club, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews. https://gotinvention.com Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com Host Inventor Expert and Mentor Brian Fried: https://brianfried.comwant to sell your invention?
Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of!
Your video can be used to: Post to your social media add on your website Send to bloggers & editors Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Inventor Expert, Founder of Inventor Smart and National Inventor Club, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews. https://gotinvention.com Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com Host Inventor Expert and Mentor Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas! The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
Welcome to the Got Invention Show.I'm your host Brian Fried and today our
guest is Jeene Keo. He isthe inventor of the drill paddle. Welcome
to the show, Jean, thankyou. Thanks for this opportunity. Jane,
I see behind you a little bitabout what we're going to be talking
today. But why don't we firststart off by telling us who you are
(00:40):
and where you're from. I'm JeanKo. I'm from southern Oreon. I
created this product because I was outstuckout in the middle of the lake and
I thought there had to be abetter idea, and that's it turned out
(01:03):
to be a pretty big item,pretty big sellar. So you were out
in the out in the water,you were on your paddle boat, and
you got stuck, and there itgoes, I need to find a better
way to be able to save myselfhere and not get stuck in the water.
So you came up with a productcalled drill paddle. Correct. Great,
(01:26):
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about it? What does
it actually do? Well? It'sa device that you can hook to your
drill. Everybody has a drill,it seems like, and it it turns
a propeller and moves you along inthe water. Wow. So you're saying
(01:49):
that you take a regular drill andyou put your attachment onto it and you
can save yourself from when you're stuckin the water to be able to get
to where you need to go tosave yourself. Absolutely correct. And it's
used on various types of crafts,kayaks, pontoons. It's just a real
(02:15):
general item that can be used bymany types of craft And I see you
came up with an interesting slogan.There don't be up a creek without a
drill paddle. That's correct. Yes, very cool. Yeah, I'm glad
you noticed that. That was somethingwe did when we were doing trade shows
(02:35):
and we put that banner out,you know, as we were showing the
product, and so that was funand interesting to do for a weekend.
Great, well, Jeane, let'sstart off by showing the audience your product.
So let's take a look here,and this is kind of the way
(02:55):
that it happens. Right, Yourmotor won't start is what it's titled.
So let's take a look and seewhat it's about. It shows, you
know, me throwing my ROMs up. Oh, motormone start and putting the
drill pedal, hooking the drill up, putting it in the water, and
it pushes the boat along really nice, gets you back to shore. And
(03:19):
basically that's kind of the concept.I had a big boat with a big
motor in it and ended up quittingon me and I had to get the
oars out and start paddling back,you know. And and I thought there
has to be a better way todo this, and it is. I've
(03:40):
done some I had to do someresearch, do some patent searches to make
sure that this was something that hadn'talready been patented, and I was lucky
it hadn't been. So yeah,that's that's the deal. It's pretty pretty,
was it right there? I actuallysee the drill right. I want
(04:05):
to navigate a little bit through thejourney. So I want to say that
I come from a in engineering anda machinist background, and my grandfather kind
of got me going as a kid. He was a mechanical engineer at a
large mill lumber mill here in Oregon, and he created a lot of machinery
(04:31):
and all kinds of devices for thelumber mill. And it happened when I
was a small child and I waslooking through a magazine and I saw a
product in that magazine that I'd seenin my grandfather's garage. And I asked
him, well, why is thishere and somebody else selling it? And
(04:55):
he said, well, let mecheck gene with my patent attorney and if
I can find out more, there'smoney involved, you get some of it.
Well, I thought, this isgreat, you know, awesome.
Well, it turned out that ithad expired. The patent had expired,
(05:16):
and so that stirred up stuff though, and ever since I was a child,
I thought, well, Grandpa,he created a lot of great things
and a lot of great machines andthen basically got his name on the patent
and a dollar for the patent andthe company paid for everything, and it
(05:43):
gave him a nice benefit program anda nice wage because he was an engineer,
but he never really got anything outthere. I'm going to try that.
Well, I know now why hedid that, Brian, because it's
a very complicated road to go downfrom inception to actual product on the market.
(06:10):
He did it the easy way,had great ideas and had a company
take care of it for him,whereas us as inventors. It's a road,
as most of your inventors say,it's quite a road with lots of
bumps, and I managed to getthrough most of those bumps and got the
(06:31):
product on the market. Actually,I'm a prototyper. I love prototyping,
and one of the things I didto begin with this product. First,
I got you a provisional and hada year to decide what I was going
to do. I decided to makeprototypes. And I made a bunch of
(06:54):
prototypes and put a few of themon eBay and started selling them, and
I thought, Wow, this ismaybe something, So I moved forward with
the patent process. I got fourpatents on it and it it just kind
(07:16):
of flowed from there, and thenI found a great manufacturer. But to
back it up a little bit,I made a thousand of them in my
garage with my daughter and my wife, and we're all making a piece here
and putting a piece together there andthrowing them out there, and people were
(07:39):
just buying them left or oh that'sgreat. So yeah. So, Jeane,
when you first had that problem onthe water being and having that inventor
ish type of mind, what wasthe first thing that you did when you
did have that problem and you said, there is a problem here, I
want to fix it. What whatdid you do fresh, Gene meaning go
(08:03):
home and said, you know what, I have two paddles on the side
of the boat. I could simplyjust take the paddles off and get my
way back to shore. But whatdid you do? What what made you
come up with having a drill tobe able to accommodate getting you back to
shore. That's a very good question, Brian, because my first prototype was
(08:28):
to put it on a weed eatermotor, right, And so I actually
built a prototype to fit on yourstandard motor that you have to trim your
your bushes with. And I again, I looked it up and did some
research on patent and trademark, andit had been patented. So so a
(08:52):
weed trimmer motor to be able toget you back for a boat to get
you back to short already existed.Yes, wow, And so I went
a little bit further in the searchto see that nobody had done what I
have currently on the market. SoI went down that road and went again,
(09:18):
went to trade shows. I dida bunch of other things before that,
Gene. Before that, though,when you came up with the idea.
So the weed trimmer was not anoption. What made you get to
the drill? It just seemed itwas there, and it seemed like,
(09:41):
well, you know, I hardlyuse these things. Why don't I try
it with a drill? And itjust worked great, you know, and
it kind of went from that point. Yeah, okay, So you did
the drill and you said, okay, there was so we trimmer. Now
(10:01):
I have a drill, and thenyou went to compare what other intellectual property
was out there, other patents andsee if this was something that was patentable.
So how did you go about figuringout that part where you needed to
compare and to know that you canmove forward with this? Well, of
course you have to, you know, do a patent search, and I
(10:26):
did reach out to a patent attorney, a great guy that I've worked with
now for many years. He helpedme with that process and then move forward
from the non or from the provisionalto the non. Yeah. So this
wasn't that complicated for you because youbeing an engineer, you loving to make
(10:52):
prototypes. So you have the drill, now you need the paddle. So
what did you do there to figureout how to make the drill in the
paddle match to make it work.Oh, like I said, you know,
it's kind of interesting that drills werewere with us, and they were
(11:13):
there, and I have plenty ofthem in my shop, and I just
I put the two together. It'slike, uh, you know, the
chocolate and the peanut butter situation kindof you know, yeah, And that's
how that worked. So it wasn'ttoo complicated for you. So you got
(11:33):
through that part. And look alot of times there's certain parts of going
through the invention process that you canbe more skilled or you can have a
connection more than some other people tojust get through those steps. And you
happen to get through those steps.So now you have a good working prototype.
And you started to sell the prototypeson eBay and you said, wow,
(11:56):
I think I got something here.It seemed like people were looking up
and finding this. How did youmake people on eBay know that drill paddle
even existed? That's interesting because Ireally did no advertising. It just was
kind of, I think, Brian, a word of mouth situation where they've
(12:18):
seen it maybe on the eBay,bought one, they took it out,
somebody else saw them and where toget that. And basically that's the kind
of I'm assuming because it's just takenoff and I get more and more people
like that. One of my bucketlist situations were to see one that you
(12:43):
know, I sold and I haveand that's one of the greatest, you
know, accomplishments to me is seeingone out there somebody else is using it,
so good stuff. Let's pull upthe next one, said, Drill
Paddle hits Japan, so let's let'swatch this one and maybe you can explain
(13:03):
to us what this is about.Yeah, this was fun. This was
a fella reached out to me offof eBay and he said, hey,
you know, we got this gameshow in Japan. It's called adventure Boy,
and what we want to do isfeature your product on it. And
(13:24):
how it worked was they put thesetwo couples and they were celebrities in Japan
out on this island, and theysaid, you need to get to the
other island any way you can.We'll let you have a few products.
You got to figure out how todo it, and they featured this product
(13:50):
and it's just so fun and animatedthat they had done that, and basically
it help these girls get to theirdestination and it was just a fun,
fun thing to do. And itwas actually my prototypes. They weren't actually
(14:13):
manufactured yet except by me. WhenI was manufacturing these, Brian, I
was sourcing everything in my town.Like I'd go to a hardware store and
I'd get the PDC. I'd goto the dollar store and get these noodles.
(14:35):
I'd go to a sportsman store andget the props. I'd go to
a metal place and get the shafts, and I'd just sit and I'd put
me and the family would put allthese things together, and it just it
turned out to be a real,you know, real popular item. So
(15:01):
Gene, when you're going through andyou're buying all these pieces and parts from
all over the place, was therea point because they were selling really well,
and they're still selling really well oneBay, was there a point where
you said, I better consider manufacturingthis because maybe all these things that I'm
putting together are making the price ofthe product a little too high, or
(15:22):
maybe it's a little too much forme to source where maybe one part is
out of stock, or maybe it'sjust my time to put it all together.
Was there or is there a pointwhere you're going to say, you
know what, I better consider manufacturingthis. Yes, absolutely, Brian.
And we found a great manufacturer,of course in China, and he is
(15:48):
just the most wonderful guy. Hereally tries really hard to please and produce
the product exact. In fact,I have to be honest with you,
he produces a better product than Iwas making in my shop, and it's
(16:08):
cheaper, you know, and soit afforded me a way to make a
profit, more of a profit thanI had before. And so he can
do relatively smaller runs. And youknow, I usually have him send me
(16:34):
a container forty foot container, sometimestwo, sometimes three year because I sell
that many. I sell out everyyear on Walmart. So that's that's amazing.
Congratulations on your success, so Farging. So now that you have that
relief of not having to mask tomake them yourself and your mass producing them,
(16:56):
there's not that much that you needto do except to be able to
manage the inventory and also keep aneye on the sales. So maybe tell
us about that experience, because youmentioned earlier you're selling a thousand. How
many of them are you selling orhave you sold? I've sold twenty thousand
of them in the last four years, so I sell sometimes up to five
(17:22):
thousand a year and I'm looking togrow larger. So yeah, that's you
know, with that it takes.It takes a lot of time, a
lot of resources to get larger.You have one more video here, Geene.
(17:42):
This is how it operates. Ijust did this. It was what
do you call those cameras you puton your head and I'm just used.
Yeah, and how you look itto the drill and how it pushes the
boat and how you know, itreally moves the boat along quite a bit.
(18:03):
I've had customers we're pretty surprised byhow it almost planes the boat out
with a drill, you know,And so I have a lot of very
satisfied customers with this product. Yeah, very cool. I'm glad you showed
that. For the most part,there are people that have drills out there,
(18:27):
and they do have paddles on theboat, but all they have to
do is purchase your drill, paddle, patchment, take their drill. You're
not selling it together with a drill. They're bringing their own drill. Make
sure that your drill is powered up, and go out on the water and
have fun and I mean, youknow, in a waging, it's almost
(18:48):
a prevention type of product, rightbecause you're going out in the water expecting
your motor to be fine, andyou just want to have that backup just
in case. So you want tomake sure that it's on the books before
you go right right, and you'reright about you know, usually I'll take
two or anybody will take two batteries. It'll get you out about a mile
(19:12):
or two uh in the water.And and so you if you start to
run out of a juice, youjust slot batteries and head back if that's
what you want to do. Butit's it's also something that you don't want
to run full on all the time. You want to cycle it a little
(19:33):
bit. Once you get going.It's kind of like paddling, only it's
you're using your drill and and itworks out well. Again, lots of
satisfied customers constantly wanting my product,and it's exciting that that that it's I've
had that success. Jeane. You'reat a point now where you're selling,
(19:57):
you have mass production, everything seemsto be in order for you. What's
the next step and what is whatdoes it look like for drill paddle for
the future. I'm glad you askedthat, because now I'm going to introduce
a new product, so the drillpaddle. As you can see in the
(20:17):
background here, I have a couplewith header cards on them. Those are
four foot. They're just four foot, nothing fancy. Well, this is
the newest line that I should becoming out with the spring. Let me
get it in front of the camera. It actually expands so it's smaller.
(20:40):
It's not four foot, it's liketwo foot. And then after say,
it's easier to carry, easier tohave in your boat or wherever. And
then you want to use it,you just flick it out, put your
drill on it, and go.It's better, faster, stronger. And
(21:02):
so I'm hoping to introduce this productline this next spring and summer because those
are my busiest months. I domost of my selling in the spring and
summer months. You're selling on Amazonand eBay. Are there any other places?
(21:23):
Amazon? eBay, Walmart dot com. I think we sold a few
on Pinterest and whatnot, but essentiallymy strong points are Walmart and Amazon.
Look at you, Gene. You'rean engineer and now all of a sudden,
(21:44):
you invented a product and now you'reselling it. Did you ever think
that it would come to this.I didn't, I really didn't. It's
exciting and I think it's a wonderfulthing, but you do have to go.
It's not as easy. Like Isaid earlier, it's not as easy
(22:04):
as just working for a company anddoing the same thing. You know,
it's a tough road, but it'swell worth it. And look the I
know from having products in the marketand people using it, that's the greatest
feeling, right Geane. You cameup with something and people are using it
(22:26):
for the same reason that you cameup with it, and it seems like
everybody's just it's great. It's it'salmost like a safety net for when you're
out in the water, to knowthat you have this just in case to
get you and get you there quickerthan paddling. Yes, yes, yeah.
And I've actually had people with somedisabilities just email me how wonderful it
(22:55):
is, because like an older gentlemanthat his legs weren't working so great and
he liked to get out on thefishing tube and he couldn't really paddle,
you know, and this thing hasgot him out there fishing things like that.
It just makes you feel great inside. You know, Gene, you've
(23:17):
gone through this and you've had somegreat levels of success and we wish you
all the best for much more aheadand especially with your new version. Look
you, it seems like you hitall the right spots to get to where
you are today. You went throughyou had things that you did on your
own and you figured out and thenyou hired professionals to get you through things
that you weren't one hundred percent sureabout and that's where you are today.
(23:41):
So really, congratulations done your successso far. Now there's many people that
are watching and listening and saying,well, look at this guy. He
was an engineer, came up withthis idea. I mean a drill that
used to paddle your boat when youget stuck. I have an idea.
(24:02):
I'm doing things. So maybe I'mcoming up with this great idea. Maybe
I've had one in the past,I'm coming up with one in the future.
If you could just share some wordsof wisdom to the community out there
and to the inventors and future inventors, what is it that you can give
us a good piece of advice toleave us with. Gene absolutely and it
(24:22):
is. It's a lot. It'sjust due diligence. You know. The
Patent Office has a great program withthe provisional and that kind of gives you
you kind of have to have yourducks in a row before you do that
to see where you're at and ifit's going to be something that you can
sell and then and then you know, move forward with that. But I
(24:49):
think more than anything, it's kindof the dream and just follow your heart,
follow you your mind and the dreamand you'll do great. And it's
just you know, believing in yourself, I think, and I think a
(25:10):
lot of us do. A lotof us get frustrated and that's the hard
part because you want to give up, but you just need to keep powering
through. Sometimes it takes a littlebit longer, it's discouraging, but keep
it up, keep trying. Youknow, it's awesome. Jene, tell
us where to find your drill paddleone ww dot drill paddle dot com.
(25:34):
You can find it on EBA,Amazon, and Walmart. Right now,
we're sold out at Walmart. SoAmazon is the big ticket right now.
And how much is it? It'suh fifty two dollars with sixteen dollars shipping
on Amazon, and again that's theonly Unfortunately we're sold out at Walmart.
(25:56):
We hope to get that restocked prettysoon. They're a lot cheaper there,
they're fifty two dollars with free shipping. And the new version that you have,
when is that expected to come out? I expect that to be this
spring and summer, and it's goingto be a little bit more, but
not a whole lot more because youknow, it's a little more engineering involved.
(26:18):
So great, Gene, congratulations onyour success so far. I know
that there's plenty ahead and I'm sureyou're excited about your new version coming out.
Or we will keep an eye onyou, and we know that you
have our backs when we're out inthe water, that you have a way
for us to make sure that weget to shore. So thank you so
(26:40):
much, Gene kio uh drill PaddleDrill Paddle drill paddle dot com is his
website. Gene, until next time, Thank you so much for being on
our show. Thanks thanks so much, Brian, thank you all right.
So look, you can come upwith an idea at any time. You
got to be able to capture itwhen it happens and then figure out what
(27:04):
to do next. So hopefully jeanesinformation and his story will inspire you,
and we wish all of you thebest with your inventions. Keep moving forward
with your big ideas. Till nexttime, We'll see you again from Got Invention Show
Welcome to the Got Invention Show.I'm your host Brian Fried and today our
guest is Jeene Keo. He isthe inventor of the drill paddle. Welcome
to the show, Jean, thankyou. Thanks for this opportunity. Jane,
I see behind you a little bitabout what we're going to be talking
today. But why don't we firststart off by telling us who you are
(00:40):
and where you're from. I'm JeanKo. I'm from southern Oreon. I
created this product because I was outstuckout in the middle of the lake and
I thought there had to be abetter idea, and that's it turned out
(01:03):
to be a pretty big item,pretty big sellar. So you were out
in the out in the water,you were on your paddle boat, and
you got stuck, and there itgoes, I need to find a better
way to be able to save myselfhere and not get stuck in the water.
So you came up with a productcalled drill paddle. Correct. Great,
(01:26):
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about it? What does
it actually do? Well? It'sa device that you can hook to your
drill. Everybody has a drill,it seems like, and it it turns
a propeller and moves you along inthe water. Wow. So you're saying
(01:49):
that you take a regular drill andyou put your attachment onto it and you
can save yourself from when you're stuckin the water to be able to get
to where you need to go tosave yourself. Absolutely correct. And it's
used on various types of crafts,kayaks, pontoons. It's just a real
(02:15):
general item that can be used bymany types of craft And I see you
came up with an interesting slogan.There don't be up a creek without a
drill paddle. That's correct. Yes, very cool. Yeah, I'm glad
you noticed that. That was somethingwe did when we were doing trade shows
(02:35):
and we put that banner out,you know, as we were showing the
product, and so that was funand interesting to do for a weekend.
Great, well, Jeane, let'sstart off by showing the audience your product.
So let's take a look here,and this is kind of the way
(02:55):
that it happens. Right, Yourmotor won't start is what it's titled.
So let's take a look and seewhat it's about. It shows, you
know, me throwing my ROMs up. Oh, motormone start and putting the
drill pedal, hooking the drill up, putting it in the water, and
it pushes the boat along really nice, gets you back to shore. And
(03:19):
basically that's kind of the concept.I had a big boat with a big
motor in it and ended up quittingon me and I had to get the
oars out and start paddling back,you know. And and I thought there
has to be a better way todo this, and it is. I've
(03:40):
done some I had to do someresearch, do some patent searches to make
sure that this was something that hadn'talready been patented, and I was lucky
it hadn't been. So yeah,that's that's the deal. It's pretty pretty,
was it right there? I actuallysee the drill right. I want
(04:05):
to navigate a little bit through thejourney. So I want to say that
I come from a in engineering anda machinist background, and my grandfather kind
of got me going as a kid. He was a mechanical engineer at a
large mill lumber mill here in Oregon, and he created a lot of machinery
(04:31):
and all kinds of devices for thelumber mill. And it happened when I
was a small child and I waslooking through a magazine and I saw a
product in that magazine that I'd seenin my grandfather's garage. And I asked
him, well, why is thishere and somebody else selling it? And
(04:55):
he said, well, let mecheck gene with my patent attorney and if
I can find out more, there'smoney involved, you get some of it.
Well, I thought, this isgreat, you know, awesome.
Well, it turned out that ithad expired. The patent had expired,
(05:16):
and so that stirred up stuff though, and ever since I was a child,
I thought, well, Grandpa,he created a lot of great things
and a lot of great machines andthen basically got his name on the patent
and a dollar for the patent andthe company paid for everything, and it
(05:43):
gave him a nice benefit program anda nice wage because he was an engineer,
but he never really got anything outthere. I'm going to try that.
Well, I know now why hedid that, Brian, because it's
a very complicated road to go downfrom inception to actual product on the market.
(06:10):
He did it the easy way,had great ideas and had a company
take care of it for him,whereas us as inventors. It's a road,
as most of your inventors say,it's quite a road with lots of
bumps, and I managed to getthrough most of those bumps and got the
(06:31):
product on the market. Actually,I'm a prototyper. I love prototyping,
and one of the things I didto begin with this product. First,
I got you a provisional and hada year to decide what I was going
to do. I decided to makeprototypes. And I made a bunch of
(06:54):
prototypes and put a few of themon eBay and started selling them, and
I thought, Wow, this ismaybe something, So I moved forward with
the patent process. I got fourpatents on it and it it just kind
(07:16):
of flowed from there, and thenI found a great manufacturer. But to
back it up a little bit,I made a thousand of them in my
garage with my daughter and my wife, and we're all making a piece here
and putting a piece together there andthrowing them out there, and people were
(07:39):
just buying them left or oh that'sgreat. So yeah. So, Jeane,
when you first had that problem onthe water being and having that inventor
ish type of mind, what wasthe first thing that you did when you
did have that problem and you said, there is a problem here, I
want to fix it. What whatdid you do fresh, Gene meaning go
(08:03):
home and said, you know what, I have two paddles on the side
of the boat. I could simplyjust take the paddles off and get my
way back to shore. But whatdid you do? What what made you
come up with having a drill tobe able to accommodate getting you back to
shore. That's a very good question, Brian, because my first prototype was
(08:28):
to put it on a weed eatermotor, right, And so I actually
built a prototype to fit on yourstandard motor that you have to trim your
your bushes with. And I again, I looked it up and did some
research on patent and trademark, andit had been patented. So so a
(08:52):
weed trimmer motor to be able toget you back for a boat to get
you back to short already existed.Yes, wow, And so I went
a little bit further in the searchto see that nobody had done what I
have currently on the market. SoI went down that road and went again,
(09:18):
went to trade shows. I dida bunch of other things before that,
Gene. Before that, though,when you came up with the idea.
So the weed trimmer was not anoption. What made you get to
the drill? It just seemed itwas there, and it seemed like,
(09:41):
well, you know, I hardlyuse these things. Why don't I try
it with a drill? And itjust worked great, you know, and
it kind of went from that point. Yeah, okay, So you did
the drill and you said, okay, there was so we trimmer. Now
(10:01):
I have a drill, and thenyou went to compare what other intellectual property
was out there, other patents andsee if this was something that was patentable.
So how did you go about figuringout that part where you needed to
compare and to know that you canmove forward with this? Well, of
course you have to, you know, do a patent search, and I
(10:26):
did reach out to a patent attorney, a great guy that I've worked with
now for many years. He helpedme with that process and then move forward
from the non or from the provisionalto the non. Yeah. So this
wasn't that complicated for you because youbeing an engineer, you loving to make
(10:52):
prototypes. So you have the drill, now you need the paddle. So
what did you do there to figureout how to make the drill in the
paddle match to make it work.Oh, like I said, you know,
it's kind of interesting that drills werewere with us, and they were
(11:13):
there, and I have plenty ofthem in my shop, and I just
I put the two together. It'slike, uh, you know, the
chocolate and the peanut butter situation kindof you know, yeah, And that's
how that worked. So it wasn'ttoo complicated for you. So you got
(11:33):
through that part. And look alot of times there's certain parts of going
through the invention process that you canbe more skilled or you can have a
connection more than some other people tojust get through those steps. And you
happen to get through those steps.So now you have a good working prototype.
And you started to sell the prototypeson eBay and you said, wow,
(11:56):
I think I got something here.It seemed like people were looking up
and finding this. How did youmake people on eBay know that drill paddle
even existed? That's interesting because Ireally did no advertising. It just was
kind of, I think, Brian, a word of mouth situation where they've
(12:18):
seen it maybe on the eBay,bought one, they took it out,
somebody else saw them and where toget that. And basically that's the kind
of I'm assuming because it's just takenoff and I get more and more people
like that. One of my bucketlist situations were to see one that you
(12:43):
know, I sold and I haveand that's one of the greatest, you
know, accomplishments to me is seeingone out there somebody else is using it,
so good stuff. Let's pull upthe next one, said, Drill
Paddle hits Japan, so let's let'swatch this one and maybe you can explain
(13:03):
to us what this is about.Yeah, this was fun. This was
a fella reached out to me offof eBay and he said, hey,
you know, we got this gameshow in Japan. It's called adventure Boy,
and what we want to do isfeature your product on it. And
(13:24):
how it worked was they put thesetwo couples and they were celebrities in Japan
out on this island, and theysaid, you need to get to the
other island any way you can.We'll let you have a few products.
You got to figure out how todo it, and they featured this product
(13:50):
and it's just so fun and animatedthat they had done that, and basically
it help these girls get to theirdestination and it was just a fun,
fun thing to do. And itwas actually my prototypes. They weren't actually
(14:13):
manufactured yet except by me. WhenI was manufacturing these, Brian, I
was sourcing everything in my town.Like I'd go to a hardware store and
I'd get the PDC. I'd goto the dollar store and get these noodles.
(14:35):
I'd go to a sportsman store andget the props. I'd go to
a metal place and get the shafts, and I'd just sit and I'd put
me and the family would put allthese things together, and it just it
turned out to be a real,you know, real popular item. So
(15:01):
Gene, when you're going through andyou're buying all these pieces and parts from
all over the place, was therea point because they were selling really well,
and they're still selling really well oneBay, was there a point where
you said, I better consider manufacturingthis because maybe all these things that I'm
putting together are making the price ofthe product a little too high, or
(15:22):
maybe it's a little too much forme to source where maybe one part is
out of stock, or maybe it'sjust my time to put it all together.
Was there or is there a pointwhere you're going to say, you
know what, I better consider manufacturingthis. Yes, absolutely, Brian.
And we found a great manufacturer,of course in China, and he is
(15:48):
just the most wonderful guy. Hereally tries really hard to please and produce
the product exact. In fact,I have to be honest with you,
he produces a better product than Iwas making in my shop, and it's
(16:08):
cheaper, you know, and soit afforded me a way to make a
profit, more of a profit thanI had before. And so he can
do relatively smaller runs. And youknow, I usually have him send me
(16:34):
a container forty foot container, sometimestwo, sometimes three year because I sell
that many. I sell out everyyear on Walmart. So that's that's amazing.
Congratulations on your success, so Farging. So now that you have that
relief of not having to mask tomake them yourself and your mass producing them,
(16:56):
there's not that much that you needto do except to be able to
manage the inventory and also keep aneye on the sales. So maybe tell
us about that experience, because youmentioned earlier you're selling a thousand. How
many of them are you selling orhave you sold? I've sold twenty thousand
of them in the last four years, so I sell sometimes up to five
(17:22):
thousand a year and I'm looking togrow larger. So yeah, that's you
know, with that it takes.It takes a lot of time, a
lot of resources to get larger.You have one more video here, Geene.
(17:42):
This is how it operates. Ijust did this. It was what
do you call those cameras you puton your head and I'm just used.
Yeah, and how you look itto the drill and how it pushes the
boat and how you know, itreally moves the boat along quite a bit.
(18:03):
I've had customers we're pretty surprised byhow it almost planes the boat out
with a drill, you know,And so I have a lot of very
satisfied customers with this product. Yeah, very cool. I'm glad you showed
that. For the most part,there are people that have drills out there,
(18:27):
and they do have paddles on theboat, but all they have to
do is purchase your drill, paddle, patchment, take their drill. You're
not selling it together with a drill. They're bringing their own drill. Make
sure that your drill is powered up, and go out on the water and
have fun and I mean, youknow, in a waging, it's almost
(18:48):
a prevention type of product, rightbecause you're going out in the water expecting
your motor to be fine, andyou just want to have that backup just
in case. So you want tomake sure that it's on the books before
you go right right, and you'reright about you know, usually I'll take
two or anybody will take two batteries. It'll get you out about a mile
(19:12):
or two uh in the water.And and so you if you start to
run out of a juice, youjust slot batteries and head back if that's
what you want to do. Butit's it's also something that you don't want
to run full on all the time. You want to cycle it a little
(19:33):
bit. Once you get going.It's kind of like paddling, only it's
you're using your drill and and itworks out well. Again, lots of
satisfied customers constantly wanting my product,and it's exciting that that that it's I've
had that success. Jeane. You'reat a point now where you're selling,
(19:57):
you have mass production, everything seemsto be in order for you. What's
the next step and what is whatdoes it look like for drill paddle for
the future. I'm glad you askedthat, because now I'm going to introduce
a new product, so the drillpaddle. As you can see in the
(20:17):
background here, I have a couplewith header cards on them. Those are
four foot. They're just four foot, nothing fancy. Well, this is
the newest line that I should becoming out with the spring. Let me
get it in front of the camera. It actually expands so it's smaller.
(20:40):
It's not four foot, it's liketwo foot. And then after say,
it's easier to carry, easier tohave in your boat or wherever. And
then you want to use it,you just flick it out, put your
drill on it, and go.It's better, faster, stronger. And
(21:02):
so I'm hoping to introduce this productline this next spring and summer because those
are my busiest months. I domost of my selling in the spring and
summer months. You're selling on Amazonand eBay. Are there any other places?
(21:23):
Amazon? eBay, Walmart dot com. I think we sold a few
on Pinterest and whatnot, but essentiallymy strong points are Walmart and Amazon.
Look at you, Gene. You'rean engineer and now all of a sudden,
(21:44):
you invented a product and now you'reselling it. Did you ever think
that it would come to this.I didn't, I really didn't. It's
exciting and I think it's a wonderfulthing, but you do have to go.
It's not as easy. Like Isaid earlier, it's not as easy
(22:04):
as just working for a company anddoing the same thing. You know,
it's a tough road, but it'swell worth it. And look the I
know from having products in the marketand people using it, that's the greatest
feeling, right Geane. You cameup with something and people are using it
(22:26):
for the same reason that you cameup with it, and it seems like
everybody's just it's great. It's it'salmost like a safety net for when you're
out in the water, to knowthat you have this just in case to
get you and get you there quickerthan paddling. Yes, yes, yeah.
And I've actually had people with somedisabilities just email me how wonderful it
(22:55):
is, because like an older gentlemanthat his legs weren't working so great and
he liked to get out on thefishing tube and he couldn't really paddle,
you know, and this thing hasgot him out there fishing things like that.
It just makes you feel great inside. You know, Gene, you've
(23:17):
gone through this and you've had somegreat levels of success and we wish you
all the best for much more aheadand especially with your new version. Look
you, it seems like you hitall the right spots to get to where
you are today. You went throughyou had things that you did on your
own and you figured out and thenyou hired professionals to get you through things
that you weren't one hundred percent sureabout and that's where you are today.
(23:41):
So really, congratulations done your successso far. Now there's many people that
are watching and listening and saying,well, look at this guy. He
was an engineer, came up withthis idea. I mean a drill that
used to paddle your boat when youget stuck. I have an idea.
(24:02):
I'm doing things. So maybe I'mcoming up with this great idea. Maybe
I've had one in the past,I'm coming up with one in the future.
If you could just share some wordsof wisdom to the community out there
and to the inventors and future inventors, what is it that you can give
us a good piece of advice toleave us with. Gene absolutely and it
(24:22):
is. It's a lot. It'sjust due diligence. You know. The
Patent Office has a great program withthe provisional and that kind of gives you
you kind of have to have yourducks in a row before you do that
to see where you're at and ifit's going to be something that you can
sell and then and then you know, move forward with that. But I
(24:49):
think more than anything, it's kindof the dream and just follow your heart,
follow you your mind and the dreamand you'll do great. And it's
just you know, believing in yourself, I think, and I think a
(25:10):
lot of us do. A lotof us get frustrated and that's the hard
part because you want to give up, but you just need to keep powering
through. Sometimes it takes a littlebit longer, it's discouraging, but keep
it up, keep trying. Youknow, it's awesome. Jene, tell
us where to find your drill paddleone ww dot drill paddle dot com.
(25:34):
You can find it on EBA,Amazon, and Walmart. Right now,
we're sold out at Walmart. SoAmazon is the big ticket right now.
And how much is it? It'suh fifty two dollars with sixteen dollars shipping
on Amazon, and again that's theonly Unfortunately we're sold out at Walmart.
(25:56):
We hope to get that restocked prettysoon. They're a lot cheaper there,
they're fifty two dollars with free shipping. And the new version that you have,
when is that expected to come out? I expect that to be this
spring and summer, and it's goingto be a little bit more, but
not a whole lot more because youknow, it's a little more engineering involved.
(26:18):
So great, Gene, congratulations onyour success so far. I know
that there's plenty ahead and I'm sureyou're excited about your new version coming out.
Or we will keep an eye onyou, and we know that you
have our backs when we're out inthe water, that you have a way
for us to make sure that weget to shore. So thank you so
(26:40):
much, Gene kio uh drill PaddleDrill Paddle drill paddle dot com is his
website. Gene, until next time, Thank you so much for being on
our show. Thanks thanks so much, Brian, thank you all right.
So look, you can come upwith an idea at any time. You
got to be able to capture itwhen it happens and then figure out what
(27:04):
to do next. So hopefully jeanesinformation and his story will inspire you,
and we wish all of you thebest with your inventions. Keep moving forward
with your big ideas. Till nexttime, We'll see you again from Got Invention Show
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