Pleasantly Persistent

0:00 welcome to before you tank thriving in an industry that sucks we say it sucks because
0:05 98% will fail our mission is to make sure you don’t welcome back everybody we’re so excited
0:12 to be here today I have Katie and Keith and myself Luanne and today we’re going to talk
0:18 about something that I think we can all relate to we are my friends call me pleasantly persistent my
0:25 clients call me pleasantly persistent you guys in this industry it is about being persistence
0:32 right it is what keeps this thing going um I I I’m gonna say a Shameless plug a little bit
0:39 um Katie and I have gotten together and we have created a startup weekend
0:44 um we it’s called startup Sprint and please we’ll put something below so that you can find us
0:50 um we in our career we have seen inventors on an average have probably spent about 65
0:57 000 and maybe five to six years of their life and most of them don’t even have sales they
1:02 haven’t gotten to the sales part um and it just breaks our hearts we’re we’re we just feel that
1:09 there needs to be something to to fix that and so we have this really we call it our need to
1:14 launch program it’s our system that teaches you how to make all the decisions and follow
1:21 the steps not what everybody else is telling you to do in the world but follow these steps in a
1:27 way that you can get your product out and done in one year under a thousand dollars
1:34 um and and it’s worked for us we have some great stories um I won’t go any longer just go ahead
1:39 and take a look at it you’ll see we’ll give you some of our successes um but I say that because
1:45 I even we in this industry have days where we’re like why can’t we nail this why can’t we nail this
1:52 why can’t we nail this and so for me I started joking with my clients and this is what I do
2:13 and you guys for me it just resonates with me because it is the fight song and I will say to
2:18 my clients I’m like just play the fight song or find your Rocky song do what you
2:23 got to do to remember that you’re going to nail this you’re going to nail this you’re
2:27 going to nail this and um we don’t want you to think that you’re alone in that
2:33 um we all have those rough days it doesn’t matter how great we are at what we do
2:38 um it doesn’t matter you know marketing I joke all the time it’s not tangible right so you got
2:44 to just keep throwing things out there until that one thing sticks right and there’s a smart way to
2:49 do it which is kind of what we’re hoping to show you is that there are smart ways um you know that
2:54 that we keep teaching on how to get in front of the right person how to get the next but some
2:59 days right you guys you just want to throw up your hands and go this world sucks this industry sucks
3:06 this industry stocks but I got 31 years in it you’ve got years something about it keeps you
3:14 coming back right it does there’s something so exciting about being the underdog right I think
3:19 for me it’s the underdog thing and I’m from Philadelphia so we are there you are exactly
3:25 the original underdogs trust me you know and this shirt didn’t work out so well but we
3:30 always have next year right and I think that is is really key too you know there is there
3:34 is always the future and always next year um in general especially with innovators and inventors
3:39 and it is the successes that that keep us going well and I’m gonna tell the rocky story right
3:46 um Sylvester Stallone remember he pitched his uh everybody’s heard it but he pitched his story
3:52 right he wrote his movie and he pitched it so he could star in it he pushed it a thousand times
3:57 one time along the way they offered to do it but he couldn’t be in it and he refused to take that
4:04 offer um he was to the point you guys he sold this little dog I’m gonna cry because I cry but he sold
4:09 his dog put food on the table and then he stood his ground and so they cut they agreed to put them
4:17 in it but they cut like all the money that he was gonna get and everything down to nothing so that
4:21 they could do it and look where he is that’s after a thousand tries so you gotta find it in
4:26 you to muster up take a breath walk away right take a new approach yes and start again right
4:34 yeah and I think that’s uh it’s funny because that one’s you know very relatable everybody
4:38 sort of has seen the movies or at least knows them right but I think it’s interesting how
4:43 often that’s exactly the case for so many people you’re even starting to see these Trends talked
4:47 about where like hey this is my overnight success story that took 13 years to get here right and
4:52 so it’s even been shared that way on social media yeah when you think about that and it’s
4:56 funny because you’re like oh yeah today I’m an overnight success but you missed the last 10 years
5:01 of grinding exactly everybody has the grind nobody may tell it the whole world has the grind you guys
5:10 absolutely yeah and you know I I realized when we were saying that when we’re talking
5:14 about persistence we really want you to stay at it and in the right Focus but
5:19 I joked about being pleasantly persistent and I say that because when you are calling on buyers
5:25 or when you are looking for companies you have to be pleasantly persistent you guys because
5:30 when you’re pushy persistent you’re in trouble you’re going to lose the deal right so you can’t
5:35 get in their face and be obnoxious but you have to still be pleasantly persistent that’s a good
5:41 point right so when when we talk about this you know don’t take anything the wrong way in a sense
5:45 but knowing when to persist and like when to pull back right I don’t want to burn a bridge you also
5:52 don’t want to go down a path that let’s let’s use the example of someone who they’ve gotten
5:58 some really good feedback but they’re ignoring it and they’re just persisting right we’re not really
6:03 talking about that hey I’m you know I’m just gonna do this even though it’s a bad idea you know if
6:08 you’ve gotten great you know feedback we’ll tweak and then persist right right right right change
6:13 what you need to do to keep uh navigating keep pivoting until you reach that success point and
6:18 I think to add on what Keith just said about feedback innovators inventors really tend to
6:24 um not necessarily want to take to criticism right and I think that that is key because in
6:30 order to stay persistent and stay in the game you have to be accepting of criticism and you
6:35 have to be willing to tweak your product in such a way that it is going to ultimately be successful
6:42 um because if other people are seeing it differently then that’s probably the way you
6:46 want to go as opposed to the way you’re seeing it I realize that your product is your baby we
6:51 all get this but if you’re not going to be open to buyer feedback or feedback from um anyone you
6:59 know you are going to have a problem in the end yeah it’s an interesting because sometimes you do
7:02 open up an entirely different Market you know not to get off the bus but you really exactly open up
7:07 entirely different opportunities because somebody else saw your solution and said oh I can apply
7:12 that to this problem exactly there’s there’s no education needed for that market right correct oh
7:18 you guys and that’s really my world like you guys I when I take on a product I do all my homework
7:24 and all my research and I kind of have like in my mind these are my companies this is what I’m going
7:29 after this is my little strategy and two weeks in I might be just doing some homework and all
7:34 of a sudden this company it’s like like they’re making major change and my product fits perfect
7:39 you know like I wouldn’t have known it was there if I hadn’t stayed persistently doing my homework
7:44 and and following through and and I have an example you know like I have a couple companies
7:49 who I have gotten those we’re gonna pass I’ve got no again we’re gonna pass I go to another person
7:56 in the company that can make a decision no we’re gonna pass by the time I get to the third they’re
8:00 like gosh we had seen this earlier we’ll talk to the people you work with it’s like it does end up
8:08 happening because you guys anything when you’re placing a product whether it’s to an individual
8:14 customer or if you’re trying to license to a company we all have the same thought pattern
8:19 right and it has to be something I need at the moment is it solving the problem I need at the
8:24 moment does it fit in the budget I have at the moment because that happens with companies you
8:29 guys you can have a great idea but they’ve spent their budget for the year they’re not doing any
8:33 more research and development you know so you have to find the right time the right solution even a
8:38 customer how many times have we gone I want that cashmere sweater but it’s not in my budget this
8:43 week right and so we get it down the road so I think I read somewhere that um on TV when you
8:49 do TV ads somebody has to see it 17 times before they’ll purchase a buyer at seven times so you
8:56 guys when I say pleasantly persistent that’s what I mean like you gotta find another fresh
9:03 fun way to reach that same company um to make that pitch or you’ve got to come back to your
9:09 buyer with something that’s pleasantly stated you guys I hear this often I will tell my client and
9:16 I will say okay I just spoke with the buyer at whoever will use Target for the sake of saying
9:24 um and they’re going to pass because of this and my inventor is going to tell me again the
9:30 same Spiel well did you tell him this did you tell them this did you tell them this go back and tell
9:34 them this and I will say I already explained all that we have to come back with something that’s
9:40 unique and different we can’t come back and just shove the same words down your face they’re not
9:44 going to hear that they’re I’m going to upset them I’m going to upset my buyer I’m going to
9:49 lose my buyer but now if I can come back and say look we just realized that we have an additional
9:54 something that makes this product better would that help so I have a product right now that we’re
10:00 going to add something addition to it and they’re like oh my God that makes it so much better and
10:06 um and now our conversation my buyer and I our conversation is connected we’re having fun
10:11 creating the solution that they kind of led me to and now we’re friends and it’s really
10:16 fun yeah that Pleasant aspect of the persistence right and it’s interesting how it really applies
10:20 in all different areas right so if I think about it from a digital marketing standpoint
10:24 or if think about it from you know if you’re going to go get a Utility Patent and you get
10:29 turned down the first time right A lot of people will just take that as like oh throw up my hands
10:33 right but there’s you know there’s a whole method of it that I’m sure you can speak even more to of
10:37 okay absolutely objected but now what and every inventor just I won’t go down that rabbit hole
10:43 with patents but every inventor will get rejected um patent examiners they’re trained to absolutely
10:49 reject everyone right out the door so you will get at least one office action so incorporate
10:55 that into your overall that’s so interesting it’s interesting that you say that because I feel like
10:59 I’m getting that a lot now where they’re saying and and you guys they they usually get you can
11:04 solve that your your attorney that’s why you pick a really good one they can go in and address that
11:10 and you can get through that but I’m hearing that a lot and if you can find one that has
11:13 been a as a former patent examiner um even better just because they they fully understand it they
11:19 understand through that process they’ve lived so they know exactly what they’re trying to do
11:23 and how to you know respond and there are a lot of them out there because patent examiners the USPTO
11:28 is a program where they send patent examiners to law school um so there are a lot of former patent
11:35 examiners that are now patent attorneys nice no they do exist so I come back and I say to
11:41 you all pick that song pick whatever it is that you have to do um you know I’ve you know people
11:47 meditate they go for a run you do whatever look at your product let it go take a breath
11:54 reevaluate your product and then say okay how do I do this better different something and start
12:00 over again so it’s fresh and it’s new because on average it takes six years to get a product
12:04 to market right that’s what they said and I would say in that you know capture your learnings right
12:08 document some of those things in the digital world right we think of that as looking at the data so
12:13 let’s say you’re further than you’ve already you’ve already developed your product you’re
12:17 now selling online or something right we always look at this persistence as okay we’ve started
12:22 pushing this out maybe we have an ad campaign and now we’re measuring all the data right how many
12:27 people saw it how many interacted what were the rates on that you know how many people actually
12:30 purchased off of that and so you can see very quickly like what does this look like if I didn’t
12:35 Monitor and measure that data I wouldn’t know what to change in our person assistance in the
12:40 future right because now we’re trying to like improve and get better and better better well
12:43 similarly if you’re you know going after you know repositioning to a buyer or whatever it
12:49 be knowing you know where you came from kind of documenting what worked which is brilliant right
12:54 yeah why it worked yeah that same thing because if you don’t have that plan you’re gonna get like
12:59 you know into the slog of it and you’re just gonna be like wow I think I feel like I tried everything
13:03 but but in reality I didn’t have it and you made up how much well and you know what it’s so hard
13:08 for me sometimes because I’m always thinking licensing because I’ve done that mostly and
13:14 um and so it is the guy you know for me for licensing it’s kind of like you’ve got x amount of
13:19 companies as long as you can get to everybody and try to get an angle you go in that way and that I
13:27 do that in a relatively quick amount of time and and you can usually stay on it and get an angle
13:32 but when you’re selling a finished product you’re there forever right you want your product to be
13:35 around for the Next Generation the Next Generation the Next Generation so I I I like what you’re
13:40 saying about tracking for one and number two I’m like open your eyes like I I’m so blown away by
13:48 what I would look at really quickly and go oh my God you’re a perfect partnership for this have you
13:53 ever talked to this company and they’ll go God I never even thought about that or there’s companies
13:58 like um LTD Commodities which is an online um retail location you guys thought buyers buy up 10
14:06 000 units at a time and nobody’s heard of them so we don’t realize that there’s tons of those small
14:12 boys everybody comes to me I want to be entire I want to be in Walmart I want to be whatever
14:15 but there are so many more places and online now you guys the half the world shift in there right
14:22 we’re gonna be so start looking for more more think bigger like really think outside the box
14:30 really think outside the bar and stay persistent in your hunt stay persistent and getting better
14:36 at your pitch stay persistent in loving what you do you know so you can keep feeding your family
14:42 so you guys we would love to play for you the Rocky song on our way out but we found out that’s
14:47 illegal and we don’t want to break any Licensing Laws that’s what we do and so um find your own
14:53 keep going and I’m gonna give I’m gonna use your tip I’m gonna give the tip again send us something
15:00 we we can overcome any challenge that you’re at we think I think I can find another exciting
15:06 place to persist that you haven’t tried I’ll just play off of that and say um you know sometimes
15:12 having somebody in the mix with you having uh you know maybe it’s accountability partner or
15:17 a friend or whoever it is who kind of can pick you up when it gets hard right would be my tip
15:23 oh yeah somebody you can call and say I need a joke exactly exactly and I would say really be
15:31 receptive to that feedback and look at different angles look at your product in different ways
15:36 um and try to create as much value in the product as you possibly can so maybe look
15:41 for different ways that I can that I can function or different markets it could reach
15:45 yeah it leaves you more creative and allows you to be more resilient when you do that resistance
15:49 exactly perfect you guys thanks so much we’ll talk to you next week thanks