Turning Your Product Idea Into A Product Development Plan With Lisa McCarthy Of Make My Idea Real

Protect your brand, product or invention from the hazards of consumer product launching and go from idea to product to big brand. With guidance from retail product design and development experts Tracy and Tom Hazard. Get the insider secrets to put the right things in the right order with the right resources so you can out design, outsource and out profit your way to retail success.

Hey everyone. Welcome to product launch. Hazard. It's been a while since we had an episode, but I met somebody recently and I had to bring her to you because there's so much going on. And I'm hearing the theme of the day is like really how to get things done, how to get things moving, how to get things planned, how to make my idea a reality. It's what I keep hearing and what's being asked of me again and again. So I've been thinking about that and I ran across someone who I haven't seen in a while, but I've known her quite a few years and she's a great product inventor, got a great mind and she's got this ability to take a look at the big picture and look at those finite details too. So I thought I'd have a chat with Lisa McCarthy and bring her on here. Her company is make my idea real. Doesn't that sound really great? So let's, we're going to talk all about that. Lisa empowers and educates people to recognize and embrace their natural born gifts, to realize their ultimate potential as they inspire, motivate and create impact in the world. Respected leader who collaborates globally at all levels while mentoring cross functional teams and consistently develops and delivers optimal product solutions to ensure market success. Her clients say she turns their mental mess into a workable visual masterpiece. Doesn't that sound like something you might need? Maybe a plan is in place. And as you know, here on this show, Tom and I both say this again and again. Hope is not a plan. A plan is a plan. So let's Talk with Lisa McCarthy about how to make your idea real and how to get a plan. Lisa, we're talking ideas today. I get to riff with someone who cares about the big picture and the finite detail at the same time. Like that is complete fun for me. I know we're going to have a great session and we're going to have so much fun telling all the audience about all these details.

Oh, I love it. I love it, I love it.

Yeah. There's nothing that I see as more important than figuring out how to make your ideas real. Right. The thing that I get asked to speak about Again and again. It's the thing that people want to understand is like, how do you get this idea off the napkin and out somewhere and they don't see how to do it? You know, how often do you come to somebody who actually sees that path?

I would say not very often. Because when I first started inventing, even though I had all these skills in my back pocket without realizing it, it's like they could not give you a clear path. It was like, well, it depends. You could do this, you could do that, you could do this. But go over there and you'd go to the SBA and you'd go all over town trying to get the help you need. And every mentor wants to sell you the highest program to make you the bestest ever kind of thing. And none of it actually got the product done. So it was, it's really eye opening how much help is and isn't there.

You know, it's so, so true. You know, that's the hard part about being a mentor here in this space is that when I see someone, it's not a one size fits all path, no matter what happens. And I know you know this because you mind map everybody's path. Right. It's different for every person. It's different for their budget, it's different for the type of product. It's different for the way the market is today. Like, today, if you've got a product that you need to spend a lot of dollars on advertising to make it work, I would say, first off, I would say probably don't do it today. Said, you know, wait a little bit longer for the ad market to get over its sort of craziness that's happening right now at the beginning of 2022. And then if you do find also alternative ways. Right. You know, so you might need multiple path choices for you.

Yes, that's so true. I mean, everybody looks at, oh, I need funding, and it's like, well, there's about 17 different ways to get funding. Which one works for you? And unless, you know they're available, how would you know what fit you?

You know, so not just which one fits you, but which one do you qualify for? Which one work? Which one actually works for you?

Right.

Or your product? Right. I mean, I, I've been like, oh, introduced to people and they'd be like, oh, well, we only invest in. Come after I've given my whole pitch. We only invest in products and companies that have recurring revenues that are at this growth pace with this number of already established users. Like, it's they've already got a formula and no one tell.

Yes, so true. And investors want, you know, a big piece. I mean, if you've gone to Shark Tank or ever looked at what they do, when you're doing a licensing deal, you're giving away your cash flow before you have any, just to get going on that kind of a show, if you will.

So let's talk Shark Tank because you have a little background there. So the affirmation mirror was presented to Shark Tank. You did an audition. Tell us about what happened. You did three. That's right. Tell us what happened, how the process worked, and then really what your thoughts are about Shark Tank as. As a, you know, I'm going to call it as a. As a process for other idea makers.

Yeah, so it's a long process. There's usually 500 people in line at their open calls. You tend to stay there all night long just trying to get your. Because they only take the first 500. So you're like, I'm going to be here. We camped out, you know, we did all kinds of crazy stuff be in that line. And a friend of mine went with me. We dressed up like Snow White and, you know, the evil queen and had the apple and we had the mirror and, you know, so we really tried to kind of fit that into the performance, if you will. But they take a little snippet of your business on an executive summary level and they give you about a minute and a half and they're like, thanks, we'll call you. And that is your audition. And you're not meeting the sharks when you go there, that's for sure. It's just a really long process. And I've spoken to people who've been on the show and there's five to 20 different times behind the scenes that you'll have to meet with producers to get ready. And, you know, in half the time, those fall out. So they have quite a turnover, if you will, before they ever make it to the show, even if you've been chosen from that list. The last time I went, I realized was actually a couple years ago and they said they were eight months backed up to even look at anybody who was pitching that day. So if you figure three years later, they're probably about 16, 32, you know, two, three years behind.

So, yeah, see, seriously, my products would be out on the market, sold like, you know, on the declining lifestyle by at that point, just declining in trend. Right? Yeah. So, I mean, that's why it never seemed like a really viable Option to me, it just. It just did seem too. It did to me already at the beginning. And I had quite a few clients who were shark anchors originally in a couple of the early seasons. And I just always thought it seemed too slow.

Yeah. And, you know, they can make a deal on the camera and it could go away as soon as the camera's off because of something that somebody somewhere along the way didn't do. So you get all ETs a tough process, but you really do learn. I mean, that's one of the things as you learn a ton, no matter which direction you take. Chart tank, Dragon's den, fighting the good battle, meeting every investor, you know, asking every friend you ever met, crowdfunding, whatever you do, you learn.

But really, in order to start down one of those paths of funding, seeking funding or seeking a shark tank, seeking that kind of angel investment, and you're really looking for that. You really got to have a plan together. And most inventors and most people, product people, I know the idea people, they don't have a plan. How do you really focus on it and what'd you do? Why don't you describe for us with the affirmation mirror, like how you developed it into a plan.

So basically looking at, you know, the market that I wanted to serve, I looked at how much the product was going to cost to produce, how much we needed to spend on marketing in the different areas identified, you know, in the process of fleshing it out, who we would need for team, what their roles would be. I mean, we really went through every aspect of it to create a plan and to create the executive summary and to create the full business plan and to be able to start pitching to people. Because unless you can convey that plan completely, dollar per dollar, you know, really estimating what everything's going to cost if you haven't started or if you're lucky and you're in business now, you have real numbers, right. You just have to plan every aspect. Good, bad mitigations for what might go wrong, such as, you know, you're buying your product from China, now we're having sanctions, now what are you going to do? Right? So there's always these little what if type of questions that need to be asked along the way to create a really cohesive plan.

Yeah, most people have no idea what that is. That. I mean, that's what they're out there seeking. They aren't asking those questions quite in that way. They're like, well, I just need to get a prototype made, you know, and in reality, what they really need is to get the pricing done. And so. But without the prototype, so they're kind of down this path, and they keep going, and they're like, okay, what's the next thing? I don't know. Let me go do. Get that. And so they're piecing it together in this way that's making it take extra long. Well.

And extra expensive, because you're spinning your wheels and spending your money on things that may not create what you're looking to do. So there's. There's so many pieces to that. So I always start with the plan. You know, who are you serving? Who is it for? Who's your market? You know, how much are they willing to pay? How are you going to get this done? What is it you're doing? Why does somebody want it? Like, you know, who, what, when, where, why, and how. You know is really the biggest questions, but you dive in so deep that you have every answer.

See, everyone, this is why I'm having Lisa on today, because I told you, she fits our model of hope is not a plan. And we really need to have an actual plan. And so. So tell me how you get to a plan. I mean, you know, how do you know what you don't know in order to develop that?

Questions, questions, questions. Right, so if you're starting out, like, I would like to make this headset right here. Right. Well, okay, but what size is it going to be? What color is it going to be? What's the technology inside? What package are you going to put it in? What prong is going to be at the end of it? Like, every question about everything that's going to go into what you want to create needs to be satisfied. And you just start from what? Who, When? I mean, every question starts from those five basics. You know, who, what, when, where, why, and how. I think that's five.

Those things we learned about. I think we learned about them. And writing a good essay back in, I don't know, fifth, sixth grade, something like that was when we write our first essay. Somewhere in there.

Yeah. And I mean, that's what a business plan is, really. It's just an essay about what you want to make happen in your business, in your plan, in your invention, in your dreams. And you can't smoke the Hopium. Right. That's a Hopium plan. You got to really do the real work. I love that, Lisa.

That's an awesome phrase. I'll have to share that one with Tom. He'll get a big kick out of it. But you Know, making your idea real, it changes all the time, too. We were talking about that a little bit earlier is that, you know, what works today wasn't necessarily the same thing I did 20 years ago when I was starting in my business areas. You know, it just does it. It's not the same same. So how do you keep up on that? How does your client. How does the person with the idea go to the right people and figure that out?

We have to vet people, I would say, because, you know, you can definitely get taken down the wrong path and pay the wrong people to do the wrong things, or you think they're the right things, but they don't really happen that way. You just have to do your homework every step of the way. Who are you working with? How is their reputation? Like, you guys have a great reputation for not only what you've done in the product side, but now in the podcast side. So, you know, just playing with the right people, creating the right plan that works for you and adjust it when needed because the boat may need to turn. There's a big rig, you know, big iceberg. It's, you know, don't be the Titanic. Like, okay, we better turn ahead of time. Let's not wait till then. Or like the new movie that say, you know, don't look up, right? Or, you know, look up.

Yeah, right.

The asteroids come in, but don't look up, right?

Yeah, yeah. No, it's so, so true, though, that their motives matter. Right? I mean, you know, we're not here, we have no business, we're not selling anything. But I am giving advice, right? Because I'm giving advice from a place of experience. I'm giving advice from that. But at some point, my advice is going to be outdated because, I mean, if I'm not continually launching products, and that's what I see too often that happens is you've got someone who's like, yeah, I did this. It's so great. And, you know, I'll, you know, I won't drop the names here, but there have been some big people who have been in, you know, the home shopping world or all of these things. And that's great that it worked one day. It worked way back when, but. But today's world, that model doesn't still fit. That advice doesn't necessarily still fit well.

And that's where continually seeking education, not only for them, but for myself and doing crazy things, getting out of your comfort zone, putting out TikTok videos of all things, right? Just doing things that are different because you have to create a different result when there's a different market out there. And like you say, don't do the same things over and over if they didn't work. That's just insanity.

Right. And then this is what happened to me recently. So I was talking to a bunch of Kickstarter companies, Kickstarter marketing companies, and they're like, oh, we've done X number of over million dollar campaigns. And I said, well, how many did you do in the last three months in 2022? And they're like, none. And I'm like, yeah, I know. Because Facebook advertising is not working for you. Right. And so I was like, you cannot ride on your laurels from before. You can't even trust those kinds of statistics. You have to really know what they'll be able to do today, what did they do in the last month. Because it's different.

Yeah. And it will always be that way. So adjust the sales. Always adjust the sales.

Right. So, you know, that's the hard part about, I think for me about a business plan, about the plan itself, is that you spend a lot of time developing it, writing it all down, getting it all out there. And then I feel like it's outdated. As soon as I finish it, like I have more input. But that's just, maybe just me, I don't know about other people. I mean, how do you feel about that? Is there a way to make it more dynamic?

Yes, there is a way, but it's really because it's part of the checkbox. It's like when you get your college degree, it's just part of the checkbox you have to do. If you want investment to have an idea of which direction you're going to go, you have to have some sort of plan. I believe in mind mapping plans because they're bullet point driven. They're not that long. Like you're writing your dissertation for your graduation. You're just bullet pointing everything. Everybody can see it visually, everybody can buy in. And that's how I feel is just put it to where they can see it and you can change it when you need to. And you keep looking at it and growing it and adjusting it.

Why don't you tell everybody a little bit more about mind mapping? Because I'm not sure everybody's familiar with that.

Oh, sure. So basically I use a software that lets you look at your business in a spoke and wheel kind of situation. So there's a center point of the wheel where all the spokes connect and that's your business. And then each of the spokes that goes off is another component of your business. So you've got your marketing, you've got your, you know, your team, you've got your actual product or service that you're offering. And then within each of those is other little spokes that go out that really explain those in further detail. So you really get to expand it as wide as you want to go and know everything about each of the things that you're putting into your business plan. And you can shrink them all down so that it's easily digestible for somebody. And then you pop it back out as they're kind of looking through it and they can see everything as well.

Well, that's interesting because so then as you find something new that you didn't know you have, you're not like readjusting the center, you're making a new spin.

Off wheel or your existing spin offs so you can keep expanding. And when something doesn't work, you can get it out of there very easily. You're not going through the whole process of a giant 75 page business plan of like, okay, we better find and search and replace. And you know, oh no, it doesn't make sense now. It's like it always makes sense.

I love that it is a little bit easier when you're, at least for me, when you're writing a plan for a business that doesn't exist or a product that doesn't exist yet. It's a whole lot harder for me to do it when you have an existing business that is, you know, constantly earning revenue. So like you're adjusting the existing numbers which then are changing your forecast. So like all of that is. And it's changing your timeline, right? Like that's a cascade of problems. But when you have something like your idea and you're figuring that out, you can keep it open timeline. And that's what I like to do is like do month one, month two, month three, rather than say January, February, March. And that way you know, when, once I get the funding, then month one kicks in, right? And so like it keeps it flexible to the timeline that you're in. And so I love that, that if you keep the financial side on that flexibility and you're keeping the map of what's happening and what needs to be done and who needs to be involved in that, in that way, in that dynamic way, you're going to have a lot more flexibility to present it to anyone at any point. Because that's another thing that I hear from a lot of inventors and Product people is like, oh, you're willing to have a meeting with me. Okay, I'm not ready yet.

And then you start to blow it as the inventor because I've done it right. Then you feel like you've blown it and then you're like, oh, I'm kicking my own butt, you know, and. Yeah, and you want to be ready.

Of course. I just watched we crashed and you know all about the start of we work.

Oh, okay.

And the guy basically stayed up all night. The guy said, we're going to have a meeting with these investors and his partner stayed up all night and developed a pitch deck and plan. And that's the pitch deck that they got their, their first. I don't know, I remember how many, but first few million on it. Yeah, whatever it was. Their first few million. Yeah. Anyway, and so I'm like, that also is not a great plan. Like that's not a great way to go about it either. So, yeah, having something that you can pull out that you're working on, but is a, maybe a working document seems like a more viable way.

And you can copy and paste these things into a project plan. You can copy and paste them into something else that you need an Excel sheet to do, homework, like whatever the market research, you can continue to use it in different ways so that it's never a wasted effort.

Yeah, I love that sort of flexibility. So you were talking about, you know, on your website, and I love the way you say this, that you know, you go from a mental mess to a masterpiece. And that's really, I think, the way a lot of creatives brains work. Right. Our brains all over. Our visionaries have their brains like going all over. But how do we really bring that together into the masterpiece? So a plan is only as good as taking action. So do you have methods and process for yourself that you use for that you recommend to others that you coach that for how to actually then now take these pieces and put them into action.

Typically I help with the planning and I introduce them to people who are project managers or, you know, real coaches for that kind of side of it. I let them do their own action, but we identify everything with them so that they know what to do next.

See, and that's the part I think that they like. They jump at whatever looks like fun or their next logical step, which may not be actually the best step for them to take. Yes, yes.

And I think it's important to have, you know, the kind of team in place that lets you execute the things in the order that makes the most sense because if you're running around and you're building the product before you actually know if there's a market or, you know, those kinds of things, you're going to be chasing your tail the entire time.

So my, my listeners, my longtime listeners here, know that we have a process that we, we have our seven P's, Prove it, Planet Price it are the first three P's in the process. And we say prove it because you got to make sure you have an idea that's worth, that somebody wants to pay for. Right? That's worth it. So prove it's first, but plan it is second. And it's even planning it before pricing it. Because you have to think of some things before you understand where it needs to be priced, how you're going to reach your clients, how you're, or your customers or, you know, what you might have to spend there, who's your competitors. Like, there's a bunch of stuff in that planning process that's going to come to light that's going to change the outcome of the pricing. And so, yeah, planning it first, planning it second in this case, but planning it before pricing it, it's essential.

It's essential. You won't know what money to ask for for investment. You won't know where your money went because now you've just, you know, spent everything and you're like, but, but I plan for 100,000 and I need 400. What happened here? You know, so it is really about that. And every component within whatever you're buying or building is as a product is, you know, important. Everything from the case pack, as you know, all the way down to the, you know, is it going to be on a crate? Is it going to be individually boxed? Is it going to be multi packed? Is it clamshell? Is it, is it, is it, you know, head. Right. There's just so many pieces and that creates cost, every single one of them. So identifying all of that really allows you to know what.

And here's the thing, it's like you don't have to know all of that initially. You have to know it's there. Like, you know, right, it's off that spoke, as you put it, it's there. And I'm going to need to define it, but I can use a rough estimate here now that I think is good. And then when I get closer to it, I'll define that area in detail because I know it needs to be defined. But sometimes, like, I mean, we can't do container loads like we just can't do it till we get to our final size of the product and everything's done in prototype. Like, it's just not going to happen in that early stage. But we can make some good assumptions.

Absolutely.

And really help ourselves.

Then you've made a mistake. Right. Because you know that there's eventually going to be those things. So we're going to have case packs. We're going to have 12. We're going to, you know, you make it up. Right. But at least you plan for it.

Absolutely. So. But, you know, the thing is that I think sometimes the creative mind works well in that mess.

Hear me out on this one. Is that I think sometimes it's those raw, odd connections that you're making is where innovation happens. And so you need to, as the inventor, the creator, you need to be able to have that mental mess, but you also then need somebody to really support you on turning that into the masterpiece, into organizing that, into filling in all the pieces and parts and putting that plan together with you. When you don't get that support, you just don't realize how hard it is to go out there and pitch and continually go out there just on excitement.

Right.

And that's what most of them do. Right. Passion. And passion is just not going to get it all the way there.

Yeah. And it takes a lot of passion to keep going. And that's one of the things that we pull out of the person is why is it you really want to do this? And why are you going to keep going when you get, you know, when it gets hard? Because it will. Eventually it's not going to be all daisies and butterflies. So what is your motivation to keep going? Even when you get smacked down and told you can't have what you want, or.

In the ocean again, what are you going to do now? Kind of thing. So what's going to keep you moving?

Well, now you got to tell everybody what happened with the affirmation, Mira?

Oh, well, we actually licensed it out and we're waiting for them to do their job at this point, but we had endorsements of. From people like Bob Proctor and Les Brown and Marcia Weider and Mary Morrissey and so many others, and Touch Lives, Michael Beckwith and Jack Canfield and all those people. We were just, you know, in. Okay, I was in there. I was running around. But I say we because I feel like nothing ever gets done alone. And so for me, it's always about team. And, you know, anybody that you're having that conversation with. And I got a Great mentor. Just came to me through sba, of all places. This guy's like, you don't need to be here. You need to talk to this guy. He ran John Assere F's group for years. Now he's running Allison Maslin's group. His name is Stuart Burry, and he was just incredible at opening my eyes. And he's like, you know, Lisa, here's the problem. You're a zebra, and you're in the horse pen, and you're the only one who doesn't know that you're a zebra. And I'm like, oh, now it all makes sense.

You know, I'm in the wrong place.

I'm in the wrong pen.

That's a great way. That's a great analogy. I love that. The visual is so good, right?

It's true for most entrepreneurs. We just. We try to fit in the box, but there's no box. It's, you know, it can't. We can't go that way.

You know, here's what I can say from having met you, because I met you pretty early on in the affirmation mirror model of what you were working on, and that, you know, there are very few people who I ask questions of like, you know, have you thought about this? And have you thought about that? That have that ability? They're. They're still in the big picture, right? And you have that great ability to look at the big picture and the finite detail. And so I thought that was pretty impressive when I first met you. And I, you know, it's just not common.

Yeah. Like, you know, I used to work in technology, and I could bridge the gap between the programmers and the, you know, the normal people. Right. That we're not all normal. But, you know, it was like the techies speak and then what that actually means in English. Right. But I feel like I can do that now here. It's like I'm like a translator. So somebody can come with all the wildness, and I'm able to put it in the right category. So then it becomes a sense of calm, if you will, in the storm of creation.

I love that. So what kind of people really can benefit from, you know, how far along in an idea should they be before they come to someone like you?

Yeah. So they can come at napkin level. It just takes a little bit longer. So they've got like, here, I want to make a box, right? And. Okay, well, let's talk about the paper. Let's talk about the size. Let's talk about where you're Going to go with it.

Well, and you probably have to talk about, like, let's talk about the market because you're starting back at the napkin level. Right.

As I was gonna say. And then there's so many other pieces to that. Or if they've got an existing business and they want to do something new in it. I mean, I've worked with a lot of people like boating industries, automotive, you know, Reiki universities, to psychic mediums to speak speakers and authors and, you know, books. And I mean, just so many things in between that there's pretty much nothing that I haven't touched out of 38 markets so far at some level. So they can come at any level that they need to, but they just need to be open and willing to do the work. I mean, that's always the case for any entrepreneurial venture is, are you willing to step up and do what it takes every day, even when it's not fun?

Well, yeah. To expect you to have all the answers for 38 different verticals is not realistic. Like, you know, how much do you happen to know about the automotive industry, you know, or boating industry?

Right.

Like, it might. You're gonna get a lot out of it, having done it now once, but you didn't know it the first time. Right. I mean, this is, you know, that's it. I think we've done. I think we've done like, every product category we've designed products in, except for food and straight fashion. Like, you know, we've done fashion accessories, but straight fashion. And so, you know, and we refuse to do app development, but we have actually now done a web app. So, like. But for ourselves. But yeah. And so those three areas probably we don't touch because of the extra layers of complexity to them or the time pressures or the outside influences of, like, the FDA process. Right. Like, that's why we don't do, you know, we don't know to do food and so. Or medical products, things like that. So, like, when we look at that, that that's why we chose not to touch them because there was so many layers, more of complexity. And I bet you that you find that in that these industries, there's regulatory industries and there's non. Yes.

Even within, you know, some of the regulatory ones, there's standard things that go into it that we know. Right. You need a upc, you need to have compliance with any of the SCA regulations if you're eating or putting it on your skin. You know, I've worked in beauty, I've worked in food I've had people who are bakers that go to commercial kitchens, because that way they don't have all that compliance. The kitchen has it. Right. So there's ways to grow those things and not have the same compliance level by just kind of taking a different door.

Right?

Yeah. And I work in app development and I've, you know, done a lot in technology, some Kinko's to, you know, Amgen and lots of places in between. So, yeah, at some level, I'm definitely capable of helping them pull most of the information. But there's homework, you know, there's always homework. Right.

You got to figure some of that stuff out. You got to find out for your own business, your own self. You know what I think would be really be useful for a lot of existing businesses. You mentioned that. And I think it's so true that so often they can't pivot properly or they get mired down because they're. They're trying to move into a new area that they don't know enough about. And so they haven't asked all the questions. And so they. They go into it and then they hit roadblocks along the way. Another area, though, is Kickstarters. Like, I see this so often. It's not just that, that they don't really have an understanding of that what it's going to take for their product to actually go all the way. So they didn't plan enough in their sort of rewards and requests and like, how they're gonna, you know, they didn't think all of that through. And so often the marketing companies that work with them are just like, well, you're gonna have to have over a million dollars. Cause that's what everybody has. And like, you know, you're gonna just have to do it and your ad spend is gonna be this. And they just plunk that down without any understanding of what those details, where the spend needs to be. So you might end up with a successful campaign, but you don't know how to spend it properly. You don't know what to do with it. And that, like, the one that comes to mind was the Coolest Cooler, which was really a fantastic one. We covered it, I think, in early episodes of this podcast, or at least we mention it. And the Coolest Cooler, I think they failed miserably in execution on the other side, and they overfunded by like $3 million. So they should have had plenty of money to do it, but they didn't have a good plan in place for.

How to implement that is a bummer. And you've got to pay those people back at some level, at some point with prizes or whatever you've promised them. And if you're not able to deliver all these things that were products that you've promised during that campaign, now you've got a whole other issue. Right? Right.

Yeah. I mean, you know, or what happens if you don't achieve your goal? Are you even able to deliver to those people or do you have to cancel your, you know, campaign? That's what some of them don't do. They don't cancel and then they don't deliver because they had to use all the funds that they received to bail themselves out from the marketing that it took to get that point and they didn't achieve the overall goal. So you can't plan on only the successful point. You have to figure out what it is along the way where your break even is.

I think Kickstarter, they kind of have, you have to make your minimum or you don't get your money. But some of the other ones, like Rocket Hub and the other kind of Kickstarter ish companies, a lot of them will let you take whatever you made. And like you say, in those cases, you really should deliver to those people who contributed.

You likely can't if you didn't make enough.

And the other problem that I see is that, is that it's usually a marketing set. So in other words, somebody makes the decision that you're going to go for 25,000, because then we can say we X'd the minimum goal when we get more than that. And so they set the minimum goal too low and that it's really not even viable. And then if that's all that they achieve, they can't do anything with it. They can't deliver on any of those rewards or make the product.

So much time. I mean, a Kickstarter campaign for crowdfunding, whether it's, you know, equity or, you know, prize based, is a lot of work. A lot of work. So it's like a whole business in itself, like a division, if you will. You know, when you're launching a crowdfunding campaign and every day it has lots.

Of maintenance and yeah, I'm five days away as we're recording this, five days away from closing our equity crowdfund campaign and. Yeah, for potatoes. And so we close it. Well, I guess we technically close on Monday next week. So, you know, a little more than like five business days. But we, you know, I can say that it's been an entire business in and of itself. Just to do it like it's running another business on top of my business because my business is actively running. And so, you know, it's hard. It's absolutely hard. I think it's harder to do that than it is to actually make the product, actually run the business. That's my personal feeling is I think it's harder to do it.

It's a really tight deadline too. I mean, you have, you know, 30, 60, whatever, 90 days that you've set for that and it's like full bore for that time. Otherwise the clock is up and it's over. It's not like a product where you, okay, well I can take another month to get this finished. You've got that time limit. You don't get to extend it. This is it. This is the show.

Well, yeah, and what happens is, are these unknowns. See, if you don't have a plan, you don't like, you know, you were talking about you don't know what's going to slip or how to shift it or what to do with it. So what really happens in that process is if one thing goes wrong, and for us, what went wrong is that Facebook advertising just came to a screeching halt because of the war and because of their algorithm shift, because of iOS changes. So because Apple changed its privacy concerns, ads aren't being served and people aren't being able to be tracked from Facebook to wherever. So if they see the ad on Facebook, you can no longer track them and so you can't retarget them. So retargeting is completely not working in the ad spend plan. So advertising did in the single digits from what it did three months earlier.

Wow, that makes a huge impact on what you're doing.

It's a huge impact on what you can do. So then we had to come up with another way because, you know, that's us, we're flexing and we had to come up with another way. So we did a client blitz. So we got over 200 investors, 100 of them were our own clients. So now at least, even though we can say we didn't do what we expected to do because we didn't have this advertising piece in and the email marketing didn't work either. The email went into single digits as well because of the iOS issue, because you aren't getting emails delivered, even delivered to the phones. And so because of those two things combining to fight us, the only thing we could do was do a client blitz. And so at least we can come back and say 50% of our investors are our own clients. That's a success story.

Absolutely. That's an absolute success story.

Right. So. But we had to pull that out and, you know, trying to do that in the middle of it was for us only an eight week campaign was hard. Yeah.

But we did it.

But we did it. Yeah. We're getting close now, closing it up the final week.

So it's a lot of work, but, you know, you know that the payoff is that your heart feels good about doing what you want to do and you're not stuck in a box or in the wrong horse pin. Right?

That's right.

You're in your right zebra pin.

That's right. And, well, and for us, like, you know, like you were saying before is just, you know, for us, we didn't. Our livelihood, everything's not critically based on how much funds we make here. Where other people are, their product cannot be made. If their Kickstarter is not successful, if their plan is not executable, they're going to have to go back and get more funds. Ours, it isn't like that. Our business already runs. It's already in revenue. So, like it, you know, this was to do more. Right. And now it'll just take us a little bit longer to do more, but it's still okay.

Yeah, yeah. And you'll do it in such a way that it's successful for everybody that you touch.

Right. Because our plan's not changing, our timeline's just shifting.

Yeah, yeah. And how you got your funding, but you made it work.

Yeah, absolutely. So, Lisa, I am so glad we got some time to chat today and really talk about how you turn product ideas into realities, because I really think that people need to understand that planning is such a significant part of that. Is there anything you want to share with the community and, you know, any pieces of wisdom and advice?

I would say, you know, follow your dreams, but make a plan. Make sure that plan comes from your heart because you're the one who has to actually make it happen. So you want to make sure it's something that you really feel is the right way, as well as, you know, checking the boxes. You need to believe in what you're doing. So make sure you've got your passion behind your dream and you take action each day towards making it happen.

Thank you so much, Lisa.

Yeah, I'm excited. Thank you so much for having me.

I love what Lisa said at the end about the plan, about you needing to be involved in that process, about taking action and moving within it and, and getting Your passion and excitement into it too. Right. I love that concept of it because I really strongly believe that I can't hand you a plan. No one can hand you a plan that's going to work for you. I say this so often. I meet someone, I see their product idea and I see this path. Like I can visually see exactly where it needs to go, the steps that I would take, but those are the steps that I would take. I don't have your same world experience, I don't have your same budget. I don't have all of those input pieces that you need someone to help draw out of you and put into that plan so that it's workable for you, so that you can take those actions and steps. So I can lay out my seven P's for you. I can tell you to prove it, planet price it. But when you go to make that actual plan for your product, for everything that you want to do to get it to reality for its end goal, it might be licensing like Lisa did with her affirmation mirror, or it might be an actual physical product that's available on Amazon or on the shelf at Best Buy and Costco and Walmart. Who knows where you want to take it. When you figure all of those things out and that endpoint, what you have as capabilities, what you have as resources, and you put that into place and you map that out and mind map. I love that concept too. When you mind map that out for yourself in this flexible way, you're going to get yourself a better visual of where you're going, which is going to make it easier for you to go get funding, for you to be really clear about the path, for you to figure out if all the resources fit into your plan or not. So you're not going to be making spontaneous decisions and decisions which, you know, we're deciding to do something, we're making a cut, we're getting rid of things because we're choosing to do something else. Right? So we're making a choice in that process. And so I want to make sure that you're able to make those choices with as much of a visual of your own path for you. That's why working with Lisa McCarthy and someone like her would be so useful for you. So, as you know, we always have all the information and all the resource partners for product launch hazards, and none of them pay me. I want to be really clear about this. Lisa doesn't have to give me a kickback. There's none of that. I kind of ask them to do you a favor and cut you guys good prices though, because they were referred from here. So do make sure to tell her if you decide to go work with her, that she came from Product Launch Hazards. But when you go to her, you'll be able to find all the information on how to reach her, what she does, where she is. All those great resources that she has talked about on the show are going to be linked in the blog post for this episode@productlaunchhazards.com so make sure you go there and check that out. And while you're there, check out some of the other resources we have for you. Make sure to check out the seven P's we have an entire map for that as well. And there's lots of other download resources and templates and things that you might find useful as you're going to do some of this planning that you're talking about with someone like Lisa. So Lisa McCarthy, make my idea real. Go out there. Make your idea real. Make it something that is a plan in place you can take action on every single day. Because when you're turning your product idea into a product development action plan, you are more likely to get this done. So thank you Product Launch Hazards and I'm always on the lookout for any kind of topic or area or things that I might be able to bring you. As you know, we've done over 150 episodes, but I'm always looking for something new to bring you. So if I find more things out there or if you reach out there and ask me a question, I'm very, very happy to bring you some more episodes in the future. Thanks everyone for listening. I'm Tracy Hazard and I hope to see your idea on the shelf somewhere.

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