The Key to Licensing

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Paul Sorenson.

Paul Sorenson has been an entrepreneur practically his whole life, especially since graduating college. Owning and running multiple businesses in different industries, including an insurance agency for 15 years, has taught him invaluable lessons about discipline and efficiency that he intends to share with his students.

Paul inherited much of his resourcefulness and creativity from his father. “If I told my Dad, ‘I don’t know how to do that,” his response was always, ‘Well, what would you do if your life depended on it?’ With that mindset he was always able to figure out a way to accomplish what he was trying to do.” This often led to innovative ideas and techniques. That’s partly why the steps outlined in One Simple Idea resonated so strongly with Sorenson when he read the book for the first time in 2011. “I thought: I can do that!”

Since he began studying inventRight’s methods, he has successfully brought an innovation for the restaurant industry to market and is currently working on licensing several other ideas, and since becoming an inventRight coach, hehas helped his students do the same.

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Arleta Daniels.

Reading inventRight cofounder Stephen Key’s book about licensing One Simple Idea was life-changing for Arleta Daniels. She’d been creative all her life, but unsure of exactly what to do with her hundreds of ideas. “When I read One Simple Idea, I thought, ‘So this is what I’m supposed to do!’” Sure enough, shortly after becoming an inventRight student, Arleta licensed no less than 21 of her playful ideas for gift-to-go novelty stationery products.

After a successful career in IT as a technical writer with an MBA, she began pursuing the life of an entrepreneur about four years ago. In addition to coming up with new product ideas, she’s also an accomplished non-fiction ghostwriter, which means she is constantly immersing herself in new subjects, often related to business.

In reference to some of the clever, beautiful creations she has made for the novelty gift industry that she is now trying to license, Arleta explained that being surrounded by things she loves inspires her. “If I can’t find what I’ve imagined, I can create it! It’s the perfect way to express myself. One day I realized, there’s no reason I can’t make a living doing this… I’ve always been interested in a really wide variety of things, so creating is perfect for me.” Arleta is now an inventRight coach, teaching students how to do the same.

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Scott Putnam.

Scott Putnam is an adventurous fun-loving family man who brings with him a wide range of experiences.

Using the methods inventRight taught him, he’s licensed three very different product ideas. He remembers feeling amazed when the companies he contacted about his uncle’s idea for a new plumbing product were interested right away. “It was like clockwork!” he exclaimed. “I thought, ‘Why isn’t everyone doing this?’” Licensing is a numbers game, he now knows. With that in mind, he’s licensed his youngest daughter’s idea for a toy jewelry product as well as the design he came up with for a fat bike pressure gauge.

Like many product developers, Scott has been coming up with ideas for new products all his life.

After being a student and learning the process, he soon became an InventRight coach who looks forward to getting students “even more excited about their ideas and guiding them through this process.” “You have to believe in your own ideas and take action. It’s all about going through the process.”

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Ryan Stewart.

Ryan Stewart has been an entrepreneur since the age of 15y/o when he started his first business washing people’s cars in his neighborhood. With the never ending flow of ideas he was coming up with his mom encouraged him to start writing them down in a notebook. After becoming discouraged with the thought of how much money and time it would take to get an idea out to market he put away his notebook, until once day the words from his son sparked something inside” Dad, why did you give up on your dreams?”

After that, Ryan was determined to start pursuing his dreams and eventually became the winner of the ABC show The Toy Box with his Art Splash idea that was licensed by Mattel.

Ryan talked about his mindset throughout the process. “Failure isn’t final — it’s part of the journey. I really believe that. If you keep going, you will see the light of day.”

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Kelly Goode.

Before Kelly Goode decided to become an entrepreneur, she spent two decades working in her home state of Alaska’s legislature. As a chief of staff to members of the legislature, she drafted and edited legislation and worked on state budgets. Along the way, Goode learned how to work with businesses to get what needed to be done. Seeking more independence and flexibility, she began venturing products online about five years ago.

“I’m always making tweaks, so much so that my friends tease me about it,” Goode explained. “It’s something I’ve always done naturally.”

So she began designing her own ideas, mostly for seasonal products, and selling them in her growing Amazon store. After reading One Simple Idea and joining inventRight, she’s embraced the benefits of the licensing route.

Goode enjoys developing products for the pet, home organization, home, holiday, and novelty gift industries. But, what she loves most about inventing is that her options are limitless.

The Key to Licensing - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak. Featuring inventRight Coach Terry O'Mara.

Terry O’Mara has always been creative. Starting as an inventRight student and becoming a coach soon after.

What he appreciates most about the inventing community is its willingness to take action. “It’s great to have ideas and be passionate about them, but you have to follow through,” Terry said. “People in this community are creative and really committed to their pursuits.” He also loves that inventRight students and staff are down-to-earth and authentic.

He’s excited to put his diverse skillset to work as an inventRight coach. Learning how to motivate individuals and a team to do their best is a lifelong interest, which he’s explored as both a manager and a personal development consultant. For him, seeing others succeed is by far the most fun.

The Key To Licensing - Episode 2 - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak & featuring inventRight Chief Negotiator & Coach David FedewaThe Key to Licensing

David Fedewa started with InventRight as a student in 2009. His first year as a student, he admits, he didn’t get anywhere. “I wanted to do everything my way,” he explained. Once he started to listen and trust the process he became more determined—and therefore more creative—to overcome any obstacles in his way. He later decided to join the IR team as a coach is 2015 and is now in charge of contract negotiations.

“As a coach, one of the things I love most is getting to work with the most passionate people on the planet,” David said. “These people will run through brick walls to get something done. Not always the right brick walls, but nonetheless. They keep going, even when it’s not easy. How can I not be driven when I work with people like that?”

The Key To Licensing - Episode 1 - Hosted by Sylvia Pomazak and featuring inventRight Coach Amy Jo Brogan

Amy Jo has been an IR coach since 2015. Starting as an inventRight student and later becoming a coach, she talks about what lead her to the path of learning about licensing and now helping others do the same.

She has never let herself be fazed by life’s little nuisances. She’s “always been kind of crafty” when faced with a problem and limited resources available to solve it. What she loves most about product development is that it’s an ongoing learning experience. Because every idea is unique and every industry is so different, there’s always a new challenge.