Live Blissed Out

053 - Product Invention With No Background

September 08, 2020 Marisa Huston & Cyndi Bray Episode 53
Live Blissed Out
053 - Product Invention With No Background
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Joining me is Cyndi Bray, inventor of the new laundry gadget Wad-Free™ for Bed Sheets, a product that solves a problem nearly everybody has when they wash their sheets.

Without a background in engineering, product development, or manufacturing, Cyndi independently designed, sourced, and manufactured her innovative product, bringing it to market in just over a year from concept to launch.

Wad-Free™ is the first-ever wad preventer for the washing machine and dryer. This ingenious product actually prevents your laundry from tangling, twisting, and balling-up in both the washer and the dryer, so your entire load comes out cleaner, your washing machine stays in balance, and the entire load dries up to 75% faster with fewer wrinkles. Wad-Free™ for Bed Sheets saves time, money, energy…and sanity! Wad-Free™ is made in the United States, is reusable, and is a game-changer in the laundry room.

Cyndi is offering Live Blissed Out listeners a 15% discount through the end of 2020. PROMO CODE: LIVEBLISSEDOUT.
***Valid at
www.wadfree.com only***

To learn more, visit https://wadfree.com 

In this episode we will cover:

  • Evaluate Your Concept
  • Patent Search
  • Concept To Launch
  • Speed Control
  • Consumer Feedback
  • Manufacturer & Materials
  • Financing Considerations
  • Test Your Concept
  • The Wadding Problem
  • Paid and Free Options

Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. I appreciate you :)

Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the Feedback section.

Special thanks to Cyndi Bray for being on the show.

Support the show

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

If you have a question or comment for a future episode, visit https://www.speakpipe.com/lbovm.

So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!

Also, don’t forget to Subscribe for FREE: Apple Pod

Wad Free
No more tangled, twisted, balled-up laundry!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Marisa Huston :

Welcome to Episode 53 on the Live Blissed Out podcast. Did you know that in 2019, there were over 370,000 patents filed in the United States? Hello, action takers! Welcome to Live Blissed Out. A podcast where I have inspirational and informational conversations with business owners and subject matter experts to help us get the scoop and the lowdown on a variety of topics. Tired of hesitating or making decisions without having the big picture? Wanna be in the know? Then this is the place to go. I'm your host Marisa Huston. Helping achieve bliss through awareness and action. Thanks for joining me. The information opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only. And any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. This podcast should not be considered professional advice. Joining me is Cindy Bray, inventor of the new laundry gadget Wad-free for bedsheets, a product that solves a problem nearly everyone has when they wash their sheets. Without a background in engineering, product development or manufacturing, Cindy independently designed sourced and manufactured her innovative product bringing it to market in just over a year from concept to launch. Wad-free is the first ever wad preventer for the washing machine and dryer. This ingenious product actually prevents your laundry from tangling twisting and bailing up in both the washer and the dryer, so your entire load comes out cleaner, your washing machine stays in balance and the entire load dries up to 75% faster with fewer wrinkles. Wad-free for bedsheets saves time, money, energy and sanity! Wad-free is made in the United States, is reusable and is a game changer in the laundry room. Cindy is offering Live Blissed Out listeners a 15% discount through the end of 2020 using promo code Live Blissed Out. To learn more visit www.wadfree.com. Hi, Cindy, nice to have you here.

Cyndi Bray :

Hi, Marisa, thank you so much for having me on your show. I'm thrilled to be here.

Marisa Huston :

I'm thrilled to have you. This is going to be very informative. People always have great ideas. There's always people out there who go, Wow, I have this fantastic idea and I know that if I put it out into the world, we're going to solve every problem there is. And they get so gung ho thinking that they're going to change the universe. And then they realize that taking an idea to actually turning it into something is a whole other ballgame. It's something that can be overwhelming and intimidating, and it requires a lot of perseverance and dedication and belief in the product. If that product is not something that is really needed in the first place, then you could end up wasting a lot of time and money and energy into it without achieving anything. What is The very first step that somebody needs to consider if they were to turn that idea into reality?

Cyndi Bray :

Well, the first thing you should probably do is evaluate your concept, because you may think you have a great idea, but you may be the only person that feels that way. So the first thing you're gonna wann do is find out if the customer actually needs and wants the product that you're thinking of. You're going to want to talk to friends, family, and strangers, which is where you're probably going to get your most honest feedback, to find out if this is a product that's really worth pursuing. You're probably also going to want to find out if it's technically feasible, and also if it's economically feasible, because if you can make it for, say, $100, but the market is only willing to pay $25, you're probably not going to sell much of your product.

Marisa Huston :

It's funny because every conversation I have always leads to awareness. And awareness in this situation has to do with how other people think and feel about something. When we come up with an idea we're very emotional about it. We think of it from our perspective going, Yeah, I love this idea. This is just amazing! And then when you present it to somebody else, they're looking at you like, I would never buy that thing. As you said, it's really important to get very honest feedback and talk to lots of people with different opinions, because that's the way you're going to get the best accuracy. You really want to know for sure that there is a demand for the product so that you have the green light to go to the next step. What would be the next step? Let's assume that you know for sure that there seems to be interest. People are saying, yeah, I would get that product. I really love it. I can't believe nobody's thought about that before.So what's next from there?

Cyndi Bray :

You're going to want to do a thorough patent search to make sure that your concept hasn't already either been created or already been patented. Because the last thing you're gonna wanna do is go through all of the effort to bring a product to market only to be slapped with a cease and desist order from somebody that already owns the patent. So you can go to the USPTO, the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, and it's all publicly available. You can do a search on your own, or you can hire an attorney to do one for you. But that's a really important step you're gonna wanna take.

Marisa Huston :

We are specifically talking about product ideas that are related to manufacturing. We're not talking about digital products, per se, we're talking about like a physical product that somebody uses. And the reason we're having that conversation is because your product is like that. What I find when it comes to a physical product is that the idea creator doesn't really understand the process or the steps to get that idea into a physical product. And the problem then is like I see two directions that you could take. One is you could likely hire a professional company to help take you from start to finish, and then the other is to do it yourself and learn about some of the processes that you can implement for yourself rather than hiring a professional. And then there are pro's and con's for both. So can you walk us through a little bit about how you decided to go with your product and what are some wins and challenges that you'd experienced when you made that decision?

Cyndi Bray :

My journey was not what I would call typical, because I did take my product from concept to launch completely on my own. And by that I mean I did my own patent search, I wrote my own provisional patent. I did my own engineering. I taught myself SolidWorks in order to do my own CAD drawings, and learned material science so that I could source the materials that went into my product. I found the manufacturer to create the product. I did my own logo, website, graphics, packaging, and launched it all on my own. I wouldn't necessarily say that I recommend that route for most people. It is very daunting and overwhelming. And there are a lot of places that things can go terribly wrong. That being said, there are some product invention companies that will take your product from concept to launch, but you're going to want to really do your research to make sure that they have a good reputation. You can also go the route of hiring individual contractors, whether you want to hire an engineer or an attorney. There are lots of different options, lots of different routes you can take in bringing people on or hiring out different aspects of the process.

Marisa Huston :

Why did you decide that you wanted to get your hands dirty with the process and do most of this stuff yourself?

Cyndi Bray :

Honestly, it started because I didn't want to invest a whole lot of money in a product that was creating a brand new product category. I was pretty certain that there was a need for my product. Everybody that I talked to confirmed that that was the case, but maybe wad prevention product category didn't exist because nobody wanted it. So I really wanted to keep my expenses down. It started with a design process. When I spoke to some engineers, the price tag was gonna start at $10,000. And I wasn't really ready to invest that type of money. I wanted to see if I could create my own CAD drawings in order to make some prototypes and test them on the market. So that's exactly what I did. I'm not gonna say that learning SolidWorks was an easy task. It is not a beginners program. I ran into a lot of obstacles, but I persevered and I came up with a design, which I then had 3D printed prototypes made at the library. And I was able to test those not only in my own appliances, but I was also able to test them with friends and family and then strangers.

Marisa Huston :

And I suppose that doing it this way has the benefit of helping you really understand all facets of the process. But also, it gives you more creativity and more freedom to make decisions. The downside then would also be that there's a learning curve because you've never done any of these things before. So you not only had to teach yourself, but it likely would have taken longer.

Cyndi Bray :

Well, ironically, I also chose to go this route because I wanted to go quickly. A lot of the engineers that I spoke to initially were telling me oh, we can't get to it for three or six months. And frankly, I didn't want to wait that amount of time. I had this idea. I was so excited about it, and I wanted to get it to market as quickly as possible. So by teaching myself I was on my own schedule, and I was also able to make design changes quickly. I was able to pivot quickly and not be concerned about expenses. It was really important to me to manufacture my product here in the United States and I was really fortunate to find a fantastic manufacturer here in the city of Denver. And I was able to oversee the whole process and meet with him on a regular basis. That was really helpful and very important to me.

Marisa Huston :

Do you feel like you made mistakes along the way that maybe a professional would have been able to circumvent because they have done this before?

Cyndi Bray :

Probably. But I'm very pleased with the end result and the market is too. I went through a lot of different prototypes, a lot of different designs, and I listened to the voice of the consumer, I took their feedback, and I made changes until I came up with a product that the consumer loved. So I had a lot of confidence going into the manufacturing process that I had a product that the consumer really wanted and needed.

Marisa Huston :

How long did it take from the time you came up with the idea and actually convinced yourself that you wanted to proceed with the process to the point where you actually had the physical product ready for sale?

Cyndi Bray :

From the date I came up with the product concept to the time I went into production was less than a year.

Marisa Huston :

That wasn't as long as I would have suspected. And do you feel like it went pretty smooth? Or were there really big hiccups that you ran into?

Cyndi Bray :

Oh, there were a lot of hiccups. There were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome. The first obstacle I came upon was finding a manufacturer that wanted to take me seriously. And then the next obstacle was finding some materials that would meet all the requirements that were necessary for the product. And when a plastic did not exist on the market, I taught myself enough about material science in order to have a custom plastic compounded to meet all the requirements of the product.

Marisa Huston :

Let's talk a little bit about the financial considerations. What are some options there? Did you get a loan? Did you look for a partner? Did you self fund? What are the pro's and con's in terms of how to consider where the funding is going to come from?

Cyndi Bray :

Well, I think some people will turn to friends and family for funding, some people will finance it on their own, and then others will actually take out loans.

Marisa Huston :

So it's really just a matter of deciding for yourself what you're comfortable doing.

Cyndi Bray :

Exactly.

Marisa Huston :

The way I found you was I saw an ad on Facebook about your product, and it intrigued me. And I went into take a look at it and I thought to myself, wow, what is this? This is something that helps prevent wadding, when you wash your sheets? I clicked on it, and I wasn't really sure how to use it or anything, but there was a really nice video in there. And there was a guarantee basically, that said, this works. You know, I saw a lot of testimonials and things like that. So I thought to myself, you know, I have that problem and it's been bugging me. I'm gonna go ahead and give this a try. Why not? I ordered it and I'll be honest, when you are ordering a product that you've never, ever used before, and it's brand new, it's a new concept altogether, you know, you're skeptical. You get it and you go, I'm not sure about this. I don't know if this is gonna work! But I opened up the package and I understood exactly how to use it so I tried it out. And I could not believe it. I seriously was so shocked which is why I ended up reaching out to you and saying Cyndi, I would really love to talk to you on the podcast about how you did this. It worked like a charm. I mean, I was able to put my sheets on there in seconds, throw it in the washing machine, it came out wad-free from there and then I threw it in the dryer and it totally dried quickly not the way that it used to wad where it would just be like this ball. And the product really withstood everything. It withstood the washing, it withstood the drying. You're looking at this thing going is this really gonna work? I mean, it might melt in my dryer for all I know, but it totally worked. And I was so impressed. I think that as a consumer, you can't expect anything more than that. You're solving a problem, and it's a product that's affordable and it works. What you have done is not an easy task. I think that there's different schools of thought. Some people are like, no, I'm never going to take this idea to concept because it's too much work. I know from the get go, I don't want to make the investment. I don't want to do all this research and effort that it's going to take. And then there are other people who probably have the complete opposite idea about it. They're thinking, well, if I can think I'm going to be able to make this happen. I don't care. I'm gonna go for it. Either way, when you approach a process like this, you went a certain direction, and somebody else might go a different direction. And there are risks on both ends. Typically, you might have more control over the timeline, control over the process if you do it yourself. But it's like anything else. When you're not an expert, I guess you don't know what you don't know, so you're going to move in directions that you could probably have avoided had you work with a professional. On the flip side, the professionals have their own agenda and their own timeline, and then it may set you back in terms of where you want to go. The important thing is that we understand those differences, so that we can go into it aware and make choices that are the right fit for ourselves if we decided to take that same idea, just like you did, and develop it into a physical product.

Cyndi Bray :

Yes, it is a very long non-linear process. There are many opportunities that you should take to test your product. Test the concept, test, the prototype, test every single step along the way. And there's a lot of jumping off points. So they say it's better to fail fast than to go all the way to market only to find out you've made a big mistake.

Marisa Huston :

How long did you know that there was this problem and when did the bells go off in your head going I'm going to do something about it now? Because I can tell you personally, I've had this problem for years, except I never even considered that there would be a solution for it. So how did you go about that?

Cyndi Bray :

Well, wads have always been a fact of laundry. But recently I got a new set of washer and dryer, the high efficiency, high capacity, Energy Star rated machines. And I was so excited because these are going to save me time and money and energy. But when I washed my sheets, my wadding problem became maddening. Every single time they would end up in this massive wad that wouldn't dry and I thought there has to be a solution to this. And so of course I do what everybody does. I went online and found there was no solution, which I found unacceptable and I tasked myself with coming up with a solution. And for a long time I just thought about you know, why is this happening? Why are my sheets wadding? I talked to my friends. They thought I was joking. This was sort of a running joke in my family for a long time, like mom's talking about wads again. I would talk to people on the line at the grocery store about their wads.

Marisa Huston :

Is there a difference between a compact machine versus those really modern ones now? Do all of them wad regardless?

Cyndi Bray :

I can't say with all certaintly which machines wad and which don't. There has been an increased frequency and severity of wads with the newer machines. I read a government energy report recently that talked about how much energy is used on each appliance in the household, and I noted that between the years of 2014 and 2019, there was 14% more energy used in the laundry process, which also correlates with the timeframe in which the appliance manufacturers released more of these high efficiency, high capacity ENERGY STAR models. So it's my theory that people are actually using more energy in practice with these new machines because of wads.

Marisa Huston :

I would imagine! And I'll tell you from my personal experience, and I don't have one of the new machines. Mine wad like crazy. And the problem with that is that I would have to take it out of the dryer and then unroll it and then throw it back in. And oftentimes I've had to put it in there three times just to get it to dry. And obviously, that's not energy efficient. So I think that this product is amazing because the first time I used it, I put it in once and it worked. Going back to what you're talking about, the concept valuation. If I had tested this product from the beginning, I would have said absolutely, because it works and there is a problem. Now, if somebody is not experiencing the problem, then obviously they're not interested in it because there's nothing to solve. But in my particular situation, this was a incredible concept that I've been waiting for and I just didn't even know I was waiting for it because I just figured we all just had to deal with wads. It's just a fact of life. I congratulate you on solving a problem and getting this to market because if it wasn't for this invention, people like me would not be able to solve a problem that we've always had but just put our hands up and said, well, it's just the way things are. But this isn't just a product for the dryer, right?

Cyndi Bray :

Right. It actually prevents wads in the washing machine as well because a lot of people have a problem with their sheets roping up into great big long coils that actually send the machine off balance, not to mention that everything in that load isn't really coming very clean or rinsing very clean. The machine stops itself, they have to wrestle with the wet sheets and reposition everything just to get the load to finish. And not only is that annoying, but it actually causes a lot of wear and tear on the machine itself in addition to wear and tear on the fabric.

Marisa Huston :

First of all, when I got your product, I honestly thought that it was simply to dry my sheets with. And then when I realized that wait a minute, no I actually put it on before I even put it in the washing machine. And then when it came out of the washing machine and wasn't rolled up like it normally was I was already impressed. Of course the final test is putting it in the dryer and then when it dried with one cycle without having to uncurl it, put it back in.

Cyndi Bray :

Yeah.

Marisa Huston :

That was it. I loved it. How do people learn more about the product itself, how it works and where can they get it?

Cyndi Bray :

So my website is www.wadfree.com and there's all sorts of information and videos available there where you can also purchase it. And it's also available now on Amazon. For listeners, I'm offering a 15% off discount through the end of the year with a discount code Live Blissed Out.

Marisa Huston :

I know the listeners are going to really appreciate that offer. You identified a problem that we have and actually did something with that. You took that idea and created it into a physical product that people now can use to solve a problem. And that's really something that is so invaluable because I know there are people out there who probably have ideas in their head that they want to turn into something physical, something that they can put out into the world and solve problems with, but there are people that get overwhelmed and they don't even get the ball rolling. And having an idea as to what they should be thinking about and what considerations that they need to be putting into play in their heads will help them then forge ahead, or at least decide whether or not this is something they wanna pursue.

Cyndi Bray :

Yeah. All the information is readily available, if you look for it. I often say that Google, YouTube and the library were my mentors in this process.

Marisa Huston :

In fact, I heard somebody say once that there really isn't anything out there that you can't learn. The real difference between paying for either help or some sort, of course is based on convenience. That person has already done the research for you and packaged it all and wrapped it up in a nice bow and is giving it to you so that you can take a course from start to finish and implement whatever your idea is. And doing the other route where you have to actually do the research and take all the bits and pieces and put them together yourself will take more time and energy, and maybe you'll make a few extra mistakes by doing that. Either option is available for you. You just need to decide what's most important. If you have a lot of time, then you're probably going to go the route of let me research it and figure things out. If you're willing to invest the money and save on the time, then you're probably going to invest in a course. Either way information is readily available. You just have to figure out where you want to get that information from and make sense of it and then apply it. No idea is going to help anyone if you don't put it into action.

Cyndi Bray :

Exactly.

Marisa Huston :

Thank you, Cindy. I'm so appreciative of you being here.

Cyndi Bray :

Thank you for Marisa for having me. It was great to talk with you.

Marisa Huston :

That's all for this episode of Live Blissed Out. Thanks for listening, and thanks to Cindy Bray for being my guest. If you have a question or comment for a future episode, all you have to do is go to www.speakpipe.com/lbovm or click the link in the show notes to leave a brief audio message. If you find value in our show, please visit www.liveblissedout.com. to reach out, subscribe and share on social media. This show is made possible through listeners like you. Thank you. So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!

Evaluate Your Concept
Patent Search
Concept To Launch
Speed Control
Consumer Feedback
Manufacturer & Materials
Financing Considerations
Test Your Concept
The Wadding Problem
Paid and Free Options