The Richer Life Conversation:

Stephen Key
Licensing Expert

Earn Royalty Checks by Renting

Companies Your Ideas
hosted by
Robert Pagliarini

Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, Wealth Creator, TV Commentator,

and founder of Richer Life Insights.

Join Robert for more compelling conversations with experts that drive more money,
motivation, and meaning into your life, at www.RicherLife.com.
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The Richer Life Conversation:

Stephen Key, Licensing expert

Copyright © 2011 by Richer Life Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this book be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Richer Life Media,
LLC, 26041 Acero, Mission Viejo, CA 92691.

www.richerlife.com

The goal of this book is to help you live a better, fuller, richer life. It is designed to help you
focus on goals and actions that are important to helping you achieve more at work and in life.
The book is intended to provide general guidelines that are for informational purposes only and
is provided with the understanding that the publisher and author(s) is not engaged in rendering
professional services or in providing specific financial, health, or other advice.

You should not regard this book as a substitute for consulting with a competent expert, medical
professional, lawyer, accountant, or other professional, as appropriate to the nature of your
particular situation.

The book presents various strategies, tips, and products that may or may not be appropriate for
your specific situation. If you have any questions regarding the applicability of any strategy or
idea discussed in this book to your particular situation, you should consult with a professional.

References in the book to products, service providers, and potential sources of additional
information do not mean that the publisher or author(s) can vouch for such products or
services or the information or recommendations in those sources. Neither the publisher nor
author(s) are responsible for any third-party product or service or content over which they do
not have control.

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Preface

There is one thing we all share in common. We all want to live a better life—a richer life. A life
where you are living your best life. Yes, it means you are financially richer, more secure and
have the means to do the things you want, but it’s about more than just making more. It’s
about being richer in every sense of the word. It’s about having a richer life that is filled with
more meaning and passion, financial security, time, and health.

What we believe…

• We don’t need more information; we need actionable advice.

• We don’t want to be lectured; we want a mentor.

• We don’t want to be overwhelmed; we want to be inspired.

• We don’t have time to waste; we want something quick and meaningful.

Thank you for your interest in this book and congratulations for taking one step closer to living
your best life…

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Introduction

Have you ever thought that starting a business takes too much work? Do you think there has to
be a better way than having to write a business plan, raise money, hire and supervise
employees, handle operations, deal with legal problems, etc.? If so, I've got a solution for you.
Licensing.

How would you like to rent your ideas to companies and receive royalty checks? Sound
impossible? It's not. I spoke to Stephen Key about how's he done this for decades and how you
can, too. Stephen is the author of the hit book, One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams into a
Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work.

In an hour-long interview I had with Stephen Key for Richer Life, you will learn:

• The secrets of licensing

• Why companies need your ideas

• How to come up with an idea you can rent

• The characteristics of a winning idea

• What to do if you're not creative

• How to protect your ideas

• Why you need a "sell sheet" and how to create one

• How to get the right person on the phone

• How to negotiate the best royalty for yourself

• And a whole lot more

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The Richer Life Conversation:

Stephen Key, Licensing expert

Robert Pagliarini

Welcome to Richer Life Insights. Our goal is to help you drive more money, motivation and
meaning into your life. Today I’m having a conversation with Stephen Key, about a topic I know
a lot of people are very interested in. We’re going to talk about how you can rent your ideas to
big companies and hopefully earn royalty checks.

Now, my goals for this conversation are for you to learn how you can go from an idea to a
licensing deal, and all of the steps in between. So, if you’ve ever had an idea for a product or a
way to improve a product you will not want to miss this interview.

So, Stephen Key is a successful award winning inventor and entrepreneur, he’s been inventing
and licensing for the past 30 years. He’s licensed over 20 products and has sold these products
in Walmart, 711, Disney stores and many others worldwide. He’s been on such hit shows as,
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and Dr. Phil. He’s the co-founder of www.inventright.com,
which were going to talk a little bit more about a little later in the interview, and he’s the
author of a brand new book called, “One Simple Idea: Turn your Dreams into a Licensing
Goldmine while letting Others Do the Work”.

So, Stephen, thank you so much for being on here and sharing your wisdom with our members.

Stephen Key

Well, thank you very much, Robert. Thank you.

Robert

So, I know a lot of people who are listening to this, have an idea that maybe they had for a
couple of years, about a product, maybe to make it a little bit better. And what they’re thinking
is can I really convert this idea that I have in my head into royalty checks in my mailbox? And so,
can they do it?

Stephen

They absolutely can do it. And what’s amazing, I think, we’ve all had an idea and we sat in the
couch and have done nothing about our ideas. A year later you’re watching TV and there’s your

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idea on TV. And what I’ve realized taking my idea to market over the last few years now, and I
don’t like to take the risk. I really don’t want to start a business. I don’t want to raise money. I
don’t want to, you know, write a business plan. But I want to be creative. And I think that I have
good ideas. And so, that’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years. I’ve come up with these ideas, I
show them to companies that they like those ideas; they pay me a royalty for everyone they
sell.

Robert

And so, you bring up a really good point here and I think it needs to be distinguished between,
okay, I’m on the couch, I’ve got this idea, I could, there’s almost two paths I could go down. I
could take that idea, create a product, have it manufactured, put up a website, buy some ads,
some Google Adwords, I could put up that infomercial, and I could be the CEO of this company
selling this product that I’ve had the idea for. Or, what you’re suggesting is, forget all of that,
right?

Stephen

Yeah.

Robert

You come up with the idea and then you licensed it to a company. Talk to me about what this is
about licensing.

Stephen

Let’s talk about the difference for just a minute because I think that’s a great question. You’re
right, I could do all these work that I could raise money and spend years to bring an idea to the
market, but, you have to realize that’s kind of the old way of doing this. It’s building prototypes,
filing patent, and then after I spent all these money, all these time, then I try to bring it to
market. And the success rate is very, very low.

So, what I found is that if I can test the waters a little bit, if I can show a company, if I can find
an opportunity, we’ll talk about how to find those opportunities a little later, if I can find an
opportunity show that little improvement, not a big improvement but a little improvement to
an existing product that the company likes it, they’re going to take it. They’re going to spend all
their money, they already have the shelf space, and they’re going to plug it in to their product
line and bring it to market very, very quickly. Because that’s the important part about our
discussion today is, when you licensed, basically, renting an idea to a company, it’s a way of
bringing your ideas to the market really quick. And today, it’s who owns the shelf space and
how fast can you get it to the market.

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Robert

And so, licensing is really, you come up with the idea, you present it to the company, and they
say, you know what, we like it and we’re going to pay you X amount, we’ll get in to all that, but
we’re going to pay you X amount because you brought this idea to us, so, that’s what licensing
is.

Stephen

Exactly. You know, it sounds really odd. It’s amazing, when I first started doing this I just
naturally thought if I could show a company really how to make more money that they would
pay me for everyone they sold. And I found out, they will exactly do that, but the old way of
thinking is like, no I’ve got to start a business. I’ve got to raise money but I’m telling everybody,
that’s not—I have a lot of students for the last 10 years who have been educating through my
site at www.inventright.com about how they can bring their ideas to the market through
licensing. So, it’s really having those companies take all the risk, do all the heavy lifting while
you have a different type of lifestyle, they’re actually working for you.

Robert

And that’s why I’m so excited about this call. [laughs] And why I really, and I’ve read your book
front page to the end and I got so much out of it. And so, I guarantee you, people are sitting
there listening, saying, “Listen. I’m just a little guy here, why in the world would any company,
small, medium, large, want to listen to my ideas?” And in the book, you’ve talked about this
concept called, open innovation. Now, what is that and why would these companies need us?

Stephen

That’s a great question. When I first started out, I was coming with ideas, I’m not an inventor by
the way, I’m just a consumer and I consider myself like a product designer, let’s say. And when I
first started out I was coming out with ideas that would just put a smile on your face—nothing
more than that. And I would submit it to companies that were in the novelty gift industry and in
the toy industry. And those industries, traditionally, have always worked for outside freelance
people because it’s cheaper to pay me when I’m on the outside than to pay me if I was working
for them. It was a way for them to reduce their R&D cost. And they could go out and they could
get all these people working for them and now you don’t pay them. But they like your ideas and
they took it to market then they would pay them the royalty. So, it’s a perfect business model.
And that’s what I did for many years but was has changed and what’s truly remarkable is the
thing called open innovation.

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Now, what this basically mean. Is that companies that figured out the same thing, if I open my
doors and asked for those ideas I might have a hundred guys in the backroom but I open the
door I could have 10,000 people working for me. It’s a multiply effect…

Robert

And you don’t have to pay them a dime, right? There’s no salary, there’s no health insurance.
You pay, if they’ve got a good idea.

Stephen

Pay as you go. And you know what I like about this, I mean, even if you go to, let’s say, Proctor
and Gamble’s website, they will list now what they’re looking for.

Now, I have a list of over 1,400 companies that are looking for ideas and it’s in the book. You
see a little password there and there’s a website that you can go ahead and once you type it in
there’d be 1,400 companies that want your ideas. Now, what’s amazing, I tell everybody is,
“Look, you don’t even need that list. In fact, most companies if they’re going to be competitive
they’re going to look at ideas, they have to be.”

So, you don’t need the list, but you need to know what to say and you need to know who to
contact, and you need to know how to pitch your ideas. And that’s what the book does, it gives
you all that information, it gives you 10 steps and each step is important.

Robert

And so, if you’ve come up with this idea for a product, and you, and there’s a company that
would be perfect for this. If you don’t see that company on the list of 1,400 it’s not a problem.
Is that what you’re saying?

Stephen

I don’t think they need the list of 1,400, we put it together just to show people how easy it was,
you know, it’s easy, how easy it is. In fact, I tell all of my students don’t even have an idea. But
call a company up, find something you’re passionate about from an industry that you love, call
them up, tell you’re a product developer and you’re like start submitting ideas to the company
and see what they say. And they’ll say, absolutely. And they’re going to show you how to do it.
They’re going to say, look, send it to this person, these are top of ideas we’re looking for. And it
blows people’s minds that they can actually do this.

In fact, I tell everybody don’t build this up the one big day that you’re going to call the
companies. Call a company you even have an idea for. It’s once you make that call and you
realized that they’re looking for ideas your whole world changes.

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Robert

That’s great advice. I love it. I love that fact that even if you don’t have the idea just makes the
call because then you’re more comfortable doing it when you actually have the idea.

Stephen

You’re empowered. In fact, you didn’t realized that hey they are looking, it’s a real deal, now, I
better come up with some ideas, now I better study the market place and deal with all these
things that you should do to prepare to send those ideas into those companies.

Robert

So, now…

Stephen

It is—yeah. It’s incredible.

Robert

Well, let’s talk about the idea. So, the name of your book is one simple idea. The name of your
book is not one really huge idea, or one really life changing important idea. It’s one simple idea,
right? So, we’re not talking about grandiose kind of inventions here.

Stephen

No, I think what’s amazing. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. In fact, it’s really small
improvement. In fact, when you think about it, you don’t want to think outside the box you
want to think about next to the box and the reason why. The small improvements are easy for
these companies to implement, to put these small improvements on existing, on their existing
products and bring to market very quickly. There’s no risk to it. When you start thinking about
these huge ideas it takes education, it takes time, and it takes money. So, it’s really the simple
ideas and that’s what the book is all about.

Robert

And that’s probably, you know, the ideas that most people have. Unless they’re an engineer or
a doctor where it’s really specific, most of us, like you said, are consumers first and we might
have an idea that, you know what it would be so much better if this product did this or did that.
And so, what if, for the people who already have the idea, that’s great, but, what if someone is
listening to this and like, wow, I would love to get in to this kind of space but I just don’t have
any ideas yet. What would you tell them? What are some things that they can do to kind of
unleash that creativity?

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Stephen

Alright. Thank you. You know, there’s a chapter in the book that talks about, I don’t even care if
you have any idea. And people are like, what do you mean, Stephen? You still have to have an
idea. Don’t—don’t have an idea. But, I’m going to show you where to find ideas, and I will show
you what companies are looking for ideas. And you can be the connector because once you
understand how this works you can go to some of the top design schools in this country and I
happen, and you should see these students. They pay all these money to go to the best schools.
They come with all these wonderful ideas and then they throw them away every semester.

It’s amazing and once I saw that I realized, if you really want to get in the innovation game and
you’re not creative and you don’t mind taking the phone call, you don’t mind making
connections, go out to some of these schools, go out to these designers and go, look can I
represent you to these companies? Call the companies, I would say look, I’ve got a team of
designers what are you looking for? Take their wish list take it back to your team of designers
and say, look, guys you need to come up with some innovations in this particular field. Now,
once you understand each step, you tell your designers look I need a sell sheet. I needed a one
line benefit statement. I need all these things.

So, they do all the work. And then you take their work, you connect it to the companies that are
looking for those ideas. You are the connector. You are the licensee expert.

Robert

[laughs] I’ve got to say, at first I thought, you know, coming up with the idea, creating the
prototype, the sell sheet, all of the things you’re talking about, call and pick up the phone, call
the companies and creating that licensing deal. I thought that was pretty painless and not a
whole lot of work. But what you’re suggesting is pure genius. You’re saying, forget it, maybe I’m
not creative. But, you know what, I can connect some people, I can be the project manager,
maybe that’s more of my personality, and so, you’re taking the designers you’re connecting
them with the companies that want it. I mean, that right there, that is just really, really smart.
And you’ve actually done this.

Stephen

Yeah. And you know what you’ll find; a lot of creative people just want to be creative. So, let
them be creative. And there’s a lot have felt that like people we like to talk were not afraid
picking up the phone.

So, if you’re one of those people that are out there, especially if you like sales, and just like to
manage a process this would be perfect for you. You can sit there and you can start this
business, you don’t have to, you know, fancy—you don’t need a fancy office, all you need is a

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cell phone. You’re going to need a website, you need to look how to find those great ideas, go
out there and find these companies who are looking for it. You can put those two together. You
know what I love about it, it has a multiplying effect.

You know, my father’s told me if you ever wanted to create great wealth, there are three things
you have to have. Number 1, you have to find a job that doesn’t require hands, that doesn’t
require your presence and has a multiplying effect. In licensing, we have all these companies
working for you, that’s the ultimate multiplying effect. When you have companies that you’re
submitting to, designers that are working for you, you’ve got all these ability to increase your
chances of success. And in anything you do, you want to increase your chances of success and
the more you do it the better you get, the more ideas you have, the more chances you’re going
to get one of those big ones. Because not all ideas are going to be big winners. It must be… I
have to get everybody back down off the clouds right here and realize okay, great. You’re going
to have some of the ideas are going to be big ideas; some are going to be small. So, we’re going
to make a lot of money, some we won’t make money at all. But it is a numbers game, and I’m
trying to get people in the game to play.

Robert

And it is a numbers game and that’s why the distinguishing thing that we made earlier is if you
want to start a company on an idea, you’re putting everything. All of your time, energy,
resources on one idea, and if it works, great, but if it doesn’t you’re going to spend years and
years and dollars out of your pocket. But what you’re suggesting is, listen, it’s a numbers game.
That one idea that you have that you think is brilliant, maybe it is but if it’s not, that’s alright.
You move on to the next one.

Stephen

Yeah. What we try to, you know, what I’ve been teaching my students is really how to find
those green light really quick. And I’m a pretty impatient guy, I want to come up with an idea
and we talk about protection, get a little bit protection, I get on the phone right away and start
calling companies, send them a sell sheet, we’ll talk about that too. And say, look, what do you
think? Do you like it? Is there anything here that you think are possibility? I want to know really
quick.

So, can you imagine, spending $10,000 on a patent and thousands of dollars on a prototype.
Years go by and then you show it to a company, that’s what people traditionally have done and
I’m saying that has never worked. What I’m saying look, use the tools, understand who’s
looking for ideas, how to contact those right people, show them your one line benefit
statement, show them your sell sheet and go look, what do you think?

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Robert

And so, you’re putting in [overlapping] as little time and energy as possible just to see if there’s
an interest? If there is, then you’ll invest more but you’re not going to put that much time in to
it if you don’t even know that they have an interest.

Stephen

Well, what’s really wonderful, you know, sometimes you didn’t have to build the prototype.
And, I mean, think about it. There’s tools that the United States Patent and Trademark Office,
offer us, small guys, the play the biggest game in the world. That levels the playing field. One of
the tools is called the Provisional Patent Application, for short, PPA, where you can file it
yourself for $110. It’s great software that you can purchase for about $150 which shows you
how to write one, you can file it yourself for a $110, and then you can put patent pinning on
your idea for one year. Mean you can shop it see if you get those green lights. That’s one way to
test the market with the provisional patent application. And that’s such a wonderful tool that’s
available.

Now, a lot of attorneys don’t really want to bother with that, they want you to file a full patent,
but realize, if you do have an idea it will change. Everything changes, so, if you file a patent too
early, you’ll end up filing another one. And now, you’re into tens of thousands of dollars, better
yet, when you file a provisional patent application and you put patent pinning’s on your idea
and the company is interested, I also teach you how to get them now to pay for the patents
which you owned but you licensed to them.

Robert

Right, so, you role the patent application process into the licensing deal?

Stephen

Correct. Instead of asking for an advance which is really called pop-loading the deal, everybody
should get some money at the very beginning, it’s a good goodwill gesture but I’m saying, don’t
ask for the money up front, ask them to pay for the patent because it’s good for them, it’s good
for you. Give them—they’re always going to want an exclusive that’s perfectly fine. Give them
an exclusive if it warrants it, if they can sell enough volume and there’s some other stuff about
cutting the deal which I really love that part of it. But, the bottom line is, I have a technology
called Spinformation, its up for two Edison Awards, I have 13 patents. I didn’t pay for those. The
company that licensed those paid for them. And I still own them.

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Robert

Right. Right. Now, you’re a brilliant man, Stephen. Brilliant! [overlapping] And you know what,
they say—and I’m not calling you lazy. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but truly,
you’ve created a way that you could do as little work and really focus on what you do best and
not bother about all of these other stuff that can really hold you back.

Stephen

Well, you know, people ask me how do I come up with this. It was really simple; I started
basically out of college selling things at street fairs and county fairs. And if I didn’t sell on a
Saturday I really couldn’t pay my rent. So, I’ve learned how to come out with ideas very quickly
and test the market and then I realized that if I really wanted to do this for a career, because I
love working with my hands, so, I had to find a system that allowed me to test my ideas very
quickly. And I wanted to do this, so, it was a passion of mine. I knew if I could do this I’d
probably be the richest man in the world. Sort of everyday I wake up, it’s enjoyable, and it’s
living life on my terms.

So, I just found this way of just doing small little tasks, see if I get a green light, if I get a green
light then I go forward. So, I’m not, you know, people say, Stephen you’re really, you’re an
inventor. No, I’m not even a, really, a designer. I look for opportunities in the market place. See,
I even do it different than most people, inventors do. I don’t see problems. I mean, I’m not one
of those guys. I don’t solve a problem. I just go down to the market place and look around at
the—I look what’s on the shelf. And then I look at it, I find something I’m passionate about and I
look at it, and looked for something they’ve missed. And…

Robert

Because, the common wisdom is that you look for the problems. Now, what is the problem that
we’re facing and, you know, how can I solve it with my new product? But…

Stephen

Yeah.

Robert

…you’re taking a different approach to it.

Stephen

Well, that’s actually a great approach and you can, but, I look for sleeping dinosaurs and I look
for opportunity that no one has done anything to it at a certain category for a while, adding the
technology, made a new twist a new way of looking at it, and polishing it up a little bit. See,

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that’s the way I’ve done it and so, I just go down to the store and I had fun. I play these game
and I look at alternative, I look at things a little differently and how can I change them, how can
I improve them and then I send it back to the companies. And I don’t even send them a
prototype most of the time. I send them what I would call a page sell sheet. It’s a picture of my
idea and I’ll have someone draw it out and I’ll out a benefit statement at the very top. You need
to be able to summarize your sentence, summarize your idea into one sentence, one powerful
wow. And that’s what grabs them at the very beginning. And then show them a sell sheet, I
used the faxed, I’ve been doing this so long.

Robert

You fax it. [laughs]

Stephen

I used to fax it but I don’t do that anymore. And then I used to send it with FedEx. I don’t even
do that anymore. I call a company up and tell them I’m a product developer; this is so simple its
mind boggling. When I call a company up, I say, “Hi. My name is Stephen Key. I’m with Stephen
Key Design. I’m a product developer and I would like to submit an idea to your company. Can
you help me?” And I know operators don’t know what to do with this. But I know I want to find
my superman at that company. And that superman or superwoman is going to be someone in
marketing or someone in sales. I don’t try to go to the very top or the president, I tried to find
that person that they see my idea, they can take ownership in it. And they can get promoted
because they saw the good idea and they took it to the market. And once, and so, somebody
marketing and I asked her product manager and once he connect me with that product
manager, I gave then my one line benefit statement. Hi. My name is Stephen Key, I’m a product
developer. And I have a label innovation that adds 75% more space. Are you on a computer?
Can I send you a sample? And if you’re own a computer, which everybody is, I pull up and I have
him go to a website and there it is. And if they want more information that I’ll send them more
information to get up a few green lights as we go along.

Robert

And those are your green lights?

Stephen

So—yes. If someone says I want more information that’s a green light.

Robert

And then at that point you may decide if you get enough green lights or enough interest from,
maybe from one, to actually create the prototype.

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Stephen

Yeah, sometimes, you know, sometimes you might need to build a prototype for proof of
concept. I know all of this like the make thing, so, like to see them and that’s perfectly fine but
don’t overdo it. I meet so many people go build a prototype and they’ll refine it, they’ll refine it
because they’re comfortable doing that. And so, I’m saying look, stop, there’s a point where we
don’t go overboard. In fact, the greatest tool today for people that has ideas, do a little
YouTube video. Do a one minute before and after. You know, with your iPhone it’s so great. You
hold it there and say look, here’s the problem and here’s the solution. And what’s really great
when you do that, it’s not great, it looks a little wobbly, and they don’t care. In fact, it’s
wonderful. They look at this as if they like it they’re going to polish it up continue something
really fancy but they’re looking at a raw idea. So, you do it before and after. Why do I care,
make a little video and if you want to protect it do a password protection so that no one can
see. You can send it to people that can watch it but that’s how you grab people’s attention.
Show them a little, like a little commercial. One minute commercial why do I care?

Robert

And so, you’ve actually done this. You’ve created the little video and gotten someone on the
phone and pointed them to the website and it’s been [overlapping]

Stephen

I do it every day. I did now. [Laughs] I’ve been doing it for years. See, what’s amazing and I tell it
to everybody, you know, I’ve done it through for many, many years. I’ve been teaching students
for many years and I’m still doing it today. I still have technology. I still licensed it. I’ve licensed
it to a company out here, called Acudial; I’m up for a couple of awards, I collect royalties in
thousands of stores. And I’m still building those prototypes or making those sell sheets
electronic now and talking to companies all the time because it just works. At the end of the
day, there isn’t a company that’s not looking for a good idea. See, good companies are
constantly putting out fires. So, imagine, you come along and you got this idea. Now, you ask
the question I need to talk about for just a minute, why did they pay you? Why don’t they just
take it? Because a lot of people have this fear and I want to tell them, I’m going to show you
how to kick fear to the curve.

Robert

Do it, because I think you’re right. I think a lot of people have the fear, if I tell anyone they’re
going to take it from me and what am I going to do about it.

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Stephen

Alright. This is what you need to do it, it’s really, really simple. There’s such a thing—there’s one
thing that’s called an inventor’s journal. And this is kind of really great little tool, you can go
down and get a composition book at your local drugstore, find a book where you cannot tear
the pages out, make sure you write your ideas down in ink, and have someone find it. Don’t
skip lines, don’t skip pages. In fact, you can Google inventor’s journal, anybody can do it.
Basically, you’re documenting your idea and this country today, it’s first to invent, not first to
file. So, you can document your ideas and that’s the lowest cost thing and that happened in
Federal Court and that’s the first thing they asked how—when you come up to your idea and
your inventors’ journal is that tool.

Now, second, you can file a provisional patent application which can allow you to play the
biggest game in the world, we talked about that, for $110 it’s another tool. But, here’s the
thing, you guys, imagine this. It used to be where you can tell 10 people, maybe a 100 people if
someone did you wrong, but, because of the internet you can tell 10 million. That’s amazing,
the power of the internet today. And companies don’t know what to do with that. So, what’s
happening is that they’re treating people very fairly. They have to because it’s a PR nightmare if
they don’t. You do have a voice. You do have power and you do care about how you feel about
them. So, it keep good notes and we send them email, every conversation you have follow it up
with an email, it’s your paper trail for later. So, really, they should be more scared of use than
we are of them.

Robert

That’s interesting. So, if you do those basically four things, you know, the fourth would be
following up every conversation with an email, you’re pretty protective at that point?

Stephen

You know the best—if you want to play completely safe, don’t leave your house. Okay?
[Laughs] Alright. Okay, alright. The bottom line is I’ve been submitting ideas for many years and
I just realized that it’s not good business for anybody to take anything. Can you imagine if
you’re in a company and some ideas comes in and someone looks at all the engineers that says,
hey let’s see if we can design around this idea. What message does that send to the team of
people?

Robert

Right. It’s very, very shady. So, in all the years that you’ve been doing this, have you ever had
one of your ideas “stolen”?

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Stephen

Well, I’ve been in Federal Court, yes, I have. I’ve made some samples for a toy company and
sure enough a year later it was the same samples I’ve made, there used to be a signed NDA,
which is a non-disclosure agreement, and they basically brought to market without paying me a
royalty. And so, I sued that small toy company in federal court and the name of the company is
Lego, and, you know.

Robert

Yeah.

Stephen

What was amazing because of these tools that the United States Patent and Trademark Office
provide us it’s the great, it levels the playing fields. So, I’m in federal court, Stephen Key Designs
versus Lego, so, next to me is Enron [laughs] if doesn’t get any bigger everybody, but what I
realized is that the court’s system is set up for us. And if someone steals your idea or infringes
on your idea, right? And they’re big company, they do really well with your idea, you have more
attorneys lined up around the block to help you.

Robert

Good point. Yeah. Don’t jump on that, contingency-based, I’m sure you don’t have to pay them
a dime.

Stephen

Correct.

Robert

Yeah. So, I mean, and again, I’m not trying to scare anyone with, there’s someone says they’re
going to steal your idea, you do the things that you talked about, the journal, the provisional
patent, the NDAs, the emails, and then, you know, you go from there. You can’t be so worried
about it. That, you know, it prevents you from moving forward.

Stephen

You know what else you can do? You can type in the company’s name and then type in
afterwards complaints or law suits. And see how they treat other people. Basically, kick the
tires on the company and I’ll tell you, if you do anything that’s not appropriate these days it’s
going to show up on the internet.

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Robert

Absolutely, in a hear beat.

Stephen

Yes, it will.

Robert

So, that inventor’s journal, is there a website, is there some sort of online system where you
can type it in?

Stephen

No.

Robert

I’m thinking if you might want that there Stephen.

Stephen

[laughs] Here’s the problem with that, everybody always ask that. When you have that physical
thing, they really consider about you skipping lines, fulfilling lines later. They’re concern about
you tearing that pages or skipping out pages to fill it out later. So, the inventor’s journal is not
everything but it’s a start. You know what, this is one of those little things that you do that we
all can do, it’s very affordable to do, and it’s available. You can Google inventor’s journal how to
do it and read it. And it’s just one thing and this whole process, like; I break it down in 10 steps.
And I gave you a road map but, you know, step number 3 is protection, that’s only one step
folks. You know, so, I don’t put all the worry on protection, I tried to teach everybody how to
stay in the market place, how to determine if you’re a winner or a loser. How to determine who
to call, what to say? How to tap that great deal, how to protect that idea? So, it’s a big picture
and everybody thinks to want one little piece of it but you have to really look at it from afar, it’s
a big picture. My goal with this book is to get people to take action. And that’s what I really like
about, because once you start taking action you realize you are in control. You can control your
own destiny. You can open up these doors. You can actually do it. And I give them 10 simple
steps. And so, that’s why I’m very proud about this book. I’ve been doing it for many, many
years. I took all the education for the last 10 years of helping others and put it all in the book.
And I’m very proud of it. I think it’s going to stand the test of time.

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Robert

I agree. I mean, I read probably two to three books a week. And when I finish this book it left
me—as I put it down, it was like, you know what, and I can do this. It gave me some real
inspiration like I can really do it. And then because the book is so well written, because it’s sort
of an action step guide, sort of, here are the 10 steps, here’s what you have to do, here’s what’s
next, yet, you’re not only left with, oh, yeah. You know what, I can do it but now I know how to
do it. And so, again, very impressed with the book. I think it’s a tremendous research. And so,
one of the things you talked about in the book is what are some characteristics of what you call
a winning idea? Maybe you can share with the listeners, you know, how do I know if I have a
good idea or not?

Stephen

Well, it’s great, because I talk about this all the time, you know, being the—I’ll be giving a
lecture and I’ll ask everybody, hey, how many people have an idea? They all raise their hands
and how many people have more than one idea? And of course, they’ve all raise their hand and
I’ll ask the next question, how many people made money from their ideas. And then there are
no hands up. And what I try to explain to is, I said, “Look. Let’s try to define winners from the
loser, really quick. Because I know you’ve got 10 ideas. And you can’t work on all 10. So, let’s
find the ones you want to work on first.” And so, this is what I do. I have kind of a list. The first
thing, I want an idea that has a little bit of a wow, that when someone sees that they go wow. It
doesn’t have to be this big wow. It has to have a little bit wow. Why didn’t I think of that? Boy,
that’s really clever. It has to have that little bit of magic.

Robert

Okay. And so, let’s say you have the idea and you think it has the wow because you came up
with it. Would you, I mean, do you ever take your ideas at this stage and show them to families,
show them to friends?

Stephen

Well, the only opinion that really matters is really the company you’re going to show it to. So,
yes, we all want to do that. We all want to get approval but realize the people that you’re
showing it to, it doesn’t really matter. No one has the crystal ball, so, what I might do is I might
come up with an idea and this is the other thing I try to do; I try to summarize my idea in a one
sentence. One line benefits statement. Really emotionally, I mean, emotionally, why do I even
care. Like, I had this rotating label and labels never have enough space and I write an article
about it. So, label just doesn’t have enough space for different languages, for drug facts all
these great stuff.

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Robert

So, let’s just clarify for people; we’re not talking about a label for, you know, like can of
mayonnaise. We’re talking about the prescription drug labels, correct?

Stephen

It could be anything because, I think, at the end of the day labels that are on containers,
marketers would love to be able to put more information. Like, recipes, different languages,
larger type. They want to communicate; they want to interact with their customers. So, when I
read this article it came up with an idea that I have a label that adds 75% more space. I just give
them back what real estate what they were asking for. And that was my benefit statement and
that’s the statement that I used to pick up and calling companies. Hi, my name is Stephen Key.
I’m a product developer and I’ve got this label innovation that adds 75% more space to your
label.

Robert

Bam! There is your wow factor.

Stephen

You have to have it. And now, realize, I tell everybody, you don’t need to be a salesperson here.
Because selling on the phone is awful. You don’t want to do that. But you need to have the sale
sheet to let you sell sheet sell for you. Because at the end of the day, I don’t fly out and dance
on the table top and do all that stuff because I realized, number one, the people that I want
there are not going to be there. Number two, when I leave, only thing I’ve left there is maybe
my prototype which will get broken. But I need to leave them something that sells for me when
I’m gone. And that’s that sell sheet and it’s a one page with a picture of benefit statement,
maybe a couple of features to it and my contact information.

Robert

And you use that sell sheet to get the meeting, correct?

Stephen

I use it every time. I use it every, you know, sell sheet, imagine when you’re driving on the
freeway and you look up and you see the billboard, in five seconds you know exactly what it
communicates. That’s what a sell sheet is. It’s been around forever but a lot of us don’t think of
it that way. When you, you know, get a magazine and you see an ad that’s a sell sheet. So, you
need to design a sell sheet with your product. Have that one line benefit statement, wow, why
do I care? Show a picture of it, and have that contact information. And that’s the tool I use. And

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it’s a very effective tool because now they got this. They can pass it out in the meeting, right?
They see it and they almost look like maybe their ad that they would ran. So, you’re taking
some of the risk away and another thing that I want to mention to. This whole process is taking
risk away. And there are steps that you can do to make easier for people to say yes, I like this
idea, yes, let’s take it, let’s license it from you, and yes, let’s bring it to the market. And that’s
what I’m trying to teach people. Just take the risk away and by doing that its small
improvements on existing ideas because you already know there’s a market for it. You also take
the risk away by finding maybe those mid-sized companies. Don’t send it to the big guys, the
number one big companies because they don’t need to take any risk, they’re not going to. To
small guys, too small, he doesn’t have any money but that mid-sized company he’s willing to
take a little bit more risk. Also, another way of taking some of the risk away for someone to say
yes, understand that if it can be manufactured at what cost. You see, most ideas I will see, or
most patents I will see, people have no idea to think it can even be made or at what price point.
And there’s ways that you can find out just by picking up the phone calling contract
manufacturers. And look, what’s this going to cost to me?

Robert

And so, what—can you explain what a contract manufacture is?

Stephen

Okay. This is so simple. It’s almost mind boggling. In every industry there’s a trade association
that it’s kind of umbrella company for the whole industry. And members pay the yearly dues for
the trade association that keep them informed but also this trade association when people call
they’re like, they direct traffic. So, I’ll give you an example. In the music industry, the trade
association is called NAMM. And what they do, they have other members are all the
manufacturers of musical accessories, guitars, you name it, they are the trade associations for
music industry. So, if I called up this trade association, I can Google it, trade association, music
industry, and they’ll come up. Boom! They’ll come up. I can call them up and say look, you
know, I’ve got this new idea for guitar, but I’m not quite sure if it can be made. I’m not quite
sure how much. So, I need the—from your list, do you have anybody there that can actually
quote it for me? And then, they’ll send you over the list. So, I don’t care what fields you’re in
they all have a trade association. Now, remember, when you do call them up, this is how it get
these contract manufacture excited, because I get the list from the trade association. There it
is. Boom! They give me a list of 10 companies. I call them up and I’ll ask for someone in sales.
Because those guys are always pick up their phone.

Robert

Yes, interesting, in sales.

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Stephen

All right. Yeah, always. And so, I’d say hi, my name is Stephen Key, I’m a product developer. You
know, I’ve got this great idea for a new guitar. But I’m not, you know, but mine is a little
different. For number one, I can say, look, can you do it. And number two, I need it for you to
quote a couple of some quantity. And I’d say, first of all, let’s quote a 100, 000 guitars.

Robert

You think that will get their attention, right?

Stephen

They’ll all start working for you.

Robert

Yeah. [overlapping] There’s a theme here, that everyone’s working for you.

Stephen

Well, you know, I know and I like that. So, today, you know, I was having a great time. I was at
this meeting and I was thinking that I have people working for me in many different states and
different countries and some people I don’t even know. And I started thinking about how many
people are working for me and its mind boggling to think about that, that I can live a type of
lifestyle that I want and knowing that my products are being sold and everybody from one into
the next, it was really working for me.

Robert

And you’re also making their life better, you’ve given them a job. You’ve given them something
to do. And so, [overlapping] it’s a complete win-win for everybody involve.

Stephen

I think it is and also I –what I like about this particular business model for me, I can be creative
because I have brought the product to market myself a couple of years ago. And it was sold at
Walmart, 711, and I realized although that we had a lot of success with it, it was a lot of work. I
have to use my own money. I was always looking on my shoulder and make sure the
competition wasn’t coming. But it wasn’t really, it didn’t fit my personality. So, if you’re
someone that doesn’t want to quit your day job but you are creative and you want to be part of
innovation you can play the licensing to get in the licensee lifestyle, you get involved. If you
learn these 10 steps and get out there and get your ideas and you will be amazed the doors that
you can open. And someone, one of my students say, I’m, you know, inventing, I’m changing

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my lifestyle one invention at a time. Because I tell everybody, you know, don’t go crazy here.
You don’t have to. And that’s the whole point of it. Find something you really love to do, make
it your passion and if it’s being creative absolutely do this. You have a blast but you don’t have
to quit your day job.

Robert

And I love that advice. Don’t quit your day job. I think that’s extremely important. You can do
this in what I call, the other eight hours and the time you’re not sleeping or working. And I’m
wondering from your perspective, if someone is new to this and they’ll think, you know, I work
40-50 hours a week. I’ve got a family. Approximately, I know there’s no hard in fast rules here,
but approximately, how much time would you suggest to someone per week that they spend
on this process.

Stephen

Well, you know what happened which you get involved and you love it, and so, you know,
you’re spending a lot of time out but I’ll give you kind of a unique story. I don’t know how
unique this is but two of my students, Mark and Jeff, they’ve known each other since they’re
kids, you know, childhood friends, and they’re both playing in the band. And now they’re down
in Los Angeles, they live 80 miles apart from one another and now they have families and day
jobs. But they want to get back to what they really love and that was being back in the music.
You know, somehow being attached to the music. And so, they contacted me and I started
teaching them my system and so, before you know it, you know, four months –it wasn’t even
four months later they licensed an idea to one of the largest music percussion companies in the
world. And I asked them because I brought them back; I did this the classes that I teach
sometimes I teach at night. I brought these students back on, I said, hey Mark and Jeff, how did
you do it. They have day jobs. And they said, Stephen, what’s interesting when we drove into,
when we commuted each day we did our office calls on our projects and the car.

Robert

Love it.

Stephen

[overlapping] And at lunch time we call the companies. And that’s exactly what they did. And
on the weekends they play and build their prototypes.

Robert

[overlapping] So, you basically, you find the time and like you said if you’re in an industry or in a
space that you love, you’re passionate about it, I mean, it’s not going to be like, alright, I just

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work my nine hours and I’ve got to come home and work some more for my invention. [laughs]
That’s not what it’s like at all.

Stephen

No.

Robert

It’s like [overlapping] at work and I’m thinking, God, I can’t wait till I get home to sort of tinker
around and maybe create that sell sheet and start calling on some companies. That’s what
happens.

Stephen

Yeah. And something takes over—it’s amazing when that first company says yes, I’ll see you
right there. And then when you get that call, you know, there’s a whole step we didn’t talk
about how to cut that deal, but when that call comes in, that’s truly amazing because then
you’d realized wow, you know, someone’s interested. Number one, yeah, my ideas can come to
market. And then you’ll start looking at how many units you’re going to sell. And then things
just change and you’ll realized, wow, you know, I’ve got a whole another career here. So, to
watch these two guys and like typical students, I don’t think there are typical students. Actually,
there’s from, you know, college graduates, I even have one that was in high school to, you
know, stay at home mothers to doctors. I mean, it’s crosses the whole spectrum of people that
have ideas and they think that the part that’s frustrating for me and I think for others is that
they don’t know what to do with those ideas. So, this road map has been working for me and
it’s working for others and I really, I love it because I love it when someone gets that call, they
see their product on TV, they see it on the shelf, and it has changed their life completely
because now they’re empowered. And that’s what the book is really about. Its how to open
doors and how to take your ideas from the point A to point B.

Robert

And so, let’s talk money. Alright.

Stephen

Okay.

Robert

So, you’ve got a company that says, yeah we like this. We think it make sense with our product
line, we want to do a deal with you.

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Stephen

Right.

Robert

And, you know, you’re not an attorney, you’re just a guy with the idea, what do you do with it
at this point?

Stephen

Okay. You know this is the fun, this is the part I love the best. I think this is where I really shine.
But what I’ve learned is that you’re never going to have all the answers so don’t worry about it.
Okay, everybody. Don’t worry about it. You’ll never going to get all the answers and you can
take it slow. Never been hurry about anything. But when you get that call from a company I
always slow it down because what they’re going to say, they’re going to call and then say, hey
Stephen, we got your idea here we’ve got a few more questions. What do you looking for?
Now, when I hear that in my mind to basically ask anyone what royalty rate do I want? Alright,
now, this why I tell everybody, they still ask me, Stephen, what’s the fair royalty rate? I say, you
guys, you have to realize—you have to look at this differently. First of all, you need to
understand it in business. So, when a company calls me up I slow it down and I’d say, great,
Bob, I’m glad you’re interested but before I come up with the royalty rate or a terms sheet with
big terms on it, (we’ll talk about those), I need to understand your business a little bit more.
What I’m trying to see, I might ask him, hey, Bob, how many stores you currently sell your
products now? Oh, you sell at Walmart? Great, let me write that down, Walmart. Oh, you sell at
convenience stores, like 711, great, let me write that down. What I’m trying to figure out is how
many stores they have. Now, recognize that they sell one a week, if you cannot sell one a week
someone’s going to kick your idea out the door. Kick it to the curve pretty quick. But knowing
that, one a week and I can count, let’s say it adds up to 10,000 stores. Then I can figure out how
many they’re going to sell each week for one year. Now, recognize my royalty rate is going to
come up the wholesale price. So, I can guess or I can ask him, hey, what do you think the
wholesale price will be? Oh, $10, great. Ten dollars, okay. So, with these numbers that I have
now, I can do a little matrix that if I had a 5% royalty, 3% royalty, 7% royalty, knowing how
many stores they’re going to sell, selling in one a week, doing the wholesale price, I can do a
matrix to tell me how much money I’m going to make on a 3% 5%, 7% royalty. Now, knowing
these numbers, now I’m going to know how much money I’m going to make. There’s no guess
work here at all. So, I come back and say, you know, Bob, I did my numbers here, thank you for
helping me out to try to understand it. I can come back now and say, because a million dollars
to one person might be a lot of money and a million dollars to somebody else might not be very
much at all. So, and I know that average royalty rates range from, let’s say, 3% to 10%, five is

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pretty average. But I might look at it and he might say, look, I want an exclusive but I might look
at the numbers and go, you know, you’re not going to sell that many? So, I’m not going to give
you an exclusive. And the royalty rate should be 3% it could be 4%, whatever, but at least I
know what the numbers are. So, I break it down, slow it down a little bit. So, I can really
understand the business. Now, if I don’t ever have an answer, they might ask me a question, I
always say, can I get back to you? I never negotiate on the phone. I always get myself 3, 4, 48
hours to think it over. Maybe call somebody else that has more experience to ask them. So, I
take it pretty slow. Now, there’s a lot to the art of the deal here. And in the book I go through
what minimum guarantees, with your performance clauses, basically, they don’t sell enough
you get your idea back. I talk about the advances. I talk about art of clauses. I talk about the
basic terms of licensing agreement. And you can read about it, you can Google it, but once you
understand the basic terms I do all the negotiations myself, because these are business
decisions. And then before I sign anything I have a licensing attorney that looks over my
shoulders to make sure I’ve not done anything that’s going to come back to bite me. But, I tell
everybody and my students too, I have a program, what I tell my students, look, when you get a
deal you have to call me. If it’s not me, you have to find somebody else for the first time. I’m
not going to tell you that hey, you’re going to do great at this the first time out. You will be at a
disadvantage. So, I guess my point is, learn the process, understand that you will be
negotiating, find someone that has a little bit more experience than you can, that can help you.
But you can do this; it’s very, very doable. It’s like anything else in life, you understand how the
game is being played.

Robert

Do you find that these companies are pretty tough negotiators? You know, you give them a
number and they come back and they’ll say, oh, wow, you know, we can’t do that. We were
thinking about half that amount.

Stephen

No. I mean, that, I mean, our country we don’t like to negotiate, number one. Alright. So, you
have to kind of get over that. And what I’ve realized, I wasn’t a great negotiator either. But I do
realized this, a deal has to be painful for both parties a little bit. There’s no perfect deal for just
one side of it because in that deal is not really a good deal for anybody. But, what I try to look
at it this way. If I want a 5% royalty, I’m going to ask for 7%.

Robert

Yeah, that’s exactly where I was going.

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Stephen

You have to, you always have to ask for something a little bit more than what you want. And I
always look for the weaknesses in these companies. Right? So, when I first ask him, hey, where
do you sell at? And I’m going to be looking for places that they don’t sell. Because I won’t give
them an exclusive in that category. I’ll take that out for later. And I always go to a terms sheet
first, big picture items, talk about that in the book too, and then we eventually go to a contract.
But just realize it’s a give and take. Right? So, you’ve never want to top load a deal by asking
him with all these money up front, people don’t like that. And so, if asking them to pay for your
patents instead that’s good business. There are things that really are common sense. Always
realize, negotiate on the phone, and don’t do it by email.

Robert

Great advice. And have you ever lost a deal because you said, you know, when they ask what
kind of terms is you think about? You said, well, I don’t know. I was kind of thinking 10%. And
they said, oh, 10% forget it and basically ended the deal right there. I mean, that doesn’t
happen. They’re willing to negotiate, correct?

Stephen

Well, they all are and realized too that, I tell everybody to call more than one company. Call a
lot of companies up because then you can, hopefully, you’ll be negotiating from the point of
strength. The time that you can negotiate the best, when you can walk away from a deal at any
time, but that doesn’t happen for a lot of people. They get that first deal, they’re so excited,
and all they want this first deal to happen. And I tell everybody, it’s going to take a while. It’ll
probably take a month, slow it down. But if you can walk away from a deal you’ll get the best
deal in the world. If you don’t care, they’ll chase you. So, how do you do that? Well, you do that
by showing it to multiple companies and hopefully, you get a couple of them that are
interested. Gives you a little bit of a swagger, but at the end of the day, know their business,
work with them, ask them what works for you? You know what else is amazing too? A lot of
people don’t understand this. A lot of companies will end up paying you a royalty. If you have a
patent or if you don’t have a patent, a lot of companies will pay your royalty if your patent will
never issue. Because the life span of a product today is very short, unless you have an
evergreen, which means it sells year after year after year. That doesn’t exist a lot. So, they’ll pay
you a little bit. If you’re patent issues they’ll pay you one royalty. If it doesn’t issue they’ll
probably pay you another royalty. But you have to talk to them on the phone and you have to
build a relationship. And that’s the best negotiation that you can. Understanding their wants
and needs and their problems and always understand that they’re not your friend. That they’re

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always trying to get the best of them, which is great and you’re trying to get the best for your
family too.

Robert

And that’s what makes it all work. And so, great advice, fantastic advice on the book and you
also have this website that you started, I don’t know how many years ago, but it‘s
www.inventright.com. Tell the listeners what they can expect there and what can of resources
that they can get.

Stephen

Well, InventRight is kind of unusual. That is one of my website called, www.inventright.com,

R~I~G~H~T, and then you’ll be able to listen to some of my other students. You’ll hear their
journey, absolutely free. And you get a lot of stuff, I just speak about this, I basically give this
information away. And that have been for years. And so you can go there, there’s so much
information that will take you hours to get everything and I have people that email me saying,
Stephen, I’ve been going to your website for years. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. And
they’ve licensed ideas, just by going to my website and observing some of it. But now I’ve put it
all in a book, you just get it and you can read and you can start like tomorrow.

Robert

Right. Much more efficient, getting the book than going to the website.

Stephen

Yeah.

Robert

[overlapping] start with the book though.

Stephen

The great thing about the website, they’ll see me, maybe tell some of this information of I can
bring it to life by telling a story. But the other thing I want to mention, I have another website I
just put up a couple of weeks ago. It’s called www.inventornotes.com. And I recognize one
thing in the industry very fragmented. So, I said, look I want to put up a website that’s about
the industry. Who’s who in the industry? And you can go there and you can see industry
experts, we write all these articles, there’s a directory of all these companies looking for ideas
and we get free webinars, we do all these stuff. It’s a place to go to get juiced up, to get the
stuff, to go hey I want to do this. So, it’s absolutely free, called, www.inventornotes.com. It’s
brand new and I think it’s—I’m trying to bring the community together as a whole, say look, we

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need to provide give information to people because there are a lot of people out there that are
trying to get you something that you really shouldn’t. So, you know, check it out. I think people
will really enjoy it.

Robert

That’s great. So, just to wrap things up, if someone listening into this and, you know, you inspire
them to take some action, what’s that first thing that they should do other than of course
buying your book, but, what’s the next thing after that should someone do to really get this
started.

Stephen

I think what’s amazing that you can pick up the book and right away you could start. You don’t
even have to finish the book to start. And the first thing you’re going to do is have an idea, it’s
like you’re going to do a Google product search to see if your idea even exist. And that’s really a
great tool now, it used to be, you go down to the store, which I still like to do, but you can do a
Google product search to see if your idea s out there in the world. Everybody listen, even if you
find your idea, I still go down to the stores see if it’s there. Because there are always variations
of ideas of ideas of ideas, it doesn’t stop me. So, the internet, this is a wonderful tool to
discover, hey, do I have an idea? But also you’re looking at the competition which is really your
potential licensees; companies are going to want your ideas. So, it’s a good way of just doing
the homework. Take a deep breath, tell yourself you’re going to learn this process and take it
one step at a time and follow my 10 steps. And you will get to the end. I’ve got a roadmap for
you, you will love it, and you’ll get there. The other thing that we’re doing, I just want to
mention, that we’re starting a book club. Because what I’ve realized is that people still have
more questions, so, I thought, okay. Let’s do a webinar and we’ll probably do this once a week,
so, people can come one ask questions, so, we can get those questions answered for people
too.

Robert

So, where can people go to see those webinars?

Stephen

Well, two things is the www.inventornote.com that’s more directory of the whole industry. If
you go to www.inventright.com, that’s more about myself and some of the other things. All
these products I’ve brought to market over 30 years. If you go to www.stephenkey.com that’s
out book club that we’re starting now too.

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Robert

And that’s S~T~E~P~H~E~N.

Stephen

Yes.

Robert

Yeah. So, well, that’s exciting. I’m going to be listening to some of those webinars.

Stephen

Please, come on. I think it’s going to be a blast. I was telling McGraw Hill I said, look, I want to
find a way of missing—and this is going to give me information for the next book. I want to hear
how people are getting stuck a little bit, what they’re reading from this book, what else they
need. So, it’s going to help me, it’s going to help you. You’re going to ask a lot of questions and I
think it’s going to be a great way to build this community. I believe we all need to help each
other. I believe that what you give out you get 10 times you get it back. So, it’s all about—and
finding the right people are thinking the right thought and trying to change their life a little bit.
So, I’m looking forward to the first one we have is going to be next week, I think its next
Wednesday, I think it’s the 13th.

Robert

And that—again, that’s going to be at www.stephenkey.com?

Stephen

www.stephenkey.com, we’ll give everybody a notice that you can sign up for it; we’ll give you a
little password. We’ll do a live webinar and we’ll put some chapters up there, and we’ll have
people send in questions and because we come, you know, it’s amazing, phones ringing up the
hook. People have more questions like, okay, well, how do we answer these?

Robert

I’m thinking book number two? [laugh]

Stephen

Well, you know, that’s funny. I’m—what I’ve realized that what my job is to do is to be an
educator, to really understand where are some of the issues and problems, so, I think we have
a pretty good idea but it’s really great when we hear it from the readers. That’s when I really
know they’re observing information and what are the questions they have. And I’m going to

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watch everybody’s journey. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I have a pretty good idea
where people get stuck. Right? So, we’re trying to provide all the information to where they can
just move forward. And that at the end of the day, that they go from point A to point B.

Robert

And Stephen, will you ever partner with someone, let’s say, someone’s got the idea and maybe
they’ve even gone so far as to create a prototype that they are just not the type, they don’t feel
comfortable calling on companies and negotiating. I mean, could they bring that to you and say
hey, listen, you know what let’s partner on this, we’ll work out some sort of a deal, and you can
do the negotiating and all that other stuff?

Stephen

Well, you know, I never say no. Okay. But what I try to explain to everybody I’m pretty
particular at this point in my life. I love packaging, I’m in the packaging. And so, I like to piggy
back on other people’s product and they’re like products are everywhere, so, I’m in the
packaging industry, so, yes, that’s my favorite. If I see something that’s in that industry it’s
really easy for me to implement it because I know everybody, that’s where I play. But, I always
tell everybody, look, if you got an idea you want me to see, send it over to me, of course. I can
do two things. I can do direct you to some place that someone else is looking for that idea, or I
can push you to one direction or say, no it’s not for me. But, absolutely, I would never say never
because you never, you just—no one has that crystal ball and I love ideas.

Robert

And so, how would they contact you.

Stephen

They could send it to Stephen@inventright.com.

Robert

And so, my guess though is that you are not going to evaluate their proposal, their product.
You’re not going to say oh, this is good, or no, I don’t think it’s going to be good to the market.
You’re not going to do that, correct?

Stephen

No, I don’t do that. I think that’s impossible.

Robert

Okay.

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Stephen

I think it’s really impossible. You don’t need evaluation. What I would do is say, look, maybe go
here, maybe try this, maybe there’s another way of positioning that but I don’t have the crystal
ball. I don’t know. And people think I should know. I don’t know. I’ve had people very, very
close to me that were great at new product development, went to the best schools—amazing
that some saw a few of my ideas and then think that they weren’t that great, and I end up
licensing those ideas.

Robert

Well, there’s a great story and maybe you’re talking about this one in the book about your wife.
And so, I won’t ruin it for anyone.

Stephen

No, you’re not, you know, its amazing story, I tell the story everywhere I go and people are just
surprised at the story. So, no, I’ve learned that I don’t have all the answers and I tell everybody
look you only opinion that matters is that company you’re showing it to, so, yes, I don’t even
evaluate though. I don’t know what’s good.

Robert

Good, because I don’t want to inundate your email box with a lot of people making, you’re
going to give them the, you know, some sort of grading system.

Stephen

No, I don’t grade [overlapping]

Robert

Really, this has been absolutely fantastic. Just huge, huge things, thanks to you Stephen. You
clearly know what you’re talking about here, you’ve been doing it for a number of years and
like you said you’re an educator. And you’ve really educated me and I’m sure my listeners as
well. And so, if you want to learn more from Stephen, he’s got a couple of websites, you could
start by going to www.inventright.com and that’s kind of a hub and you can go then to
www.stephenkey.com and to some of those others. And so, if you’re ready to put into action go
to www.richerlife.com, there’s going to be lot more resources that will help you implement
what you’ve heard from Stephen today. And also going to the message boards talk about what
inspired you about this message and what you’re going to do with it going forward. And so,
again, Stephen, thanks so much for your time, really appreciates it.

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Stephen

Thank you very much, Robert. I enjoyed it.

Join Robert Pagliarini, Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, Wealth Creator, and TV

Commentator as he has compelling conversations with experts that drive more
money, motivation, and meaning into your life, at www.RicherLife.com .

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MindMap

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MindMap

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Action Script

How to Begin Licensing Your Ideas

First Steps: Getting Started with Your Idea

• Do a Google product search to see if your idea already exists.

• If you find your idea, don’t be discouraged!

Go to the store and see if you find your idea there.

There are many variations of different products. Find something that makes your
idea unique or better from other similar products that may already exist.

• Use the internet to research your competition, potential licensees (companies who are
going to want your idea).

Contacting a Company with Your Idea:

• Even if you don’t have an idea, contact a company!

By speaking to someone you can find out what types of ideas the company is looking
for and what problems they are facing.

• Once you have your idea, call the company and ask to speak with someone in marketing or
sales.

• Give a brief summary of your idea and ask if they are interested in more information

• If they are interested for information, you’ve received a green light from them and have
achieved your first success.

• Next, send them the following tools (remember, you don’t need to overdo it with your
prototype!):

A YouTube video which presents your idea.

 About a minute in length.

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 Briefly present the problem the company is facing and the solution you are
proposing (your idea!).

 Remember to answer the question why they should care about your idea.

 The purpose is to grab peoples’ attention.

A sell sheet.

 Should be able to communicate what your idea is with this brief

advertisement.

 Emotionally, summarize your idea into a one line sentence

 Include a picture.

 Include contact information.

Where you can go to Find Help, Tools, and Resources:

• “One Simple Idea: Turn your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine while letting Others Do the
Work” Stephen Key’s new book.

• Inventright.com

Free information and materials.

Listen to stories and advice from Stephen’s students.

• Inventornote.com

Directory of companies looking for ideas.

Find industry experts.

• Stephenkey.com

Ask and find questions answered.

Live webinar series.

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About Stephen Key

Stephen Key is a successful award-winning inventor

and entrepreneur, having licensed over 20 products in
the past 30 years. A holder of over thirteen patents,
Stephen’s products have sold in Wal-Mart, 7 Eleven,
Disney Stores and theme parks worldwide and have
been endorsed by basketball great Michael Jordan and
Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. Stephen’s innovative
Spinformation rotating label has been licensed for use
on many products including a product called Accudial.
Accudial shows parents how to dose their child’s liquid
medication by weight versus traditional age, making it
more accurate. Stephen is also a member of the Board
of Directors of Accudial Pharmaceuticals. Accudial is
the recipient of the Product of the Year Award for
Canada as well as a finalist in the 2011 Edison Awards.

Recognized as an outstanding leader in the field of innovation, Stephen has appeared on

national television numerous times, including an appearance on the CNBC show “The Big Idea
with Donny Deutsch” and as an expert guest on “Dr. Phil”. Stephen has been interviewed by
national magazines, newspapers, and authors such as Tim Ferris (“The 4-Hour Work Week”) and
Donny Deutsch (“The Big Idea”). Stephen was also a consultant on the first season of the hit
ABC reality TV show “American Inventor”, created by Simon Cowell. Stephen was a keynote
speaker at the US Patent & Trademark Office 14th Annual Independent Inventor Conference in
November 2009.

Along with business partner Andrew Krauss, Stephen co-founded inventRight, a company
dedicated to educating inventors, entrepreneurs, or anyone with an idea the necessary steps to
build wealth through licensing. Stephen is also the licensing and inventing expert at
AllBusiness.com (A Dun & Bradstreet Company).

Stephen has a new book from McGraw-Hill titled “One Simple Idea” is available in book stores
nation wide as well as online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In this new book Stephen
will inspire readers to license (rent) their ideas to Fortune 500 companies using his simple 10-
step system.

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Stephen Key on Facebook

Stephen Key on Twitter

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About Richer Life Insights

Richer Life Insights is a community of passionate people who want to learn and achieve more in
life and at work. Members of Richer Life Insights include entrepreneurs, business owners, and
others who are focused on creating and living a better life. It’s an online destination members
can easily plug into that provides them with easy to implement advice that can radically change
their life.

You can participate in conversations I have with an experts, celebrities, authors, and thought
leaders that is laser-focused on practical ways to drive more money, motivation, and meaning
into your life.

We are acutely aware of information overload. While there is certainly no shortage of

information—even good information—there doesn’t exist a system (until now!) that you can
easily plug into that provides you with easy to implement advice that can radically change your
life.

If you want to take your life and finances to the next level and want to have some fun in the
process, become a member now.

About Robert Pagliarini

Best-Selling Author | Entrepreneur | Wealth Creator | TV Commentator

Robert Pagliarini is a man on a mission. He is obsessed with

improvement, making the most of his time and energy, and
creating. He’s also obsessed with inspiring others to create and
empowering them to live life to the fullest by radically changing
the way they invest their time and energy.

Robert Pagliarini is the founder of Richer Life Media, LLC and runs
Richer Life Insights. In addition to being the author of the national
bestseller The Six Day Financial Makeover, Plan Z: How to Survive
the 2009 Financial Crisis (and even live a little better), and The
Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth &

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Purpose, he writes a personal development column for CBS that is syndicated to newspapers
(e.g., Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Orange County Register) and popular online websites including
the Huffington Post and many others. Robert has also had multiple appearances on Good
Morning America as well as Dr. Phil, 20/20, ABC News and others. For future appearances,
Robert will be identified as the founder of Richer Life Insights.

Robert is the president of Pacifica Wealth Advisors, Inc., a boutique wealth management firm
specializing in sudden money recipients. He is a Certified Financial Planner, has a master’s
degree in financial services, and is currently completing a master's degree in counseling
psychology.

When not working, Robert enjoys going to Disneyland with his wife and young daughter,
attending Saddleback Church, and running a non-profit he co-founded called the Band of
Brothers Foundation that helps impoverished kids around the world.

Robert on Facebook

Robert on Twitter

For More Information

If you enjoyed this ebook and would like to learn more, go to Richer Life Insights for the audio
interview, videos, and sign up for our voicemail coaching.

www.richerlife.com

Richer Life Insights a conversation with Stephen Key