00:00
I want to first of all thank you guys for participating in this this is so helpful for inventors and those new to the process in your story is really inspiring. I mean, and the fact that a lot of inventors are get a tremendous amount of support from their family or, or a spouse or someone so the fact that you guys are and we'll kind of dive into that a little bit like what what it's like to be married and working on an idea together.
00:32
Depends on the day.
00:36
Because guys, like a lot of things, its ups and downs. But guys, here's Jordan, Kelly molestus. They're the inventors of child be safe. And Jenny, if you want to play a short video, just demonstrating the product, and then we'll start off with the story behind it.
01:41
Yeah, perfect. Actually, you have a lot of videos on your website. So we just picked one that showed the traditional, like socket cover, and that you have, but you also have a modern style. So I'll start out with a little bit about your background. And I'll start because that's always interesting for our inventors is to see that they're oftentimes it appears to be a disconnect. But there's also a common theme behind an inventors day job, so to speak, and what they end up launching. So Kelly, why don't you start with yours? And tell us what your what your day job is apart from working, you know, in your own company?
02:25
Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, my most important job is mom, which is why we're here talking about this today. So George, and I have a set of seven and a half, almost eight year old twins, which helped us really kind of launch this idea. But in addition to that I am a child and adolescent psychologist with one of our health systems here in Detroit. I've been doing this for what seems like forever, especially over the course of the last year. So yeah, so that's a focus on kids, adolescents, young adults, their families, it really runs the gamut dealing with kids who are struggling with anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorder, it really runs the gamut. So I'm very blessed and very fortunate to be, you know, working for a great system and doing a job that I love, and then getting to also use some of those skills and the problem solving and helping, you know, in different facets also, you know, in work at home and now with with this invention and product. Good,
03:27
exactly. But thank you, George, what about yourself?
03:32
Well, I'm a civil engineer, I practice civil engineering for nearly 20 years, I was on a private end for a few years and then spent the rest of my career there are 17 years in the public sector, municipal projects, land development projects, and also review engineering. So the field that I was in basically, I was reviewing engineering plans to make sure that they meet or exceed you know, our city specifications prior to you know, the developer putting it their projects under construction. So very rewarding, great career. And I left that field a couple of years ago to pursue child be safe with the help of course here with my lovely wife,
04:22
okay, and now and now your child be safe is your full time occupation, right it's like it most inventors they would say you know full time is more than what most people consider full time. So for sure, it's been a lot of time. I tell us and I believe the eureka moment Kelly came from you. And then you guys started kind of collaborating together. So so tell us what first prompted this take us back in time to when George is still working as a civil engineer and there was no child be safe at that moment.
04:59
Absolutely. way. Yeah, so it's I mean, it's hard to think that it was so long ago and so much time has kind of gone by, but in actuality, it really wasn't either. So being a mom of twins and just a new mom in general, I think I had made, you know, multiple trips a week to byebye. Baby Babies R Us, you know, researching products, you know, for the kids as they were kind of growing up. And, you know, the time came to safety proof the house, you know, they were crawling, they were getting into things. And I remember a conversation with our pediatrician where he literally said to me, you have to get on the floor and crawl around as if you were them and look for things that you wouldn't normally see at eye level. And it really kind of stuck with me. And so when they started walking, they were probably 1415 months old. Fast forward a little bit to like, you know, that timeframe, they were fascinated with light switches with the outlets. We had, George had outfitted every outlet in our house with the little plastic protectors that just kind of pop right in. And it almost became like a game, I was finding them all over the house, they weren't really doing what they needed to do. And that was something that was scary to me, because I had, at that same time had stumbled across a statistic where almost 6000 Kids wind up in the emergency room every year with electric related injuries. And, you know, the thought that something that we know we're supposed to protect our kids from, but that you can't keep eyes on them every single second of every day was was really scary for me. So I started looking, you know, what else could I use, you can only move so much furniture, you can only block so many of the outlets that you're not using. And so, you know, I said to George, I said, I'm not finding anything. And this is really, you know, starting to concern me. And I knew that if I was thinking this, I knew that there were other moms that were thinking about this as well. And so I had this idea that, you know, if we could just cover it all together, we didn't even know it was there. And that we were able to kind of shut out the whole system that may be you know, maybe there would be something I wasn't able to find anything. I am not an engineer or inventor by any stretch of the imagination prior to this, like this never would have been something that would have crossed my mind. But as I started to think about it a little bit more, I was able to kind of give George my idea and say listen, you're the engineer, here's what I'm thinking now fix it, figure it out. And so that was really the the inception of childsafe. And really kind of how we got to this point, there was something that I noticed that I needed and I, you know, wasn't able to find. And, you know, a lot of times and we've heard a lot of people tell us that's when the best inventions come to fruition is when you can't find what you need until you do it yourself. And this is really a testament to that for us.
07:51
So and I'm gonna I'm not the best illustrator, but I'm just gonna take a quick shot. As you know, I'm a former engineer myself before becoming a patent attorney. So George, don't judge me on my, my drawing skills at all. But when you talk about the existing solutions, there were there are little plastic parts, right like circles that you can that you basically plug in instead of covering the entire socket. It just covers this one part. That's correct. Okay, yeah. So what you saw tell us about the disadvantages with this me one, I can tell you have you ever stepped on one of these when they was when you had the bottom part like kind of facing up? It's, it's not a fun feeling like this is basically a shot at with those what those are. You're supposed to take those stick them in. But if they fall out, and they don't, you know, I have, I don't have twins, but my wife and I have five we have five kids. Okay. Two of them are a year apart. So they're not twins, but I know kind of what you're dealing with. They don't really fall out. I mean, there's kids. These are like an attractant for toddlers like they see it. And there's this little bit of space behind it just enough maybe they can get their nails in, and they take them out. Like, this is like the opposite for
09:20
kids. It's easy. And that's exactly it. John, for kids. It's easy. They just pop their little finger behind there. And they're able to I mean, I still use I'll be honest, when we had them, I would still use the plug from the vacuum to like pull them out because I couldn't get them out. But something that's exactly and for them, it was like a three second, you know if that it was a three second, you know, feet. The biggest concern that we also had, and one of the things that we knew is those plastic protectors are things that everybody uses. There's millions of these sold every year, but they're actually a choking hazard as well. And so that was another component to it. That scared me is you know how Having one is hard enough but having to and kind of trying to wrangle them in and making sure that there was nothing on the floor and vacuuming multiple times a day so that they couldn't get things in their mouth. And then this one thing that just was a magnet for their attention was a choking hazard. And as we started to develop this, and we were talking with friends and family, and you know, I had one of my closest girlfriends who said to me, you know, Kyle, I never thought about this, but her son used to actually pull them out with his teeth. Like, he would literally put his mouth over them and pull them out with his teeth. And so then I'm like, okay, that's just a recipe. There's so many recipes for disaster in this equation. And so they were, you know, they were some of our biggest supporters initially, you know, with this project, because they saw, you know, in their own home, what they were kind of dealing with. And so as our conversations progressed, it was it was great to get that reaction.
10:50
And, John, it's the feeling of when you step on one of those things, it's worse than stepping on a Lego.
10:58
Yeah, because at least in Lego is guy will talk to engineering, we do like more surface area for that little round peg. But here, it's just like the sharp little piece.
11:06
Oh, yeah.
11:09
But it's, you know, it's funny, you mentioned that, like, every, you know, so different products have pros and cons. And it's sometimes it's the end user, in this case, like a parent of twins are the ones that are best able to find out what the deficiency in a product is, like they had for years. I mean, you've probably seen them like them, there's, like people with walkers are putting, like cutting tennis balls open and putting tennis balls on the front, two parts of the walker, just or the or the back two legs, just because it's it helps cushion and it provides some grip. And the funny thing is that designers, the engineers that are designing these are not using walkers on a daily basis. So they get the finished product. They probably, you know, like tested around a conference room once or twice, and they say, Okay, well, I it's done. So they're not taking, you know, 100 steps, 200 300 steps a day and then and not realizing it. So I think that's a lot of what's happening with, with toddler products to, you know, infant products, is that moms are are like necessity is the mother of invention, like they're finding out the first time among, you know, brought puts a regular diaper on their baby and goes to the beach and the thing disintegrates. And that triggers the idea for the swim diaper. And the same thing with like, the jogging stroller like you can't jog with a regular stroller and the designers are looking at okay, the scroller is for strolling like they're kind of like looking at it with blinders on. And sometimes it takes someone actually in the in the field to step on one for example, or have their or see their toddler with their I can't even the thought of that is frightening, like with their mouth, directly on the socket trying to pull the to find that the where the downside is, it's a similar product that comes to mind that not to say, You guys are are old, but you're old enough to know of this product like years ago, the way you would open a soda can is there would be this metallic tab that you would pull out and I think still, maybe V eight still have some there's still some products that have them. But once once you separate it, you know, what do you do with it? People? A lot of times they're thrown away and good people get their feet cut at the beach, Pablo swallow them until an inveterate came along with the push and tab. And they were from outside the industry like not even in the bottling industry. That That brings me to the next question. Is that something that what you believe was an obstacle to you? Or was it a fear? You had, like, you know, who am I to present a new product? I'm not a product developer or a product designer? I'm not from within the industry? How could I possibly come up with an idea that a mature industry has not thought of? Like did these things cross your mind or what are the obstacles?
14:22
Absolutely. I think, you know, initially, like I said, this was not I mean, I never in a million years would have thought that I would have invented something, let alone you know, when George and I were talking about it. I mean, we used to joke like, oh, we should invent something, but then it's like one of those conversations. I think for me personally the scariest you know, or more kind of foreboding piece was just this idea of we don't know anything about this, like where do we even start and that was the scary part. And then obviously you know, you know John, you know firsthand This is not a necessarily cost saving opportunity. Like this is you know, this is a big process from start to finish. And so it was a little daunting for us to, you know, find our patent attorney and kind of feel like we had somebody that understood where we were coming from and kind of saw our vision but was able to help us and guide us in the best way possible. I think with that being said, we were very blessed, in fact that we fell into the right hands along the start of this process, and really got that information to help us get you know, we were able to go through the process of researching first to make sure that, you know, something like this didn't already exist, and that we weren't potentially infringing on, you know, another patent that was already out there. So, it was it was really a step by step process. We did a lot of learning. Along the way. I think there were definitely times and I'm sure we'll talk about this more later. But definitely times where we were like, What are we doing? What have we gotten ourselves into? But, you know, it was a learning process, just like with anything, and we just, you know, we, we knew when we had to pace ourselves, and when we had to slow down, and when we had to seek additional, you know, sources for questions and answers, because it is it is daunting, and you want to believe that, you know, everyone who's there to help you is telling you what's in your best interest. And this is what we should do. You know, but again, we we've, we've funded this all on our own. And so that was a big piece for us of, you know, we want to be safe with it, you know, yes, we want this to be big, and we want this to be in homes, because we've been able to see the difference that it's made. But just you know, kind of learning when it when to pace ourselves and when to be like this sounds, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, it might be some way there was a lot of learning along the process.
16:38
And you said something interesting. So this is not a it's not a quick way to supplement your income. It's not like you can use the royalty payments to help fund the patenting expenses are the typing expenses. It's completely the other way around. There's a lot of spending, before you ever see the first Penny comeback. So for any of our viewers that are looking and saying, Well, you know what, like if you're, this pandemic has, you know, caused you to have fewer hours ahead, your job lost. And you're thinking well invent something to get me through until the pandemic is over. Unfortunately, the tough reality of inventing is that this pandemic is likely going to be well over before any returns from your invention start coming in. And that's just the tough reality. I mean, even Jeff Bezos of Amazon 14 years of losses before Amazon ever turned a profit. And, you know, so that's, you know that and that's not I'm not saying to anyone that it's going to take 14 years, but it's certainly not a get rich quick scheme that is going to yield results right away, there is going to be a tough road ahead. I want to jump ahead just a little bit George to your because that's always interesting that that point where you quit a full time day job to pursue this dream. And that's not an easy decision by any means. When I started my practice, and left the fishing, leave a large law firm to go out on my own it was it was the same thing. It's like, gosh, how am I going to get my first clients? How am I even going to make it past the first month, much less the year? Tell us about that decision. And and I'm sure there's a lot of collaboration between the two of you, on when to do it, whether to do a to talk to us about that?
18:41
Well, during my last three years of being, I was a city engineer and engineering manager for the city right next door to the town that we live. And the opportunity had come up for me to be placed into the Director of Economic Development for the City. At the time, you know, we had just started thinking about what we just heard about, you know, what was going on with possible, you know, pandemic in China, it's making its way into the United States. So my it was, for me, it was gonna be a lot of travel, didn't quite feel comfortable with the travel that that would be done. And you know, it was pretty much a take it or leave it type of deal. I would have to leave my engineering position to do that. They thought that I would serve the city even better if I went into that that role. So I wasn't quite interested in that position. And so we had a great talk with Kelly literally it happened on a Friday. I came home and you know, of course, I have a lovely and supportive wife. I'm so glad that You know, she supported me, with my decisions every step of the way of our marriage. And this was just another true, you know, you know, supporting system for me to let go of that, and, you know, take child be safe and get it running. So I mean, our company was founded in early 15th. But you know, by the time we got our hands on the patents, you know, it took almost three years to get patents, we have two utility patents that have been issued to us, one of them is for a two button, the other one is for a three button unit. And so as soon as we got all that we were in the process of, you know, finding a manufacturer, because at the time, like, Okay, we got the patents, do we just hold on to them? Do we sell them off? Do we open a company up? What do we do. And so we decided that we wanted to make a difference in not only you know, children's, and pets lives, okay, but also give parents peace of mind, this was our way of being able to give back, because here in the state of Michigan, you know, in 2008, we went through a really, really bad recession, of course, this is a heavily, you know, industrial state, we've got the big three here. And there's a lot of companies that feed off of the big three. So with what we did, we were able to, you know, collaborate and team up with local companies to make this thing, you know, come to fruition. So it's really cool, there's, you know, three companies that pretty much have livelihood off of this invention of ours, from the people that from the company that makes it, this is one of our units, that makes the springs to the company, of course, that makes the actual shell of our units, to even down to the screw that we purchase for the units that are included with every one of the the items that we sell, and we struck a deal, you know, being a small business port person, it's really hard to even get into one of these manufacturing facilities for them to give you the opportunity. Because, unless, you know, you're one of the big three that can show, you know, millions and millions of dollars of work that you'll bring them, nobody will give you the shot, you know, to make this happen. So we were fortunate that we found a local manufacturing facility to help us with this, and they've been great to work with, they've been around for 50 years, AMD plastics, family owned, and they gave us our Big Shot. So then we built our website and started
22:49
manufacturing is right there in Michigan.
22:53
Correct, correct. And we actually hand assemble our units in house we had assembled, you know, because we wanted to, of course, save money to be able to, you know, pay off the debts that we had to get this thing going. And we still, you know, there's clips here. And then there's springs, of course, we hand assemble all this, and then we test every single one of them, we clean them up again, and make sure before they're packaged and boom, locks, you've got three button system, no kid has that kind of dexterity, where they're able to push all three buttons and open up the unit. Whereas an adult does. Same thing with pets, you know. So it's, it's really cool. We've manufacturing also for switches, the traditional switch, and also for modern switches and modern outlets, which this one serves a dual purpose. And we also make them you know, an ivory and also in white. So, you know, these are great, people love them, you know, neurodiverse families, grandparents, you know, nannies, it's it's really cool that they're buying them to protect, you know, their fireplace switches, garbage disposal switches, switches that control, you know, computer equipment, sensitive electronic equipment. So there's a lot of purposes that these units serve, that are, you know, really making a difference in everyone's lives. We're proud to be able to give back.
24:26
Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's got to be a marvelous feeling like, what? What would you I mean, we've talked a little bit about some of the obstacles, but tell us about some of the big wins, and it might not be like going back to Jeff Bezos example. I remember seeing an interview once where they asked him what was one of the is most happiest, I guess, patients that would Amazon and you would think it would be something huge like you know what, when we bought 350, Whole Foods stores or whatever, but It was his answer was surprising. He said, You know, the day that I was able to hire somebody and not do my own delivery to the post office.
25:10
The conversation we just had with Georgia the other day.
25:14
So it wasn't like this, this huge multinational acquisition are something that really, it was like, You know what, I don't have to load up my truck and go down to the post office with these. Folks at that time, it was just books. So tell us about yours. What were some points where you you had this feeling of okay, you know, what, we made the right decision. And we're glad we did this.
25:37
Oh, my gosh, I think there's so many Gen, honestly, I think the biggest thing for us is being able to see something that we're so passionate about, come to fruition, right to come from an idea of George and my father in law, creating a prototype in the basement of wood sticks and pieces, and whatever. And now, to have this, I think is is monumental for us. Obviously, knowing that the product makes a difference in people's lives, the reviews that we've gotten, you know, as a mom, this was like, Okay, this is gonna solve a problem, right? This was one situation that I ran into, but to also see that we were able to expand it to switches. And, you know, I, we had one of the kids friends, the mom and I were talking a while ago, and she was like, this is the best thing ever. We, they had a switch in the family room that control the TV husband was working from home. And you know, the kids thought it was fun to like, Oh, Daddy walked away, let's go and turn off the switch, and then everything powered down. So just being able to hear that people have found it as useful and as easy. And it's one less thing I have to worry about. You know, George mentioned it earlier, obviously, as a psychologist hearing the reviews the great words from neurodiverse families, you know, patients who, you know, not patients, but, you know, parents who have, you know, kids that have autism, or ASD related, you know, Autism Spectrum Disorders, other disabilities where, you know, there were struggles with, you know, keeping them away from things and, and just the the peace of mind that this gives to parents that, that they don't have to worry about certain things has been great. I think the fact that it's given us an opportunity to teach our kids you know, real life lessons in in the flesh, right in vivo of like, just doing this stuff, and to also see them get excited about it. You know, they love hearing that there's an order that just came in and you know, the matriarch son will ask George Okay, Dad, what, what, what did they order? What do I need to go get, and he knows where everything is downstairs, he'll bring it upstairs and help George, you know, package it, they take turns taking it to the mailbox. So the fact that this has really become a family affair, and they're proud of it. I mean, I get emotional thinking about it, even at seven is huge for us.
28:05
Do you have the original you don't have to show them now but the original prototypes, because there's so many incredibly successful inventors like Sara Blakely comes to mind, and she has her original pair of pantyhose, like she cut the toes off of to make her first prototype. Like, could you have those and you see where things had started. And they even started well, before that it started just with an idea right? Before it became a drawing on paper, and then they see it on, you know, become an actual product and then see people write in with their reviews and how it's, it's helped them and I mean, it's just, it's, it is, it's just amazing. I mean, it's so I feel blessed to be able to speak to you guys and work with inventors, that many of them are doing the same thing. And they're following this this journey. Let me ask one question that's been like bugging me. And that's I just find one of the ingenious aspects of your idea is that you don't need keys or a combination because you know, you forget you can forget a combination, you can lose the keys. And now you've got what a lock over your pocket. Where did the idea for using dexterity that an adult is able to do but a child cannot like which one of you were came up with that that Georgia's taking
29:38
credit for it. So that was George
29:42
that's just that was just beautiful. What I saw and that aspect, I don't know like we have every there's so many times with, like even we have a lock on our door here at the office. It's a combination and invariably, somebody will like you know, like, forget the combination and you're hearing them Morning would call somebody else. And that's, that's fine for, obviously, we don't want just dexterity to be the way somebody can get into our office. But because there's no kids trying to get in and that time, but you guys have really identified honed in on the difference of your product, and what the end user is. And that dexterity aspect is perfect for it, because it makes it simpler for the adults because they don't have to remember anything, carry around anything. There's no separate part that can get lost. And then the whole product is obsolete. It's all there. So one piece well.
30:39
So, John, this is the funny thing. You know, have you seen I'm sure you've seen, you know, where they put those little locks on, like liquor cabinets, and also the kitchen cabinets and what have you, we actually have to push it and it releases from the inside in order for the door to open. Yep. So we had them on our liquor cabinet here. And of course, One wasn't enough, because of course, as soon as they saw us do it, they would go there, our kids would go there and open it up. So I'm like, Okay, well, I gotta outsmart them. So what I did next is I put a latch a lock up top, and the lock at the bottom of the door. Well, that only lasted about a month, what they were doing is like, Okay, we'll fix you. Dimitri was our son was taking the top one on hooking it, and then our daughter IV was pushing the bottom one, and then boom, the door would open again, right? And I'm like, Well, what do I do next? I'm like, Okay, I'll add a third button, right on the actual door. So I put one up top, one of the middle one at the bottom. And that to this day, I mean, they're seven years old. Now, they can't open it up. So when we first started talking about this, I'm like, Okay, we have to come up with some sort of locking mechanism. And I started, you know, designing, doing different layouts, and how we're going to make this thing work. We designed it literally 10 different ways. And you know, our patent covers those 10 different ways. So nobody, of course, takes our idea. And I took two straws, I'm sitting at my, what's my parents house? My dad, you know, he was when he came to the United States, from Greece, he worked for a factory. So you know, he was a foreman, they're very mechanically inclined, my you know, he's only got a sixth grade education. And I'm telling him about the idea that I have. And he's like, Well, you know, you got all this competition? Are you sure you want to go through with this? How are you going to do it? So I have taken two straws with me, you know, and I'm like, Okay, well, how can I get the straws to go up and down, and I found this little spring, I dropped the spring inside the straw. But well, between the two straws made the one smaller, and then I was able to get, you know, a push button type of thing. And the first prototype that we had made, it was actually one cylinder all the way down, and then you would press this, and it would it was just one spring, and it had a, you know, up and down action. But, you know, getting that into production or manufacturing, because that cylinder is a special cylinder, it would cost a lot of money to put this thing together. So that's when we started designing, you know, we're sitting in the patent Attorney's Office, and he's like Georgia, and I know you want to patent something with with the two buttons. I'm sure we can get a patent that he says, but we need something more. I'll never forget it. It was a Friday, it was like four o'clock in the afternoon. He's like, what else can we do? And I throw the idea. I'm like, What about adding a third button? And he's like, a third button. What do you mean? I said, Well, he goes, where would you put it? I said, Well, what about here? And he's like, well show me and he goes how would you open it I said while you would just put your finger here, put your thumb at the bottom, put your middle finger at the top and then your pointer finger, your index finger, push it here and then push all three buttons in sync and bam. It opens up and he's like wow novel idea. You can even add a fourth button. But then you know you start getting to the point where as you start adding all these buttons and springs and what have you and you're making him in the USA you know you have to be careful with what you're doing because you want to not only be able to sell it at a price someone who will be will pay for it. But also you want to turn you know some sort of profit in the end. So we found the common denominator of a three button unit to work great and this is you know, we call this a childproof device. All the other stuff that you see on the market John is more resistant, you know it's everything is pretty much defeatable and that's where what we have is very unique in the baby safety Market, we're getting a lot of praise. So just pretty cool.
35:06
One more thing too, just to kind of piggyback that, that sentiment, I think the other nice thing about it is it also serves the out of sight, out of mind purpose, right. So by covering the outlet in its entirety, when it's not in use, the likelihood, I mean, they're gonna go up to it, they're going to look at it, they're gonna realize they can't do anything with it, and then they move on. And it's really the last time we've seen any, you know, any fuss with it. So it really is that out of sight, out of mind, you know, mindset for them to kind of like peekaboo. If they can't see it, it's not there. Um, so that was another added benefit to doing it.
35:41
It's about like the attractant, right? Like, if you see it, then you want to, it's more likely that you want to try to access it or whatever.
35:50
And what we have done, John is we made it in white, of course, because a lot of the outlets, you know, people love that whatever effect they have on the wall and the white to match the trim and what have you the reason why went with white, but you know, then you have the houses that have the natural decor and the colors that they select. And we found that the ivory color or almond color, you know, blends in, you know very well, I mean, we've made custom ones for clients that are you know, like gray, there's people that are asking for them in black, you know, so the possibilities are endless. Of course. Another thing with our unit was, uh, you know about this John, being an engineer, it's, it's kind of living hinge. This right here, of course, it's all molded together, and we had to find the right blend the right mixture of, you know, plastics in order to make this thing as durable as possible. And even a guy you know, my size, you ain't got it, you pull it, this thing does not break and of course, you know, kids with the strength that they have to, you know, hanging on and and what have you all that played a role to try to make this as, as you know, of high quality and extreme durability as possible.
37:05
Okay, and it's actually been used. I've been reading on, like daycare centers have ordered some churches have ordered some is that that's got to be like schools as well, like, that's got to be a phenomenal feeling as well, because, you know, sometimes it's the early stages when an inventor has an idea. There's this this doubt of you know, what, am I oversensitive? Is this something that you know, that I'm overly concerned about, but there's not others that share this view? And Kelly, from the sounds of it, you didn't really have those doubts, you seem to be pretty confident that you know what, there's, there's a need out there. And obviously, you were right. But when you have daycares and schools and churches purchasing that's really confirmation that this is this and that you really come on to something that that's got a real, real need in the marketplace?
38:00
Absolutely. It's, you know, I think it was one of those things, like you said, John, where I just, you know, I realized that, you know, like I've said before, if this was something I was thinking, I'm sure there was somebody else, you know, who was thinking and we've all done it, right? We've all walked through, whether it's byebye baby or a hardware store, we've all walked through and found that one product and thought, Oh, my God, where was this when I needed it? And so that was part of you know, the process. And again, you know, there's there's parents, and we've heard, you know, great things. But you know, we've also heard that the plastic things are cheaper, and they're perfectly fine for, you know, for where I need it. And that's okay. This may not be something that you know, just like anything else. But I think when we you know, our first instance, and getting into the schools was just an interesting story in the sense that our kids were in preschool when they were four. And probably about a year and a half after they were out of preschool and started kindergarten, I bumped into the director of their preschool at a Made in Michigan festival that that George and I had done. And she's like, What are you doing here? And I said, Oh, we you know, we have this product, and she's like, What are you talking about? And so she came over and she saw it, and she said, Kel This is fantastic. And she said, you know, let's plan a day to talk I'd really like to put these in the preschool. And I said, Okay, so we had met and we talked and some of the issues that they were running into were exactly what we talked about, you know, those plastic little outlet things were, you know, being taken out by kids or, you know, they're custodians in the program and in the in the church would take them out to vacuum or to do like housekeeping related things, and then they'd go and unplug the vacuum but they would forget to put the plastic things back in. So this really was something that she's like, I think this would benefit so we, you know, we were fortunate enough to be you know, able to work with them and we outfitted every preschool classroom, in the in the in the building, as well as some of their other classroom type offices that they had. As this started to grow. And as we started to, you know, kind of expand into more daycares into schools, we had COVID. And that really kind of forced us to need to kind of pivot just like everybody did. Because schools weren't in Session. And, you know, people weren't taking their kids to daycare. And so, you know, as things pick up again, you know, we continue to have that plan. And we'll continue to work with these partnerships that we've made. But yeah, it's it's really been, that's really been the icing on the cake is, you know exactly what you said, like this was something we thought we saw the benefit in it and hope that that others would. And so as this continues to grow, and, and as we get the additional feedback, it just, it just solidifies that.
40:42
You know, love it. Love it, it's both of you guys are so inspiring, I'm glad you were able to make it, we typically cut these at exactly a half hour, but I've gone over because the you're just such a source such a wealth of information. For inventors, Jenny, if you want to type into the chat the website for if somebody wants to order, child be safe.com. And if there's any parting words of advice, so I'll start with you, Kelly, and then George, for any inventors that are at the stages you were at when you first decided to launch? Yeah,
41:20
I think the most important I've said this, you know, numerous times, I think the most important thing is to just be patient, you know that that can be difficult, especially when you know that you have this idea. And you know, George mentioned it earlier, the patent process itself was was three years. So just be patient, and really take the time to enjoy each phase of where you're at. And this, you know, we're, we're blessed to have been able to do this together and to, you know, which comes with the good, the bad and the ugly. But I think it's really it's really been an eye opening experience in terms of just patience and learning, and really just being able to appreciate it for what it is good, bad, indifferent.
42:04
Okay, perfect. George.
42:06
Oh, if John I mean, where do we start, there's, the whole process itself is just an amazing process, there's going to be ups, there's going to be downs, there's going to be setbacks, but you got to believe in yourself, if it as much as you believe in your product. And that, of course, you know, support of each other. I mean, if spouses are doing this together, it's a lot of support a lot of sacrifices that you're going to have to make as a family, not being able to, you know, buy that new vehicle, I had a vehicle that I drove almost 215,000 miles, and we'll just let go of it last year, you know, to save that money and put it into our company into inventory, and what have you so and, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, there's nothing that I would change along this journey. You know, getting on to big commerce spaces amazon.com, Amazon, Canada, we're in Walmart, Walmart, Canada, Etsy, eBay, our own website, we've just struck a big deal with Google guru, which is huge in the b2b space. It's, it's really rewarding. And there's other companies that want us to some big hardware store companies. And, you know, at the same time, we want to be careful with the steps that we take, we don't want to get too big and things get out of control, to the point where he can't handle them, you know, either. So these are good problems. But, you know, I urge everyone who has a great idea, do your homework, make sure there's nothing out there, build a prototype, take into account, you know, how much it weighs on another big thing, you know, for shipping, shipping is a big thing. Yeah, and what it costs to ship a product in our products, we just just a little over three ounces a piece. So I mean, I could, you know, ship them by USPS first class mail, and put four of them and they're still under a pound. So that's another big thing is, you know, especially when you're when you've decided to make a product here in the United States, you have to look at all the factors that play a role in order to price it right, in order to be able to turn a profit, and, you know, in order to keep your company moving in the right direction. So there's a there's a lot of factors. And you know, don't be discouraged, don't let anybody ever come and tell you that you know, your product is no good. Don't waste your time this and that. The sky's the limit. And we're living proof of that, John, so it's, you know, follow your dreams. I gave up my my six figure job to go and follow this wonderful, you know, opportunity and journey that was brought to us and, you know, reading the comments that you see, you know, on Amazon on the Walmarts of the world and what have you, and even our website, the feedback of You know, ATSI, another big one where we were able to make a difference in this lady's life, because her cat loves to play with a switch that controlled the garbage disposal. And, you know, just reading those things that we were able to make, or the lady that in the middle of the night, who before she bought our product, when she went to go change her baby's diaper, she was unscrewing the light bulb in her ceiling, because the the one kid love to constantly play with the switch. And in order to get some sleep, she was unscrewing the light bulb, and her youngest baby was sleeping in a very same room. So every time she had to go in there to check up on her baby, or, you know, change the diaper or the baby in the middle night, she would have to split the light ball back in, if she found her product, and put it on there. And it completely changed her life. Those comments alone to us, you know, it's like winning the lottery. wouldn't change it for the world. So
45:59
that's what we're great. It's a great inspiration you guys are we're definitely going to have you back. And I'd love to have an episode just on the good, bad and ugly with your spouse and bring your product to market because that one aspect can be a no, no. With that. I do think we have to end but I really want to thank you for giving me really of your time.
46:27
Thanks, John. We appreciate your time.
46:30
Thank you. We appreciate your time, John, this is this has all been great. If there's any questions that you have, or the audience has, you know, we can we can answer them if you wish, however you want to handle it. Perfect. We're gonna
46:41
have, we'll put links to on our private Facebook group, the inventors mastermind, and Jenny, if you want to put that in the chat, as well. And then Jenny will get in touch with you to figure out how to maybe we can have if you're interested, maybe a separate q&a. For inventors. We'll take all of that. I see the chat. Link is there. But thank you so much for joining