Inventors have too much hope...

Taking you back to 2009 the ERA Trade Show in Las Vegas. My new mother-in-law (?? her to pieces) saw a casting posting on Craig’s List for a pitch host for Season 3 The Pitchman. She wasn’t very supportive of the Hang-O-Matic back then because Jared had invented 1st prototype in 2000 & he was still trying by 2009 & wasn’t getting any further. This may sound familiar to some of you ??. Not having support can ruin some relationship & more so we get it. But Mom can’t get rid of son ?????♀? 

We met best of The best in licensing. We watched inventors go into Telebrands booth & come out with licensing agreements on the spot. We were excited for the potential this show can do & we talked to anyone who would listen. 

I remember grabbing Anthony Sullivan’s attention & sharing a bond with Billy Mays III (both of our dads recently passed) and they LOVED the HangO as we called it back then & renamed to Hang-O-Matic a few yrs later. 

They both gave personal email addresses AND physical addresses for samples & promised us to help us further. Needless to say we had an incredible experience and left Las Vegas feeling high until we weren’t. 

No one wrote back to even let us know our 1st sample was received. Granted it wasn’t a good one but we thought it was great, enough to get the idea of it to help us manufacture a better version. We had a “great” factory in China that sent us 10 units for $100 bucks. It looked like a tape measure & smelled like rubber & I don’t need to go into detail how it never hung anything straight but with no experience, no mentors, no shark tank, no books, no YouTube & not even Facebook help. That’s all we knew & that’s all we had & you’re always grateful for what you have. 

So, with that said. DO NOT GET EXCITED by anyone who “promises”, who takes your money first, who you saw on TV or Who is popular. Wait till it actually happens because it may never happen. It’s a long road ahead & good things come to those who drive well & let the crazy run the red light.