Community Highlights: Meet Lisa Lloyd of Invention Accelerator

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Lloyd.

Hi Lisa, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I am a passionate problem solver! I was fortunate enough to stumble on the business of invention licensing 30 years ago when I licensed my first product, the French Twister. I made & sold them on a small scale in Tucson before licensing them to Scunci®, grossing more than $20M in sales!

Since then I have licensed 8 products with well-known brands like Scunci®, Vidal Sassoon®, Goody®, & more. My most publicized success came when I appeared on Shark Tank where I earned the coveted investment of Daymond John & Barbara Corcoran.

I am very proud to be a professional inventor and deeply passionate about sharing all the learnings from my success AND failures with others! I deeply believe in service to others and take a more holistic approach when mentoring. In addition to teaching the tactical and practical steps in business, I believe you MUST also address the challenges in your heart and head!

Sample Experience:
– Inventor’s Association of AZ, Co-Founder
– Lloyd Marketing Group, Inc., Founder/CEO
– The Invention Accelerator, Founder/CEO
– Academic Advisor/Mentor, ASU Venture Devils
– Entrepreneur-In-Residence for several start-up accelerators

“LOVE Lisa’s direct answers. She listens carefully, asks clarifying questions, & then provides real-world suggestions. Sounds simple but not everyone out there does it as efficiently & effectively as Lisa.” – Shea & Geoff G., SharkOff.

“I highly recommend Lisa’s Invention Accelerator to any would-be inventors. It was the best investment I’ve ever made. She’s brought many inventions to market & brings this experience & a passion to help others to her class. And the additional lifetime resources available will surely benefit novice & experienced inventors alike. I’ve had many “brilliant” ideas over the years but didn’t know where to start. Thanks to Lisa, I have now applied for a patent & am well on the way to bringing my first invention to market. I’m so excited.” Mark Jansen, Inventor.

“Lisa is one of those rare inventors who knows what it takes to come up with a winning product idea, develop it correctly, protect it, & then pitch it to bring it to market. She knows how to invent solutions that sell! She’s also a highly engaging speaker. In my opinion, she’s one of the best!” Stephen Key, InventRight.

AWARDS:
– Rice (University) Alliance “Business Plan Pitch Competition”
– “Pitch it to the Pros” with Billy Mays of Discovery Channel’s “Pitchmen”.
– Inpex Ambassador Award, 2007
– Shark Tank Winner

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not! Up until TC Pets, the product I was on Shark Tank with, I thought I had the Midas Touch. I couldn’t fail!

Then I decided to venture instead of licensing with TC Pets and that decision did not serve me well. It was one problem after another that I was not equipped for and had to learn everything the hard and expensive way. It lead to many valuable lessons, but it was not a fun journey!

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I help people with new product ideas to avoid the expensive, time-consuming, and anxiety-ridden “trial and error” process so that they can cut that learning curve and invent WOW products, protect them properly, and get them in front of the right people at the right companies to pitch like a pro for license!

I’ve learned from helping people with new ideas as well as entrepreneurs that no 2 innovators or innovations are the same. While there are some incredible best practices that you can learn to mitigate risks, there are too many variables that can come up along the way and require clever solutions to overcome. A really good mentor knows how to consider both challenges and uniquely tailors a path to remove those hurdles, or succeed in spite of them.

The “coaching” world is blowing up, but knowing who to trust can be very difficult. I am very proud to have fine-tuned the process for inventing and licensing amazing products, but I am most proud of my holistic approach. It has developed organically over the years as a result of helping thousands of innovators address limiting beliefs in addition to the tactical and practical steps.

The industry standard success rate is less than 2% and it is my intention to change that with our proven model at the Invention Accelerator, the Inventors Association of Arizona, our Non-Profit organization, the InvenTank™ Podcast, and free tutorials at YouTube.com/icaninvent.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
It is changing like crazy! Covid opened a lot up because inventors tend to be a little paranoid anyway, so they typically wanted to meet in person. With the general public becoming more familiar with online meetings, we have seen a lot more opportunities for the inventor to work with us, but also for their options for pitching companies online!

We also saw a big boost with shows like Shark Tank talking about licensing.

The USPTO is also working on better solutions to help independent inventors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theinventionaccelerator.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisavlloyd/
• Twitter: twitter.com/icaninvent
• Youtube: youtube.com/icaninvent
• Other: www.lloydmarketinggroup.com and www.azinventors.org