inventRight Coach Courtney Laschkewitsch is a product developer who licenses her ideas to open innovation companies. To date, she has licensed numerous ideas for passive income, including products for dorm rooms and the toy and game industry.
Ever since she realized that it was possible to commercialize an idea, she knew that was what she wanted to spend her life doing: Inventing products to benefit others.
“Whether it be technology, a lifestyle, or a service, I believe that the greatest thing anyone can do is to create something out of nothing,” says Coach Courtney Laschkewitsch. “What I bring to the table is hard work, and determination to follow my passion to create innovative products.”
Courtney Laschkewitsch is the host of the Serial Inventing Podcast, the former Managing Director of Inventors Groups of America, and a passionate advocate for the power of licensing!
8 Questions For inventRight Coach Courtney Laschkewitsch
1. How do you stay motivated to work on your inventions when you feel like they’re going nowhere?
Pure trust in the process. I know it works. It’s worked for me 7 times. I see success stories everyday. I know hard work brings success. If I focus on the hard work, find more ways to be efficient, and always take in new knowledge, I know it will pay off, and it doesn’t feel lonely, improbable, or a waste of time anymore.
Find more of my perspective on this topic, watch the video Don’t Let These Barriers Stop You From Inventing.
2. Do you have a tip or strategy for dealing with rejection?
Look at it objectively, and focus on the numbers. N.O. means the next opportunity. Once you understand what constitutes a true valid no, you can feel confident that each no you get, is one step closer to getting honest movement in the industry, and if you pretend that you will not get a deal until you get 99 nos, then it takes the power away from the pain of the no, and you finally get to relax and enjoy the journey of developing relationships and pitching products.
3. What’s a tip you would give to new inventors?
Be coachable! As in, you are here to learn the process – do your best to be honest, open, and flexible with your coach. We are on the same team. The more you can be honest about your lifestyle, work, and family obligations, the better we can coach you—and often that takes a level of vulnerability.
Sometimes students have not been in a position of being able to share their passion with another like-minded and excited individual where they are passionate about your dream, in the past. Some people have been burned in the past for being vulnerable. This can be difficult for those students, easily leading to not complete transparency during the process of why they didn’t get their action items done, and not letting us truly know what is stopping them from completing them.
It truly does take a leap of faith, to realize that you are and will be fully comforted in your coaches’ hands in knowing that we get the honor to hold your dream carefully in our arms. Trust is a big thing, and if you can give trust to your coach, success will be that much quicker.
4. How do you come up with new inventions when you are struggling with creativity?
Timers. Timers are such a beautiful thing. The brain works in a different way when it has to produce something under a time limit. I love to go into a category I have never been in on Google, such as typing in, “Lawn Mower Accessories,” starting a 10 minute timer on my phone, with a blank piece of paper in front of me (handwritten notes can often create more creativity and less blocks!), and tell myself that I have to come up with 5 ideas within this span of time.
Clock watching the timer go down, and searching various key terms on Google helps that process! It’s a great challenge to invent in a category you know nothing about, and it also helps that you don’t have any preconceived notions about that category, so you aren’t limited by your own mind in what you can come up with! This is partly why kids have such great ideas!
5. What is the most important and/or impactful thing you’ve learned from coaching inventRight students?
How many beautiful and diverse people there are in the world! It’s my goal to make sure I can meet each one of my students where they are at. I love being able to get to know each of my students- it’s kind of like putting the oxygen mask on themselves first, before putting it on the product, as a product idea doesn’t have legs without the inventor/soul attached to it!
Getting the honor to learn about who I am coaching on a personal level is always my number one objective, so I can learn how best I can coach them to success!
6. What’s something you wish you knew about product licensing when you first started inventing?
How creatively fun and fast it is once you learn the 10 steps! Once you really get the licensing steps ingrained in your head, you can go from a few months to go from market research to pitching, to even just a few hours!
7. What do you consider the most challenging aspect of product licensing and why?
When I first started out in the industry (8 years ago), I struggled to have the grit needed to succeed – you need a lot of it, but if you can face yourself and grow as a person through your PD journey, nothing will stop your success!
8. What resources or tools do you recommend to other inventors?
If you’re looking for a good book on how to come up with better ideas, this book won’t disappoint:
The Snakes & Ladders Of Creative Thinking: Have More Ideas For Board Games, Improve Them & Get Them Ready To Pitch
These are some YouTube channels that coach Courtney Laschkewitsch recommends for inventors:
Find out more about inventRight coach Courtney Laschkewitsch here.
Connect with her on LinkedIn here.
