Licensing
"Who Is Taylor Swift?"
After returning from lunch one day, I opened the door to my office in Turlock, California and am greeted by my office manager James, who is extremely excited.
In fact, he can’t contain himself.
“Steve, guess who just called. It was Scott Swift!”
Calmly looking at him, I ask, “Who is Scott Swift?”
James looks at me like I have been living under a rock and says, “Taylor Swift’s dad!”
I look at James again and repeat, “Who’s Taylor Swift?”
It seems impossible now, given everything that she has accomplished, for anyone to wonder who Taylor Swift is.
But at the time, she was 19 years old and making big waves in the country music scene! And in my own defense, I wasn’t listening to country music.
I quickly called Scott Swift, who was easy to talk to. In fact, he was extremely excited about working together to create a special guitar pick.
Each morning, he told me, he visited a gas station for coffee or gas before heading to work. That’s where he saw my “Movie Magic” guitar picks on the counter for sale. When you moved these guitar pics back and forth, there experienced a scene in motion, because these picks were made out of a special material — a lenticular lens.
He thought that having Taylor Swift singing and strumming on guitar pics would be amazing. We spoke many times over the phone. Eventually, we signed a contract and began producing Taylor Swift guitar picks.
It was fun working with her team to create these amazing guitar picks.
To get us started with the design process, they sent us a signed CD of her upcoming album and photographs to use for the picks and in marketing materials.
It wasn’t long before Scott Swift called to say that Taylor was coming to Arco Arena in Sacramento and would I like tickets for myself and my family?
She was the opening act for the band Rascal Flatts.
Here was the leather bracelet that allowed us to get in to the meet and greet.
I was absolutely thrilled and of course brought my family with me.
When we arrived at the meet and greet, Taylor Swift’s mother, Andrea, said “Forget this meet and greet, let’s get together after the show and you can meet Taylor in her brand-new trailer.”
We were all shocked, and also extremely pleased. It was a fantastic show. The way she connected with the audience — I couldn’t believe it.
After her performance, we were escorted to her trailer. I knocked on the door and there she was. She greeted each and every one of us like we were good friends.
We sat down for an hour and just talked. She treated us like part of her family. She wasn’t in a hurry. Instead, she listened and answered all of our questions. She gave us her full attention.
It was remarkable!
But the one thing that I’ll never forget was talking about business. She knew the merchandise was important. Watching an old video, she even mentioned it up on stage.
I was impressed. She was truly an entrepreneur at just 19.
Later, I followed up by asking her for an interview for my column in AllBusiness.com in 2008.
She was winning awards right and left, and climbing the record charts.
According to Wikipedia:
Already, I knew she had wisdom as an entrepreneur that my audience would benefit from learning about.
Taylor Swift: Superstar Entrepreneur
https://www.allbusiness.com/taylor-swift-superstar-entrepreneur-11817436-1.html
Today, she’s the biggest star in the world!
She has always been true to herself. She cares about people and her audience, and it shows. This is not an act.
"Never believe your own hype, but never believe anyone when they tell you there's something you can't do. Also, be good to people, and that means everybody. Everyone I look up to is a good person first and successful second.” — Taylor Swift
About the contributor
Stephen KeyStephen Key is an award-winning inventor, renowned intellectual property strategist, lifelong entrepreneur, author, speaker, and columnist. Stephen has over 20 patents in his name and the dozens of concepts he has brought to market have retailed in Walmart, 7-Eleven, and Disney stores and parks worldwide and been endorsed by Michael Jordan, Alex Trebek, and Taylor Swift. He has defended his patents in federal court against the largest toy company in the world, Lego’s. In 1999, he cofounded inventRight to teach others his unique process for harnessing the power of open innovation and the licensing business model. His bestselling book about how to license an idea, One Simple Idea by McGraw-Hill, has been translated into six languages. He has written more than 1,000 articles about intellectual property strategy, product licensing, and entrepreneurship for publications online including Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur. Universities and governmental organizations around the world regularly invite him to teach them inventRight’s unique processes for commercializing new product ideas. Stephen has won over 20 industry awards, including two Edison Awards and the Most Influential and Inspiring Leader Of All Time by the WorldIP Forum in 2022. In 2018, he was recognized as a AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. In 2020, he became a founding member of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance. In 2022, Stephen contributed to “Cases in IP Strategy: Industry Lessons Learned” from the non-profit Michelson Institute for IP. Currently, he’s part of the team responsible for launching a new sustainable packaging innovation that replaces the need to use plastic to carry beverages called Fishbone.
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