Against All Odds

Hello! I want to slightly go off topic here. A big congratulations to Dana Stevens who just landed the lead role in a soon to be produced Indie film named "Street". Dana will now be adding acting to her singing and dancing repertoire.

I really admire Dana. She is a person that sets the bar very high and constantly is astonishing me with her attitude, commitment, persistence, optimism, and charitable contributions. She is always striving to better herself, improve her family's standards and help those less fortunate. She also is raising 4 children from the ages 1.5 to 11. I honestly don't know how she accomplishes it all! However, her story on how she earned the lead role in this film demonstrates the traits that are required to be successful.

Dana's real passion is in the arts. Despite having to do other jobs (like work for me :)) to pay the bills, she is always pursuing her passion on the side. Dana saw a posting for a casting call and decided to go for it despite never having acted! The audition was to be held in Chicago so Dana made arrangements for childcare and took the train into the city. Unfortunately, she had the address wrong and once in the city took the bus(es) North to what she thought was the correct address. Due to the logistics in getting to this address, she was a few minutes late and at the wrong location! Many people at this point probably would have thrown in the towel. Not Dana, she got back on the buses and arrived at the correct address an hour and a half after the casting call!

As she got off the elevator, no doubt flustered and a little panicked in the rush, a man noticed her as he was getting on the elevator to leave. He asked if he could help her. She said that she was there for an audition. The man said that the auditions were done and everyone had left. Dana, though, still would not give up. She explained why she was late and asked if she could audition still. She then said, "I will sing for you here in the hallway". How could the man deny that? So, he said, "Go ahead". Dana sang a song that she had written herself. The man stopped dead in his tracks. He asked her, what song it was and she answered that it was one of her own. He asked if she had any others and she said that she loved composing and had quite a few originals. The man pulled out a sheaf of papers lined with signatures of all of the people who'd auditioned that day. On the last page, on the last line, Dana signed her name. He said he would call her next week for second rounds.

Of course, Dana got that call and went back for the the second round of auditions and was asked to try out for the lead role. She had to memorize 5 pages of a script and perform them. When she returned, she was on time but again the last to audition. She performed her role opposite the man that she'd met in the elevator, who happened to be the Executive Producer! She learned later that she was the only candidate that did not have to look at her lines during that audition. On her way out, she overheard the Executive Producer tell the other judges, "That was the girl I told you about who auditioned in the hall!". She was told that she wouldn't be called with an answer for a week because they had another girl to see.

However, less than a week later, she got the call she'd been waiting for! She will be the lead character, Street, in the film titled "Street". Congratulations Dana! Your persistence, determination and unwillingness to give up is why you are and will be successful in life! We can all learn from you! For more on Dana, please see, www.yogastickysocks.com/dvd.html.

Entrepreneurial adVenture

Hi! I've decided to start my own blog rather than outsourcing it to a fitness professional. It's important to me that I share my personal views and experience. Melissa Baumgartner is a great fitness resource and I will continue to rely on her expert opinions. However, I was afraid that sometimes another person's opinion on my website might seem biased or almost like a paid advertisement even though that was not the case!

My blog will cover an array of topics. What I am most knowledgable on and what people will find most interesting is my experience as an entrepreneur and inventor. This will be the main topic of my blog. I'll give tips on how to start a business, source products, patent, trademark, get PR, results of advertising, website creating and promoting, tradeshow experience etc....However, I'm a very opinionated person so when I feel strongly about another topic I may have a tangental blog entry.

If you have any comments or questions or specific areas of interest, please let me know and I will do my best to address them. I have been playing around with Twitter and Facebook and will try to get my blog to feed into Twitter. I hope you will follow me on Twitter. You can find me as "Stickesocks". You will also receive random posts of discounts that can be used on my www.YogaStickySocks.com website.

I will also introduce websites and services that I have found useful. None of these websites or service providers have made any arrangements with me to promote them. As a matter of fact, they have no idea I am doing this.

First tip for inventing a product: 1) Check out that your idea isn't already patented by searching the www.USPTO.gov website (United States Patent and Trademark Office). This is also where you can find information on copyrighting, trademarking, and filing patents. Just because your idea is not on the market does not mean that someone hasn't patented it or filed for a patent! I also am a strong believer that your Trademark is ultimately more important than your patent so make sure you get a great Trademark name and start promoting it from the word GO! As your new product takes off and you expand your line, you want people looking for your brand. Wouldn't it be great to be the next "Kleenex" or "Google" or "Coke"? That's the goal for whatever segment you are entering. My goal is to have people look for "Stick-e" when they need non -slip Yoga products or non-slip sporting goods products in the future.

One question I am frequently asked is, "Do you need an attorney to file a patent"? My answer is probably not for a Provisional Patent but definitely for a Utility or Design patent. The Provisional patent will give you one year before you have to decide if you want to take the plunge and really go for a patent. If you file a provisional patent, you may also mark your items as "Patent Pending". I suggest doing a provisional patent and using that year to test if your product is really viable. My Yoga Stick-e Socks is patented and it took 2 years and many legal bills to get the patent. Our other products are patent pending but we have started moving forward on the utility patents for them.

Next blog post will be on "Trademarks". Please let me know your comments and questions!

BTW -- My husband also has a patent for Thirsy Randy -- which is a Christmas Tree Watering ornament that looks like a reindeer and its nose lights up when the tree needs water. It eliminates bending over and crawling under the tree, breaking ornaments, and spilling water on your floor! Now you can water your tree while standing and know when the tree has enough!