How to Become an Inventor with Ron F. Richard

george grombacher 0:02
Ron F. Richard is an inventor. He is a medical consultant musician, and he is the author of someday is today get your idea out of your coffee cup and on the market. Welcome to the show, Ron.

Ron R. Richard 0:17
Yeah, thanks, George, for having me. Appreciate it.

george grombacher 0:19
Yeah, excited to have you on. Tell us a little about your personal lives more about your work, why you do what you do.

Ron R. Richard 0:27
Yeah, I’ve been involved with the in the medical industry pretty much for about the past 40 years, doing started in the medical industry as a respiratory therapist and a paramedic, work in a teaching hospital for a number of years and really enjoyed working with patients, but also enjoyed working with all kinds of different technology, like life support equipment, and the equipment to do sleep tests and pulmonary functions and all kinds of different things there. So, but after about seven or eight years, I got involved in sales and marketing with medical companies, and actually started my own medical business and did a lot of distribution in the Midwest with that company. And that’s where I kind of got more into innovating things, kind of seeing firsthand how people use the equipment in the hospital and then going out and then try to sell and market the equipment myself through my own distribution business. So that’s how I really got started in in the invention side of it. And then eventually went into product management and senior management with a number of different medical companies over the years. Then on the music side, I’ve started doing music when I was repeater, nine years old, and I toured with the Texas boys choir. And that’s my first entree into the music industry. But from there, I kind of went into, like right now I’m really focused on working on music, replicating old blue style music from the 20s 30s and 40s. Not just the songs, but actually the the equipment that the musicians used to play, play that type of music on. So that’s what I’ve been doing lately on the music side, BMI, I have a consulting business where I help people that have an invention. And I kind of take it from concept to commercialization and help them get through all the different phases and stages of getting their idea to market. And that’s what I found most people they kind of get paralyzed with overthinking things, they’ve got a great idea, but they can’t get it like the subtitle of my book is get your ideas out of your coffee cup and on the market. And I kind of took that from I was invited to do a talk at Stanford in 2019. Through the business division there, and they wanted me to do a talk to their physicians in the medical school based on the fact that there’s a lot of doctors that have great ideas, but they don’t go to school to be an entrepreneur to do product development, they go to school to do medicine. But what I found in that lecture was that there’s a lot of doctors that have good ideas, but the one doctor came up to me after the lecture said, I just can’t get my ideas out of my coffee cup. You know, and they just kind of sit there and I, it’s on my desk. And I’ve got this great concept or idea, but I don’t know what the next steps are. So that was the the impetus behind writing the book was someday is today. And I think a lot of people have good ideas, but they oftentimes don’t act on them.

george grombacher 3:53
Which is obviously critical to getting that out of the coffee cup and onto the

Ron R. Richard 3:57
market. To take the first step.

george grombacher 4:01
Do you think it? Do you think about my brain works a little different than other people’s or I’m better at because you, obviously are musicians, so you make music, but you also design the instrument, you have worked as an entrepreneur and are and you work inside big companies. So do you feel you’re able to do both these things, whereas other people are more? I’m a surgeon, I do surgery, I don’t create new things.

Ron R. Richard 4:33
No, that’s a great point, George and in my there’s a chapter in my book that talks about building a team. And one thing I’ve been good at or one reason I’ve been successful, I’m not really good with accounting. So I hire CPAs. I hire people to help me with different aspects of projects and jobs that I know we’re better than I am and then I can learn from them. And I think that’s the thing people have to understand is you I have not met anyone that can do everything in a company. The most successful people I’ve worked with are depth, great at delegating, they’re great at hiring people that are better than them. And even if they’re good at something, they try to bring in talent that actually brings them up. And you kind of see that in football teams or in sports, where people bring in, you know, talent at certain levels to bail, either Bayless a team, or where they need help in certain areas. And the same thing is true with companies or invent inventing something, that chapter in my book talks about, you know, doctors don’t go again to medical school to be a business person. So you got to select or pick good engineers, you’ve got to get a good product manager, you’ve got to find people that can help you with funding with accounting. And then you kind of do the best thing you can do that’s be a leader, the company and take your product to market and be a champion for that product.

george grombacher 6:01
That makes a lot of sense. So there’s so many different pieces, and I appreciate you mentioned the the engineer, product manager or accounting. So that frees you up to go out and be a champion. I can see this not dissimilar to somebody who wants to write a book, I’ve got all these great ideas bouncing around in my head. Is it like we need to create an outline or an action plan? How do we sort of a roadmap that I can actually see the steps? I guess my that was the worst way to ask, what’s the first step?

Ron R. Richard 6:41
Yeah, well, what is the first step, and when I you know, I’ll give me a good idea working with a guy right now that’s inventing a new rain gauge. And he came to me through a friend of a friend. And all he had was a drawing on a napkin. And so I’ve taken stuff from drawings on napkins to very elegant CAD design drawings that are very detailed. And but the first step is just write it down on a piece of paper and kind of, you know, generally frame out what what the problem is that you’re trying to solve with your product. And that’s a big element in my book, it’s problems and solutions. So if your product has what I call the right to survive in the ecosystem out there, it definitely has to solve a problem, it has to be a problem that’s fairly well recognized or known in the product test to do a better job than what’s currently on the market, to get buyers to get investors to get any interest in traction. So I think from there, the next step is creating a better framework and more details of budget, go through what the numbers kind of look like for how big is the market? You know, if you’re going to invent like this reengage? How many people actually buy rain gauges? Where’s the biggest buyer population of people that consume that type of product? And what problem are you solving with your rain gauge versus what’s already on the market. And so I’ve taken this, this particular project from, you know, seeing something drawn on a napkin, to heavy now. Prototypes, recognizable, testable prototypes that we can actually do testing on in a laboratory to simulate all different kinds of weather, to capture certain certain amount of moisture, humidity, mist, in windy conditions, still conditions and all kinds of stuff. And then from there, build that out to what does this look like in terms of getting investors to want to put money into this?

george grombacher 8:50
I’m confident that that specialized knowledge is really important in everything. That being said, once you know how to do one thing, do you know how to do anything? Can you do a rain gauge? Can you do something to help my feet? You know what I’m asking? Yeah,

Ron R. Richard 9:08
yeah. And that’s the interesting thing about this gentleman I’m working with, he is just a geek about weather. You know, he’s big into the whole weather pattern thing. He calls me up two or three times a week, hey, do you see this big storm that’s coming in in your area and what you’re gonna get a lot of rain and all this kind of stuff. But he’s an expert in this area. And that’s what people want to invest in and they want somebody that’s passionate, that’s knowledgeable that they can trust. I kind of look at when you first meet somebody, it’s kind of know, like and trust. It’s a kale tea kind of component. So if you get to know somebody and you like them, and then you trust them, it’s easier for people to invest in your idea or your company or your business or your whatever your invention is

george grombacher 9:58
to people minimize that.

Ron R. Richard 10:04
It just depends on where they’re at with the project and with their mindset about, it does take a bit of I’d call humble pie to get things going, you don’t want to come off as being some egotistical maniac about what you’re trying to do. But you’ve got to come off again, Kvlt know, like trust, the the last one, trust is a big one. Because if people don’t trust you, it’s hard to get investors nowadays to invest in a company, because they’re investing in you. You know, that’s the whole notion behind this. They see you as an expert. They like you, they think you’re a good leader, good person, that’s going to take this company from zero to multibillion dollars. But that kale tea component is something that I always kind of reinforce in people and you kind of get to know pretty quickly up front, when you start talking to somebody, if they’re going to be somebody that you’re going to like to work with and that you can trust.

george grombacher 11:06
When you are talking with somebody, I imagine people love to when they meet you that Oh, wow, I’ve got this idea for this than the other thing. I’m sure you get that all the time. I love the the the language, you said does your product have the right to survive? Do you is the first step a yes or a no? Like let’s try to see if this is actually going to survive as quickly as as we can.

Ron R. Richard 11:36
Yeah, I try to accelerate the process to where the inventor or the person that’s coming to me with this idea, you get them to a point of saying this, this is a really good idea. It’s like holding up a piece of paper in the wind, it’s this is my idea, all of a sudden, I go outside, from inside where it’s just common. It’s very, there’s no wind here, I go outside a big storm. And that piece of paper blows away. It’s like the idea is gone. And that’s the same thing I try to reinforce with people, if you really think you’ve got a good idea, hold on to it. Let’s try to see how we can mature it and get it to a point of understanding is this something that you want to take forward, because it’s expensive, it takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of obstacles and uphill kind of things that you’re going to run into. So you want to work with people that have resilience and that are strong willed, and that have a vision for what they want to do with this. But one of the steps I do up Ron George is I do a pretty thorough patent search. Through the USPTO website. I look for trademarks, I look for patents, I go on the internet, I do a lot of searches for key meta tags and words that are associated with the product or the invention. Then I come back to the inventor and I’ll give them a report. And it basically outlines. Here’s what I found. There’s there’s no competitors, there’s one competitor, there’s a patent that’s expired, or there’s five patents that are in place that are kind of similar in terms of the art that you’re you’re trying to design and develop. Now, let’s dig down and try to figure out what are the key points that you’re you’re trying to do with your problem solution thing here? Why is your product better? And how are we going to get around these potential patent issues. And so if we can’t get around that, then I just advise them, you can still try to launch this product and still go to market. But be aware that you might get sued for you might run into litigation. I had a guy who he was just adamant about a medical thing he wanted to do, we went ahead and launched the product, knowing that he probably infringed on certain patents that were out in the marketplace. And sure enough, two companies came to us after the launch, we commercialize the product. And both of them saw that there were definite advantages to this other person’s product. And we entered into with one of them the other one wasn’t interested. But we entered into a licensing agreement did a cross licensing agreement with that company that had the current patent, we had our additional patents and we could sell each other’s products under different branding kind of strategies. So that worked out okay.

george grombacher 14:25
That’s interesting. Are there any industries that are a no go for you? Like this is just too hard or too complicated, too cumbersome?

Ron R. Richard 14:36
I don’t do any pharmaceuticals that that’s way outside my comfort zone but devices I’m pretty good with or fine with, you know, an actual product that chemical compounds and pharmaceuticals I don’t really go off in that area. I tried a couple projects and they just weren’t a good fit for me. But yeah, most of the time if it’s something that you You can touch and feel and you can actually test and do some things within a fairly short amount of time with limited resources. And yeah, I’m okay with that.

george grombacher 15:09
Right? Um, so somebody says, for somebody who’s listening, that, you know what, I’ve got a bunch of those ideas, or one really good idea sitting in my coffee cup, what what are they do?

Ron R. Richard 15:23
They can get in touch with me through my website, inventing starts today.com. And I do just a free 15 minute consultation with them, you know, and just kind of go through, just like they did with this example with the rain gauge, same same sort of thing. And I’ve done enough product projects and products have launched probably now close to 70 or 80 different projects, and, you know, generated sales in excess of $1.4 billion right now. Wow. So, so I can fairly quickly assess what it is and what’s what it’s going to be able to do. And if I can’t, then I’ll say, Look, I’ll get back with you after I do a little more research. But that’d be the first step is just contact me through my, my website there and just set up an appointment.

george grombacher 16:15
And what you hope people get out of reading, get your idea. Someday is today, get your idea out of your coffee cup and on to the market.

Ron R. Richard 16:25
Yeah, the book is really meant to help people build a framework for it for a project, all the chapters, kind of progressed to a point of it covers everything from funding financing, working with venture capital, to FDA submissions to working with engineering, building a team, you know, kind of doing a litmus test on your project and see, you know, is there really a place for it, like we talked about in the ecosystem, and challenging you to really look through the project in a lot more detailed way than just, it’s always fun to kind of look at the upfront that concept. But then when you start getting into the details of, well, how are we going to launch? And how are we going to pay for this? And how what’s the team going to look like? Then people get a little bit? It’s like, wow, I never realized there was so much in you know, that I had to do to get get a product launch. And once they’ve done it before.

george grombacher 17:25
It makes sense. Well, Ron, thank you so much for coming on. Give us the website word. Give us the website again, please.

Ron R. Richard 17:31
Inventing starts today.com.

george grombacher 17:34
Excellent. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did, show around your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. Specifically share it with that friend who has that really good idea if you’ve got a good idea pick up your copy of Sunday is today. And we will certainly link how you do that in the notes of the show and take advantage of Ron’s offer to have that 15 minute consult to find out if your idea has any legs. Is that a proper term for that run? Yeah,

Ron R. Richard 18:09
that’s a good way. Good way to be on Georgia. Appreciate it and have a great week

george grombacher 18:15
you is to go to inventing starts today.com And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.