Boot Camp with American Inventor’s Doug Hall

 

What an adventure! This past June, Jayne and I had the opportunity to participate in a weekend boot camp with 20 or so other inventors, hosted by American Inventor’s Doug Hall. The camp was held at his Eureka Ranch (Doug of course, was sporting his signature style- a Hawaiin style shirt and bare feet) and we had an amazing time.

You know, the wonderful thing about inventors and entrepreneurs is that they are just really great people who have all struggled in one way or another, are creative, love to network and come from all walks of life. We met some great people including Sheryl McDonald – the in-brella chick from American Inventor. You would love her!

 Anyway, we spent an intense weekend of individual and group work; brainstorming, networking, creating, and focused on old and new ideas that we have for future products. We had moments of total frustration and several “light bulb” ones when ideas suddenly made so much sense. We would walk into the Eureka Ranch, first thing in the morning, fresh and energized. We’d go home at night needing tylenol and a massage! It was that intense. Sunday morning (which was the final day) ,  we were driving back to the ranch for one last session and Jayne and I truly wanted to cry. We had so many ideas and had thought so far out of our box all weekend, that we just didn’t know where it all was leading. All of a sudden, through conversation, it clicked. We knew we were changing our focus and going to take a new path. A really exciting one at that!

Of course, we can’t tell you where this new path leads – it’s top secret and in product development…but you’ll be sure to know what it is in the next 6 months! Pretty exciting stuff!

For anyone who has a dream, an invention, or even needs to kick start an existing business, I highly recommend visiting www.doughall.com and learning more about what he does. He has written two great books called Jump Starting your Business brain and Jump Starting your Marketing brain and even has free downloads to listen to his audio book. Very, very good stuff!

Doug Hall may irritate the hell out of you on American Inventor, but I am here to tell you he a great guy, a genius at what he does, and truly wants to help you.

My advice to you as an inventor? Have faith in your dream, never give up, battle your fear, listen to your gut, learn from your mistakes (you will make them), be a sponge and realize that struggling and overcoming obstacles is what prepares you for the future. Remember, when bad things happen, they happen for a reason and can only make you stronger. Last of all, and most importantly – what goes around comes around. Always pay forward. More on that next week!