2115 – Fostering the Power of Innovation in Your Business with Patrick Noel Daly

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1:05With us right now, it is Patrick Noel Daly. Patrick, first and foremost, you're a friend. And secondly, you are an innovator. And you do a lot of work in the consulting sphere with other amazing leaders, entrepreneurs, visionaries, and fellow innovators. Your website is patricknoeldaily.com. Patrick, thank you so much for joining us. Pleasure to be here, Josh. Good to see you again today. Absolutely. You know, so in this episode, we're going to talk about the concept of innovation and why that is such a valuable, you know, it's almost like a muscle for other, you know, and again, I'm talking to our fellow business leaders, entrepreneurs, and certainly the visionaries out there.

1:53um you know and and patrick i'd really like to step into this by really bringing forth so to our friend that's listening and and maybe you would consider yourself to be a little bit of a visionary or you definitely have an innovator streak to you pull your chair up patrick um i would love to have maybe just have you kind of start by introducing yourself and then we'll get into this topic sure yeah okay um so i i started out um originally from ireland now living in the western side of the world and I started out innovating when I was a kid you know I was looking for ideas I remember being in school like nine ten years old saying to the teacher do I have to stay here for the entire day or can I just go out and like set up a lemonade stand or whatever the equivalent that was at the time and like probably a burger stand or something like that and the teacher looked at me and said oh my god you're gonna you're gonna take off you're gonna fire your engines when you get out of here and and take on the world so I got out and I looked at various ways of innovating and I was always kind of curious about finding solutions to problems but the key factor as time went on I built a few products I've designed patented and I licensed my own products now largely in medical but I'm sector agnostic I cover a lot of sectors key factor is innovation is a mindset you know it's your mindset you need to think innovation and when I built a few startups around my products and technologies, that was a sign inside our front door.

3:20Innovation is a mindset, nurture it every day. So like people have to think about innovation. And when you come to work, it doesn't matter what you're doing. If when you're doing, when you're performing your role, doing your job every day, you're looking at something going, how can I make this better? How can I innovate? How can I change it up? So that's the mindset factor that I try to introduce when I talk to people. Usually, though, I tie it to commercial result, you know? Yes, yes. We'll talk about that. Having great ideas is a good thing. You know, it's good to get great ideas. It's good to have ideas being kicked around.

3:55It's good to brainstorm. But we've got to look at it and say, well, how are we going to generate sales and how does it pay the bills? You know, that's the business aspect of it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely part of the innovation process. Before we kind of get into maybe some of these elements, And maybe we'll talk about some practices that our friend could implement so that they could realize just what a powerful superpower this is. And most importantly, again, it's like if you've got these superpowers, there's no sense in being Spider-Man if you're not going to do anything with it. So we'll get into that.

4:29Patrick, before we do, do you mind maybe just sharing a few examples of your previous work, what you've invented and what that led to? And if you don't mind, maybe sharing a little bit about that story of how that actually got into the market. okay absolutely um so one of the key products that i developed is called sim care um and that's that's spelled if you did a google search you'll see s-i-m-c-a-i-r so sim care is a mattress topper that initially started out like it was i came from uh the camping and outdoor industry as a product manager from the very beginning that was my first job and they were making um a one of these roll-up camping mattresses for sleeping in the outdoors.

5:15And I said, if I could morph that later on, five, six, seven years later, I put pieces of different technologies together, including a product that I had made for aircraft seats to prevent deep vein thrombosis or DVT on long-haul flights. So that was all pressure. So I was bringing this kind of pressure reducing seating comfort bedding factor together. And I said, if I can take that and if I can make it a sanitizable surface, then wouldn't that be great for medical? So I did just that. It took me two years to get the product developed, launched it. We were ranked number one in our space, went from me to like in the first iteration of that product and went from me to like 40 people in a year, ranked number one by the healthcare purchasing agencies and blazed the trail for our first year.

6:05And then I looked at making versions of that going forward. It still sells very, very well in healthcare. And what I've done now, Josh, is I've taken this technology that's sold in medical, let's say for the last 10 years. And in the last year or so, I developed DreamCare from SimCare, which is the home version of the technology because COVID came around and everybody was saying, well, we can sanitize every surface in our home, but we actually can't sanitize a sleep surface. And we spend up to one third of our lives on that surface. And that's the reality. We can't get in to clean it. So like for me, I said, well, we've got a product here that's selling medical every day.

6:46It's doing a great job. It's easy to sanitize, easy to clean. And the extra kicker is it's adjustable without pumps or motors or power. So we're making that into Dreamcare and we've made it into Dreamcare. And I am the inventor of the product, but I have a bunch of people around me that are doing great work every day to make this available to the market. So taking that, what was it like a very, very seed of an idea at the very beginning and putting pieces together and coming to an innovation that was suitable for one product and then looking at the big picture and saying, we sell in medical. So if we can take medical, then we can multiply our market size by about a gazillion.

7:23The consumer market is much, much bigger. And taking that technology and making it available for the consumer market, that's where we're at right now. It's launching 2025 and I'm excited about it. You know, that is just so cool. But I want to point out something that you were talking about. Like, if all you had was this kind of behind the scenes B2B solution that nobody knows about, like, there is so much opportunity in that. And I think a lot of times, you know, with this innovator thing, it's like, I think our first brain goes to, I'm going to develop a product that is going to, you know, change the world or solve a problem.

8:05And it's going to be very visible. It's going to be, you know, a household name. No, it doesn't have to be. Like a lot of the greatest opportunities are the invisible things behind the scenes in the B2B world. But, you know, the opportunity and the appetite there could be stunning. A lot of these bigger companies, you know, they lose their ability to innovate because of their unwieldy size. Or maybe, you know, they've kind of not, you know, kind of, you know, I was just at, like, it was a few years ago. I've done some work with USAA as kind of an influencer type stuff. And they have very much like a labs.

8:47They have several labs departments, right? And it's all about innovation. and these guys get to kind of separate, you know, kind of operate in a silo and just really come up with great ideas that meet the overall mission and needs. You know, sorry, I'm kind of just thinking out loud here, but I don't want someone to get hung up on innovation needs to look a certain way. No, there is no look on innovation. You know, you look at it and you say, if it fits that box and it's doing really, really well, then that's okay. But I think the innovative mindset and that innovation mindset that I was talking about, you'd look at it on two faces.

9:24You'd say, okay, the first one is, that's a comfortable product, it's doing its job, everything's good, leave it as it is. Or you will go, well, if I could just step this up to a different level, then that could maximize the output from the same technology. And I'm actually getting a bigger profit or I'm making a bigger profit from the overall picture. I'm not limiting the ability of a product to jump up to the next scale. And also to your point about the bigger companies, bigger companies that have big R &D machines and innovation machines love to see smaller companies come in with their technology to say, look, we've been doing this for two years.

10:00We've developed this technology. We licensed this to you and give me 5%, 10%. And I'm happy being an inventor in the background. And let those big, huge companies take the technology forward. It's a lot easier. It's a lot easier. And people look at it and they go, I've got to make a business. I've got to make a product. I've got to make a business. I've got to build it up. I'm going to take my 10 % at the end of the year and that's all good. And I'll make a million in sales and I'll have 100K going out. And this is the numbers. But if you go into a big company and say, I'm selling, let's say, pick a number.

10:32Let's say I'm selling 10 ,000 units myself. If I go into one of these larger machines, these huge companies, they could sell 100 ,000 units. They could sell a million units. And I'm making 5 % of that. That's a very, very good place to be. And you're on stage as the inventor with the intellectual property. Make sure you lock in your intellectual property. Make sure you lock in all of that beforehand. Have all of that watertight. And then my view is having done the assessment and look at the innovation factor here. What are the options? Put the options on the table. Brainstorming is a brilliant exercise when you're coming up with innovation, because a lot of time we have kind of one to one conversations and we kind of go, you know what, wouldn't that be a great idea?

11:14And then it just flies away. So many people lose ideas every day and so many companies lose ideas every day because you're not harnessing that energy of innovation. Bringing whatever, two people, 20 people, 200 people into a room and saying, let's have a brainstorming session. Where are we going to go with this? Have your suggestion box at the end of the hall when people are going out, just in case they don't want to be the ones to have the megaphone talking about their great idea. You know, maybe they'll just write it down and put it into a suggestion box. But harnessing innovation energy is critically important.

11:47Oh, gosh. Yes, yes. And this should be the world's biggest softball for you. But what's in it for the visionary or the entrepreneur or the leader to really lean into and develop and utilize their innovation with, again, we have to make sure it's all tied to, you know, business goals and object, you know, you know, we don't want to just create, you know, too much, you know, kind of pie in the sky, blue sky time. I mean, although that's really critical to this process. But let me sum up the question simply. What's in it for the innovator to become more innovative? I think it's just something that's in us, you know, as innovators.

12:35We just like to see new stuff coming out. It's that curiosity factor manifesting itself and bringing products to the market. There is no greater satisfaction. Okay, obviously, we have to put bread on the table, as it were. You know, we have to pay the bills. We have to make sales. We have to make profits. All of those are a given in business. But if you're putting a product out in the market that is good for people and that does a great job, or if you're putting a service out into the market that is going to benefit society, that's a win-win situation then where you've got like a winning product or service.

13:06and you've also got the commercial satisfaction of generating the idea. But I think fundamentally, to answer your question, it's that satisfaction of curiosity or satisfaction of the innovation within the innovator's head. You're kind of coming out with an idea. And it's like giving birth to that new idea and seeing it come to fruition, Seeing it grow is a hugely satisfying process from idea to success, let's call it. Yeah. Patrick, tell me about how you work with leaders, entrepreneurs, and fellow innovators to help them. Tell me about what you do specifically. So what I do know is I don't, I'm not in the driving seat of startups any longer.

13:58where I've done a few startups myself, I still develop and look after my own technologies, but they're very much on the side. Right now, I present myself and say, look, I can give you 20 years of experience in this game. I know how to take an idea from an idea to a success. I've got my time. I'm willing to put in my input at the start on a free of charge discussion. Let's have a chat and see if there's ways we can win. I will not get involved in something unless I think I can add value. And if I can add value, I'll get in and we'll partner up and we'll work a way to get it out onto the market.

14:35Typically, that can change. It can be like an early stage startup company right up to a full scale multinational company who are out there covering lots and lots of ground. I just love to contribute my experience and the wins and also the scars that I've picked up over the years. Because any entrepreneur or any innovator that tells you that they didn't make mistakes or they didn't learn from mistakes, they're just not telling you the truth you know so we really need that and what i do now is i come in i i say i will not take five hours to say what i can say in five minutes um and if it works and if it's going to work let's make it happen yeah so um where might someone be in the innovation process um that would indicate to you you could probably really help them they could be anywhere But normally I'll deal with or I'll work with, partner up with companies that have an existing product range or service range that they want to innovate.

15:33So they've got the baseline, the foundation in place, and we're looking to build that, you know, build on top of that foundation. So I'll come in when they have established some degree of sales. in some cases I'll go in very very early early stage but mostly it's the people that have an existing business that are running their business and sometimes it's difficult to see the forest from the trees you know because you're in the business every day and I know this because when you're when you're in that business every day there's so much going on there's so much coming at you it's very difficult to step outside of it and see the opportunity now what I do is I come in I look and let's say from the outside in well you've got an opportunity here and you've got an opportunity here.

16:14Let's explore those. So the day-to-day can run. You keep doing that. And I look after the opportunity factor. And if we win, it's a win-win situation. I'm not in there necessarily just to get a check. I'm in there to see these people succeed. And I love to see success. Well, and listen, I think this goes without saying, and this is the case when you're working with any consultant, a consultant has the ability, someone independent, someone on the outside has the ability to see what you are just not able to see. I, as smart as I might think I am, and I don't think I'm that smart. I feel like I'm good at a handful of good, you know, a handful of things and then mediocre at best at most things in life.

16:55But I can tell you this, I am dreadful. I'm really good at ideating, like coming up with brainstorm ideas. Execution, I rely a lot on. And I'm grateful that I have a really good team. But there are things along the way that an outside set of eyes can just do far better than me, my COO, gathering customer data, truly understanding the market. I mean, we could do this research, but at some point, this does, it can feel a little overwhelming. and also, you know, an outside expert. This is an issue I'm sure you've come across. And this is the curse that is, I think this is this the innovators, what's the innovators dilemma?

17:48And I could be wrong with this, but the idea is everything sounds like a good idea when it's your idea. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Share why it's really good to have an outside, especially if this, let me tell you, especially if this is the ceo that's coming to the table with this idea and everyone else is like brilliant idea boss like even if you tell them don't give me yes woman yes man answers they're still going to do it that yeah i hear you i hear you and and we're right different in that regard i'll sit at the table and i don't care who's across the table or who's around the table and I'll just go, I don't think that's going to fly, you know, and here are the reasons for it.

18:33So I don't mind saying that, you know, I would prefer not to waste anybody's time and spin our wheels and go after an idea that just didn't seem to have commercial potential from the very beginning. Because so many innovators and innovations get caught in that spiral of, oh, what a great idea. But does the idea have value? Does it have commercial value? Can it be commercialized? What are the challenges? What are the gates we have to go through to make this a success? how much investment is involved in time and money to make it happen. And when you put all those things into the mix, you kind of come out and say, well, that was a great idea.

19:07It still may be a great idea for maybe a different segment or a different place. But if I bring it from here, i.e. this idea, to where I want to make it and launch it on the market, it's going to take me a lot of time and a lot of money. And what's the distraction? What's the opportunity cost? So all those bigger picture factors come into the equation as well. But to get right to the point of it, if somebody comes up with that idea, then I will kind of slice and dice it and say, these are the reality factors. You know, this is what you're going to have to go through to make it happen. Is that, is it worth, you know, is it worth putting that effort?

19:42And I think that kind of, I don't know, that external input is critically important to make it happen. If it is something that has value and has mileage and is relatively low hanging fruit, then I will say straight away this is where I think we're at and then I need to get consensus you know because I'm just putting my opinion as well I've got one opinion there are a lot of opinions a lot of experience around the table and we need to make sure that everybody's on board if we all sign off and say thumbs up let's go then we do it yeah yeah and I'll tell you um Patrick um you know in in doing what we do or what I do I I work with folks that uh you know they have bigger ticket offers.

20:25Um, and if they're a little bit newer, um, I gotta tell you, I see a lot of bad offers out there and, and it's not that they're, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say they're bad. They're great offers. They're just not going to sell like, like, and, and the only way like chat TPT can't tell you this, like they, I mean, it might have some indication of this, but I have the opportunity to work with 200, you know, more than 200 consultants, coaches, B2B service providers, folks that are selling big, like I know what's selling. I hear their complaints. I hear their frustrations. Like someone who is siloed in their own world, you don't know what I know.

21:05Similarly, Patrick, your clients don't know what you know. You've been through this innovation. There are so many places that you can get stuck, hung up, make mistakes. these little micro decisions along the way that are just going to result in months and or years of wasted effort and or you know potentially going to market with the wrong product losing money wasting money these are all things patrick i don't mean to be your pitch man here but no you're doing a great job here we are patrick let me just we have one minute left here actually we got to talk to everyone over here the other key factor for me is i've traveled i've traveled the world for that 20-year period.

21:44And one of the key factors for me is picking up that Rolodex and getting the contacts. So I will look at a project and say, right, if we're 50 % sure this is going to happen, I need to speak to somebody that I know about this. And let me just pick up the phone. I'll just go and pick up the phone and say, look, this is what's coming out. And if that works, and if they say, thumbs up, let's go, then that's usually a very good indicator of success. If they say, not a chance, don't do it. I could have saved us a lot of time and money just by making that contact. Yep. Yep. I love that. It's always the who, not what, right?

22:15It's the right people with the right connections, the right insights. It's always about people. I'm a huge proponent of AI. We were talking beforehand. I spend a couple of hours a day in GPT. It does not have the ability to do what we're talking about. And I can tell you as a passionate devotee of using AI for as many things as you can in business. It's just not there. And personal connections, again, you're going to have to go human. That's gold. That's gold. Yep. So your website, patricknoeldaily.com, what are next steps for someone that's been listening to our conversation? Jump on the website.

22:56My contact details are on there. Send me a message through the website. I'd be happy to have a chat. No obligation initially. I'll have an initial conversation, see where, if and where I could add value. If I can add value, I'll pitch it to you and I'll let you know. If I can't, I'll also say it very directly. I may, if I don't, if I can't add value myself and if I can connect somebody that can, I'll do so. I have a very open book. Well, Patrick, working with, it's like going to Shark Tank or something like that. Good. I wanted to point this out. You have a book, it's called Just Start Up, a guide to building startups from an entrepreneur who has learned the hard way.

23:37Patrick, your website again, Patrick Knoll Daily. We have the spelling for that directly below, directly in your podcast app. Just click on the link that says details, a little information icon, and you'll find a direct link. Open that up in a browser, click on the get in touch button. Patrick, great conversation. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Josh. Have a great day.

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