Celebrity Inventors: Cheryl Eckert of Leave It Leash On How To Go From Idea To Store Shelf

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

… I always remember my mother saying, “if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all,” and to treat people equally. Never give up and never take no for an answer. Believe in yourself when no one else will. Always do something each day that gets you closer to your goals and never be afraid to ask if you don’t know something.

As a part of our series called “Celebrity Inventors”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cheryl Eckert.

Leave It Leash founder, Cheryl Eckert, is an Emmy award-winning celebrity hairstylist who has worked with some of the most celebrated people in the entertainment field. Her strong desire, ambition and motivation has afforded her the ability to join the IATSE Local 706 Make-up Artist and Hair Styling Guild. Cheryl has also sat on the Union Local 706 Executive Board, Procurement Committee and is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, as well as a judge for the Universal Film Festival. Most of all, Cheryl is an animal lover and has a dog named Lola who she loves and adores. This love and adoration is what has led her to see the need for the creation of the Leave It Leash. She is passionate about the product and the business opportunity.

Cheryl has achieved the following awards:

• 1 Emmy award win for Best Outstanding Hair
• 5x Emmy nominated for Best Hair
• 1 Guild award win for Best Contemporary
• 4x Guild award-nominated for Best Period Hair & Best Contemporary Hair

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was born in Michigan and raised by my single mother with 2 sisters. We didn’t have much growing up but always had our mother’s love. My mother could only do the best she could with the tools that she was given. With that being said, I had to grow up fast and try to make better choices in my life because I had a child at the age of 14, and now, another life was depending on me. I wanted to give my son a better life than I grew up with. Even though I struggled with dyslexia and almost made it to high school, I ended up moving out of the house at 15 and attended night school where I received my diploma. At the age of 19, I moved to Chicago with my four-year-old son to work as a model and that’s when I fell in love with doing makeup and hair. I knew in my heart that make-up and hair was the career for me. Years later I finally joined the makeup & hair union local 706 in LA and now I am an Emmy award-winning hairstylist, inventor, and entrepreneur.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Wayne Dyer once said, “Never be a prisoner of your past.” We all make mistakes. Forgive yourself and others. Try to be better than you did yesterday and keep moving forward.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

My Favorite book is The Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin S. Sharma. Ironically I was working on a show called Monk at the time when I was reading this book when a crew member came up to me and said, “do you realize you’re selling your Ferrari and you’re working on Monk?” I didn’t even realize that until just then! Now that’s a sign. I always loved a good self-help book but this one arrived at the right time when I needed it the most.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. What was the catalyst that inspired you to invent your product? Can you share the story of your “ah-ha!” moment with us?

I started carrying a water bottle with me on my dog walks because my dog was bitten by off-leash dogs on three different occasions. Eventually, I realized that with the water spray, I was deterring off-leash dogs that were overly curious or aggressive. The water spray was preventing unwanted encounters between off-leash dogs and my dog, plus I was able to cool my dog off on hot summer days.

There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How did you overcome this challenge?

I knew in my heart that this could help people on their dog walks. If you have an idea and feel it in your heart, then follow your heart. The mind wants you to fail and the heart wants you to succeed. So don’t play mind games with yourself because when developing an invention, it is not easy and will most likely take a lot of your time, money, energy, and effort. Starting with patent searches, design, engineering, and prototyping. So stay focused and preserve.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Google it, and see if anyone else has done it. Then find a patent attorney to search. If you are on a budget look into LegalZoom. They are great at helping you find legal advice at a lower rate in the early stages of development. Always get a second or even third opinion if you feel differently with any attorney’s advice. Also doing a provisional patent is much cheaper in the beginning and buys you some extra time.

Did you have a role model or a person who inspired you to persevere despite the hardships involved in taking the risk of selling a new product?

I did not have a role model, but I really could have used one. I still need one! Ask yourself: is this the right product? Is it the right time in your life? Is it right for you? Evaluate the risk you will be taking and find a balance that works for you.

For the benefit of our readers, can you share the story and outline the steps that you went through, from when you thought of the idea until it finally landed on store shelves? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

When it came to manufacturing, I had a bad experience with a manufacturing company in China. Within the last hour of having to pay for my molds, the manufacturer sent an email stating they would own 50% of my intellectual property with the transaction. I immediately had to stop everything and inform them that they did not and would not own 50% of my property.

Because of that, I did not receive my final 3D CAD models from the manufacturer. I had to take my prototype to someone that could reverse engineer it and redo the CAD models from a company called T2 design. From there, they referred a company called I-Svare which has great relationships with some manufacturers in China.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I ordered a large number of collapsible bowls with our logo that didn’t fit the leash handle, but funnily enough, I was able to attach promotional postcards for giveaways at pet stores and dog parks.

The early stages must have been challenging. Are you able to identify a “tipping point” after making your invention, when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

After six years I was able to make the final manufacturing order, have it shipped overseas, and store the product in our facility which was probably the biggest hurdle and “tipping point.” I had to follow through with all the steps to get the product made and delivered. This is the moment where I had to believe in myself and have faith in what I was doing for me to overcome all of the obstacles in the process.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Invented My Product” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

I wish someone had said there’s more to just having a patent and explained to me what’s involved in more detail.

1. Patents are very expensive.

2. You should look into the continuations of your patents to improve them if needed.

3. Patents are only as good as long as you can afford to fight them in court.

4. Make sure you purchase Intellectual Property Insurance for your patents in case you do encounter infringements.

5. A provisional patent lasts only 12 months. if you don’t file your non-provisional patent application within those 12 months, your invention will lose its patent-pending status.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

• Do your research, Google a lot, and call an IP attorney.
• Look into intellectual property protection, including provisional, design, non-provisional, or utility patent and/or trademark.
• Look up the name you want to use and file a trademark with www.ustpo.gov. You can search the name and its classification online. If you find the same name you want to use but it’s registered under a different class you should still be able to use it. For example, if you see class 025 for a t-shirt and you want to use the same name for leashes under class 018 then it shouldn’t rise to an infringement claim because it’s under a different class. Here is the Trademark hotline to help you: 1 (800) 786–9199.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

You can try to figure things out on your own but it will take you time and there will be plenty of twists and turns. I think it is always best to go to a specialist or expert.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

Bootstrapping was the only choice I had but eventually, I had some family and friends to join in. If you can find sources of capital I feel it may be less stressful. If you have potential investors, they are only potential investors until the money is in your bank account.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Though our company is new, we plan on donating to companies that work with veterans with dogs.

We hope that the Leave It Leash will help deter overly curious or aggressive off-leash dogs, help prevent dog fights, and help with on-the-go hydration for dog walks to help prevent heat strokes and other heat-related injuries.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Thank you, I always remember my mother saying, “if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all,” and to treat people equally.

Never give up and never take no for an answer. Believe in yourself when no one else will. Always do something each day that gets you closer to your goals and never be afraid to ask if you don’t know something.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Kevin O’Leary is an amazing entrepreneur, I love his energy and dedication! He is MR. Wonderful for a reason I can appreciate his hard work and what he has accomplished. It would be a dream come true to have him as a mentor! Plus we have the same birthday.

Thank you so much for these amazing insights. This was so inspiring.