Ep30 - Shawn Moye Talking About His Invention, The E-Sports Trainer

[00:00:00] Greg Mills: Our guest today is a father and innovative thinker, a proven leader, and a mentor. He grew up outside of Cleveland and graduated from South Hugh high school in 1995. He's gone on to secure an MBA and an MPM from the Keller Graduate School of Management. He currently resides in Davidson, North Carolina, where he enjoys playing Basketball and Football, going to sporting events, concerts, and theatrical plays.

[00:00:26] He loves spending time with his family and friends, traveling, volunteering and mentoring. Without further ado, let me introduce the one and only Sean Moye.

[00:00:37] Shawn Moye: Hello, Greg. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful intro. I really appreciate it. , Again, I'm Sean Moye, originally from Ohio Lorain, Ohio. By way of Phoenix, Arizona lived out there for about 20 years, then relocated to North Carolina where I currently reside. So living out in Davidson, I love it.

[00:00:56] Been operations manager with a few companies. And in my spare time, I am an inventor. So I'm really happy about where I've come in my journey and look forward to talking a little bit more about my product,

[00:01:08] Greg Mills: Okay. Now, did you come from an entrepreneurial or inventors background at all?

[00:01:14] Shawn Moye: no entrepreneur or inventor background at all. Actually that I know of. I'm the only inventor in my. So my family, we worked a blue collar, hardworking people. My mom instilled that in us at our very early age. So that's pretty much what I was around. As I began to develop ideas, one thing I said was instilled in us was about hard work and.

[00:01:40] Finish what you start. So that's kind of where I got that, mentality from. So, when I came up with this idea, there was nothing that was ever going to stop me from bringing it to fruition, because that's what I was taught.

[00:01:53] Greg Mills: Okay. Now, what was your childhood like? Were you good in school and excel in sports, or, were you average, like me or, how did that work?

[00:02:03] Shawn Moye: So, yeah, it's funny, I was just talking to my mom about this the other day. My third or fourth grade teacher actually told her at a conference that he is the kind of kid you could leave in the middle of New York city and he will be OK. That was the type of kid I was. Always did well. I guess I've always had that competitive drive inside of me. School just kinda came naturally to me. So I've always done well, there. Never had any issues, always took the honors classes and the college courses and things like that in high school. So yeah, school was pretty good.

[00:02:38] Greg Mills: Okay. Now I'm just wondering back to your teacher. How many, third grader had he left in New York city. But

[00:02:44] Shawn Moye: Exactly.

[00:02:45] Greg Mills: to know this, but that's, I guess that's neither here nor there.

[00:02:48] Shawn Moye: Yeah.

[00:02:50] Greg Mills: What are you doing in your job today?

[00:02:53] Shawn Moye: Currently I am a operations manager. I have about 200 people. under me. It's all about, working safe and, satisfying customer. So always, always, always, driving a satisfied customer. We are all customer service. We are all in a customer service business is what I tell my team. So pretty much making sure everybody's working safe, and things along that, and that men are meeting deadlines and things like that.

[00:03:19] So that's what I pretty much do on a day to day, just managing people. 

[00:03:22] I always tell my kids, even now, no matter the industry, if you can manage people, you will be okay. So again, I always tell my team, no matter what we do, not one piece of plastic is worth going out the door and somebody got hurt or they weren't safe. Also tell them about people. When you're at work, be here because if you're physically here and you're mentally somewhere else, you will have officially lost your mind. So be here, let's work safe, let's get the job done. And that's pretty much what I do. I always call myself a glorified cheerleader.

[00:03:58] Right. So that's what I do on a daily basis.

[00:04:00] And we have a lot of fun.

[00:04:02] Greg Mills: It sounds like it. 

[00:04:04] Shawn Moye: Yeah. 

[00:04:04] Greg Mills: just looking at your LinkedIn bio, I think I've mentioned this before off the call, but I couldn't find anything that would lead me to suggest that you are an inventor,

[00:04:15] Shawn Moye: Yeah.

[00:04:16] Greg Mills: We'll get to your invention in a minute, but yet it has the potential to be a pretty impactful invention.

[00:04:24] Shawn Moye: Yes. So, , Yeah. I have a cousin that I look up to a lot and that's one thing he says is he's never going to talk about it, which I need to get better at doing. Like he's never done a boast and brag about it. It's just something that I like to do. And, one of the famous phrases I love is when you love what you do.

[00:04:42] You never work a day or life. So it's kind of. Something I just love to do so I just do it. But yeah, the more people I share with the more people that say, you know, you're sitting on a gold mine, like this is it's so scalable. It's an amazing idea that you brought to fruition.

[00:04:57] It's amazing. So I'm at that stage now where I call it getting out of the lab and I'm sharing it with the world. So that's where I'm currently doing right now. But yeah, I need to get better at that marketing side and actually saying what I do outside of just the operations.

[00:05:14] Greg Mills: Okay. Now in your job as an operations manager, have you found that there's a lot of transferable skills to both the inventing side, as well as the running the company side that you're doing?

[00:05:27] Shawn Moye: Yeah. So I'm very fortunate in that way that I can equate, and it kind of goes back and forth. So things that I learned in my day to day job, I applied to. Me building my product and vice versa. So as far as, building and designing a product, in my day to day job, you come to me and you tell me what you want.

[00:05:48] You tell me a color, we formulate that color. We build it and we, give it to you. So it's kind of the same thing. I was able to know what I wanted from our product, build it that way, dealing with vendors, which I do on a day to day. I'm doing it. Day-to-day with my invention. I'm always called myself a sponge.

[00:06:06] So I've been very fortunate to understand what's going on around me and then how it can apply to other industries as well. I don't have a silo mindset to where this just only equates here and that only equates there. There are a lot of times where you can equate a lot of different things that a lot of different businesses and industries and people with.

[00:06:26] Greg Mills: Okay. Now, does your job know that you're an inventor and that you've potentially going to have a product hitting the market soon?

[00:06:35] Shawn Moye: They do actually. And I thank God for all of this. I'm very fortunate. The company that I work for is very supportive. I've been with companies and I've mentioned it in the past and they saw it as a threat or, Hey, you better be careful with this, or, you know, you better be careful.

[00:06:49] You're not mixing the times. And I'm very careful, very professional. I don't mix times when I'm at work, I'm at work. Again, going back to if you're here, be here. So same thing with my mentality, my body I'm at work mentally. I'm at work when I'm working on my product, I'm working on products. So I don't cross the lines that way, but they're very supportive. Which I greatly appreciate, because you don't get that everywhere. My boss, he is an awesome businessman himself. He has his hands in a lot of different pots as well. So, knowing that and understanding that about him, I feel very comfortable sharing what I'm working on with them.

[00:07:26] And I mean from day one, he just texted me on Friday. What do you need me to do? How can I help? So greatly appreciate, , the support that I'm getting from where I work.

[00:07:36] Greg Mills: That's awesome because not a lot of companies would be that open-minded, but because they are your, company's getting a great employee.

[00:07:43] Shawn Moye: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I appreciate that.

[00:07:47] Greg Mills: Now, tell me about your first invention. I believe you said before that it was a musical flag.

[00:07:54] Shawn Moye: Yeah. So, back in, I think it was maybe 1996. I contacted us a mentioned invention company and I had their packets in and in front of me, it might've been 92, but I was watching the Olympics. And, an idea came, I saw that flag, the United States flag plane, and I heard the music.

[00:08:13] So I'm like, man, wouldn't it be cool if you could put those two ideas together. So, what I did was, I sent my information to the submission company, which I said, oh, this is a great idea. And the thought behind it was, inside of a stick or a plastic tube was a music box that plays the national Anthem of the country represented on the flag at the time.

[00:08:35] People when they saw it, they loved it, thought it was a great idea. Which was really cool. Cause at the time I'm like, man, this is awesome. So if I can elaborate on that story, that will invention submission companies said, this is a great idea. Why don't you give us $11,000 and we will patented, we will take it to market for.

[00:08:54] Greg Mills: No. Sean, how old were you at this point?

[00:08:56] Shawn Moye: Hmm, I'm going to say I might've been around maybe 16, 15, 16 years old.

[00:09:03] Greg Mills: Yeah, if you're like me at 15 or 16 and I didn't have an extra $11,000.

[00:09:08] Shawn Moye: Right? Exactly, exactly. And that's exactly where I was. And again, there was no. Body around me as one person around me is my cousin. He has some restaurants that he owned at the time and he was the only one that I can turn to. And, so I went to him, Hey, I got this idea. People think it's amazing.

[00:09:28] Can you loan me the $11,000? And he said, Hey, tell you what you do some homework, and then you come back to me. So he gave me some homework and I wasn't happy at the time about that. So I did my homework and I'm going to prove him wrong. Right. I'm going to do what he told me to do. I'm going to prove him wrong.

[00:09:46] So after a few weeks, he said, Hey, I got some business partners. And they were all business owners as well. Why don't you come in and present your product to us? So I said, absolutely, I'll be there. on the day I was going to go present my idea to these gentlemen, a letter came into mail from the better business bureau concerning this company, and they had an F rating.

[00:10:08] They had a bunch of lawsuits pending against them and I'm like, oh my goodness. Had I not done my homework? Had I not got that advice? I mean, who knows where I would've been, I would've been, taken for $11,000. So I went to go submit, I let him know that. And I mean, he was really proud that I did.

[00:10:25] And I was too. I did the presentation, they gave me some great feedback, at the time feedback, which I still use to this day. So, yeah, in a nutshell, that was that journey or that chapter, if you will.

[00:10:38] Greg Mills: So you had your own miniature shark tank 

[00:10:41] Shawn Moye: I did exactly. Absolutely. I was just talking to him a few weeks ago and he was like, remember when you pitched the products? He was like, that was. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you're absolutely right. That was shark tank. I love, that you don't have to be on that grand stage either.

[00:10:57] There are people that are around us who can also help us along the way, to get to the next level. So, yeah, absolutely. That was that.

[00:11:07] Greg Mills: Sounds like your cousin's a pretty good businessman.

[00:11:10] Shawn Moye: He is, he's

[00:11:11] actually these amazing guy.

[00:11:13] Yeah. His name is Mark Bauer. I'm very fortunate to have him as a mentor. even when he was running his restaurants and he had his record labels and things like that, but he saw something to me, even at an early age. I might've been like 17, 18 at the time, but I did work with him for a time and was able to see the behind the scenes of how things work, especially on a business level.

[00:11:35] And he imparted in me a lot of, wisdom and advice again, that I still use to this. , so very fortunate that I have him in my life and somebody that I can bounce ideas off of and he can kind of point me and steer me in the right direction even. Yeah.

[00:11:52] Greg Mills: Let's get to your big invention idea. How did the idea for the electronic sports trainer come about? And I guess even backing up a little bit, can you tell the audience what it is?

[00:12:02] Shawn Moye: Okay. so my product is , a sports training device. What it does is teach us proper technique, and muscle memory when playing a sport. In a nutshell, that's what it does. You wear it on your arm. You went and PR compression sleeve, which we'll talk about, but a lot of times when playing a sport, you don't get that behind the scenes information that you need.

[00:12:23] The building blocks, if you will. So there's cracks in the foundation when you're learning how to play a sport, that when you get to a certain level, either you never get to play. You don't understand why the coach has you sitting on a bench or, when you get to a certain level, your talent may allow you to get to that level.

[00:12:38] But then you have a coach that will kind of reverse engineer your shot or reverse engineer. Those bat mechanics. And then they have to rebuild it up properly. So what this product tries to do and will do is, give you the proper techniques before that. So it gives you, a solid foundation to build upon as you're playing the sport.

[00:12:59] So for this first edition, it's, dedicated, related to basketball. So what it does, it talks to you correctional in real time. It tracks the number of times you are using the product correctly. It toggles between several different languages. So you can practice or train in a language most comfortable to you.

[00:13:19] So, going back, the idea came from my son. He showed interest in playing a sport at a very young age. So I wanted to work with him. So we're going to the park. We're gonna play and I want to train them, but I understood this, that you need to make sure you have proper technique and especially in shooting a basketball.

[00:13:39] So as I go take him to the park, I'm thinking to myself, well, how can I make sure he. Practices correctly, even when I'm not around. what good is it to shoot a thousand shots per day that you hear a lot of people say, but they're all improper shots. So I want to make sure he is shooting and his practicing wasn't in vain that way.

[00:13:57] Then as I look around the park, I see there's a lot of kids whose parents aren't needing the paying attention, or parents may not even understand this as well. So that's where the idea came from. So when we went home , I began to work on this. Right away, again, did the patent search make sure nothing was out there like this?

[00:14:16] And that's where my thousand mile journey started

[00:14:19] Greg Mills: Okay. Now when you did the patent search, were you looking on USPTA, pto.gov or patents.google.com or.

[00:14:27] Shawn Moye: both of those. So I went to both of those places, to look for a patent, and nothing showed up. I did my due diligence and, I may have even contacted a company to help me look, but it was at a minimum cost because again, at the time, like many of us inventors starting out, I didn't have a lot of money.

[00:14:47] There was always more month than money anyway. So I had, three kids, two kids at the time. Going to work every night. We're trying to make ends meet. So I started wearing a lot of inventors started. I just had to be creative, on how it was going to bring this product to the marketplace

[00:15:04] Greg Mills: okay. And how many years has it been about roughly?

[00:15:08] Shawn Moye: So from that time to now, it's been about 15 years that I've been working on this.

[00:15:14] Greg Mills: How did you validate the idea as far as being a commercially successful? Cause I can't really think of anything to compare it to, to be 

[00:15:24] Shawn Moye: Right. Right. So for me, I saw some other, training tools that were out there, so I compared it to what they're doing, how they're doing it. So I knew it was a, financial lucrative industry, sports training. It was just, how was I going to get into that market space was the question.

[00:15:43] So for me, searching on those platforms, looking for. The pads are. I didn't have the money again to start the patent process right away. So I started with provisional patent, which gave me protection for a year. That way I was able to do some digging. I was able to share my product a little bit more with the people.

[00:16:02] It was during that time where I got a toy designer as well. It was during that provisional patent phase, it cost maybe at the time, maybe $150. And if you decide you want to move forward after that year, before the year is up, then you can start your patent process. And then it will retro back to the original date of that provisional patent.

[00:16:23] So it gave me a year to play with that. So again, you don't always have to jump into, I need a patent today and I need to spend thousands of dollars to get my patent. I'll start with a provisional patent, take a baby step. You don't have to jump both feet first. You can jump in one foot at a time. And then you can do your research during that window as well.

[00:16:41] So once I got the protection, I was able to talk to a few more people, get their information, get their feedback, if you will. Um, what do you think about this? How do you think what will work? And I got nothing but great feedback. once I got to that level, I was toward the end of my provisional patent.

[00:16:55] Then that's when I applied for a utility.

[00:16:59] Greg Mills: At what point did you create the prototype and talk about how you did that? I think that involved the toy designer, if

[00:17:05] Shawn Moye: The first day, when we came back from the park, I had the old CD player. I had a Velcro and I had my son all wrapped up like a mummy for my patent. So it gave me an idea. And, from those drawings and even what my provisional patents, the drawings were very simple. It was just, this is the idea behind it.

[00:17:24] If anybody contact me, I'll share that journey with them, the pictures and everything. I drew the pictures myself in my house. Very simple. During that window, I just got online and search for toy designers. 

[00:17:36] Let's see what. And then once things started popping up and now will help me drive to a different search. but again, I just let the internet do the work for me. I actually contacted a few toy designers,, and decided to go with the person that I went with. But some people said, no, some people said this, isn't what I do.

[00:17:55] This guy was an independent toy designer and he said, sure, I will make it for you. So that's where it started. And again, I'll tell all the inventors out there, make sure you're protecting your idea, protecting yourself throughout the journey.

[00:18:09] When the toy designer and I talked, we drew up a contract, he signed it, I signed it. But somewhere through the process, he decided that this was a good idea. And Hey, let me be a part of it. Don't pay me. Just name me on the patent, which I'm so glad I did not do, but if we didn't have a contract in place who knows, so always make sure you're protecting yourself that way.

[00:18:30] Again, it doesn't take millions of dollars. You don't have to contact a bunch of lawyers and build up all these legal fees. There are things that you can do to protect yourself, easy, low cost, low hanging fruit type things that you can do to protect yourself. But that's where the patent idea came from.

[00:18:46] Then it just evolved from there. I still love it to this day. It was like my baby, but it was bulky. It was big. And it wasn't, consistent sometime it will go off sometime at one. Once I had the utility patent, then I began to contact other manufacturers, got what their design team, and we'll end up, begin to evolve that way.

[00:19:04] Even as, you know, Greg, it's still. I don't know if it ever stopped, but I don't know if any product ever stops. Right. It's always about continuous improvement through life. Again, that's something that I learned that my job throughout the years, continuous improvement always getting better, that I'm able to equate in what I do.

[00:19:21] That's just a life principle. So we should always be continuing to get better. I do it at work. I said, and I said in my day-to-day life, and then related to my product.

[00:19:31] Greg Mills: When you got the patent. Did you do it yourself?

[00:19:35] Shawn Moye: Yes, I didn't have any money, but I knew the next step in my process at the time was to get a patent on it. If I wanted to. So again, I went to the library, I checked out maybe four or five books concerning patents and I began to write it. So yeah, I was just riding this pat and again, I know it's taboo and then, oh my God, you can't do that.

[00:19:56] Well, again, I've always been that guy that said, well, why not? You told me a thousand reasons why I can't give me one reason why I can't. So I live by that principle as well. And I stand on the why I can principle. So yeah, checked out maybe four or five. Began to write the patent, sent it in. thank God it went to the right person.

[00:20:16] Because the person on the other side at the penetrating mark office, I mean, you couldn't write a better script. She began to give me advice. You got to say this here, this clause you need to say here, this clause, you need to say that to me. They don't really give you that you either submit it correctly and that's it and resubmit.

[00:20:34] But she and I worked together for me. To finish it. So thank God for that. But again, if you just start those types of things to me are attracted to you. So just start the process, just start the journey and people will be attracted to you. Ideas of resources would just be attracted to you. I need a professional drawings done.

[00:20:54] Where am I going to get that? I don't again, have the money for a professional person to design these. I just went to legalism, got my drawings done, told him exactly what I wanted. We worked back and forth until we got the design that I wanted. Again, there are a lot of resources out there for us. Um, you just got to know how to put it together.

[00:21:14] Greg Mills: Okay. Now you've gotten your patents. You've gotten your first prototype. What were your next steps?

[00:21:23] Shawn Moye: My next step after that I pitched the new design to some people that I know people that are run camps, sporting camps. They liked the idea. There was a marketing company and I worked with, this lady, she got into some EA sports camps. She got in, in front of some, NBA celebrities in their sports.

[00:21:41] And so I used that not only to get it into the camp gave away the units, that the devices that are sent to the camp, so may some donations that way. But I also started getting feedback that way as well. So I use it as market research, if you will. so I was using it once I got the feedback from that, then I will go back to the lab if you will.

[00:22:01] Kind of design some other things, add onto the product and then resubmit it. So once I got it to a certain level that I think, okay, it's presentable now, let me show it to. Even if it's a small group your family and friends are biased. So I'll kind of want to get away from them to get some real feedback, real and honest feedback, because the feedback that I'm going to get for the most part from friends and family are going to be, we love it, but you love me.

[00:22:26] So you love the product, but I need somebody who has never seen it, to tell me what they think. And for me, like, I love doing play. Being inactive for a lot of years and things like that. I love the shock factor. I want that first real response. You see it. What do you think you play with it? What do you think?

[00:22:45] A lot of times your first response is the most accurate one. So that's what I looked for. But that was my next step along.

[00:22:53] Greg Mills: Now, how did you find your supplier?

[00:22:56] Shawn Moye: So yeah, again, just went online for me, went on Alibaba, searched around and started talking to companies. That's pretty much it, in a nutshell, the companies I've been working with, I've been working with for about maybe, maybe 10 years plus. Of course you want to build that trust with.

[00:23:14] So we started small working our way back and forth. I sent you this, you sent me this. And again, now we have an amazing relationship. I was actually on my way to go visit somebody companies before COVID hit. I actually have my ticket, have my, hotel reservations and everything set up before, the travel restrictions was shut down across the globe, but, yeah, I've been dealing with the same company for a few years.

[00:23:39] I'm sure there's some horror stories out there, but I haven't had any of them. Once you establish a relationship and trust with people, again, build it over time, better gradually, but, it could be done.

[00:23:50] Greg Mills: Okay. It sounds like you did it the smart way and that you went and gradually, whereas a lot of people kind of tend to rush in, and that seems to be when bad things happen.

[00:24:01] Shawn Moye: absolutely. Absolutely. It might've been a first episode of shark tank or something. The guy was like, I threw in all my kids, college education's second mortgage on the house. And he didn't even get picked up by, I wanted to sharks, not saying you have to, to be successful, but they told him you shouldn't do that.

[00:24:20] You should take baby steps gradually. Take steps along the way versus going in a hundred percent. And I know a lot of times people say you're going to a hundred percent and if you believe in a, you would do that, but still, you want to find a happy medium to everything, right?

[00:24:35] You don't just want to go a hundred percent. You don't even have to, it'd be different if you had to, but you don't have to. So yeah, definitely. Especially us inventors that don't start off with a lot of money. You don't have money to waste, so, and you can't put yourself at risk to that level.

[00:24:54] So definitely take the baby steps, before you start to scale up.

[00:24:59] Greg Mills: So going back to the supplier though, America's had a, just in times of supply chain, for awhile, but that seems like it's breaking.

[00:25:09] In our time, I think started around COVID and has just continued on. Have you run into any issues with that?

[00:25:17] Shawn Moye: There were some, Just because again, COVID, I had to shut down for four weeks. So there were some, but luckily, I had owners that were already placed. And it didn't affect what I'm doing now. So thank God that that didn't happen.

[00:25:32] But yeah, it definitely felt that COVID, Issue, or what we're dealing with and even not being able to get your product off containers, I thought I was going to have to swim out to one of these containers and in the Pacific out in California, but for me kind of try to have some forward thinking.

[00:25:50] So as I'm talking to my suppliers, I need to bypass this. What can we do? I need to bypass that. What can we do? So with that, I was able to get my product on time and I haven't had any disruptions to my supply chain, but on the other side at work, we have it every day. So I see it. I understand it. But again, me seeing it at work, help me understand what, Hey, if I'm dealing with that, there I'm most likely going to be dealing with it, with what I'm working on too.

[00:26:19] So let me try to get ahead of.

[00:26:22] Greg Mills: How'd you manage to bypass that if you don't mind my asking.

[00:26:25] Shawn Moye: What I did was I just expedited and of course it's for a higher fee, but there, again, it was I need this here, especially for the show. So what can I do to get it? So what you can do is we can put it on our festival. We could put on the airplane versus a boat.

[00:26:41] So it was just how I got it to me. I was listening to NPR and there was this one company and they said a container costs them $4,000 last year, cost them $25,000 this year. Now, if I was at that level, , I would probably say, we're probably going to have to wait, or I would have been swimming out in the Pacific ocean to get it.

[00:27:01] But, thank God. I'm not at that level of.

[00:27:05] Greg Mills: Now, you've got a fairly big event coming up. Can you talk about that?

[00:27:11] Shawn Moye: Yeah. So, after 15 years of working on my product, I've been luckily enough and blessed enough to be chosen, to be on Joy Magano's America's Big Deal, which is on the USA Network at 9:00 PM. So it's airing every Thursday night. I've been selected to be on that. I'm so happy, so grateful.

[00:27:32] And again, like I said, you just take the journey. I mean, I couldn't have told you that I would even be able to do anything like this, especially after all the NOs, that thousands of nos that I had to hear and where I started. So, really happy about that. So my episode would be December 9th. I will be on again.

[00:27:50] America's Big Deal on the USA network at 9:00 PM. So really excited about that.

[00:27:58] Greg Mills: What have they told you to prepare for and what to expect? Can you talk about that?

[00:28:03] Shawn Moye: I can, so I'll talk about at a high level. So what you do is you work with the team, and you come up with a pitch that you're going to work and it's geared around a product. And if you've seen the show, you can kind of see when I'm talking about. You have your product, they pitch it, but you work back and forth with the team.

[00:28:20] You do your 32nd pitch and your 22nd pitch, as to why people should buy it, the product. What I love about this is that, joy herself had this journey so she gets it, she understands it, they call it a QVC HSN clean. The creator of the miracle monster she gets.

[00:28:40] Especially us again, who didn't start off with a lot of money. She herself had the same journey. She had to get funding from her family. She had to work outside of her father's shop at the time. She understands the journey. So in a nutshell, that's what this product is. I call it a mixture between. QVC, home shopping network and shark tank, if you will. So what you do four contestants pitched their product. And at the end, the person who's has the most sales gets an offer that night from one of the major retailers that are sitting that you're pitching to. So those could be QVC could be Lowe's Macy's those type of companies, but that's not to say that. A company who's watching, can't come back and make an offer to you and whatever deal you make outside of that, it's just between you and that company, which is great because a lot of other shows you're forever tied to that show. This is just joy. She has you on her show, whatever deal you made.

[00:29:40] You make there, and you have a connection with the show, if what you do that night, but after that, somebody can call you make an offer and it's just between you and that company. So for me, whether I went in or not, I just being able to be on the show and take part in something like this. I'm already a winner.

[00:29:58] I've already won, to me. So I'm very appreciative, very humbled by this whole experience and this whole process. So I would say I'm no different. And I hear that all the time. Well, I'm no different than anyone. I can make the same statement to everybody else out there. I'm no different than anyone. So if it happened for me, it helped for you.

[00:30:20] Just keep searching, just keep looking, keep working on your product, keep working on your idea. And, it come to fruition.

[00:30:27] Greg Mills: Now, how did you find America's big deal? Because my first instinct would have been to go towards shark tank.

[00:30:34] Shawn Moye: Yeah. So I've applied for shark tank for like maybe eight or nine seasons. I knew they had their next season coming up. They finished our last season. So every time I'm searching the internet, trying to fill out the application again and go through that whole process.

[00:30:49] But as I was searching this time, America's big deal came up. So I'm like, well, let me just fill this out. I don't know what it's about, but let me just fill it out, filled it out. Went back to my search with a shark tank. I'm sure I found it that night submitted that as well. And then I got a call from American's big deal.

[00:31:06] I'm like, oh, okay. Wow. So this is real because a lot of times you see on a web too, that this person is coming out with a show and then you don't hear anything about. 

[00:31:15] So when I saw this as for season, America's big deal, my ears perked up when I got the call. And so we went through a few rounds of zoom calls and things like that, and, did a few flights out and did some casting calls and shoots and things like that. I'm really excited and glad I stopped. And like I said, I couldn't write a better script. I know it's not me controlling this. I thank God that he's guided my stuff. I was very grateful that I found it on the day that I did. And I'm able to be a part of this first season of America's big deal.

[00:31:46] Greg Mills: Yeah. I remember watching the movie joy and she was going on QVC and she was pitching her product and it was crickets basically. No one was calling in and then you hear a familiar voice and it was her best friend calling in and that started the ball.

[00:32:06] Rolling. It kind of snowballed after that.

[00:32:08] Shawn Moye: Yes.

[00:32:09] Greg Mills: Do you have somebody lined up?

[00:32:11] Shawn Moye: Uh, yeah, I've got a few people in mind. Yeah, that's what I love about joy right. In her book. She just bears it all, but that inspires me as an inventor and knowing she's at this huge level, but she started where I am, so she understands.

[00:32:28] But yeah, I have some people lined up, one by the name of Greg mills, by the way. So we're going to be lined up and everybody's going to be, um,

[00:32:36] Greg Mills: done, sir.

[00:32:37] Shawn Moye: yeah, they're going to be making those calls. So I'm excited. I'm really excited. And like I said, uh, a lot of support from people

[00:32:46] Even for the kids, Since this started out, we got our group chat, me and my kids. I've been sharing with them along the way. Hey, this is at this point now, or they want me to call and they've been cheering me on. And there was some days where is easy to get discouraged.

[00:33:01] And I've found that the kids were, Hey, no, you're going to get on. Hey, you got to believe, Hey, you got to keep going. They became our cheerleaders, right. I'm always looking to protect them and to guide them. And then they started to give me back all the phrases and inspiring and encouraging words that I gave to them.

[00:33:19] They started to give it and pour back into me with them. So they helped me along the way. And that made me laugh. Right? At the end of the day, if you just can't have fun with this and I have to keep reminding myself, just enjoy it. Be. Kind of what I was talking about earlier.

[00:33:33] Just be here and enjoy the experience. Whatever happens is going to happen, but you can't control it, but just enjoy the experience and that's what I can control. So,

[00:33:44] Greg Mills: Yeah, I can speak from personal experience. Sean's got a lovely family. It's gotta be gratifying to see that what you have preached to them that they've absorbed it.

[00:33:53] Shawn Moye: Yes. Absolutely. Cause even in the mornings I'll send them stuff, just to encourage and inspire and have a good day or I'll give them some phrase. And then like my middle child, she'll start sending me stuff and say, who says this? We'll just laugh because she's given me back. She would just say, Hey, have a great day.

[00:34:13] And you can take over the world and all this good stuff. So I'm glad that they're able to pick up on that because again, we want our kids to start at a better level than we started at. So I didn't get that, but I want to instill that in them. And then I hope they take it a step further with their kids. I'm glad they are absorbing that.

[00:34:31] Greg Mills: Where do you see the e-sports trainer going forward? Are you going to try to license it or are you going to continue to try to manufacture it?

[00:34:39] Shawn Moye: So for me both I would like to continue to manufacture it, but if someone comes in with an amazing offer, I will definitely go that route and then work on something else. I have a few other ideas that I would like to get some. As well. If somebody comes in and say, Hey, you know, License and from you, at this percentage and it works and it's a win-win from both parties.

[00:35:03] Absolutely. I'll go that route. Until then I'll continue to manufacture it. I think it's a scalable product. Well, no, it's a scalable product. E-sports trainer is three different versions, um, of each sport to grow with the user. The first level is for the novice or it has looser specifications.

[00:35:22] The second level has tighter specifications and the third level, it allows the user to teach it so it can then teach the user. So for example, professional sports app. Like LeBron James, he doesn't want me to teach him how to shoot. He knows his form. So what he does is he goes through his natural shooting motion.

[00:35:43] The device records, it benefit deviates from that, then it triggers. So it helps them maintain his form, the form he wants to maintain. And again, it tracks it. So he can see if he's trending in the right direction or not. For me, cinema, my son had camps, a very expensive camps, things like that. didn't know what he learned. He came home. Again, it takes like maybe five, 10,000 hours of repetition, to create the muscle memory needed. , and I know he didn't get that there. So when he comes home, he's just gonna gradually go back to his normal shooting motion or his normal bad habits or habits in general.

[00:36:22] So this device allows you to track that, to make sure you continue to trend in the right direction. At the end of the day, especially where I started from to where it is currently. I'm really happy at the results and the feedback that I'm getting from it.

[00:36:36] Greg Mills: What do you anticipate the next sport will be that you program for.

[00:36:41] Shawn Moye: The next board is going to be definitely cough. So that's, that's going to be the next board. So once I get this up and going, and I think we're at a good level now with my manufacturing, where I trust what they're doing, where I can step back from this and we'll start working on the golf. The person who did The golf demonstration for the show with me, he lives on a golf course.

[00:37:03] He's actually a professional golf person. He said, when you're ready, let me know. I'll even get it into the shops where I live. So I'm looking forward to working on that golf version. I know that's going to be an amazing one as well. so. That's going to be the next version.

[00:37:19] And then even other sports people are coming up to me saying, Hey, this is the work in this sport, in this motion and this motion and this motion. So it's definitely limitless. The, sky's the limit on what you can do with it.

[00:37:31] Greg Mills: Yeah. I could even see it being applied in like a work environment where there's repetitive motion, 

[00:37:36] Shawn Moye: That was one of the things I talk about is that being ergonomically friendly, so teaching you those proper technique. It can translate over to those type of environments and those types of jobs as well. It's amazing, again for me, because I wear a lot of different hats.

[00:37:50] It's not always easy for me to sit back and reflect on it, but as I've been going through this whole process, And having to submit these things to the show, I'm like, wow, I've really come a long way. So really, really happy again about this whole experience. And then to, this has given me an opportunity to meet people like you as well. So really happy.

[00:38:12] Greg Mills: about that, sir.

[00:38:14] Shawn Moye: Right, right, but I'm really grateful, really grateful for all the people that I'm able to meet. , and it's just, again, for coming up with an idea, to help not only my son, but to help people as well.

[00:38:25] Greg Mills: Sean is a great guy. 

[00:38:27] Shawn Moye: No, thank you. 

[00:38:28] Greg Mills: I did want to ask you, the next products that you come up with, and obviously you can't tell me about them, but are they going to be offshoots of this or are you, do you have something completely different?

[00:38:40] Shawn Moye: Completely different ideas, that I want to work on, things that are just popping into my head. Totally different than this product. Yeah. If my son was ready, I would even hand it off to him and like, okay, you do this. Cause I like being in the lab part of it.

[00:38:54] One that I had that I still kick myself for it. So I don't know if you see the stationary bike, I don't know who makes it, but you can release the lever and you can go side to side with it.

[00:39:04] I actually submitted that to a company years ago, I put a provisional patent on it and I submitted it to them and they were like, no, we only look at our own internal. Ideas I still like, oh my gosh, I should have followed through on that. So every time I see that commercial I'm like banging on it. I should have followed through. So yeah. There's other ideas outside of the Israel,

[00:39:27] Again, a lot of ideas, right. They flow and they're an atmosphere so people, a lot of people aren't getting them. So just make sure you're collecting them and protecting your ideas as, quickly, but as carefully and as responsibly as.

[00:39:42] Greg Mills: All right, sir. Let's get ready to wrap this up. Is there anything that I haven't asked or touched on that you'd like to come.

[00:39:49] Shawn Moye: If everybody can support me on December 9th, America is a big deal. Joy McGahn knows. Um, I only be on the December 9th episode again, Thursday night, December 9th at 9:00 PM. Um, again, if you can just support me, sit down and watch and, support me by purchasing my product.

[00:40:11] That would be greatly appreciated. I have a special special offer with my pitches and amazing. When you hear this pitch, and this offer, everybody's gonna want to take part of this offer. I won't share today, but when you hear this offer, so it'll be whom you to tune in.

[00:40:27] So you can hear what this offer is and be a part of it. So for me, that's pretty much, it just support me. I'll do the same as many people that come to me events or. looking to get their product to the marketplace. I'll share my story and I'll help them as well. And if we keep helping each other, we can all get to the next level.

[00:40:45] Greg Mills: Amen brother. 

[00:40:46] What's the number one piece of advice that you can give for our listeners

[00:40:49] Shawn Moye: yeah. Again, protect your idea, protect yourself. Be responsible, but never give up. I will say don't give up. Don't stop because. As every day, if you do something small, positive things will be attracted to you. 

[00:41:04] And I tell them at work and I tell my kids, we're not victims. We're always victorious. There was always a way there's always something that you could be doing, for yourself. So again, you gotta celebrate the small victory. Take one step, draw that, did you submit to protect your company name?

[00:41:22] There's always something that you could be doing to keep you moving and keep you moving forward. So I would just say, just don't stop. That's it? People say, well, I failed. The only time you fell is when you quit. People come to my office and again, kind of acquainted. Got bad news and it drives me nuts. I always tell him, we don't have bad news. We have opportunities. So again, the same thing, what I failed, you didn't fail. You learn something from it. It is an opportunity. So again, if you start getting rid of that stinking thinking, check out from the neck up, just tell yourself these piles.

[00:41:55] Affirmations. You'll be fine. Just keep moving forward. I mean, we all fall down. We get up. So you just have to keep encouraging yourself to move forward. That's the best piece of advice . I'm not just saying it, but I live it myself or I wouldn't be, again, I don't think I'm any different. We all got a story and I tell my kids this as well, we all got a story. You just played the cards you were dealt and you played them to the best of your ability and you keep moving forward, but don't ever give up.

[00:42:21] And if there's anybody out there who needs some encouragement, call me and we'll encourage each other. And, and Greg, even you and your wife come in and us. You guys don't know how much you encourage me, because I needed somebody to pour into me. And you guys both poured into me that day to help me to reenergize me.

[00:42:38] So I think both of you for that, because, I needed somebody to pour into me, especially that day.

[00:42:45] Greg Mills: We felt like we got just as much of a blessing meeting you

[00:42:48] Shawn Moye: I appreciate that. I

[00:42:49] definitely 

[00:42:50] Greg Mills: you've got my number

[00:42:51] Shawn Moye: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:42:53] Greg Mills: speaking of what's the best way for our listeners to check you out and get in touch with you.

[00:42:58] Shawn Moye: Okay. So, my personal email is the Moya group@gmail.com. So that's T H E M O Y E G R O U p@gmail.com. You can also go to my website, which is E dash sports trainer.com. You can contact me there. I'm on social media. I'm on a Facebook I'm on, Instagram, I'm on LinkedIn. So you can contact me all those ways.

[00:43:26] Again, you type in Sean Moya. I'm sure I'll come up somewhere. Or e-sports trainer I'll come up. Again, anybody who wants to reach out, you can instant message me. my phone number is on my website. You can call me, I'll give it now at 7 0 4 9 1 5 0 4 1 7. It's on my website as well.

[00:43:43] Reach out, we could connect. Who knows? I mean, that's just degrees of separation. I definitely believe in that. Um, I may have the person you may need to connect with and you may have. I need to connect with. we can all do this together and get to the levels that we want to get to.

[00:43:58] Absolutely. I'm all about helping people out genuinely. I'm not looking for anything in return or how I can get over or how I can take your money, anything like that. I have enough of those horror stories. I just want to help people and see people succeed.

[00:44:12] Greg Mills: All right. Let's wrap. Check him out on America's big deal. December 9th, 9:00 PM. And look for his deal.

[00:44:23] Shawn Moye: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:44:25] Greg Mills: Thank you, Sean, for being a guest on entrepreneurs over 40.

[00:44:28] Shawn Moye: Absolutely. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.