Polly Benson

speaker

31 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2025 last heard Apr 2025

Polly Benson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

No recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Living The Red Life · How Polly Benson Beat Copycats and Built a Purpose-Driven Brand · 16 Apr 2025 podcast

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

So I invented a product called the Legi Liner, and it's a rolling ink stamp that prints handwriting lines. So it's just a little simple stamp that you put on paper and it rolls out handwriting lines so kids can practice more consistently.

So the way that we think we've helped over a million children is because we've sold thousands of products to teachers, homeschool moms, other school-based occupational therapists, and they're now using those in their classrooms. And in every classroom, there's 20 or 30 children. Yeah. And so they've been able to utilize the stamps to help improve their handwriting.

Yeah. So I'm an occupational therapist and I work in the schools with children. I've always had an entrepreneur spirit back in the day when I was younger, babysitting and doing different activities, crafts and things that I would sell. I did a couple of other small businesses like home party companies and things like that. And always tried to be generous with what I did and give back to whatever.

I did one business that was really interesting. It was where I did a home party and 100% of anything I made, I gave to a charity. And it just was such a feel good because I didn't need the money, but I wanted to have a purpose. And so- kind of always led my business with a purpose and what exactly is my purpose.

And so for this particular business, it's been super fun to see that I can impact so many lives.

Yeah, sure. So I think initially when I first started and I came up with this idea, I was, you know, pushing into a classroom and I was drawing lines by hand. So I knew there was a problem that needed a solution. And so when I was at a scrapbooking retreat, I thought of, you know, I was practicing stamping with these rolling stamps and I said, I just need one with my pattern.

And so I went to look to buy one and there wasn't one existed. So contacted the manufacturer and had one made while I started carrying that around everywhere. And the teachers were like, that's incredible. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. You need to patent that. And so then it was like, okay, wait, maybe there's something to this and I want to have this product out there.

And so as I've been developing more and more products, then I've been able to impact more and more people. But with that comes more and more challenges, right? So how do I come up with packaging? How do I distribute it? How do I market it? who is the best person and I didn't have those skills. So first started out like reaching out to people that had that experience and how do I do packaging?

How do I do marketing? But then realized as I started becoming more of the best proponent of my product, I'm the best promoter, then I had to hire somebody to do the other work for me.

So as much as I love to be on my design or in my Canva or on my YouTube, it's much better for somebody else that can do that for me because my time is worth what I want to do is promote my product and reach out to make those connections and those business networking.

Oh, I would say definitely don't penny pinch it. I am so good at problem solving and I am so good at the details with every little step that was along the way that I wasted time and money. And as much as it was cheaper for me to do it, it probably would have been cheaper for somebody else to do it. So I have a habit of trying to do things at a low cost or a low budget.

And yet sometimes you just gotta take that step and that step in faith and say, I'm gonna invest in this because it's investing in my company versus actually spending the money. Like don't think of it as spending the money on advertising or social media, but you're investing in your future and someone else is probably a hundred times better at it than you are.

So my first hire was my husband, to be honest. Yeah. Employing your family and having them help you out. But honestly, the first hire I went with was a virtual assistant. And so I had somebody else doing my YouTube channel and trying to build my YouTube channel.

actually my first was a social media person yeah yeah because there's just so many different platforms i knew facebook i knew nothing about instagram and so now i'm big on both and i'm a little bit on tick tock and i'm starting to build my youtube so yeah it's like it's it's common stages

Yeah, so I have found that one of the best ways to promote my product is in person, a vendor event or a conference and sponsoring a conference or buying a vendor booth. And so what I've seen with that is other solo entrepreneurs, people that have started their business and they have a product, but they don't have a business. And one of the lessons I learned along the way was

I was listening to Shark Tank and they had one of their product pitches on there. And the shark said, you don't have a business, you have a product. And that really stuck with me because I know I have a product, but I really wanted a business. I wanted something that was tangible. There was more to it. And so I started looking into what that meant and looking at...

bringing value to not just selling a stamp, but that I have lesson plans, I have worksheets, I have training videos, I have more to go with the business that has been adding value. So because of that, I have grown to a certain level and certainly investing in myself to try to take that next step. But I run into a lot of entrepreneurs that are in my same boat that just have a product.

And so I'm trying to teach them as well. Hey, this is what I learned on the way. Let me help you shortcut that. Let's skip this and let me tell you my experience. And so through doing that, I found more networking opportunities and that there is a desire out there for like a mastermind group.

So we've decided to maybe look into doing this mastermind group where I have a Facebook group of my customers that follow me and my community, but I now have an entrepreneur's Facebook group that have just that product. And it has something to do with OT or education and being able to bring them together and just provide them with a little bit of tidbits of strategies and tips and tricks and

Showing 1–20 of 31 · page 1 of 2