June 9, 2006 was a day I (Deborah Tacoma) will never forget. A car accident changed the course of my life entirely. Leaving the hospital a week later with a broken back, I experienced humiliation and frustration as others assisted in keeping me clean. I was restricted to the house for weeks due to unpredictable bathroom visits and no adequate personal hygiene aid. The occupational therapists had little to offer that was convenient and sanitary; therefore, I began creating my own tool, in hopes of regaining independence and personal dignity. The Freedom Wand™ is the result of this struggle. Next time an occupational therapist is asked, “How do I reach…?” they will have a much better answer!  ... the Freedom Wand

In graduate school, the course I (Kathryn Goetzke) found most interesting / my favorite was new products.  We looked at very successful products where people simply changed the use of a commodity and came up with an entirely new success story (my favorite being the post-it note).  The most basic commodity I could think of was the light bulb, and I wondered why over so much time it had basically stayed the same.

So I started thinking of new ways to use it, and wondered about color and moods.  Home Depot was touting painting rooms specific colors for moods, why not light bulbs?  It seemed a whole lot easier than painting an entire room.

So after much research about the lighting market, trends, colors, moods and more, I set off to create my product.  First, I did a lot of legal stuff (figuring out how to do trademarks, etc.) and then I got a copywrite for my biz plan / pitched it to the big manufacturers with agreements in place.  Unfortunately, I didn’t convince anyone to take it on (although I was close with one!).

Not dismayed, I went to a conference out in Las Vegas and learned about lighting (I still don’t know much about light bulbs).   When I found the only place to manufacture was in China or Mexico, I was disappointed but kept moving forward.  I interviewed a number of manufacturers and settled on one in China.

I invited a number of esteemed professionals to my advisory board, and set out to make the specific colors and moods and packaging.  My manufacturer thought I was a crazy American woman – I needed the colors to be perfect and my box packaging was more elaborate than my light bulbs.  But I felt presentation was everything.

My first order was big, a container, and I figured they would be gone in a month.  Unfortunately, I realized that my ‘can do’ attitude can sometimes get in the way of my judgment and I can tend to be a little ‘overly optimistic’. 

While I have thought of giving up many times, I have put my life into this and this year am launching my first national campaign for Breast Cancer and Depression – a move that I believe will change the landscape of my company.  I’m donating 10% of the sales of each different color to a different charity (that is sales, not profit!).  And on specific nights, we are lighting the world a certain color for a cause.

I am also convinced that my for profit has helped depression in more ways than people understand.  It is one of the first products on the market ever to donate to a ‘depression’ cause, and I am proud of that fact.  My hope is to someday have a line of multiple mood products (Mood-scents, Mood-tees, Mood-teas, Mood-chocolates) and open up my own light bulb manufacturing plant in Detroit, Michigan.