Unreasonable Belief: What It Really Takes to Bring an Idea to Life feat. Jenny De Leon

In this episode of Taking Back Monday, Alyssa Nolte sits down with Jenny De Leon—IT consultant, reluctant inventor, and founder of Repeatable Travel Systems—to unpack what it really takes to bring an idea to life...especially when no one else sees the vision.

From small-town hardware stores to fighting the U.S. Patent Office for six years, Jenny shares the gritty truth about staying the course when the odds (and your own self-doubt) are stacked against you. Together, Alyssa and Jenny explore what it means to take yourself seriously—even before the world does.

Key Takeaways:

• Unreasonable belief is a requirement. You can’t wait for permission to solve the problem only you see.
• Quitting is easy. Not quitting is a decision you make every day.
• The next step is always enough. Big visions are built one small, logical move at a time.

Key Moments:

00:00 Introduction and Hosts
00:17 Jenny's Origin Story
02:00 From IT Consulting to Skincare Solutions
07:40 The Challenges of Invention
16:20 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

It's time to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries.

Connect with Alyssa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte/
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Transcript

0:00

Hey everyone. Welcome back to taking back Monday. I'm so excited that you decided to say goodbye to the Sunday Scaries and hello to a brand new future of work. I'm your host, Alyssa Nolte, And I'm Jenny De Leon. And we are going to have a really great conversation today. I cannot wait to dive in. Jenny, what is your origin story? Yeah, so my origin, I grew up in a small town, a rural town in Illinois, about 3000 people. And my parents owned an Ace hardware store when I was growing up. So I started working there very young. Um, I started to understand business at a young age, um, entrepreneurial spirit as a young age, and, um. Through the years learning so much about working with people, understanding people, and actually how to navigate in the world, I guess you would say. And, um, I did that, I worked there from when I was in sixth grade through college and after college I went on and, uh, did a lot of different things, but ultimately settled on it consulting. Um, I've been doing that for about 15 years now. Um, I love anything related to processes and do a lot of problem solving in my job, which, um, also happened when I was, you know, when I was young working at my parents' Harbor store growing up, uh, solving problems all the time. And, um. As a result of my experience as a traveling consultant, um, I invented a product called Repeatable Travel Systems, um, to help women take more of their skincare products when they fly with the carry-on. Uh, that was a problem I faced. I was sick of it and I wanted to do something about it. Right. You have to make a choice, right? Like do I, do I forego my skincare for a couple of days? Do I try to travel and hope that TSA doesn't throw away my $700? The dollars worth of skincare.'cause I feel like it's one crazy expensive, but two, like I just kind of recently got on my skincare journey and I feel like it really does make a difference. Like it's not hype. It is actually something that really does help. Um, so tell me, first of all, how do you make the leap from hardware store IT consulting to skincare, uh, solution founder. Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting with the question about the origin because all of these things that we do along the way in our life lead us to where we are at any point, right? So I grew up in this environment of, um, you know, working. In retail at a young age. Like I started at age 12, like I had my own checking, checking account when I was 12 years old because I was making my own money and none of my friends were doing this. I was able, and I was making my own money to buy things that a 12-year-old would want. Right? So clothes or toys or whatever it was. And during that time, like I dealt with so much stuff as a kid because living in a small town, everybody knew everybody. I was always, um. I was dealing with these old timers, as we call 'em, right? They, they thought it was cute. I was working in there, tap my, the top of my head and be like, okay, little girl, you know, and, and all of this kind of stuff. So I, I developed this like personality where I was, um, I guess you'd say smart ass. I got tired of them, you know, saying things to me like I didn't know what I was doing. Um. It also came, like anything that I did in the store.'cause I did everything from ordering inventory to doing bookkeeping with my mom, to cleaning, stocking shelves, all of that. And so when I, when I was asked to do something, you know, I learned how to use tools. I, I finagled things. I made things work. I, and I hated asking for help. I hated waiting for somebody to help me. So I would just go do the thing, whatever it was. And so that period of my life is like. I love how I grew up. I love that I grew up that way. I love it that I grew up in that business environment, understanding that at a young age, 'cause where it's led me to is that whole theme of solving problems has, has been like the whole, I guess you would say, theme throughout my life from, um. Moving into it consulting. I mean, that's what I do, uh, and have done for a long time. But then also solving the problem that I faced as a traveling consultant with wanting to bring more of my skincare products because, um, like you said, it's really not hype. I mean, it's not about like we have to go look good for somebody else. It's, it makes me feel good when I do it right. So that's what I wanted to do, and I got tired of compromising, and I got tired of going places and showing up and feeling not like myself, like I was just over that. Well, let's talk about that problem solving.'cause I relate to that so strongly. I always tell people I love the thrill of the solve, right? So you love process. I don't love process. So I've found people in my life who love process, right? Because I get so much joy and excitement out of like. Solving the problem, tearing it apart, figuring out what the solution is, the minute it becomes time to just like do the thing that I figured out. I'm, I'm, I've moved on emotionally to the next thing, but how much of you know, as a traveling consultant, particularly as a woman in it, which let me tell you my experience, there's far and few between of women who work in that field. How did you navigate? Building an IT business or building your, your growth as an IT consultant and with something that is inherently like girly, like skincare. Yeah, I know. It's kinda weird, isn't it? I mean, so on the IT side, ultimately it came down to I just loved solving problems. Like I loved going in and having no idea what I was doing on a project, just getting dumped in somewhere. Right? Like and, and one of the best pieces of advice I heard that seems so cheesy, but it is so true, is get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that was the. That's still like how, how my, you know, how my job is for me is there's a lot of times where I'm getting dumped into something that I have no idea what I'm doing or what's even going on, but it's asking the right questions and being able to figure that out. And so when I. When I was traveling, you know, I was traveling every week. I was getting up on Monday, Mondays at like 3:00 AM getting on a flight, uh, getting back at midnight on Thursday. And my life was a routine. I mean, it was like a, an assembly line. Like I had to do things certain times to have things done so that I was ready to go again on Monday morning. And so the whole idea for my invention, um. I had pieced some things together and I tried different things and I was, uh, you know, showing other people talking to people that I traveled with. And all the women that I traveled with had the same problem. Um, we, at that point, we were a large team, generally going to the same project site. There was probably 50 or 60 of us back then. Um, and so it was a mix, men and women. So it wasn't, um, I wasn't primarily surrounded by men. It was a good mix of men and women and. Everybody had the same problem and everybody was frustrated and we were always talking like, well, how can you do this? Well, how are you bringing that? What are you doing? You know, and I remember showing my idea to people and everybody saying the same thing, like, you need to do something with this. You need to, you need to. And I'm like, what? What would I do? What, what? Who am I to do something with this? Right? Like all of that stuff came up and sometimes it still comes up, but, um. That was like another problem to solve, right? The the, how do I get this, how do I find a, a prototype? How do I, how do I get my patents right? I have four patents on my invention and a trademark. I knew nothing about any of this stuff. But, um, the, like you're saying, the thrill of the solving of the problem is really what's, I think, driven me through, through all of this. I mean, go back to that though.'cause I think a lot of people think. Strongly that sometimes it's, it's problem plus solution equals successful business, right? And that simply having the solution means that you're going to find success, even, you know, if it works. But I've seen a lot of good ideas fail, not because the idea was bad, but because you know of variety of our other factors. So take us back to your, take us back to the beginning. I, it can't have been as easy as I have a solution and, and here have a product now. no, and you're absolutely right. And then nobody makes it easy for you, right? Like to be an inventor to actually say the words I'm an inventor is like odd to me. Like I, I, I. Like, I feel disconnected from saying that. Right, because it's almost a career you think of when you're a child and it's not a real career, but like it is, invent things all the time, but it's not like, it's not like Bill Knight, the science guy, like everybody Right. not a common thing and it's not something you go talk to your friends about. Because I can tell you my friends were not supportive. They would say rude things to me and tell me, you know, I was too much and all this other stuff. Right? So it, it's not something that people actually encourage either. So for me, the whole process, it took me six years to get my four patents, six years, and I. During that time, I chose not to produce my inventory because I was in the patent process. So I did not want, if by chance someone would come in and steal my idea, I was trying to protect myself in all ways that I could. So going back to the, like, even thinking back from the beginning, I'm, it, it's, I. I can tell you it's, it wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. And what I mean by that is it wasn't hard because I'm not the one out there like mixing up the ingredients and like tooling the, uh, the, the, the machine to make it, you know, inject the molds and all of this stuff. Right. I found the right people that helped me with that. But the, the hardest part of the whole thing is the mental side of it. The things that we tell ourselves, the things that we don't tell ourselves as we go through this. And that was. Probably my number one struggle through the whole thing was my own mental lack of mental game, I guess you would say at that time. And I think that is unfortunately not uncommon, like we've called it different things over the years. It's, it's self-doubt, it's negative self-talk. It's, um, I think imposter syndrome is the, the phrase that people are using, um, these days. But like six years of work before you really saw anything of like tangible, like something you could Before I had it in my hand. Like I can tell you, having something you invented in your hand when you walk away and somebody's, it's like, oh my gosh. Like this is real. Like this is real. And then somebody looks at it and believes in you and it's like somebody's believing in me. Like, this is so unexpected. Right. And the, the whole part of the patent process, so everything takes so long. My first couple of patents went relatively smoothly. Uh, and as I got to my third and my fourth, the patent office started to push back a little bit. And what the patent office will do is tell you like, oh, well here's a product from 1852 and here's from 1968, and then here's one from Before skincare was really even a thing like. could put these ideas together and come up with what you've done. Well, they didn't. I did it. And so here we are. Right? And so you, you go through this sort of like game to. Convince them that your idea is what it actually is, because it seems like what they bring, what they're bringing up to you is so unrealistic. It's like they're just, they're testing you to see if you really actually almost believe in yourself. And um, so when I'm, when I went through that period, that six years. I enjoyed that, like, fighting with the patent office, like, you know, getting, we were on my last patent, they did not wanna gimme my last patent and I refused to give up. I was like, I have come this far. I'm not going to just be like, oh, okay. I don't, you know, no, we had I think three or four reviews with the patent office and, and the last one, obviously the last one. Um, I got it, I got, I got it issued and I can tell you like. The joy in feeling that was like, like, I have accomplished this huge thing, right? I've accomplished this amazing thing. And then I'm like, oh, now I have to market this thing. Right? Like I spent a lot of energy in those six years, like getting the patents, you know, and, and, and the cost of that. And the, again, the mental things I would go through with myself, and then I get the product and now, you know, I, I, I need to market it. And so all along the way, there's all these things that come up that. Tell you that look like you shouldn't go forward. There's all these, they could be taken as signs as if, well, I should probably just quit. I should probably just give up. Right. I heard somebody say once that they quit their job, you know, they had their own business and they, they quit a thousand times a day in their mind, and then they would just get up and keep going and working towards it again. Right. And that's what I did. And, and my motto through the whole thing was, um. Just do the next logical step. What's the next, next logical step? Because it feels so overwhelming. It feels like, like again, who am I? Like, I don't know about manufacturing. I don't know about, um, plastic types or, uh, components and where to get this or that. Right? But I know more now than I did back then. I, I'm not an expert in it, but I, I, I understand it and I, through the whole, um, my whole time, all I did was do the next logical thing. Yeah, I, I just saw a TikTok about like elite athletes and their mindset and the thing that every single elite athlete said. And it was like separate interviews. It was just separate moments that they had kind of stitched together and it was, um, next play mentality. Don't worry about what happened on this play. Worry about what's happening in the next play and then the next play. And that makes total sense. Right. But like. In the moment. did for six years before you saw anything tangible and then you had to do, you know, the next set of hard work. So, so I guess for lack of a better way to ask this question, why, why did you put yourself through that? Why did you keep going? What was the thing that you saw? The light at the end of the tunnel that said, this is worth my friends making fun of me and ridiculing me and fighting with the patent office and spending all this money. I've looked in the patents, they're expensive to file. So like, what was it that. Made you say Yes, this is a really hard moment, but I'm gonna worry about the next logical step. I just refuse to quit. I simply will not quit on this. I don't care if it is the day that I die. I will still be working on this until I get this out into the world and show people a better way, because I feel wholeheartedly a million percent that the options women have on the market today for travel containers. Are based on an old outdated system. They're not based on real women's skincare routines. My guess is a man in Benedict, someone who doesn't use the actual product, and I'm tired of it. I'm, I'm, I'm tired of, um, accepting. Things that I don't like anymore. Like I'm tired of having to, you know, piece things together and just be like, well, I guess that's just the way it is. You know, I don't want that to be the way it is. And traveling was such a big part of my life, and it still is. I mean, I, I, I don't travel every week, but I still use my product every time I travel because it works and because it solved a problem that I had and. I know other people have the problem too. So the why behind it is I just simply refuse to quit. I, I just, I didn't, you know, again, these cheesy cliches that we hear, but unfortunately they're true. But the one, I didn't come this far to only come this far, right? Like, like if I quit today and said, well, that's enough. I, I, I can't do anymore. I can tell you which I've tried that I've, I've given myself, you know, some months off of it. I just keep getting pulled back. It's like the idea is there. The idea is within me, the idea is not going away. The fact that I have a solution to people's problems is not going away. And I mean, on the other side of that, I wanna be able to encourage people and like inspire people and. Have people work towards their, like give people inspiration to work towards what they want. It's not in necessarily inventions, but whatever that is for anybody is like, I wanna be that example for people and show them that they could do it too. Because there, there's nothing special about me individually that I was able to do this. I just started and I didn't stop. And anybody can do the same thing if they're willing to keep moving forward and you know, like I said, do the next logical thing. Yeah. Uh, to that point, my next question was really gonna be about that, right? Like, so. For people who are interested, some people love their nine to five, don't get me wrong, right. Um. For people that are interested in trying to, to create a career or a life or work that maybe includes kind of an entrepreneurship bent, how would you recommend they balance that without giving up their day job until it's time? Because I imagine in those six years you didn't quit your job and dedicate your full-time to filing patents, right? So you to build this business and do this while still being a full-time employee somewhere else. Well, and also a life, right? Like I don't want to have a business that I have to be at 90 hours a week, right? I want some balance in there. So I think my advice to people who are in inventions are not, or just entrepreneurial spirit or ideas in general, I mean. I think we all have this idea that, like I did with my invention, like it should just hurry up and work, and if it doesn't. Immediately work, then that means I failed at it, which is not true. Um, so I think there's like some acceptance that if we have all these other things going on, it's gonna take some time. And time is okay. Yes, there may be people who are get lucky and something happens and they become an overnight sensation. But most people that appear to be an overnight sensation were actually 10 years in the making and they just didn't give up. So I think giving yourself that. Understanding and acceptance that maybe it is gonna take a little time. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Um, but I think if you, the, probably the worst thing you could do for yourself is quit is just give up or just talk yourself out of it. Because if you have, like, think of all the things that you like in your life, whatever that is, like anything you own that you really like, that somebody invented, somebody had to go through what we're talking about today to get that item on the market. And if they didn't. Go through all the things that they had to go through, you wouldn't be able to have that product and enjoy it. So I, I think it's, it's a good lesson or exercise to think about your contribution to the world and what you want that to be, whatever it is, entrepreneurship, inventions, and it doesn't have to be any, it could be anything. It could be if you want to have your nine to five or your family or whatever, but not allowing yourself to like fully be in that and like. Give yourself a chance to do it and try it. Um, I think it's one of those things that we, you know, you could end up regretting later because it's unlikely that the idea is ever gonna leave you. The idea is within you for a reason. And, um, I've just found it's just, it's just not gonna go away until, for me, at least, until I see it through. I think it's it. There's a little bit of an instant gratification too, right? Like it's hard to work for something for. 10 years to be overnight success and to show up consistently and to not pivot. And I think a lot of people get into this mindset of, well, I wasn't successful overnight and therefore I'm a failure, or I wasn't successful in the first year or the second year, or, you know, those things. And I even find myself getting into that trap sometimes. And I've built successful businesses before. I'm starting a new one, you know now. And it's like, well, you know, the other one took me 10 years, so this one should, I should be able to do immediately. have to remind myself like it took me 10 years the first time. It's okay if it takes me five, right? Like improvement. Right. Well, and what else are you gonna do, right? Like, are you just going to give up and sit there and just never do anything again? No. Like who cares how long it takes? I mean, the only one counting is us. No, nobody else is going to, unless you tell them. Nobody else is really gonna know. And also. I think people, we think people care more than they actually do because no one actually cares. Like if you tell me it took you 10 years to build your business, immediately I see someone who doesn't give up, who is, you know, in it and I, who, somebody who is trustworthy because they, they stick to what they say they're gonna, right. So there's all these positive qualities in, in that kind of stuff that I think we are still, we're looking at our own self in it. We're quick to, to. Think that we're the negative, like only see the negative for ourselves when, uh, I think it's just so much more than that. Yeah. There's almost like, um, I'll call it main character syndrome. Like I'm the main character of my own story. Um, everybody else is the main character of their own story, and they're not paying nearly as much attention to me as I am to myself. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So tell us then, what comes next for, for your business, for your life, you know, how are you taking back your Monday? Well, as you can probably tell, I'm not giving up. I'm, I'm on year eight actually now, so six years to get my patents and I have my inventory and so year eight now. So I'm, I'm exploring a lot of options and, and here's what I'm gonna say. Also, this kind of touches back on what you a asked earlier about, you know, advice to others who are looking to do this. What I found when I got into this was what I thought it was. The route I thought I would go is not actually the route I'm looking at going right now. Um, there's a lot of other options. For example, with, uh, with inventions. There's a lot of options for. Different paths such as, um, you know, I own four patents. I mean, there's a potential there for if somebody wanted to take my product and, you know, essentially rent out my patent, right? Or there's the potential for licensing. There's the potential for, um, a lot of other things that I did not know about when I got into this. So I'm exploring a lot of opportunities that I didn't think I ever would, I didn't even honestly know about some of them. And. I think that that is being able to be open to that stuff and you know, the, the saying about like, oh, I already know that, right? Like, there was a lot of times where I've done that in my business and now I am finding that even if I think I know something, I still, I, I shut up and I learn the thing, whatever it is, because there's so much out there and things change so quickly in a lot of different ways that, um. I'm open to a lot more things than I probably was in the beginning, and so I'm willing to see where that takes me. One of my mentors likes to remind me. Um, don't be surprised if you're wrong. But once you know your right, be convicted in what you've decided. Right? And so he does a really great job of coaching me on like how to be malleable and to be open to the ideas. But once I know something is right to be convicted on that thing and to not be malleable forever. Right. Because if you're too malleable, too adaptable, too open to, to change, and I'm one of those people, right? I'm an early adopter. I love shiny things. Um, and so for me, he's like you, once you've decided you need to be convicted in that decision. And I thought that was a really good advice of finding that balance between being right and being open. Um, it's, it's a hard balance for sure. It is because like you're saying, you don't wanna just be, you know, open to everything and then go at every time turning. Every time you turn around you're going in a new direction and wasting time and money. But in my case, I, I felt like I was kind of at a. Standstill where I'm like, well, where can, where do I wanna go? And I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm still exploring some of this, but, uh, it's nice to have options. And I think once you know the options and then you're willing to, yeah, like you're saying, like, what is right for me? And then stick with that and see it through instead of second guessing and, uh, thinking, you know, switching midstream and so forth. Yeah, for sure. When you think about all of the incredible people that you've had a chance to meet, the people that you listen to, anyone who's, who's helped you get to this point in your life, in from your origin story? Um, who is leading the charge? Who is taking back Monday? Yeah. Honestly, I would say all the inventors. All the inventors that I know, every person that has their name in the US Patent Registry, every person who is waiting on their patent provisional patent, even the people that who got. You know, the patent office said no to all of those people. And I'm in several inventor groups now. Every single one of us has something in common. We're all trying to solve a problem to make the world a better place. And I think that having, like, it's really inspiring and fun to be around those people because we're like, once other people, once their ideas get going, then I get more ideas going and you learn so much from each other. And if someone is really connecting with you or they wanna learn about the repeatable travel system, where can they find you online? Yes, my website is repeatable travel.com. Uh, all of my information is on there, including social media, and you can contact me through there as well. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking back Monday with me. Thank you, Alyssa. It's been great.