Tangela Walker-Craft is a wife and mother. She is the patented inventor of the GoPillow! She markets and sells the GoPillow! through her Simply Necessary, Incorporated website ). She is currently the Lakeland Parenting Examiner for Examiner.com, an online news outlet. She draws from her experiences as a homeschooling mother and former Language Arts teacher for her articles. She has had a book added to the American Dental Association Library Children’s Collection in its unpublished form.
What are you working on right now?
I am marketing the GoPillow! and trying to get major retail stores to carry this multipurpose baby care product.
I love providing tips for my Examiner.com readers that make family life more enjoyable. My tips include education and school related advice, money saving strategies, local event coverage, and much more.
I would like to have my writing published. My future goal is to publish books for adults and children.
I would like to assist with women and children’s charities in the United States and around the world.
3 Trends that excite you?
1 – Breastfeeding has been proven to be best for babies. Women are breastfeeding more and for longer periods of time in the United States. The GoPillow! facilitates breastfeeding at home and on the go!
2 – The number of female owned businesses is increasing. There is a growing belief that women make better entrepreneurs. Women are service oriented by nature. My nurturing instinct should serve me well when marketing a product for mothers and babies.
3 – Mom bloggers and writers have become a valuable online resource. Being able to share my insights with an unlimited number of readers is awesome. Communicating with people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet prior to the success of the Internet is super exciting.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Every successful project starts with a prayer. A family discussion is normally the next step. We circle the wagons and pick the idea apart. Once all of the bugs are worked out, we try to put the plan into action. Tons of Google searches and online research are usually involved. I have also found that others in the same industry can be invaluable resources. Talking by phone or email with like minded people can usually yield positive results.
What is one mistake that you’ve made that our readers can learn from?
Never make impulsive decisions. Think things over for as long as reasonably possible before taking action. Believing people when they make promises that sound too good to be true is a big mistake. Secondly, never put all your eggs into one basket. In my case, I learned that trusting a PR company with my entire advertising budget during the first year of business was not very smart. My business is still trying to recover from that HUGE mistake.
What is one book and one tool that helps you bring ideas to life?
It may sound cliche, but if I had to recommend just one book, it would have to be the Bible. Even if one is not a Christian, the Bible as literature offers advice and lessons for every aspect of life. I would specifically recommend reading the book of Proverbs.
Right now I am in love with Microsoft Picture Manager. If you do any type of work that involves images and photographs, Microsoft Picture Manager makes life so much easier.
What is one idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I would like to see shoes that grow with the child’s foot. If someone could invent a shoe with a retractable/expandable sole so that kids didn’t out grow shoes before they wore out, I would buy them. My daughter has dozens of shoes that look great, but she can’t wear anymore.
Why did you think the GoPillow! was necessary? Why is it better than other breastfeeding pillows?
When I was a breastfeeding mom I couldn’t find a truly portable breastfeeding pillow. Most of them were bulky and meant to be used at home only. None of the existing pillows included any type of privacy option. I wanted a breastfeeding pillow with a blanket or cover-up so that I could breastfeed discreetly when I was away from home with my daughter. I knew moms would want a blanket or cover-up that was there when needed, but that would be out of the way when it wasn’t needed. That’s why the GoPillow! is a better overall product. It is a good investment because the built-in blanket makes the GoPillow! a multipurpose product. The portable pillow and blanket combination can be used in dozens of ways for babies and kids of all ages.
Do you resent it when you see products that are less useful than yours receiving more attention than your product?
To be resentful would imply that I want to deny others the same success that I want for myself and company. I would never want to do that. I’m more hurt than resentful. I wonder why those in the position to promote a new product tend to focus on just a few all ready discovered products. For instance, if a successful product inventor manages to tell their story on a talk show, that’s the only story that all of the other talk shows seem to want to tell. People can’t buy what they don’t know exists. In some cases the only reason a product sells is because the owner’s of those products have a budget that allows them to run expensive, well produced commercials over and over again. I can’t afford to pay for expensive advertising right now. But the GoPillow! is a great product and I have reviews and testimonials to prove it!
Connect:
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I can be followed on Twitter: @TangelaWCraft
I can be reached via my Simply Necessary, Incorporated contact page:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.