It Starts with a Goal: Interview with Dan Lauer, Creator of Waterbabies
I recently went one on one with Dan Lauer. Dan is the Founding Executive Director of UMSL Accelerate and is the founder of Lauer Toys Incorporated, where he created the Waterbabies line of products, which has enjoyed 30 years of continuous distribution and 25 million units sold.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Dan: I am an entrepreneur first. I have lived the American entrepreneur dream since introducing WaterBabies 30 years ago. My entrepreneur story has seen spectacular success and failure over the years. My story has similar traits of all success stories- a good idea, persistence, resiliency, mistakes, pivots, enrollment, figuring it out, building a team, enrolling others, and getting lucky. Timing matters.
WaterBabies is a doll that when filled with warm water feels like a real baby. The problem it solves is parents want to raise empathetic children that succeed in the world and toys are a tool for growing up. Dolls in particular, provide opportunities to practice life skills and nurturing.
There is no such thing as overnight success. WaterBabies came after three dedicated years, 700 letters, a local test that had a 70% failure rate to manage, many pivots, multiple funding rounds, building teams, overcoming odds, making smart decisions and iterations to sustain for 30 years and sell over 26 million dolls.
After the success of WaterBabies, I wanted to help other entrepreneurs. In 2019, I founded UMSL Accelerate to provide resources for entrepreneurial-minded students. Creating this program at my alma mater has become a full-circle moment for me. The program was a whiteboard, a green field, and now a first for university-led programming. We differentiated by our university-led accelerator- corporate, purpose-driven and student.
Adam: How did you come up with your business ideas? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Dan: WaterBabies was born from a childhood memory of my sisters making baby dolls from water balloons filled with warm water. The girls would wrap these balloons in blankets and smother them with love.
For UMSL Accelerate, it was an opportunity to create a new system for experiential learning, foster innovation, and support entrepreneurship.
Adam: How did you know your business ideas were worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Dan: Listen, we call it customer discovery. The first step is to define the problem, next be sure your solution is proprietary and actually solves the problem… then test, test, test. I aspire to crawl, walk, then run. You have to be fearless in your pursuit.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your businesses? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Dan: It starts with a goal - a big, hairy, audacious goal! A north star goal to guide you. What must follow is attracting people, processes, and technologies to execute that goal.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Dan: Be authentic. When you convince yourself, you can be convincing to others. You need to budget for success by dedicating 15% towards marketing on any project.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Dan: Surround yourself with strong diverse people, align, properly resource, and then get out of the way. It’s not a new concept, but leaders fear losing control.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Dan: Establish an entrepreneurial mindset in culture. For me it’s 3 things:
1. Learn fast (fail fast) free from fear. Fear kills.
2. Maniacal focus on the customer always.
3. Bias towards action.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Dan: In order to collaborate, we must know, like, and trust each other.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Dan: You can not do this alone.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Dan: Strong leaders have strong jargon and lexicons all with similar attributes but personally adapted to their style. Strong leaders live their mission, it’s more than a tagline. If you see a leader that is doing work that resonates with you, listen to their words. Their work has been honed over a long period of time.
Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.
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