This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2089 an inventor's advice on how to generate new ideas in life and business.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast. podcast downloaded more than 200 million times.
We believe in connection, not perfection.
With your American host, Lindsay McMahon, and today's featured guest coming to you from Denver Colorado, USA.
To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app.
For iOS and Android, start your seven-day free trial at allyoursenglish.com forward slash app.
Is it magic to be able to come up with new and smart inventions?
Is it only geniuses who can do this?
Today I interview David Beaker, who has invented new products that are currently live in the commercial market, and he gives you five pieces of advice to start innovating in your own life.
This Black Friday, stop piecing together random TikToks and YouTube videos that don't lead anywhere.
Join our 2026 English Mastery Bundle, a complete 9-12 month curriculum designed for goal-oriented learners like you.
You'll follow a clear, structured path from intermediate to high intermediate and even to advanced fluency, with every course flowing naturally into the next.
No gaps, no guesswork.
No searching for extra resources.
Plus, you'll get live speaking practice, community, and teacher support.
It's a done-for-you plan.
Everything you need in one place.
All unlocked with a single, one-time investment.
This Black Friday only.
Build your English for the long term.
Start today.
Go to allersenglish.com slash blackfriday to save 50% off the normal price.
Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash B-L-A-C-K-F-R-I-D-A-Y.
Hello, David.
Welcome to Allers English.
How's it going today?
Hello.
Good.
Thanks for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Oh my gosh, we are excited to have you on the show today.
So i'm going to do a formal introduction for our audience so that they know you, and then we will move into our topic.
So guys, today on the show i have founder entrepreneur and inventor david becker.
He is the founder and president of a better design company and is based in israel.
With a lifetime of experience in senior management and entrepreneurship, david leads his team in helping inventors and entrepreneurs bring their product ideas to life.
The course of his career, david has invented the multi-award-winning toy called bank a ball, as well as back book, a transformative way for a book to be structured, among other inventions.
Again, welcome to the show, david.
Glad to have you here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, this is great.
I'm so excited.
I love when i get to talk to people who have invented things, especially products that have gone to market and are, you know, on the shelves in target or just are out there, because what was in your head came to life and manifested in a physical product and people are purchasing it.
How does that feel?
That must be incredible.
It's a lot of fun and it's really an incredible experience.
I'll tell you, there was one other product that you didn't mention, which is really where my story started.
I spent most of my career.
I have a master's in social work and I worked in community work and in formal education for many years.
At a certain point I kind of felt like I wanted a bit of a change and I was looking for something a little more creative and a little bit more entrepreneurial.
And a friend of mine approached me and said, I have an idea.
Let's talk.
And, before we know it, one thing led to another and we had actually opened up a gourmet ice cream cone business.
Oh, my gosh.
Ice cream is my favorite thing in the world.
Okay.
So this was actually not the ice cream.
This was actually the ice cream cones, which is the kind of overlooked piece of the ice cream experience.
Interesting.
And we actually opened up an ice cream cone business of gourmet cones that were flavored with inclusions in them.
So you might have a coffee hazelnut flavored ice cream cone with pieces of hazelnuts in it, or a cherry almond cone with pieces of dried cherries and almonds and flavoring.
And it was really great.
Uh, and we started selling it all over the country over here.
We got uh, international interest and um, it was really a wonderful experience that first time when we had a ice cream boutique.
Look at us and say okay, we're in, we'd like to, we'd like to start selling your product, and you've actually handing them something and then they're taking it and then eating it and enjoying it.
It's an incredible feeling.
So that was really where it all started.
How do you?
Yeah, because there's always that moment when the idea comes up, but 99 of the ideas, you know they don't go anywhere.
They don't, they're not necessarily serving a market.
How did your friend come to you and know ahead of time, like this is kind of a gap in the market?
Just before we get into your tips on how to innovate, I mean, how did he know that?
Was there research that had gone into it?
Was it a gut feeling?
Where did that come from?
So so he had done some research into it and then we took it and did a lot more.
There was just it was very clear there was nothing out there like it.
And you know, I don't think we appreciated how overlooked the ice cream cone itself was until more recently.
But it was really, yes, he identified a gap and then we took it many steps further.
Identified again.
Well, I will say people love Ben and Jerry's and Ben and Jerry's is kind of chunks of different flavors inside their ice cream.
So maybe he had a hunch on what was working at least here in the States.
We love Ben and Jerry's.
I'm not sure if that's popular in Israel.
We love it here as well.
Okay.
So maybe there was a hunch there.
I'll tell you something else though, which is interesting, because you start off in one place and then you very often conveyor into another Avenue, which is flavored cones.
That was kind of the idea.
But before we knew it, we were dealing with all natural.
We were dealing with organic.
We were dealing with a manufacturing process which had significant innovation in it, to the extent that many people in the industry and we met some very significant players in the industry told us it can't be done.
And we said, but we're doing it.
It can be done.
And, you know, so...
The willingness to roll with it a bit, the willingness not to accept no for an answer right away, the willingness not to get stuck in where you start and being able to navigate a little bit and take it a little bit further.
I think that's really, if we just said, sure, there are chocolate cones in the market.
Oh, it's not a good idea, forget it.
We wouldn't have gotten anywhere.
But the fact that we were able to keep innovating as we went on and find new avenues and find new directions, I think that was one of the things that really made a big difference.
I love that.
So you built momentum.
I mean, there's nothing more satisfying in life than beating the naysayers, right?
So five years later, everyone said it couldn't be done.
Of course, you did it.
And it's just very satisfying.
So David, I think a lot of people around the world globally consider themselves either creative or not creative.
And therefore, maybe they think they can innovate or they can't innovate.
But I don't think that innovation is magic.
Is it magic?
Is it magical?
Or should we ditch this way of thinking?
Is there an actual process or are there tips that we can follow to become more innovative or to innovate to create new things in the world?
What do you think?
So I absolutely do not think it's magical.
I do think there's a science to it.
But I think we all innovate.
We all innovate in our lives.
We all innovate every single day and how we interact with people and how we help come up with creative ideas to help our children with something.
But we don't necessarily think of ourselves in that way all the time.
Right.
So, no, it's not magic.
It's just a matter of identifying it sometimes and figuring out what you're going to do with it.
You know, execution is the name of the game, right?
I love that.
If you really want to bring something to the marketplace, then there is a science to it.
And there are steps and there are ways of looking at things.
And that in and to itself is a huge subject, right? which on another podcast we could deal with.
But I can certainly give you some thoughts if you'd like.
Yeah, I have so many questions for you, but we'll stick to your tips.
And then if we have more time, we'll be able to bring out a few more questions.
So you had prepared for our audience today, for our listeners, whether it's in their home life, their family life or their business life working for a multinational company.
Three tips on how to come up with great ideas.
Could you go ahead and share that first tip for our listeners today?
So I'll give a few different, a few different thoughts about that.
And actually I'll start with that.
I actually didn't even put it in my list here.
It's really, if you really want to go into the area of inventing and entrepreneurship and you don't come from that background, I would spend some time studying it.
There are plenty of books out there.
There's plenty of people to talk to, find yourself a mentor, find yourself a program, a course, something I personally discovered at one point a company called InventRight and I signed up with them and it found them extremely helpful to get myself rolling in this industry.
I think that was very, very helpful to me.
And along the way I found significant mentors and significant partners, some personally, some friends, some colleagues and some even that I pay for some consulting from.
But there are ways.
Do it.
It doesn't have to be incredibly complicated, but it's incredibly important yeah, so gather your resources and kind of get some training in.
In a certain way of thinking, is that what you're saying here there are?
That's certainly one direction.
That's certainly one direction i think is important.
But as far as what you, what you specifically asked, as far as you know how to come up with new ideas yeah, and part of this is based on the things i've heard from through invent writer, through mentors uh, so first of all, look at, look in your life, In your own personal life.
There's tons of things around you, as I said, that you're coming up with creative solutions for every single day.
And when you get stuck with something you know, stop for a second and say there's got to be a better way.
Yes.
Yes.
You know, I had an innovation which I haven't taken further yet, but dealing with pasta strainers, right.
It drives me crazy and how I deal with that whole thing.
I'm like, there's got to be a better way.
So I toyed with different ideas about how to come up with a better solution.
Better solution i'm getting there.
I'm not quite there yet, but it's something that i deal with all the time.
I have lots of kids and we make pasta all the time and yeah, there are frustrations that i come up with.
There's got to be a better way.
So look in your own personal life.
What are ideas, what are things that that you might be able to think of a better way to do to come up with something?
Yeah, i think this requires a certain level of confidence that we need to have right questioning life instead of just taking things for granted.
This Task is annoying, but just saying this is how I have to do it versus saying no, it actually could be done better.
Right.
Yes, definitely.
I love that.
Another thing is, is what are some of your your personal interests?
So what are things you like doing?
What are things you enjoy?
What are things you remember from your childhood that you love, that maybe you didn't do much with, or anything?
And so look at some of your personal interests, because you probably know those the best and what speaks to you.
One of the products that is brand new for me is a product called Bankable, right?
What's that one about?
Oh, cool.
I don't know if you can see here, but I grew up playing Nerf-style basketball on the back of my door and we loved it.
We would play it for hours and hours and hours when we were kids.
There's also a whole big thing called trick shots.
You know learning new and creative ways to play basketball and to do interesting things.
So I said, wait a second, what if we can do it?
We've got our hoop here, but I've created a hoop that you can also change the angle of the rim.
You've got a whole new play pattern all of a sudden, right?
Why not, right?
When you look at that and you think, why the heck not, right?
It makes total sense.
The backboard.
You could also change the angle of the backboard.
Yeah, so smart.
It's a whole new game.
It's a whole new play pattern, and it's a lot of fun.
The kids love it.
It's a great thing for a dorm room.
For young adults, it's just a lot of fun.
And that came out of because I love playing Nerf basketball in my room.
I love playing those kinds of things.
I love playing with my kids.
And I said, wait a second, maybe there's a way we can make these even more fun.
So that's another thing I would say.
Think about things that are personally interesting to you.
Maybe you like baking and you're thinking of a better way to do that kind of thing.
Maybe you like gardening.
You know, there's a million different things.
Something about your car, something about your pets.
There's a million different things that are particularly interesting to you, and there's huge industries out there looking for good creative, fun ideas.
Oh, I love it, I love it.
Do you think that, just as a side before we go into the third piece, do you think that companies, as they get bigger and bigger, they tend to hit a point where they can't innovate anymore because they don't?
I'm not sure why it happens, but I feel like I've seen it happen out in the corporate world, where they start off as maybe an individual founder, small company, lots of great ideas just going to market.
And then over time they get bigger and less innovative.
I think that companies have to innovate to grow.
The question is how long does it take them to innovate?
So the bigger the company gets, the harder it becomes for them to turn in a dime and innovate things.
Whereas smaller companies can do it more quickly and bring something to market sometimes more quickly because the opportunity and the need for them to do it more quickly is there.
Yeah, so how can big companies act like small companies?
That's where we see a lot of entrepreneurial departments within large companies, right, David?
But part of why that happens is because they need inventors to help feed them new things.
Yes.
So there is an opportunity.
This is a whole industry called open innovation.
People can feel free to look it up, and there are companies all over the place looking for open innovation.
And that's really, this whole industry is growing by leaps and bounds.
Amazing.
And when you say industry, you mean the innovation industry, like the industry of creators and innovators.
Very cool.
I would love to go to a conference.
I feel like I'd have a lot of interesting conversations with interesting people.
David, is there a third tip that you?
I'm not sure if we went through all three or if we hit them all.
I'll give you another two short ones.
One is just keep your eyes open.
When you go into a store, when you go into Target, when you go into Walmart, when you go into that, you have lots of international folk here.
But whatever your local department stores or hardware stores or whatever, just look what's out there.
And not only look what's out there, but look what might be able to be combined.
I like your idea of combining.
There's something in the hardware industry next to the toy industry.
How can you combine those two things to make a really fun toy or a really interesting I don't know kitchen product that came from the hardware industry?
So think about how you can do that.
And the last thing I'll just say, even though it's more than three, is always be open to opportunities.
I was not looking to open up an ice cream cone company.
Sure.
But a friend of mine who knew I was looking to do something interesting said I got an idea and I We're good.
Keep going.
Carry on.
Yes.
I don't know where you lost me.
It's okay.
I said you were not meaning to open up an innovation company.
I was not looking to open up an ice cream cone company.
Ice cream company.
Yes.
But I had somebody who knew that I was interested in doing something a little more entrepreneurial, who had an idea and spoke to me.
And I was at a point in my life when I was open enough to recognizing an opportunity and saying you know what?
Let's go for it.
That sounds really interesting.
Let's see if it's got legs.
And so being open to opportunities that might come your way, because you've put yourself out, there is also really a key space, I think.
So it's kind of a beautiful convergence of kind of being open, being in a place where you're feeling that confidence and then looking for ideas.
I love your tip about combining products, right elements that work of two products makes a better product.
And i also want to highlight the expression you use for our listeners, that ideas got legs just real quick.
What does that mean for our listeners, for our audience?
Uh, it means that that it's got the ability to move, it's got the ability to grow.
Yeah, i love it, love that awesome david.
This has been inspiring for me personally because i i just love the idea of creating new things.
But where can our listeners find you online and what you're working on these days and your newest inventions?
So you can certainly find me on LinkedIn at David Beaker, B as in boy, E-K-E-R.
And also my website, which just went live a little while ago, abetterdesigncompany.com. wonderful you can certainly find me either of those places okay so just say that url for us one more time for our audience where can they find you what's your url again abetterdesigncompany.com got it all right wonderful thanks for coming on the show david i really appreciate our chat today thank you so much thank you very much for your time and for inviting me on i appreciate it thank you take care bye-bye thanks okay bye Thanks for listening to all ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two minute quiz.
Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
