How a Single Mom Turned Ants Into an Invention

Oh.

So I began the process of looking for a solution

and I was throwing food away like crazy. I decided it was what I call an inspiration. It became my mission to actually find something and there just wasn't anything on the market. So one day I took that next step.

I started with my napkin drying. Then I went to a wonderful group of men. They basically said I really didn't have a plan and it probably wasn't worth pursuing. The next step for me was what do I do from here?

Laura Custer is an innovative, resilient, and purpose-driven entrepreneur inventor and the CEO of reliable pet solutions. Best known as the patented inventor of the feeding friend she turned a simple idea into a practical solution for pet owners.

“That's, I think, why I've gotten to where I am today”

is because I didn't think of the big picture and how I was going to get there. I just kept taking a step.

Never even thought about being an entrepreneur or any of that.

It was just an idea. Just an invention. Solving a problem. All right. And then I got excited because I thought,

well, this could help so many other people. [MUSIC PLAYING] The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Hi, everyone. Welcome again to another episode of Legacy Maker's podcast. And I'm here with a wonderful guest. I came all the way from Oregon today. She said it's 50 degrees, but can you introduce yourself?

My name is Laura Custer. I was born in Bakersfield, California.

“And now I've moved to Oregon to be with my son, his wife,”

and my two-year-old granddaughter, which is a true blessing for me. Plus, I love the cold. And I am the CEO and a reliable pet solution. I invented a pet food and water dish that--

You invented a pet food and a water dish. Yes, I did. So are they a pet food and then a lot. So you invented two things? It's one thing.

It's one thing. It does two things. OK, so please explain.

Well, I've always been a single mother.

OK, my son. And I had two large dogs and worked. What kind of dog? We got a lot of dog people. I'm a dog person.

When you say dog, I think pug. That's what I used to have, right? But-- Well, I had a box of your mix and a black lab. OK, lucky in Pizno.

All right. And we had a huge backyard, so they got to roam freely. And this was in Bakersfield. And Bakersfield, OK? So working all day, I would come home, of course,

single mother got to cook. And there came a time when I noticed ants were in my dog's food. So I began the process of looking for a solution. Yeah. I'm sure everybody's tried the floating

at the food in water. And they're the ants are coming through the house into your dog's food. And they're in the backyard. OK, OK.

So when they were in the home, they had other food. But when I was gone, they liked the backyard. Yeah. So trees and shade and going to round.

Yeah. So I could not find a solution. And I was throwing food away like crazy. Because you don't want to use chemicals. You know, near the dog's food, you don't--

like, what was the testing process? Like, you know, like a little barrier where you building walls. And like, I was looking everything up online, putting chalk around the food that didn't--

Oh, yeah. Because like, if you're the ants, they have like a little memory path.

“And you can just like put a line with your finger, right?”

And that would disrupt their path. OK. So a line of chalk, you would think that'd be like, oh. And then I tried Canola Oil around the food, floating it in a big, a swimming pool where

my dogs could still get to the cave. The problem was the food would migrate to the edge. And the next thing I knew, there were ants. Yeah. So I got frustrated and--

I answered the smartest thing. Oh. The little brown ones, they call them sugar ants, they're just crazy. So I decided it was what I call an inspiration.

And there just wasn't anything on the market. OK, it's-- and then? So one day, I took that next step. I drew out-- I had the aha moment.

I just decided to draw it out on an applicant. OK. And I'm not an artist. Yeah. Show it to my family and ask them what their thoughts were.

And they were all very positive. So from there, I had no idea where to start with this. But when you're inspired and you keep thinking about something, you just know, at least I knew I couldn't let it go. Yeah.

It's like how my friend would say, the unclenchable thirst. You got it, or the unscratchable itch. You have to get it. It's inspired. It's in you.

“And those are important things to pay attention to in life.”

I learned. So long story short, I started with my napkin drawing. Then I went to a wonderful group of men in a place that's called score. And it's actually retired businessman

that will listen to your idea and give you advice. Hey, nice. So I just said, hey, I'm going to go see if they have any ideas for me. And because what I was doing was unique,

there really wasn't a lot of advice. None of them had made any prototype sore. You know, have much idea for me.

And they basically said, I really didn't have a plan.

And it probably wasn't worth pursuing. Oh, OK. And I walked away from there, feeling gosh. You got to hate that. I did.

I felt a little, like, I know. It's like the doctors saying, you can't work. It's the people saying that your idea sucks. It's, it's, yeah. Oh, no, they loved the idea.

They just said that I wasn't in this issue and to be able to financially pursue it. I had a great idea, but that was all I got. And they said, you know, it's even worse. It's like, we love the idea.

It's you. It's like, oh, it's your situation. OK. Well, I couldn't stop. It kept at me.

And finally got ahold of a CAD artist in Toleria.

And he helped me put together my idea and actually made what's called an additive resin prototype. So he made something I could actually take home and test. Wow. And I did.

I had a blast with it. I put it in a bunch of ants for days just to check. It worked beautifully. And then I thought, well, great. I've got this prototype.

What is it? Like, what do you, what do you, I mean? The feeding friend, the base of the feeder, has is a moat of water. OK.

And it has the ability either through a bottle or a hose to replenish water as the animal drinks down. And from the moat in the middle is a column that has a food dish, the food dish can adjust any direction, yeah, so that you can feed multiple animals at a time.

And the hopper sits on top of that. OK. So the hopper holds the cable. And then I did recently invent a portion control and timer so that food can be released in certain quantities

and at certain times. Wow. So basically to keep the ants out, it's just drinking water when the ants can't get to the column that leads to the food.

And that's what it is. OK. Simple design. Humans outsmart of the ants, we win. I have tested it all over.

“So the next step for me was, what do I do from here?”

Well, I saw-- There's so many steps as in that area. And that's, I think, why I've gotten to where I am today, is because I didn't think of the big picture and how I was going to get there.

I just kept taking a step. Yeah. OK. Well, what's next? Let's see what's next.

Yeah. And-- Because you had no business background.

You'd never thought, never even thought

about being an entrepreneur or any of that. It was just an idea. Just an invention. Solving a problem. All right.

And then I got excited because I thought, well, this could help so many other people. They could go away for the weekend and not worry about their animals being fed and watered. Yeah.

I just got inspired, not just for myself, because I had one for myself.

“It was, how can I get this out there for other people?”

And so the feeding friend was boring. Yeah. And so it was the attorney that made you think of the big picture? I thought, no. He actually told me not to even try for the patent.

OK. My attorney and I love him. It's a process. It's an expensive. But it's very daunting on itself.

And if you don't get the patent,

Yeah. So I went to him with it. And he said, I don't suggest it. It's already been invented.

“There's already a water with replenishment.”

There's already, like, gravity, fed, importion, control, food. OK. So I don't see how you think you'll get a patent. Yeah.

So you're coming to all kinds of blackheads here and there and there. I did. OK, wow. And he and I said, I still want to go for it. I want to go for the utility patent and the design patents.

Yeah. Go for it. And it was all the money I had plus I borrowed some from my 401. But we did it. Take you take an early.

So we haven't shot the episode yet. And we're going to shoot-- I'm looking forward to shooting the episode and learning all about this because it's so interesting. When you come to so many, the people saying you can't do it.

And the people saying that you don't have the money for it

“and that the big vision and then it's expensive here there.”

There's just so many knows. And yeah, and this is just a preview of our episode. But let's talk a little bit about-- I guess a little bit about your life. I did read that you were living in a milk truck.

So these days, it's like, oh, yeah, milk truck.

That's amazing, because it's a whole van life.

And then they think, OK, you can convert it into whatever you know. But I don't think you were talking about van life. No, my father was a milk man for carnation back in the '60s. OK.

And for whatever reason, when I was six years old, he decided to sell the house, take all of our money, and give it to a missionary fund. Whoa. Everything.

He just decided that's it. So he took this old 1950s Carnation milk truck. OK. And they looked like a big beetle back then just-- so he converted it so we could sleep on the top

and then luggage underneath, mom and dad drove, and it was myself and my two brothers. Wow. So I was six. Michael, my youngest brother, was only six months old.

So he's like the van life pioneer.

That was like the OG original van life, for that is amazing.

Yeah, his crib in there was a toilet paper box. So we set him in there and he'd look out over the box. It was precious. Wow. So we grew up in that we were so young.

We didn't really know different. So it was wonderful. And my father was a history teacher before that. So we got to travel and see all of the historical landmarks, Monachello, Gettysburg, Alamo, my mother, home school

less as we traveled. But you could see how it's grown into this whole huge culture of van life because of the freedom and the traveling and the different experiences. It was a fabulous experience.

I don't really know what it's like to grow up going to school really from kindergarten on. I didn't enter back into the school system until I was 11. But we learned so much. And when we did enter back into the system,

we were several grades ahead of our age group. So the being self taught and all the things we had learned in the world and through my parents was a huge benefit to me. But the biggest takeaway for me was you

can literally have nothing and be happy. Yeah, OK. Literally. No refrigerators live off the land. Eat a corn.

That's an important thing to learn. I used to lead trips in Southeast Asia to a lot of pretty well off high school students that some of the best prep schools in America.

And yeah, you send out your kids to third wheel

countries to see the hill tribes and realize that they're all much happier than all these rich kids. And they don't have much. They're in their bamboo homes farming.

“And but it's an important lesson to learn.”

Yeah, it really is great for me. It's been wonderful because you're not-- you don't have fear of losing when you really know that there's no way you can lose. And only succeed by trying.

We get lost in this capitalist mindset and society. And that simple thing of what is happiness. You can be happy without all this stuff. It's just the brainwashing that kind of makes you think that's what you need.

But let's talk a lot a little bit about the dog industry because if you are a dog owner, it's like-- almost like there's two kinds of people in this world. Dog owners are non-dog owners.

Having pets, having a dog, I remember my first dog.

I was in Thailand. And I saw this my wife. She used to-- she's half-time, half-italian. And she used to be a pup reader and competitions and all this stuff.

And she's had a ton of different dogs. And then-- and she was really young. This was like before high school. And then she had-- yeah, really young. Right?

Doing this. Wow. Miriam.

“In Thai school. And she realized, OK, where do some of these dogs go?”

And all that stuff and started asking questions. And then it really realized it wasn't for her, right? But she got me into dogs and then brought me to one of the castles.

And then-- because I had seen this video of a dog

dog on YouTube, all right? And it was a-- it was a-- excuse me. It was a dog with a hoodie on. And it was playing hip-hop music. And I was like, oh, my god, this thing's so cute.

And so we went to the cattle and I picked out the most ram-bunctious one. And I was like, oh, this one's cool. And we took them home and what we got in the name of them. I was like, OK, I'm in Thailand.

And I think a dog pug is cool. And he's going to be a dog pug. So let's name him Thai-- like Thai land. And we name him Thai-run. I love it.

Perfect for a dog. Perfect for a dog pug, right? In Thailand.

“So-- but it shows you how much personality”

they have, how you said you were a single parent, but having two dogs, that's not a single parent. That's like being a mom to two dogs is a huge undertaking, right? So yeah, now that you're in the kind of business

of the whole doggy world, right? How's it been? It's been exciting. I get a lot of feedback. So I've made my feeders in small medium and large.

OK. And the large one, it's a lot of fun because that one has the float valve system in the hose. Keeps the water constant. I've had people say, yeah, I want my goats

or my farm animals. This is perfect, because then I don't have to worry about them running out of water. I've been embraced, and we just got back from a big international pet show in Chicago last week.

And we did win Best of Show. Hey. National and international. Wow. That has really--

“it a lot of people that actually hold the feeder,”

you feel the feeder, the buyers of these big retail stores and Canada and European buyers, as well as our home, they loved it. And they loved the idea. It's just getting people to know it's available.

That's-- there's so many products out there. Yeah. So I'm excited to roll this out and that everybody embraced the feeder, the feeding friend. And I'm excited.

Yeah. And I'm sure all of your clients are excited too. And you get great feedback from it. And dog owners, parents are the best. So I'm sure your clients and your customers

are amazing. Well, and the biggest thing I do here

is we can finally go away for an overnight trip.

Wow. I don't have to worry so much. It's giving a lot of people peace of mind when they're late. They can't get home in time.

They know that that portion is going to be dulled out so that the water will be replenished if they're not. So the food that you made is that it's a special food that gets put in the dish. It's just any quibble, any normal quibble, so it's hard.

OK. Some people use the soft but they just put it in the dish because they like the water mode for the ants. But it's designed to hold several pounds of quibble. The big one holds on those 20 pounds of quibble.

And it's very simple, very effective. And it's turning out to be a role blessing for a lot of people. Amazing. Well, I'm excited to get into it. And I'm sure a lot of people out there

are going to be excited to get into it. And here you are, story. Because there's a lot of lessons to be learned. So thank you for joining us again. And I can't wait to spend some more time with you.

Thank you. Well, that's all for now. [MUSIC PLAYING]