How Sustainability Sparks Creativity: Insights from Steven Klein

EP042_08-13-24_Steven Klein

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Toy Business Unboxed, your gateway to the secrets of the toy industry. Here, Jason Hsieh, a toy entrepreneur and expert in the field. “Every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son.” “60 percent of all toys last year were sold on Amazon.”

“Be passionate about it. Because it’s a road. It’s a journey.” “Like when you have an idea that you think is gonna somewhat change the world, make things better, I’d say go for it.“

Jason Hsieh: Hello. Welcome to another episode of toy business unbox and your host Jason today and excited to bring you another episode with entrepreneur, Steve, a foreign teacher and school administrator who have transformed his passion for education into a new venture in the toy industry. [00:01:00] Steve has funded the learning store which is a chain of educational toy store that specialize in toys for blind and special needs children. Now he’s on the mission to tackle plastic waste with his groundbreaking Eco Connect Bottle system technology that turn empty bottle into variety of useful item in this episode. We’ll dive into Steve’s early influence and also the power of learning through play and also the journey from idea to the product that he currently have. Thank you so much for being on our podcast. 

Steven Klein: Jason, it’s a pleasure to join you and I can’t wait to share some of my experiences. As life is a teacher and everyone has a different perspective based on their journey.

Jason Hsieh: Sure. Can you tell the audience? 

Steven Klein: Absolutely. Actually, as I said, life is a teacher and I’m a little older than probably most of the people on this call. I’m turning 81 on my next birthday. And so when I was a child and when I was introduced to toys, it was in the forties. We [00:02:00] didn’t have battery operated toys. There were no TV toys. Everything was a hands on experience and actually one of the first toys that I remember playing with was toast crumbs, believe it or not. We use what we had around the house. We weren’t, very wealthy. We were actually poor. I slept in the same room with my brother and my parents until I was 11 and toy, Buying in my household was not something that happened often. So we just made do with what we had. So I play with the toast scrums and I’d have, put them on the table and it would be the good guys on one side and the bad guys on the other side. And it was all my imagination. And I make music that I’ve done out that I moved the crumbs along and then the bad guys would eventually fall off the cliff, which was the table.

It didn’t make my mother very happy, but that that’s what I played with. And that’s what you did. If I needed drumsticks it was spoons. If I needed symbols, it was the, pan covers. So everything, everything was a hands on experience. One of the things that all kids had in the, late forties and early [00:03:00] fifties was a rubber ball and we use that. We were just very creative with it. If we didn’t have anything to do with it, we just punched it. It was punch ball. And if you had a broomstick it could be stick ball. And if there was a stoop available, we played stoop ball. And if there was a wall available, we played handball. My early experiences with toys were hands on. Creative imagination and just do what you have to do to, have fun. It was one other experience I had as a child. We moved when I was about 11 years old. And my dad was starting to do much better at that time. And he became very involved in the community. If the community needed a high school, he was at the meetings. If they needed a library, he was there. Teenage lounge. He wrote news, newsletters, and he showed me and taught me that I wasn’t the only one in the world. And I guess I’ve modeled myself after him that I always like to help people. [00:04:00] And that’s, something that I brought with me through my entire life. So those are my early experiences. 

Jason Hsieh: How does your experience as a teacher that also shape your view on learning through play? 

Steven Klein: Okay. This is a good one because my teaching experience was incredible. I, I always loved teachers. I respected teachers. I wanted to be a teacher and when I finally did become a teacher, I was I was assigned as a substitute to a school. Okay. in an area in Brooklyn, New York, which is a very high crime area. And it wasn’t the same experience that I was used to. The schools there were not very good. The children were a lot of misbehavior. In fact, the first day that I was a substitute, I was actually bitten through my sports coat. It actually broke my skin. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh my God. 

Steven Klein: And it was an experience. And I said, you know what I’m better than this. Fortunately, I have a lot of patience. And when I did have my first class, I had fifth, it’s actually a sixth grade class [00:05:00] and the highest reading level in the class was on the first grade level.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, whoa. Okay. 

Steven Klein: So that was quite a challenge. I said, I wanted to help these kids. That was my, motto always never, to give up. And what they tried to do is they try to rattle me. If they called me a name, I would do a lesson on what that word meant. The kids, in essence became, I told them whoever failed them in the past. I was going to show them that I was there for them and I was going to help. I started to visit the homes. I would walk through. It was a really rough area. I walked into the projects and visit their homes and there would be junkies shooting up in the halls with drugs. At that time I didn’t think I was risking my life, but yeah, apparently I was, and I just had a lot of patience with the kids. I never got angry, and there was one day that I was sitting on my desk and there were 32 pair of eyes on me, and I just looked at these kids and I said, today is a special [00:06:00] day. Because today is the first day that everyone is really paying attention and we’re going to celebrate that we’re going to have a party. So I went out and I had lunchtime. I bought a bunch of pizzas. We had a great pizza party. And from that day on from that day on those kids, they were like soldiers. they listened, they learned. I love being with them. They love being with me. We had, a great, wonderful experience. And then I got to my second year as a teacher and I was in the principal’s office. I was meeting with the principal and two giant young men came in and started to actually assault the principal. I’m not a really big person I jumped in the middle thinking that I was going to get myself killed. Hit a bunch of times, but they wouldn’t touch me for some reason. And I found out later that my first year of teaching, I had one of their younger brothers in my class.

And I guess I earned some street credibility by walking through the projects and visiting the kids homes. And [00:07:00] shortly after that incident, I was asked to leave the classroom with less than two years of teaching experience. And they said, we need you to help us run the school. 

Jason Hsieh: Why did the principal got beaten up by the student, by the way?

Steven Klein: It was, we were in a neighborhood where children were not really learning. The schools were not very good. There was a lot of animosity between teachers and the people who lived in the community and for some reason, I guess I gained some credibility by showing them that I wasn’t afraid that I would be, I’d walk among them. I shared their experiences. I spoke to parents. I got letters from parents saying my child has never really wanted to learn until he got in your class. Those were the things that motivated me and showed me that I was, on the right track. And when I left the classroom, I was in charge of discipline and putting together all school schedules, but it also got me involved in educational toys because I got my hands on the [00:08:00] catalogs and I helped order things for the schools. Yep. And so that was my first introduction. And what I noticed is that the toys that were in the catalogs, they weren’t a lot of fun. They look like, educational toys and, basically what that told me is that if you’re going to teach someone with a toy. the first thing that boy has to do is be fun And the secondary factor is something that you can learn from the toy on tutorial And there was one other experience that I got from being a teacher. I was I was being interviewed for a position in the junior high school, for that had children with special needs Yeah, and although I didn’t get the job I had an experience that resonated with me for the rest of my life as I was, walking by a classroom, a little boy came out, probably about 14 years old, and he started tugging on my arm, and he wanted me to go with him, and he showed me, with a big smile on his face, that he was able to write his name on the [00:09:00] board.

And I was so touched by that. I made this kid feel like he won an Olympic gold medal. And it just showed me that no matter where a child is If they learn, they can gain self confidence. They can have pleasure, they can have fun. And I think that was one of the other things that when I started the learning store, that’s why I included toys for blind and special needs children and that became very important to me because of that one experience that I had. 

Jason Hsieh: I I see. And I want to dive into your experience of running the store. I think one thing you share with me before the interview is you also decided to avoid any battery operated toys and those like being advertised on TV.

Can you talk about your reasoning behind those choices? 

Steven Klein: Yes, absolutely. As I said in the in the first part of this interview, our experiences as a child and our introduction to toys is really [00:10:00] stays with us. And I grew up in a time where there were no battery toys and there were no TV toys. And so for me, those were the most satisfying and most rewarding toys. And with modern technology, we were losing out on those things. So what I wanted to do is go back to the fundamentals and I want, because the more senses you have involved in the learning process, the better it is.

So if you can see something, if you can taste something, if you can touch it, if you can smell it, if you can hear it, all of those things, they’re The more senses that are involved the easier it is for the child to learn whatever they’re supposed to be learning. With that in mind it was we opened the store.

I put in my 15 years as a teacher, and there’s a short little story that I’ll tell you a little, I’ll backtrack a little bit. But as a teacher, I didn’t make a lot of money in those days, in the sixties and early seventies, I made a hundred dollars a week. Basically, it really [00:11:00] wasn’t enough. I always needed another job. And I had a, dear friend who knew someone who owned a car dealership. Okay, and he said why don’t you sell some cars? You’ll make some extra money. I got the job selling cars I made more money selling cars than I did as a teacher and as a result of that I was able my wife My beautiful wife of 56 years we were able to buy our first house. Unfortunately, all the car salesmen got together because I was only coming in during the great times to sell cars and they were there all day jockeying the cars and they all got together and said, either he goes or we go. And so that was the end of my car selling experience and I came home to my wife and I said, we need to sell the house. 

Jason Hsieh: Why is the reason why your coworker is against you in that way? 

Steven Klein: Because I was selling more than they were, and I was only there during the peak selling hours. They were there all day. When the cars came in on the trailers, they had to [00:12:00] park them. They had to make all the calls, and I got there during the peak hours. They thought I had a, an unfair advantage and I did have an unfair advantage. I was a good salesman. I warmed up to people and they warmed up to me and I try to do the best deals that I could, just like I wanted to help kids. I wanted to help people buy a car, so I would always give them great deals.

But to make a long story short, My wife and I were at her cousin’s house and we were just, the way things work out when you’re young, you’re very optimistic. And we were, just looking at each other. My wife was an educator as well. And we heard a song called Don’t Worry Baby by the Beach Boys. We looked at each other and almost simultaneously We said we’re going to open up an educational toy store 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, 

Steven Klein: and that is where the idea came from We it was it just came out of the blue that this was something that this was like our destiny and I only [00:13:00] had 13 years in as a teacher at that point. So for the I wanted a At least get to 15 years so I could get a pension during those 2 years. I did research. I read, I learned about all kinds of toys. I went to toy shows and again, my focus was I didn’t want the store to have any battery operated toys. I wanted it to be. Hands on experience. And I actually we built the store with carpeted play areas and this is the low tech portion of the show, because I have a picture of what it looks like, as you can see, there are play areas in the store and the way that the shelves were laid out it was, Each section of the store was perception development and eye coordination, imaginative play. 

Jason Hsieh: How big was the store back then? 

Steven Klein: The stores were about a thousand square feet. And I had eventually I grew it to to five company owned stores. And I had a couple of franchises as well. [00:14:00] And, when I chose toys, as I said, the first priority was that they had to be fun. And the second thing was that they had to have some educational value. Okay. And we would also do learning fairs for schools. And every toy instead of a book fair, every toy had coded letters on it. If you looked at the code, it would say if it was a, it would be perception development or hand eye coordination or listening skills. So the parents they would be able to know what kind of toys they were picking out. I also did. Lectures in the store. I opened up the store in the evenings for parents that had, if their children had cerebral palsy, I would show them how to adapt the toys and use floor toys. And I, instructed people how to buy toys.

Age is, the most common factor. You have to also look at other things besides age. You have to look at the developmental level. Developmental age and when you talk developmental, you’re talking about their [00:15:00] physical development, their social development their cognitive development, and where they currently are in school because you have to keep in mind that a pegboard that might be appropriate for a one year old for hand eye coordination and sorting colors and counting. Might also be appropriate for a stroke victim who’s recovering from a stroke. 

Jason Hsieh: That’s true. That’s true. Yeah. 

Steven Klein: The whole key for me and toys is fitting the toy to the child that to me is the key and most people when they buy toys today it’s because their kids have seen it on tv or they see, age appropriate for this or that age 

Jason Hsieh: They also see on youtube 

Steven Klein: Yes, exactly Yeah, they have kids promoting toys now. Everybody is promoting toys. It’s just been a great ride. The stores lasted for 10 years. And then I guess the big retailers caught on to what I was doing because I didn’t, all the toys in the store, you [00:16:00] couldn’t find them anyplace else. And people would come into my stores and find out where I was buying toys from, and then they would bring them into the big box.

Jason Hsieh: Were you competing against Toy R Us back then? 

Steven Klein: In the beginning, I wasn’t in the beginning this, was our, logo. This over here that won an award for graphic design. It’s a child, an adult helping a child. Okay. That was our logo. And everything that came out of the store was wrapped in blue paper with this logo on it in orange and people knew that if it was that they got a gift from the learning store, it, We had a wonderful reputation. It was like being a celebrity when I, when people met me and I said, I own the learning store, it was like, you own the learning store? And people still remember it, even though it’s been closed for over 30 years. But it was a wonderful experience. And it just another, step in my journey. And so when it ended I, moved on and I, did other things. 

Jason Hsieh: Can you share your current idea of the Eco [00:17:00] Connect B ottle system? 

Steven Klein: Absolutely. What I hope to do right now is for if there are any inventors in the on the call, I’m going to share my inventive journey with you and show you some of the things that you need to do. If you’re thinking about inventing something. What happened with in 9th, in 2006. There was a lot of water bottle waste was running rampant. We were using a million bottles every minute and more than 90 percent of those bottles were not being recycled. And as a kid growing up without a lot of money, Everything that I wore was given to me by someone else. And I would look at some of the things that people would part with because they didn’t, it didn’t have any value to them.

But to me, It had value. I couldn’t understand that. And I guess that taught me that someone else’s trash or garbage could be very useful to other people. And I started thinking [00:18:00] about these plastic bottles that do not decompose for 500 years and we only drink. It takes five minutes to drink out of a bottle. Over 90 percent of them are thrown away. And they’re sitting in water and in the lakes and rivers and oceans for hundreds of years before they decompose. So my thinking was, we need to, extend the life of this resource. And if we can extend the life of the resource, and at the same time, we can be make something that’s a creative toy.

 Said, that could be a winning combination because every bottle that’s used as a toy. Is one less bottle that goes to waste. That’s true. So I put my thinking cap on. This is where my inventor came from. Comes in one of the toys that I had in the store was a stacking pegboard where the pegs would stack one on top of the other and because I had platforms in the store, I used to see the kids piling up these pegs [00:19:00] and they love to do it. And I said, you know what, why don’t we just do that? Let’s just make the bottles so they can stack one on top of the other. But in order to do that, there needed to be a recess in the base of the bottle, and there wasn’t any. So this was my first. I went into the garage. I took this water bottle. I drilled a hole in it. This is from 2006. And I put a cap in it. And this was my first prototype and what I could do is then I could take another bottle and thread it into the base and so the bottles could stack. But what I wanted to do is actually push them in and in a dream, I got an idea for connector pieces, so they could go at different angles, and this, is my first connector piece, so you can take a bottle and you can screw it in there and you can stack them. So this way I had bottles going in all different directions. And then the next thing that I did, I actually had prototypes made, so these are the first prototypes and these actually did stack one [00:20:00] on top of the other.

Jason Hsieh: Oh yeah, I didn’t see that. 

Steven Klein: So see, there we go. So what I did is I had about 25 of these made and I had some giant size connector pieces made. And I went to a toy show in Las Vegas with new ideas and I presented my idea and it was a tremendous hit. There were, I had so many people at my booth wanting to know, how do we do this? How do we get involved with this? And I said, wow, yeah, let’s what we have to do is we have to find out how to put a recess in the base of the bottle. Water bottles are made in a high speed machine. In order to make the bottle stack, you had to have a recess in the base. So that was but based on what I had, I was able to get a patent on connecting bottles and I was able to get a utility patent and a design patent, but the problem was I was unable to mass produce it, and if I couldn’t mass produce it, I couldn’t market it. And here’s how, water bottles are made.[00:21:00] 

This is called a preform. And you can see on the top, there are already threads. And what they would do is they would put a mold around this, and they would heat the bottom, and the bottom would take the shape of the mold. And then the two halves of the mold would separate and you’d have a water bottle.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, okay. 

Steven Klein: The problem was that if there was a recess in the base, the mold was unable to separate. Ah, okay. And so it was not possible to make the base. Any of these stacking bottles in a high speed machine and that was in I had my first patents in 2009 and I wrote about it and I did as much as I could but knowing that I couldn’t knowing that I couldn’t mass produce it and really bring it to market. It was I was excited about the idea, but I really wanted it to be mainstream. And in 2015 I found A company that made water bottle machines, high speed water bottle machines. [00:22:00] And they came up with a bottle with a recess in the base. And the reason they did that is they called it their stack and pack.

And it wasn’t held on firmly. It was the reason that they did this was they wanted to be able to stack 10 bottles high on a pallet. I was putting paper in between each layer, but they were able to ship more bottles, 

Jason Hsieh: but they were able to do it in a fast way. 

Steven Klein: They were able to do it is they had a piston went into the base and then pulled itself out and then the mold could separate. So I got in touch with this company and I hired their engineers. And I told them about my idea and I said, together let’s see if we can design a bottle with the specifications that I’m looking for. So we can actually attach bottles and have them firmly hold together. And this is what we came up with. And this was produced in a high speed machine. This is well, let me show it to you this way. I don’t know if [00:23:00] you could see that. But in the recess, there are raised ribs, and then there are sections in the recess without the ribs, which allows the air to escape. And basically what that means is, when you put the bottles together, the raised ribs will grip the bottle, and the side panels allow the air inside the recess to escape. And when you push it in, it will actually create a vacuum seal, and you’ll hear it. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh 

Steven Klein: Now, these bottles are connected. These are the first Eco Connect Bottles that were produced in a high speed machine. And all we could do at this point was stack bottles. I had to have a way of connecting them. And so now that I had the bottles, the next thing that I had to do was design connectors. Connectors, I found some people that did 3D printing. 

Jason Hsieh: Yep. 

Steven Klein: And I came up with some ideas. And all of the connectors that I’m going to show you are prototypes that were made with a 3D printer. If this ever does get to the marketplace they’ll be made they’ll [00:24:00] be molded. So this was the first, this was the first connector piece, and it has female threads here, and one, one side of it is male. And then of course if we’re going to make toys we needed wheels. So I put together an axle that goes into this and then you put a wheel on it.And then you put another cap on and then you’ve got a wheel. 

So from just these pieces yeah, it’s more than that because then what you get is this and you can put paper in there and do all kinds of things to make colorful. And my goal was to keep coming up with new connector pieces and eventually motorize it. So you can motorize these things. And of course the bottle floats so you can make floating toys as well. And then I came up with this little guy over here. And the purpose of this was if [00:25:00] at Disney world, they could use it. They could put Mickey mouse on here or whatever, and it could be all the Disney characters, or it could be for movie tie ins. So if there’s a movie coming out with superheroes, you can make superheroes out of your bottles. Or if your kid is having a birthday party. You put his, picture here, and you have all of his friends pictures, and everybody goes home with a, their own personalized action figure.

Then, last but not least, I came up with this little gizmo here, which when you put a cap on each side, it enables you to put bottles on different sides and change the polarity. And this was the key piece because prior to this, the only thing that I could do with the bottles was stack them up and add wheels. But when I came up with this piece, I was able to do something like this. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay.

Steven Klein: I was able to form a cube. And when you have a cube, you can put a shelf on top of it. You can build higher cubes. So if you put. [00:26:00] a garbage bag in here, this becomes a garbage, a bag container. If you put wheels on it, it becomes a rolling toy thing. So you can put your little Lego pieces in there and kids can pick up everything off the floor. It could be a clothes hamper. It could be, if you stack these up, I have these in my living room with pieces of artwork in it. There’s all kinds of shelves. And once I had this piece, And that’s based on this four sided cube. I thought to myself if we could do four sides, maybe we can do, maybe I can create a piece that has more than four sides. And so I came up with this piece. This piece has three angles. If you use this top angle. You get a hexagon shape instead of a cube. And if you use this. Oh, this was a pentagon. Excuse me. This was a hexagon. So six sides and if you use the largest angle, it was eight sides. You had an octagon. 

I was able to build my first table. And the [00:27:00] surprising thing about it is if you look at water bottles this way they, squish and they’re soft, but this way. They can sustain a lot of weight and that first, cube that I showed you supported 30 pounds. The table that I have in my living room, which is based on a hexagon. Two layers of hexagons that supports 50 pounds. Oh, so basically what that showed me is, wow, you could make a tables. You could, it could be a desk. It’s great for dorm furniture. Take stacks of bottles on both sides and put it, put a top on it. And that’s when everything I said, you know what? I think I really have something here. Not only can it be mass produced, but it’s functional. Not only can you make toys. But there are lots of things that you can do with it. It’s, up to the imagination of who’s ever [00:28:00] using it. It’s creative. And the best kinds of toys are, I refer to them as open ended toys.

Those are toys that are appropriate for a certain age. And, but if you put them away for a couple of years and you take them out again, the child uses it in a completely different way. That would be like building blocks. Where a young child just stacks the blocks one on top of the other, but an older child would build the city. So it’s the same toy, but it has a different meaning based on the ability of the child. So once I had all of those pieces in place, I said, now it’s time for me to get another patent on the connector on the, recess. On that vacuum seal recess. So I applied for a patent and in 2019 I was granted another patent on the recess. At that point I invested several thousand dollars and got a really professionally done business plan. My [00:29:00] goal was to raise a million dollars and travel around the globe. And show people because the only way to really understand what this is you have to see it. You have to touch it. You have to play with it. You got to put things together and it’s you can do anything. It’s even building insulation. This has a great value for disaster relief where they ship millions of bottles to an area that’s been hard hit by some sort of a disaster and if they just had some connector pieces to go along with it and they had eco connect bottles, they could build tables, they could build things to keep their storage units to keep the food off the floor. It had, great possibilities. It was even building insulation because air and air in a sealed container. Is an insulator. So if you have strips of bottles side by side, you can put them into the walls and it’s actually you could actually use it that way. So it had lots of value.

And so I put the business plan together. I wanted to [00:30:00] raise money and then the pandemic hit. On top of that, I had a cancer that I was dealing with that sort of came back. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, sorry to hear that. 

Steven Klein: Yeah. Everything is good now. I just had a test 2 months ago and everything is right where it should be. And I expect to be here a long time. But I think, I still have great hopes for Eco Connect bottles, but at this point, since I’m going to be 81 I’m hanging up my spikes and, retiring the idea. If there’s someone on the call or someone sees this that shares my vision. I, would be more than happy to work with them and show them everything that I’ve done and how everything could go to the next step. Because here’s the next step in this. All of the, what I’m doing here is called repurposing. Yes, it’s very different from recycling. Repurposing means that you take the same bottle. With no additional [00:31:00] manufacturing and you can give it a new purpose. So whereas a water bottle you use a water bottle for five minutes. And then it needs to be recycled. Recycling means you need to put it in a bin. It has to be picked up by a truck. It has to go to a factory where they break it down, then they have to remanufacture it into another bottle, and then they have to reship it to a place where they can sell it. So for five minutes of use all of these greenhouse, gases are being emitted in the pickup and the remanufacture of the bottles with repurposing your extending the life of the resource, which is a resource that can last for 500 years. And, eventually you can recycle it. So I have things that I built five years ago that look perfect. And one day they’ll be recycled. They’ll be recycled like everything else. 

Jason Hsieh: Is there any investor that you talked to back in 2019 when try to launch the business that you can still connect with in [00:32:00] 2024 and maybe reignite the whole idea? 

Steven Klein: One of the things that you learn when you’re an inventor is that when you’re a trailblazer especially and you come up with something new and different. You have to have a thick skin, one bit of advice I can give to, I can give to anyone. If you’re going into the, if you’re going into the toy business, if you think you’re going to invent something, it’s a labor of love for you, just like the learning store was and teaching was for me. And just because it’s a labor of love for you, it doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to feel the same way that you feel.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, I agree. 

Steven Klein: What I envisioned for this. Is my this, is my future if I, were going to continue this, I would want people around the globe to connect via the internet and share their ideas. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, that’s a wonderful idea. I love the idea. 

Steven Klein: And I would give out, Prizes, college scholarships to people who made the most inventive things with bottles.

Jason Hsieh: That reminds me of what Bill [00:33:00] Gates did in Africa with the toilet he tried to have his own competition let’s try to invent a self sustaining toilet it’s a similar idea, right? 

Steven Klein: Absolutely because there’s no limit to what you can do with the bottles. The only limit is what you think of definitely. And it could be anything. And then the bottles could eventually be recycled. I don’t see this as replacing recycling. It’s I just see it as, yeah. It’s one more weapon in the war against waste and if we can reduce bottles being thrown away by three or four or five or ten percent, that’s billions and billions of bottles. So that’s where it is right now. 

If someone is listening, someone’s watching and they say, you know what? We’d like to put some money into this or whatever. I’m, certainly open to the idea again, but right now, I’m at a point in my life where I feel I’ve done good things. I’ve helped a lot of people [00:34:00] and even if this thing never makes it to the market, I’m going to I’ll keep promoting it as, as well as I can. I think it needs to be on TV. I think there has to be a groundswell from the population to the people who manufacture bottles. There are only a few companies that could really do this. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, in bulk. Yeah, in masses. 

Steven Klein: But one of the things that I did when I got my patent I, patented this, invention in 87 countries. That was four years ago and there were fees that have to be paid. So I’m not sure which countries are still active, but I plan to do this around the world. I, was ready to do this, but now I’m ready to open up another chapter and that’s spending my remaining time with my. Beautiful wife and we just have a wonderful time together. I’m, certainly open to moving this forward. I think it’s a great idea, but. Again, not when you are a trailblazer, people are going to [00:35:00] find fault. They’ll see things wrong with it. There is some investment that’s involved by the bottling companies. They’d have to they’d have to adapt their machines so they could make the bottles. But yeah I’m really gung ho on it. I, think it’s great. 

One of the things I did even, before I got all my patents, I talked to everybody about this. If I was checking out in a supermarket, whenever, I got a chance to talk to people, I would talk to them about this. And my, thought was one day, when I bring this to market, all those people that I talked to will one day say, I spoke to that guy, I spoke to him before he brought this to market when he was just a little guy, now he’s a big man. And I have to tell you, in addition to doing some wonderful things for the planet, it’s also great for the bottling companies because it will differentiate their brand. True. It gives it gives a meaning to a water bottle instead of people looking at it as something bad crash. They can look at it as [00:36:00] something positive. They can look at it as something that can help them And eventually be recycled. There are lots of things that you have to take into consideration. I, will say one other thing. If you’re an inventor, make sure that you sleep with a pencil and paper by your bed.

Because you never know. What idea you come up with, right? You never know when your next great idea is going to come. 

Jason Hsieh: I think that’s also true for entrepreneur. I always come up with idea when I was taking a shower.

Steven Klein: You need a waterproof pen in there. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, I do need a waterproof pen. 

Steven Klein: But when I, first came up with stacking the bottles, I actually thought of the connector pieces in a dream. And I woke up and I sketch, and I sketched them. And those were very similar to the connector pieces that were that accompanied my first patent. So you never know when a good idea is going to come to you. 

Jason Hsieh: I think you do have an excellent idea. We just need to pitch to the right investor that is really into saving the planet, which is the only planet we all share, unless We’re going to Mars according to Elon [00:37:00] Musk, but that’s going to take a while.

Steven Klein: That’s one small step. We need one small step for Steve and one big step for Eco Connect bottles. That’s hopefully in the future somewhere. 

Jason Hsieh: So as we are winding down in today’s interview, the final question I ask all the guests is if you had to share just one piece of advice with someone that’s getting started in the toy industry, what would that be?

Steven Klein: I would say when you have an idea and you have a plan, you need to have a thick skin. And you need to be persistent and it’s most effective if it’s a labor of love because when people talk to you and you are trying to Convince them or show them or something they can actually sense how you feel about it by the way you express yourself and how you know if it’s in your heart it means more to you and you have a, you’ll have a, better time.

So I would just say be persistent. Follow your plan. Don’t give up. It doesn’t matter how old you are. I first came up with this idea when I was in my seventies or [00:38:00] late sixties, rather. And now I’m going to be 81, so it’s been a while. And, that would, be my advice. Just just stick to things. If you have something that you want to try, life is short. Go for it. 

Jason Hsieh: I totally agree with that. I have a very similar experience with my own, one of my company, which is my brand, which we design toys for kids with special needs. Just like you in 2020, I was in a very bad position almost on the edge of bankruptcy, but because my wife and also this labor of love for me to create a company of what it stands for. I never really give up. And otherwise I could, I have everything stacked against me and it’s very easy for me to just walk away and say, I tried, didn’t work. Guess what, COVID happens. I was in a lot of debt, have $300,000 in debt, and I could just have, give up and just walk away from the whole scene. But I didn’t, I still have the company as of today because of just like what you share. It’s labor love is like the widest [00:39:00] bigger than our single individual. So that is so important, especially when you have such a, like the big idea that you have yourself as being a visionary.

And sometimes you really need to bring that passion, bring that mission and really connect with the people in the way. So people can feel the energy and feel the passion that you have for your business and the product. And you can relate and connect to people in so many different ways. 

Steven Klein: Yes, if it comes from your heart. That’s really what matters. That’s really what matters. The only difference between you and I is that I’m going to be 81. And you still have a lot to go in front of you. 

Jason Hsieh: Oh, I just turned 40. Yeah. 

Steven Klein: We look, if I were your age, I would be starting my own bottling water company. But you look at things differently depending upon where you are in your life. So I’m, in the end, I’m in the final chapters. I’m sitting on top of the mountain and looking back and reflecting. And I’m very happy with my life and that I was able to have a successful marriage and have great [00:40:00] kids and adoring grandchildren. So my, life is complete and If this happens, that would be a bonus, but it doesn’t it’s more than, I’m happy with it just where it is that I just took an idea and I made it happen.

Jason Hsieh: So if someone listened or watched today’s episode and they are interested to continue your legacy, what is the best way for them to get hold of you? 

Steven Klein: You can find me on LinkedIn and I’m on Facebook. I really haven’t done much with my Facebook page lately, but the one thing about if you go on LinkedIn and you go on Facebook under Eco Connect Bottle. You’ll see lots of pictures of many, things that were built that I think you’ll find very interesting. And I’ve written numerous articles. One of the important things before we sign off is that nobody really gets excited about recycling. You don’t, see posts on Facebook saying, Oh, I recycled today. I’m so happy. 

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. It’s not very fun. 

Steven Klein: With Eco Connect Bottle it’s a fun thing. It’s something the whole family can do together. [00:41:00] Kids can do it alone. It doesn’t matter how old you are, how young you are. It’s just a fun experience that, and this is something that you can share with others on the internet. That’s what I think is important. 

Jason Hsieh: Thank you everyone for tuning in today’s episode of Toy Business Unboxed Podcast.

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And this is Jason Hsieh signing off on Toy Business Unboxed podcast. I’ll see you in the next episode.