Pretty Resilient

Cara Brzezicki has created to help people all her life, and nothing’s going to stop her now

BY REID CREAGER

Cara Brzezicki was at a Colorado state park when she just up and disappeared. 

Worried viewers of the HSN show “What a Great Idea,” where she had been ready to pitch her Flusher Blocker, called to ask what happened. They didn’t know her phone battery had died.

More important, they didn’t know it would take much more than a little technical setback to prevent her from returning.

The Littleton, Colorado wife, mother of two, inventor, children’s author and life coach counselor has a long history of overcoming challenges and doubters. Like many inventors, she has danced with rejection; unlike many inventors, she doesn’t embrace it as motivation. It holds her in a way that makes her sad.

She has cried when getting negative feedback, especially when it crosses a line. But over time, she has learned to tune out jealous and spiteful voices and listen to a nagging voice.

Hers.

Especially with the Flusher Blocker, Brzezicki told Inventors Digest she has had “that nagging voice, that you’re supposed to do this. So, I did. And listening to myself has been my biggest asset, without being boastful.”

Foiled at age 10

Constantly on the go, she has three main inventions designed to stop things from happening.

The Flusher Blocker is a  vinyl, reusable, washable decal placed over a public toilet sensor that stops automatic flushing. The Sippie Clippie prevents toddlers from using their sippy cups as aerial weapons of sass destruction. The Coffee Stopper™ is a reusable, patent-pending device to stop coffee from splashing while keeping it hot. 

The naysayers began with her first invention, decades ago. 

“You ever watch ‘Shark Tank’? I just watched one of the latest episodes where this lady created these charms that stick in your hair.

“I created that when I was 10 years old. They were made out of Velcro so that they wouldn’t ruin your hair. … And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s pretty,’ and I gave them to my friends because I was so proud.

“Well, I had an adult family member who said they were stupid. It crushed me. So, I quit.”

Four or five years ago, she sold a few on Etsy. She never pursued a patent, figuring they would not catch on—although later she created some more for herself to wear at a wedding and elicited a lot of compliments.

Vindication? No—revenge is not a part of her spirit, or productively moving forward: “Honestly, I’d forgotten all about them until I invented the Sippie Clippie,” when the next doubting Thomases and Thomasinas emerged at the last minute. “I remembered them after the fact.”

Pitching, and a fit

Although trusting herself has been a key to her personal and professional growth, knowing herself has been even more important. And Brzezicki knows she is a creative person.

She realizes that marketing is a part of her professional process, but she would rather create. A large book of invention ideas sits in the  house, poised to be revealed to a waiting world.

There have been detours to this creativity, which she prefers to see not as mistakes but as confirmation of her true self.

She changed majors three times at Colorado State University, going from pre-med to construction management and ending with a Bachelor of Arts in social science. She worked as a Realtor after college but didn’t like the “feast-or-famine” life. Tried the corporate route and enjoyed it, but it was not her true calling.

Her life changed forever, in more ways than one, when she had her first son, Camden: She could not stand to be away from him. Now at home full time, she was free to return to her creative roots. 

Her firstborn goosed the process with a habit that drove her crazy.

He kept throwing his sippy cup all over the room during meals. He loved it. Mom did not.

“It drove me insane, and everything on the market didn’t work,” she said. “I joked with my husband one night and said I just want a big clamp with a cord. And he laughed.”

But she wasn’t kidding. “The next day, I said, ‘I’m going to go create this thing. I hate this sippy cup throwing game.’ So I went to Home Depot and bought this big industrial clamp. I drilled a hole in it. I put a cord in it right at the bottom.”

From then on, all kiddie pitches resulted in a cup left harmlessly dangling on a cord above the floor. The final version required a lot more tweaking and engineering—Brzezicki still marvels at how much—but as a person who loves to learn, the whole process filled a need in her that she had abandoned since childhood.

Part of that process was writing the patent application—herself—with a patent examiner helping her write a claim. She found an engineer to make the prototype.

Just before she was to sign the licensing agreement in early 2020, the licensee backed out. She never got a straight answer but theorizes COVID-19 may have been a factor.

Devastating critique  

Brzezicki invented the Flusher Blocker while pursuing the licensing deal.

Again, her firstborn one of her sons was inspiration: He has sensory needs and is scared whenever he is startled by a public toilet that flushes suddenly.

“It would go off right when he walked up to it,” she said, and was particularly annoying—and unsanitary—if he was on the toilet at the time. “It’s disgusting.”

So she would have to block the sensor from “ghost flushing” with one hand while trying to arrange her boy comfortably with the other. Her ghost-busting solution not only prevents that logistical and sanitary problem, it saves water. 

During those early days of COVID, Brzezicki pitched the product to a former executive at a home shopping network during a Zoom meeting.

“She said it was the most stupid invention she had ever seen.”

Though fully aware that rejection is part of the inventing process, the level of it devastated her to the degree that it still showed in her eyes during this interview.

The heavy criticism ultimately had a deeper impact on the invention when Brzezicki—also troubled by lagging sales that have since recovered—did not follow through on her provisional patent application when the one-year period ended. She did not pursue the actual patent.
“I had it patent pending and I let the patent go because I was like, ‘I’m done. This is a stupid idea.’”

But when people kept asking her why she stopped pursuing what seemed to be a useful invention, “I decided she’s wrong. I’m supposed to do this.”

 Now she has a determined resolve that “If people do tell me that something is dumb or whatever, it honestly doesn’t bother me anymore. It’s more like they are just not my ideal client.”

She tells the story because she wants to help others remember to trust their own instincts—that the only thing you can lose is your ego.

So long, splash sticks

Brzezicki has always been attracted to reusable and eco-friendly inventions like her Flusher Blocker. That’s a hallmark of her Coffee Stopper, a replacement for the plastic splash sticks that end up in landfills or littering streets.

“I was always super annoyed that every time I went to get my favorite drink—an extra-hot chai tea latte—they would always insert a splash stick. If you took it out at the coffee shop, they would not take it back because it was used. I never felt right about throwing them away because I knew that they would end up in the landfill and become microplastics.

“So, I decided to keep them in my car. I thought I would upcycle them, but I never could figure out a use for them so I ended up throwing them away.

“I had this idea of a plug that would sit in your cup. I wanted it to be cute and to not be plastic.”

Successful inventors are often keen researchers, from prior art to market trends. Brzezicki investigated all the flaws of splash sticks to leverage her idea, as well as research the best materials for her product.

“The traditional splash stick is made of polystyrene, which is made from petroleum. That sticks sits in your hot liquid and permeates into it—yuck! I made sure that The Coffee Stopper was more of a plug without a stick to prevent it from sitting in liquid.”

As for her planned product, her research showed food-grade silicone to be the best option. “I had a prototype and took it out, and people loved it! My friend asked me where I got it one day and I told her it was mine. She begged me to create them for everyone, so I did.”

Her current design is a leaf shape in Recycling Green, Ocean Blue and Sunflower Yellow. She’s working on more designs, as well as a product that will also work for cold drinks.

Everything’s a story

A spiritual person whose gratitude begins with God, her parents and her husband, Brzezicki believes that even when she or an aspect of her process fails, it happens for a reason.

This extends to much of everything that happens in her life—that everything is a story or has the potential to become another story. She believes these ideas are given to her and that they are her destiny.

“In my brain, I make stories out of everything,” she says, and many stories have problems and possible solutions. “It’s the same for inventing. It’s always solutions based.

“There’s always a solution,” said the self-proclaimed “serial figure-outer.” “If something’s not working, then there’s a better way to do it.”

This and her innate creativity fuel the writer within. She has written 15 books, the large majority of them for children, and published six; the expense of printing books and paying an illustrator require her to wait for sales before investing in more.

Her first book, “Jazzie Saves the Planet,” holds a special place in her heart. Currently, most popular among her titles is “I Love You Brother,” a story about “the love that they shared, and empathy and compassion.”

But if you think the business world of children’s books might be a little more genteel than others, think again. Brzezicki said “Anything Is Possible Little Elephant,” a book about the right to self-esteem, got a negative review “because it involves lacrosse.”

The author summarized the elephant’s story as though she personally witnessed it: “The elephant is a sensitive young boy who is good at lacrosse but not grades. He’s smaller than the other elephants, and he’s not quite as good.

“He gets made fun of but realizes … that he himself is enough, that he can dream and believe that he’s doing well. 

“The review hurt my feelings. I’m not gonna lie. But—the reviewer misspelled the word ‘lacrosse.’”

A seasoned, more confident Cara Brzezicki laughed it off.

A larger purpose

Her personal and professional growth have taught her that sensitive and strong can coexist, even thrive. She credits her husband and her psychiatrist, therapist, Kate Taylor, for helping build her confidence to the point where she feels good about helping others.

Last June, after Taylor’s initial recommendation, she became a certified mindset & intuitive coach. “I have always been pretty intuitive, and I love other people,” she said.  

“My role is to listen to you and help you. What you have to do, you do on your own, right? Because if you don’t do that journey, you’re never going to receive what you’re supposed to receive out of it.”

Initially, this work was geared toward helping stay-at-home moms transitioning into the entrepreneurial world. Now it’s more women in general.

“It’s more consulting now,” she said. “I just love helping, even if it’s for free. I know how to help you get going. 

“Most people only care about money, and I believe money is amazing. It’s such a great tool to have. But it’s not the end all. 

“Be all of somebody’s story or somebody’s life. Because in the end, we can’t take it with us where we go, and so just the human connection and caring and wanting to know somebody’s story means so much.”

Details: JazzieBeans.com; FlusherBlocker.com; TheCoffeeStopper.com

Cara Brzezicki

Born: Pueblo, Colorado

Home: Littleton, Colorado

Family: Husband Corey; kids Camden, 12, Carson, 10, and Corynn, angel baby

College: Colorado State University, B.A., Social Science

Hobbies: Hiking, paddle boarding, dancing, taking my little June-bug for a walk (dog), skiing in the winter

Favorite inventing books: “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” by Deepak Chopra, because it all starts with mindset. Also: “One Simple Idea,” by Stephen Key

Most inspirational person: Sara Blakely

Favorite movie: “Ferdinand”

Favorite song: “The Dance,” by Garth Brooks

Favorite quote: “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”—Oscar Wilde

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