Leeway from Lloyd: Gotta love reality biz shows

Two of my favourite TV shows are Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank, especially the guest entrepreneurs who invent or promote the products the rich panellists invest in with their own money.

The cool thing about these shows is they inspire viewers to put themselves in the shoes of successful product or business pitches and walk away with pretend millions of dollars in the bank.

The only product I can think of inventing right off the top of my head is toilet paper for left-handed people like myself. I’m calling it Lefty Wipes and I’m hoping golfer Phil Mickelson, known as Lefty will endorse it to improve motor skills for southpaws.

I am joking, of course, but there are some similar crazy ideas pitched on Shark Tank that have made millions including Squatty Potty, a toilet stool, which is designed to promote easier bowel movements with overall lifetime sales of $175 million! Lefty Wipes could be the new cheeky category killer.

On Dragons’ Den in Canada, a product called Holy Crap that has nothing to do with bathroom rituals has also been a big hit since it debuted during Season 5. This is a glutenfree, protein-rich cereal with a funny name.

Also, the Canadianmade mattress-in-a-box company, Endy has sold 250,000 of their comfy foam mattress after a pitch on Season 12.

A lot of the most successful pitches are of the “building a better mouse trap” variety of improving existing products.

One of Shark Tank’s best sellers is Scrub Daddy which is a reusable sponge in the shape of a smiley face that gets firm in cold water and soft in warm water to clean both sides of kitchen utensils at once. The company has racked up over $200 million in sales. Who knew?

As a viewer, I get a kick out of watching two of my favourite Canadian investors, Kevin O’Leary and

Robert Herjavec who have appeared on both shows.

Herjavec returned to Dragons’ Den last season while O’Leary left the Den in 2014 and has been on Shark Tank since 2009.

I am currently working on a joint show pitch for Lefty Wipes as

I speak, but I can’t get by what problem this solves. So in the end I have decided to flush this idea and leave it to the pros!

Growing up in Ontario, my dad would take me and my brother camping as often as possible during the summer months, leaving me and Keenan with many fond memories of sitting around the campfire.

As a newly-minted 33-year-old, this past weekend helped me realize those memories didn’t go anywhere. I also realized I learned quite a bit on those camping trips as setting up the site on Friday night was second nature.

It was amazing to get out of town and sleep in a tent for two nights ... but there were also some lessons learned over the weekend.

My biggest lesson came when I arrived at our site to realize there was absolutely zero shade ... solution? I should have done some site scouting ahead of time to make sure we’d have somewhere to hide from the sun! Despite this fact, we can’t wait to go back! Whether it’s sleeping out under the stars, playing a round of golf or having a bbq with friends and family, life is short and time does fly when you’re having fun!

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