Anna Reger: A Resilient Entrepreneur Transforming School Safety with Flip Lok

What does it take to turn an idea into a life-saving device? Discover the inspiring story of Anna Reger, a serial entrepreneur who transitioned from nursing school to real estate entrepreneur to other business endeavors, ultimately creating a mission-driven business, Flip Lok. Together with her husband, Anna developed a door-locking device to empower both children and adults in chaotic situations and protect them from dangerous threats.

In this heartfelt conversation, we explore how Anna's upbringing in Houston, Texas, and talks with husband, kids, and others led her to recognize the need for Flip Lok. Learn about the challenges and triumphs of marketing the product to schools, providing peace of mind to teachers, students, and administrators alike. We also discuss the importance of having a tested and reliable solution backed by a lifetime warranty, and what it takes to bring such a product to the market.

Anna opens up about her journey in creating Flip Lok and her other businesses, the involvement of her family in the business, and her relentless pursuit of spreading the word and getting the product installed in schools. From trade shows and podcasts to QVC and TED talks, Anna's determination and passion shine through. Don't miss this inspiring episode that highlights the power of entrepreneurship, resilience, and making a difference in the lives of children.

Learn more at https://fliplok.com/

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Transcript

Anika Jackson: 0:01

Welcome to Your Brand Amplified, the podcast where we interview marketers, publicists and brands to learn their stories, what makes them tick and tips and tricks that make a difference. I am so excited to be here with Anna Rieger today. She is a multiple entrepreneur and we're going to talk a lot about her journey into entrepreneurship, her backstory and her newest endeavor, fliplock. Anna, thank you for being here.

Anna Reger: 0:27

Hi, Thank you for having me. Anna Nice to see you again.

Anika Jackson: 0:29

Yeah, nice to see you too, So let's start at the beginning. I know you've told this story before, but my listeners haven't heard your story. What drew you into entrepreneurship? What is your background?

Anna Reger: 0:40

Well, originally I wanted to be a nurse and I went to school and I left school at a young age, went back to school, got my bachelor's degree and I was going to go into nursing bachelor's of science and right when I was getting ready to go into that, i realized that I needed to not work and go into clinicals and things like that, which was going to impede my working, which was going to be a problem for me with paying my bills. So I took some business classes and last part of my college career and I ended up getting entrepreneurship degree and I got some marketing classes and I just loved it. And going into business with my now husband, we started a business basically with me right out of college.

Anna Reger: 1:18

We worked together on several other projects before that and we did a company that was doing window film for commercial and businesses and things like that, and it was a good business. We grew it really as much as you could and then you realize, hey, this probably isn't going to be something that we want to work this hard on. He was already in real estate and other businesses, so then he taught me real estate and things like that and then together we went on and bought some real estate properties and invested and we're able to transition me personally into more real estate than into the business. But I learned a lot in the first business and took that knowledge into the second business and moving forward and all my other businesses. There's always been a learning curve, i guess you could say.

Anika Jackson: 2:01

Yeah, do you think that your degree because I know a lot of times what you learn in school it's not what's happening outside in the real world.

Anna Reger: 2:11

Yeah, in theory everything is great. In reality, that is a totally different deal. Right, they teach you all these things that are going to go in theory and, let's say, for example, in business, but when you get out in the real world, they don't go. Hey, you put all your money, your investment into this particular business. Maybe you might even get into some debt or whatever.

Anna Reger: 2:34

As an entrepreneur, you always take risk, right, but there's no safety net. Right, There's nobody going. Hey, if this fails, then we're going to give you your money back. Right, you're going to have to take that part of what entrepreneurs do. Right, you can charge up all your credit cards, you can get all kinds of debt, thinking like I got the next best thing since sliced bread. And if it doesn't work out, then you've got to have the courage to keep going and decide first of all, should I pull the plug on this business, which I've cord my heart, sweat and blood, my money into, or do I continue to do it, even though I can look forward five years and say this is not going to be a successful business? but then you really have to make that decision. I think that's when I learned a lot more in business. So yeah, in school they don't tell you that, they just give you a little bit of overview of information and things and then you're supposed to take that and figure it out on your own. Yeah, so no.

Anika Jackson: 3:27

Well, and you went from the window covering company to real estate, To Rockstar Wigs. was that? your next business. We talked about that business, so that was a business. My brother-in-law had it.

Anna Reger: 3:39

It was a different company and then my husband and I he needed help running the business because he was great designer and great creator. He just didn't know how to take the business to the next level. So John and I came on board to basically help him and grow it. We took that into over 2,000 stores and made it a very popular brand where we were on RuPaul's Drag Race, we were in shows and our wigs were everywhere. But even that was another like the first business. You start seeing like okay, if we go to Party City and we sell to 2,000 stores here and another 1,000, does the numbers work for us to be as involved in that? Then we did that for a long time and, of course, with COVID and everything, it kind of just that market has just really suffered. So it's not something that we don't have anymore. We still have it. But it's not my passion and mission to work on that company.

Anna Reger: 4:29

That was passion and mission driven for me with Rockstar Wigs was our give back program. Anybody has cancer, alopecia, trigger, chump. You can send us an email, send us a letter, basically just our application and we would send you a wig anywhere free in the United States or anywhere in the world if you needed one. And so that was really what drove me to be incentivized to be there, because I don't wear wigs normally, right? Except when you're Halloween or something, right?

Anna Reger: 4:53

That's really what we are, and those wigs are Japanese synthetic. you can heat them, style them, curl them. They're very different in the market, and we still make wigs for big companies that we've made privately wigs for Disney and things like that But you can't advertise that, right? So it's just something in that niche. It's a very, very niche niche market, and so when you start looking at the growth of the company in the future, again, you have to decide do you want to continue to put all your time and hours and energy and your resources into that, or do you want to, for me, go back and focus on what I know I can do well at, and that's real estate?

Anika Jackson: 5:27

Well, I think the interesting thing, too is wigs can be really expensive for people going through the things you talked about alopecia, hair loss, whether it's from chemo or other reasons, other illnesses And so that's a real service that you're providing too.

Anna Reger: 5:41

That was my passion, because my grandmother had cancer and we were in over 2,000 stores across the United States and the International We still are a lot. But people would ask hey, i have a customer and so we had the flyers and it was just something I felt good about. Right, it was our give back program And it was just something we did that made us feel good, because these women or people would send in pictures. Oh my gosh, this week changed my life. For me it was a wig, but for these people it was really life changing, and that just makes me feel so even to this day. If somebody contacts me, i will send them a wig, because it's just what you should do, right?

Anika Jackson: 6:15

Yeah Well, like you said, it's something small for you, but it's changing somebody's life, it's changing their outlook, it's changing so much of what we do in the world is how we appear to others, right, and then we internalize that And so you're able to help people have that sense of self and positivity.

Anna Reger: 6:29

Right. It's just such a great feeling to be able to give back in that way, And for them it's a big deal.

Anika Jackson: 6:35

Right? Well, and then that leads us to your latest company, like I said, serial Entrepreneur, which is definitely something that's such an important topic And, as a mother as well, something I feel is very near and dear to my heart. So let's talk about Fliplock. What is Fliplock and why did you decide to add another company to your already robust portfolio?

Anna Reger: 7:00

Well, fliplock again is very mission-driven for me. So mission-driven companies really excite me and motivate me and I don't feel like it's work. It feels more I'm doing a service, i'm doing something for the greater good. And why did I create that? Because everybody's seen what's happening in schools with school shootings and things like that. And of course I'm a mom. I have six kids, but our youngest at the time was an elementary And there was a shooter situation in our area at a school.

Anna Reger: 7:27

And I said to my daughter like, oh my gosh, when I heard that, what do you do, like what are you doing when you're in that classroom? at that moment Mommy really needs to know. Because if we get that call, we want to know what they're doing, right. Or if we get that alert, and so she says she's supposed to run into the classroom, get against the wall, turn off the light and the teacher's supposed to lock the door and keep them safe. And I said, ok, how do you know if the door is locked? And she said, well, i don't. And I said, ok, i can let that slide. And then I said so what do you do if your teacher's not there? And she said I don't know, mommy. And oh my gosh, it was really, really. And I opened her for me to say oh my gosh, if my kid is in the middle of a break or somewhere else, she's not with her teacher, she's an elementary And something unfortunate happens in that moment.

Anna Reger: 8:15

My kid has no idea what to do And that means neither would do the other kids. For me, as a mom, it's like you go into action right away. Right, you start thinking what can I do If I get that call? what's the first thing I want to do? What's the first thing that we want to do is moms, as parents, as dads, if our kid calls us, what's the only thing that we can do? We can say is the door locked? And the last thing I want to hear is I don't know, mommy, i don't. And that's what really motivated me, and I got my husband, who's an inventor, creator, thank God. I wouldn't know a way to be able to create the device myself, but it was.

Anna Reger: 8:52

We need a way to lock the doors. The kids need to be able to lock the doors. The kids need to feel empowered. They're scared now. We never had to deal with that when we were kids. It wasn't even I forgot my lunch was my biggest like, oh, oh. These kids are thinking like oh my gosh, is there a closet in my classroom? Is there somewhere I can hide? How many chairs am I going to line up against the door? if somebody comes in? When your kids are little, like in elementary, we know they're not going to be able to do that. What can we do to empower them to be able to go into action to protect themselves? How can we give them peace of mind the teachers peace of mind, and give us a sense of security and peace of mind? And that's why we created Fliplock And that device.

Anna Reger: 9:33

It attaches to the frame of the door. We made it six inches big because I think it should be big, bold and ugly, big and red. This is a huge device And when they flip, all they have to do is close the door and flip it. And when they flip it, it then reminds them to call 911. Because it says call 911? because our kids are not thinking, especially in emergency situation, and that doesn't even go just for kids. Even if it's an adult, we need a reminder when somebody's threatening your life and you have 10 or 20 kids in the room. We don't know if the teacher's going to freeze or if they're going to be in the classroom. But I can guarantee you, if the kids have a way and they know what to do, they'll absolutely go into action.

Anika Jackson: 10:12

I grew up in Lawrence Kansas, so it's a relatively small town. My elementary school was a little unusual. We had colonies, So you'd have all first and second grade classes and four classrooms that were completely open to each other. There was nowhere to hide, There was nowhere to be safe. If something would have happened, We were able to leave school and go have lunch or get picked up for a piano lesson or do all these things and have all these freedoms. I could never imagine letting my daughter go off campus spreading that stuff now And I was talking to a friend's daughter who's in high school in Lawrence Kansas And I was talking about flip-lock actually, And she said, yeah, we're just trained to like. We're supposed to just throw our backpacks at the person if they come in. That's not going to do anything. How's that going to keep them? That's going to enrage the person more than keep the kids safe.

Anna Reger: 11:02

So you know, with flip lock, it's not just the device, and you know, of course I have an unlocking mechanism. So people ask them, what if the kid locks it in? Well, we can unlock it for emergency personnel and things like that. When you think about it, it's a chaotic situation. Right Now. they're telling our kids to throw stuff at the perpetrator to do. That's just trying to make them feel like they're in control.

Anna Reger: 11:21

And the truth is we need a system And that's what I'm advocating for. I'm advocating for a standardized system with a unique alert that all the kids know this is a lockdown. We need to go and we need to get into a room And they need to be able to secure the door themselves without an adult present period. There's just no way that we can keep doing our children this disservice by not giving them the correct tools to lock that door. I'm really pushing for that. Secondary locks in the classroom. They should be mandatory, because given one person a way to lock the door in that classroom it's just unacceptable. You have 20 other lives or 15 other lives in that room And I guarantee you, if you give my kid the tool, she's going to go into action. Yeah.

Anika Jackson: 12:03

Yeah, so what has the journey been like? Because this is obviously a very different product than Rockstar Wigs. You're not putting this into party cities and wig stores and things like that. So, even though it's also a product-based business, what have been some of the differences you've seen in how you have to market it and how you're talking about it with school districts and other people, because you also have it for home and for business.

Anna Reger: 12:26

So for the schools it's a little tedious, but I feel very mission-driven. Like I said, i will go anywhere and I will talk to superintendents And for me it's the people being able to see how easy it is to use, knowing that it's something everybody can use, knowing that it's easy to get into if you have an administrator or emergency personnel that needs to get into there. And I think that, speaking to people in a situation now and unfortunately, every time I turn around there's another school shooting, which is just when we first started this around two years ago. My husband was like you know, when the next school shooting, i just couldn't even hear it, like I couldn't even hear it. I was just like you're crazy, like I don't want to talk about this.

Anna Reger: 13:07

But then you get Nashville, u-valdee, i mean on and on and on, and you're like, oh my gosh, and it just motivates me more to go. Okay, if we have a way for our kids to lock the door, we get this person stuck in the hallway, this person gets out and the least amount of damage is done, and that's the only thing we can do. Right, and our kids are scared If they see this device on the door and they go. Oh, i can go back to being a student now, because I'm not thinking about what I'm gonna do if somebody comes into the classroom. I got that covered. Now I can go back to the teachers, and the teachers too, i mean think about being a teacher. You know, teachers are quitting at an alarming rate. Why? Because they're scared to death and they need to be given the correct tools, and giving them a key to go back and put into a door is just not realistic. If you ever try to find a key when somebody's chasing you you know running out and trying to get you.

Anna Reger: 13:56

You can't do that, and that's the problem is, you need to make it already on the door, ready to go, so that people have access to that. You cannot just expect people to go find a key. I can't find half the stuff in my purse when I'm in there. Let's just be honest. And now you got somebody possibly shooting and you got 20 or 15 kids crying and you're also fear for your own life. You know why can't we give these teachers a way to protect themselves and their children That's functional, easy to use and already available on the door? That's the key.

Anika Jackson: 14:30

Yeah, and cost effective. Right, The peace of mind alone. right, because some schools might say, oh, but we locked the doors, nobody can get in. but somebody wants to find a way around those systems, they will.

Anna Reger: 14:43

Right, and it's not even that. The thing is is sometimes it's a student that's already in the building. Oh yeah, what's your answer there? Now my kid is in a classroom, yes, but hopefully this kid can't go to the next one, the next one, the next one, because you've now locked the outside so secure that this kid is in there. And now our kids that are in the campus, what are they supposed to do, which has actually been a situation, right? So it's just thinking of ways to be preventative And, like you said to your point about the finances, how much would we pay after the fact?

Anna Reger: 15:14

Let's just be really happy. I gave a lifetime warranty on my product because I believe in it. I've had it tested It's over 2100 pounds of pressure And I've done many, many, many different ones because I wanted to make sure it was going to be able to withhold the pressure, be able to do exactly what we say it's going to do, and it's important to have somebody that's backing what they say it's going to do and product to do what it's supposed to do. If you don't have testing and you don't have things like that, it's worthless. Anybody can tell you what it's going to do, but I can tell you right now 2100 pounds of pressure. We give a lifetime warranty.

Anna Reger: 15:45

It's a one time buy for a school. How many kids in that classroom have a cell phone that costs 500 to $1000? How many parents would put $20 in to buy a less than $200 product to put on the door to secure their classroom? I can tell you right now I know parents that would pay for the whole classroom or the whole school or the whole grade, right Yeah, and I don't really know that it's there. And so that I'm working on now is really trying to get the word out. Actually, right now, today we're installing some schools in Illinois and Monday we're in Midland installing, and then in Boston we have some schools and we're just all over right now getting in schools. We have schools in Texas already, you know, and so it's just a matter of trying to get the word out so that people understand this is something that you can put in. That's really like a capital improvement because it stays with the building, it's got a lifetime warranty and you don't have to buy it more than once.

Anika Jackson: 16:31

And when you were looking at ways to increase school safety before you and your husband invented this product, i'm sure you looked at the market to see what was out there. Yes, see, if there was anything that would be strong enough.

Anna Reger: 16:44

Right, and the thing is is there's things on the market, but for sure there's one that goes on the very top. Well, i'm 5'2 on a good day And I can't reach that, neither can my kid, who's elementary. Secondly, there's one that goes on the floor. What about if you're in a wheelchair? People in a wheelchair need to be able to use it. What about if you're on crutches? What about if the teacher can't get down on the floor? I mean, let's be realistic here. You're talking about lining up something. I mean, there's just other things that, to me, weren't as effective as we needed them to be as easily available. And then you got to find this thing to lock the door with. Right. It's not right there already on the door.

Anna Reger: 17:18

Because, yeah, we went back and forth and this has been for years. You know, we talked about this five or six years ago and I was like, oh no, we're too busy, somebody else hasn't figured it out, you know. And then you see another situation and another situation like nobody's figured this out yet. We really need to go into action. And that was our action. And in that creation we have other kids. Like you said, we have the home version, and that's a whole different market.

Anna Reger: 17:40

So a daughter who's in her own apartment. She just moved to LA. Actually She's going to fashion school there And she's in her own apartment. And so we're like she needs a secondary lock, because anytime you lease a place home or otherwise, apartment, whatever somebody has a key to it. She's 19. Anybody could come in there while she's getting out of the shower or whatever.

Anna Reger: 18:01

Our kids don't. They've been living at home, most of them, right. They don't know that there's dangers outside of them. Locking their deadbolt that they told was going to keep somebody out. So this is a secondary lock. And then we have our son in Oregon who's duck, and you know he's got three roommates. Well, it's nice to have one on his bedroom door because now he can go to sleep and we can know that. You know whatever happens in that apartment. They could put one on the front door and put one in his bedroom. It just helps you as a parent rest assured that his room is safe while he's sleeping. You know which is scary, that you even have to think about all these things It really is.

Anika Jackson: 18:35

It's such a different world Right And these aren't things that you know we would think of until it happens. So here's your example of university students and some of the violence that's happened in the past couple years with university students in their own homes because some creep who was in class with somebody or whatever identified them as an easy target.

Anna Reger: 18:57

And some of them had keypad entries. So the difference with ours is it can't be hacked, can't be picked. Those are things that are important because you don't want people to use your technology against you. You want to have all sense of security. That's why I'm out and I'm advocating for secondary locks in school And I think they need to give secondary locks to our kids that are in dorms. You can use a credit card to open most dorm rooms And you know the campus security is not able to be at every room all the time and things happen. We all know that. Right, and something we need to be aware of as parents and advocate for our kids.

Anika Jackson: 19:31

Speaking of being advocates for our kids, you also have a petition going on right now.

Anna Reger: 19:36

Yes, changeorg, i'm advocating for seconds, advocating for standardization, the active threat drill in the United States, because it's like a fire. If there's a fire and I'm in California, i know exactly what to do. If I'm in Houston, i know exactly what to do. But with the active threat drills or lockdown drills whatever you wanna call them at schools, i think your daughter can come to my daughter's school and have zero clue of what to do. That means substitutes are going to schools and have five second or five minute overview of what the briefing is. They've never experienced it and that doesn't make any sense. It creates confusion and chaos. And then the next thing I'm advocating for is more resources for mental health in schools, because I think that's really the underlying trigger of what we really need to address. But I think what can we do to move the peg just a little bit forward, to try and make our kids feel safer and our kids be safer in school, and that's what FlipLock provides as far as I'm concerned.

Anika Jackson: 20:33

Yeah, I'd love to hear you mentioned a few of the schools that are installing. You said Boston, Illinois, midland, texas. There's some schools in Houston, i believe. Are you having to for your marketing to the school districts? are you having to go to conferences? go speak to these schools one-on-one? What are some of the sales and marketing techniques that you've had to use?

Anna Reger: 20:53

So what I'm doing is trade shows and then I'm also going to school. So somebody might say hey, i have some people here, they're super intent, are we actually? what we've done is I have a girl, she gets all the contacts and she'll email out every single school district administrator, anybody in the whole school district that we can get a hold of, literally, and we're physically emailing out our information about what we are, who we are and what we do and what we can provide for them, and usually we'll get some kind of a response back And it is hey, anna, i really love what you're doing. Can you do a Zoom presentation? Because I know we're like really far, and then, if we really like it, can you guys come out and show us, and so that's pretty much what we've been doing.

Anna Reger: 21:35

So I've been on planes quite a bit for the schools People are not kidding you. It's really a labor of love, right, it's like you know, because I really feel truly strongly that this gives our kids sense of security and I know it will save lives. I know I love this.

Anika Jackson: 21:52

Now you and your husband work together on all of your businesses And you mentioned that you have kids. some of them are in younger grades, some of them are in college. Are you getting your kids involved in the family businesses as well?

Anna Reger: 22:04

Well, we never ask our children to come on board. We want them to really be excited and motivated to come on board because we really want them to find their own path in their own way and actually get some training outside of our company. It's where they come on board. But middle boy, which is my stepson John's middle son now he was graduated UT and now he worked for Oracle And then he contacted us and we were like we were really struggling with our marketing online. We're different as a generation gap right And so he decided to come on and help us head over the marketing And he put in his notice with Oracle and has just been with us right at a month, i believe.

Anika Jackson: 22:42

Oh my gosh. Well, congratulations, thank you. That's exciting. It's great when you see them have an interest in what you're doing as parents as well.

Anna Reger: 22:49

Yes, And our other son, the oldest boy. He's been learning the basics for some of our other companies where he can be taken over later, but he's got to get training first. So he's been there a couple of years now and he's doing really well. The rest of them, we're just going to let them find their way.

Anika Jackson: 23:04

Wonderful. So what is next for you? and Fliplock, where are you off to next? What are you going to be presenting Or where are you speaking? And as a consumer, i know we can go to fliplockcom And I'll put that at your changeorg petition in the show notes as well, so everybody can just click through the links. But tell us a little bit more about what's next for your journey.

Anna Reger: 23:26

So for me, for the Fliplock School, i'll be going to a couple more districts and have a trade show coming up, and for the home version, i'll be going on QVC in July And I think in August. I have a podcast. I mean, i have podcasts coming up everywhere, but I am going to do a TED Talk in Sugarland, here in Texas, amazing Congratulations.

Anna Reger: 23:46

Thank you So that, and just going out to other cities and meeting with sometimes I can meet with the mayor or I can meet with the governor It just depends on the city and the state and things like that And also working with people that know about the funding for schools How do schools get the funding? And so I really have been in the capital, in Austin, meeting people shaking hands. Hey, we really need to put in a secondary lock, we really need to do this. I'm just trying to get people to hear the message that we really can do this And it's not a big expense, but it does so much mentally for our kids, so much for our kids' security, so much for the parents. Parents are taking their kids out of school because they're so scared, but this is a way to give them a little bit of security, to know, oh, my kid has a way to lock the door Fantastic.

Anika Jackson: 24:29

Anna, do you have a favorite quote, mantra, verse, family, motto that you live by, that you can share with us? Yeah, never give up.

Anna Reger: 24:38

I came from very humble beginnings and struggled through a lot of my younger years And I believe that if you persistent and you keep persisting and you keep pushing through, that you'll get what you want. Things are not easy. Like you said in school. Everything sounds like wow, i'm just like, hey, if you see, and there you go, i'm going to be this great thing. And it's not quite that way. There are turns and valleys and highs and really lows, and sometimes you just have to be able to stick those through because eventually you're going to get to where you're going and you just have to believe in yourself. That's really beautiful.

Anika Jackson: 25:13

I really appreciate you coming on and sharing a little bit of your journey and how you're trying to change things. Like you said, everything is very mission-driven. You can really see your heart come through in all of your businesses And I thank you for that.

Anna Reger: 25:26

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it so much.

Anika Jackson: 25:29

Thank you to our audience for listening to another episode of You Are Brand Amplified. Leave us a five-star rating and a review, and definitely check out FlipLock, and I'll also try to put some links to some of the places that Anna will be so that you can follow her journey and figure out how to get this into your children's schools as well. And with that, i'll be back again in a few days with another amazing guest. Want more? Check out amplifywithanicacom or follow me on socials at amplifywithanica.