Living The Red Life
How Polly Benson Beat Copycats and Built a Purpose-Driven Brand
Wed, 16 Apr 2025
Polly Benson, a passionate occupational therapist turned entrepreneur shares her incredible journey of invention, impact, and business growth. Creator of the LegiLiner, a unique rolling ink stamp that helps children develop consistent handwriting, Polly has influenced over a million young lives through her innovation. With a heart for service and a mind for strategy, her mission blends education, creativity, and purpose.Throughout the episode, Polly and Rudy dive deep into the business lessons she's learned—especially the concept of "Who, not How", which emphasizes leveraging others' strengths to grow faster. They discuss the challenges of scaling, hiring, protecting intellectual property, and creating a true business—not just a product. Polly also opens up about setbacks like copycats on Amazon, and how she bounced back by focusing on community-building, memberships, and value-driven entrepreneurship.CHAPTERS01:06 – The LegiLiner Entrepreneur journey03:09 –The Power of “Who Not How”05:05 – Invest in your business through other’s expertise06:02 – What’s a great first hire?07:10 – The smart way to grow your business- don’t do it all yourself.08:28 – You don’t have a business, you only have a product. Growth through adding value.10:48 – Email is an asset.12:06 – Challenges: dealing with Copycats & Creative Confidence to compete.13:36 – Legacy Over Profit: Fight back with strategies14:39 – How to contact LegiLinerConnect with Polly:IG: @LegiLinerTT: @LegiLinerFB: @Legi-LinerYouTube: @LegiLinerwww.LegiLiner.com for productswww.LegiLiner.net for membership information
Chapter 1: What is the journey behind the LegiLiner?
Hello and welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Joining me today is Polly, and she's got a pretty exciting story to tell and an amazing business. She's an inventor, and what I'm really fascinated to talk about today is the products she's invented have helped impact over a million children's lives and many more millions to come.
We're going to dive into her business, how she's done that, and then talk a bit about how she's built the businesses. And one particular thing that's really important that I want to dive into today, which is the who, not how, that you can apply and really grow your business with this model, right? So welcome to the show.
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Chapter 2: How did Polly Benson create a product that impacts millions?
So a million people, a million children, pretty crazy impressive. Let's go through that for everyone that doesn't know who you are. How did you help a million children?
So I invented a product called the Legi Liner, and it's a rolling ink stamp that prints handwriting lines. So it's just a little simple stamp that you put on paper and it rolls out handwriting lines so kids can practice more consistently.
So the way that we think we've helped over a million children is because we've sold thousands of products to teachers, homeschool moms, other school-based occupational therapists, and they're now using those in their classrooms. And in every classroom, there's 20 or 30 children. Yeah. And so they've been able to utilize the stamps to help improve their handwriting.
And then what got you into, you know, I love the entrepreneur story, right? Like what got you into this? It's pretty random product.
Yeah. So I'm an occupational therapist and I work in the schools with children. I've always had an entrepreneur spirit back in the day when I was younger, babysitting and doing different activities, crafts and things that I would sell. I did a couple of other small businesses like home party companies and things like that. And always tried to be generous with what I did and give back to whatever.
I did one business that was really interesting. It was where I did a home party and 100% of anything I made, I gave to a charity. And it just was such a feel good because I didn't need the money, but I wanted to have a purpose. And so- kind of always led my business with a purpose and what exactly is my purpose.
And so for this particular business, it's been super fun to see that I can impact so many lives.
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Chapter 3: What does 'Who, not How' mean for entrepreneurs?
Yeah, I mean, that's what great entrepreneurship is. It's obviously it's building a great brand, great products, making a lot of money. But really, it's like the other side that most entrepreneurs are focused on is the impact that that can make, right?
And I think a lot of us create a product because we see a gap in the market, you know, or we go through some sort of problem ourselves and can't find a solution. So we learn how to fix it. So let's talk a little about the business side too, just quickly. Obviously, you've sold thousands of copies, been in business a long time. And we're going to talk a little today about the who, not how, right?
So what does that mean to you? And can you define that for people listening?
Chapter 4: How can you effectively hire for your business?
Chapter 5: What are the challenges of dealing with copycats?
Chapter 6: Why is investing in expertise crucial for growth?
So the way that we think we've helped over a million children is because we've sold thousands of products to teachers, homeschool moms, other school-based occupational therapists, and they're now using those in their classrooms. And in every classroom, there's 20 or 30 children. Yeah. And so they've been able to utilize the stamps to help improve their handwriting.
And then what got you into, you know, I love the entrepreneur story, right? Like what got you into this? It's pretty random product.
Yeah. So I'm an occupational therapist and I work in the schools with children. I've always had an entrepreneur spirit back in the day when I was younger, babysitting and doing different activities, crafts and things that I would sell. I did a couple of other small businesses like home party companies and things like that. And always tried to be generous with what I did and give back to whatever.
Chapter 7: How can you build a value-driven brand?
I did one business that was really interesting. It was where I did a home party and 100% of anything I made, I gave to a charity. And it just was such a feel good because I didn't need the money, but I wanted to have a purpose. And so- kind of always led my business with a purpose and what exactly is my purpose.
And so for this particular business, it's been super fun to see that I can impact so many lives.
Yeah, I mean, that's what great entrepreneurship is. It's obviously it's building a great brand, great products, making a lot of money. But really, it's like the other side that most entrepreneurs are focused on is the impact that that can make, right?
And I think a lot of us create a product because we see a gap in the market, you know, or we go through some sort of problem ourselves and can't find a solution. So we learn how to fix it. So let's talk a little about the business side too, just quickly. Obviously, you've sold thousands of copies, been in business a long time. And we're going to talk a little today about the who, not how, right?
So what does that mean to you? And can you define that for people listening?
Yeah, sure. So I think initially when I first started and I came up with this idea, I was, you know, pushing into a classroom and I was drawing lines by hand. So I knew there was a problem that needed a solution. And so when I was at a scrapbooking retreat, I thought of, you know, I was practicing stamping with these rolling stamps and I said, I just need one with my pattern.
And so I went to look to buy one and there wasn't one existed. So contacted the manufacturer and had one made while I started carrying that around everywhere. And the teachers were like, that's incredible. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. You need to patent that. And so then it was like, okay, wait, maybe there's something to this and I want to have this product out there.
And so as I've been developing more and more products, then I've been able to impact more and more people. But with that comes more and more challenges, right? So how do I come up with packaging? How do I distribute it? How do I market it? who is the best person and I didn't have those skills. So first started out like reaching out to people that had that experience and how do I do packaging?
How do I do marketing? But then realized as I started becoming more of the best proponent of my product, I'm the best promoter, then I had to hire somebody to do the other work for me.
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