Meet Lawrence Ayala | Product Developer & Residential /Commercial Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lawrence Ayala and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lawrence, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
My background is a residential and commercial painter for 35 years. I’m constantly on Step A-Frame and Extension ladders. I started painting at the age of 16, I would paint on the weekends to earn extra money. I’ve always loved the final outcome of taking a house, cabinets, furniture and refinishing them back to life again.

My idea for the MONKEY RUNG® PRODUCTS actually resulted from a serious ladder fall in the year of 2014.

The accident was devastating as I essentially broke the whole left side of my body and was out of work for about 13 months. The long road to recovery had me second guessing my career path.

Well, I returned back to the field of painting. We had to do some exterior staining on a 2 story house. I was spraying and back rolling stain into the cedar siding on a 32 foot ladder. I had my hands full of tools and my mind started to panic about falling again.

I had asked my son to go onto Amazon an purchase an extension ladder accessory to hold my tools. This way the ladder accessory will free up one of my hands so that my other hand can hold onto the ladder. This will create 3 point contact for ladder safety. He came back an showed me the big bulky ladder accessories that were on the market. This was my “AHA” moment as nothing has been created from an experienced tradesman. www.monkeyrung.com

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What gets me excited is the full circle of my construction trade to developing products. I started this journey 35 years ago. I started as a painters apprentice, journeyman painter, foreman and then to owning my painting business. The final chapter is developing ladder safety products for the Construction Trades and DIY’ers

The products business has to be one of the most challenging businesses to bring to life. The moment from Idea, Prototype, Cad Design, Patent Search, Patents, Trademarks, Manufacturing, Packaging, Marketing and Big Box Retailers. The best advice is to develop a product from your life experience.

I want to bring Ladder Safety to the forefront and paint products to all Construction Trades and DIY’ers.

To have all the MONKEY RUNG PRODUCTS to be a staple brand in the big box retailers.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would try to have them schedule the trip during baseball spring training, when the weather is great. Take a day to go fishing locally at one of the urban lakes or travel up to Northen Arizona. The nightlife would probably be at one of the many casino’s or comedy clubs.

To pick one restaurant is definitely hard, because there are so many great places to eat in the Phoenix and surrounding areas.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like give a Shoutout to my family and friends. My wife supporting me the last 5 years during the emotional highs and lows. The sacrifices of finances to get the products into a developmental stage, she sold her personal car just to fund the patent search and file patent pending. My two son’s that worked endless amount of hours to get the products to the retail market.
It’s really a true blessing when you have their support.

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