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Why Intellectual Property Matters to You

this class is about money, okay? It's about making you money. As a small business owner, I'm gonna show you where the real money is in your business. Okay? You have hidden intangible assets. All right, hanging out in your business. I'm gonna show you what they look like, how to actually go about finding them and then what to do with them once you dio and we have a couple of awesome experts that are going to join us, my operations manager, her new mistrusted Boeheim is going to join us. She's actually the one that does this in our business. She finds the I p and finds creative ways for us to capitalize on it. She's magical. Unfortunately, you can't have her cause she's mine. But we'll have her join us so that she can show you how to do that step. And then we're also gonna have my actual business adviser, Charlie Gilkey, who is amazing. And I refer like all of my friends to him. So he's gonna talk to us about how to do this step of sort of prioritizing once you find all this intellectual...

property goodness in your business and I guarantee you I know you're feeling maybe a little skeptical, but even if you're Sola preneurs that works in your pajamas at your kitchen table every day there is I pee sitting in your business and we're going to find it today. And then once you do, how do you actually prioritize that I p So we're gonna talk to Charlie about how to do that, and we're gonna give you some steps and show you how to do that stuff. And then we've got a couple of other guests. We have David mold our who is what I like to refer to as a gatekeeper. Okay, so he's the one that entrepreneurs like us wanna contact if we want to write a book or if we want to license R I p like on the stage here creativelive. He's actually a channel head here at CREATIVELIVE. And so we're gonna talk to him about if we want a license, our work, and share the I p that we found in our business in on a bigger stage and maybe write a book or, you know, work with a larger company. How do we make that happen? And is that really valuable is our I p really valuable to you, as you know, a publishing house or as, ah, larger company. So we're gonna I'm gonna show you that it actually is. Okay, so we're gonna talk to him about that. And then one of my clients who is an amazing Web designer is going to talk to us about how she has sort of product ized her service business. So she's got a service business, and she's found a way to take the I p that she's created just from running her business on a daily basis and working with her clients. So all the little pieces of how she does that in the magic of how she does that she has been able to turn that into sort of a product that she can sell, you know, So it creates an additional line of revenue. All right. And that's what it's all about here today. All right. It's about revenue. Um, and so we have one more guest. Who is Matt Frei? He's a copywriter that I actually worked with were actually working on a naming guide to help. Small business has come up with great names and great brands for their business. And so we're gonna talk about copyright, How to protect your I. P. We're gonna talk about trademark, and so he's gonna give us some tips about how to create strong trademarks, okay? And how to create a strong brand name. All right, so that's the plan for today. And then, of course, lastly, what you do, once you go through all these steps, you profit from this I p Okay, but you got to go through the steps first. And so what that process is is actually an intellectual property audit. So that's what I'm going to teach you how to do today. We're gonna take the step by step process. It's gonna be very accessible and very easy for you guys to dio um and so we're gonna go through those steps, and then at the end, you're gonna see all the I p that's sitting in your business. And then this is a practice that you're gonna do over and over again. This is something that you're gonna want to do on an annual basis. OK, so we've put together some other courses called advanced Intellectual Property for photographers advanced I p for filmmakers advanced I p for designers and advanced I p for entrepreneurs. So once you go through this course today, what you want to do next is grab that advanced level as well, because that's going to give you some of the nitty gritty. We get more into the details of the legal stuff and how toe you know, protect your work, actually walk you through a copyright registration. In that course, we we walk you through a trademark search. Um, and then we talk about some of the industry specific legal issues and how to protect your I p specifically as a designer or as a filmmaker, as a photographer. So if you're in one of those professions, definitely grab that. And if not, definitely grabbed the advanced I p for entrepreneurs, all those courses are gonna be super helpful for you. Okay, but today we're gonna talk about money. That's what we're gonna talk about it. I'm super excited. So this is a bonus that you're getting a Z part of this course, and so we're gonna actually work through this today. All right, this is going to be our guide. So printed out. Get a pen because I'm gonna move pretty quickly and there's gonna be a lot of stuff that you really want to know. OK, so make sure you have a pen. Make sure you print this out and you're ready to go. And if you're wondering how to get that bonus material, make sure you enroll for the course and that'll be downloadable right on the course page. There you go. So go ahead and turn to the first page and we're in a dive in. So have you ever read a book that was so powerful You got super excited about it and sort of life changing for you? I'm sure, like, you know, if you're an avid reader and especially business owners tend to read a lot, right? Because we're trying to figure things out. So you've probably read some books that were really powerful for you. Well, I read a book that I loved called, um, harvesting intangible assets by Andrew Sherman. Okay. Doesn't sound that exciting if you're not an I p lawyer, but it is exciting. Okay, because, um, the concept that he's really teaching you is sort of some of the basis of what we're going to talk about today. Now, Andrew Sherman is an intellectual property lawyer for big corporations. Okay, so he works for giant pharmaceutical companies and other big technology companies, and he he works for the big guys, right? Like the S and P 500 is who he's working with. That's not us. And so when I read this book, the first thing I thought with small business owners need to know this. Entrepreneurs can do this, too. And Andrew agrees with me. He's done a couple of interviews and talked about that. But I feel like when we think about intellectual property, we're always thinking that it's for big corporations. It's for these big businesses. And it's not for me as a solo printer as a small shop or, you know, it's not for an entrepreneur or an artist or creative, right? No, that's wrong. Okay, you are in the business of transacting and intellectual property, okay? You're either selling it or your licensing it. You're transferring around. That's what you're doing. I don't care what you do for a living. I'm telling you right now what you are transferring and what you're in the business of its intellectual property. So you need to know what it is, and then you need to know how to capitalize on it in your business. So let's take a look at this quote from Andrew. We all owe a fiduciary duty to the stakeholders of our companies. To manage and harvest are intangible assets. And I love that That gets me so excited. Okay? And it's really because we think of ourselves as you know, we're creating this stuff and we think it's not that valuable. You know, Maybe we read an e book and we think, Oh, it's just a little you book and only 25 people bought it. So it's not that valuable, you know, or oh, that's just my little method that I used to coach my clients. Or, you know, that's just, you know, my little strategy for taking beautiful photos and so we don't think about our intellectual property are creative works as really hot, invaluable, and I'm going to change that today. All right, I don't want you to think about it that way, all right? I want to start a revolution where you start to realize that your intellectual property and all the stuff that you're creating every day in your business is highly valuable, and you start to recognize that and you start to even create a paper trail of it so that you can not only prove it to yourself, but so that you can also prove it. Teoh, an investor that you might want to take on, or a gatekeeper like David, who we're gonna talk to later who you want to, you know, purchased the rights for your book. Or you wanna do a licensing deal with a larger company. So I want you to have that confidence. And then I also want to show you how to have that paper trail to where you can not only believe it for yourself, but you can actually prove it to other people. Okay, so we owe it not only to ourselves but the stakeholders in our community. Right? So let's look at what intangible assets actually are. All right? Intangible assets and intellectual property. You hear me use those sort of interchangeably. But in reality, intangible assets is sort of any intangible asset that exists within your business. It could be customer lists. It could be your mailing list. It could be your business relationships right. An intellectual property is one of those intangible assets. Okay, so that's how to think about it. Now let's take a look at this chart. 25 years ago, 80% of the value of a business, any business larger small was actually tangible assets. So that's buildings equipment inventory. OK, that's where that's how business has made their money. They had physical stuff, and that physical stuff created a path to revenue nowadays. Not so nowadays. You'll see. This is almost completely inverted today. You know the average business, whether you are the S and P 500 or you're a solo printer working at your kitchen table in your pajamas every day, which I know I like to do very often. Um, 75% on average. Of all businesses, the assets are 75% are into intangible assets. So they're no longer this large chunk here that used to be intangible assets. That's that. That's no longer the case. Okay, now it's intangible. It's not tangible. That's where your money is, all right, That's how you make your money. So these are my two little ones. And like I said, most of us don't have shareholders. Right, So we're no, we don't have shareholders like big corporations. The way big corporations work is they've got a bunch of shareholders, and it's their responsibility. It is the only the the company owners and the people who are running the company. It's their responsibility to make their shareholders happy, right? It's to make their shareholders money. That's their goals. Well, guess what? We don't have shareholders and small businesses, but we have stakeholders. Okay, so we've got people who we need to keep happy to, and those are our family, right? It's our customers, our employees, the community we serve, the people who are relying on our businesses success to either accomplish their own goals. Um, and also, you know, these kids preschool is really expensive. So, you know, got to keep these two happy, right? So that's how I want you to think about it. You know, when you're thinking about all this seems hard or complicated. I don't feel like doing it. Remember, it's not just about you, all right? It's also about them. It's about your family. It's about your customers who love you. There's not one business owner here who hasn't had a customer. Tell them they love working with them. All right. No. So don't think about Oh, I don't have 10,000 people on my mailing list. Who cares? You got one customer who loves you and that tells you you're doing the right thing. Okay, So you owe it to that customer, to your family, to yourself, to really harvest the assets in your business and work that. Okay, you need to work it and generate lots of revenue. Right? Because a lot of us and small business owners struggle just to get to six figures. You know, we can't afford to not be working all of the assets that we have. So unexploited assets is sort of a trend now, okay? And this is among large and small companies. So the S and P 500 these air, like, you know, the biggest companies in the US blah, blah, blah. Who cares? Right. But they're only seeing 50 15% of the value of their entire business on their financial statements. For small businesses, it is estimated that only 5% of our true value is accounted for. I'm looking at you because I know your numbers, woman. So That means that 95% of the value of your small business is currently unexploited. Okay, so if you needed to explain to a bank or to a potential business partner or to somebody who you want to sell your business to, or even you know, the bank when you want to buy home or do something personally, you know, you've gotta explain where is the value in your business? You can't do that, right, because 95% of the value is just completely unexploited. Can you imagine sitting at the closing table to sell your business? And 95% of the assets of the business are just not They're just not accounted for. Okay? That means you're getting raked over the coals, right? So you have Teoh, recognize where that I p is and learn how to create revenue streams from it and learn how to capture it so that you can generate revenue. Now, some of these large companies, they can afford to not capitalize on all their assets, right? They have incredible amounts of assets. There's mergers and acquisitions every five minutes. There's a new company being required. There's all these assets in that company, and they can barely keep track of it. All right? And that's fine for them because they're making billions of dollars. Not so for us. Small businesses. Right. So we're trying to make it. Were trying to grow successful businesses. I want to see you guys all get to a $1,000,000 better. And this is how you do it. So this is you See how you're feeling all nonchalant. That's because you don't realize that you're sitting on a mountain of intellectual property. Okay, That is not being accounted for. So, you know, now you have the knowledge. Now you can no longer be in blissful unawareness, okay? And so we're gonna do something about it. So I also mentioned that you owe it to yourself. Okay, So not only do you owe it to your stakeholders to find the intellectual property, the intangible assets in your business, But you also owe it to yourself. Because here's what happens. You have more money. Who likes more money? I dio eso if you want more money than this is how you do it. You capitalize on your intellectual property. All right. Every single small business owner has cash flow issues. I know because my business adviser, Charlie Gilkey, told me, Okay, he said every client he works with has had cash flow issues at one point or another. It's just part of being an entrepreneur. So don't feel like, Oh, my business Isn't that great? Because I'm broke today. But I'll have money tomorrow, You know? Doesn't matter. Okay, Cash flow issues are part of being a small business owner, but you can seriously alleviate those cash flow issues just by capitalizing on your I P. And then you can use that I p to raise money when you need to. So I'll give you example of this. There is a, um, website that I love called unicorn free dot com, and it's run by Amy Hoy. And she's very, you know, bs free, which I love. Okay, really like and I find that sort of language appealing because I feel like there's so much fluff out there. Um, So anyway, she talked about how she uses her different I P assets to generate revenue whenever she needs it. So there was a conference that she wanted to go to. I think it was like in Ireland somewhere in Europe Super expensive. It was like a couple $1000 for the ticket was a couple $1000 to fly out there. And then also, you know, the hotel fees and all that it was at least $5000 was gonna cost to go to this event. And she really wanted to go until at first you thought, Oh, maybe I can't go. And then she realized, Well, actually, I have this app. So what I'm gonna dio is you know, I think she came up with a new feature, did some type of promotion or something for this app that she had created. And guess what? She generated the $5000 that she needed in, you know, a matter of, like, a weeks time. And she went to the conference. So that's what you want to do. If you've got assets like this, you can just use them for your benefit whenever you need them. And this is something that I've done many times in my business Trust. I could tell you about it in a little while, where were like, you know, it's looking kind of tight this month. Why don't we do a little promotion. So, you know, or we create something new, you know, based on stuff we've already got. We just repackage it, put it out there and generate another line of revenue. OK, so this is powerful stuff. Then you have more time. Okay? So besides, more money, we all need more time. And what, besides, like some pyramid scheme promises to give you more time and more money simultaneously. That's what intellectual property is. And that's why I'm, like, jumping out of my skin excited right now, because that's what this does for you. So if you're a business owner, you have, like, 17 jobs, right? The average business owner has 3 to 6 jobs, so you might be the bookkeeper. You're probably the janitor. You're the sales person. You're the marketing team. You know, you're, you know, delivering the services or delivering the products, or you're going to the post office and doing the shipping. It's not glamorous, right? You have 8000 jobs as a small business owner. So who couldn't use more time so you could sip coffee and just look out a window like her? So I feed generates revenue long after you've created it, so in my example, like with Amy Hoy. She takes that app. And you know, if she had created something new or if he even takes that happen, adds a new feature or adds a new level where you could, you know, upgrade, you know, for a certain amount of money. Then she's created a new line of revenue, and it's not just good for her going to that conference. It's also good for her long term because it continues to make money after you've created it. That's the beautiful thing about intangible assets. The nature of it is you could sell it over and over and over and over and over again. This table can only be sold once. Okay, so if it's a physical product you're selling at one time, the only one person can own it at a time, and that's it. Whereas with intellectual property you can license it to one person, you can, you know, sell another license to another person. You can use it yourself. I'll give you a good example that is pretty common nowadays. Let's say you have this amazing, you know, thought leadership or just idea and you decide to write a book about it. So you write a book and you sell it to a publisher or you self publish it. And then you say, You know what? I could create a course out of this. And so then you turn it into a course, and maybe you license it to like a platform like this Creative live. Or you can just put it together yourself and sell it from your website. And then you take that same content and you use it and take your one on one clients through it, too. That's I p leveraged. Use in a bunch of different ways all simultaneously, all making you different, you know, streams of revenue. Okay, so we like this. Are we getting the sense that this is all about money? Um, and then you get more time to write, and then lastly, you also get more influence. And that's the beauty of it. When you take your content and you put it out there in all these different ways and in all these different platforms and all these different channels, um, you have more influence, you get more attention. More people are paying attention to what you're doing, So not only does it make you more money, but then it also gives you more time but also expands the reach of your work, which is what we all want, right? We all have our own little personal missions. There's a reason why we're doing the work that we're doing, and this helps you to reach that mission, right? So for most of us is entrepreneurs were not just doing this for the money, because if we were, we would have quit already, because it's too damn hard. Um, so the other reason that we're doing is because we have a mission. Like there's this ride sharing app that a girl from my neighborhood in Flushing, New York, shadow to Flushing. Um, that's where she's from. And she moved out here to the Bay Area and decided to create an app called HeLa rides. Okay, so this app, the whole goal of it is to take people from the East Bay into the city without having to get on Bart or without having to do one of the other stupid carpool things that they have. So it's an app that makes it super easy for you to connect with your neighbors and then get a ride. Right? So you save money, you save time. You save some of the stress of commuting, right? So, yeah, she wants her app to make money. But part of the underlying mission of that is that she wants people to talk to each other because the neighborhood that we grew up in, everybody talked to each other. You know, your neighbors, you're saying hide. Everybody is you're walking down the street nowadays. Not so much. You know, nowadays you barely know your neighbors. You barely see them. You never talk to them. You pull up into your driveway and get out of your car and run in your house and you never talk to your neighbors. So she's creating this app because she also wants people to talk to each other, connect with the people in their communities in their local neighborhood. So, you know, there's another underlying purpose that also is reached with your intellectual property. So, soldier, it's pretty magical. For many companies, precious intellectual assets are like the coins that accumulate under the sofa cushion. We've all experienced that right. I've lost my glasses in the sofa cushion many times. Um, things of value are sitting just under your rear end. But you need to get up and exert some effort to discover them. Okay, this is another Andrew Sherman quote. So I'm gonna show you what kind of effort you need to put in exactly the step by step effort that you have to put in to find these assets that are sitting in your business.