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E76: The Crucial First Step to Scaling Your Business: Taking Inventory of the Assets You Already Own
Episode 7616th January 2024 • Hourly to Exit • Erin Austin
00:00:00 00:12:53

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In the latest episode of Hourly to Exit, I’m delving into the crucial first step to scaling your expertise-based business - the audit of your intellectual property. Here are three key takeaways from the episode:

1. Ownership of Intellectual Property is Key: Owning intellectual property is essential for scaling your expertise-based business. Understanding what you currently own and control is the initial step towards leveraging your assets for growth.

2. A successful audit involves both a quantity (i.e., an inventory) and quality assessment of your assets, helping you recognize the relative value of each.

3. Auditing your intellectual property assets sets the foundation for creating scalable, recurring revenue sources. Ensuring you own the rights to your assets and have strong legal foundations is crucial as you transition from one-on-one services to one-to-many offers.

Tune in to the full episode to learn more about the vital role of audit in scaling your business by leveraging your intellectual property assets. Remember, #IPisFuel.

Connect with Erin to learn how to use intellectual property to increase your income and impact. hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

Erin's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaustin/

This week’s episode of Hourly to Exit is sponsored by the NDA Navigator. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are the bedrock of protecting your business's confidential information. However, facing a constant stream of NDAs can be overwhelming, especially when time and budget constraints prevent you from seeking full legal review. That's where the NDA Navigator comes to your rescue. Designed specifically for entrepreneurs, consultants, and business owners with corporate clients, the NDA Navigator is your guide to understanding, negotiating, and implementing NDAs. Empower yourself with legal insights and practical tools when you don’t have the time or funds to invest in a full legal review. Get 20% off by using the coupon code “H2E”.  You can find it at www.protectyourexpertise.com.

Think Beyond IP YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVztXnDYnZ83oIb-EGX9IGA/videos

Music credit: Yes She Can by Tiny Music

A Team Dklutr production

Transcripts

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Here is a fundamental

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truth that you will hear

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me repeating ad nauseum

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owning intellectual

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property is required to

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scale your expertise based

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business, period, drop Mike.

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Now I could stop right there

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for emphasis, but I persist.

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There are three steps to

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getting to the promised land.

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They are audit,

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protect, and leverage.

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So this week we're

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going to talk about

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that first step audit.

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You start with audit

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because we want to make

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sure that you understand

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what you own right now.

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And I guarantee, you unless

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you are an IP lawyer that

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you will be very surprised

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by what you find out.

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In other words, you might not

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own what you think you own,

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and you probably own a lot

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more than you think you do.

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So the audit step consists

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of two measurements.

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First, quantity.

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This is just a straightforward

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inventory of the assets

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in your business.

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In other words, it's

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just a list of all the

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assets in your business.

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The second step is quality.

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So this is an analysis of

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the value, the relative

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value of the assets.

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Those you own and control

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exclusively are more valuable

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than those that you have

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non exclusive rights to use.

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for instance, the training

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materials that you created

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that you own completely

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and that no one can use

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without your permission

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and paying you are more

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valuable to you than some.

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Tool that you license

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from a third party.

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It may still provide value.

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It's not that it's not

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valuable, but it's not as

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valuable as those things

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that you own exclusively.

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why do we want to

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do our audit again?

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Because ownership of

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intellectual property

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Is required to

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scale your business.

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So if you're wondering,

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well, what assets do I have?

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I provide services.

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Here's the measure.

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The assets in your business

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are whatever use to create

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value for your clients.

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So it's not just, computers

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and software, anything that

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you are using to create

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value for your clients.

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Is an asset.

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So whether you provide high

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touch custom services, or

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if you have a proprietary

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methodology, or if you have a

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standard training program, or

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even if you're selling your

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time, those are all assets.

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Now, here's a list of assets.

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The assessment tool that

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you use to orient your

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proposals and asset the 50

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page strategic plan that

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you deliver to your clients.

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That's an asset

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secondary research that

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you use as a basic for

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strategic plan and asset.

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An original DEI training

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program that you developed,

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worksheets that you required

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during a IFC certification

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or IMC certification,

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templates that you may

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have gotten from a business

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coach, web design that your

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contractor created for you.

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Or for an end client,

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those are all assets.

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And even the work product

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that you complete at a

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client request based on

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their specifications,

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that is an asset.

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They're all assets

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because they provide

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value to your clients.

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Some of them are

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assets that you own.

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Some of them Are assets

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that you do not own.

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What we want to focus on,

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of course, are the assets

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that you own, because the

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assets that you own, the

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intellectual property you own

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will be the foundation for

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creating a scalable business

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and creating assets that.

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can provide recurring revenue.

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So after we create our

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inventory of assets, so

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that's just our inventory.

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Then we go to the

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qualitative part where we

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evaluate them to see the

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relative value of them.

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Do we own them?

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Did we create them ourselves?

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do we have control over them?

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Have we permitted

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other people to create

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derivatives from them?

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that will tell us the relative

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value of those assets.

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Do I own it?

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If I don't own it.

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What rights do I

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have to use it?

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do this because when we're

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building recurring revenue

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assets, it's a whole

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different ball game than

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providing one on one services.

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I like to say, you with

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increased visibility

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comes increased scrutiny.

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So when you're growing

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your business by leveraging

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assets, including intellectual

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property assets, it's like

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adding Another floor to your

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house, so the foundation

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that's good enough for

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a 1 story building might

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not be good enough for

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a two-story building.

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So we want to make sure

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that the legal foundation

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for creating recurring

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revenue assets is.

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Strong whether you've been

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using that intellectual

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property internally, or if

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you've been using them with

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your one-on-one clients.

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I will call that, your

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first floor use of the

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assets internally or

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with one-on-one services.

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And that now using those,

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assets in a one to several

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or a one to many environment.

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would be that second floor.

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And we want to make sure

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that we have a strong

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enough foundation for it to

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support the second floor.

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So we add a second floor.

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Here's a sample of some of

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the foundational cracks.

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You might, that might

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appear that didn't appear

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in your one on one work

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first with your contractors.

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Do you have a written

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agreement with the contractor

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for every deliverable

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that they provided to you?

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Certainly, if it's included

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in anything that you're going

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to be using in your one to

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several or one to many offers.

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even if you paid the

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contractor, even if you

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told them and gave them

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directions about what to do,

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if you don't have a written

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agreement in place, you

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don't own that deliverable

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the contractor does.

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So we want to make sure that

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we are checking all of the

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assets, that we're going

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to use for our recurring

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revenue assets to make sure

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you own all those rights.

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With your past employers.

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Most of us are corporate

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refugees or survivors, right?

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So if we took something

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from a former employer.

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Is that theirs?

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Even if you wrote it

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as the employee, your

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employer owns everything

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that you created for them.

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So if you've incorporated

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that in some of your one

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on one services, probably

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no one's going to notice.

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But if you incorporate

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some of that in a one to

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several or one to many

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that increased scrutiny.

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Could get you in

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trouble and same thing

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with your employees.

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If you have employees, they

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came from a former employer

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and they brought this

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great resource with them.

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Where'd it come from?

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Did it come from

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their former employer?

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If it did that former

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employer owns that neither

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you, nor that employee owns

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that and cannot use it.

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With your clients, if you're

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signing services agreements

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provided by your clients, nine

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times out of 10, they'll have

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language in there that says

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they own 100 percent of the

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rights in any deliverable.

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Well, what if you have

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some of your preexisting

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work in that deliverable?

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Have you granted rights

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in your preexisting

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work to your clients?

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So

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we want to make sure we are.

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Aware of that and then 3rd

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party materials, like we

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mentioned things you may

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have gotten from as part of

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a certification program or as

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part of a coaching program.

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know, with your business

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coach, sometimes people

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provide resources that you

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can use, which are intended

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to be used either internally

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or with your one-on-one

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clients, but not to be,

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used in a one-to-several

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or one-to-many environment.

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So we want to make sure

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that we are aware of the

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rights you have in those

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third-party materials.

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So in sum, we audit because

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you don't want to be on the

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receiving end of a cease

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and desist letter from the

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owner of materials that you

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don't have the right to use.

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at best you're wasting

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money and momentum.

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At worst, you'll incur

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legal fees and permanently

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damage your reputation.

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We audit because it lays

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the foundation for the next

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step, which is protection.

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You don't want to find out

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too late that you failed

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to put the protections in

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place to prevent clients,

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subcontractors, and

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facilitators from using

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your materials without you.

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So in the next episode,

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we'll talk about that

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second stage, protect how

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to protect your expertise.

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Thank you ladies.

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And remember.

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I.

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P.

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is fuel.

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