It’s a busy day. You’ve ticked items off your to-do list but you still have plenty of things to do. And so you’re thinking, why do I only have 24 hours a day? Can I just clone myself so I can do two things at a time?

Now you can! Not literally though. There are several systems you can develop that integrate artificial intelligence and other modern technology to replicate yourself. Having a replicable process is a sign of a healthy and efficient business, but it comes with repercussions—of course, it’s not a perfect world.

In this episode, I will teach you how you can protect your business and products while optimizing technological transformations. Some of the important points I covered are:

• The telltale reasons you need to clone yourself for your business
• Expanding your business by outsourcing services like freelance facilitators
• The two types of license agreements you need to protect your intellectual property
• Diversifying clients by packaging your products at different price points

If you found these helpful and you want to know more about other options to set some limitations on AI integrations or cloning yourself through outsourcing, send me a message. Let’s explore the best way for your business.

Connect with Erin and find the resources mentioned in this episode at hourlytoexit.com/podcast.

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

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

Hello everyone.

Welcome to my last Wednesday of the

month LinkedIn Live.

I come here every last Wednesday of

the month at noon eastern to talk

about issues that are important to

you in building a scalable and

hopefully someday saleable expertise

based business.

So this week we're gonna talk about

cloning yourself.

How to increase your income and

your impact.

So this is a very timely one.

I had some interesting

conversation yesterday about

this very topic, and so when I talk

about clones, this comes on the heels.

I think it was this week that I

released, a podcast episode about ai

where you can use ai like literally to

clone yourself and do complete videos

and your voice and.

Everything.

and, to create things that c

clone yourself.

So I'm not talking about that kind

of cloning today.

Today I'm talking about human clones,

who can deliver the same or similar

results that your clients come to you

for, but without you having to do

that work personally to create some

independence in your business.

And so, We do that of course, by having

something that we can teach other

people, we need to have some sort of

system, whether it is a methodology

or a framework or training

materials or a workshop, something

that allows a third party or.

A third thing we wanna call a

product that, to be able to replicate,

the results that you provide to

your clients on a one-on-one basis.

And so I wanna just, tell you a

story about a woman who was in a group

coaching program I had a couple years

ago now, and she.

Did.

I wish I could remember exactly

what she called it, but basically

she was like an empath of some

sort and she was a business consultant

and she had a way of connecting

with her clients and using her.

Intuition.

I know that's not the word that

she would use, but she kind of,

the energy of her clients and she

would work with them to help them make

business decisions.

And so it would be very difficult for

someone, for her to clone herself.

someone would have to have her

same talents that.

Most of us don't have, and that

you probably can't teach and that are,

something that you are born with and

that, so it would be pretty hard for her

to clone herself.

But if you're like most of us, where

we have used our experience and,

Our training and our education and

our, grown our expertise over time.

Emotional intelligence,

I like that.

to help us, provide the services, the

excellent services that we provide

to our clients.

Those are things that can

be packaged.

In a way that other people can help

us deliver them.

this is not going to be about mindset,

but I do wanna just say this

about the idea of, what you do.

Is magical.

The transformations that you provide

your clients are magical and that

is why they're highly valued.

But those can be delivered in more

than one way and by more than one person

for the most of us.

And so, being able to, to.

Let go of some of that control

by allowing other people to deliver

your services is a step in, creating

that independence that you really want

in your business and be able to do,

work with other clients, work on

other projects, create new programs,

do other, higher level strategy work.

These are all things that require us to.

Let other people clones, if you will

help us deliver some of these services.

So I'm going to use an example so we

can talk through the stages of

cloning ourselves using, this example.

So, You are a D E I A consultant.

You developed a workshop, include

written exercises, maybe you have some

video, vignettes and a discussion

guide and a training manual.

And your workshop is in very high

demand and it is demand that you

can't meet yourself.

And so maybe even I, hear this from,

people in this space who have

clients who have.

offices all over the country, and

they want you to deliver your

workshop to all of their employees all

over the country, and that could keep

you fully occupied for an entire year,

keeping you from doing other things

in your business, keeping you from

servicing other clients, keeping you

from creating other programs, keeping

you from working on your thought

leadership, keeping you from taking

a vacation, or seeing your family.

And so in order to satisfy this

increased demand, there are a

number of options.

And so those clones that could help you

satisfy that demand include employees,

facilitators, licensees,

and products.

And we will take these one at a time.

So employees, that is a way

to help satisfy that demand with

internal resources.

I mean, we all probably started

as employees, you know, unless you're

Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or

Elizabeth Holmes, go forbid, we started

as employees, and so we understand

that from that side.

But as an employer, Sometimes we forget

that we are the most expensive resource

in our business because there are

some higher level strategy, thought

leadership, personal appearances,

speaking, things like that, that.

Require us.

And so when there are, established

workshops or trainings or

frameworks that you can train

other people to deliver, then that

is an efficient way to service

those, that access demand using those

internal resources.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that

the only expense with having an

employee is just their salary.

I mean, we know there's a lot

more of that to it than that.

Not to mention, taxes and, benefits,

but there is that emotional cost

and psychological cost to having

an employees, to ask someone

to, leave their current employer.

And come to you.

And now you are now not only responsible

for the care and feeding of your

family, you're now also responsible

for the care and feeding of their

families as well.

And so if you're not ready for the

responsibility of employees, there

are a number of external resources

that can help you fill that demand to

serve your clients.

So outsourcing.

Facilitators, again, using that,

HR consultant scenario, you may

have a different type of business,

maybe a management consultant or

graphic design or something else, but

facilitators are a great way when

you're providing workshops with

to your clients that you use an

outsourced freelance facilitator.

who are skilled in facilitating

workshops to help you meet some

of that demand.

And so in the facilitator example

versus the licensee example, which we'll

talk about next facilitator example,

they are using your materials, your

workshops to service your clients.

And so even though they're servicing

your clients, this is a contractual

relationship.

we want to make sure that it is

properly documented.

I imagine you have relationships with

facilitators and hopefully you do

as part of your network, but you

still want to have a formal facilitator

agreement with them.

And there are a number of

reasons why.

One, to make sure you're on the

same page about.

delivery and about, payment, but also

that relationship with the client,

that relationship is yours.

But you wanna have a way to determine

like, in what ways will the facilitator

be part of that conversation?

If something goes wrong, if something

needs to be rescheduled, if God

forbid the client doesn't pay, like,

then what happens?

so you need to have all these

things addressed in your facilitator.

Agreement as well as they're going

to be using your materials, do you

want them to follow it, by the tea

or can they use some of their own?

Experience to bring some of

their own genius to the workshop,

if you will.

And what if they have some

ideas about how to improve it?

Who owns that?

What if they have something like,

oh, I remember this exercise that

I used last year with a similar

client and they.

Decide to bring that exercise and

make that part of the program,

what happens then?

So you just wanna make sure all these

things are set out in your agreement.

contracts are just about the, whatever

the parties decide it will cover.

And so you just need to make sure

that you're covering these things ahead

of time so that everyone is on

the same page.

So that's your facilitators

now as opposed to licensees.

Now with your licensees, we have

these two types.

One that's competitor license,

another client, but your competitor

license is another service provider.

Unlike the facilitator,

they're going to be licensing

your workshop and using it to serve

their own clients, and so a license

is an agreement to use somebody

else's intellectual property.

Again, this is something you

absolutely want to have in writing.

the thing about your competitor is,

maybe you're, that D E I A expert,

maybe they're just a D E I expert

and they haven't figured out the

accessibility part yet, but you have.

And so they come to you and like,

Hey, I really need an accessibility

module to add to my program.

Can I license yours?

Maybe it makes sense to just license that

accessibility piece.

Maybe you only want for them to use

your program in its totality because

it all builds on each other and it's

all integrated.

so there are different ways

to structure a license, again,

as a contract.

the term, you mean the length

of the license?

The, any restrictions

regarding use?

what happens if someone, creates

improvements?

if they are mixing, one of your modules

with one of their modules, making

sure those rights.

Stay separate.

what happens with, your existing

clients, like you are creating

competitors that are using your

program, and so, Some restrictions in

there about who they can use it with.

Maybe you specialize in working with

law firms and so you don't really

want them to use it with law firms,

so you can put that restriction in

there, that they can use it with these

other industries, but not with, the

legal industry.

And of course, the license fee.

So the terms of how you'll get paid

for their use of your workshop, and

that might be on an annual basis.

They pay you one flat fee and they

can use it as many times as they want

during the year, or maybe it's.

Every time they deliver it, that you

get a piece of that.

and so again, these are all

things that you wanna have in your

license agreement.

The other type of licensee is your

client licensee, so you're turning

your client into a licensee.

If we go back to that, Big client who

has multiple offices and could keep

you busy all year.

Maybe instead of you going all around

the country for a year to train

everyone in person.

You license the workshop to your

client and they.

Be use an internal facilitator.

They use someone on their team to

be the facilitator or facilitators

and provide your workshops

to the rest of their employees.

That's also known as the train the

trainer model.

And in this case, you are still

servicing them, but you're not

doing it on a one on one basis.

these are two, even though they seem

similar, they're pretty different.

One, I mean, obviously one

you're creating competitors.

The other, your clients probably

are not going to be your competitors.

So there are some differences there

and some different protections that

you'd wanna have in your license

agreement.

But the other thing is that they're

completely different market, right?

So, Currently you understand your

client, you know their pain points,

you know where you fish for them,

where to find them.

And so your sales process for that

may be very similar.

You have this one-on-one option

or in-person option, I should say,

and you have this license option.

And so depending on the client,

they may have.

Preferences, what, which way

to go versus your competitor

is completely different market.

They have different issues.

Their roi, the investment will look

very different to them than it does

for your client.

And so you need to think pretty

carefully about whether or not

you want to, have basically

two different businesses, when you

go that competitor, licensee route.

So those are two ways to have to

fill that with external sources.

So products, those DIY ways of getting

the results, or at least most of

the results that they would get by

hiring you directly, maybe books,

maybe prerecorded courses, maybe

software, depending on the nature of.

The results that you provide, and

this is a great way to, one, get

client diversity.

with your in-person workshops, I imagine

there's lots of similarity about the

type of client that you work with and if

they're big enough, maybe you only have

one client, which is kind of the worst

kind of client.

Diversity, of course, but having

other options at different

price points.

I mean, you can have different types of

clients and you can serve, maybe, parts

of the community that you were not

able to serve with your in-person

services and adding.

Products is additive.

I mean, it doesn't replace, or I mean

if you don't want it to, it doesn't

replace your in-person services,

but it adds a new revenue stream using

your intellectual property, which

is, of course one of the things I

talk about all the time, to create

that new IP based revenue stream.

So, to no one's surprise, it is

all about that intellectual

property.

So developing it, owning it, and

protecting it.

And so to talk about the ownership piece

for a minute, a lot of consultants

and coaches get certifications and

they will receive.

Materials, maybe they'll get an

assessment tool.

Maybe they'll get some workbooks

and things that they use in their

in-person services.

But those things are licensed to them.

Licensed to you as the case may be,

and you may but probably do not

have the right to further license.

That would be a sub license, those

materials that you've received.

So when you're looking at.

Creating a licensing program either

with your client or with a competitor,

or creating a product, you need

to make sure that you actually own

the things that will be elements

in that, because if they're licensed

from someone else, you need to be very

careful that you are not in breach

of that license.

So implementing the clothing process

back to the systems and procedures.

if right now you're just using

your brilliance, you wanna start

documenting that brilliance, so

have some systems and you have some

procedures that you will be able.

To train your clones on whether

they're employees.

You still need systems and

processes.

If you, use facilitators,

they need it.

If you use licensees, of

course they need it as well.

So you start with making sure you

are systematizing and proceduralizing

your, process.

Contracts.

obviously as an employer you have

certain, rights under employment

laws, but for your licensees

and for your facilitators, that

is a contractual relationship.

And in order to make sure you're

maintaining control of how

your intellectual property is being

used, you want to have written

agreements that are signed by

the parties.

And then registration.

What we've been talking about are

things that would be registered

under, the US copyright office,

protected under copyright law, and.

As you know, if you've followed

me for a while, upon creation of

original materials, the copyright vests

in the creator.

And so you don't have to register it

for that copyright to vest in you,

but you do need to register it if

you want a court of law to help you

enforce your rights.

So anything that is going to be

used to directly create revenue.

I recommend registration.

So certainly any product you're going

to sell, you wanna have it registered.

Your workshops that you deliver

to that are the sort main source

of revenue should be registered.

And when you're doing a license

agreement, you want the subject of that

license agreement to be registered

in the copyright office as well.

So, the key.

Registration agreements and, of

course tracking.

you don't know what you don't know if

you're not tracking the rights that are

coming into your business and the

rights are going out of your business,

and that is how you make sure that you

retain control of your, expertise.

And so another thing that came up

yesterday during conversation is,

wanting to spread your message as

widely as you can and what you do.

You believe in what you do, you

believe in the transformation that

you provide, and you want other people

to have access to, the results.

And I would argue that that is even.

More important that you have these

things in place to make sure that

you're controlling the integrity of

the materials that you put together to

the workshops and the delivery and

the results that people are getting.

it's not selfish to want to make

sure that your materials are being

used responsibly.

And that they're being used

competently and that people are

getting the promised results and that

requires you to take some control

of that process.

So that is, the what I wanted to share

with you today.

And so thank you so much for that

and I'd be happy to take any questions

that you have.

All right, so you know where

to find me.

You can always find me@thinkbeyondip.com.

You know, if you.

Couple of any questions later on,

or if you're just shy, connect with me

on LinkedIn or send me an email at Erin

think beyond ip.com.

And of course, this is being recorded

as a podcast episode as well, so you

can also rehear it if you haven't

gotten enough of it.

at Hourly to Exit podcast, you could

find that at all of your podcast

distributing.

Places.

so thanks again for joining me and

I'm always happy to cover topics of

interest to you.

So also, please feel free to send

me any questions that you have or any

topics that you'd like me to cover.