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E75: 2024 Is Your Year to Create Scalable Revenue in Your Expertise-Based Businesses
Episode 75 • 9th January 2024 • Hourly to Exit • Erin Austin
00:00:00 00:19:29

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🎙️ Happy New Year! Let’s hit the ground running with a framework for turning your expertise into scalable revenue streams. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this is a must-listen for anyone looking to maximize their intellectual property.

Erin takes us through a three-step process to transform your intellectual property into valuable assets that generate repeatable scalable revenue: Audit, Protect, and Leverage.

1. Audit Your Business Assets: Identify the valuable resources in your business, from assessment tools to deliverables, and understand who owns or controls them. This forms the foundation of creating scalable IP-based revenue.

2. Protect Your Assets: Learn the importance of copyright registration and solid contracts to safeguard your most valuable assets. Copyrighted materials and effective contracts are essential for preserving your expertise.

3. Leverage for Profitability: Discover how to increase revenue and efficiency without inflating time and costs. By decoupling income from your time and leveraging copyrighted materials, you can create offers–both services and products–that are scalable and profitable.

Tune in to the full episode for more insights on creating a scalable, expertise-based business! Link to the episode in the comments. #HourlyToExit #IntellectualProperty #RevenueStreams #BusinessGrowth 🚀

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/

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

Speaker:

Hello, welcome to this week's

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edition of the hourly to

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exit podcast and to h2e 2024.

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Hope you had a wonderful

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holiday and ready to get

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going in the new year.

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So in April, I will

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be celebrating.

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The third year of the hourly

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to exit podcast, I'm in a bit

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of a shock, but I have been

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doing this since April, 2022.

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And when I started, I thought

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I had a pretty clear plan.

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I was working with someone

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to help me plan out an entire

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season of topics and guests.

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And well, you know what they

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say about the best laid plans.

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Turns out that there is

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a lot of ground to cover

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between hourly and exit.

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And so it seemed like a

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really good idea at the time.

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I mean, how else am I

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going to have a ton of

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stuff to talk about?

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want to have a very broad.

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Universe of topics.

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And of course that

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encourages lots of

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different guests as well.

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And I absolutely have loved

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the amazing women and one

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man that I've had as guests

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over the past two years, but

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I found that I was having

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a hard time kind of getting

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a thread like a unified

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thread running through

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the in 2023, about midway

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through the year, I started

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recording solo episodes.

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I think that's when I went

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weekly to try to remember.

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and so more solos, I

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was a little afraid.

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I don't think I did any

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solos the first year.

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I was a little afraid of the

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solos and, talking about.

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Contracts and copyrights,

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my two favorite subjects,

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and I will tell you,

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I really love it.

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Like my solo episodes

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are my favorite episodes.

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but even though I was

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talking about contracts and

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copyrights, that's still

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a pretty broad topics.

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And so I still felt

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like I needed a little

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more, structure to what

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I'll be talking about.

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And so, you know, I

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don't need to talk about.

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Yeah.

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Everything 1, because, I don't

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know everything I'm trying,

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but I don't know everything.

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And 2, you don't need

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to know everything.

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there is specifically what you

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come to me for is because you

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want to turn your expertise

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into intellectual property

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that so you can create

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scalable revenue streams.

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That's why you're here.

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And so with that in mind,

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I have, found a framework.

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We love our frameworks in

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order to kind of be really

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clear about how I can best

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help you, and that is what

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I will focus on during

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the podcast this year.

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So it is a three step process,

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use IP to turn your expertise

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into scalable revenue streams.

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So the three parts are

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audit, protect, and scale.

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So first audit.

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First step is that you need

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to audit the assets that you

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already have in your business.

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And yes, you do already have

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assets in your business.

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So in layman's term,

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what is an asset?

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An asset is a useful

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or valuable thing,

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person, or quality.

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And more specifically in

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business terms, an asset is

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any resource that a business.

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Owns or controls that can be

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sold or licensed for money.

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So what are the assets

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in your business?

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What do you sell

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to your clients?

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maybe you're selling your

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time, which is valuable.

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Maybe you even charge a lot

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for it, but it is limited.

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How else do you provide

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value to your clients?

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So it is with your expertise.

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And without being flippant,

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I mean, we're here because,

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we have an expertise based

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business, a professional

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services business, and

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we sell our expertise,

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but a lot of or services

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providers do not treat

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their expertise as assets.

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They're still just selling it

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as time, but it is an asset if

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we properly take care of it.

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So first, if we go back

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to making sure we are

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auditing our businesses.

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To identify the assets

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that we currently

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have in our business.

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here are a few examples of

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assets, the assessment tool

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that you use, even in the

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proposal stage, this is before

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you even deliver something.

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You may have something that

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you're using internally that

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helps you, determine your

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proposals, how you're going

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to charge for what you're

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going to charge what the

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deliverables will be that

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assessment tool is an asset.

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When you have a deliverable,

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let's say you deliver

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strategic plans, that

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strategic plan, even if you

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are assigning all rights to

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your client, the elements

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that go into it are an asset.

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Any secondary research that

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you're using, maybe you have

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a whole catalog of secondary

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research that you lean on when

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you're doing your analysis.

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Not all of it's

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going to be primary.

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So it'll be secondary.

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Those are assets.

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If you have created an

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original training program,

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of course, that is an asset.

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Those worksheets that

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you, Acquired during your

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certification program,

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those are assets,

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you may not own them.

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You're probably

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given permission, i.

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e.

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a license to use them,

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but things that are in our

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business that we access to

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legally are still assets.

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So the web design

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of your website.

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That's an asset.

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And so these are all

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assets in your business.

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And the only difference among

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those bullets is who owns it.

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Some of those you clearly

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own the original training

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materials that you created,

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web design that you had

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someone make for you subject

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to something we're going

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to talk about a minute.

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and some of those you

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don't own, but you control

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such as things that you

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have a license to use.

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what's important is.

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Figuring out this is what

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your audit process is 1 what

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the assets in your business

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are and 2 who owns it and

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or controls it because

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this is the foundation

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of creating scalable.

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IP based revenue ownership

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or control of assets.

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So we're going to make sure

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that you understand the assets

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that are flowing through

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your business that make sure

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that you can create revenue

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generating assets that you

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understand the depth and

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the breadth of your assets.

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So you don't miss

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leverage opportunities.

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And that you can take

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advantage of any third

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party assets that you

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have without fear of

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copyright infringement.

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Think back to those

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worksheets that you got in

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your certification program.

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You have the legal right to

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use those in your business.

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Do you have a right to

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create other revenue

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generating assets with it?

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That's what we want to

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find out as well during

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our audit process.

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let's imagine a clothing store

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and that it has just a jumble

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of garments in the back room.

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They've never done

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an inventory of it.

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Like, how would they

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know what they have?

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How would they know if

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the sales associates are

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walking out the door with it?

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How would they know what is

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required to make a profit?

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How long have they been

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holding it in their

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inventory without selling it?

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Same thing with the assets

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in your business, unless

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you are inventorying it

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and auditing it, then you

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won't know what you have,

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what's valuable, what's

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not valuable, what's being

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wasted, what's Walking out

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the door with subcontractors.

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This is all part of

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the audit process.

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when you are an expertise

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based business, the other

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thing is, if you don't know

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what you have, and you're

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using it in a way that

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is in breach of perhaps

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a client agreement, maybe

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you have a deliverable

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that you thought you could

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reuse with another client.

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But you gave all those rights

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to client A, you can't use

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it again with client B.

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Let's make sure that you

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own what you think you own.

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And if you don't, then

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let's clean it up.

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The second step is protect.

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So there are two forms

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of protection of our

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assets, copyright

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registration and contracts.

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Why copyright

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registration instead of

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trademark registration?

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Well, remember that

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list of assets I said, I

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mentioned above it was.

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Assessment, strategic

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plans, research, training

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programs, worksheets,

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websites, all those things.

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Are copyrightable materials.

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unlike physical assets like

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the clothes, anyone can access

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your intangible assets like

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anyone who has access to them

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can copy them take them over.

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So the way that we protect

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people from just taking our

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materials is we register them

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with the copyright office.

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So the way we really protect

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our, most valuable assets,

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the things that our clients

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remember assets are the things

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that people you sell and to

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people and say, we don't sell

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our trademarks to people.

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We sell the copyrighted

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materials or the fruits

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of our expertise in

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the form of copyrighted

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materials to our clients.

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That is what our clients

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are paying us for.

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Here is a brief example

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to illustrate that point.

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So you have a consultancy, an

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HR consultancy, the name of it

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is Diversity Talent Solutions,

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and you have a registered

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trademark on that name, and

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it provides DEI training

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to its corporate clients.

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So you have two types

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of intellectual property

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in this business.

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You have your

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trademark on diversity.

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Talent solutions, and you have

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your copyright protections

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on your training materials,

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which could be videos, slides,

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workbooks, other types of

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guides, and any product that

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you provide to your clients.

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what does your client pay for?

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of those two buckets provides

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value to your client?

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It is the copyrighted

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material, right?

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That's why it is so

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important to make sure we

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are registering our money

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making copyrighted revenue

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generating materials.

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There'll be lots of materials

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in our business, like,

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LinkedIn posts and social

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media, things like that.

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Maybe our newsletters that

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aren't directly revenue

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generating, but the things

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that people are actually

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paying us money for.

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We want to make sure those

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things are registered

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with the copyright office.

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The 2nd, part of

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protection is contracts.

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know, people generally

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don't have people ripping.

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with ill intent, ripping

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off your copyrights.

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It happens.

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We all have heard the

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stories of people just

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taking over someone's website

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and all their content and

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selling it as their own.

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But that really is the

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exception and not the rule.

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The number 1 way we lose

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control of our most valuable

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assets are our contracts.

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Or I should say our failure

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to use contracts or our

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failure to understand what we

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are signing when the client

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presents their contract to us.

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when we think

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about intellectual

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property, generally.

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And if we kind of take a

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common sense approach to who

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owns something, unfortunately,

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the intellectual property

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laws generally don't,

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match up with what your

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common sense, understanding

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of what property, means.

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So, when we want to make

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sure that we're owning and

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controlling the copyrights

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that flow through our

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business, we have to

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start with our contracts.

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So we need contracts with

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our clients so that we are

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1 reserving the rights in

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our pre existing materials.

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So we're not giving

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rights to them to own it.

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And when we.

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give them permission to use

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our preexisting materials.

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We want to make sure we limit

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that license so they can't

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do all the things that we

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can do as copyright owner.

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I frequently see license

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provisions like, yep, we

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reserve the rights in the

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preexisting material, but

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then we go on to grant

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a license to the client.

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That is so broad that

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they can literally

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literally will state.

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All the copyrights in there

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that I licensed you the

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right to make copies and

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make derivatives and sub

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license it and transfer

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to do all these things.

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The same rights that we

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have as a copyright owner.

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And so we don't

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want to do that.

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So that is a major, threat

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if we aren't understanding

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our contracts and essentially

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it'll permits our client

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to continue legally.

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Without breaching our

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rights, infringing our

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rights to legally continue

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to use our materials

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without paying us forward

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or without our permission.

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And the other thing, you

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know, I love to harp about

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non competes on a non

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compete hater because non

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competitors, a group of

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competitors is a niche.

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Right?

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And so we want to make

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sure we were able to work

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with competing companies.

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And that Provides even

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more value to them,

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frankly, as your expertise

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grows in that niche.

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And then we also need to

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have contracts with our

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contractors back to that kind

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of common sense understanding

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of how property should work

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in intellectual property.

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The default is that the

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human being who created it.

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Owns it unless there's

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something in writing signed

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by the creator that would

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give it to you as the client.

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So when you're the client,

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you also want to make

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sure that you're using

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agreements that are signed.

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If the intent is for you

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to own the deliverable,

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if you don't have it,

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something signed, you

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don't own the deliverable.

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You have a right to use

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it, but you do not own it.

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this is the kind of thing also

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that we would find out during

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the audit stage as well.

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Like, do you have deliverables

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that you thought you own,

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but you don't because

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you didn't have your

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contractor sign agreements.

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The final, leg of our, IP

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to scalable and, revenue

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generating assets is leverage.

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so leverage means

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increasing profitability.

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It's not just about

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increasing revenue, but

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increasing the profitability.

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So we have leverage in

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our business when we can

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increase revenue and do that

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without increasing costs,

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or we can decrease costs

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without also decreasing our

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revenue, preferably both.

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We can increase revenue

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while decreasing costs.

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is the ultimate

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leverage, right?

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So we can have

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leveraged services.

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People think it

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has to be products.

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We'll talk about that

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in a minute, but we can

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have leveraged services.

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So even one on one services,

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even high tech services, if

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we have systematized them

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and or productized them.

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We can increase the efficiency

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in delivery, and when we

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become more efficient in

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delivery, we decrease the

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cost, even though we are

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charging the same, maybe

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even more because the more

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dependable are are, the more.

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The happier clients we

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have and the more we

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could charge for them.

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Remember that you are

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the most expensive

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resource in your business.

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So anything that you can

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do to decrease your time

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spent in delivery, whether

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it's through systems or

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technology or, less expensive

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humans, then you are.

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Increasing profitability,

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and you've added leverage

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to your business and then

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also increasing revenue

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per sale would be another

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example without, increasing

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the cost of the sale.

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So, let's say you bundle

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2 offers together, then,

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you get the benefit of the.

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Increased revenue from

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that 2nd offer, but the

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still the same resources

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expended to get to the sale.

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So that has become more

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profitable, more revenue

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without increasing the,

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cost of the sale and then.

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There is just the

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complete decoupling of

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income from your time.

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We do this through one

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to several offers or

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one to many offers.

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And you know, what is the

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basis of every single, and

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I'm not being extreme here,

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literally the basis of

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every single one to several

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or one too many offer.

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copyrighted materials

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that's why I am banging

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the drums on copyrights.

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examples.

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Your products, courses,

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books, anything that you

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are providing a subscription

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to such as software or a

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database, all copyrighted

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materials and then services

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that are, one to several

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or one to many like

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trainings or, memberships,

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the foundation of those is

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all copyrighted materials.

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So before you can legally.

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Offer a one to several or

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a one too many service or

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product, you must own and

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control the underlying

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intellectual property.

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That is vitally important.

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back to that audit

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stage and our contracts.

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So, that's what you can

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look forward to in 2024.

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And beyond, I would love

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to have you come back every

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week to find out more easy

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to digest content will be

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content will be trainings and

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some products that are created

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specifically for experts

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with corporate clients that

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fit into these three areas.

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pillars of creating a scalable

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expertise based business.

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Remember they are audit,

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protect and leverage.

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And I look forward

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to the next year.

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Thanks friends.

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