Hello, Genius. Welcome back to the Own Genius podcast. This space where we encourage you to use your education and experiences to create dope businesses.
I’m your host, attorney LaConya Murray, owner of Off the Mark IP Solutions and founder of Markedlegal.
Here’s the bold truth. Your intellectual property is your most valuable business asset. And I’m not just telling you that because I’m a brand attorney. I’m telling you that because your intellectual property has the potential to generate revenue on top of revenue on top of revenue. But if it’s not positioned correctly, it’s just sitting on a shelf. Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s at the heart of building sustainable, impactful business intellectual property positioning.
Whether you’re just starting out, are you ready to scale, understanding how to leverage your IP is the key to setting yourself apart and creating lasting value. So let’s explore what IP positioning really means and why it’s the secret weapon that every expert should master. Drop it here, drop the intro here.
What Is IP Positioning?
So what is IP positioning? Remember, IP is short for intellectual property. So anytime we’re talking about IP, in this case, we’re talking about intellectual property. So what is intellectual property positioning or IP positioning? It is the strategic process of defining, protecting, and promoting your intellectual property in a way that sets you apart from the marketplace. It’s not just about having a brand. It’s really about having your own unique method, framework, or system
Branding vs. IP Positioning
and making it into the centerpiece of your business. Think of it like this. ⁓ Branding is the outfit, but your intellectual property is the DNA. Branding is how your business looks, feels, and communicates the visual identity, the tone, and the emotional connection that you create with your audience. On the other hand, IP positioning is all about the substance behind the brand.
your original ideas, your proprietary processes, your signature frameworks that nobody else can claim. While branding attracts attention, positioning gives people a concrete reason to choose you because you offer something that is truly unique.
The magic happens when both work together. A strong brand is going to draw in your audience and a well-positioned IP keeps them engaged and loyal. Transferring your expertise into assets, you can scale like courses, books, or licensing deals. For example,
Apple’s brand is all about innovation and simplicity, but their IP positioning is anchored in their patent technology and seamless ecosystems. Similarly, Brene Brown, who is known for her approachable brand, but her IP positioning comes from her original research and framework on vulnerability and leadership.
Why IP Positioning Matters
Dave Ramsey is another example, right? His brand is built on being trustworthy and direct, but his IP positioning is built around his proprietary financial stuff and curriculum. In short, what I’m trying to say is that branding creates recognition, IP positioning creates authority and value. Together, they help you stand out and succeed in a crowded market. So why does all of that matter?
When your IP is positioned well, three things are gonna happen. One, visibility, right? Effective IP positioning shines a spotlight on your unique experience, making you instantly recognizable in your field.
Instead of blending in, your proprietary frameworks or methods become what people associate with your name. For example, when someone mentions a specific process or approach, your name surfaces because you own it, right? This kind of visibility means that you’re not just another expert. You’re one known for your signature solution. Your IP acts as a beacon helping clients and collaborators and media outlets identify and seek you out for your specialized knowledge. Ultimately,
Visibility
Your IP gives a distinct presence that sets you apart from your competitors. So that’s the first thing that IP positioning does. The second thing that IP positioning does is gives you credibility. When you define and protect your IP, it becomes proof of your authority. People trust experts who have original ideas and systems, especially those ⁓ who have systems that deliver results. By articulating your own methodologies and your frameworks, you position yourself as a thought leader.
Credibility
rather than a follower, which is going to build confidence with your audience, your peers, and potential partners. They know that you’re not simply repeating what others have said, but you’re contributing something new. Your IP demonstrates your commitment to your craft and your investment in research, development, and innovation. As a result, you’re going to be seen as the go-to resource, which is going to open up doors to speaking engagements.
Revenue
media features, and partnerships. And the third benefit of IP positioning is revenue, right? Because it really is all about the bottom line. Strong IP positioning allows you to monetize your expertise in powerful ways. Instead of trading hours for dollars, you can create scalable offers like online courses, books, workshops, consulting packages,
or licensing deals centered around your proprietary content. Your IP becomes the foundation for products and services that can reach a wider audience and multiply your impact and generate recurring income. By packaging your knowledge into teachable, marketable assets, you unlock a new revenue stream and increase your overall value of your business. In short, your IP transforms from an idea to an income-generating machine.
And if you follow people like Myron Golden, one of the things that I’ve noticed, because I took one of his challenge, one of the things that I noticed is whenever someone has a question about how they can generate revenue or do something of that nature, his answer always falls back to create, And when you’re creating something, that creation is based off of your intellectual property. And I just love that so much.
Common Mistakes Experts Make
I mean, personally, I’ve witnessed clients go from overlooked to overbooked simply by clarifying and positioning their intellectual property. When you stand out and build trust and create scalable income streams, your expertise is really doing the work for you. It’s elevating both your impact and your bottom line. Now, when it comes to positioning, especially when it comes to intellectual property positioning, there are some mistakes that I’ve seen experts fall into. There’s ⁓ really three main traps.
when it comes to intellectual property. The first thing that they do is they confuse their branding with intellectual property. They only focus on branding elements like the logos and their colors and the copy for their website and things of that nature. And when they’re doing that, they typically overlook the unique ideas, systems or contents that they can create that really would set them apart in the market. The other mistake that I see experts making is not protecting or leveraging their intellectual property. They’re failing to secure their original work and ideas through trademark or copyright registration, and they’re missing the chance to package and scale it for greater impact and income. And then the third ⁓ mistake that I see people making is overlooking the strategic positioning,
But I mean, that is that they’re neglecting to clearly position their IP in their market, which is critical for standing out and becoming known as an authority. You want to avoid these mistakes to help you ensure that your business is both distinctive and protected.
How to Start Positioning Your IP
So how do you start positioning your intellectual property? To truly position your intellectual property, begin by identifying what makes your expertise unique. Ask yourself,
What do I know, do, or teach that sets me apart from others in my industry? This can be a specific process you develop, a methodology that you use with clients, or a set of insights that you gain from your experience. Take some time to reflect on your journey, your client successes, and the results that you consistently deliver. You can pinpoint core ideas, approaches, or solutions that only you can offer.
Now, once you’ve isolated your unique expertise, the next step is to package it into a signature framework or a method, give it a memorable name that captures its essence. And this part, the naming part is going to help others recognize and remember your system. Define the key steps, the principles or the stages that are involved so it can be taught, replicated and applied by others. You want to document your process thoroughly. You want to outline each component in a way that’s both actionable and easy to understand. The goal is to turn your expertise into structured assets that you can share through courses, books, speaking engagements, or consulting. Protecting your intellectual property is just as important as creating it. Consult with an IP attorney to help explore your legal options. You can copyright your written materials, your trademark, your framework’s name if you come up with that unique name, or you can patent any type of novel invention or process that you create. Securing your intellectual property ensures that your ideas, your methods remain exclusively yours and prevent unauthorized use or duplication. This protection increases your credibility and lets you confidently share your expertise with a wider audience. Finally, you want to market your IP intentionally develop a clear messaging strategy that communicates the value and results of your signature frameworks. You want to craft stories case studies and testimonies that showcase how your proprietary process transforms clients lives or businesses. You want to share your method across platforms. want to Use platforms such as blogs podcast webinars social media even offline, know, you want to engage in speaking events, not just paid speaking events, but events that get you in front of your ideal audience, right? Whether or not you’re doing workshops for a certain, and in my mind, I’m just thinking ⁓ insurance agents who do like CLEs for attorneys. They want to build that relationship and nurse their relationships. They come in and they give them valuable information.
if this attorney ever has a situation where insurance agent can be of help, they are first top of mind, right? So that’s why you wanna have a wide range of platforms that you are spreading your message in front of different audiences.
So collaborate with other partners to help amplify your reach.
So this is the turning point. Like you’re going to move from trading hours for dollars to sell your unique value. Your IP becomes your centerpiece of your business is driving growth, impact and income. Positioning your expertise creates a legacy that sets you apart and scales your influence far beyond the one-on-one services. So yeah, I mean, that’s a lot, but it’s awesome, right? Especially if you’re a service provider, you’re constantly thinking like, there’s only so much money that I can make because I only have so much time. But once you start leveraging your intellectual property, you realize that you no longer have to trade hours for dollars.
So yeah, now that I’ve introduced you to this idea of positioning your intellectual property, let’s just bring it all together and just recap today with the top three takeaways from this episode.
- The first thing that I want you to take away from today’s episode is that your intellectual property is your secret weapon and it’s not enough to just have this expertise, right? You must define, protect and promote your unique frameworks ⁓ or methods to truly stand out and build authority.
- The second takeaway is strategic IP creates new opportunities. By positioning your intellectual property, you increase your visibility, your credibility and open the doors to scalable income streams such as courses, books and licensing.
- And the third takeaway is to avoid the common pitfalls that we talked about. Don’t confuse branding with IP. Don’t neglect your legal protection. And do not overlook the power of having of having strategic positioning. Addressing these helps build a distinctive and protective business foundation.
So, are you ready to put these insights into action? Join me for the Position Your IP for Profit workshop. In this workshop, I’m gonna show you how to build a brand that reflects your expertise, protect your intellectual property, and position yourself as the go-to authority in your space. If you’re ready to stop blending in and start standing out, this workshop is for you. This workshop is not live. It will be published on September 17th.
More legal subscribers get free access, but if you’re not a subscriber yet, you can pre-purchase your seat for just $97. This workshop is your next step to becoming the go-to expert in your field. We will leave a link to the workshop in the show notes, so make sure to grab your spot, and let’s position your IP for profit.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. I appreciate you choosing to spend your time with us. And I hope that you found these insights valuable for your business journey. Make sure that you subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a chance to own your genius.
