Trademark – The Business of Creativity

Yes, I’m Still Helping Creative Business Clients

It’s been a busy couple of years. I’m still working with ACT, Inc. (You probably know ACT as the college testing company). I’m in the National Programs group and help create and manage large-scale collaborations.

Every week I am asked if I’m still taking on legal work. Most of the time, I have to say “not that type” and refer the work out to other attorneys. But I do say “yes” to some projects. Those projects tend to be trademark, copyright, and creative businesses that are doing something that interests me. The trademark and copyright projects are usually handled project-by-project. But the creative business relationships (formation, consulting, contracts, etc.) are being limited to the clients who want to work on my year-long flat monthly fee basis.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or need to see if I’m available to help.

-Kevin E. Houchin, Esq.

kevin.houchin at houchinlaw.com

Lawyers & Hypnotists…

Last year I was invited to give a couple of presentations at The National Guild of Hypnotists Annual Conference. You might wonder why an attorney would be presenting to hypnotists, but it’s really very simple—hypnotists are one more service profession trying to escape the bondage of the billable hour.

Like almost everyone who is tired of trading moments of their life for other people’s money, these professionals are creating products that can help people 24/7. In the hypnotherapy industry, this shows up as self-hypnosis audio, video, and written content. Hypnotists become specialists in a niche – “Experts” who are positioned as THE go-to person in their chosen area of passion.

Maybe you’re just like that. Maybe YOU are trying to figure out how to align your passion—who you are as a person—with what you do to make a living.

Last year I presented on the topic of copyright to a standing-room-only audience at the conference. I also presented a talk on The Power of Acceptance in the context of discovering one’s authentic niche. Both presentations received outstanding reviews, so the organizers asked me back this year for expanded offerings. I’m happy to be attending again.

This conference is different.

This conference is dedicated to helping people get the full use of everyone’s primary asset – our mind.

This conference is full of fascinating programming. There are usually 7 or 8 concurrent sessions happening for 3 days. The program has something for everyone, so even if you’re not a hypnotist, you might strongly consider attending anyway. Relative to most 3-day conferences, the registration is VERY inexpensive, only $395.00 for the full three days. You can take a look at the program here. It’s EXTENSIVE.

This year I’ll be giving a 1-hour version of my No Lame Names: Trademark & Branding presentation on Friday, August 12th and a 2-hour version of my Alchemy of Creative Business: Copyright/Copywrong presentation on Saturday, August 13th.

The Bigger Opportunity

The bigger opportunity this year is a 2-day Workshop on August 15th & 16th tilted “How to Create a Highly Profitable Practice in Your Authentic Niche: Identifying & Creating Information Products and Services that Sell Themselves.”

Download the Session Flyer

This workshop is for ANYONE who wants to align who they are with what they do. The tuition is only $375 for the workshop ($50 less if you’re a full conference attendee). During the two days I’ll be leading people through the processes of identifying one’s “Authentic Niche” and then outlining the process and developing a strategy for sharing one’s passion through business in order to become what I call an “Authentic Expert.” We’ll be discussing business formation, business relationships, intellectual property (copyright & trademark), marketing, social media, branding, blogging, public relations, and speaking.

If you want to understand more about this workshop and get a few hints that you can implement right away, listen to this teleconference recording.

Download Free Teleconference Recording

I hope to see you at the conference. Tell your friends. This workshop is open to anyone.

Click Here to register for the 2-Day Authentic Niche Workshop on August 15th & 16th. It’ll be well worth the investment.

Finally, don’t worry – nobody will make you cluck like a chicken (unless you volunteer of course…).

Trademark Infringement & Brand Launch

– Comments Welcome.

Get the free “No Lame Names” ebook by entering your email address at the right (Middle column, just under the video over there…). It’ll automatically redirect your browser to the PDF or start a download.

Have a great weekend.

Alchemy of Ideas

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Here’s a little video on the Alchemy of Ideas. Hopefully this will shed some light on why Intellectual Property law does not care about your idea – only what you’ve DONE with your idea to bring it into the word and share it with the rest of us.

Granted, I still have a lot of improvement to make on the video technical – lighting, sound, visuals, etc. Stick with me. I hope to polish up the technical as quickly as I can.

Comments Welcome.

What’s the dif?

I wasn’t planning to share this information until the informational call tomorrow officially launching The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Busine ss, but my article @ Lawyerist.com and the recent Creative Business Lawyer call have resulted in a stack of emails asking me to share a bit more about how The Space Between Center’s lawyer mastermind group will be different from The Creative Business Lawyer program that I helped create, but recently left.

First, let me say that I have NOT been a part of the planning of the CBL program since I resigned a couple weeks ago – actually, two weeks ago today. And, I was not on the call today. So, I don’t know all the current details of the program. A friend on twitter said this about the call when I asked how it went.

@kevinhouchin Not bad. Discussed changing the mindset from creating docs to becoming a trusted advisor. How would you distinguish your call?

So, what’s the diff?

First let me say that I still believe fully in changing the mindset from creating documents to becoming a “Trusted Advisor” (that’s one of my all-time-favorite business books…) and believe that any program that helps you do that will be worth whatever you’re paying (within reason).

Here are some elements that I believe distinguish the Space Between Center’s program from CBL. We’ll be discussing these in detail on tomorrow’s call. Sign up, because even if you can’t make the live call at NOON EASTERN, you’ll be on the list to receive the replay link.

Here we go:

The context of The Space Between Center program is different. The overarching mission of The Center is to help people reach their full potential through entrepreneurship. This lawyer mastermind program is only the first phase in that mission because I believe that entrepreneurs can be more successful when working collaboratively with their lawyers. The flat fee model that I created and implemented in my own practice is just the starting place. An important starting place, but not enough.
While working with the founding Creative Business Lawyer group, it became apparent almost immediately, that we can all learn from each other substantively. For instance, one of the member attorneys called me to ask if I could teach her how to file a trademark for a client. I’m no expert on employee agreements, so I was interested in learning from the members who had more experience in that area. There are sub-niches in small business practice. Obviously, we’ll have a library to share forms, but we need to go beyond that.
So, HERE’S a MAJOR difference: we are going to dedicate substantial resources and one hour a month to offer a substantive legal training session on topics such as Private Placements, NV Formations, Trademark, Copyright, Employee Agreements, LLC Operating Agreements, etc. We’re going to invest and use our best efforts to get these sessions accredited for CLE credit in the home state of each member. We have the partnership in place to manage that process and it’ll just come down to the approval process in each state. We’re committed very firmly to making this a reality. If we’re investing in a program to learn and better ourselves as lawyers, we might as well satisfy our CLE requirements in the process!

No, I’m not going to be the one teaching all these. I don’t have the knowledge, credentials, or time to do that. The Center will offer opportunities for members to lead these sessions, and we’ll bring in outside experts when needed. Founding members will have dibs on offering sessions, because these sessions are a great way to help members build their own “expert” brands.
We’re going to dedicate one call a month to work/life balance. Yes, some of this material will come from the CLE Ethics workshops I’ve done for the ABA and other Bar Associations, but a lot will come from outside experts. Success is more than money, way more. And, you have to feel successful as a human before you can ever have financial success. I learned that the hard way.
Finally, at least for this post, we’ll dedicate one call every month to open mastermind discussions, tending toward the practical issues we all face at work and at home, leaning toward developing each member’s own unique expertise and branding. We don’t expect the power of this program to come from The Space Between Center brand (although we hope that will be a benefit). We expect the real power to come from enabling each of the member lawyers to reach their own full power and potential through this creative business we call “practicing law.”

Those are some major distinctions, at least as far as I know. I’ll still have a few cool elements to share on the call tomorrow such as how the membership works and what the first few sessions will contain. We’ll start the program with the kick-off call March 30^th, so don’t miss tomorrow’s live call. Again, if you can’t make tomorrow’s call at Noon Eastern, at least SIGN UP so you’re on the list to receive replay instructions.

Now, back to work.