From Hourly to Exit: Reflecting on Two Years and 100 Episodes

This week I released the 100th episode of the Hourly to Exit podcast!

When I started the podcast two years ago, I had the lofty ambition to provide resources that will serve you on the entire journey from the unscalable hours based business to one that is scalable and, hopefully, someday saleable. (Who here remembers my car analogy to explain the difference between sellable and saleable? ??)

These days, I focus squarely on making sure you understand the connection between protecting your expertise and creating leverage in your business. No protection, no leverage.

The Hourly to Exit title is delicious ????, but it often leads to misunderstandings about what I do. Some think I am an exit planner; others, a business coach. Reluctantly, I am retiring it.

It has served its purpose of providing a solar system of topics to discuss. But, I am a lawyer, and my expertise lies in helping experts use intellectual property law and contracts to decouple their income from their time.

Where is Think Beyond IP on The Hourly to Exit Journey?

To celebrate the Hourly to Exit’s retirement, I want to provide an update of TBIP’s journey using the Hourly to Exit self-assessment. This tool, a beautiful graphic you can find here, illustrates where you are on your journey from an unsustainable freelance model to a fully saleable, asset-based business. You can get the full rundown of all 19 variables in the 100th podcast episode, but here are a few highlights:

Mindset: I’m transitioning from an operator mindset to a CEO mindset, although I am still somewhat stuck in operator mode because I am the only lawyer in my business. However, building a team to handle marketing and sales will help elevate me to the CEO level.

Authority and Specialization: Specializing in copyright and contract issues in the niche of expertise-based businesses working with corporate clients has been key to moving me from generalist (where many lawyers get stuck) to authority.

Business Model: While I don’t bill hourly and have not done so in a very long time, some of my services are still loosely time-based. I’m working on completely decoupling prices from time and developing products eligible for copyright protection that provide value without my services.

Visibility and Standardization: My lead generation is fairly predictable, but heavily referral-based. I’m improving standardization with my team’s help and implementing effective use of automation, including AI, for non-authority tasks like writing show notes.

Delegation and Client Concentration: As I develop products and a team that can sell them, I’ll move further along the scalable to saleable journey by diversifying my client and customer base with varied offers.

I’m super excited about how far I have come and where I am headed. Thank you for joining me on my Hourly to Exit journey! Look out for new ideas in the fall.

Remember, IP is fuel. ??

Erin