The IP Advantage: Why Protecting Your Ideas is Your Biggest Business Asset

The big thing is trademarks and copyrights are for protection. Patents are for assets. In 1980, the valuation of the top 500 corporations, S& P valuation, was that it was based on 82% tangibles, which would be buildings, equipment, fleets and everything else. 18% on intangible. Last year it was 82% intangible, which is intellectual property. And I am convinced that entrepreneurs stop themselves from being creative because they think their creativity will be stolen. And they said, well, I'm not going to put that out in public because it'll be stolen. So in other words, their fear of their IP being stolen actually undercuts all their marketing.

We don't have to love the people.

That work for us.

We don't even have to like the people that work for us. But we have to honor the fact that every single day these people show up to take our vision and our dream and what we're trying to create in the world and give their talent and energy and effort to our dream, not their own dream. And it is a tremendous honor, it's a tremendous gift and a tremendous responsibility for every single person in this room to get to do that for those people that show up.

The big thing for us has been patents, getting patents. We have 75 applications over the past year. We've got 15 back so far.

What is the average price that you're paying to have all that done? I mean, because there's not just the patent filing, but it's all the work, research structure. I mean, how much does all this cost?

About 25, 25,000 each. He doesn't work on billable hours. He just has a straight fee for the patent.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's been great. Yeah, yeah. And. But they have. We've got 15 back so far, and it's been great.

What's the time frame of submitting it to, getting it back? How long has it taken on average now?

We don't know because we just started. Started in June last year. So this is 10 months. We've got 15. 15 back. So I don't know. Okay, we'll have to see. 40, 50, and then we'll. We'll see. Yeah, yeah.

Tommy, who's sitting right next to you, do you. Do you know anything with Pattons yet again? Give him the mic. Give them the mic. Even though Tommy talks very loudly, he has a very.

Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do quite a bit. I've done a lot of design patents and a few utility patents, but I'm trying to get a big bubble of intellectual property around Everything we do, it's just very hard right now. They just came out and said the non competes no longer are valid, but they still are for C suite level. And if you do a deal, because they really never stood up in court anyway. It's just as tough when you, you throw, you know, 100 grand into trading somebody and they take it to your competitor of the, of the processes we have. But I think the more you can put stuff in place, it's just, it becomes very expensive to defend those things. And also when you do a patent or a trademark, you're kind of exposing the idea. And there are companies that spend their whole being working around those. So that's the only thing that I'm scared to do certain things because you got to document it and put it out there in the U.S. patent Office.

Go ahead, Bubs.

I just, let me just add a little bit to that, that what we've done, which is almost as strong as patents in our business. I mean, patents are the what the nuclear, you know, deterrent. Right. But trademarks and copyrights are easy to do. You can get an paralegal to do it, especially copyrights. So every tool that Dan creates gets copy. The copyright goes in right away, and we have the process of getting them back. Our team has connected with the lead trademark attorney at the US Patent Office. Trademark Office, and they've become friends and she, she was given her tips about getting them back faster and all this kind of stuff and what to do and what not to do. The Patent Office, the Trademark and Patent Office, they really want to support entrepreneurs, so. And it doesn't cost very much to do a copyright, like, you know, the fee. So.

And let's do this. Explain why you're doing it. So it's not. Just doesn't sound like protections. I mean, there's a strategic reason why you're doing this.

You can't, you know, you can't talk if you have trademarks and patents. Other people can't talk about what you do the way you talk about what you do. So you're surrounding yourself with a, with like a moat. Like a moat, you know, before it gets to the patent thing. Right.

So, yeah, I think the, the big thing is trademarks and copyrights are for protection. Patents are for assets. Okay. So when we get to 25, we're at 20 right now. When we get to 25, we'll have them appraised. And the, the attorney that we're using in Boston, he says, because your tools all coordinate with all. So nothing is not Connected with something else that probably we're going to be in a range of a million dollars to 2.5 million for each of the patents. So if you have, if it's a million, then our 25 assets will be worth 25 million. And there are lending organizations now that will lend you up to 50% of the value of your existing patents. So my hope, and it's 20 years. I mean, you got a 20 year framework on the patent, but there's a whole part of the financial world now that is just going into patents. And in 1980, the valuation of the top 500 corporations s and P evaluation was that it was based on 82% tangibles, which would be buildings, equipment, fleets and everything else. 18% on intangible. Last year it was 82% intangible, which is intellectual property. So my whole point is, and I think that the difference between 1980 and now is the Internet. You can move property with a click around the world. You can't move tangible property, but you can move intangible property. So I think that's one of the reasons. But my attitude is going on offense. You just fill up the space with your, with your intellectual property.

Hmm.

Steve.

There you go. So staying on that whole Subject of IP, I did a podcast last week with Alex LePage. LePage. And he is working with me on monetization of patents. Actually looking at creating a VC fund of patents. And so an IPVC fund. But also working toward my bhag is to create the first line of credit which would be based upon the valuation of your patent. So you wouldn't have to go through the bullshit that you go through with banks. You just get your valuation and that money would magically be available to you as a line of credit to be able to lean against. Because a lot of times there's verticals that we're not reaching within our patent portfolio that can prove to be extraordinarily valuable. And it just needs some capital in order to get us to that next level. So I think it's a whole new thing. It's amazing. Dan, you on the patent side of things. Peter and Mike, of course, on the AI side of things. Right. Just getting us ahead of the curve. I just feel so good about just being where I am with all of this right now. And Babs, I trademarked the word pitchology. It did cost me about $15,000. I got pitch Ology and Pitch Ologist. And in order to do that in a book, I needed to have two books. And in a series, you had to use the word pitchology twice in order to get it from a book perspective, and then you get it through. But it's just fascinating as I'm diving down into the V, into the IP world, it's amazing how these valuations. There's a lot of bullshit valuations like ip, we doesn't give a good valuation. And then last but not least, I was really grateful that Keegan gave a shout out on the Easy IP methodology, which is basically those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically being able to use blockchain just to register first use of a particular.

Thing.

That you plan to patent in the future. And what I've been explaining to people is this is your index to anything that you're looking to register in the future, and it gives your attorney a roadmap so you don't have to register everything. And these things are under 100 bucks each. You register, register, register. Like I did that with my book, my second book and my first book, so that when I spoke in public, people weren't stealing my ideas and concepts. It was first use that was being registered. So it's amazing space and I do believe it'll pay off. And blockchain's back again. Right. Not that it went anywhere, but it's got another use that, you know, it wasn't intended for, but now it's being used for those things. So pretty fascinating.

Yeah.

All right, you ready?

I'm trying to get Michael Saylor to come to the annual event so we can talk about Bitcoin and shit, too.

Yeah. The really interesting thing about it is that I've been coaching entrepreneurs now for 50 years, and I am convinced that entrepreneurs stop themselves from being creative because they think their creativity will be stolen. And they said, well, I'm not going to put that out in public because it'll be stolen. So in other words, their fear of their IP being stolen actually undercuts all their marketing.

Yeah. You know what's interesting about that whole concept? So this is a very small example.

And Joe and I went to lawsuit. Master's, PhD school.

Yeah. No, but had we not protected our IP, we could have not enforced it. Right. And so I even, like, way back in the day, someone had taken my name for Twitter. Not that I've ever put much attention on Twitter anyway, which I regret. But someone had taken my name, but I had my name as a registered trademark, my name as a registered trademark. So they were able to get this person to have to release my name because I had a Protection on my name. So all of you might be well served to legally register your name as a trademark, like Chris Voss. I mean, that's. You're now a big deal. Not that you weren't always a big deal, but now you're perceived as a big deal and register your name as a trademark. Because a lot of people are doing stuff with your name. And if you have a registered trademark on that, you can stop people from doing certain things. Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there. We're talking about protecting ideas and the different structures to do that. So one of the things I was saying when I first discovered that you could change the message in an ad and it would dramatically just change the words in an ad, it would dramatically increase response. And to me, that was one of the most life changing things, like, oh my God, the same size ad, but if you put a different message in there, it would dramatically increase response. And so there was no Internet back then. So I had started running these ads that said, warning, don't call any carpet cleaner until you listen to this free recorded message. Call anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And people would call up, they would listen to a 10 minute recorded message that I had and by the time they listened to it, I said, at any point in time, if you'd like to be directly connected with my office, press zero. And people could directly connect. And it just worked. And so people instantaneously went from people calling me up and the first question they would ask is, how much do you charge? It was like, when can you book the job? And I was like, oh my God. I figured out a way on how to sift, sort and screen price shoppers and educate people. But I was afraid to tell anyone. To your point, Baz, I was like, well, I can't advertise this because other carpet cleaners are going to that are bigger than me because I was like a small operation and they're going to use it against me and what the heck do I do? So I was reluctant to even advertise this proven method of marketing because I was worried someone was going to knock it off. Then I started ultimately teaching other carpet cleaners how to do this. And even if you tell them exactly what to do, most people don't do shit. And even to this day, I mean, on my podcast, and it's funny. So there is the people that really want to knock you off the smart. They're going to do it anyway. But there is a point, though. I mean, I think there's a way to. What do you release to the world your trade secrets and stuff versus what do you. Because then you have to look at, like, to your point, Tommy, about enforcement and whatnot.

Well, I'll just say this marketing is like, my favorite thing in the world, right? And I a B test, like, probably no one, very few people, I'm sure Evan does on a lot of stuff. But I a B test every single Valpak of every zone. We're in 863 zones across the country.

How much you spend in a week on advertising?

700 grand a week. Okay. But the deal is, for me, it's not really about gaining my. Because it doesn't work if you don't have the right call center. It doesn't work if you don't answer every request that comes through Yelp or on your website or through all these other form fills. It doesn't work if you don't have a great dispatcher. Now we're using AI dispatching. It doesn't work if you don't have the right technicians. It doesn't work if you don't have the right leadership. So there's all these companies that I met in Vegas that are coming after Garage door company. Like, 93 people saw our deal, 39 bid on us. We opened up Pandora's box. And part of me is like, man, what did I do? And the other part of me is like, I'm a competitor. Like, come at me. And so I met with all these other PE companies, and I was like, you guys are more than welcome to come visit. Because everybody called me and said, you're gonna let these guys come visit your home. You're gonna let them into your shop and your training center. I said, yeah, the chances of them doing a deal with us in the future is highly probable. But all these guys are like, we're coming after you. And this was just this past weekend in Vegas. And I'm like, I hope you win. You know, that was my whole vision of everybody gets to win. Just because I'm winning doesn't mean you lose and vice versa. But it's a lot harder than people think. They think this is like the new golden. Like, they think it's like 1860 in San Francisco, getting into garage doors, I'm like, all right, good luck. I want them to win, though. I really do. I really thought. I mean, I stayed up longer than I should have for about two weeks just thinking about this, and I said, you know, did I do this right? Should I have been more closed off? Should I have not been putting everything on the podcast? Should have not been so open. And you can't. You can't have both. You know, we got a great deal. I still own half the company.

And, yeah, he sold his gut. He talks openly, but he sold. How much did you sell it for?

Well, it was 27 and a half million. We got 21x.

Okay.

And I rolled half of that back in.

Yeah.

So for 500 million?

Yeah. Almost 600.

Yeah. Yeah.

And now I got to get it to. If we get it just north of 100 million by 2026, it'll sell for. We're going for. I'd like to see 2.2 billion on it. And everybody knows that. So now everybody wants to do garage doors.

That's funny. That's funny. What drives you the most?

You know, I'm always in my own head. I'm always asking myself, what's the next move? Is it acquisitions? Is it greenfield growth? I would say this is a big deal because, you know, out of our deal, 25 millionaires came out of it. This is pre deal. Most people, they wait for their next deal, and they use equity incentive programs to hold people there. I did it before, so I watched some of our top people go to another garage door company because they already got the money. And it became a different company because now we're a little bit more systematic about everything we do. But it's driving towards that next goal. I mean, I have tunnel vision on getting into this next goal, and I know it won't make me happy. I know there's, like, the day that all the money hit the account, I was like, holy cow, My life is gonna change forever. The next day, I put my pants on one leg at a time and went back to work. It was just. It was a little bit different. But the next deal, there will be a hundred over 100 millionaires. And there's 25 guys with equity, 25 technicians now with Equity. So I want to see them win pretty big, and I want us to all come together. But part of me also says it would be. It would really feel like somebody stabbed me in the back if they left these guys with equity now. And that's what really, it kind of hurts a little bit. It's kind of like, because I am like a father to a lot of them. Like, I call them up, see how their day is going, see how it's going with their wife and their kids. And I let them come into my house and like, we talk through things and I know someone could just say, hey man, I'll give you more to come here. I think my guys are better than that. And the gal, when I say guys, I mean guys and gals. But loyalty is a big deal. But you got to make sure you pay them well. And they get equity and they get insurance, they get a 401k, they get PTO and they get new trucks and everything else. And that you're an open book to their whole family, that they're welcome to come over too. So I, I don't know what the hardest thing is. I think it's, I'm just watching this industry now. Everybody's coming in, they're like, all the H VAC guys are trying to get in. I'm like, it's gonna help us out. I really believe that. And the guys that I work with, the sponsor is like, trust me, they're not as organized. These phases come and go. Everybody's gonna come in, they're gonna find out where they're at. In two years, we've seen this happen over and over again in every industry, and you're going to continue to win because of it.

So how old are you now?

I'm 41.

41. So, Dan, you're about to turn 80. What advice would you have given your 40 year old self, if any, because you've coached so many damn different entrepreneurs. Because we're about to do an exercise, the not to do list. I'd be curious of how you would look at what to do, what not to do, in terms of things like that. If you can give them the mic, I'd like to hear the same thing from Jeff Hayes.

Just stop aging. Just keep it right at 41. Is that good? You know, the more I coach, the more I realize that every entrepreneur is really unique and you have to really take a look at how they're interacting with the marketplace. And I think there are some general principles like show up on time, do what you say, finish what you start, say please and thank you, and be appropriate. But outside of that, I think everybody custom designs their own. You know, I mean, yeah, I think they're weird. You know, entrepreneurs are really weird and they have to come to grips with their own weirdness to see what the positive side of it is and what the negative side is and diminish the negative and keep pushing the positive.

Robert Heinlein, the science fiction writer, he has that line where he's like, you can have freedom or you can have peace, but don't ever count on having both at the same time. And I don't know. I mean, maybe.

Well, I actually think you can. But, yeah, for long stretches, slices. I'm very happy. Babs is very happy. Mike looks like he's very happy.

Mike is a little like me, though. He's just a constantly anxious human. Yes, you are.

Don't lie.

Don't lie. I've seen you're a burning man.

I know what you like. Yeah.

You know, the percentage never goes up. In 1974, when I started coaching, I looked at the percentage based on tax records of entrepreneurs Canada. So it's about 5% of working adults. Last year it was 5% of working adults. It's never more than 5%. And I think that the reason is the economy doesn't need more than 5% of entrepreneurs to keep going. So we talk about, you know, everybody's going to become an entrepreneur. But I said, yeah, it doesn't happen, though. You know, a lot of people like certainty. They like having the weekly check and. And they're important, too. So you do it. It just takes a certain number of weird people and everything works.

Hand it to Jeff Hayes. Jeff, if you could look back, what would you have not done that you did back in? Because you've had your moments, which you openly talk about. You wrote a book called the Entrepreneurial Brain. So what are your thoughts?

So I wouldn't have skipped anything because it was all required to turn me into who I am. I was smiling while Tommy was talking because it always cracks me up. I've had enough exposure with Tommy, and it doesn't take a lot. If somebody looks at his business and go, oh, it's garage doors. Or, oh, it's their Valpak strategy. And then you spend a few minutes with and you go, oh, shit, it's Tommy. Like, I believe his business could be daycare centers, solar panels, it doesn't really matter. There's a philosophy and a persistence and a drivenness about him that I find it humorous. Somebody would look at his business and go, it's garage doors. That's the. You know, it doesn't matter what it is. I've watched the Pompas build their business over the last four years. You know, it. You know, there's A philosophy. And so I don't worry that I don't have any. You know, I hate it when people steal my films, but, you know, I try to get them taken down off of YouTube, but I always take refuge in the fact that I'm the goose, not the egg. And one time I was in a room and I was getting ready to do a film on abundance after Peter came out with his book Abundance. And I'm like, I'm gonna do a film on abundance. And there was a woman from Bali there and she was doing a film about abundance. Somebody told me and I'm like, oh, shit, there's not enough abundance for two. And you know, and so that's the natural fear. But there is enough.

John, hand it to John. So what have you seen in terms of the biggest and the mistakes?

Well, as you were talking, Joe and Dan was Talking about only 5% of people become entrepreneurs. And there's other things you probably don't remember, but you interviewed me on Necker Island. We were kind of back by the back end of the pool and we were talking about company culture. And I had given a talk at the annual meeting and a 10 minute talk on culture. And we had a great interview. I got to the end, I felt really good. And because you're a smart ass, and you were even more of a smart ass back then, you said to me, do you remember what you said?

No, I'm waiting for you to hear so many smart ass things you said.

To me, John, this was a great interview and all this sounds great. And we had talked all about culture. You said, but what if you just don't like people? And I knew you were being funny and I thought for a second, I said, joe, I know you're being. And we can go back and find this somewhere. I said, joe, I know you're being a smart ass. And you did that to be funny. But it's actually a really great question. What if you're trying to build a great culture but you're not in love with the people that are there? And the answer, and I've given this answer now, it was one of the best questions I was ever asked, even though it was totally tongue in cheek. As entrepreneurs, we don't have to love the people that work for us. We don't even have to like the people that work for us. But we have to honor the fact that every single day these people show up to take our vision and our dream and what we're trying to create in the world and give their talent and energy and effort to our dream, not their own dream. And it is a tremendous honor. It's a tremendous gift and a tremendous responsibility for every single person in this room to get to do that for those people that show up. So I give you credit for this all the time. In fact, there's a picture of you as a slide in my talk on culture. But I really believe that, yeah, it's only 5% of people. It's been 5% of people forever. But the other 95% are showing up for those entrepreneurs to turn their visions into reality. So that's the advice that I give to lots of entrepreneurs about how to think about the Delta.

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