My Journey from Hourly to Exit

A story for you.

In the beginning, there were wages. It came in the form of a salary from a job.

Then, after I picked up my expertise and took it home with me, in came in the form of fees from clients.

Success was equaling, then exceeding, my salary.

It didn’t take long to realize that I needed to make a lot more in wages than my old salary to cover employment taxes and health insurance and have something left to invest for retirement.

So I increased fees (a bit) and worked longer hours (a lot). But I increased my wages!

The problem? Wages are “payment for labor or services usually according to contract and on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis.”

Predictably, I eventually capped out on wages. There is only so much I can charge for my labor, even as a lawyer.

So we’ve come to the point in the story where you and I probably met for the first time! I knew that if I wanted to increase the amount of money I make without working longer hours, I had to decouple my income from my time.

Thus, Think Beyond IP was born.

My H2E journey is a pivot from “doing” to “resourcing”.

At Erin Austin Law (my law firm), I “do” for my clients. I use my 30+ years of legal experience to draft, negotiate and interpret legal agreements in connection with the creation, ownership, and leveraging of their intellectual property rights.

Master services agreements. Intellectual property licenses. Distribution agreements. Work for hire agreements. NDAs. Internal policies and procedures. I do the work to protect the rights flowing in and control the rights following out of my law firm clients’ businesses.

At Think Beyond IP, I “resource” my clients to progress along their own Hourly to Exit journey.

Same expertise. Similar tools. But accompanied with the resources—education, training, assessments, templates, materials, and support (aka my intellectual property) —to help my TBIP clients create, own, and leverage their intellectual property.

Yes, it is all very meta. 😅 Decoupling income from time is both how I’m making the H2E journey and how I help you make the H2E journey.

Welcome aboard.