On this week's episode of Own It, we’re talking to Sharon Toerek from Legal+Creative. It is a firm focused on marketing law, advertising law and intellectual property law for creative people. She and the company are based in Cleveland, Ohio.
We talked about the legal side of our business, her journey to ownership and so much more. We are super excited to have her on the podcast. We know you’ll learn as much as we did from this episode.
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Cultivating a sense of personal responsibility for one's life outcomes and fostering self-reliance are crucial for success and fulfillment. These values translate directly into how one approaches leadership and challenges in both personal and professional spheres.
Agencies should prioritize owning their strategic capabilities and position themselves as thinking partners, not just service providers. This involves actively valuing and protecting their intellectual property in negotiations, moving away from selling on price, and focusing on outcomes and the unique value they bring.
Agencies often overlook opportunities to monetize their intellectual property. By identifying existing IP within their work—such as expertise, processes, or content—they can create additional revenue streams through products, learning opportunities, or other adjacent offerings, which can be separately monetized from their fee-for-service work.
There is a significant underrepresentation of women in agency ownership, a problem that is not solely a data collection issue. To address this, the industry needs to shift the narrative from leadership as the end goal to ownership, providing models and opportunities for women to pursue and succeed in agency ownership.
For aspiring agency owners, the key is to build a business that can sustain itself independently of the owner's day-to-day operations, treating it as an asset to build wealth. This requires strong contract negotiation skills, particularly with clients, and a deep understanding of legal support to foster a confident culture around talent management and IP protection.
