My project in Intellectual Property for Creative Entrepreneurs course

I just loved auditing the IP I own. I was surprised just how much there was - and I'm sure I will have to add more to these pages.

I went right back to when I had my own design studio - see the pictures of products. Then I unpacked what IP I owned from my book and all the articles I have written for blogs and newspapers since it was launched.

Next I looked at all the different decks from the talks I do, as well as the methodology I use when I work with clients. A methodology has to be written down or presented in some way - it can't just be something you talk about.

My next step was to look at what trade marks I have registered - there are 5 of them. And finally I noted that I had not registered any design rights or patents (although I have helped clients identify these).

I've now hung these sheets on the walls of my studio and will add to them as I recall IP I haven't yet listed. And just looking at these pages is making me ask 'how can I find additional value from all this good stuff?'.

When I wrote out my life story recently as part of my intellectual asset audit, there were a host of points that I hadn't noticed before.

For example as a child/young adult, I seemed to move home a lot. My mother would do them up and sell them on. Yes, this helped to foster my creativity and love of textiles, surface pattern, textures and touch greatly, but it also made me feel very unsettled.

The different aspects of creativity that I use every day in my consultancy work comes from me exploring many types of creativity as I went through childhood and started in the workplace. I can see that I was hungry for creativity in all its forms. I still am - but now this comes from a place of passionate curiosity. I've found how I can work with creative people as a creative individual myself.

I'm now embarking on:
a. An alphabetical list of all the clients I have worked with during my career to see what hidden riches I can spot in this... everything from surprising sectors, to understanding what is in my commercial 'knowledge bank'. I can use this to find new clients in areas perhaps I might not have thought of approaching.

b. A list of everything I have been paid to do during the course of my career. This will remind me of skills I may be overlooking, perhaps I could pull 2 or 3 together to offer a new service to existing or future clients, or is there a group of key skills I could 're-wrap' to offer as a course?