Lauren Edwards-Williams of Legend IP Consulting: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Consulting Business
An Interview With Doug Brown
Don’t devalue yourself. At first, it’s difficult to know your worth and express that confidently, particularly as a young female business owner. I was constantly devaluing myself or just giving work away. After a few clients (who are not clients any more) took advantage, I learnt to be strong and value myself.
As a part of my series called “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Consulting Business,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Edwards-Williams.
Lauren Edwards-Williams is the owner and CEO of Legend IP Consulting LLC, and an experienced intellectual property consultant who specializes in technical writing and intellectual property research. Lauren has spent over 5 years living and breathing intellectual property and every day her desire to help inventors and businesses succeed is furthered and inspired by the creativity and innovation of those around her. Lauren Edwards-Williams was born and raised in Northern England where she graduated from Staffordshire University Law School with a First Class LLB with Honors.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I always knew I wanted to do something in law. I went to law school and after graduation I began looking for internship opportunities to discover which path I’d like to go down. I got an offer for an internship at a patent law firm and the idea of patents excited me. It only took a day or two at the internship to realise that intellectual property was my calling and I’ve never looked back!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
As you can imagine, I see many, many interesting inventions and I’ve met many interesting inventors!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My husband is my number one cheerleader. I’m forever grateful for him.
My first bosses (who gave me the internship) taught me so much about intellectual property. When I started with them, I was just a little law school grad from a small town in England. They really took me under their wing. They not only taught me much of what I know now about intellectual property, but with them I learnt a lot about how to run my own business. I’ll be forever grateful to them! I’m still in regular contact with them. I’m not sure I would have opened my business if it wasn’t for the help of one of them — he’s a great mentor to me.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I live by two philosophies: “Everything happens for a reason.”; and instead of, “What if it doesn’t work out?” you should think, “But what if it does?”
The “everything happens for a reason” philosophy has gotten me through bad times. It’s particularly applicable now. Building a company comes with a lot of rejection and defeats, but I truly believe that these rejections and defeats happen for a reason and that something bigger is waiting for me.
The “what if it does work out” philosophy helped me make big decisions. Particularly, moving across the world and quitting my steady income job to open my company. I think it’s important to not miss opportunities just because you’re afraid it can go wrong, because it can go really, really great too. You’ll never know if you don’t try!
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. We’d love to learn a bit about your company. What is the pain point that your company is helping to address?
My company is particularly tailored to helping attorneys, agents, and other companies with their intellectual property needs. Many attorneys and agents are tremendously busy so my company assists with overflow work, editing work, etc.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The biggest thing to me is keeping a ‘small company’ feel no matter how big the company actually is. By that, I mean I want all of our clients to feel that they have access to me personally and know that help is only a phone call away at all times. I had one client recently tell me I had brightened his day because he could “feel my smile from the other end of the phone” and he felt I genuinely wanted to help him. Things like that are what I live for. :)
We are also completely U.S. based and do all of our work in-house.
When you first started the business, what drove you, what was your primary motivation?
My primary motivation for the business was to help inventors navigate the big intellectual property world.
What drives you now? Is it the same? Did it change? Can you explain what you mean?
I very much still want to help inventors. I have now also expanded into assisting other companies with their work, but the aim of the company will always be to help inventors the best we can.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am very fortunate to say that I am always working on exciting new projects! The creativity inventors have is so awe-inspiring.
In your specific industry what methods have you found to be most effective in order to find and attract the right customers? Can you share any stories or examples?
Specifically in my industry, I find LinkedIn is a great method to connect with other attorneys, agents, and companies and also to connect with inventors. I have connected with and gained many clients this way.
Based on your experience, can you share a few strategies to give your customers the best possible user experience and customer service?
The most important things to me are:
- Be responsive. Even if you can’t get to a phone call or lengthy email right away, let the sender know you have received it and estimate when you will get back to them.
- Be reliable. If you say you’re going to do something — DO IT! If you have a deadline, it’s so important to stick to it. If you say you will get back to a client at a certain time, it is so important that you do.
- Be honest. Don’t oversell if you can’t deliver. If you don’t know the answer, don’t lie.
Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Consulting Business”. Please share a story or an example for each.
Don’t devalue yourself. At first, it’s difficult to know your worth and express that confidently, particularly as a young female business owner. I was constantly devaluing myself or just giving work away. After a few clients (who are not clients any more) took advantage, I learnt to be strong and value myself.
Be active in the industry. I think it is important to be active on social media and in your local community, and I wish I’d have made more of an effort and had marketing experts from the start. It is important to know where you fit into the industry and see what your competitors are doing, and to be up to date with what is happening in the industry.
Be patient. The road to success is loooooong! I have very high expectations for myself, and I keep setting myself goals of X amount of clients by X date, X amount in sales by X date, etc. Whilst it is important to set goals, it is also important to realise that companies aren’t built overnight.
Enjoy the journey. This ties into the ‘be patient’ point too, but it’s easy to get disheartened with the rejections, with people not replying, and wondering if you did the right thing. Know that it gets better and try to enjoy the freedom of being your own boss.
Take time off. It is so easy to burn out. Especially when you get your first few clients and you’re trying to do admin, marketing, etc. on your own. I found that I was working constantly (I absolutely love it so it’s hard to stay away) but the company needs me to be alert and not overworked, and my husband needs me too! So I try to take at least one day a week off and have dinner every night with my husband.
Wonderful. We are nearly done. Here are the final “meaty” questions of our discussion. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I can’t take credit for this, but something I’m passionate about, as well as many other women who experience this, is women’s safety when out alone. I have experienced many scary times myself when on an innocent walk alone and know so many other women that have too. I recently came across Strut Safe, which is a hotline in Scotland that allows anyone that feels unsafe whilst walking home alone to call in and feel safer. So my movement would be to raise awareness and establish something similar in the U.S. and other countries. I also believe self-defense classes should be compulsory in high school!
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
I think it would have to be Elon Musk! I find him so interesting. He’s so creative, innovative, and not afraid to achieve his dreams. :)
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspirational, and we wish you only continued success!
