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I woke up this morning to a notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that my application to protect The Speakers Collaborative has been approved for publication and, if no one objects within 30 days, it will be registered and protected.

It is always rewarding when I get this notice for my clients, who I do a fair amount of trademark work for, it is differently rewarding when it is one of mine.

But there is more to this story.

Over the summer I began to feel like I was not giving The Speakers Collaborative the attention it deserved to fully thrive and grow, and it was neither thriving nor growing. I couldn’t give it any more attention because It doesn’t pay the bills, and I have bills.

Yes, it is embedded into my ethos to help others find their voice on stage, give them the content they need to grow, and launch their speaking career. The collaboratives that I have hosted have done just that, and for a fraction of the cost of the other programs that only provide half the value.

And so, in August, I made the decision to turn off the lights on The Speakers Collaborative. I put it to sleep, on the back burner, or whatever trite cliche fits. I have paid for all the assets and have plenty of content that I am not willing to kill off, and now have a trademark.

Maybe one day I will wake it back up. Maybe not.

I share this today because I do not feel like we talk enough about the failures in our lives. Over these past three years, well, 35 months, since I have been running Cody Hand, LLC on my own, I have focused on the message that failure is essential to growth. I started an entire hashtag on Linkedin #failurefriday.

Muscles only build after failure.

I failed to get The Speakers Collaborative off the ground and, in so doing, learned that I only have so much bandwidth to diversify. I am excited to see the growth that will happen in my Fractional Counsel, Estate Planning, and Advocacy practice now that I am focusing on that.

To Robin, Kerra, Matthew, Susan, Peter, Shawn, Patrick, Ashley, Jillian, Brian, Clint, and my family - thank you for going on this journey with me. We did change lives.

To everyone else - I am not going away. I am building my practice, and speaking, and finishing my book (scroll down), and still side hustling a travel agency with 95 agents under my team.

and still an ambassador for barefoot living.

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