Get it in Writing: Contracts 101 for Creatives - 38

Law and Wit Episode 38: Get It in Writing— Contracts 101. Welcome to Law and Wit, Creative Counsel for Entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Brittany Rettell, mother of 4, entrepreneur, naptime lawyer, and attorney for creative entrepreneurs. I'm here to share inspiration and action so that you can tackle your business blocks and confidently own your business in every sense of the word. Thank you so much for being here. Hello friends and welcome back. I am your host here, Brittany Ratelle, attorney for creative entrepreneurs, and I'm so happy that you took time out of your busy day, um, even though busy is not a badge of honor, but like, let's be honest, we're all busy, to tune in and listen and take some time to work on your business or your passion project and whatever it is that you're excited about building and creating and serving this world with. Um, because that's what we are here to accomplish here, is to tackle that side of it, especially the backside, maybe, you know, the backside of the stitching per se. Um, and that's a reference obviously that my, my embroiderers will get out there, but even the rest of us who maybe that's not your gig. Um, what we talk about on this show is about the, the backside, the admin side, um, the foundational side of running a creative business and what that really looks like and what the pain points are and the challenges and realities, um, and where we start in this business. And sometimes it. It does start, um, in a wandering, meandering, very creative path because we're creative people, um, and then what it looks like when we maybe get more systematic or more process-oriented, or when we start growing and scaling and really honing in on what we are doing and why we're doing it and who we're going to serve and how best can we do that, um, with the resources that we have access to. So that— if you were here for any of that, then you are in the right place. Um, so today's episode I'm really excited about is the third part in my series of basically about the business building blocks about how to grow your business, how to grow your creative business, okay? Kind of the foundational legal toolkit that you need. So the first one we had was episode 34, which is Where Do I Start? So, um, if you haven't listened to that one yet, I highly recommend doing that one. I'm not saying you have to have them sequentially, but there's a reason why I started there on 34. Um, the next one was episode 36, which was all about getting your website legit, okay? Um, that happens to be just the next one that I see is a natural progression because you know, it's, it's a given that all of us are going to have some sort of web presence. And so, um, thinking about what needs to happen and what's that going to look like, and how can we methodically, step by step, kind of go through that checklist that I laid out in terms of what you need to do on your website and your web presence, your digital footprint, to get that legit and cleared and locked down. That's what that episode is going to talk about. And today, episode 40, we are going to talk about getting it in writing. That's right, we're going to talk about contracts, guys. So I know, please contain your excitement. I'm going to need calm down. You know, you're at a 9, I need you at about a 3. Now I know guys, I know that on paper, haha, see what I did there? I know on paper this stuff sounds kind of boring but you know, hang in with me here. I'm going to explain why contracts and getting agreements in writing are so important and I'm going to give you some real tools on how you can make sure that you can get things in writing in your business. How, why, how you deal with pushback from clients or vendors or partners or other people who don't for whatever reason want to use contracts, and some good one-liners that you can throw back at them to say, hey, I've talked to somebody, I've listened to Brittany, I know what I'm doing here, and we're gonna get in writing. Okay? Okay. So let's get going. But first, I'm gonna share a quick review because I have been getting some more of you who've been leaving reviews on iTunes, which I really, really appreciate. I know it's a bore when people on podcasts ask for reviews, but like What else are we gonna do, guys? Because this is what helps people find the podcast. Um, so this one was from Confetti Flamingo. Obviously I love the name. Thank you for being on brand and with your reviewer name. Um, and this person said, I just cannot wrap my head around the many amazing people like Brittany Rettell that take their specialty, the thing that they took years to learn and develop, and they just offer all these juicy nuggets for free. I feel like in this day and age we can be anything, we can know anything because of people like Brittany that put out these helpful resources. Thank you, guys. That— thank you so much, whoever wrote that. I really, really appreciate that review. It's really thoughtful, heartfelt. And, um, anyway, I, I hope that I can be a resource to you to let you know that you can do anything and you can figure this stuff out. Um, I just got back from Alt Summit last week, um, Alt Creative Summit, and which takes place in Palm Springs. That's why we didn't have an episode last week. So sorry, but also not sorry because I was having an amazing time. Um, but one of the key takeaways that I got from this spending incredible 6 jam-packed days with, um, you know, female creatives from all over the country doing all sorts of stuff is that, um, and a couple other people, friends, also iterated this. So you know that it's, you know, common themes. It's a real deal that we all don't know what we're doing. Like, really, I mean, we do and we don't. Like, we're making it up. There's not some sort of special sauce, some secret club, some, you know, some line that you didn't get into that you like missed the boat. Like, oh, I didn't get my newsletter, I didn't I didn't get like my check-in date for that, so I didn't— I don't have that stuff in terms of what it takes to grow a creative business, to decide to be a creative, or to offer something, to be an educator, a maker, an artist, an illustrator, an author, a graphic designer, a photographer, um, or, you know, all the myriad of other titles that go in between. Um, and that all of us, regardless of where we find ourselves on our business journey, still deal with imposter syndrome. Still deal with the doubts, that doubting resistance, negative naggy voice in your head that says, are you sure that you can even do this? Is this even a real job? Are you wasting your time? Are you wasting other people's time? This has already been done. Why do you think that you could do this? No one's gonna buy this. No one's gonna like this. It's time to get real, grow up. We all have that voice, seriously. Joanna Gaines talked about having that voice. Joanna freaking Gaines, guys, okay? So moral of the story is chin up and don't let those thoughts be the boss of you, okay? Put your brain on a better path. Fill those with better intentional, well-thought-out thoughts. Bring it to heal and use the tools that you have, including thought work and mental challenging and meditation and being thoughtful and prayerful and all of that, and then having some really good resources and taking action to take control of that and move forward. Okay, that's enough of my woo-woo pep talk, but I didn't want to let that go without getting into that just because that segues so nicely from the review. So thank you again for the review, and if you want me to read your review, then please leave me a review, okay? Go on to iTunes. You can do it if you have an iPhone, you can do it from your phone. You just need to do it from the actual like podcast purple app. If not, then you can just do it from desktop iTunes application, okay? And I really, really appreciate it. Okay, so let's start with how do we start on contracts, on written agreements. And the first thing I want to talk about is how do we handle contract pushback, because this is like the initial reaction. Whether I'm needing to talk you into using agreements and you're not really sold and you think like, of course, like the lawyer— big, big shocker— the lawyer thinks I should use contracts. Like, of course I do, because, you know, I'm just like doctors think that you should take medicine and take care of your heart. Like, they see things when things go wrong. That's their perspective. That's also my perspective because I see deals and businesses and relationships when things go wrong, and things have definitely gone wrong, okay? Like Mr. Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch. Um, and so here are some, um, like the common pushback that I get from people, or that people get when they're trying to have someone else sign a contract, okay? Um, they say like, don't you trust me? You know, if you trusted me, why would we need a contract? And here's the thing, I do trust people. Generally, I'm a pretty positive, go-getter girl. I'm pretty optimistic. You know, I am about as trusting as an attorney as you can get, honestly. No one ever plans on there being a problem. There's never a problem until there's a problem, guys, and then it's too late. I mean, not too late like you're gonna die, but too late that it's gonna cost you stress and heartache and probably money and time and lots of other limited resources that you'd rather not spend in there, okay? So that's the first thing is that no one ever plans on a problem, but problems happen, okay? The second thing is that even though we should do business with people that we trust, human brains are complex, okay? They're nuanced, they're not unbiased, rote machines that perfectly remember every conversation that they have and every understanding that they have. That's not how our human brains work, okay? They're amazing, amazing tools, but that's why multiple people can look at an accident and they all saw something differently. Honestly, like honest to goodness, they all saw something differently, okay? So to think that you could have a conversation with someone, especially about a complex deal or a long-term vision that you had for your company or a project or something else, and that you would remember the conversation the same way or multiple conversations the same way, it's just a bit naive, okay? It's just, that's not how our human brains happen. So let's not rely on that. Let's get a one document, a four corners, and that will bind and bound all of the things that we've been thinking about and talking about and feeling and get those into real words on real paper that we can then go back and look at. Okay, so let's be methodical about that. The next thing I sometimes hear from people is, well, you know, if I give this to a client, for example, like my clients who do like client service agreements, you know, they do one-on-one done-for-you services, like, isn't this going to scare off clients? So they're going to be like, oh, what is all this paperwork? Someone And that's the thing, if someone is so put off by that, um, you don't really want them as a client, A. Um, and B, you know, if you explain to them that how you like to be, um, have a clear process and a vision, and that you really like to have clear expectations in terms of what you're going to be doing for them and what their responsibilities and expectations are, um, because especially with creative client service work, you guys all know that you You know, this— there's a, there's a tango there. It takes two, um, because you need back and forth. There's going to be revisions, there's going to be edits, you're going to need product or copy or approval from your client. And so we need to know what that all is going to look like and what that entails. Okay, so it's really good to have a system in place for what that looks like, and especially good to have a good system to battle scope creep. Okay, this is that ugly green-eyed monster that will crawl into and that will just eat up all of your time if you have not set in writing what the scope of the job is and what— more probably, more importantly, what it is not, in terms of this is what I will not be doing for you, and if you want these kinds of services or this kind of action, that's a separate deal, okay? Separate deal, separate pay rate, separate negotiation, okay? It's not part and parcel the same thing. Otherwise, you will find yourself doing too much work, okay? Especially if you're a people pleaser especially if you're a little bit of a perfectionist, um, especially if you're just getting started in your business and you find yourself that you're really eager for work and you want to, you know, over-deliver. And that's your prerogative—surprise and delight, for sure. You know, you do you. But I'm just saying, you gotta watch that scope creep or else it's going to eat into your bottom line, okay? Over and over, okay? The next reason, um, that I hear, or that I often tell people when trying to get them in a more positive place about contracts and kind of dealing with maybe their misguided assumptions about using contracts and written agreements, is is that when you use a contract, you can make the contract be the bad guy, okay? Do you like being the bad guy? Probably not. Most people don't. I, you know, especially a lot of women I know don't like having to do hard sales or hard push or hard asks in their business relationships, okay? And there's some of it that can't be avoided. There's also some of it that can be put tightly in the contract when you know what it says. And, you know, nothing in there should be a huge surprise to your client, whoever it is that's signing it. But it is something that you can use as a tool to be the bad guy. And then if and when you have to use those tools, if you have to say, hey, I'm sorry, I would like to do that, but if you'll remember in clause 7, this is what we agreed, and I'm so sorry that, you know, this happened, that you're going to have to cancel. Um, when can I expect to see that cancel, you know, that cancellation amount? Because you told them that there was, um, and you can put— and again, you can always waive that, and that's why it's really important to have that waiver clause in your contract, which we'll get to later on. But it basically says that if you waive one of the provisions in a contract, if you decide to be Mrs. Nice Guy sometime, that doesn't mean that you can't go and enforce that provision later if you need to. So say you— someone is paying like a retainer agreement and they're late, and the first time they're late you could charge them and there's a late fee, but you decide to waive it. You say, hey, I understand you're just getting, you know, I'm gonna waive this late fee. And I would tell them that because a lot of times when you give favors for people, if you don't tell them that you're doing them a favor, they don't know, okay? So tell them, go ahead and tell them. But the next month, if they do it again, you can still charge that late fee, okay? You have not lost the right to enforce that agreement because you have a clause in there that exactly says that, that says, hey, I can waive one of these provisions one time and I'm not throwing away the baby with bathwater, okay? All right, then, and the last thing here along with all of that is that you want to define your role and give clear boundaries, okay? Every time that you're using a legal tool in your business, you are training and educating the people that you work with, that either work with you or that you work for them, on how your business is run and if it's a real business or not and how legit it is and what kind of value are they getting and how professional you are, okay? And part of those interactions go into how your process of onboarding and defining the relationship and getting the work going, okay? And that includes your contract. So the more that those can be clean, clear, methodical process, step by step, all set out in a nice Debsado that sends over onboarding agreement that says, here is what we're going to do, and you send these things here, and you do steps 1, 2, 3, and then I do this, and then we're done, and you pay me like this. Wow, okay, someone really feels taken care of. They feel heard and listened to, and they know what their clear boundaries are, okay? You know what happens when you don't have clear boundaries? You get toddler syndrome, you get threenagers, okay? And I happen to have some experience with that. I've got 4 kids, and my third right now, he is in the, um, he is in the deep, deep entrenchment of his threenagerhood, which everyone talks about the, you know, the terrible twos. Now, in my experience, two's great. It's really three when they really hit their stride and decide to say no for no comprehensible reason, okay? The other day we were going to the park, like, I told my kids, hey, Let's get our boots and our jackets on because we live in North Idaho, so it's still cold. You know, we're gonna go to the park. And we're gonna go out the garage door because we're gonna lock the door behind us and we're gonna take like bikes and strollers and stuff. Okay, that all seems reasonable and rational. The 2-year-old was on board. He was like, you know, doing his little toddler waddle out to the garage. My 3-year-old said no. Just looked at me. Just no. I'm like, come on, buddy. Let's go out through the garage. No. More emphatic no. Now I'm like holding his hand, come on, we're going to the park, explaining surely if he just understood what we're trying to accomplish here, he'd be on the same page. He'd rally, he'd go along. No, no. This little Napoleon in a red Patagonia jacket went into a full-blown hellish toddler tantrum on the floor because we weren't going out the right door that he had envisioned. Okay? Now, it's laughable, you know, and funny when 3-year-olds do this. And because they're not understanding their boundaries. It gets scary and problematic when you have other people who don't understand boundaries, and when they come up against something that they're not used to and they haven't been clear limits on what their behavior is, then you get tantrums, okay? And I have seen tantrums from people, from clients. I've seen tantrums from people who really should know better, but because they have not been taught and they are not— people have not protected themselves in the relationship, they get to deal with the aftermath, which is ugly, okay? It can be really ugly. So, all right, so there's, there's a number one point, okay? The second thing we want to consider when we're looking at contracts is that anything in writing is better than nothing, okay? So I'm going to say that again. Get it in writing, and anything in writing is better than nothing, okay? So sometimes people, when, you know, they get to my desk, when we get on the phone and we talk to— because it's usually like metaphysical desk, you know, because I work on the phone remotely and we'll talk about what they have. And, you know, a lot of people are— they know that they should have some more agreements, or they're not sure how good their agreements are, but they have something and they've been using something, which I always, I always give them marks for praise. Say, great, that's so smart of you, because it really is. It's smart of you to have something at least in writing, even if it's just by email, even if it's just like a little proposal that goes back and forth that outlines what you have. I, I would never give you the advice of saying, well, if you don't have the right thing that you paid a whole bunch of money from an attorney and had lots of people draft it, then you shouldn't be using anything at all. No, that's silly, because, you know, well-reasoned human beings can still, you know, understand and come to some sort of agreement. And if you get it in writing and both people sign it, um, that's going to solve a lot of problems, probably. Um, so if you are in a place where you literally don't have two dimes to run together for anything in terms of working with an attorney one-on-one or buying a legal contract template like I sell in my shop at Creative Contracts, um, then, you know, beg, borrow, steal. Like, don't actually steal, guys, but you know what I mean. Um, see what you can do to get your hands on at least something, a guide that you think is close, um, that will give you a, you know, just a framework to get started in terms of what should I be thinking. You know, ask people in your industry, ask friends, look around in Facebook groups, get some recommendations. For at least how you should get going in terms of what you might need based on what your business is. Okay, and the most important thing here is just to remember that, you know, you get what you pay for sometimes. So I've had people who've been using agreements they got from like a professor in college and they used it for years, and you know, sometimes years too long. In fact, this was a— Shea McGee, you know, told us in her episode from Studio McGee that said that's where her contract came from, and she's like, yeah, we you know, we got it and it was okay. But I mean, then when they actually sat down with an attorney and worked with someone to say, hey, what are your pain points? What have you been having problems with? What are you concerned about? What do you actually do in your business? Not someone else's business, but your business. What does your process look like? How do you take care of your clients? And then let's draft a contract that reflects all that. They felt so much better, and they honestly, they admitted that they wish they had done that sooner. So just, you know, keep trying to keep a healthy balance there of what that looks like. If you are interested in buying something from my shop, I'm going to give you guys a special code which is LAWANDWIT, okay, all smashed together. So L-A-W-A-N-D-W-I-T, LAWANDWIT, and that will give you, um, 10% off any contracts in my shop, okay? And we're going to talk about contracts a little bit later on, specific ones, and then I will kind of give you a heads up which ones you might need if you go on there and you're like, um, yeah, cute colors, Brittany, but I don't even know where to get started. So, and I'm developing some more tools for you guys, some questionnaires and some quizzes and some other education that will kind of help you narrow down depending on what you do, what your industry is, and how you identify yourself, what contracts you most commonly need, because I get those questions a lot. So I get it, guys, you're trying to do good work, and I appreciate and I see your efforts and I applaud those, and we're gonna, we're gonna take care of you. Okay, um, the next point, number 3, is that we need to pay attention when we're thinking about contracts to the top legal terms, both in our own contracts and then what we're looking at for other people's contracts. And for that, I'm going to direct you to episode 13, okay? And that's Long Wet episode 13, and that's going to give you kind of those 10 most common terms that you really need to gain a handle on that seem really legally and boring but are actually super important. And here's your friendly reminder about this, is that please do not sign anything if you guys don't know what's in it, okay? Um, never be afraid to ask for more time. Never be afraid to ask for a version that you can edit. Okay, um, this is a trick I see attorneys playing fast and loose with all the time, and you know, the other people that they work for, brands, is that they'll send it over in PDF version and be like, hey, ready to sign. Um, it is always okay and professional and not weird at all to say, hey, can I get this, um, in an editable version? Editable, not an edible. Whoa, we're not in Colorado or Washington. Um, although that would add an interesting element to contract signing. No. Can I get it in like a Word document or a Google Doc? Something that you can actually look at and edit and redline up and have your attorney look at. Totally normal. Doesn't mean that you are like, oh, think that you're a big someone or that you lawyered up or something. No, that's just a reasonable business negotiation practice thing to do if you're signing a contract, especially if it's for something that you care about, if it's for a higher dollar amount, or if it's for a long amount of time. Guys, you need to know what you're signing, and you need to be comfortable with what you're signing, and you need to understand that you and the discussions that you had and negotiations and the back and forth— that this document is memorializing and saying all that stuff, that beautiful stuff that you guys worked out. Because here's what I see sometimes in my practice and among friends even, is that Person A gets a document drafted at some point, um, and then they work something out with— and then they send it to Person B and they sign it and neither of them has looked at that document enough to even know if that document in that contract is matching what they're doing. Their conversation, their vision, they're like, hoorah, kumbaya, we can do this, you know, women empower women, hashtag boss babe, all the things. And yet the document doesn't match all that, you know. It has different terms or, you know, weird things about who's going to indemnify who and cancellation and force majeure and whatever. There's just weird things can happen when contracts are just left to rear their ugly head and nobody is paying attention to them and not tending them and weeding them out and weeding out of stuff that shouldn't be there. Okay, you gotta tend your garden, you gotta tend your contract. Okay, all right, so, um, that's that. And then also, if you don't understand some terms, or even if like you have some irrational fear of having a long contract, please do not start deleting things off your agreement. Um, I've had people admit to doing this and say, yeah, I had an agreement, like I had a 'You know, I got one from like the, you know, the Association of Graphic Designers, whatever, that long AIGA contract, but it got so long that I just deleted some of it.' Okay, do you know what you deleted? Do you know what that was supposed to do and now what that's not doing because that language is not there? Guys, okay, you can't just start deleting stuff without— please talk to someone. Talk to me, talk to anyone, but please just don't let your fear of the black and white and, you know, too small a print— change the font, guys. If it's in Comic Sans, and you can't— or papyrus— and you can't handle that. I know I'm making my designers all roll their eyes. I know that you guys can't handle papyrus. I know about Avatar, you know, sending hopes and prayers to you. Um, change it. Take your time, adjust it so that you can handle it. Do read it in small bites, whatever you need to do. Send ice cream. But, um, don't just start deleting stuff, guys. Do not start deleting stuff. Okay, um, and here's my last point, is that I wanted to go over, um, the rundown of kind of the most common agreements that I see for creative businesses, and then, um, what the names of them are, because that's is confusing is that they're called different things, and then also where those would match up for my contract shop. So if you guys are interested in perusing those— now I'm adding stuff to this all the time, so by the time this episode comes out for you, I might have more things in here. So, you know, you're gonna need— you're gonna need to check it out for yourself so you can get the most updated version. But this is presently, at the time of recording in 2019, this is what we have going on on that front. Okay, so here's gonna run down the list. First is your operating agreement or your founders agreement. This is your business prenup, and this is what people should sign when they're getting into business together, okay? If you have a partner, if you're planning to have a business partner or partners, you definitely 100% do not pass go, do not me with this, need one of these agreements, okay? Full stop. I'm not— yeah, it's not even worth arguing. You don't need to like think about it anymore. I've already done the thinking for you. I'm telling you You need one of these, okay? So you need to get your hands on one of these, meaning you either beg, borrow, or steal, or go contact an attorney and have them walk you through. But you have to sit down and have these hard conversations, okay? I love— when I was at Alt, I went to a session that O Joy, you know, the O Joy with the amazing colorful confetti stuff, taught about growing your team. And she talked about that when she's gonna— when she has to have a talk with one of her team members, her employees, and it's on something that's not very fun, she tells them straight up and she sits down and says, we're going to have an awkward conversation. I love that. I love that instead of like sugarcoating and like, hey, how's it going? And then like having to have some really awful segue into, well, this isn't working out, or like, we're going to have to talk about performance problems or something else that you're not doing right. No, like, don't sugarcoat it. Like, just cut to the chase. So I love that. So maybe if you need to have that awkward conversation with someone that you're business in, If you're in business with somebody and you haven't signed one of these late, it's not too late. Okay, now is always better than later. Okay, like the candy, now and later. Okay, so go up to them and say, hey, can we set a time when we can have kind of an awkward conversation, but one that I think needs to happen? Can we talk about our partnership deal and what it looks like working together and what it may look like someday if we're not working together? Because that's the honest truth, guys. Okay, Who do you know that stays in their same business with their same business partners forever for all eternity? It doesn't happen, okay? People change, dreams change, plans change. So you've got to prepare for that. You got to tackle that, okay? The next one is your client service agreement. So this is what you would use for people who are doing one-on-one done-for-you, any kind of client services, if that's your business. So this is for my graphic designers, my web designers, my photographers, my illustrators. My social media managers, my branding and content managers, my coaches, my consultants, all done-for-you services. These agreements are really important, okay? Client service agreement. And I do sell one of these in my shop, okay? It's excellent. It talks about all the high-level stuff that we've had in this conversation about what you would need in a client service agreement, okay, that you should outline with your client. And I'll say that You can't explain this stuff too much, so ideally I suggest you have it in your agreement that they sign in your project management, like, you know, a Dubsado or a HoneyBook or something. And then also make sure that if there are terms in there that you find that are coming up a lot or that people are not understanding, have them initial those, or have them also as part of your onboarding page and make it pretty, or do whatever you got to do to make your people read that and understand. You know, you can restate things in a couple different ways because Guess what? Not everybody reads everything, okay? It's not about you. Okay, the next one, um, agreement that I see a lot is some sort of licensing agreement, and that's a big umbrella term that talks about any sort of where we are splitting the rights, the copyrights, the content ownership rights to something. Okay, so, um, I see these in actual licensing agreements. Um, I see these also— these are what you would see in like an author or a book deal. This is what you would see in a merchandise agreement if you're working with somebody else in terms of you are providing content or artwork or something, or the name of a product, or getting it like white-labeled, and someone else is the one doing the producing, you know, the manufacturing. Um, you also see these in like collaboration agreements, like, you know, you're partnering with somebody else. Maybe they have the product-based business, maybe you're the influencer or the content creator or whatever, and you're going to partner together, and some sort of licensing going on, whether it's your brand name or your image or artwork or whatever. Okay, um, and they're usually for a percentage or royalty of sales. That's the most common agreement. Um, and the things you got to pay attention here are, um, and this is not one that I sell in my shop because these are usually pretty specific and they vary wildly in the industry in terms of what terms they have and what's important and what's not. Um, but you always just want to make sure that you are understanding the terms in terms of what are you giving up, what is the licensing term, meaning how long, T-E-R-M, capital T, meaning how long is this deal going, especially if it's exclusive, um, and how much royalties you're getting. What's the percentage, and is it different depending on how much money you make, and is it different, is it based on revenue or is it based on profit? Okay, um, so, and I talk about this in that contract episode that I mentioned, episode 13, but, um, you gotta make sure you understand all those. And if you're not sure if you're getting a good shake, a good fair deal, Talk to somebody. Talk to people in your industry. Talk to friends. Talk to an attorney. Talk to all of them, frankly, and make sure you know what you're getting into before you sign it. Okay, the next one I want to talk about is a sponsored content or brand or influencer marketing agreement. Okay, now these are newer on the scene, so I'm going to be honest, if you go and try to talk to your local business attorney, small business attorney, if you go talk to your uncle or something in your, in your local attorney they're probably not going to know what this is, honestly, because influencer marketing is still so new and so fresh, and it is disrupting the entire advertising editorial magazine model that this is, um, that this is new and fresh and frontier stuff in terms of business relationships and that business economy. But this is the agreement that you would want, and I suggest if you are doing business with someone where you are gifting them or giving them product or discounts or money or all of the above, and in return they are doing some sort of content creation for you. And they're either doing original content and they're just going to post it, and/or they're going to do that content and license that content to you, the brand, to also use if you're the business owner. So, um, and this agreement protects both parties, okay? I suggest this if you're an influencer and you're doing these deals. You should probably have one of these, or you should be really familiar with reviewing these. Or if you are the brand and you are hiring people to be your influencers and your brand ambassadors and your partners and all the other words that people use, okay, with this, also make sure that you're complying with any relevant FTC disclosures, guys. Okay, don't forget FTC. Yeah, you know me. And I also sell this one in my contract shop, and it's called the Influencer Brand Sponsored Content Agreement. Okay, so also really important. And all these bigger agreements all come with ScreenFlow instructions, guys. So I don't leave you hanging because I, I think it's frankly irresponsible for me to just sell you guys a contract template without any kind of training or guidance in terms of how to use it, what you can customize, what you absolutely need, what you don't need and might be optional. And I color code all that stuff. I make that super easy and idiot-proof for you guys to use. Um, and I also provide ScreenFlow instructions. So, and that's why you— I'm sure you'll find online there's a price point, there is stuff that's cheaper than mine, um, and there's also stuff that's more expensive than mine, frankly. But I've really tried to be thoughtful and careful about my value, and I'm very confident, um, that when I price this and what you guys are buying with this, um, you will absolutely save that money. If not in one use of using one of these contracts, um, certainly over multiple uses if you are using these agreements. In your business over and over again. So especially with you having the training and the education, that you're going to feel more empowered and that you're going to be in a better place in all of your contract negotiations. So that when you're talking to somebody, when you're pitching someone, when you're talking about a new deal or a new venture or collaboration, you're going to be familiar enough with the terms to know what are we actually like agreeing to here. Like, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. We've kind of been high in the sky, theoretical. Let's talk about logistics. What is this going to look like? And you're going to feel so much more comfortable with that language and making sure that everything in the agreement is ironing out what your understanding was of the deal. Okay, okay. The next one, um, the agreement that I want to mention on is some sort of collaboration agreement. Okay, um, and these are kind of like your one-off agreements that have to do with certain, like, one-off projects, like for a styled shoot, for an event, for a workshop, for a guest speaking, for a guest post, for a guest podcasting. For getting someone to be like a guest lecturer for like your online summit or your online course, okay? And this one, the important things like having affiliates for you, you want to be really clear in terms of if there's money being changed hands, if there's affiliate compensation, how is that being handled? And how about IP, intellectual property, content? Who owns it? Who can use it? We want to really make sure that's clear because if we don't, we can have a lot of confusion and people don't know what they don't know, and they will just use stuff until they're told otherwise. So, um, and I have a couple that kind of fall into this category. Like, I have a podcast guest release template in my shop. I also have a testimonial release. This is if you are, just like it says, you want to use testimonials, you need to get a release from somebody. A model release, if you're someone's going to be— if you were shooting your own stuff, you know, photography or videography, and you're using models and you can identify them in the picture, then you need to get a release. You need to make sure that they're okay being a model and that you own all the rights to that stuff. You know, if you pay, if you're paying and setting up a beautiful picture and want that content and want to be able to use that content, then make sure you're crossing your T's on this and you're covering yourself. Okay, and I'm planning on adding more in this space because I'm getting these questions a lot. Like, I have an author agreement I'm going to add. I have one for doing like an online conference for like a speaker agreement. That's another one that I'm getting more and more requests for. So, um, you know, I have a whole list of stuff that's coming. I'm working on it, guys, you know, but I also got to take care of my clients because that's important. So, and raise my 4 children, all the things you don't want to hear about. No one cares about your kids. Thank you, Alison Show. Okay, and the last kind is kind of like a talent agreement, and these are like what you would sign with an agent. Um, I don't sell these in my shop, but I do review these for people. So, and sometimes someone's reached the point in their career where they want to have representation and that works for them and they're interested in what they're giving up and what they're going to get from that relationship. So I do review these. Um, so those are the main ones that I could think of in terms of, um, the categories. Obviously there are endless— there are dozens and dozens of different ones that might apply to a small but growing creative-based business. And that depends off their product-based or service-based or content-based, um, that they'll need different stuff. But, um, if you have a question about your business and what you might need, um, And if I've kind of whetted your appetite but maybe haven't answered all your questions in today's episode, um, I encourage you to reach out and set up a free consult with me. Okay, I offer them— you can sign up for them. My calendar's on my website at brittanyrotell.com/services, and you can sign up for a free 20-minute slot. We can talk about your business, maybe where you're at, maybe where you want to go, and I can let you know what agreements would be a good fit for you. And if there are ones that I can send you to my shop and get you for a cheaper and a better deal for you, that's where I'm going to send you. Okay, if not, then I'll let you know what it would be for me to custom draft one for you, okay, that would fit your needs. Okay guys, so that's the wrap-up on contracts. You survived, okay, and pretty, pretty speedily, I might add, for all the things that I needed to cover. So, so, um, I hope that you've enjoyed this in terms of diving into what you can do to get it legit with Britt, okay, to get it in writing, to keep it in writing, to protect that revenue stream, okay. That's the big picture we want to think about today is You know, while LLCs are really great and I recommend setting those up and being careful about your, you know, your content and protecting that, probably the biggest thing that you can do outside of those and protecting yourself is just protect that revenue stream. And normally where most conflict comes in businesses is with the human beings, okay? Because humans, like we said, are nuanced and complicated and they're moody and they're flighty and they forget stuff and they are self-interested and they do all these crazy things. And so when you're dealing with other human beings in your business, it's really good to have an agreement that talks about what are you going to do, what does this look like, so that way you can protect the relationship. And, and please, please, if you are doing business with friends or family members, take all of this advice and times it by 10 in terms of the urgency and the importance that you need to be giving to putting this stuff in writing, okay? Please do not think that because you're working with your sister that you guys don't need a contract. You absolutely do, okay? Make no mistake. I joke about a lot of things, but I will not joke about this because if you care about that relationship, you've got to have these kinds of conversations about what does this stuff look like, percentages, numbers, who's paying the bills, who's doing what, how many hours, rights, what happens with cancellation, what happens if people get sick, what happens if someone has a baby, All of this stuff, guys, we just— you got it, you got to talk about it, you got to have that joy, that joy, oh joy, awkward conversation, and just say it like that, you know, and phrase, hey, you know what, let's plan for a business planning meeting where we get all this stuff on paper. Let's go take ourselves out to dinner and we'll bring a legal notepad with us and we're gonna write this down and we're gonna write it up and sign it, okay? That's a baseline minimum of what you can do, okay? If some of these other things have interested you and they've kind of peeks, a little Jiminy Cricket voice in your head that says, "Oh, we should probably take care of it," then let's go move forward and start to take care of that stuff. And overall, just thanks for being here and working on your businesses, okay? You're doing a great job and I believe in you, I really do, and you're doing it, okay? And you're going to be able to do it and you're going to be able to figure this stuff out, okay? There is nothing that other people have that you don't have that makes you capable, okay, or incapable really of being able to figure this stuff out. Okay, it's a modern age. We all have tools and time and resources. It's not saying you have to do it all, but there isn't a place for hiring stuff out and getting help and mentorship and resources. But it is all able and figureoutable, okay? It really is. So to borrow a phrase from Marie Forleo. So thanks for coming with me today and joining in. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast, please subscribe. If you haven't left a rating or review, that would be great too. Also, another great thing you can do is to share. I love you guys who've been tagging me and sharing on Instagram and online about the episode. You guys have been loving the Anna is the Worst episode previously, and I knew you would because she's fabulous. I've got some really great other episodes coming up. I've got interview with Talk Wordy to Me, Kim Christiansen. I've got Elle Roley of Solly Baby. I've got some just wonderful things in the queue. Make sure you're subscribed, you're tuning in every week. Well, almost every week. I'm trying, guys. I'm really trying to be every week. And you're not missing your long wit, okay? Because you are a real business owner and you should own your business in every sense of the word. Thanks so much for being here.