Legal Q & A for Creative Entrepreneurs - Brittany Ratelle - Live IG replay

Thanks, guys. Sorry for replayers. I know that's the worst. It's the beginning of like people shuffling, adjusting stuff, making small talk while you're waiting for everyone to get notified and jump on. So, um, I should have like some Pop School jokes or something prepared, especially since it's Pop School season now. We've gotten our first Otter Pops, and so it's pretty great. So, hi guys. I see some people jumping on. All right, well, I'll give my little spiel. I'm Brittany Ratelle. I'm an attorney for creative entrepreneurs, and I try to jump on here every Monday night and make myself available for 20, 25 minutes or so for any questions you might have about your small business, about your creative business. So, and while I'm an attorney licensed here in our fair state of Utah, the Beehive State, best snow on earth, I'm not your attorney unless you want me to be, in which case You can sign up for one of my free legal consults. We can talk. You do that by going to BrittanyRatelle.com/services and just book on my Calendly calendar. We have a phone call or Skype about your business, and then I talk about maybe some things that might be a good fit for you. And then if you decide to work with me together, then we can decide to work together. And that's what that looks like, working together. So if we haven't done that yet, we're not working together. And I'd love to be here and I'd love to share wisdom, but anything we talk about is just educational, you know, informational purposes only. It's not attorney-client privilege, it's not attorney-client advice. So just to be clear, because I am in a very old-fashioned and restricted profession, and so, uh, I just need to make sure that you wear— and we're very conservative, attorneys are very conservative in terms of making it very clear what people are doing, um, and when they're talking to me and what they can provide on. So there you go. Um, so thanks guys for getting on. So I didn't get any questions beforehand, so this is just totally open mic night. So if anybody has— thank you, I think you— I do look so nice. I was on TV today, guys, TV. So thank you, you did a fabulous job. So my segment airs tomorrow, but I was on a local— we have a local kind of morning show called Studio 5, and they asked me to be on to talk about ways you can lock down your creative idea. And so I went on today, so thus I actually did the makeup and did the hair, and I had something else fancier on, but then I was playing with my kids in the backyard and my pants were just way too tight to be playing monkey in the middle, so I had to go change. You know, I can only wear real pants for so many hours, guys, and then it's too much. Okay. "Be You Remind Me." I need a contract yet. So Karina says, "Be You Remind Me. I remind mine all the time for my new clients, so we can't wait." Yes, so, and I get that a lot of people who are like, "Oh, I saw you pop up," or, "I've been meaning to talk to you," and you know, it's kind of like this little this little tickle in the back of your brain, um, which I totally get, guys, because, you know, you're busy. You are hustlers, um, you are entrepreneurs, you are making things happen. And so sometimes legal totally gets pushed to the back burner because, you know, you have to do things like make money, which is, you know, a little bit important, and get new clients and sign new clients and keep the clients happy, or, you know, make your products and ship the products and update your website and all those other millions of things you have to do. So, um, But, you know, that is good if you have that little bee in the back of your head about, hey, I haven't— I'm not so sure about my contracts. You know, they might be kind of Frankenstein contracts. They might be something that, like, I got from a buddy or found online. And, like, they're okay. But, you know, every time you send it to someone, you have that little pit in your stomach that, like, I hope that this is okay. I hope that someone doesn't call me out and is like, what is this? This is you? I thought I was dealing with a big time here. And so if you have any of those feelings, then maybe it's time for us to talk, okay? Because drafting good contracts is something that I do a lot for my clients. And, you know, we do— I do a fair amount of client service agreements. So if you are a service provider, if that's what your business, if that's what your gig is, if you're a photographer or a stylist, if you do social media planning or marketing or web design, Those are, you know, content-heavy, intense, creative, back-and-forth client service projects, and there's a lot of room for things to go wrong and for people to not be on the same page and for you to end up doing a lot more work that you're not getting paid for. So yeah, you gotta be on top of that. How about some templates? That's a great question, Karina. Okay, I am working on my template shop and I have committed myself that by June 1st it is going to be live, okay? So it's probably gonna have between 8 and 10 to start out with. That's how many I can get up there and do a good job. But they're gonna be— it's gonna be creativecontracts.co. I already have my domain, um, and it's gonna be a cute little template shop, and it's gonna have kind of an array of what I think are kind of the most important templates, or the ones that I get asked about most for my clients. Um, so you're going to be able to buy them on there and use them for anything you want. The great thing about a template is it's just like that— it's a template. So you buy it once, um, buy once, cry once, and you're going to be able to kind of dial it in and customize it for your particular interactions with your clients. So I'm going to include directions with all those templates. I'm trying to decide if I should just do audio or if I need video. So if you guys have any thoughts about that, I would love to do your thoughts because obviously video is more work because I have to do like this and get in front of the camera, you know, camera and walk people through. So I don't know if you really need my face. Like, I don't know if my face is an important part of the contract drafting. Or if you just would like me to just be on here and kind of walk you through and be like, hey, see on paragraph 1, or maybe even just to have me voiceover and then do like a ScreenFlow. Maybe that would be the most helpful. These are good thoughts. I'm glad that I'm just monologuing here with you guys. So if you have any thoughts about that, about how would you want to get some little training or little instructions to go along with a contract template, then I'd be— I'd love to hear it. So, um, yeah. Okay, so what type of templates? So they're going to be like, if you haven't had a website bundle, I'm going to have that on there. So privacy policy, I'm going to have terms of condition for your website, I'm going to have like a model release. So if you need that for a photo shoot, that's going to be on there. I'm going to have an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. So if you were working with an investor or a partner or if you're working with like a new marketing group or anytime that you're starting to share some of your secret sauce and in case you don't have another agreement, that covers confidentiality, an NDA can kind of stand alone and protect you. That, um, I don't have my list in front of me. I'm trying to think what else I'm going to put on there. Um, a client service agreement, so one that can kind of be tailored to different client services if you're in that kind of business. Um, I want to have on there some information about, uh, if you are running a Facebook group— excuse me— um, having some guidelines on there. So like if you are hiring someone or asking someone to be like your admin, um, that's one that I don't— I've like never seen any kind of template about that in that That would make me super nervous because there have been cases where people have given admin privileges to someone and then they've like taken over the group and kicked them out or done things or represented them in a way that they shouldn't have. And so anyway, I would just really want to make sure it's clear what privileges and what authority you're giving to someone to manage a group for you and what they can't do. And make it really clear about the guidelines of the group. I think that's really, that's a really important thing. So, and the privacy policy, we got to make sure it's GDPR updated because that deadline is looming. That is coming up on May 25th. So all of you who have any kind of data processing, data privacy— basically, if you're online, if you are online and you are collecting email addresses, which you all are, um, you got to make sure that your privacy policy is updated. Good, you like the admin template? Yeah, I think it'd be really helpful. There's a couple more on my list that I've thought of, like, I haven't seen these when I peruse other template shops, and so I think that would be helpful. Um, so thank you for telling me my face is awesome. So, okay, so that's kind of about templates. Thanks for letting me talk about those. So, but if you guys have any other requests, then just send me a direct message, or you can go on here and do it right now if you want to. But does anybody have any questions? I am here, guys. I am here for you. It's just a Monday night. You hear the storm. There's a little summer thunderstorm rolling in, which I love. You know, we don't get a whole lot of rain here in Utah. It's a desert. I don't know if you knew that. It is. It's a high desert. But it's really great. I didn't get any other questions. I could talk to you about what I talked to you about today on KSL if you want. You just hired your first VA? Hey, that's pretty cool. Virtual assistant. I don't even have one of those yet. It's on my list. It's on my Christmas list for my business of things that I need to make happen this year. So yeah, a VA contractor, like a freelancer contract. Oh, that's the other one. Yeah, I am going to put an independent contractor agreement on there, um, because it's so, it's so great to get help with your business. Um, but you also again want to make it very clear about how you're going to do any work-for-hire stuff. Um, and that's definitely something that could come into on VA territory, because if you haven't— I don't know if you guys know this, um, but if you have not put something in writing, whoever makes the whoever snaps the picture, whoever does the design, the logo, owns that unless you have something in writing, even if you paid for it. So that blows a lot of people's minds because a lot of people are like, "Wait, I paid someone on, you know, Fiverr or UpCounsel or, you know, any of these, you know, a million websites. I thought that was mine. I paid for that work." And yeah, it's not. It's actually not the case unless you have something in writing that says whatever they did for you belongs to you. So and usually it's usually not a problem. You know, most people— I'm not going to say that like most VAs or freelancers online are like looking to stick it to you and are like, yeah, I'm going to snatch that contact back— content back. What happens is a couple things. People recycle stuff. Sometimes you get what you pay for. And so sometimes you can get kind of a less than honest graphic designer who will recycle stuff and have a logo that looks scathingly similar to another logo. People won't— it won't be a big deal until it is a big deal. So now you've suddenly arrived and you're making serious money and your logo's all over the place, or you go to trademark and protect your logo and your name and some of your stuff, or you're going to go copyright things for a book or a course or some other kind of big deal, and now suddenly the person who did work for you is kind of holding your stuff hostage. That happens too. And like, they're kind of like trying to extort you basically of like, oh, I don't know, I guess I didn't make it clear, but I only did your logo to be used on your website, not for any of these things. You can't put it in Times Square, you know, this is an example. So if you're going to do that and use it in print, then I'm going to need this amount of money for, you know, these purposes. That wasn't part of our arrangement. So if you don't have something in writing, it's just, you know, she said, she said, or she said, he said. So we'll make the bad guy guy. We can do that. So yeah, that's really It's another great reason why you really need a contract, really need it in writing. You set out what your expectations are. Okay, so Emily asked, if you design your logo and website, do you have to pay for the fonts you use? I know you use a commercial license to sell products using that font. So yeah, but I never know about doing logos. So, so yeah, so you're saying if you like design your own website or if like you are in the business of designing for others? So yeah, you're right in that you gotta be careful when you're procuring fonts to make sure that if you're going to be using those, for example, like if you're a web designer and you're using those and you're gonna be using those in different websites that you're building, that you're definitely gonna want the commercial license. Ideally, you wanna pass that on to your client because you don't wanna be responsible for, you know, licensing and especially if there's ongoing fees and then what happens if the license lapses. I know it's kind of a pain if you're the one like kind of a content creator and you're trying to coordinate all these assets, but ideally what you'd like to do is pass it on and say, hey client, um, designing your own website, not for anyone else. Okay. Um, yeah, if you're designing your own website, um, and let me make sure I have that question right. Okay. Yeah. And you just have to pay for the fonts you use. Um, it— I have to see the text of the license. So, um, it normally when they mean by personal use, it just means for like a personal website. But again, like who who just has a personal website these days. I mean, just about everything has some sort of commercial use. And certainly if you're running like a blog or if there's running any advertising, I mean, if you're making any money from your website, which is, I'm sure you are, which is why we're talking here, then someone could say it's for commercial use. So for that, I would really, I'd have to see the exact text of the license because there's really no standard way. You know, some people will say like commercial license or up to this point or Creative Commons. You know, there's not a whole lot of standard, you know, development in terms of what that means. You kind of have to look at the license itself, each text, because different companies and different third-party organizations will mean different things when they say that. So, um, I know that's a really lame lawyer answer to give you of like, it depends, but it really depends. So, um, for that, just, you know, if you have a question about that, just copy— give me a screenshot of the license or copy and paste it and just email me and I'll get back to you about that. Okay. You can email me anytime at hello@brittanyratelle.com. So, but I'm happy to take a look at that. So, okay, okay, Karina has to go. Yeah, okay, yeah, if you design your own website, perfect. Okay, you're on my list to talk to once we get back from vacation. Awesome, enjoy your vacation, that sounds wonderful. So, okay, any other questions that anybody had? They wanted to jump on? To keep me from going and stealing an Otter Pop like I want to. Not that I didn't have one last night, the night before, but you know, 'tis the season, guys. Got a week left to school, then my kids are out of school. Crazy. I'm equal parts excited and terrified. I'm sure as most moms can relate to. So, okay, did we have any other questions from anybody? Um, What's an Otter Pop? So, oh, Otter Pop, okay, those are like those juice pops, you know, they're like popsicles but they're like inside the plastic wrap. You get them from Costco. I grew up with Otter Pops, yeah, so, although they've redesigned recently and so they're freaking me out because they don't have any dye in them. They're just all the same color. The packaging has colors on them but the rest of it isn't. But I bet you'd recognize the packaging. It's got like striped. It kind of looks like a circus tent outside. Um, anyway, yeah, I grew up on Otter Pops like all summer long. They're, they're great because they're like popsicles without all the mess because they're all like contained inside. So my kids love those things. They would, they would die. They would, they would probably commit murder for Otter Pops, sweet things that they are. So, okay, um, any other questions, guys? I'm here. Don't be shy. Don't be shy about it. So if not, I'm just going to show my podcast if you don't know about my podcast or my newsletter. Podcast is Law and Wit: Creative Counsel for Entrepreneurs. It's on anywhere you can listen to podcasts. And my newsletter is BrittanyRatelle.com/newsletter. And if you sign up, I give you a free legal checklist for your creative business. Kind of an overview, a one-pager to kind of get you going and get your juices flowing, um, your AutoProp juices maybe, about what you should be doing to protect your business. So, um, but I know that's a lot of people have liked having that resource. It's like one thing they can kind of look at and be like, okay, all right, these are things I can think about and maybe plan for and talk to someone about, um, to kind of at least have a good starting, a jumping off point for a decent conversation about about protecting your business. Okay, if I don't have any other questions, then I'll jump off for tonight. But guys, thanks so much for being on here. It's always great to have you here supporting, and I'm wishing you guys all the best in your business. So I'll have more information about my template shop as we get closer to launching, and I'll definitely keep in mind, you know, getting some deals for bloggers. Because I want to make sure that you guys, you know, small business owners, people with limited teams, limited budgets, are still getting some legal love, that you're getting the protection you need to grow your business and move forward and be more confident business owners, because that's my why, guys. That is my Simon Sinek business why I do what I do, because I don't like to see women get taken advantage of, okay, in any way. So, and that's why I do pro bono cases, because I don't like them being taken advantage of in their marriages. And in their households. And because that's one of my, part of my other lawyer jobs. And I don't like them getting taken advantage of when they are starting businesses, when they're hustling on the side, when they're— whether they're, you know, an MLM queen, or they run an Etsy shop, or they're a photographer, or a designer, or food blogger. You know, there's lots of— there's a million different ways to make money, and people use their talents and skills to enrich themselves and provide value and I just want to make sure that anybody who's doing that is getting a chance to protect their stuff and to do it with confidence and be able to build it and grow that business wherever it should go as it moves forward. Alright, that's my spiel, my soapbox for tonight. But have a great night, guys, and if you want to join me back next Monday, same time, same place, I'll be here to answer any questions that you might have about your creative business, and I'm happy to talk to you about then. So thanks so much for being on, and have a good night.