What to do when things go WRONG: Cancellations, Rescheduling and Force Majeure Land - 57

This is Creative Counsel Episode 57: What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong: Rescheduling, Canceling, and Force Majeure Land. Welcome to Creative Counsel with Brittany Ratel. I'm your host Brittany, an attorney for creatives who believes in solid contracts and cute office supplies, and who wants to empower you to be a more confident business owner. Whether you're a creative, influencer, maker, artist, shop owner, or content creator, you are not just a blank. You are a real bona fide business owner. So let's help you own your business and get you legally legit with Brit. Well, hello listeners and welcome back. Well, the whole world's burning down and nothing is the same. No, that's a bit dramatic. Okay, I won't, I won't go there. But we will go there a little bit because we have to address the elephant that's in the room. And I'm talking about the large elephant, actually more bat-shaped COVID-19 specter that has now descended upon our everyday lives, our business lives, our personal lives, our involuntary homeschooling lives, especially in my case, it's affected everything. And I have been on Instagram providing resources and doing a lot of joint lives with people, some Q&As answering questions. So I've gotten behind in getting this podcast up and running and out to you guys, but I'm fixing all that today because I wanted to make sure that you guys and those of your trusted friends and people that you are trying to reach out to have some information and some guidance about how to handle business disruptions. And specifically today, we're going to be be talking about what to do when you are in a service-based business or you are the service provider yourself or you are contracting and you are the one who hires service providers and we are dealing with cancellations, rescheduling, force majeure land. How the heck, what does all of that mean? What do you have to do? What are you supposed to do? What's the best thing to do? How to handle this brave new world that we all find ourselves in that honestly no one ever expected that we would have some sort of large worldwide pandemic, large-scale governmental order that's affecting businesses on nearly every level in some way. So let's get to it. The only matter of business, of housekeeping beforehand, is that if you have not yet left a review on here, I haven't gotten one in 2020 yet, and it's almost April. So I love you guys, and I love when you share and you give me a shout out and you're listening to the podcast, and I love getting DMs and all of that's really awesome. I'm totally words of affirmation, you know, whore, and I love help all of that. Um, but in terms of getting this podcast out to other people and social proof and it looking legitimate, um, actually the best thing you can help me there is review. So if you haven't left a review yet, you can do that right from your phone. You just go to Apple Podcasts and scroll to the bottom, and you'll see write a review and the little stars. And you can give me some stars and write a review. Um, it can be brief, it can— this can take you under a minute. Um, if for whatever reason it doesn't submit, try using a more unique username. It doesn't allow them, uh, you know, Apple Podcasts Cast Reviews doesn't allow people to submit the same name. So if it's, if it's too generic of a name that you're putting your username as, um, then try, you know, giving it a little flourish at the end, and it may be more unique and go through. But if you could do that, pretty, pretty, pretty please, I would appreciate it, um, so much. So pause, go do it now. Is that— that's a test. I don't know if you actually did it. I don't— we're working on the honor system here, guys, because if you can't trust an attorney, to be honest, who else can you trust, right? I said that with obviously all levity and no sarcasm at all. Okay, so let's start start the disclaimer and let's get to it. I am Brittany Ratelle. I am an attorney. I'm not your attorney though, however, unless you want me to be and we have a formal relationship and we sign an engagement letter and it talks about, you know, you paying me and all of that and how we want to work that and how we want to have that go down. That's not what this situation is here. This is just a girl in your ear, in your AirPods, while you're watching dishes, while you're, you know, used to be in the car line, now you're outside watching your kids do their own bike derby and trying to stay safe and sane and everything else in. So, um, if this is all just for informational purposes only, okay, so let's get to it. Rescheduling, canceling, force majeure land— what happens when everything goes wrong? Okay, um, first thing we've got to do if you are finding yourself in this situation is, um, we need to check out your contracts, okay? So that's the— that's going to be our first and greatest law of the land is going to be what your documents say. And every contract's a little bit different, it's got its own little spin, its own little secret sauce to it. Um, So this information especially is just going to be like really, really high-level thoughts because I don't know what your individual contract says unless I drafted it myself, in which case if you have questions, please email me and we'll go over what your contract says. Um, so, but, um, and I also want to say if you don't have a contract, now is not the time beating yourself up over this, okay? I want you to give yourself some grace, um, that maybe you didn't know, and no, no one in the world foresaw and has seen a circumstance like this. And so there's a lot of people that this is catching off guard, even people with large businesses, seasoned businesses, um, who even if they had contracts don't have contracts that address this specifically, um, or who are finding themselves kind of with like their shoulders up in the air like, I don't really know what to do. So if that's you and you haven't been operating with contracts, you know, that was then, but let's— when we know better, we do better. Okay, let's channel our inner Maya Angelou here. Um, I don't know if she was specifically talking about contracts, but we're just, we're gonna pretend like she is because she's an lady and very smart, and we're going to apply her wisdom. So now you know better. Let's talk about contracts and what kind of language we're looking for in those contracts that are actually going to be able to help us. Okay? So the language that we are looking for, we are looking for language that talks about cancellation, rescheduling, termination, inclement weather, natural disasters, travel issues, force majeure. Okay? This is probably a word that you thought maybe sounded like some really special French pastry, and I wish, my friends, that is what we were talking about. Instead, we are talking about this weird French word force majeure, which means of superior strength, because we are now talking about an event that had such superior strength that is affecting our businesses, you know, that came all around the world, this pandemic that has now invaded every facet of our life and is now causing a disruption to our business and for us to be able to offer the same business services and to do what we said we were going to do. That's why we have contracts is because We want to clarify expectations and say who's going to do what and when and how. And now we are thinking we might not be able to do that. Okay, so if you have any of those clauses and language in your contract, go to those, zone in on those, and see what does that language do. Okay, because if you have language that talks about this, you need to follow that language. Okay, if it says specifically what needs to happen and when, follow that. As an example, does it say how many days you need to give notice before canceling? If So then that's, that's the law. That's the, those are the rules that you need to follow as best as you can. You know, a lot of contracts will say 30 days out or 60 days. Usually the rule of thumb is the bigger the contract, the larger the days out of notice you have to give, because people are already spending that money and planning on and making plans and preparations and buying stuff and reserving things and doing all that behind-the-scenes work. And nobody wants to do that if they can't rely on this contract that you're going to do what you say you're going to do. Okay. Um, is there language about that you are supposed to find a replacement if you can't do it? If you get sick, if you're in a car accident, if you die or you can't travel or something is delayed or whatnot, do you have an obligation to find someone to do it that's usually of equal or greater value? Sometimes you see that in a contract, meaning, you know, if you are a pro photographer, you can't get like some amateur hobbyist to fill in for you. It needs to be someone who's got like the same skill level as you do. Okay. Are you supposed to offer refunds or deposits of retainers, and if so, under what circumstances? Now here I want you to be careful and really look at what the language says, because I've seen in a lot of photo— a lot, especially in a lot of photography contracts, I'll see things that talk about a retainer or a deposit or a scheduling deposit or a reservation retainer. There's all kinds of words that kind of describe the same thing. I want you to look at, do you define what that term, what that really is, what that money is, and is it truly non-refundable, or is it just like the first payment that's due by this date? Um, okay, so it matters here sometimes in the nitty-gritty. So we want to dig into if you define what that thing, what that first payment is or deposit or retainer is in your contract, then let's look at what that actual definition says. And if you don't have any specific language about this, then the default is usually whatever the common law is in your state. And so this is the really lovely lawyer saying that we happen to say a lot, which is that It depends. Yay, what a fun, sexy time for you. You don't have clear guidance in this area. Um, it means that it depends if something is truly impractical, impracticable, or impossible to do. And believe it or not, those words actually have a different level of meaning. It may mean it's different if you're in Florida versus in your California. Okay, um, so this might be an area that if you have some high-value contracts or you're really confused about where your contracts lie on the spectrum, then it may be worth looking to some local counsel, so counsel that's licensed to practice in your state, about what your common law default position that you can fall back on is in this area. Okay. All right. So that's our first tip is that we really need to look at what do our contracts say, okay, and go through the language like this. Okay. The second thing is that we need to consider if we really are in force majeure land, okay. Force majeure land, like I said, is that superior strength. It's where something else came in that just knocked all the sandcastles down that we didn't expect. You can also think of it as like a kooky new video game level that most of us assume we'd never actually see. It was a rumor, we read it in our contracts, like acts of God. What does that honestly mean? That's a weird thing to have in a contract, but we're here. It means a thing that's so big that we cannot attribute it to anything else other than a supreme being. That's That's where we're at. That's our level. The thing about this force majeure land is that we can only get to this land and this special place of saying if it's actually impossible for you or for the other party to perform what was agreed in the contract. This doesn't mean that it's just more expensive. It doesn't mean that it's scary. It doesn't mean that, well, I was supposed to shoot at a wedding, but now the mother of the bride can't be there. Like, that's not force majeure. Force majeure is you can't have gatherings of more than 10 people. Well, a wedding that had 100 guests that was booked for that ain't gonna happen, okay? That's impossible. You can't do it, okay? So that's the difference where you really need to get in. Is it truly impossible for you or for someone else to fulfill on this contract, okay? Very different than harder, more expensive, scarier, riskier, more time-consuming, etc., etc., okay? Those mean that those could be conversations that we need to have, but it's just not quite the same. Force majeure is supposed to be like a really something way bigger than that. And this is another caveat, which is especially relevant now that we're a couple of weeks into COVID-19. It needs to be something that no one could have reasonably foreseen and planned for when you signed the contract. I want to repeat that again because this is an important point that I see people getting misabused and being kind of lied to or not understanding the full force of this. It needs to be something— a force majeure clause needs to be something that could not have been reasonably foreseen. No one saw this. You didn't have an oracle that told you, "On the 5th day of September, you will find in a golden land a wizard." No, there was none of that. Nobody foresaw that this could have happened. Which means that if you try to sign a contract tomorrow, it will be difficult for you to say that you couldn't foresee that there was quarantine or there was a shelter-in-place order or that flights would get canceled or that a beach would get closed or this conference that was going to be 500 people was going to get canceled. It's very difficult for you to say that in the current climate because all of those things are now possibilities while we have this pandemic going on and while we're still seeing like the peak of of the pandemic happening in multiple states across the United States. Okay, that's what our conversation, you know, is focusing on here because that's the jurisdiction that I practice in. So, um, what does that mean? It means if you were hired to do a balloon arch at South by Southwest, you literally can't perform your obligations because the event was canceled. It doesn't exist. But if you're supposed to fly to LA and do a brand shoot and your flight got canceled, um, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a force majeure event. Can you book another flight? Can you find a replacement photographer? Can you rent a car and hop in there and make it in time? Okay, a force majeure clause is basically a giant timeout. It's like, hey, hey team, timeout! Blow your whistle, coach! We're all gonna take a knee here and we're gonna say we can't perform what we said we're gonna perform in the contract. We're in timeout, and while we're in this timeout of force majeure, you can't sue me and say, "Hey, I get damages because I'm not performing the contract because I can't do it." It does not mean that the contract is void. That's a really important distinction. It does not mean that we rip up the contract like we're Nancy Pelosi at the State of the Union on Trump. She could not resist. She had to tear up that speech as soon as she was over. That's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about we tear up the contract, that it's gone, there's no use, we're all going to die. That's not the situation that we're at. We're just in a timeout. We're just in a group huddle here, team timeout, until we figure things out, until the circumstances change, and then we can perform the contract. As soon as the circumstances change, as soon as we're bumped out of force majeure land, then game on, guys. You know, party on, game. Party on, Wayne. And we're supposed to jump back into the regular contract performance, and people are supposed to perform as much as they reasonably can. Does that mean that things might change and have to get pushed around and rescheduled and look differently? Absolutely. Okay, so let's talk about that next. Okay, what does that look like? Okay, just because you are in force majeure land does not mean that you can legally keep all or part of the payment. Okay, like we said, you really need to look at the language of your contract and see if you've received money from someone, from a client, for a service that you can no longer do or can't do when it was scheduled to do. Then you really need to consider, even if legally you describe that very clearly as a non-refundable deposit or retainer or reservation date or whatever it was, that doesn't necessarily always mean that that's the ethical, good PR, business goodwill thing to do. I don't know because I don't know your business and what your balance sheet and your books look like and your budget or whatnot, but there's usually a legal line in the sand of like, hey, this is a legal line of what I can do, and there's usually like some nice lovely hedges on either side of like, what are the industry practice ethics? With like a little path down the middle. Okay, from all my Monty Python friends on here. Um, so you should always keep in mind like what feels authentic to you, your reputation, your business practices. You know, what kind of a business owner are you going to show up, especially in hard circumstances? Okay, especially when you are serving someone who just— whose wedding just got canceled or axed. Okay, especially when someone who's invested and used you before for multiple events and booked you you know, and booked you for an event and now has had to cancel and has had to refund, you know, all their tickets to all their attendees and is out lots of money. Like, what feels good to you and your reputation? And recognizing that, yes, we all have to keep the lights on, we all need to pay our bills, like, you know, we all have bills too, you know, and they just can't be paid with sunshine and smiles. But that also, you want to, you know, recognize that you might be in a small niche. What does your reputation mean? What do long-term relationships mean to people? And does that mean that we try to reach a compromise, um, that, you know, maybe you refund some of the money and maybe you keep some of the money, or we try to move into rescheduling, which is the optimal path if you can get it to happen? So, you know, you try to— you need to stand up for your business, but also remember that you're a decent human being and you're dealing with other decent human beings who may have gotten, you know, who may be in a rough spot. Um, the— I will say, if you've already done work for a project, um, then usually you can keep that amount that you have put in for your time, your efforts, your expenses. Okay, if you bought props, if you paid other, you know, vendors or subcontractors or your independent, you know, VAs or independent contractors or whatnot, um, then that's usually a pretty defensible position to be like, hey, these were my expenses. I, I have already worked on getting this project ready, and this is already the work and expenses I put out, and, um, I'm gonna— I'm gonna keep that money. You know, most people will be reasonable and understand that. So even if the project hasn't been completed, that's, that's a pretty normal thing to rely on. My other tip here is to be clear and consistent as much as you can. Yes, you have a magic wand and you can decide to be the good witch here and the good fairy, and you can be nice to some people and maybe not nice to others because it's your business and the buck stops with you. However, keep in mind that sometimes clients will talk, and if you work in a small industry, word of mouth gets around quickly. It's not great to be inconsistent where you grant some favors to some people, refunds to some people, and not refund stuff other people. Okay, if you can and have a more consistent policy with people and clearly communicate that, um, that's usually a better, a better strategy there. Okay, okay. Um, and let's talk about, um, what if you are the one who wants to cancel as a service provider? You don't have to cancel, but for whatever reason you want to, um, you can. You totally can. But keep in mind that you are likely supposed to take reasonable, nice human steps to fix a situation if you are canceling on someone and saying, hey, I can't provide the thing that I said I was going to provide for you. Okay, that maybe means getting a replacement or backup provider like we talked about. It maybe means you need to issue a credit on their account. It means maybe you need to try and reschedule. Okay, um, if you can do one of the— do one of those things. So, um, with that regard, I want to say that if it's at all possible to move your people, um, you know, your service providers, especially I'm talking to you people who are like wedding photographers or event planners or, you know, someone else who So it's planned that this event will still happen, but it needs to obviously, the date needs to change now in some of the circumstances. Best case scenario is you work with your client, you communicate, hey, I understand you're in a tough spot, I'd love to work with you to reschedule this. I highly, highly suggest doing an addendum to your contract that's like a rescheduling addendum, okay? I just put together a new legal kit in my shop in Creative Contracts that's all about how to handle cancellations, rescheduling, and it also includes the force majeure clause. So it's your ultimate, like, crap has hit the fan and we need to fix stuff. So, and it's your answer to basically all the things that we're talking about today. I made it really affordable and I whipped it up quickly with the stuff that you guys will need to handle. And honestly, if you're in any kind of client service, um, industry, if this is how you make your money is you provide services to people, then you really just need to have this in your toolkit, okay? Which is why I wanted you to have this legal kit. It. So, and since you are a listener of Creative Counsel, I want to reward you for being a loyal patron and an audience member and showing up for me here. So I want to show up for you. So if you are listening to this and you want to buy, I'll have the, the link in the show notes. You get a 10— special 10% off, okay, with code Creative Counsel. Okay, please don't share the code with other people. This is just for people who are listening to the podcast, and it's just— thanks for being here and giving me your time, and I want to give that back and support you. But look into that as an answer. I gave— I did one that's more like a generic client services that you could put in any information, whether you do— you're a coach or a florist or a balloon artist, or you do public art, or you do makeup services, or any of those things could work in, and you could just fill it into the box. I show you exactly when and where. It's all color-coded and easy for you to understand. And then I also did one that's specific for photographers, just because I know they've been hard hit by, by all the business disruption and cancellations and rescheduling, and that sometimes their contracts are just a little bit more specific in this area. So those are two products, new digital legal kits that I have available for you in response to all the questions that I'm getting from my lovely creatives who are like, um, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to handle this? So I'm laying it all out and make it really easy. There's one for rescheduling and one for cancellations. Okay. And then my last tip here is document, document, document. What do I mean by this? I mean that if you are truly relying on force majeure to time out and take a knee and say, hey, I'm keeping your money, but I'm also not performing what I said I was going to perform, then show why you think you have that ground. Okay, what was canceled? When was it that there was a quarantine order or a shelter-in-place or when would the beaches all close, or when would there be a governor order that you— there couldn't be any gatherings over a certain amount of people. Like, put it all together in a nice setup, especially for those contracts, and create a new, you know, Excel spreadsheet that's documenting this. You know, when you have information about a situation, write it down. You know, what impacted when things got canceled, when clients reached out, when you reached out and told them. You want to have a good trail there. Ideally, If you're using some sort of client management system like, you know, a CRM like Dubsado or HoneyBook, try to keep everything in common communication together in a portal so that it's easy for you to find. If not, if you're just doing this by email, then make sure that you can find all these emails, that you have some sort of labeling system or a client memo file or something else, some way that you're documenting and keeping this information together. Why? Well, best case scenario is you're able to fix things and make this move forward, and you have it really clear to explain why you get— are keeping money, or why you're only refunding some money, and why you can keep moving your business forward. Um, worst case scenario, if you do get sued or if this ends up in litigation as a conflict or a chargeback or something else, then now you have some documentation to back you up as to say, this is why I made the decision that I did. You know, this is why I was acting reasonable in the circumstances with the information I knew at the time about how I could do it. Because I couldn't do my balloon arch because the event was canceled, but I had already, you know, ordered 1,000 custom Mylar balloons in this color, um, or I'd already put in a helium order or whatever it is that you did. You had real hard costs and you deserve to be able to keep money for those. So see what I'm saying? But those are things that you need to document. Or if you had a purchase order, um, and you know it got canceled on you, or you're the one who— someone put a purchase order and they canceled on you, but you already started making and fulfilling that and shipping that or whatever, um, then let's document. And again, go back to the compromise. In my conversation that I had with Kristen Lay of Thimble Press, we talked a lot about this because she's in the paper goods and stationery arena, and she says that, yeah, she's gotten a bunch of purchase orders from people who they had already had them in progress and are now like, hey, um, we can't pay you right now. But, you know, and there are people who that she's had longer-term relationships with, and you know what, she was like, hey, well, well, you know, you don't have to pay right away, we know that you're good for it. So, and that was a decision that she took in measured respect because these were relationships relationships that she valued, that she wanted to keep moving forward. And that's something that she was able to do in her business. So I'm not saying that's a one-size-fits-all approach to you, but just keep in mind and remember, and to document these discussions. Don't pick up the phone— I mean, to call someone and then not write it down afterwards. Like, I don't have anything against talking to people face to face, or, you know, Zoom to Zoom, or whatever it is that you're doing. But right afterwards, after you hang up that phone and disconnect, I want you to have something written down that memorialized what you agreed to. Otherwise, it's just she said, she said, okay? And it's not that I don't think that you can trust other people, but people's memories work differently, and they're colored by their experiences and where they're at emotionally on that day, and then on the day when they're trying to recall this information. That's why we write things down. That's why we use contracts. That's why we literally are on the same page as someone else so we don't have this disagreement, okay, and discomfort, and just things that can put a hamper in your relationship and make it, you know, more likely that you're going to have conflict and contention and possibly litigation and headache and stress, and we want to avoid all of that. Okay, the last thing I wanted to talk about briefly, because I know there's been lots of good resources shared about this all over the internet, and frankly, I think that it's more helpful to see this in visual form in like a good infographic, and I'll link to some of the better ones that I've seen and perused that I think are really accurate and are getting good information. But if you are, um, you know, if your business has been affected, which frankly probably has, and you are wondering if you are eligible for some help, especially the SBA program, the PPP program, or the EIDL, which is the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, the answer probably is yes. It's probably a huge yes. And don't me for this. I know you're thinking, well, Brittany, I, I just do hair and I'm an independent contractor. I just rent a booth, or I just have an Etsy shop and I work from home. I'm not an S corporation. I don't have payroll. I'm not even LLC. None of that matters, guys. None of it. Okay, if you had a business in February— okay, I think I'm pretty sure the date is February 15th, I'll look that up to make sure— but if you had a business and are wanting and have been affected by COVID-19, which I'm pretty sure you are, then you can get money through this Paycheck Protection Program, PPP. Okay, that you've probably heard a bunch about unless you've been living under a rock. Okay, Um, but you do need to show some documentation, okay? Um, and they are still coming out and clarifying what that looks like if you are on that independent contractor category and you don't run official payroll. What it usually looks like is you need to get your Form 1099 Miscellaneous, which is what you include in your tax return. So basically you need either the tax return that you were about to file next week, or if you don't have any of that available, then you need your one from last year. Um, but ideally you have your one from this year, especially if you had a better year. Um, because that's going to get you more money and show and have a better track record of like, this is where— this is my— what my monthly earnings should be in terms of compensation, payroll, wage earnings, income, however you want to show it. And what is great about this PPP program, as I'm sure you've heard, is it's forgivable, guys. It's free money. It's a loan you don't have to pay back, okay? And what you need for that is you need to show what your earnings are on a monthly basis. And again, you use that by using all those things— payroll processing records, your tax filings, your 1099s, 1099 or your 1040 Schedule C, and then you divide that to show what's, what's typical for a month. And then you get to multiply that out because they're planning on this like a 2.5 multiplier is what they're giving you. So, um, but I just filled one out for me, for my business, for Rattell Law, because I've already seen a drop in business services. And I'm hoping that that will only be temporary because you guys are going to get rolling with your business again, and then I'm going to get rolling with helping you with businesses again. But I just filled this out on an online application, which I'll link in the show notes, and it seriously took me 5 minutes, guys. 5 minutes, okay? It's totally doable. If you don't end up needing this money, then you don't need it, and you just say no thank you, just like my, my 3-year-old does sometimes. No thanks, Mom, I don't want to brush my teeth. No thanks. The only catch here is that you cannot use this money, you cannot apply for this if you're also applying for unemployment. So pick one or the other. But unemployment offices have been like overloaded. And, you know, although they are saying that you, if you are self-employed, typically you can't collect unemployment, but they're changing those rules. But for me and my house, I would choose and go for PPP first. And then if, if that money doesn't work out, or you end up not getting it, or if the banks just go over and get overloaded and they can't actually get the money out to you, which frankly is probably what might happen, then I would go for unemployment. Or I would go for EIDL. You can do both PPP and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. You just can't use it for the same thing. So if you're using one for payroll, you can use the other for utilities or for your mortgage or your rent or some other like fixed expenses, excuse me, of your business. Okay, does that make sense? You can't like double dip and say like, oh, I need this money for payroll and I also need this other loan also for payroll. Okay. So just, just make sure you're being honest there. If you have any questions, see if you can get a hold of your bookkeeper, your accountant, or your banker. If all those people are crazy and you can't get a hold of them, or if you don't have any of those people and it's just you and you're just wearing all the hats, which totally get, been there, guys, totally been there, then please look at some of these resources that I've attached in the show notes and just apply, okay? Don't think that you're not legit, that you're not real, that you haven't qualified somehow. If you've been in business, if you were in business this in February, on February 15th, 2020, and you've been affected, you can get some of this money. And frankly, you know, they set aside billions of dollars for this, but they did not set aside enough for every single small business owner in America because there's a lot of us, okay? Which means that some people will get this money and some people will be, would be left out in the cold. So there is a timely element to this. Make sure you get in the line sooner rather than later because we don't want this money just to go frankly to the people who have the most robust accounting and legal teams on it, you know, because they're probably fine. They're probably finding every single loophole and every way that they can take advantage of the situation, which is their job, you know. Good on them for them. But I'm looking out for you. I'm looking out for the small gal who is trying to make this business work, who's trying to support her family, who is trying to make a difference in the world. Um, and you want to know where's the love for you? Here it is. Hold up your hand, okay? Step forward at the table and get it. Get it, girl. Okay? All right. That's what I have for today. Okay? I knew I threw a lot at you guys. So I just want to close with just a pep talk. Okay? I want you to take a deep breath in and out with me. Okay? This is my good friend Alison Faulkner does this all the time with her podcast. And she has a much more, you know, smooth melodious voice than I do. But I just want to tell you that you're doing a great job handling this, however that you're handling it because this is bold new ground, okay? This is a brave new world. No one has dealt with anything like this in the modern age. No one. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling confused, welcome to the club. We should get t-shirts, okay? We're all feeling that. We're all wondering, how do we keep showing up for our families, for our spouses, for our audience members? How do we sell in an environment like this? It's tricky, and I would say that you need to be respectful respectful, um, but also still keep offering value. Okay, I keep seeing some people in some of my entrepreneur communities that I'm a part of saying like, well, I know people aren't spending right now. And frankly, that's not necessarily true. Okay, people are, you know, definitely a little, a little, you know, more reserved, um, and maybe just being sensitive and careful because things are shaky. Um, but you know, people who are going to spend a lot of money on travel, they now have all that money sitting in their bank account, so it might just be going to different areas. So now people are spending a lot of things to spruce up and beautify and make their homes, you know, more of a sanctuary and more of a luxury place because that's where they are. And so if you are doing things especially that are helping people's homes and their private lives and things that can help with their family, if you are looking to offer value especially in ways in digital or virtual goods, like you've got a real opportunity here to serve, okay? And it's not to be scammy or to sleazy or to be opportunistic. Is to show up and serve and solve a problem. And you should never be ashamed to solve a problem for people and to get paid for that. Okay, you can take that to the bank along with your PPP loan paperwork. All right. So I just want to let you know that you don't need to feel embarrassed or ashamed by making money, by keeping to offer and to show up and to serve, serve, serve, and then to sell. Okay. You know, whatever that ratio looks and feels good to you, whatever feels authentic to you and your audience, make sure you're paying attention to the wants and needs and Being careful and respectful, make sure you're only putting out really good information, especially if it's anything related to COVID-19 and coronavirus. I know the platforms are being really sensitive to people sharing information about this because they don't want to breed misinformation and myths and bad info. And so be careful, you know, and really judicious. Probably stay away from using hashtags or mentioning terms unless you are really directing people to good authoritative sites, you know, like the CDC or what's considered, you know, best practices in terms of this. This. So, okay, I hope this information was helpful to you guys. Again, if you haven't left a review for the podcast, I'd really appreciate if you did. You can just do that on Apple Podcasts, um, uh, and you can do it on desktop or on your phone. It makes it really, really easy. Thank you so much for tuning in to Creative Council. Thanks so much for showing up here and for listening and letting me be part of your life and part of your business growth. Okay, I know that you are a real business owner and that together we can get through this. Okay, we are tough people. We are American entrepreneurs, okay? And we have seen tough times. And, you know, what, what a wild ride and what an age to be in and how great, you know, an opportunity to learn about ourselves and to really value what's important, to go back to the drawing board and decide what part of your life and business that you want to pick up and maybe what parts, um, you didn't love or that weren't serving you and that aren't going to move forward. Um, and what, you know, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Can you tell I've been watching a lot of Harry Potter? You know, we will rise again, and I really believe that sincerely. So thanks so much for being here, and I will catch you on the flip side.