Paid, Protected & Profitable: How to Get Paid What You’re Worth and Protect Your Small Business

Most small business owners start by doing the work they love and assume they can deal with contracts, copyrights, and legal protection later. But later often comes after a client refuses to pay, keeps asking for more work, or uses something you created without permission. That's when the paperwork we kept putting off suddenly matters.
 
In this conversation, I sit down with small business attorney Sharon Tasman of HTBiz Law to talk about practical ways business owners can protect their work, set clearer expectations, and get paid what they are worth.

We discuss why promising to work until a client is “satisfied” can leave you responsible for unlimited revisions, why the person who provides the contract first often has an advantage, and how a simple copyright notice can help protect the things you create.

We also talk about what business owners need to consider when using AI to help create written materials and why it matters how much of the final work came from you.

You do not have to become a lawyer or try to anticipate every possible problem. But understanding a few legal basics now can save you a lot of confusion, money, and frustration later.

GUEST BIO
Sharon Tasman founded HTBiz Law because she believes high-quality legal advice should not be affordable only to large multinational corporations. After 30 years in law and more than a decade as the founder of a woman-owned small business, she understands the additional difficulties women and members of the BIPOC community can face when starting and growing a business.

Her goal is to show business owners that legal guidance does not have to be scary and that well-written contracts can be a small business owner’s best friend.

Be sure to grab Sharon's free Legal Essentials Roadmap at: https://roadmap.htbizlaw.com
(The roadmap outlines six essential must-haves for starting and growing a business, along with simple, free actions you can take immediately to begin protecting yourself.)

Her book, Paid, Protected & Profitable: The Small Business Owner’s Practical Guide and Workbook to Contracts, Protecting Your Work (and IP), and Getting Paid What You Are Worth, is available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Paid-Protected-Profitable-Practical-Protecting/dp/1913206815/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

Want to get in touch with Sharon? Here’s how:

Website: https://www.htbizlaw.com/smallbusiness
Email: sharont@htbizlaw.com
Telephone: (301) 333-6009
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/htbizlaw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/htbizlaw/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharontasman/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey there and welcome to Conversations Worth Your While. It's the podcast where we dig into ideas and insights to help you to unleash what you were born to bring. I chat with HeartLed experts and I ask the questions that I know you're already thinking about. And we explore conversations that spark growth, that shift perspectives, and that help you to show up fully in your life, in your career, and for your community. And today we are exploring a really cool topic. This is for you people in business. Um, and today's topic is paid, protected, and profitable. This conversation is worth your while because most of us started our business doing the work we loved and figured that the paperwork could just wait. But if you've ever had your work or your ideas stolen, or your clients are constantly changing what they're asking for, then this conversation is really going to be worth your while today. My guest and I were going to share how to protect your work, how to avoid headaches, and how to get paid what you're worth. I'm your host, Linda Booker. And if the life and career you are in no longer fits, this space is for you because through my coaching and my podcast and a whole bunch of other ways, I guide purpose-driven people to reconnect to who they really are, to let go of what they have outgrown, and to rediscover their gifts and create a life that feels aligned and deeply impactful. And so if that sparks something for you, you can find me at lyndabooker.com. Once again, today's topic is paid, protected, and profitable. And today I have the pleasure of being joined by Sharon Tasman of HT Bizlaw, who's making her positive ripples in a very unique way. Sharon is on a mission to help women in business to get legally protected without the overwhelm because you're not too old and it's never too late to get paid what you're actually worth. So hey Sharon, thank you for being with us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Hi, Linda. Thank you so much for having me. It's good to see you again. It's been a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I know, I know. Sharon, you are a repeat um guest on this podcast. Uh, you have so much great insight and information to offer uh business owners that I was I'm so happy and thrilled that you're back again. Um, so before we talk about our topic, paid, protected, and profitable, can you just share a little bit more about you know what who you are, what you do, who you serve?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Sure. So my name is Sharon Tasman, and I've been an attorney for more than 30 years, which is dating myself just a little bit. Um, I do work with some larger clients, but my mission is to help women and members of the underserved communities really level up when it comes to business and not be afraid of legal and understand it's their small business best friend.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Well, that's fantastic because that's what we need because we're, you know, it's it's hard to know. Am I protected? Am I not protected? What am I supposed to be doing? You know, I started my business um with just making a website. I made my own. You and I, we both are former programmers from a former, right? So I was like, I could do this, right? And and I blogged and I put stuff out there and I just threw stuff out. I wasn't copywriting it, I wasn't thinking about if the stuff I was giving was was, am I giving advice? Am I whatever? Like I had no idea. And I think a lot of people just start their businesses like that. We just throw things out. And then, you know, I had a friend who had um a podcast, and this is way back in like 2010, way before podcasts were like a big thing. She had a podcast and she had a logo and a name for her podcast, and she found someone else had stolen it. The exact logo, like they just found her logo, which had the name, and they're like, that's and they made their business name that in an in another state. And she had such a hard time with that. And you know, so like we've we don't realize when we're a new business owner that things happen. We get our stuff stolen, um, is one of our big pain points, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

And you you are not alone, right? I mean it really, uh it's one of the things that I hear most often is that um new business owners they do exactly what what you did, which is they focus on doing the work, they focus on getting clients in and getting that first money in the door, and they just figure they'll fix it all later, but they don't realize that they're setting themselves up for so many problems down the road that would be easier and cheaper to just get it right in the first place. And one of the biggest ones is protecting your brand. That they don't they don't use copyrights, they don't trademark logos, and they don't know how to protect their work when they're going to like potential client meetings or potential partner meetings, and it can really come back to bite them.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, um, that's a big, that's definitely a big pain point. Another, another one that happens, and I know I have a friend who this happens in her business all the time. The clients keep changing their mind what they want. They go, Oh no, it's not that after you've done all this work. Like, oh no, can you change it? And they just expect you to keep doing it for free until you satisfy them, which who knows when or if that's ever coming.

unknown 5:08

All right.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

So I think maybe the worst phrase, if not one of the top three worst phrases you can ever agree to in any sort of agreement with a client, is that you will do the work until the client is satisfied. When you use that word, it and and women especially, and nothing against us, but we're socialized to be nice, right? You want to be nice. Of course the client's gonna be reasonable. And sometimes the client really just doesn't know what they want, but sometimes they are deliberately going to drive a truck through that phrase. And that phrase is what if you agree to perform your services until the client is satisfied, you have legally agreed to unlimited reperformance of services until the client says they're satisfied. You have given up all control, and it is something that I see over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Woo, yeah. And how about um, I know this um earlier you and I were separately talking off camera. Um, you mentioned that when we talk about our ideas, the things that we own, ideas, because we just talk about branding, but now let's talk about these ideas, things that that we don't even recognize we have that we we might own, and how they can be exploited by companies saying they're, oh, I'm looking to hire, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Tell us a little more about what so it's again, sometimes clients just don't know better, but unfortunately, a lot of times there are businesses out there that will, you know, get pitches from multiple potential consultants or other service providers, not because they're not sure who they're gonna hire, but because they actually have a real problem that they phrase as a hypothetical and they say, Oh, could you give me an example of how you would solve this? And they're doing this to get the answers, and then they hire nobody and fix it themselves, or they already had the person they really intend to hire. But there are things that you can do, there are ways to protect your pitch materials, and this is also one that I see all the time is people get their work product stolen and not paid for.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Right. And and when we, you know, when it's stolen, there's a there's a a bunch of stuff that we, you know, I think I'm like, oh my God, I would be so overwhelmed. So so all right, so let's start just talking quickly about like, okay, what let's just start with one of those problems because okay, so let's talk about like branding. Okay, your branding. How do you protect your branding?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Okay. So the first thing first is please, everybody, if you're starting a business, set up an LLC or some which stands for limited liability company, or something which separates you from the person as you from your business, so that you're protecting your money separate from your business money. That's number one. Yeah, but that ties directly into branding because before you pick your name for your business, before you register for an LLC with a new name, do a Google search and make sure no one is already using it. Because they might be somewhere else in the country. So before you invest the time or energy to pick a company name for yourself, make sure one, no one's already using it, but before you go public, get every social media handle before you go public. So I have officially a longer name for our law firm. It is the Health and Technology Law Firm, LLC. But it was way too long and we decided to shorten the branding to HT Bizlaw. Before we made a change publicly, we got every social media handle. So if people look, we are at HT Bizlaw on Facebook, on Instagram, uh, LinkedIn, uh, TikTok, YouTube, Blue Sky, because you want to lock up the brand before you go public with it. So that's the first thing is literally get all the social media handles, get the domain names, get the misspelled domain names so that nobody else can steal it from underneath you. And the other thing is, is if you come up with a great logo or a design, file a trademark application for it. Because that way you will have federal trademark protection on the brand.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

So, but let me ask you a question as a business owner. Okay, so say I do that, then it's my job to go always be searching to see if someone's stolen my stuff. Because no, who else is gonna do that for me?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Unfortunately, yes. As the brand owner, it is your obligation to keep an eye out for things. So, so once a month, run a Google search. Is somebody else using it? It write that Google search one time or just type in the name of your business, it will show up, right? It's it's something that you can do in five minutes once a month, or once every two months. And then if you see that, you can send them a cease and desist letter. You can say, you may not be aware of this, but this is mine. Um, if you've got written materials, you should be copywriting them. Put a copyright symbol on anything. So if somebody accidentally borrows something from your website because they didn't know it belonged to you. Well, um, and and if you see me looking skeptical, it's because, well, people know. But people, sometimes innocent, sometimes not so innocent. They they forget that there's a difference between I can find it on the internet and I'm allowed to use it. All right. So let's let's make it clear for people. Put that little copyright symbol on all your pages on your website, on any brochures you hand out. It's it's really simple and it's free. Right. In a circle, the year and your name.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Right. So that okay, so mine's on my footer of my website. So it's just on the footer, which means it's gonna be on every page. Exactly. And every year I go in and update the the the year. Year. Okay. What about if I created something in 2010? Like I wrote a blog post 2010 and I want to just republish it. Do I do copyright 2010 through 2026 and then have to like how do you do like if it's something that you are republishing exactly the way it was, you can leave the original copyright on it.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

But if you've created the new version, just change the copyright year. Okay. When you use something like that range of years, is if something has actually been constantly being updated throughout that time.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Or if it was a um collaboration or a um compilation. Let's say you wrote a book that was a compilation of 10 different chapters that were 10 different articles written 10 different years. Maybe you use that range, or you just put the cut the current one on it.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Right. Okay, interesting. All right, let's talk about um something else. Okay. For instance, okay, so when someone, when you're before you actually go start your whole business, before you've done this thing, these beautiful checklists you've given us like get your LLC, get all your handles, like all those things. You're like noodling stuff around, you're making some notes, you're like maybe creating some things, having some ideas, maybe sharing them with other people. Tell us about that. Yeah, look at the face you're making.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Sorry that that I just could not help but cringe. Yes. Okay. First, anything that you create, if it's something that's called a work of authorship, which means reports, drawings, software, artwork, sound recordings, um anything that you create, use that copyright notice on it everything, every page, every time. Um, and I literally mean every page. So if you're creating a pamphlet, if you look at any of my pamphlets, I have a copyright notice on every page. You know why? In the past, when we had physical books as our main source, one copyright notice was enough because you weren't ripping the books apart. Right. But now that so much is electronic and digital, it's too easy for people to take screenshots to extract a page. So let's make it hard for people to claim they didn't know that it wasn't theirs to use. Use the copyright notice all the time.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Right. Or watermark, maybe electronic watermark?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yes, you can use a watermark if it's something that you're really worried about people stealing. Often I people are doing this on social media. They'll put a watermark on back of posts or if they have a theme. Um, I actually use a copyright notice in all of my social media posts because it's mine. I've worked really hard at it. But you want to get in the habit of accepting of understanding that you are the copyright owner, even if you don't use that copyright notice. Copyright law means that the author instantly owns it upon creation, even if they did nothing else. But what it means is the author owns it. So if you were working on something and noodling it with a friend and the friend was helping you, the friend owns whatever they did, not you, unless they assign it to you in writing. And this happens all the time. You were a programmer, I was a programmer. Did we ever not talk about what we software with friends who were also programmers? And people would give each other ideas. I mean, think Microsoft, think Apple. It was started by friends in a garage. You gotta make sure that you own it if it's gonna be your product at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Right. Mm-hmm. Okay, absolutely. Awesome. Okay, let's move on to um the the issue of clients keeping wanting you to do keep and keep do stuff for free until I am satisfied. Okay. Um, so how can we like prevent that? Something about like what more detail, more specificity? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

So the the first thing is is literally before you sign a contract, one, hopefully, when you're working with clients, you're signing your form of agreement. Because unlike poker or negotiating or gambling, where the phrase is whoever puts the money on the table first loses, when it comes to contracts, most of the time, whoever puts the contract on the table first wins. Because you're starting from your position. And if you're providing the services of any kind, you're a coach, you're a consultant, one, make sure that you don't have the phrase, I will perform to the client's satisfaction, whether it's in your form or what you sign from somebody else. That's step one is literally don't say that. The second thing is uh the biggest source of disagreements is vague. Is you aren't you think you're providing one thing, the client thinks they're getting something else. It's that lack of understanding, of real clarity, that causes the problems. So make sure that you are being specific. Describe exactly what you're doing, if you're the one providing the services. Describe it in ways that are black and white, yes or no. Was it 10 pages? Did it include these things? Did it not include those things? And you know, women are we've been socialized to be nice. It's just we're we don't want to seem pushy, we don't want to seem not arrogant, but just I'll use pushy, right? We don't want to seem difficult. So we're softer in how we describe things. But the reality is describing what you do in clarity. I use the word SMART, it's an acronym. It stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Describe your way, what you do in ways that are so crystal clear that when the client reads it, they're either gonna say, That's what I thought, or no, that's not. And don't you want to know that before you sign the contract? So being clear helps both of you from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Okay, so that's beautiful. And let's talk about like specific examples. So all right, I'm a I'm a life coach. Okay. So I do not in my contract, I don't guarantee any outcome because the it's like being a personal trainer. Like you're gonna show up and we're gonna meet 11 times, we're gonna meet over this period of time, whatever. You know, I say you're going to get all your recordings, you're going to get this this trailer board will have open communication. You're going to get like this other works, you know, worksheets that I give them. Like they're going to get all those things. Um, and I give them a little shift happens guarantee, meaning if after our first session, but before the second one, you say this is not for me, you get a full refund, okay. No one's ever taking me up on in 17 years because they're all love the movement. Um, but I cannot um guarantee any outcome. It's like a personal trainer. If you don't get on that treadmill or lift those weights, I, you know, you've got to do your part. I give them um, you know, reflection activities, growth activities, things to do in between our meetings. And I d and whether they do them or not is up to them. So how um, you know, how what if they're not satisfied? Like I've never had that happen, but I could see, you know, coaches being like, hmm, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

So when it comes to coaching, you're almost doing the reverse. You are specifically stating in the contract that you are not guaranteeing any outcomes, that you want to have language, coaches need languages more around what they're not doing, right? Which is, I am not guaranteeing results. You want to include language that has the client acknowledge that they are responsible for their own decisions, that if they don't do the work, then no progress will happen. You want to make it clear that any examples of past performance are only examples and they're not guarantees of results. Where you are need to be specific is how many sessions, the fact that sessions start on time, and that if someone is late, you don't go longer just because they were late. You want to be specific about, and this is true for almost all coaches, your your rescheduling policy, your cancellation policy, so that the things that can be controlled, date, time, hour, you have it clear. But yeah, when it comes to the satisfaction, that one you it's almost impossible for life coaches to have, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yeah, I can see that. Um, and I do have all those in my contract. This is not a substitute for mental health. This is not, yeah, you're not yes. Um, and I did have the help from an attorney when I did create my coaching agreement for sure. And I acknowledge with you know, you have to initial all each of these things. So you I know you read them, you know. So I have things like that. Um wait, I just had a another question, but I forgot what it was. Maybe it'll come to me. Um, oh, I know. Okay, here's the question. So, for instance, I do have a cancellation policy. Please give me 24 hours notice, you know, or you forfeit the session. But I haven't generally enforced that because it's okay and I don't mind. By not enforcing it, have I invalidated my own contract? Like, what happens if I don't enforce it?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

So hopefully your contract contains something called a waiver clause. There is a clause that says, just because I waive something one time doesn't mean I give up the right to enforce it later. Oh, very smart. Okay, got it. Yeah, that literally language you put, you can put in a contract and it in all the contracts I draft, it's standard. So, yes, it's people come to me and they say, but but you know, I I want 24 hours notice, but but if it's an emergency, I I might be willing to give them a shorter time. I'm like, great. Put the time you want, and then it's fine to be more lenient than your policy states. Just make sure it's in writing what the time is and have that waiver language.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Gotcha. Okay, really good. Okay, let's see. I'm gonna just reference my notes here. Um I love that you brought up the yes or no um is like the litmus test. That's um that's very clear. And so now just clarifying, like for coaches, that you you're bringing up something else, like well, what it's not is equally as important as what what there is, you know. So thank you. That's that's fantastic. All right, super good. Okay, so um I always like to ask um okay, so you you talked like Always talk about a turtle step, the smallest step someone can take, like something really small. And you mentioned put a copyright notice on everything you create. Um, so for instance, I'm talking right now, and we're gonna take the clips, and you're talking, we're gonna take clips, we're gonna put them out on our social media. So, does it does the clips, the talking, does it does it the copyright go like on the bottom of the clip, or does it go in the social media? Um, you know, I'm here's what we're gonna be talking about, or here's something, and then the clips, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

So there are a couple different ways to do it. One is to put a copyright notice in a screenshot, like basically a slide at the end that you keep on the screen for a couple seconds. Um and I would couple that, and that that's what I do when I'm doing videos, but I also copy cop couple it with a copyright notice in the caption, if it's whether it's Instagram or YouTube, I'll have the copyright notice in there as well. You can watermark and overlay a copyright notice at the bottom. It's it's a having any one of them makes it clear, right? It's having that process, being able to say, I always do X in my social media. There is always a copyright notice. If somebody has stolen your work, it makes it much easier to go to approach Instagram or to approach YouTube to try to file a takedown notice, or to send a notice to the person who just stole your work. I always suggest starting friendly. You may not have realized it, but and then you get progressively less friendly as you go if they don't take you down. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Interesting. Okay, and okay, here's something else. I'm um I I'm a scanner. Okay, scanners, as that is, and I will give credit to Barbara Shearer who coined that term uh in any of numbers of her books. The one I read was called Refuse to Choose. Um, and a scanner is a person with a wide diverse set of interests and a low tolerance for boredom. So we go from thing to thing. It is not ADHD. I have a child with ADHD, certainly not that, very different.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

I have a wide variety of interests too. You'd be surprised.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

And people who uh are scanners have have a gift of synthesization. We grab, we have our fingers and toes in 20 different things, and we grab information from all those 20 different things and we synthesize it and stir it all together, and then we can apply it to each of those 10 or 20 things. The problem with being a scanner who synthesizes is I'm not sure what came from where most of the time. So I'm like, well, I remember the term scanner came from Barbara Shear, but I might be explaining another concept because I teach tools and concepts in my group coaching and to my clients. And sometimes I'm like, I'm not sure who said this, or I'm not sure, but it just comes to me at the time, and it might be identical, but most likely it's probably just my interpretation of what I read or heard or whatever. Is that an infringement? Probably not.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

And I will explain. Copyright law protects the expression of an idea, the literal words, the literal drawing. Copyright doesn't actually protect ideas. So that's why you can have 10 different books that are biographies of the life of Abraham Lincoln. Sure, he was born here, he was died this year, he was shot here, and he lived there. Those are pure facts. No one can protect those because that's pure fact. But how each person wrote about the life of Abraham Lincoln, that's what's protectable. So in your case, if you are getting ideas from multiple places, but you create together, you're not literally copying words, but you've read this, you've read that, you've pulled all this together, you've created the Linda Booker system, right? We'll just call it your system, that you wrote from scratch yourself. Even if you pulled ideas from different places, if you are not literally copying, then you're the one who's got the copyright in that compilation of all the ideas. So, yes, that is protectable. Now, if you're citing somebody's book, give credit where credit is due. If you are using um logos or trademarks of major companies, give credit where credit is due. Um in books, when I, you know, I I've written a book and I have a copyright attribution, I have an attribution page which says, you know, brand names are the property of their respective owners. So if I'm referencing, for example, I use Apple a lot as a reference, right? Apple or their iPhone. If I'm ref referring to it, I make sure it's clear that it's theirs and I'm using their protected work, but I'm not claiming it's mine. Okay, but I'm using their logo. But in your case, if you're pulling things together, different ideas, that's protectable by you.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Okay. And then one final, but this is a big one. What about AI? Everyone's using ChatGBT, Claude, whatever. And you're like, make this sound better. Like, here's what I want to say, make it sound better. And and to me, that's at least personally, at least it's what I'm saying. But other people are like saying, write this for me. Use your whatever's out on the internet, write it for me, and then they just publish it as is, which personally I think is ridiculously lazy. I'm sorry to offend people who are doing that to save time, but it's lazy and it's not you, and I want you. And when I can tell it's not you, I'm clicking off bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

But anyway, that's so I was actually literally teaching this in a webinar last week. So the the short answer is if AI creates it itself, even if you wrote the prompt, you cannot claim the copyright in it. The copyright law is clear, there was it's gone up to the Supreme Court. It's clear as of today. Today, the day we have you know had this conversation because copyright law and AI, it's changing. The law always is behind catching up when it comes to digital age. If AI creates it itself, even if you wrote the prompt, you do not own it. Because copyright requires human creation. Patent requires human invention. If, however, what you've done is used AI to revise a draft that you've already written, you um you asked it to help you create an outline, you took that outline and then you wrote the substantive manuscript. You are providing that human creation, the human authorship. Can I give you a black and white this percent? No. Because there is no answer yet, is exactly how much is enough. But the more AI does, the less it's protectable. The more you a human does, the more it is protectable. That's where the law is right now.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Yes. So if you use it like you would might use a person to help you do an edit, to do a proofread, to um do a spell check for you, to verify some things for you, great. That's fine. But if it's writing it from scratch and you change nothing and you just go, ha ha, I'm done here.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Um and should we be nervous that something we typed into AI to help with is now out there in the ethers unprotectable?

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Well So there are things you can do. You can one have private AIs, which are not sitting out in the internet. You can um inform AI that it may not use what you're about to tell it to train on, that it is for your private use. It is more or less listening to you about that. Um, but one of the ways is in fact, large companies will have private instances of AI where it's on their servers, it never goes out into the world. Um if you've got something really, really, really sensitive, why are you uploading it to AI? Some of this is a little bit of buyer beware. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. Because sometimes you're like trying to help form, you've got an idea and you're like, you know, let's outline this, let's work through this. Let me okay, now I I'm, you know, like if you're writing something, right? Okay, now that's gonna be my chapter one. I see how I want to do that. Okay, that's great. Let's use that same formula to create chapter two. Here's the things I want to say, and we're gonna use the same structure, whatever. And you're having AI help you do that. You're giving your ideas to AI. Um, so I guess, yes, for a big company who can afford a private AI in their own servers, that's one thing. But for most of us solopreneurs who are trying to create things and want a little bit of help because we can't do it all, or we're choosing not to do it all.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

What I would say is um, depending on the AI model, some of them offer more or less protection, whether or not you're on a free tier or a paid tier. And the paid tiers aren't necessarily expensive, so it's something worth looking into. Um also, I would, you know, it in a way, there's a little bit of the same question of when you hire somebody to help you. You trust that they will live up to the contract and that they will not steal your ideas. There's always a little bit of faith involved.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Right. Right, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

But yes, if I when I work with an AI, one, I do not have it do original creation for me ever. Uh, I do not have it write anything related to law because I have just for fun asked you to try to create certain contracts where I was very, very specific. Um, and it you would usually give me something that was the opposite of what I asked for. So it if I'm asking it to proof a social media post, great.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Would I ever ask it to do something highly confidential and sensitive or clients focused? Never. Right. Yeah. But I'm professionally paranoid for a living. That's my job.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

That's your job.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Sometimes it bleeds into my personal life, but you know, my husband is understanding.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Right. There you go. Wow. Okay. We've covered so much. This has been such an amazing, amazing conversation. Thank you for allowing me to ask my questions. Of course. I'm sure other, you know, small business owners and people in service industries, um, you know, this has been super, super helpful for. So let's talk briefly before we go. I know people are going to be like, okay, that's a lot. That's a lot to know. You keep giving me more food for thought. And I'm sure there's 10,000 more things I didn't think of, but that's not our job as small business owners. That's your job as an attorney who supports small business owners. That is, in fact, my job. That is, in fact, your job. So I always ask, you know, if there's something you want to share with the audience, but I happen to know you got a new book. I would love if you would tell us about the new book because I really think that would that's something that small business owners, it's easy to do. Like a book's easy. Like, let me just get the book, let me see, you know, is something gonna walk me through things in a way that I can that slow it down that I can understand and see. Then I'll decide what I need from there. So I love a book as a first start. So please tell us about your book.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Thank you. So I wrote a book called Paid, Protected, and Profitable. The longer title is The Small Business Owner's Practical Guide and Workbook to Contracts, Protecting Your Work and IP, and Getting Paid What You're Worth. It is all the things that small business owners have asked me for decades. It is what I teach in my webinars, but it is all consolidated into one book that is literally me whispering in your ear in guide form, in sort of the teaching form. But also it is literal workbook pages, checkbook, logbook pages, so that you can find all of the things that you've created in your business that you should be charging for, that you could be charging for. It's workbooks on helping you, workbook pages, how to figure out what you own, how to calculate what your taxes might be, making sure you own the things you own. It talks about what goes in a client contract, what goes in contracts when you're working with potential partners. It's designed to be plain English, non-scary, not overwhelming. It's it's the book I wish I had when I started my business. Now, granted, I already was a business lawyer, so I did have a leg up. But, you know, even when I started my when I started this law firm, I actually sat down with a friend who had done the same thing and started her practice in her area with other people before me. You need my goal is to be just like she was for me, that person in my ear, is to be in other people's ears. It's available on Amazon, it's available in Barnes and Noble, it's available in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia. It came out on August 4th. And it really is designed to be practical, not theoretical, not teaching you to be a lawyer, but the things you need to do as a small business owner, but for the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

That's fantastic. That is so fantastic. That's probably something, you know, I think what I shall do, this is kind of a good idea, is I am a mentor for new coaches to bridge that gap between they know they've learned their craft and they know what they're doing, the craft. And but they're that is not a business school, even though there's a few business courses, certainly not everything they need. Um, but this is probably something that would be a great thing for me to gift those clients. I think that would be a beautiful thing. So I'm definitely I'm gonna get one for myself for sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

You don't have to get one for yourself. I will send you a signed copy.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Oh, a signed copy. Oh, thank you, course. Oh, that's fantastic. I appreciate that very much. Great. Okay, and then um shall uh you know I'll put the link in the show notes of how to get this. Is it like a link directly on your website or however you want to do it? You want to give me the link.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Um I will give you the link. They can go right to Amazon and purchase it directly on Amazon. Um, it will also, it's also on my website, but the easiest thing is just they can just go right to Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Okay. All right, give me that link. I'll definitely put that in the show notes, everybody, so that you can take this, you know, this nice, easier step of what do I need? What are the checklists, whatever. And then if you get into any questions, you're like, you know what? I thought I wanted a DIY, but I think I want Sharon to do this for me because that's right.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

How to reach me is in the book as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

All that's there. Perfect. Oh my gosh. Sharon, this has been such a great conversation. I appreciate it very much. Um, and I'll like I said, I'll get everybody out, everything out there for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

And I really appreciate the chance to speak with you again. It's been a few years, it's been nights catching up.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

I know it has been. Well, this this new book you got is fantastic. So it was definitely a reason to catch up and and talk more through these things. And the also the fact that things are changing, especially when we talked a few years ago, AI was not in our conversation, right? So, yeah, so much, much more going on all the time. So we'll definitely reconnect and and do it again and maybe next year. So, all right, well, everyone, that's our show. I'm Linda Booker, guiding people to know their worth, to reconnect to their gifts, and to create lives that are fully aligned and deeply impactful. And if you're sensing it's time to bring your life into deeper alignment, you can explore what that looks like at lindabooker.com where you will find direction and clarity and a link to book a complimentary clarity chat with me. And if today's episode sparked something for you, please like it and share it and subscribe so you don't miss what's next. And because you know, next next week we'll have another uplifting conversation which is designed to support your growth. So until next time, make sure you've made this conversation worth your while by fueling the spark that it ignited.