48. How to protect your brand + visibility with Autumn Witt Boyd and Chanteé Hallet
SUMMARY
You've got that entrepreneurial fire. You have a logo, a social presence, a menu of offerings, maybe even several years' worth of doing business under your brand name. The question is: Do you have legal protections in place to defend all of your hard work from business relationships gone sour or deliverables not met?
India talks with Autumn Witt Boyd, founder of The AWB Firm, and Chanteé Hallett, lawyer, and team member at The AWB Firm, to address some of the most common legal considerations associated with doing business as a service provider, a brand, a thought leader. Whether you're a content creator, a coach, a podcaster, a digital designer, or anything in between, this conversation offers robust legal insight for professional endeavors in every stage of existence - and doesn't require a law degree to interpret.
In this discussion:
How contracts legitimize and safeguard your business
When to use contract templates for simple, thorough protection
Trademark considerations every brand needs on their radar
Scale your business with advanced legal support
The number one recommendation to take for overall business security
QUOTED
Autumn Witt Boyd
“My whole philosophy around contracts is they should be even-handed. They should protect both sides. Really, the goal is everybody knows what they're getting into on the front end.”
“If you do nothing else for your business, our number one legal recommendation is to be using contracts.”
Chanteé Hallett
“I just want more people to realize that the business piece includes the legal piece.”
“I want to tell everybody that the money is going to be there and that to take your time in developing your brand and your business to avoid having to double back in the future and really clean up a big mess that's going to ultimately lead to you losing money.”
India Jackson
“Take a look at your contracts that you have now and ask yourself, do they fit your current business model?”
“There's just so much power, even in just a contract, to create the change and be able to back up the changes that we say that we want to see into tangible actions that add up.”
ARTICLE
You’re putting yourself out there. You’re igniting that fire. Now, how do you legally protect your brand visibility?
Good question! At Flaunt Your Fire, we work with clients doing brand refreshes, rebrands, launching a new brand and brands that are out there in the world, speaking their minds, and using their thought leadership for change. We thought it time to dedicate a conversation to the legal side of brand visibility. There are no better humans suited to answering questions from our Pause On The Play The Community members than Autumn Witt Boyd, founder, The AWB Firm, and Chanteé Hallett, lawyer, and team member at The AWB Firm.
India’s conversation with Autumn and Chanteé is one that you’ll want to bookmark and return to with each new milestone your business or brand reaches. It’s filled with vital legal information that doesn’t require a law degree to digest.
Before diving in, FYF audiences should note that, although Autumn and Chanteé are licensed to practice law in the United States, this conversation is not intended as a substitute for legal advice and should be considered as information only.
Meet Autumn and Chanteé
Autumn is an experienced lawyer, based in Tennessee, who provides sophisticated legal strategy for online businesses and host of Legal Road Map podcast, which teaches business owners how to protect their rights and stay out of legal hot water.
The AWB Firm is the go-to for businesses selling online courses and digital downloads or coaching services. But dare we say it, they're the go-to business for companies selling anything, including influencers. Autumn has helped Amy Porterfield, Being Boss, Melissa Griffin, and many more, including Pause On The Play and Flaunt Your Fire - grow and protect their online empires, side hustles, and solo entrepreneurial projects. The AWB Firm features a robust library of customizable and affordable contract templates. Pay attention to those keywords - customizable and affordable - as they're not often encountered in the legal space.
Chanteé Hallett has always had a passion for intellectual property matters and helping creatives protect their brands and rights. She certainly puts that passion to good use in serving clients at The AWB Firm. Chanteé is licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey.
Common Legal Questions Answered
In the world of business, there's so much legalese to consider, and you don't know what you don't know. What are some of the initial legal considerations that just about any business or personal brand should pay attention to?
Chanteé starts by reminding the FYF audience that the answer is multilayered. "You definitely need contracts. We could start there. When you're working with multiple businesses or just individuals, you're going to want to make sure that you're protecting yourself and you're protecting your business. So that's number one. Number two, if, in fact, you have kind of developed your brand over time, you may want to start considering trademarking to just make your brand more visible and protected. And then copyrights."
Make sure you have an agreement with everybody that you interact with when it comes to your business! At FYF, when we begin working with clients, we notice that they get so caught up in logos and websites and social media that they've put all this time and energy into their offerings or their brand but haven't set up any legal protections to secure their work!
Can you tell our FYF audience more about your customizable contract library and what some of the options are for someone just getting started?
"I know that there's a lot of individuals in business, entrepreneurs that may not have the money yet to actually afford an attorney," Chanteé explains. "Our templates actually provide those individuals with the protections that they need in the meantime, before actually getting the opportunity to hire an attorney."
Everything from contracting with an independent contractor to hiring a photographer to outsourcing your website content creation is addressed within The AWB Firm resource library. Full transparency: we use these contracts at FYF to protect us as we enter into agreements with contractors and entities supporting our business.
How did The AWB Firm go about developing these resources and deciding which contracts to offer?
"When I first started the firm, I was just doing one-on-one services," says Autumn. "What I found like Chanteé said was, even though...my prices were pretty low...it was still not affordable for everyone.” Instead of spending money they didn't have, most of those clients operated without the protection that contracts offered. "I saw a need, and I started taking the contracts that I was working with people on one-on-one and just turning them into templates."
The fill-in-the-blank style guides clients through the process of writing contracts to address various business issues based on the solutions that Autumn had already created within her practice. "I was able to take a lot of those lessons learned and put them like every time I would see a new problem, I would add a term to the contract. Over the last six years, the templates have really evolved, and now...they're pretty robust. Like, they're not short," she laughs.
One of the things India appreciates being a client of The AWB Firm, aside from the sheer scope of topics covered in the contracts library, is that she's notified of the latest version every time there's an update. "It really does allow you to consider things that maybe you hadn't even quite considered in your business yet," she says, "as far as how you're structuring your pricing or what rules you may have in place in your private communities and things like that."
To that end, Autumn and her team have created options within each contract to cover a myriad of situations. Can you talk a little more about how you decide which options go into your contract templates?
"Everybody's business is different, and everybody's situation is different," Chanteé begins. "We wanted to provide enough options for not only our clients but for individuals that want to purchase contracts so that they can...customize it as they want to, which I feel is great because it lets them control how they want their terms to be for their business."
"That's so important, because, I won't name any names [but] I've invested in a couple of other, really big names out there as far as offering contract templates in my over ten years of being in business and many of them, the contract is written just one way," India says. "I think it's such a beautiful thing that your contracts can really work for any type of photographer or any type of speaker. Even your speaking contract has really stood out to me as somebody who is using that for when I speak [and] also using that for when we hire speakers to come into Pause On The Play The Community and to give guest expert trainings.
As entities grow, the entrepreneurs or business owners behind the brands might begin on one side of the visibility equation, then transition to the other, hiring speakers to support their work or goals. Are there any significant considerations that someone should account for when thinking about the legal side of their brand visibility?
Autumn is quick to respond. "One thing thatI think people sometimes jump into a little bit too early is trademarks." She uses Flaunt Your Fire - "a great name, by the way" - as an example. "Let's say you come up with a creative name for your business or a product. We recommend that the first thing you do is run just a basic search to make sure that nobody else is using it because what you really want to avoid is stepping on somebody else's toes.” What we are looking for is “How can we avoid an expensive mistake?"
Autumn suggests simple investigative tactics like running a search via the US Patent and Trademark Office and conducting a Google deep-dive. Think third and fourth-page searches rather than top-most hits. Social media and domain name searches are also wise at this point.
"If somebody else already either is using that domain or has it parked, that's a little bit of a red flag that you might want to check into that a little deeper." She points out that the US has what's known as a race system for trademarks. "So, the first person to use a trademark with a particular set of products or services, they win the race; they get all the rights." That's why, even if a trademark isn't registered yet, you want to triple-check if another entity is using it because they could still have what's called common law rights. "And they could still kind of come out of the woodwork later and cause you trouble."
Have you ever seen someone successfully talk or buy the trademark holder out of that name?
"Yes," she says, adding, "and, sometimes those are big, big dollar transactions." So, do thorough research first, folks, and follow those investigative steps!
When is the best time for brand and business owners to start investing in protecting their trademark?
Chanteé says, "If you're just starting out with your business, you're gonna want to wait a little bit for people to really recognize your brand and to make your brand really visible so people can identify your slogan, your whatever-it-is, your logo, your name, and associate that with your business. So we typically tell our clients to wait anywhere from anywhere from six to 12 months just to kind of give you the opportunity to continue to make your brand more visible."
Are there any potential mistakes or misconceptions that people have when it comes to their trademark?
Autumn piggybacks off of Chanteé's answer. "First of all, not doing your search. Second, is registering too early." Filing a trademark registration is expensive; not doing your research is a costly mistake. "I mean, it's several thousand dollars if you're working with a lawyer. Even if you're not, the filing fees with the US Patent and Trademark Office are hundreds of dollars, so it's not nothing, and then it takes about a year or longer to go through the whole process. What we have found, sometimes, is by the time we get this certificate, [our clients] have already changed the brand. Like, it didn't resonate with their clients, or they've pivoted, and they're doing something a little different. And so the brand isn't totally relevant to their new thing. So that's why we recommend waiting just half a minute to make sure you're going to stick with it cause we want you to get that return on your investment."
Chanteé agrees. "You just want to make sure that you're putting in the time and the effort in building your brand so people can recognize who you are."
For folks who aren't aware of US Patent and Trademark Office requirements, can you share more about categorization and defining the spaces in which a brand will operate?
"Not only do you have to pick what categories, what products or services you're selling, but you have to prove to the USPTO that you're actually selling things," explains Autumn. "So, if you say, 'I want to put my trademark on a t-shirt!' you have to show them a picture of the t-shirt for sale. Or if you say 'I'm going to do coaching services!' or 'I'm going to do graphic design!', same thing. You have to show them how people can buy that, whether that's on your website, or if you have a brochure or something like that."
The requirements are stringent. Unsurprisingly, the USPTO is thorough in its collection of fees. "I want to have an empire. I want to do all the things," says Autumn. "[But] you pay more money the more things you're doing." And those filing fees can quickly add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars!
Autumn offers an additional consideration for anyone starting their trademark journey. "As you're choosing your brand, your company name, or your logo...making sure that it stands out, that it's not just what we call generic or descriptive, like the more common words that you're using in your brand name." If you're a business called Branding for Creatives, you may have chosen words that describe the who, what, and why of your business activity, but… "The US Patent and Trademark Office and our trademark laws do not like those kinds of trademarks. So, the more you can choose words that maybe suggest what you do, like Flaunt Your Fire - it's really good trademark - the more you can think of things like that, that aren't obvious or that lots of people probably aren't using, the more protection you're going to have, the easier it's going to be to enforce."
At FYF, we guide folks through a process that prompts more creative, descriptive names because we want your business to rise above rather than fit in with the rest.
How does The AWB Firm support its clients in their trademark process?
"Our goal when we work with a new client is we really want to be that trusted advisor, like a legal partner for your business. We want to help you make smart decisions; we're not order-takers," says Autumn. “We want to look at your whole business and make sure that we see what are your overall goals like where are you trying to go with the business so that we can help advise you on the best steps to actually get there."
The AWB Firm begins every client relationship with a legal strategy session covering macro considerations before the team starts locking down specifics. "We're working with you for a year or more to put all these protections in place," Autumn says.
Both FYF and POTP are in growth seasons, and so are many in our audience. What are some of the biggest mistakes people make or things that they're not considering when they're growing fast?
Not having a contract with everyone you do business with. Chanteé refers everyone back to the beginning of the conversation “I think that, because we're moving at such a fast pace now and because of COVID and everything like that, everybody's dipping into the entrepreneurial pot. I don't think they're thinking of the legal piece; they're thinking of the business piece," she says. "I just want more people to realize that the business piece includes the legal piece, and you definitely need a contract with everyone, literally, everyone for almost every transaction. With everyone you're doing business with, you're gonna want to consider having some sort of legal protection, or else it's really up in the air."
Autumn directs her suggestion to entities in year five or greater. "Often, we're kind of cleaning things up that maybe when they were in that like really rapid growth that they weren't doing," she says. She reminds business owners that, under copyright laws, contractors - not the business owner - retain the rights to everything they create for you. Having rights ownership in writing at the beginning of your relationship just makes everything smoother. "Maybe you don't need to own all the rights. Maybe it's fine, but you want to get it in writing so that if you have to refer back to it later, you can."
That's a juicy bit of advice: know exactly what rights are being given to you as far as the visuals or the deliverables beforehand! Additionally, take the time to review the contracts you have now and ask yourself, do they fit my current business model? If not, it's probably time to head over to The AWB Firm's resource library.
Speaking of those contract templates, we've been working with The AWB Firm about adding legal protection that supports diversity, equity, inclusion activities. What can businesses and brands do to infuse some of their values into their contracts?
"You and Erica were so helpful with sharing some of your experiences that we weren't necessarily seeing, like what's happening in private Facebook groups, where are people behaving badly that we need to go ahead and put that in the contract?" Autumn explains. "My whole philosophy around contracts is they should be even-handed; they should protect both sides. And, really, the goal is just so everybody knows kind of what they're getting into on the front end. So if you're joining a group program or a membership that you know this is the expectation of my behavior in this group.
Something else we've talked about is non-disparagement clauses and how those don't allow you to speak publicly about your experience with someone if it's negative, how that can almost be like a gag order and it keeps people from talking about maybe coaches they've hired or programs that they've been through that weren't great or were even horrible. So it's been interesting to see how even something that sounds super-boring and like a non-disparagement clause that seems pretty, you know, like bland, vanilla, not exciting but that is having a real impact in our industry. Another thing that we worked on together was the speaker agreement that you mentioned earlier."
Something else we've talked about is non-disparagement clauses and how those don't allow you to speak publicly about your experience with someone if it's negative, how that can almost be like a gag order and it keeps people from talking about maybe coaches they've hired or programs that they've been through that weren't great or were even horrible.” Autumn says it’s been interesting to see how something that sounds as boring as a non-disparagement clause can have a real impact on the industry.
Another example of this is the speaker agreement mentioned earlier. "You're making it known to whoever registers or becomes a member of your program or whatever it is,” says Chanteé,“what they can and cannot do and your program membership...it just lays it straight out.
"We had so many people coming to us and working with us...being asked to speak and they would agree to speak with the verbal agreement that there would be diversity on these panels or diversity for the event," India said, “only to discover after signing the contract that the diversity promised wasn't present once they showed up and legally they couldn't rescind their participation.”
Chanteé says that the new contract template "does a really good job in holding businesses accountable and holding people accountable because that's where we're at; we need to hold people accountable." It's essential to have these terms laid out in writing rather than in a loose verbal agreement.
India agrees. "We've been in a season where many people are wanting to see change of some sort, and maybe their ideas of change might be different. But at the end of the day, I think that social change and living through our values more explicitly instead of implicitly is really on people's minds and radars over the last 365. So, there's just so much power even in just a contract to create the change and be able to back up the changes that we say that we want to see into tangible actions that just add up and add up."
"Creating a speaker agreement with these terms had been on my radar for probably a year or more," Autumn admits. "Everybody was talking about it, and no one was doing it.” She continues, “It was all just happening in conversations. It was very informal. I'm so excited, and I really appreciate you, India and Erica, helping us put the things that you were seeing, that were a real need, into these agreements so that they are now out there for people to kind of put their money where their mouth is."
"I will say firsthand that it's one of the most exciting projects and partnerships that I've had in the last 365, because I can very clearly see the impact that it can have. And I'm going to raise my hand and just be transparent here," India says. "We didn't have this DEI rider in our speaking agreement because we're not legal people. We don't know what needs to go in there, how it needs to be worded, what might be missing if we just randomly added something that doesn't hold people accountable.”
We love seeing more and more businesses allowing space for their members, their podcast guests, their Facebook group members - whatever the entity - stepping into who they are, speaking their mind, being explicit in how they show up. "I think that it's also important that we've seen more and more contracts being made available - such as your podcast agreements or your community agreements that you're offering - that are legally protecting the host to be able to do what they need to do to keep their spaces safe," acknowledges India.
Is there anything that we didn't cover in this discussion that you'd like our audience to know or do?
"If you do nothing else for your business, our number one legal recommendation is to be using contracts, and you do not have to buy our templates," says Autumn. "You can get a legal pad...If you are hiring somebody to do something for your business, write it on a legal pad. Do not put it in an email; put it in a Word doc or a Google doc or something. Get it signed so that you are on the same page. It will help you avoid almost all disagreements or misunderstandings in your business. It forces you to have that conversation on the front end, which may be a little difficult, but you know, we're talking about brand and visibility here; it is going to elevate your business if you're using real contracts.” Professional, signed contracts start the whole relationship off on the right foot. "So contracts, contracts, contracts is my last bit."
"I just want to tell everybody the money is going to be there," Chanteé says, adding, "Take your time in developing your brand and your business to avoid having to double back in the future and really clean up a big mess that's going to ultimately lead to you losing money."
For less than $500 a contract, you can legally protect yourself in a way that, if you don't, might cost you upwards of multiple thousands of dollars that you can't get back, a job gone wrong, and someone coming after you with legal repercussions.
One of the number one things that we talk about in FYF conversations is owning your values and amplifying your influence, allowing yourself to be visible in your authenticity and stand out instead of fitting in. That requires a lot of vulnerability, a lot of courage. Make sure you're legally protecting yourself from the beginning - and throughout every season of your brand.
GUEST CONTACT & BIO
Autumn Witt Boyd
Autumn Witt Boyd is an experienced lawyer who provides sophisticated legal strategy for online businesses. The AWB Firm is the go-to for businesses selling online courses, digital downloads, and coaching services. Autumn has helped Amy Porterfield, Being Boss, Melyssa Griffin, and many more grow and protect their online empires. Side hustlers and solopreneurs love our customizable, affordable contract templates.
Autumn also hosts the Legal Road Map® podcast, which teaches business owners how to protect their rights and stay out of legal hot water. She lives in Chattanooga, TN with her husband, twin boys, and daughter.
Chanteé Hallett
Chanteé Hallett has always had a passion for intellectual property matters and helping creatives protect their brands and rights. And she certainly puts that passion to good use serving clients at the AWB Firm!
Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Chanteé is used to working hard and getting things done. Chanteé graduated from Long Island University-LIU Campus in New York with a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice, and Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina with her Juris Doctorate.
In her spare time, Chanteé loves and enjoys music, podcasts, sports, working out, exploring new places, and spending time with her family and friends.
Chanteé is licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey.
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