Today I want to talk to you if you are an Influencer, content creator or UGC creator. Whether you are making money or not, if that is your intent, you should always take the time to make sure that you and your content is protected. There is nothing more important to protecting the long term success of you and your brand.
In this episode we will cover:
- UGC, content creator and influencers LLC’s
- Contracts
- Intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks
- Website protections
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The Legalpreneur Podcast is advertising/marketing material. It is not legal advice. Please consult with your attorney on these topics. Copyright Legalpreneur Inc 2022
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Episode 222: Legal Protection for Influencers Transcript
Andrea: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Legalpreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Andrea Sager, founder and CEO of Legalpreneur, Inc. As a serial entrepreneur and someone that works exclusively with small business owners legally protecting their business, I’m dedicated to covering common legal issues faced by business owners, providing you with the business knowledge you need to catapult your businesses growth and showing you just how some of the world’s most elite entrepreneurs have handled these legal and business issues themselves in true attorney fashion. The information in this episode is not legal advice. This is for informational purposes only, and you should always consult with your attorney before implementing any of the information in the show.
Andrea: [00:00:46] Hello there. Welcome back to another episode of the legal podcast. I’m so excited today to chat about influencers, content creators and how you have to legally protect yourself and your business. But first, let’s get into Dream Bigger and the legal protection playbook. Got to let you know about Dream Bigger. Don’t forget, we now have our two payment option can pick a payment plan for dream bigger. We want as many people to be there as possible. And so we’re making it more affordable. Make it in two payments or one. It’s up to you. That option is still available until we sell out. We do still have some VIP passes. It’s probably going to be selling out in the coming weeks. So get your ticket now before they’re gone. And we also have our legal protection playbook, $37 to learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know about the legal side of your business. You get their three part course, which is talking about planning your business, preparing and growing and scaling three part course. Plus, there are some bonuses in there. One of the bonuses, which is probably the best I know, it’s the best bonus. It is a one on one call with me to chat specifics about the legal side of your business. I know everybody has a different business, so you have different needs for everything. So we’re going to have a one on one call chat specifically about your business.
Andrea: [00:02:17] Now, there are limited spots available because there’s only so much time in a day. So if you want to make sure you have that one on one, call with me. Go get it. Now it’s at www.thelegalpreneur.com. It’ll be there in the show notes. Okay. So getting into protecting yourself as an influencer or content creator, this can be UGC user generated content. Or if you are straight up just creating content to post on your own page doesn’t matter. This is all applicable to you, and if you’re online creating content, not yet getting paid. This still applies to you, so make sure you listen up. So number one. You always need an LLC. I don’t care if you’re not yet making money from the content that you’re creating. If that’s the goal to make money, then you want to make sure that you have an entity. Go back and listen to all the episodes about LLCs, but I very biased. I think you should be an LLC from the beginning as soon as possible. I’ve done a ton of episodes on this, so go back and listen to those to get the details about why an LLC and why as soon as possible. But the LLC really quickly, it just protects you personally. So if you accidentally do something when you’re building this brand, you’re still going to be personally protected from liability from any debts of the company. So have your LLC.
Andrea: [00:03:46] Even if you’re not yet making money. Also, once you start making money, once you start getting these deals from brands or whoever, you’re going to receive contracts, those contracts. I highly suggest getting them reviewed by an attorney because you probably don’t know all of the language that’s in there. And I have seen so many influencers, so many content creators get screwed because they sign their life away for something that they didn’t need to sign their life away for. And next week, I’m going to do expand a little more on what specifically you need to look out for in an influencer contract. Like make sure you don’t sign your life away on this, but always make sure that you have an attorney actually review the contracts to ensure what you think is in the contract is actually in the contract and to make sure that there’s no other red flags. I see it happen all the time with influencers. They are wondering why X, Y, Z happen. And I go and look in the contract. I’m like, Hey, it actually allows for it in the contract. So before you sign the next one, chat with me first. Now, not only are you going to be getting these contracts from brands, but if you are paying somebody to help you build your brand, you should have a contract any time. Money is changing hands, you need to have a contract. So whether that’s a VA, a virtual assistant or a photographer or whatever it is, always make sure you have a contract.
Andrea: [00:05:25] You always want to make sure that stuff is in writing. Make sure you have the proper rights for this or that, whatever is going on. And I know it sounds like a lot with contracts. A lot of times when you are an influencer or content creator, the bulk of it is contracts. So that’s why I really encourage a lot of influencers. Hey, the Legalpreneur membership is actually perfect for you. It’s perfect for this type of business because you constantly have contracts coming at you, so you want to make sure those get reviewed. And so the Legalpreneur membership, we cover that. Now, not only do you need to make sure you have contracts, you have your entity, but intellectual property. And I know we cover this recently about legal names, but if you don’t have a specific brand name per se, it’s a personal brand. So they just know you by your personal name. This is why you need a trademark. You need a federal trademark for your legal name and not only your legal name. Like there’s other things in your brand that you probably need a trademark for. And so you want to make sure you get a business audit done. We do that in the membership, Legalpreneur membership, but getting a business audit done can help identify what you currently have in your business that can be protected with a trademark in a copyright.
Andrea: [00:06:48] Copyrights are your content. So all the videos that you’re creating, all the the photos you’re posting, those are all protected with a copyright in your long form captions. More so on Instagram or if you’re a blogger, all of that content is protected with a copyright. All. Everything you create needs to be protected. So you have to make sure you are taking the necessary steps to protect yourself. Now as an influencer, as a content creator, if you have a website going back to contracts, you always want to make sure you have the proper contracts on your website terms and conditions in a privacy policy. Those always need to be there no matter what. Now. Not only do you want to make sure you have these things in place, but you really want to make sure that you have access to an attorney in order to run things by them or ask questions like, Hey, is it okay if I do this? Hey, is this okay? That’s why I highly encourage the Legalpreneur Membership. Don’t forget for the month of September we do have. The Free LLC filing or waiving the fees for that. So if you sign up for the Legalpreneur membership and then on the SEP, we’re covering the LLC stuff, the LLC fees only for September, though it doesn’t matter if you pay monthly or annually as long as it’s the 12 month commitment.
Andrea: [00:08:11] And the reason for that is we just want to make sure you are truly legally set up from the beginning. So make sure that you are getting all these things taken care of. I don’t care if you are an influencer on your first deal or your 1,000th deal and you’ve never had an attorney look over a contract. I’m going to if you’ve if you’ve had hundreds or thousands of deals and you’ve never had an attorney look at any of your contracts. I can probably guess, like there’s probably a 99% chance there’s some kind of breach of contract somewhere because I’m guessing one of those brands somewhere wanted complete exclusivity for X amount of time, and probably you’ve probably broken that. It might be messy, but it can always get cleaned up. Just make sure that you’re getting the stuff taken care of before the brands find out there’s an issue. That’s the big thing. You want to make sure it’s all cleaned up before the brands finds out there might be an issue. So let me know if you have questions. If you have any specific questions regarding influencers, content creators reach out. TikTok Instagram. I’m around. And I hope to see all of you at Dream Bigger. It is coming up very, very soon. I’m very excited. I hope you are just as excited. And I’ll see y’all on Wednesday. Okay. Have a good one.
Andrea: [00:09:36] Here at Legalpreneur, we’re committed to providing a supportive legal community for all business owners. I know how scary the legal stuff can be. If you found this information helpful. I would be so grateful if you could share it with a fellow business owner. And quite frankly, it doesn’t cost anything to rate, review or subscribe to the show. Your support helps me reach more listeners, which allows me to support more business owners in their entrepreneurial journey. Have any questions or comments about the show? Feel free to drop me a line on Instagram, I promise. I read all of the messages and comments and if you want to be a guest on the show or know someone that would make a great guest, simply fill out our application form and a team member will reach out if we think it’s a good fit. I’ll see you in the next episode.
