How to Build Assets for Your Business

How to Create a Contract as an Entrepreneur

If you have a business, which I know pretty much all of you who are listening do, then you’ll be learning from an expert about how you creatives can get yourselves together! Our guest is attorney Girija Patel, and she is going to teach us all about contracts, something that is absolutely necessary in any business. You creatives may not always think about the law side of things, but doing this stuff correctly gives you the time to focus on creating.

One of the things you must understand about a contract is that it not only protects your client but also you. To protect yourself, you need to have contracts and understand them. Make sure that you know your contracts so well that you can answer any questions on them. Also, make sure that your terms are extremely detailed and that you have a moral clause. Your moral clause will give you the security of withdrawing from any transaction that is not in line with your business standards. Your contracts create legal protection for your business.

Because of that crazy thing we like to call the pandemic, we all had to learn things about flexibility. Some businesses were not flexible at all, but some were. Flexibility can be really great, especially during a year like 2020, but it still causes stress and pain. To instill a little bit of flexibility in your contracts, try including a waiver clause. Remember, however, that flexibility does have a cost. 

Girija and I talk about intellectual property, specifically photos. You may want to use photos from your clients or photographers for advertising. This can get messy because the photographs are actually the property of whoever takes the picture. If you contract a photographer, you can only use their photos if they give you ownership. To avoid that problem, you may want to consider having a photographer as an employee on your team. 

There are so many ways in which your contracts affect your business, and they can really make or break business interactions. Start to consider contracts as legal strategies that are part of your business processes. As you solidify that process, the legal stuff will become the easy stuff so that you can focus on doing the things you love. If you want even more contract advice, check out the podcast!

How to Establish Effective Team Communication

What is your communication style? How do you communicate with others? What communication challenges would you like to overcome? Setting clear communication expectations and understanding why others interact the way they do is so important to the success of a team. Today we are talking with Lauren Sikes, Founder and CEO of Truth Collecrtive all about how honest conversations save us time, energy, and heartbreak. 

Lauren is a learner and a teacher. But ultimately she is a dreamer and always has been. However, somewhere along the way, she stopped dreaming. As a kid, her joy came from sports and she was a gifted young athlete and nationally ranked. However, as the accomplishments mounted, her dreams became clouded by other people's expectations, comparisons, and timelines. Thus began a decades long journey of perfectionism and fear of failure that had her playing small, underperforming, and stuck in a rut. She carried this mentality into her professional career, all to one day realize, she was tired of it all -- tired of not showing up authentically.

Little by little, she began to reconnect with the dreams inside of her. As she sat around the table with her family at home and around the table with her coworkers at work, there were so many untold stories, emotions unchecked, dreams unrealized. She realized we were all fearful of our own potential and possibility. What if we started believing and started cultivating the courage to be less of what has always been and more of what could be? What if we had honest conversations?

So she did something she was not in the habit of doing, she asked for an opportunity rather than waiting for one to come to her. She asked her boss to start a program for teachers and that small program turned into what is her business today.

She created something that she needed. Lauren created a place where people could have honest conversations with ourselves and others. A place where people connect with their potential and possibility both individually and collectively. What she didn’t realize at the time and knows now, having honest conversations transforms the way we live and work. It is liberating and empowering. She knows this because once she started having these conversations — imperfectly no doubt — her life started to shift. Thus began the journey of tapping into potential and possibility through honest conversations and now she gets to teach others to do the same. Lauren is the CEO and founder of Truth Collective, a leadership and culture company that helps leadership teams have honest conversations that transform the way they work.

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome in Business

If you’re a business owner who feels like you’ve lost your power, our guest today is going to come in and shatter all of your doubts. She’ll help you embrace your genius and own your success! She’s really going to be your personal wrecking ball, pulling down all of the fears that are keeping you from the life you want. Our guest is Jen Coken, an expert on imposter syndrome, and we’re talking about how you can get out of your own way and gain the success you want!

I’m sure you all know what imposter syndrome is, but maybe it’s difficult to see it in your own life. There are a few different types of imposter syndrome that Jen talks about, which may help you figure out if and how you are affected by it. What they all have in common is this moment in your past, usually a small experience, that made you feel like you weren’t enough. Unfortunately, this little experience may still be stuck with you and affecting your mentality. To overcome this, you’ll need to examine this experience and how it is affecting you and move past it.

If you’re a high achiever, (and I know you are because you are even reading this) then imposter syndrome may be a bigger problem for you than for most people. The more you want, the more you have to overcome. You’ll face more doubts because you have a lot more that you are working towards. So if you have lots of goals and lots of doubts, don’t worry! It’s natural.

The type of people that don’t get pulled down by their imposter syndrome are the kind of people who love solutions. We’re the solution people, the people who make things work even when they aren’t going our way. So if you’re struggling with doubts, focus on solutions. You’ll get somewhere, I promise, and it will be good.

Imposter syndrome is a big problem for a lot of you because I hear you talking about it all the time. From both Jen and I: we know you can be the powerful and successful women that you want to be. Don’t get in your own way! Take the success and profit you want! If you want to hear more on this topic, listen to the podcast! Watch out for another episode in the next few days!

How to Build a Solid Business Foundation