How to protect your intellectual property with Nakia Gray

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Nakia Gray where we chat about all things legal. Nakia is an Intellectual Property Attorney and Business Strategist who helps entrepreneurs build profitable and protected brands. Armed with her creative legal mind, savvy marketing skills, and extensive education with over 20 years’ experience, she operates Gray Legal PC, a modern and innovative law firm uniquely designed for digital entrepreneurship. This episode is filled with so much great information and some really important things to think about in terms of how we run our businesses.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST: Issues to be aware of when using legal templates Steps you can take to protect your intellectual property What you should include in your terms and conditions to avoid public negative feedback Things to consider when collaborating on events or webinars   THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE:  You need to be on top of the legal side of your business from the very start!   HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS: Why you should never offer lifetime access What you need to consider when offering a money back guarantee The language you use when you offer a Facebook community as part of your service   RESOURCES MENTIONED: Nakia Gray Instagram   TRANSCRIPT Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Do you know what I get on every week? And I record these and I just say the numbers. But 250 episodes. Wow. That is loads. That is so many, that is so much content. It's crazy. It blows me away how these numbers just creep up and if I was smart I would work out how many years that has been but I'm not sure I want to because that's a lot a lot a lot. Anyway This week I have an interview for you which is really really cool. So I have the lovely Nakia Gray on and we're talking all things legal. Now I know if you're anything like me that stuff scares me Like I'm not even kidding you. I do not find that stuff like enjoyable or easy or fun. The same with the finance stuff, these two areas for me are like oh I really have to focus and really have to remind myself to do these things. But The way she talks about it and some of the stuff she says is so so helpful. And it's really really important as small business owners that we have some kind of cover in some way or other. And one thing that was great to talk about is the fact of like the template thing. And I know you know I've heard people say you know you're not allowed to use or not allowed or you shouldn't use templates. You shouldn't just Google a privacy policy and use that. But you know what not everyone can afford to bring a lawyer in. So I talked to her about it and I said "You know, is that Okay? What do you think?" So yeah that's really helpful We talked around that. We talked about things around intellectual property. Also we talked about where you should never say you've got lifetime value of something which is really interesting cause that's definitely a mistake I've made in the past, years ago but I've definitely said you've got lifetime access to something and she talked about why you shouldn't say that. Um because basically it's not true is it because whose lifetime are you talking about yours or mine or what is a lifetime? Does that mean that I need you to still be serving me. I saw someone do lifetime access for a membership the other day which I think is fascinating because courses I can understand why people would say that like even ones. So I had a course of Jasmine Star, That was a really old course. And she actually said I'm checking this course down but you've got so long to download all the stuff. So technically yeah I have had access to that course for you know as long as I need it for a lifetime if you like. So courses I get but memberships I don't like what if that person decided they don't wanna do that membership anymore. What if I don't know just That just didn't sit right with me. Anyway I didn't mean to go on a little round about that. But yeah we talk about that and we talk about lots of other good things. So let me tell you who Nakia is. So Nakia is an intellectual Oh God I knew this was gonna happen I hate reading out and I can't speak when I read. She's an intellectual property attorney and business strategists who helps entrepreneurs build profitable and protected brands. Armed with her creative legal mind savvy marketing skills and extensive education with the 20 years’ experience fyi she does not look old enough. She operates great legal PC and modern and in law firm uniquely designed for digital entrepreneurship which I think is really interesting. Because I know there's professionals that I deal with who don't understand the digital online world. So I think the fact that she does really really helps. Uh she has clients but she also has a membership called lockedandlawyered.co and premier online destination for entrepreneurs to make sure their business is legal legit and overflowing with money. That would all have a bit of that. So okay this is Nakia, she's wonderful I think you're really gonna like her so over to her. Okay It's my pleasure today to welcome to the podcast Nakia Gray. Nakia how are you doing? Nakia: I am doing lovely. Thank you. Teresa: Good. Good. Really good. I'm really excited to have you on. I did a request a while ago in a group we are in for people who talk about different subjects that are not subjects I ever talk about because they are definitely not my zone a genius. So I am really really glad to have you on. So, we always get started the same way by you telling my audience what you do and how you got to do what you're doing. Nakia: Sure. So I am a business and intellectual property strategist and I help entrepreneurs with protecting their brand and also creating protecting and monetizing their intellectual property. So that is my zone of genius. And I have been doing this and I actually am going into my seventh year of in this practice. I've been practicing law for 16 years. I was a litigator before this, Yeah But I kind of moved into I took Marie Forleo's B-School in 2014 and that was like okay I wanna be in the online space. Um and definitely kind of made a shift at that time for personal reasons and some professional reasons. And so I've been at this for a while but just you know in in a different lawyering in a different way but still being a lawyer. Teresa: Yeah Yeah. So explain to me what you did before this. You did say but I wasn't sure I know what that means. Nakia: So I was I used to go to court. I was a divorce lawyer. Teresa: Okay. Oh God I can only imagine. As a divorced woman with a husband who was is also divorced. One was easy, mine was very easy like "Just give me the paper, I'll sign. See you later. Bye." Uh his Ugh Like yeah I can only imagine that job must have like. Nakia: Oh I did, I had a heavy caseload. So I was doing about 50 contested divorce cases a year with custody issues, property businesses like knocked down, drag out fights. And so it just got to be, I mean you've been through it and I and I understand with yours being easy but for some people it's the worst. I was meeting people at the worst time in their lives. And they were going through so much. They were I was really the only person that they felt comfortable sharing all the stuff that was going on. So people were dumping a lot of their trauma on me. And that just after a while it just literally sucked the life out of me seriously. Like it was just it was just too much It was too much. Teresa: I can only imagine like the negativity, the heartache the because it's it there's so much to it. You know there's and you see the worst of people I'm sure like where they're behaving really badly especially when there's children involved. I can only imagine that although it must have been very rewarding in lots of senses to come home every day with all that like weight on your shoulders must have been so much. Nakia: Yeah it was. And it was also just it was it began to be really difficult for me to leave it at work. You know what I mean? Like my husband's phone rings late at night and it's like "Who's that? What's going on? What are you hiding?" You know what I mean It's just like yeah you're listening to people and they've you know it just it was just so much. And then even my kids at the time my youngest was heading into middle school and he said you know he hated that I did this. He and he said mom you know I hate divorce because his friend you know I was looking at it from the adults right. Like all the people that I was representing. But in his little world he was seeing the effects of it on the kids and how bad kids felt and how they were now not able to come to his birthday party...