We all want to create and share content respectfully and properly online. But sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw the line between inspiration and imitation. Let’s go over some of the basics of copyright law, what it is, what content falls under that category, and how you can use other peoples’ content, legally. I also discuss the fair use exception, what it is, and what content falls under it.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:56 - Understanding the gray areas of copyright law
2. 07:11 - What content falls under copyright law
3. 10:38 - How you can use someone else’s work legally
4. 15:48 - Fair use laws and how to use them
5. 22:35 - Making sure you have something original to say

RESOURCES:

1. How to Legally Share Content [blog post] - https://www.samvanderwielen.com/how-to-legally-share-content/
2. Copyright Basics PDF from US Copyright Office - https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
3. Fair Use Guide - https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
4. Episode 1. Community Over Competition is BS: Tips to Navigate Your Competition in a Healthier Way

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Instagram Reels: You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em – or sometimes a bit of both all at once. If you listen to all the people out there, you’re bound to hear both sides of it, that Reels are a waste of time and also the only way to grow your business. Let’s cut through the noise and figure out how you can create content that actually moves the needle while using your valuable time effectively. In this episode, I detail 10 tips for Instagram Reels focusing on what’s best for your business, not what’s going to get you the most views. Because growing our business is what we’re all here for, right?

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:00 - The mistakes people make when it comes to Instagram Reels
2. 07:20 - My background with Reels
3. 13:17 - Using music legally
4. 16:01 - Thinking evergreen with Reels content
5. 17:21 - Letting people get to know you
6. 19:17 - Getting people to read your captions
7. 23:39 - Making your point in the caption
8. 26:15 - Having fun while making it educational
9. 28:31 - Don’t take it too seriously
10. 30:40 - How to find trending audio
11. 31:59 - Get inspiration from related entrepreneurs
12. 33:57 - Save your Reels to your phone
13. 35:35 - Answering your questions and sharing my Reels process

RESOURCES:

1. Get $100 off Louise Henry's Uplevel With Asana course (what I used to get SO organized in my business) here: https://samvanderwielen.krtra.com/t/QwGmfvsPA2Xc [affiliate link]
2. IG Music Legal Tips from IG — https://about.instagram.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/updates-and-guidelines-for-including-music-in-video/
3. IG Reels Audio tips from IG — https://help.instagram.com/270447560766967/?helpref=hc_fnav
4. FB Music Legal Guidelines — https://www.facebook.com/legal/music_guidelines

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Online businesses aren’t immune to the laws, regulations, and rules that traditional brick-and-mortar businesses have to follow – despite what some “armchair legal experts” may have told you in a Facebook group chat. On top of that, there are some rules that apply specifically to online businesses and the ways that they grow. In order to make sure you are legally protected in ALL aspects of your business, let’s go over six specific things that online businesses need to do to be run in a legally legit™️, safe, and protected way.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:49 - The similarities and differences between starting an online business and brick and mortar
2. 09:38 - How scope of practice changes when you’re working online
3. 12:43 - Why you must legally protect your website
4. 18:11 - The contracts you need to have in place
5. 23:46 - Why you need business insurance for your online services
6. 27:07 - Registering your online business
7. 29:49 - How to take online payments properly

RESOURCES:

1. 6 Legal Must Haves for Going Virtual [blog post]
2. Watch my YouTube episode "How to Send/Sign Contracts Legally"
3. Episode 2. Scope of Practice for Coaches (What You're Legally Allowed to Do)
4. Episode 10. What Your Website Needs to Be Legally Legit
5. Episode 8. What Makes a Good Contract? How to Make Sure You're Protected
6. Episode 7. The First 3 Steps to Legally Protect Your Business (Where to Start!)
7. Episode 9. How to Register Your Business to Protect Your Personal Assets

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Self-talk plays a huge role in our lives, especially for anyone who’s putting themselves out on the wire in a public forum like social media. Today, we’re talking with Katie Horwitch, a New York City-based writer, speaker, mindset coach, and the founder of WANT (Women Against Negative Talk), a platform and podcast that offers tips, tools, motivation, and inspiration to help people move forward in life by shifting their negative self-talk. We talk about how you can improve your own self-talk, how it impacts your life as an entrepreneur and on social media, and her career journey to the point where she’s ended up today.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 05:43 - How Katie incorporates acting into her current work
2. 14:42 - How Katie’s self-talk practice began
3. 32:55 - The ways social media affects self-talk
4. 49:28 - Ways that Katie builds resilience online
5. 55:27 - How to improve your own self-talk

RESOURCES:

1. Visit womenagainstnegativetalk.com to listen to the podcast and join Katie’s newsletter!
2. Find out how to work with Katie at katiejoyhorwitch.com
3. Follow Katie on Instagram: @katiehorwitch
4. Listen to Episode 2. Scope of Practice for Coaches (What You're Legally Allowed to Do)

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Let’s take a trip back in time to when I first started my online business. What was the marketing landscaping looking like and what was going on in the online business world at that time? I’ll dig into the details in the episode, but I can tell you one thing for sure: things are so different today! I’m going to share what was working when I started my business, what’s no longer working, the marketing strategies that DO work now, and look ahead to predict where things are going. It’s the past, present, and future of marketing for online businesses!

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 01:53 - Why you need to get cozy with constant change
2. 12:28 - The trends that dominated the online marketing scene when I first started
3. 19:19 - Why true authenticity is a winning strategy
4. 25:51 - The importance of community depth over audience size
5. 27:08 - Shifting from a launch-focused strategy to evergreen products and programs
6. 29:16 - Putting a face to the name of your business
7. 33:59 - How micro educational video content is the new hotness
8. 36:19 - Why doing things on your terms works best

RESOURCES:

1. Listen to Episode 14. How to Market Your Evergreen Product (+ Which Platforms You Should Be On!): samvanderwielen.com/episode-14
2. Listen to Episode 6. Staying Nimble as an Entrepreneur: samvanderwielen.com/episode-6
3. The Lifestyle Edit (Naomi) thelifestyleedit.com
4. Olive & June Nail Kit - get 20% off (affiliate link): http://fbuy.me/v/samanthafoss

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Wouldn’t you love to create a marketing strategy that sells your product on autopilot and amplifies your impact in a BIG way? It’s not as far-fetched as you might think! You can market a product that sells itself, all the while building a snowball effect without having to burn yourself out on social media every day or reinventing the wheel every time you want to make a sale. The universe doesn’t magically take your creation and put it in front of the right people with the wave of a wand – don’t worry, that’s how I thought it would work at first, too. 😆 I’m going to share my two-path process, organic and paid marketing approaches, how to build proof of concept, and the content you should be creating to not only find your ideal clients, but get them to click that ‘buy’ button.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:41 - Adjusting your expectations about how long it takes to gain traction
2. 05:43 - Where to go next after marketing to your immediate network
3. 07:21 - All about organic marketing
4. 10:15 - Should you build a free product to bridge the gap or not?
5. 20:14 - Creating content that attracts your ideal customer
6. 25:02 - Using a marketing system that works, instead of just doing what everyone else is doing
7. 28:16 - When to start running paid ads - hint: it’s probably not as soon as you think

RESOURCES:

1. Get your ticket to Sam's live “From Startup to Soldout” masterclass series Nov 3-5 here: www.samvanderwielen.com/fsso-oyt
2. Listen to Episode 12. How to Find Clients for Your Online Business (without ads!) here: samvanderwielen.com/episode-12
3. Listen to Episode 13. How to Create a Program That Sells Itself here: samvanderwielen.com/episode-13

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

I’ve experienced both success and failure when it comes to starting a business. I’m not ashamed to admit it because knowing what works and what doesn’t puts me in a powerful position to give advice on what differentiates the two. For me, one of the things I focused on in a different way that helped lead to my business’s success was the product. I have eight ways you can create a product that’s going to become your bread and butter for years to come.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 04:39 - Why you should keep your product offerings focused
2. 07:12 - How you can show up differently than others in your niche
3. 10:03 - Making sure your product works for your customers
4. 20:25 - Offering ONLY what your customer needs
5. 23:38 - Pricing your product effectively
6. 26:51 - How to build your product to scale over time
7. 28:50 - Beta-testing your product
8. 34:36 - Selling your full-price product

RESOURCES:

1. Get your ticket to "From Startup to Soldout" here: samvanderwielen.com/fsso-oyt
2. Try Canva here: canva.com/join/tbq-wth-fpr
3. Create a product, website, or program with Kajabi w/ a 30-day free trial here: app.kajabi.com/r/fLP3TYLV/t/6lnttyqz
4. Watch my free legal workshop '5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business' here: samvanderwielen.com/oyt-workshop

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

This week, we’re kicking off the first in a three-part series to help you make the transition from a startup business owner to soldout and scaling. We’re going to start things off with the basics: how do you find high-quality, paying customers – wherever you are in your business. We take a look at what some of the biggest companies are doing and scale them down to fit your business, finding a unique value proposition, getting to know your ideal client, and how to establish an expert status and use it to find customers.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 03:16 - Why most business owners approach finding clients backwards
2. 09:59 - Where I went wrong in my first business
3. 19:33 - Finding a market for your ideal clients
4. 27:40 - How to differentiate your business
5. 36:57 - Leaning into your expert status
6. 40:36 - Creating content geared towards your ideal clients

RESOURCES:

1. Get your ticket to From Startup to Soldout here: samvanderwielen.com/fsso-oyt
2. Checkout Sarah @ Former Lawyer: formerlawyer.com

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

I am in the early stages of writing my own book, and it is quite an adventure. I have put off writing this for so long because of all the worries I had around what had to be in place before I could write. When I started looking into where to start, I got one piece of advice: “Start by talking to Richelle Fredson.” We made a connection, and now she’s my writing coach and consultant on this project. Richelle’s going to share all the information I wish I had known before. If you have ever wanted to tell your story but you don’t know where to start, we’re going to guide you through the mucky misinformation out there, tell you what a book coach is, what they do, and the three different types of book publishing. She also offers three things that you want to do now if you know you want to write a book someday.

In this episode, you'll hear…

1. 09:24 - What Richelle did before book coaching
2. 14:23 - What distinguishes a book that has long-term sales
3. 18:15 - How Purposeful Platforms was born
4. 24:42 - What is a book consultant or book coach?
5. 29:13 - The three publishing options and how they are different
6. 37:18 - How to know which publishing model is right for you
7. 45:00 - Teaching what you’re writing about
8. 48:27 - Three things to do now if you want to write a book
9. 53:10 - The way the industry has changed, and predictions for the future
10. 57:32 - When to start writing your book

RESOURCES:

1. Richelle's Website: purposefulplatforms.com
2. Follow Richelle on Instagram: @richellefredson
3. Listen to: Bound + Determined
4. Apply for Richelle's group program: Book Proposal Blueprint
5. Listen to Episode 5 of On Your Terms®: What to Do When a Client is a Pain in the Tush
6. Read: Dying to Be a Good Mother by Heather Chauvin
7. Read: Untamed by Glennon Doyle

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Being legally protected is going to help you build your business. With legal protection, you can be more comfortable and confident with putting yourself out there. In this episode we’ll talk about why your website needs legal defense and the three pieces of legal protection you absolutely need to go pro. I’ll share exactly what you need on your website, where to put it, and how it works to keep you protected.

RESOURCES:

1. GET THE BUNDLE WHILE IT’S ON SALE: https://www.samvanderwielen.com/last-chance-sept/
2. SAY HI ON IG: https://instagram.com/samvanderwielen

CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER