I couldn’t believe it when a coach told me this…

Do you ever wonder when you’re piecing together legal documents that you randomly found online whether they’re even legally protecting you?

Get this – The other day one of my clients (who is a functional health practitioner – let’s just call her Amy) told me a client came to her and said:

“There’s something going on with my gut. I feel bloated and gassy and I don’t know why it’s happening. I put together my own gut plan from some articles from random sites I pieced together. Do you think that will work for me?”

Amy said she almost fell off of her chair. I couldn’t believe it either! (Maybe it’s the health coach in me… but I was surprised too!)

When I asked Amy what she said in response to her client, here’s what she said:

“Um, I give you kudos for doing your own research and patching together tips from different articles, but that’s not going to get you very far because you may not know what you’re looking for, or what the cause of your gut health issues are, or what you need to do to remedy the situation.

You may need lab tests, certain supplements, or even need to eliminate certain foods from your diet.

You get an A for effort for TRYING to find answers on your own, but you’re probably not going to solve your gut issue without working with a professional trained in gut health.”

Amy also told me that what she ACTUALLY wanted to say was:

“Are you freaking KIDDING me? This client can’t be serious that they think I’m going to say ‘’why yes, I’m sure that will work for you.100%.’”

Can you relate?

Do clients come to you and say the same thing?

Well, as much as I hate to say it, clients come to me in the same way too, wanting me to tell them that what they’ve cut and pasted off the internet will totally protect them.

You’re a smart person. But that doesn’t mean you should know how to write a legal document.

No one expects that of you – so you shouldn’t expect that of yourself.

Lawyers are trained to know what NEEDS to be in your legal documents – and to catch what’s MISSING. (That’s why we go to 3 years of law school after college!)

It’s why it takes most lawyers a few hours (and it’s more expensive) to revise your contracts than to have you use the ones we’ve written for you.

Because looking line by line for what’s written correctly – and what’s missing – from your document takes a lot longer than you would think. (Sometimes up to 2 hours per document – no joke. Just ask any lawyer.)

Even your coaches who give you “sample” documents can get it wrong.

I’ve seen it over and over again. Your coach is coming from a good place in trying to save you money by giving you samples. But even they know the info may not be correct….

They try to cover their buns by telling you: “This is just a sample. I’m not a lawyer. Have this looked over by a lawyer.”

But, they’re doing you a disservice by giving you a sample which you think MUST be “good” or the coach wouldn’t have even given it to you in the first place.

Sadly, those “sample” documents can actually COST you more money later, because those “contracts” have mistakes.

Here are some examples I’ve seen for real:

• A functional medicine coach gave his students sample “consent forms” and “releases” – when that won’t cover you when it comes to payments, refunds or cancellations. And also “consent forms” aren’t the right documents to use as a coach. You’re not getting “consent” from your clients like doctors get “consent” from patients in medicine.
• A business coach gave her clients a “coaching agreement” which didn’t even have a place to include what’s specifically included in the coaching program or the cost of the package. The coach said that she wanted her clients to have “flexibility” in programming and pricing and had no idea that excluding that information is exactly what hurts the coach and makes that contract hard to enforce.

(BTW, if you’re a business coach giving your clients legal documents in your programs, please stop doing that. Definitely educate them that they need to have legal documents in place, but don’t give them samples – full of holes you can’t see – because you really aren’t protecting them even though I know your sole intention is to help them.) #psa #legallove

I’ve been a lawyer for over 25 years, including 11 years working specifically with online coaches and biz owners.

One of my superpowers is translating legalese into plain English – but still using language that protects you.

Here are my best Legal Love™ Tips for you:

• don’t write legal documents yourself.
• don’t cut and paste random paragraphs together.
• don’t try to do it on your own.
• don’t use “sample” contracts from your training programs.

Save yourself the angst, time, worry and energy and do these things instead:

✅ Use easy-to-use DIY Legal Templates.
✅ Talk with a lawyer about your specific needs.
✅ Realize legal documents don’t have to be crazy-expensive (especially if you use templates created specifically for your profession.)

Not sure what you need? Talk with my team in a free 20-minute Legal Chat here.

Know what you need to upgrade your legal docs? Use my DIY Legal Templates here to have your bases covered (that’s why I created them for you).

We’re happy to help you make sure the legal documents you’re using actually protect you.

That’s why we do what we do… the legal stuff… so you don’t have to worry about this part of your business. We’ve got you!