BFD S1EP20 | Fire Drill 19: Before a Contributor Ownership Fight Starts
Clean transcript (no timestamps in source). Light edits only: speaker name corrected to Tamsen, paragraph breaks added, dog interruptions bracketed.
You hired a designer for your course. A friend helped you build your workbook. Your virtual assistant has been writing your emails for two years. A coach co-hosted your podcast. Then the thing takes off in the best way possible. And somebody says, wait, isn't part of that mine? That's a Business Fire Drill. and we want to run that fire drill before the fire starts. I'm attorney Tamsen Horton. I've been putting out business fires since 2011. I wanna make sure you don't get burned, your business doesn't get burned, and nothing is burning down around you.
Today's fire drill is fire drill number 19, before a contributor ownership fight starts. Last time, we talked about your name. This time, it's about who owns the things behind the name.
Here's the part that surprises people. Ownership disputes almost never, ever, ever happen over things that failed, that never took off. They happen over the things that worked. Nobody is fighting over a course that sold three copies. They fight over the one that made six figures. So the time to settle who owns what is when nobody knows yet whether it will work. That's when everybody's friendly and nobody's money is on the line.
Now, here's how every drill in this series works. We run the drill before the fire starts, D-R-I-L-L. And as we're running it, we're building your fire extinguisher. Each step leaves you with something tangible in your hands that protects you. Because when your home is on fire, you don't leave, go to the store and buy a fire extinguisher. You're calling in the professionals. You want, when your home is on fire, to go immediately to the location, pull out the extinguisher and take care of it so it doesn't become a bigger issue. So by the end, you will not have just listened to this episode. You'll have a list of what to do and really, more importantly, a reason to do it today. And if the fire has already started, I've got you. I'll show you exactly what to grab.
Let me ask you a really important question. Why do you have a smoke detector in your house? Is it so you know about the fire before the curtains go up and the house burns down? Me too. Now, here's my follow-up question. Where is the smoke detector in your business? It's just as important. You live there. You occupy that space. It's supporting you financially. You probably don't have one because nobody told you that you needed one. So I've got you. I built one for you. It's 11 questions. It takes about three minutes and it shows you which fires your business is most likely to have, including the ones that are already smoldering. The link is in the show notes. Please go turn it on.
So let's say the smoke detector goes off. That's your fire alarm. Maybe it's telling you that something is smoldering around who helped you create something. Great, that's what it's there for, it is doing its job. Here's what that alarm looks like, sounds like, and acts like when it shows up in your business. Now, ideally, the alarm goes off in your own head at the very, very beginning. That's the moment you decide to make something and you decide who's going to help you make it. That's where this fire gets loaded way, way before anyone thinks it will be valuable.
But if we skip that, here's what it sounds like later on. [aside: dogs in the background] A former collaborator emails you and says, I think I'm entitled to a share. Or a designer says you can't use your own logo without their permission. or someone you paid says, I made that, so it's mine. Or you go to sell your course, your book, or your business and a buyer asks, does everyone who worked on this have a signed agreement? And you realize, you don't know. Almost always, it comes down to the same thought. We'll figure it out later.
Now, you've heard the alarm. Here's the question that now decides how this goes. Are you reacting or are you responding to the alarm?
Reacting is assuming that paying someone means you own what they made. It's assuming that because you're friends, nobody would ever make a claim. It's starting the work on a handshake and a, hey, we're good. And if the fire has already started, reacting is firing back an angry email or posting about it on social media or telling them you have no rights before you've really looked into anything.
Responding, on the other hand, is knowing what you actually agreed to. It's having it in writing and it's making that agreement before the work starts while everyone is still on the same side.
So let's run the drill. D-R-I-L-L. Remember, we run this before the fire starts. And with each letter, we're building one piece of your fire extinguisher.
D, don't react. Don't assume. Do not assume that payment settled it. Don't assume that being friends settled it. Don't assume work for hire is automatic. It usually isn't. Here's the rule of thumb in the United States. When someone creates something, they own it by default. That includes a freelancer or a contractor. Paying them doesn't automatically transfer ownership. For that, you generally need assigned writing. Now, employees are different. What an employee creates for the job usually belongs to the employer, but contractors, collaborators, and friends are not employees. And if two people create something together with no agreement, they can end up co-owners. That's the opposite of what most people want.
So here's your first piece of fire extinguisher. No paper, no project. Nobody starts creating for your business until the agreement is signed. That's it. That's the whole habit. And it takes about as long as saying it.
Now, here is where I watch this go up in flames every single day. You're also watching this go up in flames. You might just not have known this was the fire. Let's move over to Instagram. You start seeing creators, influencers, accounts, literally ignite overnight, add 100,000 followers, make obscene amounts of money, change the trajectory of their life. That looks incredible on the surface. What you don't see, what your eye might not be trained to look for is that person scrambling under the hood and quickly hiring people that they have not vetted and hiring those people to create additional things. That's what I see when I look on Instagram and watch something exploding because I can predict that in three months, six months, nine months, or 12 months, that same creator is going to come back. They don't always do this, but some do and tell the rest of the story. [aside: dogs in the background]
R, record everything. Now we build your second piece, a list. Write down every person who has ever contributed to something you sell or something you're building. The designer, the editor, the writer, the assistant, the guest expert, the co-host, the friend who helped with the workbook. Next to each one, write down what they made, when they made it, and what you have in writing, even if the answer is nothing. That's your contributor map. And nobody in your business has one because nobody told you that you needed one until today.
Write it down. Digital is absolutely fine. I use Notion for my own digital infrastructure, but for anything that could bring down your business, keep a paper copy too. If you get locked out of your email or your digital password manager, you don't want to be locked out of your own records. And here's a bonus. When a collaboration starts, email or text yourself a note. Who's involved? What the plan is? And the date. Dated records are very powerful. if anyone ever asks, what did we agree to again?
I, identify the real risk. This is where we build the third piece of your fire extinguisher, matching the right agreement to the right person. Go back to that list and ask two questions. First, how central is this? Is it your flagship course, your signature method, your logo, your brand, or is it just a few social posts? The more central, the more it matters that it's nailed down. Second, what kind of relationship is it?
Is it a contractor you hired to make something? Then you need an agreement that says you own the work in writing, not just work for hire, but real assignment language.
Is it a guest or someone contributing a piece like an interview, a lesson, or a template? Then you need an agreement that says what you can use, where, and for how long.
Or is it a true co-creator where you're building something together? Then you need an agreement about who owns it, how revenue is shared, and very importantly, what happens if you part ways.
Three different people, three different agreements.
Now, you don't have to draft these yourself, but you need to know what they have to say so that you can tell whether what you've been handed says it. It's like my dog. When I got my dog, the breeder said, learn to bathe your own dog. Don't just book the groomer. Not because you'll never use a groomer, but because you need to know how to bathe your own dog if something happens. Same thing here. You may use a lawyer, you may use a template, but you need to know what belongs in there.
And here's where this gets easy. The contributor agreement is included in the legal bundle generator. The legal bundle generator that I created is one corner of your legal infrastructure. And I think of legal infrastructure as a triangle, three corners. The legal bundle generator is one. The purchase terms generator is another. Those are your privately facing legal documents. The legal bundle generator is your publicly facing legal documents. And Business Fire Drills. The very thing we're doing right now is the third. Each corner holds up the other two. And a triangle is one of the strongest, most stable shapes there is. That's what I want your business standing on. The link to the legal bundle generator is in the show notes if you're curious.
L, lead with calm. Here's your fourth piece, how you bring it up. Most people never ask for the paper because they're afraid it will feel awkward. They think it signals distrust. It doesn't. Here's the line. I put an agreement in place with everyone I work with. It protects both of us. That's it. Anybody you want to work with will say, great, send it on over. And if somebody pushes back on clear ownership language, you just learned something very valuable before the money, not after. If it's true co-creation, this is also where you get an attorney's eyes on it. Splitting ownership of something you hope will be valuable is not a place to wing it.
In this regard, and I'm going to just give you a little public service announcement. I created Business Prenup more than a decade ago when my own business partnership literally crashed and burned in a matter of hours. We unwound two and a half years worth of work. It was emotional. It was draining. Thankfully, we were like a week away from formalizing so many pieces. So I have a real heart, a real soul, and a mind for true business partnerships. And if I can't talk you out of it by asking the right questions, you might just make it. But there typically is a much better way to achieve what you want to achieve without having a true legal partnership. They can be an incredible mess.
Back to our drill.
Lock in the lesson. And here's piece five. Make it permanent. No paper, no project. Say it with me. No paper, no project. It's very simple, right? No paper, no project. It becomes a standing rule in your business. Every agreement you sign has ownership language in it. Every new collaborator gets the same simple process. And once a year, look at your contributor map, fill in any gaps.
If you're wondering what clear ownership language means, here's the short version. Who owns what was created, what the other person can and can't do with it afterward, whether they can use it in their own portfolio, whether they get credit, how is money shared if there is a share, and what happens if you stop working together. That's it. If those questions have written answers, you're ahead of most businesses.
One note, I'm talking about the United States. I'm a lawyer in the United States. If you or the people you work with are in other countries, the rules can be different. So that's another reason to put it in writing.
So look at what you just built while running the drill. Number one, no paper, no project. Number two, your contributor map. Three, the right agreement for the right person. Four, a simple way to ask. And five, a standing rule so it never depends on your memory. That's your fire extinguisher. And you built it while you were running the drill.
Now, if your smoke detector found something smoldering or somebody has already said, I think that's mine, here's what you grab. The drill does not change. You still run it. You're just running it with smoke in the room. don't concede and don't deny not an email not a text not in a post pull every agreement every email every invoice every message about what you did agree to write down the real history who made what and when be honest about what you do and don't have in writing and get an attorney's eyes on it before you respond. What matters is what was actually agreed to, not who worked the hardest and not how it feels. If it's a messy one, a few things may be burning at the same time. No written agreement, a payment that was never documented, and a logo already in everything you publish. That's why we do this before the fire.
Now, remember, you live in your business. It's supporting you financially. So where's your smoke detector? If you're not sure whether who helped you build your name, your contracts, your access, that's exactly what the smoke detector is going to show you. It's 11 questions. It takes about three minutes. Go to the link in the show notes use it. The only thing I can't do is take it for you.
Now you have three options. Option one, do nothing. Everyone who has ever helped you create something has a signed agreement with clear ownership language. You're good. Two, put this drill in place. That's the right choice if any collaboration has ever happened without what we just discussed. No paper, no project. Three, send this to a friend who is building something with someone else's help and hasn't put it in writing. Any of those choices are valid. Pick the one that's right for you today.
Your free homework for today. Make your contributor map. Everyone who has helped you what they made and what you have in writing, even if the list is short, especially if the list is short.
So tell me your story. Have you ever worked with someone on a handshake and later wondered, wait, who owns this? No names, just the story. You can send it through the feedback link in the show notes.
We covered your name, branding, in the last fire drill, Fire Drill 18. If you missed it, it's linked in the show notes. And if you want the contractor side, Fire Drill 3 is a good pairing.
And coming up next, we have Fire Drill 20 before user-generated content creates trouble. Because when your community creates content in your space, who owns that?
Follow the links in the show notes for the smoke detector and everything we covered. Because business moments are predictable. Your panic is optional. Run the fire drill before the fire alarm goes off.
