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34. Using AI? How to Legally Protect Your Small Business with Brittany Ratelle

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In this episode of The Impact Ripple podcast, I'm thrilled to be joined by Brittany Ratelle, Small Business Lawyer, to explore the legal concerns and considerations of artificial intelligence and its impact on small businesses.

Together, Brittany and I unravel the mysteries of AI, shedding light on its accessibility for entrepreneurs while also cautioning against its potential pitfalls. Brittany discusses copyright concerns swirling around AI-generated content and stresses the importance of understanding the data driving these algorithms.

Throughout our conversation, we discuss the ever-evolving landscape of AI in creative industries and the legal hurdles businesses are facing today and how transparency is key.

But it's not all legal jargon and technicalities; we also get into the ethical side of AI. 

From ensuring diversity in content creation to setting clear guidelines for its usage, we cover it all. Oh, and let's not forget debunking those pesky myths surrounding AI and copyright laws – consider them officially busted!

So, if you're curious about how to harness the power of AI while staying true to your creative vision and protecting your intellectual property, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to discover practical tips and invaluable insights to thrive in the ever-evolving world of AI with Small Business Lawyer, Brittany Ratelle.

*Disclaimer: For informational purposes only. Not legal advice. 

In this episode, you’ll:

  • Understand the accessibility of AI technology for small businesses and potential pitfalls.

  • Gain insights into legal considerations and copyright issues surrounding AI-generated content.

  • Learn about the importance of transparency and disclosure when using AI tools in business.

  • Explore the evolving definition of AI and its implications for creative industries.

  • Discover practical tips for navigating copyright, intellectual property, and employment law in the AI era.


Mentioned in This Episode: 

Transcription for Episode 34 - Using AI? How to Legally Protect Your Small Business with Brittany Ratelle

Ashley Cox (she/her)

Welcome to the Impact Ripple podcast, the go-to source for hiring and leadership made simple, doable, and fun for visionary female business owners. I'm your host, Ashley Cox, author, certified HR expert, and founder of Sprout HR. And I believe that you don't have to change who you are to be a great leader because you already are one.


Join me as we kiss uncertainty and overwhelm goodbye and say hello to the tools and support you need to grow a profitable, sustainable, impactful team with more confidence and ease. On today's episode, Brittany Rattell joins me for an informative and fun conversation on understanding, using, and making sure you're legally legit when using generative AI in your business.


Brittany Rattell is a social media lawyer who helps creators and online business owners get legally legit and set to scale. She has helped hundreds of founders protect and grow their brands and has worked with the Bucket List family, Hope Scope, Blogilates, Sharon Says So, Glow Antónimo, Not Enough Nelsons, Dana Bolden, Emma Arletta, Cake by Courtney, Brianna Battles, and Tracy Lit.


In this episode, Brittany shares about how AI is being used in small businesses today, along with some of the potential risks and pitfalls. She explores what we should consider when using AI in our business and how to protect yourself and your work. She also busts some common legal myths surrounding AI so that you can be sure you're not falling into a pitfall.


She also shares a fantastic free resource toward the end of the show to support you in your AI journey that you are definitely going to want to grab. My favorite part of the conversation was how Brittany laid out the legal considerations that we all need to know surrounding AI very clearly so that we can use it in a more effective and efficient way while protecting the businesses we have worked so hard to build.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Even if you are not using AI yourself in your business right now, but you have a team of employees or you work with independent contractors, this is a must listen to episode. Are you ready? All right, let's go. Here's my conversation with Brittany Rattell.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Hey there, Brittany. Oh, welcome to the Impact Ripple Podcast. I am so thrilled to have you here today.


Brittany Ratelle 

Thank you so much for having me, Ash. It's so good to see you.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Yeah, so good to see you too. It's been a minute since we've seen each other, even though we've known each other for like, boo-coos of years now.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right, like OG, we were one of my first podcast guests on my podcast, so it even had a different name. And yeah, we've seen each other. We like our ships crossing in the night on Instagram, circling in social media, doing our stuff, but it's really fun to connect again, and I'm excited to be on the podcast.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Absolutely, me too. It was an honor to be on your show. Your show has been incredible for years. Creative Council is the name of it now. I know you're on a brief hiatus, but there's so much great content and conversation that happens on that podcast that it's always worth giving it a shout out and telling folks like, if you need somebody in your corner from a legal perspective, check out Creative Council podcast and just go and listen to every episode that's out there and available. Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

Thank you, yeah. I love learning on the go, and especially I know for a lot of my creatives, my creators, we're multitasking and the time when we can maybe get that business education is through audio, right? It's while we're folding laundry, while we're in the car, while we're rage cleaning, whatever. And so it's good to have some options to be able to get some of that information, especially in specific areas.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Oh, absolutely.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Absolutely, absolutely. So I've already given you a brief introduction in the beginning of our show, but I wanna give people a little idea about what we're talking about as far as today's topic. And that's all about generative AI programs like ChatGPT.


Google AI, there's a thousand out there now at this point. Because I think one of the things that's so important, especially for online business owners, creators, creatives, coaches, consultants, the folks that we work with, attorneys, group practice owners, all these folks are being introduced to AI technology that's available for free for super low cost. It feels really easy and accessible to use and


Brittany Ratelle 

Right?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

there's some potential pitfalls that can come along with this type of technology and some risky things that we really need to be mindful of. So I'm excited to dive into this conversation with you today, all about AI.


Brittany Ratelle

Me too, yeah. It's exciting and with that excitement, can also come some fears that have popped up. There's some people who've approached it with abundance or a lot of fear. And I like to think there's usually a happy place in the middle, right? Like trust but verify. But I'm excited to kind of talk about what do we know and mostly what are our big unknowns, but what are some principles or questions, practical tips that can help us as we are all uncovering this new age, this new chapterof working alongside generative AI.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yes.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

I love it, I love it. Well, let's get into this conversation then. And first, I know you've had a really exciting career and journey, and so let's tell us a little bit about your journey and how you became, in the work that you're doing today, how you came to be doing this.


Brittany Ratelle

Yeah, thanks. So I am a licensed attorney, practicing attorney, and I've been practicing since 2011. And really it's been the last seven or eight years that I've really focused on serving creators and online business owners. And so most of my clients are women, which I love, and most of them tend to be mostly online business owners and people who are either service providers, or brands, some people who are creators, who are influencers and are maybe now having their own products or personal brands, or who are in e-commerce, right? 


But certainly they're using social media as usually a bigger part of their marketing, of their operations. And so because of that, I get to hang out where my people are, right? I'm like Ariel and I wanna be where my people are. My people are on Instagram. So that's where I like to hang out. And so it's been a fantastic niche to really watch unfold as I've seen some of my first clients be some of the first mommy bloggers to get some, you know, real contracts and make real money. 


And now they've transitioned to having their own brands, their own products, their own services, their own community, you know, different revenue streams. And I've got to watch and help build the infrastructure as they've made those transitions. And so that's really where I love to be. And then alongside my being a lawyer for people and doing legal services, I also now sell digital resources and education, realizing that there's still a huge knowledge gap, especially in kind of this emerging industry. 


And for a lot of people, it's cost prohibitive or it's just honestly overkill to pay to work one-on-one with an attorney when all they really need is a good privacy policy. What they really need is a checklist and they wanna know how can I hire somebody and make sure all the cool stuff they're making gets transferred to my business, right? And so creative contracts is kind of my digital arm to help to provide that.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

I love your creative contracts. They're so approachable, like everything that you do. You make the law feel really fun and not scary and it's not a bunch of jibble-dee-jobble-dee gargabin that you just don't understand. What in the world does this say? Am I protective?


Brittany Ratelle

Right, because it's not helpful, right? And there are some, I always tell people, especially when I'm educating, because all my contracts, only bigger ones come with like little training video. And I'll explain like, look, there's some stuff in here, you might not understand, but I do. Trust me, it's in here for a reason, right? Or it's highlighted or capitalized for a reason. 


But I don't believe in inserting legalese and just for the sake of it. And I don't like gotcha law. I don't like though that kind of practicing in terms of boundary setting. I think that makes and sets you up for really poor customer service and an ethical reputation within your industry and the people you work with. And so I really believe that law should be approachable. And it's just a tool that you have for setting clear and consistent expectations. And who doesn't want that with everyone that they're interacting with in their business?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Absolutely. Oh, I'm preaching that over here all the time to the choir. Talking about how the more we keep things simple and clear, the better our communication will be and the fewer problems that we'll experience down the road because everybody's on the same page. Everybody understands what's going on, what's expected of them, what they can expect from you. And that goes, you know, from a client to, you know, business perspective, a business owner to a client, a team to team, vendors, contractors, everybody.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

And communication, I think, is where 99% of the problems stem from. It's some either lack of, unclear, never communicated, all sorts of things just come from poor communication. So I love that you have those accessible tools that are at that price point where people can say, I can protect my business without, like you said, needing that one-on-one longer term commitment support because every business deserves legal protection.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right, yeah, I really believe in getting people legally legit for less. And then, you know, building that and there's a success path as your business grows, then when is it time to invest in other things and have that one-on-one relationship? Because there's no substitute for that, but there's also a lot of good information. People just need to have it packaged and really delivered in the right time, in the right way. And speak really specifically because we know that there's a lot of information out there that still...


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Mm-hmm.


Brittany Ratelle 

talking to someone who owns a business that's not relative, right? How many times have you gone on and I do this every time I set up someone's LLC and it's trying to pick which industry you're in and I always have to choose other, right? Because we're none of these things, right? Explain to somebody what a podcast editor is. You're not gonna find any code for that. We're making this up as we go around because this is all so new and it's exciting and with that comes challenges and opportunities.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Always, always. And it's the same thing, you know, when you have things coming about like AI technology, you know, there are no laws around this or there's very few laws and the laws are still trying to catch up from, you know, being remote teams. And so, you know, if we're still trying to catch up with having remote teams, which I've been working with remote teams now for almost eight years, right? Like our laws are still catching up to that.


Brittany Ratelle

Right?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

course AI is going to be one of those areas where it's a little more nebulous. It's a little more, you know, like, well, we're going to interpret this the best we can. But I do think that we've had a lot of good information start coming out in the last year, especially as platforms like ChatGPT have really become prevalent. They've become front and center. So let's talk a little bit about what are some of the trends that you're seeing right now with AI in small businesses?


And we're just gonna have a conversation around this and we'll see where it takes us.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right. Yeah, for sure. So well, I think, you know, generative AI is really cool. And obviously, everyone knows that like this past year, 2023 has just been like an explosion of it. Right. And now coming in 2024. And and with that, we've seen it really become accessible to the masses. And with that, you know, OK, and really available for the average business owner to start to play around with. And so what some of the bigger macro trends I've seen is certainly trying to wrestle and really see AI as a tool.


And I think that's where most people who are bullish on AI and who are excited about it and aren't afraid or think that like we have fallen into a Terminator plot, you know, really consider that generative AI should be used a tool alongside, you know, what first computer machining was or Photoshop or using other things that allow us really to control and create some sort of inputs and then manipulate those and then have some realm of and we've seen that everything from text-based to visual-based editors, you know, and those have been the most popular ones. 


What's been interesting though is a conversation on even just the definition of what AI and when we say generative AI is, is still being, it's still be really unwound and developed. I watched a really interesting, a CLE for me, which is like a legal ethics training, and it was all about kind of some of the rules that have come out especially because the Copyright Office has asked for input. 


They basically held up their hand and they're like, US Copyright Office, we need help and we would like to know what you guys think about AI. There was a really good opinion letter, very long as lawyers tend to do. This is what happens when you get paid by the hour. That was written by basically the Motion Picture Association, the NPA, and they are the trade group that represents Hollywood basically, all the major studios.


And they wrote a really detailed out response saying, here's what we think. And they said that we actually think that there are a lot of elements of existing copyright law that are gonna be ready to try to tackle some things of AI. But they also said, we need to be really clear in that we are not lumping everything into generative AI versus a tool that's blurring out a tag that we didn't wanna see on set right, you know, or someone who comes on and we've decided to age a character and there's some sort of like dynamic filter that's going around. 


You know, he's like that's like a special effect. So to call that AI and to have to decide, oh, that changes the way things are credited or the way that they're billed or the way that revenue streams are or that we can't copyright this work. That's the really huge concern. That's that's inappropriate. And so I think that that's been really interesting just to try to wrap our minds around and even this still the definition of AI is something that we're trying to decide what does that mean? 


Like, you know, what's the difference between, you know, a transcript generator that's trying to kind of use and do a good job versus you give someone a prompt or say, hey, write me a story. And it's just completely freestyling, right? Of like, what are the limits in terms of the human touch that was involved in the selection? and editing versus the language modeling and training that goes on, you know, on the interior of AI. So.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Yeah, yeah. So what I hear you saying, Brittany, is if our listeners are confused about AI, well, don't worry about it because everybody is.


Brittany Ratelle 

You're a good company. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Because we are still deciding what is it, what does it mean? You know? Um, and I've been getting a lot of questions from clients, um, and my audience of like, do I have to disclose AI? Um, and legally, no, there's no, um, there's nothing right now that says that you need to disclose that you used AI in creating content, editing content.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, it's just so new.


Brittany Ratelle 

writing transcripts or show notes or comments or coming up with hooks or social media or an email newsletter. That being said, there are some people, especially if the more probably creative your job is, and maybe that's what you're being paid for is your creative genius and you're producing a deliverable, some people and some of my other colleagues have felt like, well, it's also not inappropriate or not a bad idea to be upfront and to be transparent. 


Because if you don't have anything to hide, then don't hide anything, right? You know, and it's okay for you. And this is coming up, for example, a lot in like the photography world. So a lot of people who obviously are photographers are used to using editing tools and knowing that that's kind of all, you know, the vein of most photographers existence, right? 


They're usually great at shooting and getting that connection and setting up the shot. And then everyone hates editing. Everyone hates editing so much, a lot of people just outsource it, right? You know, the same with other content production.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.


Brittany Ratelle 

And yet now we have some of these cool AI tools that are letting people do generative fill and being able to edit things and filter things in a way that's more than just what you would get in Photoshop. And I think that that's okay to use those tools and also it's okay to tell your clients that there's some basis in that, right? 


Especially if it's coming with a more stylized shot because it's a good idea when we talk about AI to think about the output, right? And what does that look like? And is it too close to something else? Or does it really represent us? Has there been enough creative input? And also to think about the sourcing, which is what are the data sets? What is the array of information that the AI is being used and trained on to create that? 


And that's where we've had a lot of pushback from other creative associations, specifically there's been lawsuits, there's lots of lawsuits percolating around from like Getty Images and like the Writers Guild who are like, we're not okay with our work, collective work being used to train as a data set because we are unsure and because we're not in this black box of being able to understand what's going on in an AI algorithm of how close is too close and make something sound like a Stephen King novel, right? With what the output is, right? And you can understand that concern. 

And again, I think we will get some legal clarity there, but it's going to be slow. I can tell you, it's going to be way longer than any of us hope in terms of clarity. And so those are some of the things that we can at least start thinking about is, okay, what is the database and the sourcing? And do I have information about what that is and what it's drawing from or not drawing from? And can people opt out? Do I want to opt my information out? And those are some of the tools that are starting to get available in some of the AI.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle

are making that available because they're getting a lot of pushback and want to be listening to their audience. And then is that output, how am I using that? Is that the finished product or is this just a step along the creative process that then I'm gonna add to, which is what I would recommend.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, for sure, for sure. So many good nuggets here, and I've been taking lots of notes now. Whether or not I can read them, now who knows. But one thing I did want to mention was, you talked about where's the data coming from. And we have a really fantastic episode with Aja Allen, where we talk about minority-centered and BIPOC-created AI technologies and how important it is also to make sure that the output that we're getting bias.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

is also representative and that it's diverse and that it's inclusive. And that's just one other element that we're trying to navigate right now and really make sure that we're getting information that's not going to further create systemic issues and perpetuate racism and social status.


Brittany Ratelle 

Yeah, absolutely. Right. Because you can imagine if a data set is just trained on, well, everything that's in public domain, you know, they're going to go to a major university and look at its giant library catalog of images and art. Well, you can imagine that the majority of that is probably going to be biased a certain way because of who were the subjects and who were the artists and what got recorded and scanned and what didn't, right? 


And so we're looking at proportionality and probability and getting into, don't anyone get scared about the math here, but yeah, I do think it's important to recognize that there may be, and it's been recognized and pretty documented in some interesting papers to come in about this, about some of the biases that come because it's obviously looking at and doing a broad swath of media. And because of that, there's gonna be bias based on


the bias that was represented in society, right? Yeah.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Absolutely. Yeah. It's definitely something that we have to be mindful of when we're utilizing AI. And something else you mentioned as well was, you know, what are we feeding into the system ourselves? You know, are we just asking questions? Hey, write me a story in the style of Stephen King, or are we inputting our own thought leadership and as small business owners? That's something I find incredibly important, and especially as women, right? Because our voices have been silenced for so long.


Our ideas haven't been welcomed at the table. We've been told, be quiet, you should be seen, not heard, and these types of things. And so for us to further silence our own voices by not utilizing our thought leadership, that to me feels like a step backwards. So the way that I use it, and what Brittany and I were talking about beforehand was that I take all of my own originally created content and I put it into chat, well, we call it chat BFF.


Brittany Ratelle 

Yes, exactly.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

But chat, GPT, we put it into our chat bestie, right? And we say, you know, summarize this thought leadership piece that I created, that I wrote, that I spoke into the world through a podcast that I, you know, created in some way, shape, or form. So talk to us a little bit about that type of input versus just asking it open ended questions.


Brittany Ratelle 

Absolutely, yeah. I agree with you that in terms of a practice, and anytime that we're delving especially into new technology and emerging technologies, I always like to make it clear that there is always a legal line, and then there's usually an ethical one that's a fence above, right? And the legal line is really the floor of behavior. I think most of us would agree that we would like to be on the right side of the law. We don't want to commit illegal acts. 


We don't want to be asking our team members commit illegal acts and we don't want illegal behavior to be directed towards us. But that's the floor, okay? That does not say, oh, this is the only bare minimum of what you do. That should just be like basic human behavior. And then there's usually an ethical hedge above it. That's what's appropriate for your industry. 


What brings, what's appropriate for you in terms of your position of power relative to other people that you may be interacting with and what's appropriate for you and the way you like to show up in the world, right? And that's gonna take some soul searching and you being an integrity with your whole self, because hopefully that's how you wanna show up in your business is who you are, right? 


And we all know that being authentic is a super cliche buzzword, but I hope at the core of it, it means that you are who you are and you know that self and that's the self you wanna show in your business. So in respect to that, especially when we look at taking inputs of ourselves and other people and then doing something with it and creating the output.


My advice is always to go wide, go very wide, and to be careful about the synthesis and make sure that we are adding our own unique voice and that output is a valid reflection of that. And then the case of AI specifically, I think you're exactly on point, Ashley, that the best case scenario in use is that we're using our own materials, writing, video, audio, all this amazing content, right? 


Because we're all creating a lot of content now, whether we want to or not, right? Isn't that the joke of the real small business? I'm a small business owner, so here's my content, you know, because I, I make jewelry. So now I have to be a content creator, right? We all make a lot of content. Um, and so certainly I think it's really safe to be using that and asking, Hey, how can I summarize this? Give me some better hooks. What's another five or 10 ideas that sound exactly like my existing thought leadership. 


And that's a really going to be a really safe zone. I think kind of the next level of like gray area is looking at other people's content and then asking for some similar tools in terms of summarizing, rewriting. You know, it's kind of like when people used to play that thesaurus game, right? And I think there's some room there, but I also think you need to be careful and intentional about the output and think of this still represent my ideas and my voice and is this work that I could stand behind? 


If I saw these two things side by side, would it be really clear and really obvious that this was a copy of this? And if you're still in that camp, then I'd say you still have some work to do between you and your chat BFF, right? And then I would think the last thing that I would say is probably more, you know, this is our red light. If we're going on a red light, you know, green light, yellow light, red light spectrum.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yes, yes.


Brittany Ratelle 

is wholesale copying of other people's work, right? You know, and this is where you're using it or you're asking AI to do something and you're not touching at all the input and you're just running with it. And I would say the other level of this is when this is a product and that's gonna be and should be an elevated level of risk and just of due diligence in your mind of not only am I using this in terms of my content or my marketing or my advertising or my thought leadership, but now I am selling this. And is this work?


something that I created and something that I can put my name on and I feel like validly reflects me and my work and is delivering value. And I think we should be careful and be asking ourselves those questions.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

oh, I love this, I love this whole red light, yellow light, green light breakdown because I think that gives you an opportunity to say how much risk am I willing to take? Where are my ethical bounds? Because all of our ethical bounds are in different places and that's right, wrong, indifferent, whatever. But it allows you to say, okay, I'm going to do A, B, and C with AI, but I'm not going to do D, E, and.


Brittany Ratelle

Yes.


Brittany Ratelle

Right?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

And I think that gives us some guardrails and some guidelines and kind of some perspective on, these things are legal and ethical in general for most folks and these things are a little bit more on the gray areas or the outskirts of things. And these are things we don't wanna touch at all.


Brittany Ratelle

Right, yeah. And it's a good practice to think about this. And even as you work through some of these questions, really to implement, you know, and I know you're gonna love this, is put it into an SOP, put it into a checklist for yourself and for your team, right? Because we don't want any of this to live up here. Because if we've created a system or a framework that only is an audience of one, that's not repeatable, that's not explainable, then it's not a true system. And we don't ever wanna be in position where everyone else is like,


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yes.


Brittany Ratelle 

Well, what would Brittany think? What would Ashley think? And to have no further guidance because that's not a fun game and sometimes they're gonna get right and sometimes they're gonna get it wrong, you know? So, yeah.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, and we absolutely have an SOP here at Sprout HR for how to use AI so that our team can be cohesive and consistent so that we know what those guidelines and those boundaries are. And it doesn't have to be really complicated. It doesn't have to be so detailed that it's 800 pages long. Like you want something that's usable. And so I think our AI guide is maybe a...


maybe a page and like a quarter of the next page, but it's like, these are the questions to ask. Here's the content to input. Here's how we should take this content once it comes out of ChatBesty and we can really make it sound like Sprout HR. This is our brand voice. This is our thought leadership. These are the types of emojis we use. There's so much nuance there and it doesn't have to be hard. But you...


Brittany Ratelle 

Exactly.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

You really like kind of, I would love to keep going with this conversation around team because even if you personally as the business owner are kind of, you know, like, oh, I don't, I don't really want to use AI. It's scary. It's not my thing. It feels like, you know, the Terminator situation. But you have team. Yeah, I'm just not going to do it. Well, number one, it ain't going nowhere anytime soon. So that's one point, right?


Brittany Ratelle 

It's coming for all of our jobs, so I'm just gonna not do it, you know? Yes.


Brittany Ratelle 

Exactly.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

But the second point is, even if you're not using it, your team might be using it, and you do not wanna be caught with your pants down, with your team using AI, and not having any processes or policies or procedures in place. Whew, that was a lot of peace. So that everybody can be using it in a way that is ethical and in integrity and on the up and up for you and your business, because at the end of the day, it all comes back to you, right, as the business owner.


Brittany Ratelle

Right.


Brittany Ratelle 

The buck stops with you, right? We need to remember we are business owners and we have to own our business, okay? And that means every part of it. And that means even, you know, work of your independent contractors, right? You know, you can't have it both ways. They work for you. It's got your name on it. It's going out under your banner. That's your stuff. And you need to own what happened behind the scenes, even if you weren't involved with it, even if that was intentional that you weren't involved with it. And so I 100% agree with you that it's good and make sure that we're.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Mm-hmm. Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

on the same page. And that's gonna be iterative. What the checklist looks like today is likely not gonna stay, right? As this continues to develop, you know? But some red flags should be like, if we're doing especially a visual editor and we get what looks like a watermark on it, should we be concerned about that? Maybe because it meant that it was drawing from works and it's pulling from Getty images now, right? And another databases, but those are...


Those are owned by commercial photographers. That's how they make their money. And so, you know, we want to be careful and thoughtful about, you know, what's this and is this something that we want to have part of or are there places that we want to draw personal boundary lines? I always like to have you, what's the overarching question? And I think for this, it's the golden rule, like in so many other things. If this was your work that was going as the input, what would you want?


Would this be okay if someone took your thesis, if they took your whole online course and stuffed it into chat QBT and said, write me rewrite this and pick a different name and change a bunch of stuff. But it's essentially the same content, right? We're just playing the Soros game. You know, what would that feel okay to you? Would that be ethical to you? You know, if that doesn't ring true to you, then don't do that to somebody else, right? Don't show up in that way.


Karma is real, right? So don't steal.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we could probably summarize this whole podcast episode and just don't steal from people, okay?


Brittany Ratelle

Yeah, don't steal from people, right? What goes around comes around. And that's the thing, especially as I think of, and some of the criticism of AI, people saying, well, if it's gonna be so cheap to create content and so easy, then we're just gonna get bombarded. That means everyone's gonna have just this blase, remix of remix of remix content and overwhelmed. And I agree, there might be some wave of that. And so then I think...


Okay, well, if that's what's gonna happen and everyone can have a podcast and everyone can have endless amount of email newsletters and content and crappy, you know, carousels on Instagram, then what does our differentiating factor go to? Then we should look at what is the human connection? What is the individual, you know, relationship? What are the vulnerability and the mistakes, honestly? But that's what, that's probably what's gonna double down because then the role of curation will become even more important, you know? 


If content is cheap, then the editors have the power, right? Because the editors are gonna come in and be like, here, I've sorted through all this crap, here's the good stuff, here's what you need to listen to and here you can forget about all the rest. And I think that's a good thing to think about as we're tempted by all these tools of also having an eye to the future because that is the limitation of AI is that it's likely not gonna be able to see what you can see because it can only consider past work and do that. And while it can do some problem solving, I'm still hopeful about the human brain and our ability to envision and imagine a future and use our unique creative skills to do that because we can see what machines can.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Oh, I love that so much. And it kind of reminds me of something I've said for years and that is, you know, people are, you're always gonna have copycats out there, right? There's always gonna be people who would come along and they're gonna take your ideas and they're gonna change the brand colors and then slap it on their own website and be like, look, it's all brand new. But they will only always ever be behind you. 


They will never be in front of you. And that's your creative visioning and that's your own unique brilliance. And so I think the same thing with AI. If everybody's just pumping out a bunch of AI generated stuff and they're not having any of their own creative thoughts, then they're also going to fall to the wayside and probably end up in some legal hot water somewhere along the way as we get more laws.


Brittany Ratelle

Exactly. Right. Yeah. A copycat and someone who rips you off can only eat your dust. They can't see your flight path, right? They can't see what you can see. They can't imagine the unique combinations of your gifts and your skills and your experience, which is going to be unique and individual to you. And how does that come together into solving problems and adding value? And that's what people, we should double down. And that's what as business owners we should double down on to make it so that we're not replaceable, right? By a machine, by Skynet.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yes.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Oh my gosh. I'd love to know, are there any kind of common myths that you are hearing out there? Can we do a little myth busting? I love to do myth busting and... Oh, God.


Brittany Ratelle 

Yes, I love, I always love a little myth busting. And these are always ones that I turn into like, you know, short form content, because I think it's so fun. So yeah, some great ones that I've seen. So right now the law is that you cannot copyright, register the copyright to something that is created by AI. Now, what does it mean being created by AI? That is the question, right? And that is what we're trying to sort out. So for example, there was a case this past year where someone created a graphic novel.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle

and they submitted it and just submitted it like everyone does. Like a lot of people submit their creative works to get registered, right? And so you own the copyright when you create it, but there's a lot of benefits to getting registration. It's why me and a lot of other attorneys tell you, go register your stuff. So anyway, they did that, got the registration, and then kind of bragged about it. I'm like, look, turns out this had a substantial amount of AI that was created in the work. 


And then the course of copyright office is like Oh, just kidding, and came and snatched it back and said, right now, unless you want to change it, Congress, and let us know, in our rules, it says that it has to be created by a human. There's actually a really funny case that we learned about in law school where a photographer left his camera and an ape took a picture of himself, took a selfie. And technically, he could not register the copyright because who took that picture? Not a human. Not a human, right? Isn't that fascinating?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

No-


Brittany Ratelle 

So that's, isn't that wild? So that's where the law is at. Now, I think that like the MPA said, the Music Picture Association, we need to be careful. And that's why they're asking the copyright office to be more careful of like, look, if we're adding and using an AI tool to change someone's hair color or to age an actor or actress or make them skinny or whatever, that...


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

This is wild!


Brittany Ratelle 

That's going to be a problem. We can't have it that now we can't register this movie because then there goes the entertainment industry as we know it. Because that means we can't have licensing if you can't have copyright because that's what licensing is built on, the foundation bedrock of that. So I think we're going to see better definitions of like, oh, well, was this wholly created by a human? And some attorneys, me included, think that we might even go into a substantial or was there transformative work that was done by a human?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

Because, and those are some existing things that we kind of have, and you know, some existing things that we have in copyright law. But there's going to have to be some new tests too. But again, those are going to be slow. So that's one myth, right? That people think that like, oh, you could protect stuff, you know, through copyright just like normal. No, you sure can't, if it was created by AI. So I would make sure for me, and personally, especially if it's a product, especially if it's something that you might want to license and protect and.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Mm-mm.


Brittany Ratelle 

been put in a joint venture and turn into a product and continue on. If this is a big piece of your intellectual property, make sure that there is enough human involvement that you could, that you could document that and protect that and substantiate those claims. And so I think this goes into is part of your creative process. Make sure you're documenting things along the way. 


Screenshots go along the way, showing the creative process, you know, through video or text or whoever it is that you're doing it, you know, sketchbook, whatever to show of, oh, this was a creative work. And the substantial portion of this was created by a human. And so we can still get copyright protection. So that's one. That's a big myth, right? I think one of the other myths that's out there is that anything that comes out, and we've kind of already referenced this a little bit of AI, is free to use. And you won't have any copyright liability if you use it, because you just ask it a question. It gave it to you.


Chat GPT and Mid Journey and Dolly and all the other ones do not make those claims. And they will tell you that like you can use this, but you're on your own. And because you don't know what's happening in that black box of how close is this work to someone else's, you still need to be careful. And so I'm telling my clients, especially on the visual side, do a reverse image search. 


That's a great tool you can use and should be using anyway, anytime you're using a piece of visual work and you're not sure where it came from or you just want to do a double check, especially before you put it on the front of your website, hero image or on the front of a package or something, or put it on a t-shirt, go and use Google reverse image search, upload it and just see what comes up. 


Is this someone's commercial work that they have? Has this been on the cover of a magazine? I'm sure that it has been protected by copyright and probably registered too. And there could be more significant damages and drama for you if you use that in your work, in your business.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, so many things that you might reasonably think, oh, this isn't a problem. And based on other experiences with the different types of technology and tools that we're all very familiar with using, really starts to kind of become that, but wait, it might, and these particular types of circumstances. 

And I think that's where what you mentioned earlier was that kind of that one-on-one work really helps to be so niche and so specific to your business the things that you're using and the tools and the images and the resources and the content and all those things so that you get those really expert eyes on the things that you're doing in your business and making sure to get yourself protected. 


But I think this is such a great conversation just to start piquing the interest of folks who may not have really even thought about AI and legal as being in the same sentence. But what are some of the areas of law and some of the areas of business that AI could really...


Brittany Ratelle

Right.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

impact for us that we need to be thinking about as business owners.


Brittany Ratelle

Yeah, for sure. I mean, the easiest one, low-hanging fruit, is intellectual property. I mean, it is probably going to fundamentally change how we define and interact with intellectual property and the limits and boundaries we put around that. And IP, you know, in case you haven't thought about it, because you're not a huge legal nerd like me, is the basis of the education and the entertainment industries. Without the boundaries of IP laws, we know it.


We people do not invest and create things, especially not with those long-term financial gains. And so certainly it's going to impact intellectual property law and boundaries and licensing and what it means to have that as part of the creative process and not. It's also likely to affect our dealings related to licensing and contracts, because those are gonna be adjacent in terms of, so if you have this AI work, then who really has ownership of it? And is it really the author or?


as the author only relative to some things. And then what about derivative works? You know, if AI created it, how derivative? And that's something that IP nerds like me, we would love more clarity. And we hope every term that the Supreme Court will give us a little bit more clarity about what is fair use and what's not, because it's really tricky now, and it's really case by case. And we have to give really lame lawyer answers to people when they're like, wait, do I have fair use? And you have to be like, it depends.


I literally have to see those things side by side. And then even then I'm giving you my best guess and forecast, I can't tell you that it's fair use. The only one who could tell you that it's fair use is someone in a black robe with a gavel. And that is an expensive question to answer, right? To do it that way. And so that's tricky, right? And I think the other kind of areas of law that it's gonna impact is for sure the nature of work and employment law and...


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

Certainly I could see it impacting a little bit of like work for hire doctrine and intellectual property assignments and what that means. And so, yeah, it's, it's, it's got some really cool tangents, right? And, you know, an octopus legs out there, but, but a lot, the more that I learn about it and listen, I have more questions rather than answers. So if you feel the same way, you're in good company, right? You're, you're in here with all the rest of us trying to figure out what does this mean for someone who's just doesn't want to be left behind.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Thank you.


Brittany Ratelle 

And for example, like I use an AI tool in my contract drafting and analysis. And it's a tool that plugs into my word that I pay for, it's called Spellbook. And I use that because I feel like I have a duty, especially because I do so much flat fee billing for my clients to try to be as efficient and using the best tools as possible. And it's not a replacement for me, right? I still need to understand what to ask and to check for, but if I'm reviewing a 30 page licensing agreement.


It's a good tool to have because it can sometimes see things that I might miss or a word or flag something or I use it a lot because there's a really cool feature that says explain it to me like I'm five and so I will point out the things the Milestones right they're really important decisions that I think my client needs to know the highlights and have it and then have it rewrite it And then it's just summarizing it and and that's a huge and big part of my practice. Honestly, it's not just being a technician


but being able to explain what does that mean to you? Why does it matter to you? What are the decisions before you of good, bad, and ugly of what can happen depending on how you come up? And so for that, I'm excited. I feel like AI, like a lot of new tech is like a wave and you could be either be crushed by it or you can write it so that you're not left behind. I like surfing, so I'd rather do that instead.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, yeah. I'm usually the little old granny when it comes to new technology. I'm like, oh gosh, I don't know if I have the capacity to learn this or the desire. But, you know, we really were very early adopters of CHAP GPT. And and it was exciting and more so because Mara, our director of operations, is very tech savvy. And I'm just not. But she was like, Ashley, I think we've got to try this tool. And so part of that was as a business owner saying, OK.


Brittany Ratelle 

Right.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

I'm hesitant, I'm nervous, let's learn about this and make sure that this is the right decision and the right direction. Let's see what it can do. Let's see how we might be able to benefit from it, how our clients and how our audience can benefit from it and tread gently into it. I'm more of a let's wade into the ocean instead of let's dive into the deep end sort of gal. And I think a lot of that comes from the nature of my work and probably similarly to your work is that we want to take risks but calculated.


Brittany Ratelle

Right.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

and very smart risk, right? But I think it's definitely one of those tools that can help us be more efficient, be more effective and allow us to do deeper work, allow us to really focus our time on where are eyeballs and where our brains are needed in our businesses. And that means the same thing for your people. If you've got people doing a bunch of menial tasks and it's tedious and it's time consuming and we could use, yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

of data entry, nobody, no one is their best and highest self with that. So let me have it. Yeah.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

No, no, right? You can have it. Please, somebody take it. And I also think that this is a great tool for those people who are kind of on the cusp of hiring, but they're maybe not quite ready yet. They don't feel comfortable enough. They don't feel like they're financially secure enough to start that hiring process. Get you some help, my friend. And this is a great way to do that and to reduce your workload. 


Brittany and I were talking before we hopped on to record about how many hours of content creation AI has saved me and my team just this year by producing the same content that we would have produced anyways without us having to have our fingers in every single thing, you know, from writing social captions to writing, you know, the summary and the show notes and the key takeaways and all these things. It's still my content. It's still my thought leadership. It's still my brilliance. And I didn't have to go back and say, okay, how am I gonna summarize this podcast episode?


Brittany Ratelle 

Right?


Brittany Ratelle 

Absolutely.


Brittany Ratelle

Right, exactly. Yeah, there are ways and tasks, especially when we're thinking about like summarizing editing. I love and I used a script for a lot of my video content, and that's what I shoot my video on. And it's a text editor instead of a timeline. And so it can now go back and it can take out all my filler words. So I know exactly how many filler words I use, which is a lot. It's always really humbling. It can even fix eye contact now. Like it has an AI tool that will allow you so that if you're slightly looking off screen and looking at an outline or a script.


I don't really like scripted things, but I use outlines, right? It can fix that. And I'm like, that's brilliant. But that just saves me time. I don't need a human being for that. That's not gonna be their best and highest work anyway, right, for any of us. And so, yeah, I'm bullish on that. I'm excited for that. I did think alongside of the visual reverse image search, you can do the same thing for text too, in terms of looking at like copy scape and plagiarism checkers. And that's something that I would certainly do.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle 

especially have that as your process if it's something that's going to be a product. So if this is a piece of work that's going in a book, an ebook, you know, some sort of manual workbook questionnaire, online course, I think that there is another layer of editing and kind of, you know, in the publishing world they call this the rights clearance process, but it's basically being intentional of saying, okay, we now have this thing, where did everything come from? Do we know where it came from? And if we don't, if we have a question mark,


We need to go do some digging until we can check off that box. And it's just slowing down a little bit on that final editing piece, which can really make it and make sure. And I think this is good news for us as creators, right? Because I've gotten clients who, as excited as they are, the AI, they're also terrified of like, wait, now my art and all my writing is going to get ripped off in my thought leadership. And what am I supposed to do about it? Well, good news, bad news, right? People.


may be able to use that if it's out there on the internet, right? And it's drawing from those data sets. But it doesn't still mean that you don't have the protection of copyright law or trademark law. So it means if someone is creating something and it's still very similar to your work, if whatever the AI did, it kind of just thought you were the winner or whatever, whatever happens in that magic machine head, you still have some options of being like, hey, that's not okay. This is my work. You know, start down that that rip off resilient, you know, guide and which


I sell that, that's one of the things I have as a piece of like, here's what to do when people rip you off. There's a process that you can go through to make sure. Yeah, and you've got some options, right? Because we like to have tools. It's not that everyone's out to get us, but boundaries are also sexy.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah, right, boundaries are so sexy. I love some good boundaries. And so I think that even makes the case that copyrights and intellectual property protections are even more important today to make sure that you're getting those secured because of how accessible everything is.


Brittany Ratelle 

100%.


Brittany Ratelle

Right. It means that it's really, it's worth it and really behooves us, especially if in your industry and if your business, what you're really creating is intellectual property and that's your main product. You know, this is still important for my people who are physical products or services, but especially important if what your product is, is digital or thought leadership, right? Is making sure you're using all the tools at your disposal. Make sure you're registering your work, make sure your branding is protected by trademark. 


Make sure you have contracts with anyone who's touching it seeing it editing in it creating it of that entire creation Lifecycle should be covered end to end and if that's not the case then you you need to let let let let's let's get going On that stuff right direct you to my website get my legally legit checklist You know buy some of my templates You know take my lawfully ever after is my new course to get like kind of your business set up And that's really it help you get like your LLC set up and get your basic contracts in your website and then to give you kind of an introduction to IP law of like, wait, what do I protect with what and what do I need to say for and what I could do on my own? 


And, um, it's kind of my answer for people who, who tell me all the time, well, what do I need to do to get this started? And I'm like, well, that that's a big question actually to answer, but I now have a resource for people to take them and hold their hand because, you know, I don't believe that there's a white knight coming to save you in your business. It's actually you, you, you, and you're no damsel in distress. You're an empowered, really smart and talented and passionate, you know, a creative business owner, and you're totally capable if someone can just show you how and hold your hand.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

the whole sermon right there. I love that. That was so good, so good. And so.


Brittany Ratelle

It's like I feel really passionate about protecting women and making sure they can advocate for themselves so they can support their dreams. You know?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

100%, I couldn't have said it any better myself. I love this, and we'll make sure that all the links to Brittany's incredible resources are available in our show notes because we want you to get your hands on those and protect your business and to not be scared and to not be meek around these types of things. This is important, if you are a business owner, this is what business owners do. 


And like you said earlier, Brittany, own your business and don't let your business own you and don't let fear and external circumstances, control or own your business. Like this is an opportunity for you to say, I'm in this. I'm in this for real. I'm serious. I want a legit business. And this is one of the most important foundational pieces that we can really offer to you as a business owner. So, what a great conversation.


Brittany Ratelle 

Absolutely. Yeah, don't let someone else's priorities set the agenda for you and your business. You know, own what you want to get done. And it means drawing the line in the sand. And that can be scary and putting yourself out there because it means it's real. It means you can't hide behind playing small, but that is likely what needs to happen for you to achieve what you want to achieve and to help who you want to help. And so it does no one in the world, it actually does them a great disservice and do yourself a disservice.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yeah.


Brittany Ratelle

by pretending and playing small to be safer. So lean into that. It's okay. You can do it. We've got your back. Right? We are here for you. Yeah. In fact, I have a freebie for your people, very specific to our discussion of AI. So we talked a little bit about the disclaimers in terms of saying how you're using AI, not legally required, but some people are thinking it's a good idea.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

And we've got your back. You've got HR and legal right here. Like, what else could you need?


We do... Yeah...


Ashley Cox (she/her)

I love it.


Brittany Ratelle 

And it especially could be a good idea to include on your website. And then especially if you're a service provider that's including and using AI tools as part of your editing process. I'm talking to you photographers, copywriters, funnel strategists, people who are editors, you know, in any of you. 


It's good to make sure that you're just being honest and that way people on the other side know, OK, this is what I should expect. And they don't they don't feel hoodwinked, right? If they do find that you're using AI. That's what you don't want to happen, right? Because that’s you wouldn't have clear expectations. So I have a kind of a disclaimer, and this is kind of my swipe file of AI disclaimers that you might need in your business. 


And so we'll include the link in the show notes, but head to there and I will give you, that is my gift to you to start this new year fresh to make sure that we can have these things in place, you can add them into your processes, and you could feel like, you know, you can own using AI as the great tool as it should be as part of your business.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

I love it, I'm 100% downloading this as well. So thank you, Brittany, for sharing that, for creating it, for helping us to really understand and navigate the world of AI and protecting our businesses that we have worked so hard to build. This is not the thing that you wanna play fast and loose with, this is the thing that you've built, that you've put your blood, sweat, and tears, and your passion, and your creativity into. So let's protect that bad boy and make sure that it's here for the long haul.


Brittany Ratelle 

Absolutely.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

So as we wind our conversation down today, Brittany, it's time for our final segment. It's our favorite segment, Imagine the Impact. And I would love for you to help paint the vision for what kind of impact our listeners could create in this world through one key thought or takeaway or action item from our conversation today, something you've already shared or something new, maybe you haven't had a chance to share yet.


Brittany Ratelle

So my advice to your listeners is that as you reflect on what your unique talents and gifts are and what you like to do and what you can sustainably do and keep on doing and show up doing in the long haul, and then what problem that you can solve for people that they are willing to pay to solve, which is a really important differentiating factor. 


If you can find that sweet sauce in between, and if you've already found it and you're continuing to develop that, then I just wanna tell you in my best cheerleader voice to really go for it and to lean in to make sure that you're not putting yourself or limiting yourself or your business. Don't use words like, I'm just a writer, I just have a blog, I just have a podcast or a YouTube channel. No, you're not. You are a business owner, you are helping people, you are solving problems, you are delivering and increasing value in the world. And that's a fabulous thing. 


And you can only help people by showing up and shining that light bright so people can find you and know where to get the results that they want. You don't diminish yourself and you don't help anyone else by playing small and putting your light under a bushel. So don't do that.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Oh, I love it. I feel inspired. I don't know about you that's listening, but I feel inspired. And I always, always say, you know, don't tell people that this is just your little business or it's just a side huddle. Like anything that starts with the word just, delete. It is. Just quit it.


Brittany Ratelle

is problematic. So just quit it is what you should do. Just quit doing it. Right. And this is women I'm talking to specifically. Maybe some men do it. I don't know. I only hear women do it. Maybe that's because I only usually work with women. But yeah, quit playing small and you know, and if someone throw that out you, you know, if you get that at your next holiday of like, how's your little business doing?


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Mm-hmm. Yep.


Brittany Ratelle 

Be like, hey, my business is doing great and we're actually hitting six figures this year and we're hiring and we're expanding and push back on that because it's probably not just a little investment of your time and your energy and your blood, sweat and tears and the personal growth that you have, I'm sure, invested into going, which is the awesome part of having a business.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

100%. Even if you're getting contracts and templates right now versus one-on-one support, you're still investing in the legal side of your business. That's a big deal, and that's important. And we should celebrate that. So just imagine the impact that our businesses could have in this world if we stopped hiding our light under the bushel, like Brittany said, if we stopped playing small, if we stopped diminishing and using the words just in front of whatever.


Brittany Ratelle 

That's a big deal.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

disclaimer or adjective that you use to describe your business. What if you just owned it? How could that impact our businesses, our communities and the world? It could be pretty powerful.


Brittany Ratelle

Right? Be a business owner and own your business.


Ashley Cox (she/her)

Yes, I love it. So Brittany, as we are finally wrapping things up here, where's the best place for folks to connect with you and learn more because I know they are going to want to?


Brittany Ratelle

I would love to have them to come into my welcome. That is out. So usually Instagram is the best place to connect with me. So I'm at Brittany Ratel, B-R-A-T-T-A-N-Y-R-A-T-E-L-L-E. If you go wander on a page that seems to have a lot of pink and red, you're in the right spot. I have doubled down on my brand colors. And yes, I do wear other colors, but not if I don't have to. So yeah, so that I would love to connect with you on there. And as well can find my podcast and I've got a YouTube channel now, my contracts and my course and all the other goodies that I have to take people along that path and make it easy and accessible and doable for you to figure out the legal and the boundary setting part of your business.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

I mean, basically, Brittany is kind of like the legal version of what we do here at Sprout HR. It's easy, it's accessible, it's fun. We're having a good time. We're making it not so scary. We're making sure that your businesses are protected. And I love that you have that available. Right? How dare they?


Brittany Ratelle

Right, some people think that our stuff is boring, you know, which is hurtful, but we get you. And so instead we throw in extra fun and extra cheer and extra smile so that we balance each other out, right? It's a spoonful of sugar. Yeah, that's our, that's our MO, yeah.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

Yes!


Ashley Cox (she/her)

That's right. I love it. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much, Brittany, for this amazing conversation. So insightful, so in-depth. It gives us a really great starting point. And I love that free resource that you are creating and sharing with the audience. We'll make sure that link is definitely in the show notes, probably right at the top to make sure that you grab that as soon as you're finished listening to this episode. But Brittany, thank you so much again for joining us here on the Impact Ripple today.


Brittany Ratelle 

Thank you, Ashley. It was a pleasure.


Ashley Cox (she/her) 

You're so welcome. And thank you, dear leaders, for tuning into our conversation today. I hope that you found it comforting. I hope that you found it inspiring. I hope that you found that there was some resources here that will help you to legally protect your business, get legally legit, like Brittany said. And as always, it is an honor and a privilege to be here with and for you on your leadership journey.