Mastering the Art of Proactive Law with Chad Sonkin

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. I’m excited for today’s guest. We are talking to a partner at Conscious Council and what they do is they make law feel empowering and not overwhelming. So I’m very excited to be rocking out today with Chad Sonkin and, hey Chad, you ready to rock? Awesome. We always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Chad Sonkin: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, well to, to start on a good note. Um, uh.

it, what really we set out here to do, um, at Conscious Council is to be able to transform the way law is provided to heart led entrepreneurs. So really, we work in the space of the health and wellness space, which is like gym owners, yoga studio owners, Pilate studio owners, even online health and wellness business coaches.

And what [00:01:00] we aim to

do.

Is transform the way law is provided to them by providing airtight industry specific legal agreements, uh, so that if God forbid, and helping them practice what we like to call proactive law so that if God forbid, some type of incident were to happen, um, somebody gets hurt, somebody gets, wants to sue for a refund or for.

All the other reasons that their legal agreements give them the power to be in control of the situation and in the best legal standing possible, so that it immediately mitigates the amount of time, money, and stress that could come from a lawsuit. Um. So, just to give you like a couple wins off the bat is we’ve worked with close to, almost close to 1,800 clients over the last nine.

Nobody has ever been sued [00:02:00] using our industry specific legal agreements. Um, we’ve gotten, we’ve ensured that these heart led entrepreneurs that are creating these incredible communities and safe spaces and getting people into their bodies and into wellness. Uh. Are protected that their family’s assets and their personal assets and their business assets are completely protected.

Um, and you know, this has ha it could be as simple as, uh, I had one of our clients, somebody went over to the pull-up bar, uh, couldn’t reach the pull-up bar at the gym. Hopefully maybe some of your listeners go to the gym, maybe summed up nonetheless, went to the pillow bar, couldn’t get up there, so they grabbed the chair.

They grabbed the chair and when they went to grab the chair, they fell off the chair and shattered their leg,

and

that person decided to

sue.

For $150,000 claim be to that business, [00:03:00] that business owner now, because that business owner had an extremely strong waiver of liability that we were able to create that was industry specific, we are

immediately

able to show the fault was not on our client. That this risk that materialized was foreseeable. So instead of two and a half years of time, money and stress on lawyers, it was immediately mitigated in 30 minutes and our client didn’t have to get into that $150,000 lawsuit. So

that’s

just a quick little like yeah, story. And we got a bunch of those.

Tim Melanson: I bet. Yeah. Well and that’s the thing is that, is that certain businesses, especially in the health and wellness space, I mean, there is a certain level of risk that comes with, you know, most of these practices. And

I think

that especially people [00:04:00] who are trying to help, people don’t necessarily foresee getting sued for something like that.

’cause you know their heart’s in the right place. Right? I mean,

you know, they’re, they’re just

trying to help people and. But you know, accidents do happen and if you don’t have something set up, then you know you could get in trouble for that. Right?

Chad Sonkin: Yeah, exactly. And, and so, so, so many times, you know, it is out of their control in so many ways. Um, if somebody gets hurt or. You know, there’s other reasons and ways to get sued. Even like retreat organizers, right? That’s a huge one if you’re doing retreats. Um, but it could be so out of your control and you could have a good relationship with that person.

But

I. There,

there’s two points to it. Like a, like lawyers kind of have

a bad

rap a lot of the time, like they, people are very intimidated by the law and by lawyers, and [00:05:00] it just seems like it’s a cat like expensive hole that just

could keep going. So we really aim to help our heart led entrepreneurs practice like this proactive law.

So that if God forbid, anything does happen, they’re in control of the situation and in America, in the

United States, like anyone could sue

anyone for anything. And that’s just the fact of the matter. We could have an amazing relationship and you love coming to my studio, but if you

get hurt,

all it takes is a lawyer or a friend or a partner to be in your ear like, Hey, you should sue.

You could get a lot of money for this. You should sue. Where like that relationship is thrown out the window and now you’re in a a hundred thousand dollars lawsuit when it could have just been avoided. So

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

so okay.

Chad Sonkin: that we try to make fun.

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

it, it’s a big job.

Well, [00:06:00] speaking of, you know, big job like that, you know, not everything goes as planned when you’re trying to build a business, when you’re self-employed or when you work from home, all that stuff. And I like to talk about the bad notes just as much with the good notes because you know, if we’re trying to inspire people, and a lot of people are, you know, a little bit worried about starting business ’cause they’re worried to fail.

And I’m wondering, can you share with us, you know, bad notes, something that didn’t go as planned and you know how you recovered from that.

Chad Sonkin: Yeah. Yeah, it is an amazing question

and.

I’m glad to say like, on our client’s end, there really hasn’t been a bad note. I think really like the biggest lessons learned when being an entrepreneur and running your own business is, um, you know, we’ve made, we’ve made so many mistakes in, in, in the. And the, the process to, you know, increase our clients, to increase our revenue, to grow our firm.

Um, mistakes [00:07:00] like. On paid advertisements and, and not, and, you know, you

have

to be very careful with the law. Um, and especially as a lawyer, it’s like how you solicit to get clients. Um,

we’ve gone

too wide before and have gotten, you know, pushback from the IRS, like, like people that, um. Can scare intimidate us as well.

So we, you really have to be like airtight when you’re getting new clients as a, as a law firm. Um, and I think the biggest lessons I have learned is instead of tr aiming to do everything as a small business owner, ’cause you could run paid ads, you could do, um. Presentations and stages, you could do referral programs and there’s so many different avenues you wanna attack on the marketing side or the lead side.

And a big [00:08:00] thing I’ve learned is, okay, let’s figure out what works. Let’s test a bunch of things, figure out what works, and then let’s pour gas on that fire.

But,

but the point is like, you have to be consistent, consistent in pouring gas on it. I think often it’s really easy to see a, in, in a small business, to see like a shiny object or have a shiny idea and just do that and abandon how you currently do things or abandon or give less time and energy to what’s working.

So I think it’s a. A big lesson we learned is let’s not go so wide with things, but let’s go deep with what works and then let’s be consistent about it. Let’s not quit after a week or quit it after 30 days. Like let’s really double down and day in, day out. I, I think for us. You know, a big thing that you learned as a small business owner too, is like, let’s not [00:09:00] get tied to revenue, right?

Let’s not get tied to our monthly goals and our weekly goals. Let’s judge success. Based off of what we can’t control, which is our attitude, which is our daily non-negotiables and our everyday inputs, right? Let’s tie success on being like, okay, what are the things I can control every day that I know will move the needle in a positive direction and let’s judge our success based off controlling those things.

And then the scoreboard, the results that will take care of itself. If we can tie our success to, Hey, let’s show up every day and control what we can control, then the scoreboard will take care of itself. That will come. So that, that was a big lesson we learned in, in the beginning, I would say for sure.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I love that. I love that.

And, and that

kind of reminds me so that I, [00:10:00] I, uh, with like judging, for example, sales based on how many yeses you get, I mean, you can’t really control whether someone says yes or no. Right? But what you can control is how many calls you make, right?

So, you know, it’s,

it’s like, I, I like what you’re saying because I mean, if you put up on the scoreboard, how many calls did I make?

Well, now, you know, if you didn’t make the, whatever, the a hundred calls that you said you were gonna make, that’s you, that’s your fault. You didn’t make a

hundred calls. You could have made a hundred calls, just make a hundred

calls. But if you focused on

10 yeses,

then I mean,

you,

you, you might have a bad day, man.

It might, it might be a tough, a tough week, right?

And you’re

now, this is not in your control anymore. Right. But if you can just say, you know what? I made the hundred calls. I didn’t get one. Yes, that’s okay. It’s still a win, right?

Chad Sonkin: Exactly. It’s still a win and, and the next day brings brighter fruit. And you know, there

is a

great sales book that I read once and it’s. I

do try, aim to structure my days on. All [00:11:00] right, let’s not try to get 10 yeses. Let’s try to get 10 nos. 10 nos. And on your way to get 10 nos, you end up getting a lot more yeses than you got nos.

Um, but it’s really being able to control, like men mental toughness is a huge, huge part of being a business owner and an entrepreneur. Um, and, and getting your brain

to.

Not too high of highs, not too low of lows, and, and can I do the work and the daily non-negotiables and control the inputs? Can I do the work on the days where I really don’t feel like

doing

the work and I. That is something that we work on every single day that we inspire me and my partner inspire each other with, is just, Hey, let’s control the inputs. Let’s show up together. Let’s control our attitude.

Um,

and who cares what happens, but let’s just leave it all out in the field, you know?

Tim Melanson: I love that. Uh, hey man, if you make 10 calls looking for 10 nos and you get 10 [00:12:00] yeses instead, is that, is that really a failure though?

Chad Sonkin: yeah. No, no, no. It’s certainly not. It’s certainly not.

Tim Melanson: Uh, you failed though. You didn’t get your No.

Chad Sonkin: Yeah.

Uh, uh,

Tim Melanson: All right

on. That’s

Chad Sonkin: often, as they say.

Tim Melanson: Agree. Well, I mean, that sounds to me like a practice ’cause uh, I like to talk about practicing and getting and honing your craft and all that stuff, but what, what do you think that means?

Chad Sonkin: Yeah, that

it’s an, that’s

an amazing question. Um, how to hone your craft really comes down to me. I. Is a consistency, a like consistency. I, I really aim in and I have an athletic background, like I was a former athlete, so to me it always comes down to

like, okay,

let’s win the day, let’s win the day. And there are gonna be some days in a small business too, as an entrepreneur where it’s like.

Maybe if you’re a

salesperson, maybe you don’t have 10 calls on your calendar today, right? So, [00:13:00] um, practice makes perfect and be consistent, but then also like consistently. Adding tools to your toolkit, like I like to constantly push myself to read new sales books, listen to other podcasts, whether it’s entrepreneurial or sales, or even marketing or just anything that could continuously help me develop my skills.

Uh, and that is something that I. And proud of myself on,

and, and,

and, and I would say pride myself on, but it’s like if I don’t know what to do in, in the business, I, I’ll work on myself. Like if I don’t know exactly what to do right here, right now, like I’ll work on developing my own skills, constantly aiming to get more knowledge, read new books, listen to different audio books, listen to different podcasts.

So constantly

aiming to. Develop

those school, those skills and add new tools, if you will, to my [00:14:00] toolkit. And, and then I think you gotta have a little bit of a grace, you know,

for yourself.

You gotta have a little bit of like, you gotta love yourself in the process and not be too hard on yourself in low days and not too high in high days, but you really gotta give yourself sometimes.

The benefit of the doubt of like, Hey, I’m not a robot. Not every single day is gonna be better and better and better and better, like it doesn’t come like that. But if you could be consistent, that consistency compounds week over week, month over month, year over year. And then on top of that, on top of that is just.

You know, a big thing we say is just like James Clear, like just, let’s just get 1% better today. Like, let’s just get 1% better today. Doesn’t have to be 20%, doesn’t have to be a

hundred

percent. Let’s just, if this is

what we’re working on

today, let’s improve this 1% today. You know what I mean? So consistency compounds, uh, that’s for.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think, I think that makes a lot of [00:15:00] sense. And I, you know, I think, I think what you say about the whole 1% thing too, and like, you know, setting those consistent goals, I think a lot of us try to like do too much

and then we get discouraged, right? Whereas maybe sometimes just setting a, like

a real

small consistency goal that, Hey, I can make this one call a day, even if it’s not

right.

Chad Sonkin: Exactly

Tim Melanson: call

a day is better than setting 10 and then not doing one.

Right?

Chad Sonkin: And Exactly. Exactly.

Tim Melanson: You’re like, oh, I gotta do 10 calls. I haven’t done any yet. Why not one, right?

Chad Sonkin: Exactly, exactly, Tim, like you hit the nail on the head and you know, when we’re first doing things like, whether it’s social media messaging or ad spend, it was like, at first it was like, let’s do five of these a day.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Chad Sonkin: Just,

just five that I could swallow

that

I know how to do it. I’m not

gonna get

discouraged, but let’s do it every day this week.

Then next week, oh, I got some results from that. Let’s do 10 this week. And now I’m a little bit more motivated. So it’s, it’s, it’s just doing it [00:16:00] consistently and letting that compound, and like you said, like making ’em small, little achievable goals, if you will. Like, don’t bite off more than you

could chew

right away.

You don’t need to.

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

like I, I had this mentor one time, uh, when I was doing sales and, you know, it was, they were constantly saying, okay, imagine this is the busiest day. Like, I mean, you have no time at all. What do you think you could do? You know,

do you

think you could pull off two calls, three calls, one call?

Like it’s busy. I’m telling you it’s busy.

What could you pull

off?

Chad Sonkin: Mm-hmm.

Tim Melanson: That’s what you set your goal to. Not if it’s like, oh, it’s a total free day, you know, and then you set your goal to be like 30 calls, uh,

because

you know you’re gonna have more of these busy days than you’re not, right?

Chad Sonkin: Exactly. Exactly, exactly. And I think, um, I, I, you hit the nail on the head, dude, you’re gonna have more of these busy days than you’re not. And it’s just, if you could

get

yourself to show up each day, even on the days you don’t feel like doing it. And you know what really helps me

is having

my daily non-negotiables.

[00:17:00] Like these are tasks that I must do every single day. Um, and, and making those manageable and then they grow. Right?

But it, it’s a consistency compounds,

and sometimes you gotta endure some sh like, I’m not afraid to shovel the crap, if you

will. Like,

you know, we all, I. We all wanna get to the top of the mountain.

I, we all do. But like, you’re gonna have to shovel

some crap

in order to get there. And I think a big thing nowadays is people are looking for this instant, instant, instant. And it, and it’s like, Hey, you

gotta be

willing to shovel the crap. You gotta be willing to get scrappy. When you gotta get scrappy.

And, um, it’s the people that can endure that and, and, and attack that. No, that I think will. You’re, it’s inevitable for you.

Tim Melanson: People don’t see that too, right? I mean, you sort

of see someone who’s

got success and you just think that, oh, you know what? Look at that guy’s life, right?

Chad Sonkin: Yeah. [00:18:00] Exactly.

Tim Melanson: That’s not how it started. Right? I

mean, they all kind of went

through these struggles to get to that point, right? We don’t, we just don’t see it.

Right?

Chad Sonkin: Exactly, exactly. Even the, the, the greatest leaders we could think of, like most of their li most of the time, like I just watched an amazing documentary on George Washington, I must say, like I’m, I’m enthralled by history. I love it. And it’s just like the amount of failure after failure, after failure, after failure until I. Huge triumph is just

incredible. So

I re, I like to remind myself of those things and I think that’s what I mean by consistently learning too, and learning stories and, and putting yourself out there. And, um, it’s okay to be vulnerable, you know? It’s okay to fail. Uh, I would encourage you to fall flat on

your face.

The rep is how quick can you get back up? That’s the wrap.

Tim Melanson: And, and every time you do it, you get faster and faster. Right. It’s just, it’s the way it works.

Chad Sonkin: Exactly.

Exactly. Bingo.

Tim Melanson: So let’s talk about the instruments. So I mean,

hey man, we,

we live in a [00:19:00] technological world where there’s lots

of tools that’ll help us get success in our

businesses. I’m wondering like, what, what kinds of tools do you use?

Chad Sonkin: Yeah, it’s a, a phenomenal question. Um, actual softwares that I use

Tim Melanson: Man, any

Chad Sonkin: or, or

Tim Melanson: be a paper

tool.

Chad Sonkin: yeah, that. Okay, cool. Okay, cool. I think the best.

Tool I

use and, and I wanna give you

a good,

um, answer here, but, ’cause I think the best tool I use and that we use

is

really, um, surrounding ourselves with people that are also driven and excited and.

Happy to be here. Um,

and,

and everybody’s helped it. It takes a team. It takes a team. So, [00:20:00] you know, I, I could give you softwares, I could, I always have notepad like, and I’m writing everything I like to write and I might to make to-do list. I

think that’s an

incredible tool, but I gotta be honest, the best tool I have is my partner.

The best tool I have is my, my team. Um,

because.

You could go success, you could go far, you could go, you could have success alone, but you could go farther together.

And it

just, it really takes a team and, uh, I, I think my team’s my

best

tool. That’s, that’s for sure.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Well, they do say, what is it? You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time

with, so.

Chad Sonkin: Exactly. Exactly, exactly. And we spend a lot of time together.

Tim Melanson: Uh, that’s awesome. Right on. So now, and, and that kinda leads right into the next topic about learning from the best. And, you know, I’m wondering, so you know, you, you’ve got a great team around you,

uh,

sounds like you [00:21:00] listen to podcasts. You know, what, what other, like, do you hire coaches? Do you have masterminds?

Like, like what other ways do you learn from people?

Chad Sonkin: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing question. Um, I learned from people. In every way. I mostly like podcasts and audio books. Um, I have had business coaches before and mentors, um, that have been amazing. I think I’m surrounded my, I’m surrounded myself with my best friends I’ve known forever, and they’re. Amazing. Um, but then I, I constantly do seek out the best.

So, you know, whether it’s Dan Martel,

who is,

we could talk about him after you could search him, but Dan Martel Naval, um, Ryan Holiday and Stoicism, um, and

Marcus Aurelius. And, uh, Chris Williamson is one podcaster I just fricking love, but I out these. [00:22:00] People that are maybe a couple of steps ahead of me, but living a life and making an impact that I, and that we desire to make.

Um, and you know, I don’t think, I think a big thing is like, you don’t have to take everything. Like take what you like, take what works, and leave what doesn’t. Um, but I would absolutely say like I’m, I’m constantly joining Masterminds or go, I’ve gone on a couple retreats with other

like.

Entrepreneurs and leaders.

Um, and, and I constantly am around those types of people. So I think, you know, learning from the best. Absolutely. Nick Saban is another incredible one I love to learn from, but people of that, of that stature, um, are some that I learned from and they’re the best of the best. So,

Tim Melanson: So Dan Martel is

actually from my hometown. I, I live in Moncton, new

Chad Sonkin: No way. No way. You, that’s amazing.

I mean, Dan Martell, I [00:23:00] can thank a one day I’ll shake his hand and personally be like, you are brilliant. Thank you. But he is just, just shifting my perspectives and, and opening myself to new ideas. And I think that’s a big thing about it. You gotta be open to learning, right? Like I,

I’m not.

But like, I am not, my opinions I, I’ll tell you that much for sure.

Like, I, I am very open if you convince me or like throw a good perspective or idea or thought and like, I’m very open. I’m not, I’m not my opinions. This is what I am and how I’ve gotten here now. But I always wanna learn from the best and I’m open to it.

You

know, I, I’m like, I think you gotta take the coaching, like the best football players, the best hockey players.

I’ve ever known, I think a coach would say this, it’s the people that are coachable. Like if I, if I got something in my teeth, like tell me, I want to know. Um, like if, if you have feedback, tell me. I wanna know. I can take it. [00:24:00] I want to get better. I’m here to get better. I’m not, you know what I mean? So I think,

I

think that’s a big piece too, and could be a good like instrument of choice is you have to be coachable.

You have to be coachable.

So.

Tim Melanson: No, I, I, I agree with that for sure. And I think that, um,

I

think that that is a, an entrepreneurial mindset though, because, you know, I think about the people that have been even on this podcast, and most of them are very coachable. They have coaches, they are doing coaching, right? And when you think about, like you say, all the best athletes, you know, it’s just one of those things that

everybody

who’s performing at a high level seems to have an.

Open mind for coach, for, for being, uh, coachable. However, you know, the vast majority of people that are sitting in jobs that they don’t like

are, aren’t, are not necessarily super open to that. And, you know, maybe they think, oh, you know, that’s too expensive. I don’t wanna do that. You know, or, or I know it all, or, [00:25:00] you know, you know, all that kind of stuff.

But I

mean, I think that, you know, if you are looking to get into an entrepreneurial. Venture. Well, you know, like you said earlier, you’re gonna need

a team

of people around you, which means you’re gonna have to surrender some of that control

because,

you know, you can only go so far on your own before you’re gonna need

a team.

Right? and and then on top of that. There’s so much. I mean, you learn real quick when you become self-employed or where you even start a business that you know, the thing that I’m really good at is not my whole business. It’s like a real small part of my whole

Chad Sonkin: Yep, yep. There

Tim Melanson: how

are you gonna know everything else, right?

Chad Sonkin: exactly. Exactly, dude. Exactly. And it’s like, you know, and, and I think you brought up a good point, like you can’t be afraid. Like, I’m definitely not afraid to invest into my learning, into and into my growth. You know, like I, this isn’t an exact correlation, but LeBron James spends like.

2

million on

his [00:26:00] body every year

to be the best of the best

for the

last 20 years. So it’s like I’m willing to spend and invest on myself. Like that’s why we’re in the entrepreneurial space in the first place. Like we’re betting on ourselves and our abilities and, and that a lot of that is like,

you can’t, you know, scare money, don’t make money,

right?

Like,

like, so I, I, I’m always willing to invest into myself and to invest into my learning, to be able to reach to that next level.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Love it. All right, it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s, what’s

exciting in your

business.

Chad Sonkin: well, I’m gonna whip out the guitar and just shut it right now. But, um, so what, what what I’m most excited about in, in our business is we’ve, we’ve been able

to

really consistently grow at

a really rapid and, and

compounding rate, which is fantastic. But more so than that, it’s like we are. Truly excited about the impact we’re making.

Meaning like [00:27:00] the amount of these heart led entrepreneurs, these community driven people, these people out there making the world better and safer and

more cohesive

and collaborating, and we’re able to,

you know,

provide them with bulletproof

legal agreements

that are industry specific to. And their practice so that they could focus on.

Growing and building community and doing what they do best, which is running and operating their health and wellness business as an entrepreneur, and know that they have the strongest legal position absolutely possible, and that they have legal experts and legal counsel at their disposal to be able to use.

Whenever needed and whenever necessary. And I’m very, very proud to say like over the last almost nine years, we’ve worked close to 1800, 1,800 clients. None have [00:28:00] ever, ever been sued using our illegal agreements. And very proud to say we have over 435 star reviews. So like people. Love and

appreciate our support

and our expertise, and it’s, it’s making a profound impact on a very growingly health and wellness industry and, and the entrepreneurs in it.

So,

Tim Melanson: Wow. So what would you say

would be the, the, the reason why someone would not have a good legal agreement right now if, if they’re

Chad Sonkin: Yeah,

yeah. Amazing question. Um. A, they might not have agreements, which is a big, big no-no. Um, but B, there’s, people are using templates or using chat, GPT, which is not specific

to their

business. Meaning like I. All the specific equipment you use, all the specific group classes, private classes. Do you have a cold tub?

Do you have a sauna? Um, if you’re a health coach or a business [00:29:00] coach, like this is not prescription. This is educational advice. Uh, common mistakes are like people have a waiver of liability, which, uh. Most people are familiar with because that you’re giving up your right to sue an establishment with a waiver, but then because they’re using templates or because they’re using Chad GPT, that waiver also contains their photo release and their service agreement, meaning like their cancellation or refund policy.

And right there, like those are types of agreements that just won’t hold up in court. It gives you a very weak legal position. ’cause if, God forbid, you do run into something which eventually everybody does, whether it’s in this year or in 20 years, your legal agreement, some, a lawyer is going to be able to tear those apart and basically show to a legal court that. agreements don’t hold up. Your agreements don’t explicitly, uh, make any of the risks that you’re [00:30:00] offering foreseeable. So there’s so many different types of mistakes and not specific enough, um, that people have in their agreements. And it’s not, it’s just because they don’t know they’re trying to put something there.

Um, but really, like often, like a bad waiver is.

You might as well not even have one half the time ’cause it’s just not gonna do its job, which is to protect you. Um, and there, there, and, and now more than ever too, like there is something called the corporate veil. Meaning like if you have an LLC, which is strictly an asset protection, meaning protect your family’s assets.

So only your business assets are vulnerable in that regard. If you don’t have.

Legal agreements. A lawyer that is suing you is going to pierce the corporate veil by showing this person isn’t taking their business seriously. They, A, don’t have legal agreements, or b, they don’t have the proper legal [00:31:00] agreements.

And that shows to a court like now your personal assets are at risk. So it’s so, so important. It, it’s just about practicing proactive law, you know, paying, paying the money, and paying the investment upfront. Something that’s e that is, that feels fair and efficient. And, and knowing that you could grow for the next 20, 30, 50 years without having to get into a hundred, a hundred, $200,000 lawsuit, which is unfortunately, like, you know, people come to us every day because of these problems.

So

Tim Melanson: wow. So isn’t that expensive though,

Chad Sonkin: what, what, what,

which

aspect?

Tim Melanson: getting

a, a proper legal agreement, like, isn’t that, that’s probably why they’re using chat

PD in the first place, right?

Chad Sonkin: yeah, yeah. You know, it’s, I, I, I would say, I would say it’s, it is, it’s expensive in a way of like, is insurance [00:32:00] expensive or is paying for software to grow your business expensive?

If, if

you’re a serious business owner, if you’re a serious business and take that business seriously, then. Having no legal agreements or Chad UPT is just, that’s not something a serious business owner would do.

That’s not what a very serious, legit business would do.

Um, it, it’s like wearing a seatbelt. You could go 20 years not wearing a seatbelt, and one day you’re not wearing it, and it, god forbid it could be game over. And it’s the same thing with your legal agreements. It’s, you could go 20 years without having them, but one day you don’t have it.

It’s game over. Um, so it’s any serious business owner, anybody that is helping in building community and, um, making such an impact on other people, like it protects you and protects them, it would be almost selfish not, not to take that seriously [00:33:00] in my opinion.

Tim Melanson: Well, yeah. Well by like, I think what. How I’m understanding it anyway is that you’re putting it out there what the possible risks are that maybe someone using your service might not even un really understand and, you know, hopefully they read it. But if

they, if they do read it, well then now they’ll say, okay, well that’s the risk that I have, so maybe I’ll be a little bit more careful.

Right. When they’re, when they’re going into it, rather than just having no idea and then next thing you know, getting hurt because they just had no idea that they could get hurt doing this thing. Right.

Chad Sonkin: Exactly. Exactly. E exactly. And, and, and often it could be so out of the, the entrepreneur, the business owner’s control, right? Like if a third party system gets hacked and your clients are getting charged fraudulent, thousands and thousands of dollars because they hacked into your third party payment processor, like that wasn’t your fault.

Now somebody’s suing you because their credit card got charged thousands of dollars, and now your reputation is getting kinda shattered and trust [00:34:00] within your community. It’s not worth it all because you didn’t want to pay.

A thousand bucks for a very clear service agreement, membership agreement, and, and all these agreements do what each agreement does is for any business owner, you, you put your business in the middle, you circle your business in the middle, and then you need to have an agreement for every relationship you have and conduct in business.

So your clients, your employees, your landlord, and the goal there is you just communicate expectations openly and honestly. Openly and honestly communicate expectations. And then God forbid if anything happens, you’re in control of this situation. It’s immediately mitigated so that that’s what we’re out here to do.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: So how do we find out more then?

Chad Sonkin: So find out more, you know, I’m offering, for anyone listening to this, uh, a free consultation that will, um, write through my calendar link. It’ll be completely free. Um, I [00:35:00] also have a free legal assessment, so if you are interested in a free legal document audit, if you’re like, ah, I had documents.

I don’t know if they’re good or not, we’re offering an exclusive free legal doc assessment. We’ll give you honest this feedback. So either of those two avenues, um, we’re here for support. We’re with you all the way and, um, we’ll ensure to take care of you. There’s no doubt.

Tim Melanson: Is there a website or something we can go to or,

Chad Sonkin: Yes, yes. There’s a website.

It’s, it’s conscious council. Um, dos ca

Tim Melanson: awesome.

Chad Sonkin: I’ll, I’ll link it here after this as well. Yeah. I’m

Tim Melanson: And uh, last question. Hardest one. Who’s your favorite rock star?

Chad Sonkin: Wow. Um, me, dude, what a hard question.

Tim Melanson: Yeah,

hardest one of the day.

Chad Sonkin: Wow.

Okay. Okay, okay.

In no particular order, I can’t give you just one.

Tim Melanson: Uh,

Chad Sonkin: I would have to say Jim Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Patty. [00:36:00] Really tough. Really tough for me to do. Like there’s people left off of that list that I don’t feel good about,

but.

Those are probably my top three.

Tim Melanson: love it. Thank you so much, Chad, for rocking out with me today. This been a lot of fun.

Chad Sonkin: Thank you, brother. It’s been great to be here. I appreciate your time.

I.

Tim Melanson: Awesome to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast.