105 - Celebrating 2 Years with Cheri Andrews: Balancing Legal Expertise with Life’s Passions

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Writing a book can be the foundation for sharing your important message, but it won't work unless

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_01]: you are consistently marketing. This podcast is for those who have written a book to share

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_01]: their message with the world. I love talking all things authorpreneur and having guests

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_01]: join me to share their brilliance with you.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Hello, authorpreneurs. It's Suzanne Tregenza Moore and I am here with my good friend Cheri Andrews,

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: who is a small business and trademark attorney. She's here to help me celebrate the second

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_01]: anniversary of All Things Authorpreneur. I'm so excited about that. So let me tell you

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_01]: a little bit about Cheri. Cheri Andrews helps small business owners sleep better at night

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_01]: using flat rate pricing. Cheri works with entrepreneurs to get all their legal ducks in

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: a row so their business is legally compliant and protected. Her best-selling book,

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Smooth Sailing An Essential Guide to Legally Protecting Your Business, provides guidance

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01]: in business formation, contracts, compliance, and trademarks. When she's not crossing teas

[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and dotting eyes, Cheri loves to travel, read, get messy with mixed media art, and hang out

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: with her grandson Connor. Cheri, I'm so excited to have you here.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so excited to be here and congratulations on two years. I mean, I can't believe it's been

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: two years already because I remember when you were just launching this thing.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, right. And one of the reasons I wanted to have you on to celebrate

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: two years is that I'm pretty sure, and I probably should have looked back before I got on here,

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: but pretty sure you were my second guest. If not my second, you were my third guest.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: The week we started and you were part of my launch. And so I wanted to just bring you on,

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: A, because you updated your book. And so I want to talk about that, but B,

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01]: because you've been with me all the way through, you helped me trademark All Things

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Authorpreneur. And yeah, we're just we're such good buds. I had to have you come and celebrate.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And how exciting was it when that trademark registration came through?

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I actually thinking about it, I'm surprised it's not like framed on my wall of

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: my office. No, seriously, though, it feels like such a big deal. Like you get that

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: piece of paper and you're like, wow, like it's like the who is the character in Winnie

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01]: the Pooh, you feel real, right? When you're, you know, you feel real. So yeah, it was a big deal.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a big deal. I know you've helped a lot of our mutual friends with their trademarks. And

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that's one of the things that you do very consistently in your business.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. And I enjoy it. And it's so much fun when I can say congratulations,

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: your mark is officially registered. I know how I felt the day mine came through.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, so I just I know what it feels like and how exciting it is to be that

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: here's legitimate proof that I'm like for real doing the thing that I'm doing. And I own this name now.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. It feels really good. Feels really good.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's talk about so when you were on the first time at your book at that point was

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_01]: a little over a year old, if I'm remembering correctly. And your book at first was a

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: not an essential guide. It was a practical guide to legally protecting your business.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: And I know this past spring, May of 24, you relaunched it and you launched the second edition

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: that I believe is more than twice the size of the first one. Almost three times.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And so let's talk about what made you decide that three years hence it was time to

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: update the book and what all the differences because that is a lot of meat and potatoes.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what made me decide to do it was my clients. It was the essential deal of, okay,

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I've been running my own legal practice for four years now. Clients that have started with me,

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: their businesses have grown up. My practice has grown up. It was time for the book to grow up.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: The original version of it was really geared specifically to brand new business owners.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And here's what you need to know and the things that you need to be dealing with

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: when you get started. Yeah. But I was seeing my clients dealing with new situations,

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: the new issues. And we were delving into a lot deeper into some of the original issues in the book.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: So I felt like I have a lot more to offer now in this book. And so the second edition is actually

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: more geared to business owners who have been doing this for a while. And maybe they didn't

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: deal with legal upfront and they're catching up or they did, but they want to make sure

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: they're still checking all the boxes and they didn't miss anything. So while all of the original

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: stuff for those new business owners is still in the book, and it's still quite valuable for new

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: business owners, it's now also geared to those business owners who've been doing this for a while

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and who really want to make sure they have all the puzzle pieces in place.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. That's awesome. And I know that one of the sort of highlights,

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: and I love this because it really had nothing to do with legal stuff. But one of the highlights

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_01]: of the new book, the second book is your chapter on mindset. So I have this strange little feeling

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: a little mouse told me that you learned a lot about mindset in those three years

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and that you felt like, okay, I got to put this in the book too. So let's talk about that

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: because that is a significant shift from like, here's all your lawyerly stuff that you got to check on

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: to a little bit of whoa. It's absolutely true, Susan, that I went from being a, okay, I'm a lawyer,

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I know my shit, I'm doing my thing, right? To being a real small business owner and working

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: with real small business owners on a day-to-day basis and all of the struggles we go through

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. The imposter syndrome, the what did I get myself into and really one more

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: social media platform do I have to, all of the things that we face on a day-to-day basis. And I

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: learned a lot about how to structure my time, how to make time for me, what to do when I'm

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: feeling overwhelmed, what it really takes to be successful as a small business owner,

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: what kind of personality you need to ride through this as your book says, ride that roller coaster,

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. And so it seemed important to me that people understand

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that no matter how many legal protections you put in place, no matter how buttoned up your

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: business is, you're not going to be successful if you don't have the right mindset going in.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was why it was so important to me and why it's the opening chapter in the new edition.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I love it. And I also have to say, I think as a business owner myself for 14 years now,

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that doing things right legally you need a certain mindset about because

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: it's so easy to kind of be like, well, do I really need this? Well, do I really need that?

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And then all it takes is one small thing and oh boy, it can feel like a sledgehammer.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that I know for a long time I thought, oh, does it really matter if I, right?

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Privacy policy and my, you know, all that stuff, terms of use. And then you realize, oh, actually,

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: like I could get in some big trouble if I don't have those. And I guess I shouldn't just copy

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: my friends, right? It's kind of important. And they're not that big a deal. But I think

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: when you say to yourself, okay, I have a real business and I need to treat it as such,

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: then you say I need to invest in the legal part of my business as well. And I just think that for a

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: long time, a lot of us can kind of kind of push that under the rug is like, oh, I'm too small,

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: no one's really going to care. It's something that I say almost every time I speak somewhere,

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: people ask me, you know, you talk about legal landmines, what's the most common legal landmine

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_00]: for someone to step in and it's waiting? Yeah, that is it. So what you're saying is exactly

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_00]: correct. If you take the attitude of I'll sweep that problem under the rug till next week, next

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: month, next year, or I'm just spying under the radar for now, or you're just an ostrich with your

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: head stuck in the sand and you just not going to look or deal if you can't see it or hear it,

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: it's not a problem, right? Except that it is a problem because as you said, it takes one time,

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: one cranky customer, one person finding something that you used of theirs on the internet when you

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: didn't realize you were doing something wrong. And you know, one person coming in and saying,

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_00]: hey, that name you're using, that's my name and I own it. And all of a sudden your business

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: is crumbling around you and you're scrambling to figure out what to do and how to fix it

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_00]: when it could have been prevented if you had taken the action steps up front to deal with those issues.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: You could have avoided all of that headache and angst and possible complete rebranding or losing

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_00]: your business or some of the other issues that we see down the pike when people don't address

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_01]: the legal aspects of their business. Right, yeah. I actually, I know multiple people who've

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: invested significantly in different branding and different names for events and things like that.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And then suddenly they were told, you can't use that name anymore. I even know someone who

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_01]: wrote an entire book, spent months and months and months having, she did the audio book,

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_01]: she spent months getting the audio book ready for Audible. I think there were some issues

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_01]: with it. It was finally ready and a week later someone came in and said, you can't use that phrase

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that you use on the cover of your book and everywhere else. And she had to completely redo it.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, excruciating. It's hard enough to get this stuff done in the first place,

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: but to then have to redo all of something that you might have put a year or more into it

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: forgetting the money, right? The tens of thousands of dollars that you spent getting it

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_01]: created and promoted. Correct, yeah. Excruciating. So well, I am so glad that your book is out there

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and congratulations because I know it was a best seller again. Thank you. Yeah. So tell me this,

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01]: do you think, I mean, I ask everyone who comes on here this, but I started thinking about it

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_01]: as your friend now. Do you think you're going to write another book, Sherry? And if you do,

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_00]: like what will it be about? My next book will be a memoir. I'm done with business books.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm done. Yeah, never say never, but I'm pretty sure I'm done with business books.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And my next one will be a memoir if and when I get around to writing it.

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you do because I think that you have a lot to say about. I've seen you speak on

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: hiding yourself and the years of hiding yourself and then making the choice not to.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And how your business taught you that, which I love that talk. I think everyone would benefit

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_01]: from it. In fact, will you just kind of share a little bit about how that talk came about for you

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_01]: and how you use that message in your business? Right. So the talk that you're talking about,

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: it's visibility and brand protection. And I talk for myself about going from being invisible,

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_00]: which is the way I grew up and the way I learned to survive in the world, to having this business

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00]: where you need to be visible or you're not going to get clients. And you need to put yourself

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: out there and having to come to grips with how you do that in a way that feels safe and

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: secure and in a way that's legally compliant with whatever's going on, whatever you're doing.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And so the message that I'm sharing in the talk is about trademark and branding and whatnot,

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: but it starts with this discussion of how I grew up because it's important to understand that

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: not everybody's comfortable being visible. A lot of us come to our businesses with baggage

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_00]: from childhood, whether it's abusive parents or bullying in school or just you never quite felt

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_00]: like you fit in and you're not sure why. And there's a whole lot of imposter syndrome going on.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe some teacher in third grade made some offhand comment that just stuck with

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_00]: you forever. Absolutely. And made you feel small and little and you never quite figured out

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_00]: how to grow beyond that seven-year-old version of yourself. But it's important that we do,

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: as business owners, find a way to get beyond and past those hurts and grow into being visible and

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_00]: being able to share our achievements, our accomplishments, what we're doing in our business,

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_00]: who we're here to serve, being able to actually shout that from the rooftops and

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: get the word out because if you don't, then nobody knows what you're doing and your clients can't find

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_01]: you. Right. I would say sharing your wisdom as well because I know a lot of very wise women

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that are in business for themselves. I think that's such an important message because I do

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: think so many entrepreneurs and especially entrepreneurial women from what I've seen

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01]: come to this work, come to their work because they worked on healing hurts of their own and now

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_01]: they want to help others heal theirs. But even though they've healed a lot of those hurts,

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_01]: some of the subconscious blocks and gunk get in their way of really putting themselves in front

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_01]: of people in as big and badass a way as they can. So I just love that message and thank you for

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_00]: sharing a little about it. Very hard to be that vulnerable and I know there's been a couple of

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_00]: times when I've given talks and they didn't go quite as well as I hoped there might have been

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00]: technical issues with sound quality or whatever. And you come out of that with this huge

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_00]: vulnerability hangover and you know, oh my God, what happened? It all went wrong. I feel terrible.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember completely re recording a training I had given live so that the person who ran it

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: could send that out to the participants because there was so much ambient noise in the room

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: in the last situation that I felt like nobody could hear me. Okay. Yeah. And you know,

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: those kind of things just you're like, oh, I have to fix this. I have to do this. It's hard to come off

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00]: of that and feel like nothing went right. It was terrible. I'm horrible. But then you immediately

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00]: have to reframe it. I wasn't in charge of the sound in the room. I didn't have any control over how

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_00]: the setup was in the place I was giving the talk. So it's not on me that that didn't go well.

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it might be on me what my reaction was to it and how well I handled it,

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_00]: how professional I was or wasn't. But then we have to come back to it and just give ourselves a

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: lot of grace. We're human. Right. Absolutely. So with the perspective of a person two years later

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_01]: than the last time you were on the podcast, I'm going to ask you a question that I

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01]: probably asked you then which is what is one thing you think entrepreneurs need to either do

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_01]: or have in order to be successful in their businesses? You have to have grit.

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Grit covers a lot of different types of personality traits, but the willingness to

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_00]: persevere to hang in there to overcome the obstacles, find your way over under around

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00]: or through whatever it is. I think that's a key trait to being successful as an entrepreneur.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome. I love it. Do you want to share one of your favorite books with us?

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure. I'd be happy to. My favorite book, I think probably of all time is Brinay Brown's

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The Gifts of Imperfection. Now, I love all things Brinay. She speaks directly to me and to my soul,

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_00]: but that particular book, I swear she was in my head talking to me. And I think it's a must read

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: for anyone who has even a twinge of imposter syndrome.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Excellent. I love it. Sherry, is there anything you would like to share with the audience that we

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: haven't already covered? I'll just say if you are running a small business and you haven't talked to

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: an attorney yet, you probably should. And if that feels a little bit too intimidating, then get

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: my book and read that and decide if there's some issues you need to address. Awesome.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And do you have any free gifts that you would like to offer the audience?

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I do have on my website a free download that is actually kind of a workbook that goes along with

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: the book that takes you through some of the five keys of running a legally sound business. And

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_00]: it's really just a way to gather some thoughts and think about where your business is at right

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: now, what you already have in place and what you might still need. Awesome. We will make sure

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_01]: there's a link to that directly from the show notes. So thank you very much. Sherry, thank you for

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_01]: being here. Thank you for celebrating two years of all things authorpreneur and for sharing your

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_00]: wisdom today. It's been an absolute pleasure Suzanne. Thank you so much. And to all those

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_01]: listening, I hope that you got as much out of this as I did. And I look forward to bringing

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_01]: you another episode of all things authorpreneur soon. Thank you for listening to all things

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_01]: authorpreneur. Head to iTunes and leave us a rating and review.