Protecting Your Assets with Maureen Vincenty
You've worked hard to get where you are. Now it's time for protection!
What does your brand say about you? If you can’t answer this question, then you are not in control of your brand, and it could be affecting your career.
You know that a will is necessary, but life has been so busy and the expensive lawyer fees can really add up fast. It's not a fun topic, but it's something that we all have to face at some point. And if you don't have a will, we know firsthand from losing our mothers that things can get very messy for your loved ones. Don’t let your family down by putting off making one anymore longer than necessary.
In this episode, you learn how to protect your assets, digital footprint, and reputation. Do you have a side hustle? Don't worry we've got you covered too! We talk about how to protect your empire and be an empowered woman.
In This Episode You Will Learn About:
How to protect your assets
Your digital footprint
Reputation management
Is your side hustle legally protected?
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About the Guest:
“From moon dust to legal”, Maureen’s background may seem all over the place, but she’s always been obsessed with chasing everything down the research rabbit hole, and LOVEs helping others. With a science degree from UCLA, she worked in corporate for a decade from NASA to EPA and then left to become an entrepreneur as a peak performance health consultant. Most recently, she founded Legally Smart supporting fellow entrepreneurs with protecting their brands and empires through education, tools, and affordable attorney access, so they can legally scale their businesses to the next level saving lots of time and money in the process.
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What It Means to Protect Your Empire
There are three main components. And I'll still go into the last component, which is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and coaches and stuff, because maybe some people do have a little side hustle. But really the first thing about protecting our empire, if you think about us on a personal level, and I'm guilty of this as well, I guess, 60% to 70% of all Americans and Canadians don't even have basic estate planning done. You know, we don't have our wills done. We don't have a health care power of attorney financial proxy. And I think there's different reasons for that. I mean, I was one of them. And I think it was, you know, I thought, well, I'm still, I'm single, you know, I don't have kids yet. Or it's such this, especially when we're younger, we're midlife, we're thinking it's more like a retirement thing that you deal with, you know, or we don't want to really think something bad could happen and avoid it. And I think it's one of those things that overwhelms people to just like taxes. But you know, the government gives us a beautiful April 15 deadline every single year to get it done. And with the legal part of really running either our businesses or our personal lives. There's no external deadlines or accountability.
So it's really easy to just take one of those things that we all know we need to do eventually at some point, and put it on the back burner. Put it on the back burner, put it on the back burner, and a lot of times it's expensive, it's anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000. To get done, or upwards, if you go a traditional hourly rate, I didn't know something like, you know, legal shield existed a couple of years ago, which is who I'm affiliated with, you're my legally Smart Company, because there's no better cost-effective way for access. But so there's a lot of things but the importance of that, like, if you're listening and you have kids, you would think that your next of kin just automatically go to family, if something happens, it's really scary to realize the cord actually decides, or maybe you don't have kids, you know, and you have B you have things you have a car, you have pets, even, it's just those little things you want to know where does the money, that you've worked so hard to earn, go? Don't you want to donate it to that charity, give it to your siblings, bless your church with that or something? And if you don't decide where it's gonna go on paper, the court will take a huge percentage of it for their fees, it's called probate each state's different, and then with whatever's left over, then they'll give it away. And if you do have a will done or estate planning done, it actually needs to be updated every year, or maybe you've moved, maybe you got married. I've coached some women that are, you know, entrepreneurs, and they were like, I want to 30% that has it done. I'm like, Okay, awesome. When did you get it done? They're like, Oh, my husband, and I got it done about 10 years ago. I'm like, great. How many kids do you have? They're like, four is great, how old? Are they? 12, nine, seven, and six. I'm like, wonderful. So we want to make sure we get the last three kids in the will. You got updated, you know, but again, it's one of those things, we think we've done it, put it away and move on with life. So I think that's probably the most important thing from a personal standpoint to get done.
Yeah, I want to speak into this a little bit, because as many of our listeners know, and you know, as well as my mom was taken by suicide, and one of what I learned through the experience of losing my mom was in a time where I'm trying to grieve. I'm in shock, and I'm trying to process some of the motions. My mom did have a will. But it hadn't been updated in a very long time. And we didn't have the original records to it. And it ended up going through probate and it ended up taking a year and a half. So a time where I am trying to grieve and heal from this because there was a lot of, you know, my mom and I had pretty a tumultuous relationship. And, and yet I was caught up in so much of the legal stuff. It took me a year and a half and it was nonstop back and forth with the lawyers that went through probate it was extremely expensive. And I know that that's not what my mom would have wanted. My mom would have wanted it to be pretty easy for us so that then that money can go to her grandkids. So for our listeners out there, I think what Maureen's advice is very, it resonates very well is you don't Want to be in that situation? You want to be in a situation if anything were to happen to you or a family member, that all that legal stuff is taken care of, so that they can focus on the healing?
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good, it's a good point, you know, to bring up and I am so sorry about your mom. I know, though, it's something that, you know, you're with me, when I lost my mom, when we were 22. And same thing, we had a lot of estate stuff to deal with. And there, I mean, she, she got it done. But it was, it was really, it was really complicated. You know, hers wasn't sudden, I mean, it was we knew she was on hospice with the cancer. So she had time, you know, to to get her affairs in order and switch things around and put a trust together. And even with all that, you know, there were just so many people involved in so much assets. But I can't even imagine how much more complicated it would have been and heartbreaking for all of us had those things not been put in place. But again, it was not to say that her passing was lucky. But the way in which she passed, I guess there was some grace in there, because we knew we knew it was a terminal diagnosis. And we knew that we had time where she had time to “get her affairs” in order so to speak. But that's not always the situation that we are all in. And so you know, it's like those what are those MasterCard commercials, I think those old ones where it's like, the baseball game, hot dog, $2 something whatever, son smile, priceless. You know, it's kind of just like the peace of mind that it can give us to have our personal assets protected. And in order, it truly is priceless, it doesn't have to cost as much money or be as time-consuming as we think it can be done. You can have an attorney that I can refer people to, you know, in your area, and within 10 to 14 days you have it notarized done, it's completed. And you can just move on.
Minding Our Digital DNA
Okay, so let's also talk about social media. Because social I know, we're getting into this one. So social media, you know, I obviously work with a lot of women, and we talk about your reputation. And what does your brand represent and your brand is a combination of who you are and how you show up in person and how you make people feel also, your legacy, but also how you show up online? And this can be a very tricky one. Because there's it could just take one person to derail that brand online. So dig into this one a little bit.
Yeah, so this one is also something that I didn't realize the importance of or take seriously until in the last couple of years. So there's a product that I use, which is amazing, because we always think about I talk about really monitoring our whole online digital DNA. Right. And I think so many of us know about, like LifeLock, or other programs, oh, my credit card company, you know, monitors, you know, Experian or one credit. So I always tell people that we need to really monitor every single component of our digital DNA because we are fully online. Now. It's not just social security. It's not just credit. It's not just about hacking anymore, either. Or identity theft or fraud. It's so much more reputation management is a huge part of it. So I just tell people monitor all three credit bureaus, right. You also want to monitor your social security number. You also want to have password management system, you know, you want to secure all your online passwords. And then with social media, not only do you want to monitor them to make sure they're safe. My Instagram account was hacked last year,
I do remember that I was getting poached for buying a car.
Yeah, and it's happening all the time. And so there's two bummers that came out of this because I actually have a software that I use that allowed me to link my social media and I just never did. I did all the credits. And so I was like, oh, as Dave Ramsey calls it, I paid the stupid tax, you know. So now I have a personal story where I can tell people I'm like, go ahead and link everything if you think it's never gonna happen to you. It might. But there's two big bummers that came out of my Instagram being stolen one is I'm the only Maureen Vincenty on the planet. So the handle was my name. And it had been my Instagram for about 10 years so I was considering doing a fresh Instagram anyways for Legally Smart to have it completely separate from my business brand. But because they hacked and they took over that account, as you know, you've got messages they were pretending to be me. I have a lot of people that know like, and trust me. So people thought there were a handful of people that fell for these posters, were posting all sorts of pictures of me winning cars or buying homes from Bitcoin mining. And then they actually photoshopped a picture of me on a Cash App. And they were telling everyone Hey, if you give 100 or 200, that I was doing some like holiday raffle. And a lot of people fell for it. I think total I know of about eight grand taken from friends and family. But Instagram was not responsive. People were like, Oh, just do this video thing, whatever, I was never able to get a hold of them to shut the account down.
So not only do I feel responsible for the money being taken from my friends, the other bummer is that I was out there really building my new brand and building my business under the new handle. I'd be going to all these networking events, I'd be hired to be a speaker, so many people are like, do you have an Insta? And I would hesitate to say yes, because my biggest fear was I wasn't going to have time to tell them. Oh, yeah, well, I have two Instagram accounts. And this one's my business. And this one's my name. And it looks like me and all my pictures are still up there. But it's not really me. And so if you talk to me, you're not really talking to me, you're talking to Bitcoin miners. And I didn't want anyone else to get taken advantage of. So I found myself not even being able to market my business, on Instagram, because I was afraid that those accounts would get intertwined. So I'm actually using attorneys right now to write letters to Instagram to shut that account down on my behalf. You know, so and it's happening more and more and more. I actually just got a message last night from a new colleague of mine who's huge in crypto, and we were in Cancun together at this mastermind. And I was like, something's weird. He's not speaking to me as if we were in person together last week. And then so I texted him, and I said, are you talking about Instagram right now? And he's like, No, it's a clone. And it's exact has almost the same amount of followers. It's the same picture of him. Both Instagram accounts have around 18,000 followers. So this person, it's cloning his original profile, there's one additional n in the handle. Same pictures, he's just duplicating everything that this guy is posting. And so it's you want to make sure you're monitoring social.
But the other thing about reputation management, there's some software's that I use that actually go through and you can link like your Twitter account, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and it will run it through and give you a reputation score. And it goes back like as to the beginning of time, like whenever you open those accounts, and it will flag things, sometimes that flags incorrectly, but it will actually flag things. And I found stuff from like 2006 on my Facebook for like profanity or nudity, maybe a risque photo, or maybe some F bombs, I dropped in some comments, and it gives you the opportunity to just click and delete those, like, I would have never found those going back. And I you know, I'm a much different version of myself now as a 39-year-old woman and the image that I'm presenting to the world and my values and morals and beliefs than when I was 23. So I had the opportunity to go through my online digital DNA basically and make sure that everything that is out there is congruent now with who I am intentionally putting out into the world.
So especially for your listeners, probably that's a great thing for you guys to be able to know about when you're considering getting a new job going after your dream job making sure that there are not some remnants out there that could get you and I just think God that YouTube really wasn't that big of a thing yet when I was in college because there would have been a lot more reputation management score days to clean up and that software.
Why Reputation Management is Extremely Important
I'm glad that you brought that up. Because there are times I remember when I was working for an organization, we were I was with another manager, and we were talking about potential candidates that she might hire for her particular region. And she says, I really liked this particular woman, however, when I went on her Facebook page, these were some pictures that really concerned me. And she ended up not hiring her. Yeah. And reputation management is extremely important. When it comes to your career, you never know where that future is going to bring for your career and what might be lingering in your past that could come to bite.
And it is it's like, look, we're none of us are perfect. We all have things in phases we've gone through. But the problem is, and I'm sure you've coached into that is, you know, these people that don't yet really know you, your heart, the core of who you are, are only seen certain snippets and tidbits of things. And so they're just getting a false representation of the wholeness and completeness of the package that we bring to the table. And we're not even gonna give the opportunity for these new employers or colleagues or business partners to be able to see us with an unbiased lens. And then yeah, maybe five years down the road when we're at coffee we can share about that one weekend in Vegas that one time 40 years ago, you know, but you don't need the photo evidence of it anymore. Living around so “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is not always true with social media.
How to Be Legally Smart and Protect Your Empire
One of the big things, whether it's, you know, and I coach into this for the coaches, entrepreneurs and business owners, but I also utilize it all the time in my personal life as well is, especially for being you know, a woman and feeling empowered knowing I have a law firm on retainer that I can use for everything. So think about any of the times that you have signed a legal document without fully reading or understanding it. I mean, I'm still guilty of this, I coach into this, but it is so easy now with like DocuSign or esign, you get a document, you're just you're super busy. You're like, Okay, I know what this is about, this is my new lease, this is something else. And it's just top of mind because it's in your inbox. Then before you know it, you have just auto-filled and legally endorsed a 20-page document because it's all just like click, click, it fills in your initials and signature. And you're just like, I don't even know what I just signed. Right? But we do that all the time thinking about if you're going to, you know, buy a home like all those inspection reports, the below and you're taking out a 30-year mortgage most of the time, or maybe you're going to buy a car or lease a car or lease a new place. So I would say being legally smart means never signing anything that you haven't fully read or understood and knowing that, hey, if you don't understand the legalese, which most of us don't, we're not attorneys, have an attorney walk you through exactly what you're signing, even if I'm like, this is maybe more for speakers or coaches or entrepreneurs. But one of the examples is, you know, I had a friend that has like, drink out. I know you did a TED Talk work.
This so one of my friends that did a TED talk. He signed the speaker agreement that they gave him and didn't really read it. Right. He was reposting his YouTube video from TED talk on his personal page and stuff to promote his coaching program. The legal department called him and said, This is our content. We own the rights to it. He's like, What do you mean, I'm the speaker and they said, read the agreement you signed. So it's really important to know if you're going to be you know, speaking, being interviewed traveling, always read through what it is that you're signing, because it is negotiable to like a lot of times the companies will allow you to repurpose the mp3 or the mp4 to help promote their brand and your brand. But again, there's no right or wrong, good or bad. The agreement can be whatever the agreement can be, but just know what you're agreeing to. You know, know what you're agreeing to and it might not be a bad idea for you to have, you know, independent contractor agreements in place even to hire nannies or to hire Are other people to just have it, you know, be on paper, both parties know what their expectations of the other are, you know, so in your personal life, there are so many things that you can do to just make sure that you're empowered, you're protected, you have peace of mind in all areas of your life.
I'm glad you brought up to having a nanny agreement. We've had nannies throughout our time, and I've always had a nanny agreement not only outlining, and it's to protect both of us, right, it's it's in the situation, we're in COVID head, we had an agreement, and I said, Look, we're on, unfortunately, with my husband being home and, and COVID happening and not working for him, it made sense for him to be home with the kids. And but we had it in our agreement where I said, but we're still going to pay you out two weeks as part of our agreement, we're going to fulfill that. So not only protects us, it protects them as well. It creates a clear communication as to what the specifics are. And I think that's important too. And you also talk about signing agreements, we just recently you and I were speaking about one of my clients who had a non-compete, and she wants to get a new job. And now she's in a situation where she's told her employer that she doesn't want to work with them. And now it's getting into this legal stuff with a non-compete and thankfully, you had her set up through your program. And now she's having a lawyer review it. And now she feels like she's she has the tools and resources to take that next step in her career and not feel like she's stuck.
And this exactly. And this leads into a two. So she is trying to find a new corporate career right now. But we were on the phone, she was telling me about her side hustle. So I went to the website, and I my brain just like I can't help it now, because I learned all this stuff, too. And I didn't know any of this stuff. When I was a health coach. That's why I'm so passionate about giving, you know, my community, the tools and resources on a business standpoint. But I always scroll down. First thing I do, if you have a website, if you got a side hustle, if you have that Etsy store, if you do not have a privacy policy on the bottom of your website, it is findable by $2,500 per person who visits, Delta Airlines just got sued $37 million for not having an adequate privacy policy at the bottom of one of their holiday landing pages. And when I found this out, which is why I started Legally Smart. One of the main reasons I was just sick to my stomach because I was like, wow, I spent over six figures and business coaching, trying to learn how to run a health coaching business. And no one ever taught this. And I hired web developers, and like we think but it's like, they're just web developers. They're not legal people, my friends that were business coaches, they're teaching me how to grow business. They don't know about legal and I was like, Wow, no one's teaching this. And that's where this whole concept of legal coaching came into play. If people aren't your attorney, I'm like, No, I'm not an attorney, I will get you to an attorney. I am a legal coach, just like the health coach to the doctor, right? Like you're not going to go see the endocrine endocrinologist if you don't even know you need to go see him. But now when you go see him, you know exactly who to go see you can save time and money, you know, which lab reports to bring what to ask you're in and out. So that's what legally smart is all about. I was shocked when I found that out. Because I did a summit I interviewed 25 experts I built on my email list by 4000 people. So that means that at least 4000 visitors I had to that landing page that often. So I mean, do the math 2500 times 4000 Like I would have been done before my business even started, you know, so if you got a side hustle out there even if you think it's no big deal, no one goes, unfortunately, with legal with taxes, audits, IRS, I didn't know is not an answer that they care about. So there are some basic simple things in place happy to support with that. But privacy policy legally required terms and conditions and disclaimers, not legally required. But good idea to just have on the bottom. You know, if you're got a little health coaching thing on the side, just disclaimer, this is educational purposes only, you know, because people will want to sue you because like Well, you said on your blog, if I sleep eight hours a day, my anxiety is gonna go down, you know. So just little basic things like that, that put in place that you can, again, all part of protecting your empire, you want to protect your online digital DNA, you want to protect your personal life and your assets. And you want to protect whatever business you may be growing and scaling, you know, as a hobby as a side hustle, or maybe something that's going to turn into something bigger over time. But the whole point is just simple things to be built on a rock-solid foundation and every area of our lives can save tons of time and money in the future.
Oh my gosh, when I remember when I first was looking at some of the contracts that I needed for my business privacy policy terms and conditions and she definitely holds me accountable because when I redid my website, she's like you don't have a privacy policy. So immediately I got called out on that. But the amount of money that I have saved I mean I called one lawyer and he says okay for you know these Five standard contracts, whatever it is me $2,500. And through your program, I have saved so much money. And in addition to that is I have identity protection on myself, my husband and my kids. Because think about the digital footprint that's already being played for them right now. And it's just a monthly fee, everything's taken care of.
Yeah. And I have a friend too, she tried to register her four-year-old for preschool last fall, and found out that her social security number had already been used. So the four-year-old had already been a subject of identity theft. So again, it's just those things we think about like, Oh, my kids aren't old enough yet, or I'm not old enough yet, or I don't have kids. You know, it's just the whole thing. Just like when I was teaching people about health and wellness, it was like being proactive and preventive versus reactive and defensive. So that's really what you want to think, am I being proactive and preventive with my business with my online digital footprint, you know, and reputation and with my personal life, because at the end of the day, like, I think my program saves the average person, anywhere from eight to 10 grand with just basic legal things. It's like, okay, now we can't claim ignorance anymore. We know what we need to get done, and that the normal hourly rate, that's another roadblock, that's why a lot of people don't get it done, but you're just like, yeah, gosh, I'd rather spend the money on something else right now. You know, so it doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be as expensive as we thought. I tried to make it as easy and fun as possible.
