Hi Creative!

Running a business is no small feat, especially when you’re juggling family, friends, deadlines, and the million little things that pop up every day. That’s why this year, I’m trying something new: Eagle Eye Legal.

What you can expect each Friday at 8:00 AM Pacific:

• one bite-sized legal task that takes 30 minutes or less to complete
• the exact links, tools, or resources you’ll need to complete that task
• access to help if you hit a roadblock on the task via email from me until about 9:30 AM Pacific

Think of it as a weekly needle mover that helps you go from winging it to feeling confident that your legal foundation is secure, one bite-sized task at a time.

And because I’m not one to send an email with fluff or filler, your very first task is deciding how you define success.

Do you feel the pressure to reach for someone else’s version of success—whether it’s a six-figure income, endless hustle, or being “Instagram perfect”?

But what if you released that pressure and accepted that success doesn’t look the same for everyone?

As I’ve said a million times before, every creative business is on a different journey. And part of that is we all have different versions of success.

You might be aiming for something like:

• Having $2,000 in savings
• Earning $10,000 in revenue each month
• Having $5,000 set aside to travel this year
• Picking my daughter up from school every day
• Taking Sundays off
• Having the freedom to travel
• Having the ability to support local businesses
• No longer worrying about paying bills
• Volunteering at the animal shelter twice a week

What’s important to remember is this will change.

You might work towards and achieve it, and then come up with something new.

Or you might work towards it and realize, “Oh, this is not for me.” I want to do this. And you’ll change it.

Your version of success isn’t set in stone. It will change, it will develop, it will pivot from what you put down. And that's okay and expected.

And when it changes in the future–don’t stress! Because it only means that you are getting closer to creating a satisfying life and business.

So think about what version of success you want to achieve right now. What feels like success today?

👉 Your action item: Write down the version of success you are working towards and how you’ll know when you get there.

(Why did I make this our first task? Because legal projects are a waste of time if they won’t get you closer to your version of success. So knowing this will help you know which tasks I send this year aren’t relevant to your business right now.)

Did you complete this task? Come share your version of success on LinkedIn or Facebook.

I'll be sitting at my computer until about 9:30 AM Pacific and I'd love to know what legal tasks have been languishing on your to-do list. (And if you are reading this after then, please reply! I'll get back to you ASAP.)

Chat soon,

P.S. Want to take your version of success and turn it into an actionable legal to-do list? That’s exactly what I’m going to help you do next week in my free challenge. Click here to automatically sign up. (Want more details first? You can read about the challenge here.)

What is in the public domain? (2025 Updated Public Domain Chart)

New year, new work in the public domain! This year we added things like Popeye the Sailor Man, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey, and Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. I’ve updated my 2000+ word public domain guide with all the new dates. It also contains a decision tree to help you figure out if something is in the public domain and free to use.

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Other things on my radar...

• ​Some USPTO trademark filing fees are going up on January 18th. If you were planning on submitting an application or have a renewal due, get it in next week and save yourself some money!
• I've long said you shouldn't rely on overlays to make your website WCAG-compliant. The FTC agreed and fined accessiBe $1,000,000 this week for misleading it's customers that itsits tools would make your site compliant.
• The FTC also fined GOAT $2,000,000 last month for its unreasonable shipping practices. I've got a blog post I'm working on that breaks down the Mail Order Rule GOAT broke and how you can avoid this in your e-commerce business.
• Nicole is trying to brainstorm ways to deal with free consulting requests and scope creep and I chimed in with how I handle initial consults to remove one of these problems.
• We’ve got several events coming up! There’s the free Legal To-Do List Challenge, the every Friday Rundown, the brand new Stuck-to-Done session on January 29th to help you with those lingering to-dos, and our Legal Q&A session on February 12th.

Not a member of the artist's Courtyard? Join us for $45/month and get access to dozens of courses, templates, resources, and a private community to ask me your questions!

❤️ Easy to understand legal resources should be available to every creative, regardless of their financial situation. If one of my resources has helped you and you would like to say “thank you”, you can make a contribution here. ❤️