What you can and can’t do with my Intellectual Property

Thanks for your interest in my work

My team and I often get asked if it’s okay to use materials from my books, kits, etc. in groups or with their clients or in various other scenarios.

We really appreciate it when folks check in with us and let us know how much the work has helped them.

I’m thrilled to know when someone is so excited about my creative approaches that they want to share them with others. However, I get disheartened and frustrated when someone (intentionally or unintentionally) uses my work without permission, doesn’t recognize my copyright and trademarks, and/or chooses not to honor the formal licensing channels we’ve put in place.

I understand that most of the time folks don’t even realize that what they are doing or requesting actually impinges on my intellectual property. My guess is that happens because there needs to be some more education around what’s appropriate usage, so I wanted to address that here.

I’ll share more below about why this is so important to me and what the implications are not only to my own business but to yours and creative entrepreneurs as a whole.

First, though, I think it’s helpful to have some concrete examples of inappropriate/appropriate usage of my work (these are based off of real requests we’ve received or actual unauthorized uses we’ve discovered online).

To put the dos and don’ts examples into context, I’ve included below two of the copyright notices we provide in my materials. That way you have the legal language to reference as we go through the examples that follow.

Per the copyright notice on my books:

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, or other – without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

And per the copyright notice provided when you sign-up to download my free materials:

Please note that these copyrighted materials are for your personal use only and are not to be used in any business or commercial setting without licensed rights. If you are interested in using the Right-Brain Business Plan® materials or approach in your work with clients or in groups, workshops or presentations, find out about our licensing program. The Right-Brain Business Plan® is a registered trademark of Artizen Coaching LLC).

So given that, here are some examples of what are things you can’t and can to do with my materials. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Rather this is more to give you a sense of appropriate usage so that you can make a more informed and educated decision for yourself.

Please DO NOT:

• Please DO NOT use any of the materials, play sheets, exercises, etc. from my books, kits, workshops, etc. with 1:1 clients, in groups, in workshops, classes, retreats, presentations, online programs, e-courses, corporate trainings, classroom/educational settings, etc. without my express permission.
• Please DO NOT read a visualization script from my book or kits in a paid for workshop or group if you are not a licensed facilitator.
• Please DO NOT record your own version of one of my visualizations or exercises and post them online or share them with clients.
• Please DO NOT pass out copies of illustrated play sheets and take participants or clients through an exercise from my books or kits if you are not a licensed facilitator.
• Please DO NOT email my illustrated play sheets to your individual clients and take them through exercises from my books or kits if you are not a licensed facilitator.
• Please DO NOT create your own talk, handouts, slides, etc. based on my materials. Just because you credit me doesn’t mean it’s okay to lift my work. It’s a copyright and trademark violation and it dilutes the strong, recognizable brand I’ve spent many years building.
• Please DO NOT translate my materials, books, or kits into another language without my express permission. Also, please note that my publisher owns the rights to foreign translation for my books, so any foreign language translation requests regarding the text in my books would need to be handled through them. We’d be happy to put you in touch with our contact there.

Please DO:

• Please do use the materials from my books, kits, etc. for your own personal use. Meaning, you can take yourself through the exercises in my books and kits on your own. You can create your own personal retreat just for yourself following the approaches in my books and kits. (By the way, we always love hearing folks share about what they learned or created so please e-mail us at info @ artizencoaching .com with your take-aways! We may even feature you in our blog or newsletter!)
• Feel free to share your own personal insights and images from going through my materials in things like blog posts or social media. But please don’t share in great detail the actual exercises or steps. Instead focus on your own personal discoveries about yourself and/or your business – that experience is yours and yours alone and it’s golden!
• Please do recommend my work to friends and encourage them to get a book or kit (we very much appreciate your word-of-mouth referrals). It’s even okay for you to work through the materials together as informal accountability buddies (no payment for services) and if you both have your own book/kit.
• It’s okay to bring an informal group of friends together in a book club type format to go through the book as long as the group is not a business networking group. There should not be any payment exchanging hands. Nor should there be any upsell to any paid program.  Any or all of those would indicate commercial usage.
• Please do use your own common sense and discretion. If you’re not sure about something, most likely it’s a sign that it’s best not to use the materials in that way. If someone came to you with a similar request, what would your reaction be? How would you feel about that person or organization using your materials? What would the real-life and bottom-line implications be to your own work and business? Let your own answers help guide you. If you’re running your own business or are interested in launching your own business, these are important intellectual property considerations that you’ll want to take into account with your own work, too, so use this as a valuable learning opportunity. Feel free to contact us if you have more questions.

Why does all this matter?

I’m a creative entrepreneur, so I make my living through the work that I do. Plain and simple. I’ve developed my body of work over many years through things like my writing, coaching hundreds of clients, testing my materials with the community I’ve grown, and incorporating my own personal experience.

To put things into a tangible business perspective, over the years I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars to hire professional graphic designers to help me visually bring my concepts to life in a way that reflects my brand, attorneys to help me craft legal agreements with strategic partners to license and protect my intellectual property, business coaches to help me refine and market my programs, and more.

So in essence, when someone uses my work without permission (even if unintentionally), they’re taking advantage of the hard-earned money I’ve consciously and strategically invested back into my business not to mention the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve shed bringing my authentic, heart-centered creative work to life. And you’ve got to understand, that just doesn’t feel good plus, it’s not good for business – yours or mine.

I’m passionate about helping creative entrepreneurs succeed and about inspiring creatives to discover what their own unique gifts are. So please trust in your own creative wisdom and authentic voice and make conscious choices to invest in your own business growth.

Official Avenues For Using My Work

I’m also passionate about helping creative entrepreneurs get the tools and resources they need to succeed. Since I’ve heard from so many folks how much they want to share my proven processes with their clients and communities I’ve created our licensing programs, and you’re more than welcome to consider joining us and getting official support and guidance implementing these materials.

If you work with entrepreneurs and you’d like to use the Right-Brain Business Plan® materials in workshops, groups and with your 1:1 clients, check out my Right-Brain Business Plan® licensing program. You can also look at the Right-Brain Business Plan® licensing program FAQs for answers to some specific questions about licensing usage.

If you want to use my creative personal life planning materials in workshops, groups and with your 1:1 clients, check out my Unfolding Your Life Vision and Dream Box licensing program.

If you’re interested in using materials from my second book Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way, please email us and we’ll put you on our waitlist to be informed if and when we launch a specific program for that.

If you’re a non-profit, we have a special non-profit organization licensing agreement and rate, so please contact us for more information.

If you’re in the education sector, we’d be be happy to consider your proposal and work out a special educational rate.

And if we don’t quite have an option that suits your needs, we’d be happy to hear your proposal. In your proposal, please include how you would see using the materials, what audience you’d be targeting (size, demographics, etc.), what type of formats you’re interested in, your budget and anything else you think will be helpful for us to know. As you can imagine, we’re busy focused on the strategic plan we already have in place, so the more context and information you can provide up front, the easier it will be for us to consider your request and move forward if it seems like the right fit.

If you have any questions please send them to info @ artizencoaching.com.

Thanks so much for your time and consideration.

With gratitude and respect.

Jennifer Lee, best-selling author of The Right-Brain Business Plan and Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way