As CEO of your business, you have RIGHTS. This post is not only about the 8 rights that you have as a CEO, it’s also about setting boundaries, enforcing them, and keeping your cool while you do it! You have certain rights as a business owner and just because you are being paid by someone else or you’re working with someone else in a collaborative way doesn’t mean that you are someone else’s punching bag! Read on to learn about the 8 rights you have as a business owner, how to enforce your boundaries, and the BTS of my business and how these have come up for me!

In life, it’s always better to respond rather than react! For example: when I’m telling a story, I get all emotional and animated. But you shouldn’t do this in business! Which is why I try to calm and collect myself and be as polite, as neutral, and objective as possible. Especially when dealing with people in writing. You don’t want to be the type of person who loses your cool in an email or operates on a very impulsive, crazy scale. 

And trust me, I’ve definitely been there! I’ve had a lot of past lawyers, opposing counsel, and clients who have triggered me. However, in this season of my life I try to, especially in writing, take a pause, and respond rather than react! It’s one thing to be able to take a pause in person or in an actual conversation since that is very quick. And I know we all keep responding in real life very impulsively. You have to be very intentional about not losing your temper or not arguing. But bringing this into your business and into email conversations, is not necessary!  

For Example >> I had a former client who has a history of continuously being very rude, impulsive, and nasty. And then apologizing later. That shows that you are off the handle if you snap so easily to everyone around you that are just trying to help you. 

This is what led me to creating The CEO Boundary Bible, for you, for free! I get it, having these difficult conversations, setting and enforcing your boundaries is really intimidating for a lot of people. So knowing what to say and how to say it in a calm, cool, collected manner is really important. And don’t be that person that flies off the handle at every single drop of a hat, because you’re not a pleasant person to work with.

And as a reminder >> your idols and the people that you look up to in this industry are often the people who could care less about anybody else in this industry. The people who put themselves out there as a spiritual business coach or a soulful solopreneur are the people who have no soul. I’m not even kidding. The people who act as if they are successful seven figure business owners with all of these clients, are the people who have the most clients upset with them and filing complaints against them. 

Please be really careful when you are working with people, even if they’re your idols. If you see a person that has a large following and they are throwing their platform at you to:

– Get a discount on services

– A reason to barter with them

– A reason why you should beg and bend over backwards for them

Those people are only going to take advantage of you and it’s never worth it. 

Now we are going to get into The CEO Boundary Bill of Rights. And read this bill as a reminder when you’re having a stressful day, when you’re feeling like everything’s your fault, or when someone’s trying to make you think that things are your fault. You KNOW that you’re better off being without this person yet you still have this underlying stress circulating within you about how they are going to respond. Use this reminder to take no shit.

1. You have the right to refuse service to someone who is rude or quick to judge or jump to conclusions! You have the right to be picky about who you work with. There is no shortage of ideal clients who will treat you with respect and adequately compensate you. This comes from a few experiences with one client, and then the ability to recognize this pattern in future potential clients. For example: I had a repeated issue with someone where I would write an email or provide an update and they wouldn’t read it and then ask me questions that have already been talked about in the email. They would want me to summarize it. And especially for lawyers, it’s important to document what you say to clients in writing so that there’s no dispute later on! Make sure you are very careful about what you say to people in writing and be careful and courteous when giving information to people as well! Always make sure to follow up with conversations or try to organize the information in a certain way to give them all of the information that they need to know to make a decision.

    

   But you DO have the right to refuse service if you do these things and they are rude. And yes, these are often multiple seven figure business owners that boast all the time about their business, their funnels, and their methods that they’re trying to sell to you BUT they’re too lazy to take care of their own business. And they’re too cheap to pay you adequately to provide this white glove service or to repeat things in ways that are convenient for them. We have the right to refuse service to someone like that!
   
   

2. You have the right to refuse any and all services to someone that is outside the scope of your original agreement and fee. For Example: I had a client that wanted to file a trademark. And she initially “hired me” to do her trademark application. BUT she didn’t hire me to be her trademark watchdog and go after everyone who was using a similar name. So when these things would come up >> she would send me a million voice notes, a ton of crazy, lunatic emails, and respond freaking out. Without letting me explain why this is in her advantage, or even explain that this would require a paid consultation. But I ended up entertaining these interactions in lieu of a consultation and she never ended up paying me for a consultation fee. And then when I tried to put my foot down and ask for $100, she freaked out on me and later had to apologize. This happened multiple times.

    

   And if you put your foot down and tell them >> “I feel really disrespected. I’m trying to do you a favor and other lawyers would charge a lot for this.” They may end up ending the relationship because they cannot handle you trying to curb that type of behavior. I want to remind you that I  let it go on originally because I was mesmerized. She was this Instagram celebrity with a really popular coaching program. But this does.not.matter. I have the right and so do you to refuse services outside of the scope of the original agreement and fee! Download the boundary bible to get the email template on what to say if this situation comes up!

Often it’s when we most overextend ourselves to land or keep a client happy that those relationships become stressful or toxic. 

3. You have the right to respond (not react to volatile or rude behavior of others) and hold them accountable for disrespecting you. You are not their punching bag or their personal assistant and you should not be treated as such.

    

   For Example >> the person who was really rude to me all the time and wouldn’t answer my emails, it eventually took months for us to file her trademark application. She would not communicate, she would not listen to us when we tried to talk strategy to her. This caused a huge delay in her application because of her internal business structure.

    

   She ended up not getting the trademark before someone else >> then she was rude and took it out on me. You have a right to let them know like, “Hey, I’m not your personal assistant. I’m not responsible for all of these updates. I’m not here to hold your hand nor are you paying me to do so. I’m not responsible for making sure that you understand everything.” So if someone’s really volatile, you have the right to respond to them if you choose. Don’t react and just know that you’re not their punching bag.
    

4. You have the right to choose not to engage in trivial arguments or discussions. You have the right to walk away from toxic situations and people, regardless of the legal and financial consequences.

    

   With this client, eventually it got to the point where she said, “I’m not going to move forward with this trademark application which means we are not working with each other anymore”. And since there was no money involved and I was trying to help, the only thing that I did have to do was update the trademark office because that’s my ethical obligation to let them know I’m not the attorney of record anymore. When I informed her that I did that, she freaked out on me and she was like, I’ve had a new lawyer on this for months now.

    

   I said, “thanks for the update, however, I’m still listed at the, as the attorney of record. So I had to correct that from an ethical standpoint, this way they know who to communicate with. If your new lawyer needs anything else, let me know.”

   And I could tell she was just, again, wanting to flip out on someone, wanting to make me feel pathetic, make me feel beneath her and dumb, BUT I’m not going to engage in a back and forth. You have the right to choose to walk away from these situations, regardless of the legal and financial consequences. On the flip side, if they did still owe money, it might mean that the financial consequences are you losing a few thousand dollars in the long run. BUT you will be so happy that you did not continue to keep that person around because I promise you, their behavior and their toxicity will eventually lead to damage to your reputation or financial damage. That’s a way more than that few hundred or few thousand dollars that you’re losing now. 

    

5. You have the right to disassociate from someone volatile, unpredictable, explosive, sneaky, emotionally overactive, or otherwise problematic. Your reputation is too valuable to associate with someone out of convenience or apparent personal gain. It’s only a matter of time before their spite turns onto you or reflects poorly on you.

    

   The only reason I associated with this person was because I was just starting out. She wanted to be an affiliate for my shop, she wanted to get a trademark from me for free, and deliver content to her program for free. This would be in exchange for me: coming onto her podcast. I thought from a personal gain standpoint, I’ll get good exposure and she is a very high ranking affiliate in my shop because she does turn out a lot of students in her program.

    

   I was looking to associate with her out of personal gain and I thought that I could suck up all of her unhealthy behavior. But this is NOT worth it. She was messaging me every other week with some information about a client who wouldn’t sign this contract or she’d be trying to get people to wire her huge sums of money, and get mad that they wanted to negotiate the contract that I drafted.
   
   

   Eventually, it didn’t make sense for me to maintain that relationship because that’s not the type of work I want to do either. I don’t want to only align myself energetically with people who have problems with other people. I want to align myself with people who are inviting beautiful opportunities into their business, not just like trying to nickel and dime everyone. Right? So, my reputation is too valuable to associate with her. You have the right to disassociate from someone volatile! 
   
   

6. You have the right to say no to opportunities without further explanation. Create space for more time to reflect, be present, take a break or to wait and pursue more aligned opportunities for your energy in that season of life. Don’t feel bad for saying no to collaborations, even if they’re with your friends, especially if they’re free! Yes I have had people be offended when I say no. But we all have to protect our energy because look what happens when you AREN’T picky! You may end up working with people who:

    

-Don’t appreciate you

-Don’t pay you

-Don’t respond to you

-Aren’t organized or timely

-Can’t communicate expectations

This is why I am very intentional about who I work with in these ways. And I don’t need to explain that and you shouldn’t have to either! 

7. You have the right to make mistakes and learn and grow from them. Even if it negatively impacts a client, collaborator, contractor or company. But you DO need to be responsible, accountable, polite, and open to feedback. Every single professional has made mistakes. They just might not be so transparent about them. They might be very arrogant and never admit fault.. So if someone’s going to hold you to an impossible standard of perfection, chances are, they probably make more mistakes than anyone. They just don’t even look at them and they don’t apologize for them. That’s why they’re holding you to this impossible standard and not being forgiving, right? These things happen as an ordinary course of business as you continue to grow and be human.

    

   And if you ever get sued or have a lawyer write a letter to you, these things happen in day-to-day business and you can’t take everything personal. If these things happen, learn from them, try to settle them as amicably and friendly as possible, and with as little conflict as possible. Be open to feedback and be open to having the repercussions occur. But don’t feel like you need to keep apologizing or be put into this box of shame or guilt because something happened. So many businesses make mistakes >> Sophia Amoruso (the creator of Girl Boss) talks all the time about how she would declare bankruptcy. People make mistakes, even if they’re the worst thing in the world and they still bounce back from them. If they have the right mindset about it.

    

8. You have the right to move on with your day, week, year, your life. If you have a negative encounter with someone, you can move on without sweating it and replaying the conversation over and over again in your head. Don’t sweat it while you are sipping your coffee and reading a book on a Sunday, I don’t care what it is >> Don’t keep replaying it in your head! Compartmentalize it, move on, and choose whether to accept that feedback or not based on your standards. Be a growth minded person who just wants the best for others and yourself. 
   
   

The CEO Boundary Bible has certain language for email replies, so when you are initiating a difficult conversation, you can find prompts for you to start that conversation or respond in a certain way. It has scripts, examples, and templates for you. And it’s absolutely free because this is something I’m really, really passionate about. 

So remember you have the right to refuse service if someone is rude, refuse service if it outside of the scope of the agreement, hold people accountable for disrespecting you, choose to NOT engage in trivial conversations, dissociate from someone who is problematic, say no to opportunities without explanation, make mistakes and grow from them, and the right to move on with your day! Make sure to download The CEO Boundary Bible! 

Connect with Nina:

>> @ninathelawyer