#111: Know Your State Nutrition Laws with Lisa Fraley

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. I just want to make sure that the live stream is working. If you guys are here, live, just hang on real tight and make sure the technology is happening. Oh wait.

Lisa Fraley:
Hi. Hi everyone.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. Very good. All right. Hello, health coaches. We are here. We are alive. I'm so excited today because we are hitting a very, very hot topic. We get questions on a weekly basis inside our health coach power community Facebook group, all about red States, green States, one state two state blue states. We're going to hit all of that today. Talk about what's legal. What's not. I have invited Lisa Fraley, who is our go to legal source for health coaches to help us out. Lisa is an attorney. She is a legal coach. She is a certified health coach herself. So we are in very, very good hands. Thanks for being here today.

Lisa Fraley:
Thank you, Michelle. It's good to be here. It's great. And I love that red fish, blue fish, like red state blue state green state doctor sees all the way.

Michelle Leotta:
We don't even know what's going on. We really don't. We're so glad you're here, but real quick, Before we get started, you guys, I have one announcement for all of our listeners. This July, I'm calling this our rising tide month inside the health coach power community Facebook group. And what that means is as we help each other out, we help ourselves, right? Like a rising tide lifts all boats, and I've challenged you guys to help us get the group to 10,000 members. We're close. We don't need that many, but we need some to get to that 10,000 member Mark by the end of the month, that way we can have an even richer community asking even more important questions. And if we can hit that goal, I'm going to be offering a completely free masterclass for all of our members on how to use Facebook groups for your business. That is a like full length, full on all the details, all the down and dirty tips.

Michelle Leotta:
Everything I know about Facebook groups for free happening right here, if he can help us get to the 10,000 Mark. So I have to do is share this URL with your health coach, friends, your coaching circles, it's healthcoachpowercommunity.com. We're looking for certified health coaches and those who are in school to become one. And again, that URL is healthcoachpowercommunity.com share it. We will be continuing to lift each other up and in that spirit, I'll be putting together the masterclass for you. And for today, of course, even more in that spirit, we want to take care of you and keep your business safe. That's why Lisa's here. So let's jump into this idea of state nutrition laws. Also I know we're going to have like a million questions. So Lisa, just start with like, who really needs to be listening right now. We have members in our group from all over the place who needs this.

Lisa Fraley:
Sure. So thank you so much for having me, Michelle. Hi everyone. I love fact that Michelle has dedicated this time to talk about the legal parts of your business. She's such a leader, as you know, totally helped with that challenge to get 10,000 people into this Facebook group. Because as you all know, you guys already know Michelle is so amazing with what she teaches and her energy and her care for this profession. So I come in on the side of wanting to help protect what you're learning, how to grow with Michelle. So as we dive in, I do have to give you my little legal disclaimer to say, this is just informational educational. And this is designed to share information with you so that you know how to protect yourself. But I always recommend talking with an attorney who understands your business so that you can get the right legal steps for you.

Lisa Fraley:
But with that in mind, as we dive in state nutrition laws is one of the hottest topics right now, because as a health coach, you do need to know what your state law says about what you can do and not do as a health coach. If you're listening outside of the United States, that's cool. You just take everything that we're saying, and you're going to apply it to your own state or your own province in your own country. Okay. But what I always want to do as Michelle knows is to help you learn how to find out what your health nutrition laws say, because some of them are really, really permissive and let you do a lot of things as a health coach and others are a bit more restrictive and you have to be very conscious about what you say and what you do, and kind of how you do health coaching. You're allowed to be a health coach in every state in the United States that is completely permissible. It's really comes down to like what you can do. And maybe what you can't do is, is easily without violating the law. So my job is always to talk about what the law says and your job is always to decide how much risk you want to take. So we'll start there.

Michelle Leotta:
All right. That's great. And I love what you said because I get this a lot. I wouldn't have gone into health coaching. If I knew I wasn't allowed to do it in my state, you are, we have practicing health coaches in every state, across the country, at least will back me up on this. It's just, it's in the details, right? It's in the details. And that's why we want to talk about this today. Also, by the way, if we don't, if we can't cover like every single detail of everything and your particular state, you know, for everybody listening and watching this, I want to let you know that Lisa does have a new legal masterclass on state nutrition, law basics for health coaches. So we'll do as much as we can today. You can get more in her class, which is available at healthcoachpower.Com/Statelaws. Okay? So that's a resource available to you. Lisa, how do you even begin to tackle this? And we have 50 States who by the way, are all very different in so many ways.

Lisa Fraley:
Yeah. I think the best place to start you all is that laws around nutrition are so important, but learning what your law is, is no different than if you were in a different profession that had to learn what their law is. Like. A lot of people will say, well, I went to health coaching school and they didn't teach me my state law, or like I'm working with a coach and they didn't tell me this, or they didn't tell me that. But here's the, I want you to feel really empowered. Like my goal is to always help you feel safe, secure, competent, and empowered to know what you can and can't do until legally protect herself. So laws change all the time, just like the human body, right, where you are with your client today is not where your client's going to be in a year, especially after working with you.

Lisa Fraley:
Well, the same is true for the law. They change all the time. Several States have changed in recent years and more legislations on its way. So I want you to know how to be able to find what your state law says. So with that let's talk about a little bit more in depth, some terms that you may have heard before, and that is the concept of like a green state or a red state. And if you have no idea what we're talking about, I'll tell you what that is. Basically. several years ago, a group that was called nutritional advocacy, but not the center for nutrition advocacy, but now it's called the American nutrition association came up with a way of helping people and dieticians and nutritionists and health coaches understand how restrictive or lenient a law is. So they use like the traffic light system, red, yellow, green.

Lisa Fraley:
It was actually originally red, orange, yellow, green now, which is red, yellow, green to tell you what red means stop. And green means go. So red States are more restrictive as to what you can do in green States are more permissive. So in every state is still different, but in most green States, and you can find that information at theana.org/advocate, I'm sorry, the theana.org/advocate, maybe Michelle or somebody is putting that in the chat, which would be helpful. Okay. You can go there and take a look at that and see the color of your state. So what that means is if you're in a state that has permissive, this is what I call them, permissive laws. It means that you can do individualized nutrition, consulting, work with your clients as well as group work, or as well as DIY info products, as well as online cleanses as well as online classes or eBooks or books.

Lisa Fraley:
And you can educate people about nutrition, okay. But in, in the red States and the States that are more restrictive, you may or may not be able to do all those things. In some red States, you may not be able to do one on one nutrition work safely, or you may not be able to do group work. You may not be able to educate. So that can be a bummer when people hear that, but at the same time, they're usually things that you can do in most States. And that's where I always come from is one you to feel like you're clear about what you can and can't do. You're clear about what your state law allows, and then you decide what's best for your business and, and do whatever feels good to you. Preferably, preferably in alignment with the law.

Michelle Leotta:
Preferably. But the, I mean, it's hard, it's a hard pill to swallow to hear like, Oh, what do you mean? I can't do like one on one. So I heard you say you or may not be able to do one-on-one nutrition work. Can you just give an example of like, well, I may or may not like if you're in a red state, you, you can't, or you can, or

Lisa Fraley:
Yeah, each state is totally different, but like we can take an example, if you're in a, one of the most restrictive States in the country is my beautiful beloved home state of Ohio. And I love Ohio. It's very close to my heart, but it's also a very restrictive state. So right now, presently it's does that. You aren't able to do one on one nutrition work or group work, and sometimes even education with your clients. That means when we talk about one on one nutrition consulting or one-on-one work, that means that in States that are red, most States that are red, you actually legally are not allowed to do an intake form to gather information from the person about their specific health or nutrition situation. And then you're not able to take that information, develop a personalized nutrition plan or supplement plan or lifestyle plan.

Lisa Fraley:
It depends on the scenario and be able to give that back to them with coaching support, which is a lot of what health coaches do, right? That's often what we do, especially if you go to a health coaching school, I went to IIN. There's lots of great health coaching schools, but we learned about bio-individuality. Now each person is different. So it can feel very challenging to think, wait a minute, what do you mean I can do, you know, have a discovery call and an intake form and gather information about that person about food and nutrition. And then I can't give them a personalized recommendation, unfortunately, in several States in the country, we're just not there yet. They just aren't. They don't allow that unless you're a licensed nutritionist, registered dietician, sometimes the CNS, I'm a clinical nurse specialist, nurse, sorry, clinical nutrition specialist, depending on the state. So that's why it's so important to know what your state laws are and then what it is that you can do.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay. So that's super important, especially for everyone who's just graduating and has just been told to go out and find their first private clients and go through this particular, you know, like I went to IIN as well. They say, here's what you should do. Meanwhile, a lot of coaches potentially should not be doing that. So very important to listen to what Lisa is saying today. And this reminds me of a question we just got like yesterday in the group, Erin posted a question about Florida. She said, did I see this right? That Florida is now a green state? Cause it definitely used to be red, right?

Lisa Fraley:
This is a big deal. This is a big deal. Now States we say change colors, but really don't laws change very, very often. Last year, new, new North Carolina changed, Maine change. Several States changed colors and years before that other States did as well. So Florida used to be what we call a red state, which was very, very restrictive. There was actually a court case out there that was filed by a health coach in Florida to try to challenge the current state, the law though. They filed it in federal court. Under freedom of speech is the argument that they use. And now that case is sort of moot as we say in law, because the statute actually changed. So Florida went from being restrictive and doing one on one to now allowing you to do individualized nutrition consulting, to do individualized recommendations with the caveat. And most States do have this copy yet that health coaches in most States cannot do medical nutrition therapy, MNT, which is the purview of registered dieticians.

Lisa Fraley:
Typically sometimes clinical nutritionist as well. And that's where you actually create a nutrition plan to support or help someone heal from a medical problem. So I encourage most health coaches not to actually tie their coaching program to a specific medical ailment or a disease or a condition specifically. So in other words, you don't necessarily want to be like a Hashemites coach because you would, you actually want to be more focused on being a thyroid health coach because health coaches can't connect, can't create nutrition plans to support healing of a medical disease specifically under the law that comes under medical laws, but also under nutrition laws. So what you want to do instead, when you in States like Florida, is you can now do an intake form with a client. You can talk to the client, you can find out about their health situation and their nutritional situation.

Lisa Fraley:
You can look at their food journal, you can see what they're eating. You can help them assess their goals and determine what they are and then make recommendations for them and coach them and support them through the process of implementing the recommendations. As long as you're not doing it around a medical condition, there's some other exceptions as well and the new law, but generally speaking, this is such exciting news because you can work one on one with clients now in Florida or groups or online courses or downloadable products. And before you were really restricted around all that. So this is a huge, huge, exciting change in the law. It's fantastic. Awesome. Maybe Ohio will be next while they're working on it. Jonathan Posey of the holistic council is actually working really hard. The council for holistic health advocates. I think it's called efficacy.

Michelle Leotta:
I forget, I know who you're talking about.

Lisa Fraley:
He's working hard as a lobbyist. So not all lobbies are bad just to let you know. He's working really hard as a lobbyist to help the laws change in several States. And he was one of the main people along with a lot of health coaching schools, it was a huge actual collective effort, but he was a big part of helping to help the laws change. So don't despair. If you're in a red state, figure out what it is that you can do. And also don't despair because the laws may indeed change.

Michelle Leotta:
Now you mentioned something just now. I think we should circle back to cause we talk a lot about choosing a target market. And oftentimes when we choose a target market, it is sort of based around diagnosis that a person has or a medical condition now. And I just want to say every time I talk about this with the coaches that I mentor, we talk about in terms of being an internal statement. So internally, but I know for myself, I work with a lot of women who have Hashimoto's and they get a lot better, but I am never going to be out of my website saying I heal Hashimoto's disease. Right? It's like a fine line. So what do you say to someone who's like, I, in fact, we had this question who said this the other day. Oh, I forget. Maybe it was Christopher. He said like a health coach decides to work with type one diabetes. Can we legally do that? Can we target clients with a particular medical condition?

Lisa Fraley:
So this is where it does get a little tricky because just like Michelle said in your mind, you might want to say to yourself, I want to work with people with diabetes, but on your website, you don't want to say I work with people with diabetes because as a health coach, you actually can't use nutrition plans to address a medical condition that violates a lot of dietetics laws in your state. Now you might be in a state where you can do that. There's just a few States left. There's actually no dietetics laws whatsoever. There's also some States where you have a lot of free reign to be able to be able to speak to medical conditions. But the trick is you Al you always, always, everyone does not want to say, do not want to say that your program will heal or cure or treat or prevent a medical condition.

Lisa Fraley:
Okay. So there's a fine line between creating a nutrition program or a health coaching program. That's going to support people with diabetes in reversing their own diabetes. But when you're talking to them, you want to be talking about blood sugar, balance, blood sugar. That's why Mark Jaime came up with the blood sugar solution as the name of his book. Not like how to reverse diabetes and he's actually a doctor, but you want to say like, how can we support healthy blood sugar? How can you support balancing mood? Like things that are not medical conditions, but also like Michelle was saying, get the same result as if you were promoting that medical condition, but you just don't want to be doing that. It puts you in a really dangerous place and not only perhaps violating dietetics laws, but also perhaps being accused of practicing medicine without a license. And that's another area that we want to stay away from.

Michelle Leotta:
Mm, yes. That is tricky. And like a lot of gray areas there.

Lisa Fraley:
Yeah, you can. Okay. Just let's get a little more specific because you and I talk about this in the masterclass as well, but you can talk about your own situation. So you could say, I overcame my diabetes by doing ABC, but you can't go so far as to then promise or even an implied promise to say. And therefore, so will you like you can't say that because we know someone could follow the exact steps of your health coaching program and they still might have diabetes at the end of it, right? They can't, you can't ever promise that someone's going to get a certain result, nor should you by following your program because of all the reasons why people experience illness in their body, which may or may not have anything to do with the food or nutrition they're printing, it could be lifestyle.

Lisa Fraley:
It could be spiritual. It could be old wounds could be energetic. It depends on your belief system, but there's lots of reasons why people may or may not be able to reverse or heal their own medical condition. So you always want to be talking about how you can help support someone, how you can provide tools and resources and information to help support vibrate, health, or to help support balanced blood sugar. It's not as exciting to say that in your marketing, like it's not as catchy, but it is legal. And so that's where it comes down to being very clear in your mind who your ideal client is. But then speaking in terms that actually aren't going to get you in trouble.

Michelle Leotta:
Right. And you know what, honestly, sometimes it's better. Anyway, you guys, cause sometimes people have a disease, but they don't know it. They know that they have the symptoms. So if you can speak in terms, I always say, it's, you have to speak in terms of the problem that they think they have, the problem that they want to solve. So even if it's diabetes, oftentimes the problem that they want to solve is losing weight.

Lisa Fraley:
Yes, that's right. Exactly. And also you want to speak about symptoms that aren't medical. So like you can, you said you want to speak to terms of like, do you have a low mood or do you, are you feeling sad and having a hard time getting out of bed? Not are, have you been diagnosed with anxiety or have you been diagnosed with, with depression? Like you want to talk about what people are experiencing as their personal experience? Like, I can't fit into my old clothes or I feel like I have a spare tire around my waist, as opposed to saying, you know, have you been diagnosed with diabetes and need to lose weight? Like they talk about what they're feeling and what they're experiencing in their own life and their own body rather than the medical condition. And you're just like Michelle just said, you're going to get to the same, same solution, which is your health coaching program.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. And I mean, I think it's better marketing anyway, to speak to the pain point, not to the diagnosis. So that's

Lisa Fraley:
That wasn't a diagnosis. So some people will speak to the pain point and say, well, do you having, I mean, do you have anxiety? And if you talk about generalized anxiety, like right now, we're all experienced Copeland. We all might feel a little anxious, but that's different than the pain point of diagnosis of anxiety or experience of depression or so be careful just words use even to describing what's going on to make sure you're not using descriptive words that are medical diagnoses as well.

Michelle Leotta:
Right. Anxiety is a good one. A good example. Cause you can say, Oh, I'm anxious. I have anxiety today. That's different than like in medical diagnosis of anxiety.

Lisa Fraley:
Exactly, and just use the word anxious versus anxiety. Use the word sad instead of depression, for example.

Michelle Leotta:
Okay, awesome. I hope everybody's taking a lot of notes. Oran says, this is all great information everywhere. Oran had a question. Cause I was going to say this too. We talked about the different States. So like I live in New York, but I have clients all over the country. So she says, I live In Massachusetts. I've been seeing demand to provide services virtually to people in other States. What are the legal considerations for this and where can I learn more about state by state rules?

Lisa Fraley:
Okay. So each state is different as we've talked about and where, okay, so this, the legal masterclass on state nutrition, law basics will help you with a lot of the answer to this question. And for everyone, we don't go through each state specifically, but I tell you how to find each state and what to look for about each States to help you get some clarity about each state. But there's a couple of things that are going on when you're a health coach and you're based in Massachusetts, but let's say your clients in like Illinois, for example, right? Whose law do you follow? Like how does that work? You're in Massachusetts, but your clients in Illinois.

Lisa Fraley:
So it always come back to using your client agreement. Okay. A client agreement is the document that you signed in your client signs that spells out your program, what's included in your program, how much it costs, what the expectations are, your disclaimers. It has limitation of liability, language, communication language. It's a nice document, several pages long that spells out your expectations and your policies for the program. In that document, certainly in the DIY legal templates that I provide, like the DIY client agreement, but in lots of other client agreements, you have a section that says governing law or something to that effect. It might be under dispute resolution, but it's really the governing law, which means the law that governs this relationship, the law that applies to this relationship, you'll be able to fill in the law of the state where your business's based. So in the example of this coach, who's in Massachusetts, you would say the governing laws, the law, where my business is based, which is Massachusetts, but there's a second part to this.

Lisa Fraley:
You also have to actually register your business in Massachusetts to say that your business is based there. So even if you're a sole proprietor, a sole health coach, you don't have an LLC or S Corp yet you're just hanging out. Your shingle is a health coach in Massachusetts. You do want to register your business locally with your city and sometimes also your County to put your stake in the sand to prove that you have a business based in Massachusetts. It's not enough just to say, well, I live here, so my business's here. You need to register your business to prove that your business is based there. That's done at the County level or unusually the city level. You also, you just file a form usually or a couple of forms and pay a fee. And then you paid, but you pay local taxes too, which is important because you need to do that to be an integrity. Anyway. So step one is client agreement with the governing law of your state that you use with your one on one clients, step two is you actually register your business. You probably should do them in reverse order, but register your business first and then put the law of your state that will help you know, who state applies so that when you work with clients, anywhere in the world, you make sure you use the client agreement and make sure it says that the law of your state applies.

Michelle Leotta:
Terrific answer. And so now here's The fall... I feel like this just goes every time there's an answer there's another question, right?

Lisa Fraley:
I know that's what the law is, but it's just like the body, right? You can't just like one answer for everything in the body. Like they just invites more questions. The laws, very similar to that, actually.

Michelle Leotta:
Man, with your expertise in both areas, it's like, you probably never stop answering questions.

Lisa Fraley:
No, I love questions. So I'm like very curious about all kinds of things. Yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
So back to the idea of registering your business. Cause we get questions about this a lot. I was a sole proprietor for a long, long, long time. And then I LLC, and now as an S Corp. And so my question is, does that matter state by state? Does it matter how you're registered and sort of the structure of your business depending where you are?

Lisa Fraley:
No, that's a great question, Michelle. No one's ever asked me that before hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of interviews. No, one's asked me that question. You get a prize, you get a prize. Okay. So without taking too much time to explain what each of the entities are and by the way, let me just say I didn't ask Michelle if I could share this, but I have a free podcast called the legally enlightened podcast on iTunes or Stitcher or on my website at lisafraley.com/podcast. And there's 20 minute episodes that explain like what's an LLC. Why do I need an escort? Like you can find episodes to walk through this a little bit more. But the deal is that there are different types of business entities that you might want to set up as you grow in your business. So when you start off, you're a sole proprietor, which means it's just you hanging out your shingle, like we talked about, and you are starting to receive clients and receive payments.

Lisa Fraley:
You register your business locally with your County and your city. And then you're off and running. You're off to the races. And in your contract, remember you put this state where your business is now registered. You might want to have an LLC as Michelle did initially. And that's actually a legal entity that is makes you separate from your business because when you're a sole proprietor, you and everything you own are all one, right? Like you, your house, your car, your spouses income, your part time, job income, whatever it is, all of that is one. And you're also legally vulnerable when you're small in business, it's totally okay because you may not have as many assets to lose, but if you have personal assets already like a house or a car that's already paid off and things like that, you might want to form an LLC, which separates you legally from your business.

Lisa Fraley:
And that gives you some asset protection. We say, so if someone comes after you new business, they can't come get your house in your car, generally speaking. And if someone comes after you for your house or your car, they can't get your business. Generally speaking. Then also there's other entities like an escort that Michelle mentioned as well, which is more sophisticated than an LLC. So the question was, does it matter which one of these I have when I'm registering my business or starting off or related to state laws. And it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you are a business person. And regardless of whether you're a sole proprietor, you have an LLC or an S Corp or, or all the other kinds of entities, a C Corp. You actually, what matters is where you and your business are based, whether you're a sole proprietor or you have a corporate entity.

Michelle Leotta:
Awesome, good stuff. I know a lot of questions.

Lisa Fraley:
It's just a tiny lesson about corporate entities.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, but you do all that kind of stuff too. Right? We can help them set up their LLC, etc.

Lisa Fraley:
That's right. LLCs and escorts and non-profits and all of the entities.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. All that stuff. I mean, sometimes people do this on their own, but I was definitely a person that I'm like, I don't understand any of it. This is not my area of genius as they say exactly. Exactly. And I do try to help people understand what it is that they're setting up. So that, because here's the thing you guys, it's just like the body, right? When you have knowledge and information, you are empowered. When you have knowledge and information, you feel confident when you know what's happening with your business, you actually show up differently in your business. Like I have this light and ampersand on my wall because Michelle knows this. I always talk about how the law is both legal and energetic. So legally you set up legal protections. Like we're talking about your client's agreement. You get clear on your state laws. Maybe you create an LLC or a trademark or disclaimers and things like that to give you legal backing, right? Legal language to fall back on to support you. And the law also is energetic. So when you get clear about your business policies in your coaching policies, and you put those in your legal documents, like your coaching agreement, your client agreement, you actually show up differently.

Lisa Fraley:
Your energy shifts to show up differently because you now feel more confident and safe and secure because you know, those legal documents have your back. That's the whole point of the legal document is actually to support you going forward. The problem is a lot of people don't really seek knowledge about the law until something's gone wrong. Like someone's asked for a refund or they've canceled on you, or, and then it's scary and freaky and that's not fun. So what I always want to do is help you put all the protections that you need in place one step at a time, not all at once, one step at a time as you go forward. So you can feel protected now and be protected now. And that shifts the way you energetically show up in your business as well.

Michelle Leotta:
That's a really good way to put it. Cause we have coaches in here every week saying I'm brand new and wants to work with me, but I can't, I won't, I don't know how. And I think when you're just unsure of what you're doing, it really helps to get some of your ducks in a row. Doesn't it?

Lisa Fraley:
Yeah. And you just go one step at a time. Like I, I usually I have seven legal steps that I align with the seven main chakras, which might come as a surprise to you or might not, but that's because each one aligns energetically. So like the first couple are all that you need to get going. If you're brand new, you don't need all of them. You just need to start where you are and go one step at a time to build your legal protection for your business, just like you do when you learn about the body. But what I will say is if you are working with clients, particularly now in this coronavirus era where a lot of people are less secure with their income, or perhaps your clients are less secure or have jobs are furloughed or don't have jobs, or it's a very precarious financial situation for some people at the moment. So I really recommend that you use at the very least a client agreement, because you then can put into writing what your policies are around refunds or cancellations, or if people want to stop working with you so that you don't put your income at risk. And also say, you're just being forthright about that at the outset, you don't have to have weird uncomfortable conversations later because you've already stated with love and kindness in your legal document, what your policies are.

Michelle Leotta:
Oh good. So from what you've told us today, Lisa, I get the sense that your, your masterclass called state nutrition lobby basics for health coaches is not something that's just a set in stone. Like as the laws exist today, here's what you need to know. But more of like a teach a man to fish, like here's what information, right?

Lisa Fraley:
Totally. Yes, exactly. Because we, it, you learn what restrictive laws are. What, what permissive laws are, what red States bring States, yellow States. And then what that means, what does that mean? If it's restrictive, we go into much more detail about what that means about what you can and can't do generally, and how to find that information. We also talk about how not to get into medical laws a bit, how not to buy like medical laws, how not to buy violate dietetics laws so that, you know, the lay of the land. Because especially that you're the, if you're at the beginning, this is actually the best time to learn what you can and can't do legally so that you can start building out your practice in ways that comply with the law. So you don't open yourself up to risk because I don't, I'm not a fearmonger.

Lisa Fraley:
I hope you can already sense that with my energy, I'm all about legal love and support and light and energy and making it easy to understand and using plain English and legal documents, but there are situations where golf coaches get investigated. Like I, I can tell you in the past eight years, there's at least 30 health coaches. I know of who've been investigated in different States. Now that's not a billion, but that you don't want that to be you. You just don't. So like learn from the start and then stay in integrity with yourself. And with that, choose the amount of risk you want to take and go forward and build your practice, but do it knowingly with conscious awareness of what the law is, rather than like putting your head in the sand and saying, I don't want to know. I don't want to know what I want to know. You do want to know, you want to feel confident that you're making choices, that you know what is right and what's right for you. And what's right under the law and build your practice from there. You're just on much more solid ground.

Michelle Leotta:
That's a great primer for all the coaches out there, especially if you're just getting started. So again, you can get Lisa state nutrition, law basics for health coaches, masterclass. It's very inexpensive. I think it's very value priced or wherever they want to get. Like yeah. What a joy that out there for us and you guys can get that at healthcoachpower.com/state laws. That way you're not going to end up like a couple of years ago, New York was doing something. They were trying to change something. And I know Andrea Beaman and I were talking and we're like, ah, let's just move to New Jersey. You know.

Lisa Fraley:
True. Like New Jersey is one of the most less restrictive. I mean the most free in the country, the most free to do lots of things that you want to do. So yeah, in the state where you are based does matter. And it is important just to know and understand so you can make your decisions and go from there. Cause we don't want any wasting your time creating programs and doing things that that might not be the best for you in that state or where you're exposing yourself to risk without knowing it.

Michelle Leotta:
Lisa, thank you so much for joining us today. This is an important one. You guys, so thank you for listening and watching here at this. And if you have questions, Lisa, what's the best way for our listeners to get a hold of you.

Lisa Fraley:
Yeah, you are welcome to book a free 20 minute legal chat. It's not a sales call. It's a legal chat where you can share your situation with my team at Lisafraley.com/legalchat. And we will then help you be pointed in the right direction about legal steps to take that are right for your business. Or just be able to, to make a recommendation for you for legal template or something like that, that you might need, but that's the easiest and the best way to do it. And it's totally free.

Michelle Leotta:
Amazing. Thanks so much, Lisa and everybody we'll be back next week, answering more of your questions. Take care.

Lisa Fraley:
Thank you.