From Instructor to CEO: Legal Foundations for Building a Pilates Business That Lasts

Anastasiya Goers (00:06.242)
Hi everyone, and welcome to the Pilates Growth Podcast. You know that as a Pilates Studio Owner, you know that running a successful Pilates studio requires more than just great teaching. And in this episode, we’re going to be talking specifically about the legal essentials that every Pilates Studio owner needs to know to protect their business, avoid costly mistakes, and build their long-term growth.

And today’s guest is Cory Sterling, the founder and head attorney at Conscious Council. It’s a law firm that’s focused specifically on boutique wellness and fitness brands. And he’s been helping wellness brands for what, over a decade, I think, right, Cory? How long has that been?

Cory (00:48.595)
We’re in the ninth year, going into the tenth, so we’re just touching on a decade.

Anastasiya Goers (00:52.681)
Okay. Okay. Okay. Almost a decade. Close enough over there. And I know for me, a lot of my clients, a lot of my studio clients that I work with, they work with Cory as well, and have only great feedback about him and his team. S,o before we get straight into our questions, I would like to ask Cory to introduce himself and tell us a little bit more about what he does and who he works with. So, Cory?

Cory (01:19.47)
Thanks so much, Anastasia. It’s awesome to be here. Thank you for having me. And I’m I I’m a lawyer, and I’m also a Pilates instructor. I did a Matt Pilates course, and I did another course in Brazil and Portuguese recently. So I’m I understand the Pilates world from the instructor perspective as well. But I run a law firm called Conscious Council. I’ve done it for almost 10 years. We work with boutique fitness studio owners and health and wellness entrepreneurs.

And the goal is to make law fun. The goal is to keep all of our clients and the community protected. I understand, being a lawyer, that a lot of people have an aversion to law. They think that it’s boring. They think that it’s complicated. And I’m really just on a mission to make it fun and easy and light. And because I’ve been doing the same thing over and over again for years, it we we’ve got it down to a science. So I love what I do. I’m happy to be here, and thanks for the opportunity.

Anastasiya Goers (02:17.867)
Awesome. So I’m gonna ask you this, like one of the first questions. And this is something that I get asked a lot. And a new studio is opening, and a lot of times, they just think, well, can I just use some templates for my waivers and the legal documents? Can I just find something, or let Chat GPT, especially in our AI world, create something for me? Is that good enough?

Cory (02:44.066)
Yeah, well, the answer is no. The answer is that that’s not good enough. And I can just speak from my experience and what I’ve seen. So again, I’ve done this for 10 years. I’ve worked with more than sixteen hundred clients who have studios. And what we’re talking about is not difficult. I think the only difficult part for me is when clients accept that you if you’re gonna be a proper professional and you’re gonna grow a business properly, you need an accountant, you need a bookkeeper.

Cory (03:13.868)
You need a lawyer, you need to do things properly from the start. And it’s very, very tempting to think about using AI to come up with your contracts, to use a template. Consistently, what I what I see and what I’m seeing, even with more AI, is people do their agreements on their own because they want to save $4,000, $5,000. And instead they want to put that into marketing and growing the business. And then a problem or an issue comes up. And the truth is they don’t understand their documents. And whoever’s drafting their documents doesn’t understand anything about the industry or their business or what their specific goals are. And then when a problem arises, to fix a broken problem is five times more expensive than to do things properly from the start. So I understand the mindset where everyone thinks, I want to put more money into Instagram or, you know, buy this really big light. That’s awesome for the studio.

But at the end of the day, the legal protection is what allows you to build and grow the business confidently. And so it’s essential that you do it properly with an industry specific lawyer who understands your business, your goals, your activities.

Anastasiya Goers (04:23.356)
Yeah, I completely agree because a lot of times, like you mentioned, people a lot of times they don’t think about these things un until they have a problem. And at that point it it’s already too way too far down the hole or like the rabbit’s hole over there that you can’t really fix it easily. And there’s you know, there might be some consequences that you can’t avoid at that point.

Cory (04:44.94)
Yeah, there there are there are a lot of consequences. When it comes to studio owners, the big things that jump out for me, firstly, waivers of liability not being drafted properly. I have a client where someone fell on their head recently at a Pilates event. and the speci and the the waiver was not specific enough to cover the equipment that was being used, the specific Pilates equipment. And now we’re look you know, we’re looking at something that could be dismissed from one email to now it’s dragging on into litigation. It’s gonna be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it’s not fun for anybody. And yeah, there’s there’s there’s just an aversion to letting things pass and not investing in it properly. And it’s also part of the industry, right? It helps everyone who’s listening to this and who has a Pilates studio or who’s opening a Pilates studio, you did it because you love it. You want to provide transformation for people. There are very few like straight corporate investors who buy a franchise and just like want to grow it and sell it.

A lot of the times it’s someone had a personal injury that they, you know, fixed and healed themselves through Pilates and they want to offer that transformation for others. And so when you come from that mentality, you just think, well, I don’t really need to do things that properly. I just want to have my studio open. But once you’re engaging with the law and once you’re engaging in relationships and you’re hiring a staff and you know, you have to decide if they’re W two or ten ninety nine and you have to have a non solicitation clause that’s in the agreement. So I think the industry’s slowly catching up, but it’s important to have everything, you know, done in writing.

Anastasiya Goers (06:18.329)
Yeah, and especially right now since it seems like the PLOTDES is the new trend, even though it’s been around, but like right now everything’s Plotties on every corner. especially in the United States right now, and with all those studios opening and new businesses, opening, there’s more opportunities for things to go wrong. There’s more awareness for the public to come into the studio. There again, more businesses appearing and th there needs to be more legal protection in the can also be more of a target for certain people, maybe as well.

Cory (06:52.118)
Totally. And it’s just the important thing to understand is like if you’re gonna be operating the business, you wanna do thing you wanna have things legally set up appropriately from the start. So as an example, you’re right, Pilates is super, super hot right now. And that’s awesome. And it means more up more opportunities for everyone, but it also means that, you know, it’s the industry’s becoming more professional. And so the business owners have to catch up. And I s some of the biggest issues I see specifically with Pilates are about

Either studio managers or teachers who are contractors or maybe employees or maybe not, who go off and then start their own business or their own side hustle. And how challenging that is for owners to studio owners to deal with. So yeah, it’s it it’s it’s an amazing opportunity and and I just want clients to set it and forget it. Just like do the documents correctly from the start and then enjoy your growing business.

Anastasiya Goers (07:49.517)
So I know you mentioned and that’s one of the questions I hear a lot too, is the question about contractors versus employees for the studio. And there’s more to that than just the legal requirements, obviously, the legal advice. but for studio owners who are considering that, what should they understand before making that dis decision specifically from the legal standpoint?

Cory (08:14.092)
Yeah, legally it’s a really, really big distinction and getting it wrong can cost you a lot. So I I have one client who’s a studio who misclassified the workers. So they called all of the workers independent contractors when in fact they were treating them as employees. One of the employees was upset, left the business, and reported the business to the IRS. An audit took place. They were penalized plus back taxes, plus everything. Game over, studio finished.

So it it can be as serious as that. It’s all of these legal things can be as serious as putting the business at risk. What you need to understand firstly is that the more control you want to have over the instructors, the more it makes them employees. So one of one of one of the biggest issues when it comes to contractors versus employees, how much do you control the services? Let’s say you have your Pilates studio and there’s a mat, there’s a mat class. And cool, okay, I’m hiring.

Kevin and Kevin’s gonna teach Matt Pilates. And I just say, cool, Kevin, show up at this time, do whatever you want, all whatever sequencing you want. You can always start with roll-ups, you can always end with whatever it is that you want and go for it. That’s an independent contractor. If you say, Hey, at our studio, Kevin, this is how we do Matt Pilates classes. Every sequencing has to be the same. First you do this, then you bring up the magic circle, then we do, you know, the BOSU ball work or whatever it is that we do.

And if you tell someone that they have to follow something, that’s an employee relationship. So, one thing to know is how much control you want to have over the way the services are performed. The second thing to know is based on the state that you’re in, it may be that you don’t even have a choice to have contractors. There are some states that apply something called the ABC test, which means that if you’re a Pilates studio and the main service that you offer to the public is Pilates and you’re paying someone to teach Pilates, which is the main function of your business.

Automatically, they have to be employees. So it’s in some ways it’s simple. It’s like, what do you need to know? I mean, there’s a lot more that you need to know, but I think those are the two biggest points to understand that firstly, A, you may not even be able to make the election. It might be made for you legally. And B, yeah, just understanding that you can only control so much of the way the services are provided if you’re keeping contractors.

Anastasiya Goers (10:38.191)
Then if if the the studio is operating with the contractors like the example that you provided, what are I guess like what are some of the rights that then those instructors maintain where it can hurt the business, right?

Cory (10:55.65)
Yeah, the biggest one would be com, you know, competing interests. The idea with an independent contractor is that you’re hiring someone who operates their own business to f do a function for your business, right? That’s the main idea of what a contractor is. So when you have contractors, the law wants to protect contractors and wants to allow contractors to be able to work with whoever they want, right? Because if I’m just hiring you to do one part of my business, it shouldn’t matter to me that you do that same part of

Business for other people as well. Studio owners don’t like that. So, what I always explain to studio owners is that it’s legally you have to do it properly and have the agreements in place. But in addition to that, it’s about the culture of the studio. And it’s about explaining to instructors: hey, you know, if you’re here, we want you to be only here, and this is why. And legally, we can’t force you to. But these are the sort of this is the attitude we’re looking for from people.

Who are part of our community. And so law really is a combination of the hard and the soft, of like the signed contract following the rules, but also the soft of like, Hey, this is the culture, this is what we’re about. If you think this is an alignment with you, that’s great. If you could already foresee this being a problem, just let us know beforehand so we can act accordingly. Does that answer your question?

Anastasiya Goers (12:14.693)
Yeah, yeah, it’s it does answer a question I do have like a little follow-up because I know that’s another scenario that a lot of studios, maybe smaller studios work with where their instructor is they’re independent contractors and they’re maybe working in other studios as well, which the studio owner knows, you know, there’s mutual understanding of that. So obviously that’s not an employee situation, correct? That’s an independent contractor or it still can be an employee.

Cory (12:39.436)
The thing to understand is, firstly, it’s a decision that you make beforehand. So again, the qu the first question is, did you decide correctly? So as an example, in the state of California where the ABC test applies, if you’re Pilates studio and you have a teacher who’s teaching Pilates at the studio, even if it’s one hour a week, they’re automatically an employee. You can call them a contractor, but you’re doing things incorrectly and you run the risk of getting fined.

Plus interest plus back taxes. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is assuming that your state allows you to choose between contractors and employees, it’s a choice. And the reason why it’s a choice is because you’re gonna get them to sign a contract, which is either a 1099 independent contractor agreement or a W-2 employee agreement. And then the way that your accounting or bookkeeping is going to be affected is significant because if you have employees, you have to make contributions to state tax, you have to withhold amounts for taxes for them.

Whereas if they’re contractor, you pay them the full amount and paying taxes are their responsibility. The question of whether or not someone can work at a competing business, you could have an employee that you allow to work at other businesses, you could have a contractor that you allow to work at other businesses. And the opposite is also true, but it will be difficult to enforce legally. To have a 1099 and say to them, hey, you’re not allowed to work anywhere else, you can put that in a contract, whether or not it holds is a whole different question. So it’s d d does that make sense? It’s it’s a little bit unit makes it unclear, but like essentially firstly you don’t get to choose sometimes. And if you do get to choose, then you can also decide on the specifics of the relationship.

Anastasiya Goers (14:24.312)
And what about the client solicitation, especially like in those types of because that seems to me that would seem that that is gonna create like a even more of a problem, right? Like if a in the if an instructor is teaching at both studios, as an independent contractor, what how can you enforce that it’s like, well, you know, by the way, I’m also teaching a reformer class on Thursdays at ABC Pilates, so you can come see me there because I don’t teach at this studio on Thursdays.

Cory (14:52.886)
Yeah, it’s a it’s a it’s what I went back to about the culture question, right? So it it it this is the soft part of it where okay, legally they’re ten ninety nine, we live in a small town, there’s only two studios, this person has to eat, put food on their plate. So I understand they’re gonna teach somewhere else. You explain to people, hey, when you’re teaching at our studio, we you know, we ask you not to talk about other about teaching at other studios. We ask you not to privately solicit clients if anyone’s looking for privates.

Cory (15:21.036)
We ask you to speak to the studio manager and arrange it with us here. And that’s really there’s not so much more you can do around that. I know, I know this because I have a lot of clients and I’ve been through a lot of problems with clients. And clients are always looking for that like magic contract to say, hey, you’re not gonna ask tell anyone to go anywhere else. It’s like, well, legally, A, you can’t restrict people’s freedom of speech. And B, non-solicitation you can apply, but non-compete, you cannot imply for in.

For independent contractors. So you can have rules that say, okay, you’re not allowed to use any studio property to tell people about other things that you’re doing. But then culturally you have to explain, like, hey, you know, we just ask you not to talk about teaching at other studios while you’re here. And that’s sort of the best, it’s a band-aid solution, but that’s the best you can do.

Anastasiya Goers (16:08.673)
But if they are employees at the studio, at that point the studio has more rights in terms or more legal opportunities to add those non-compete clauses in their contracts or agreements.

Cory (16:20.674)
You it Anastasia, it’s it always works the same way. Clients will want to put in as much as possible in the contract. The question is legally can it be up legally can it be upheld, right? And so what I know as an example, I did something recently in the state of Washington that even if you have employees but they earn under a certain amount of money, I think it was 75 or 100,000, then you’re not allowed to restrict competition. So it’s not so straightforward as just like cool. Well now I’m calling you an employee. So you can’t work anywhere else. Like, okay, maybe they’re an employee, but maybe they’re part-time and maybe they get $25 an hour and they’re working four hours a week for you. How can you restrict their ability to work somewhere else or do something else? So it’s like everything, the answer for everything at law is it depends. So I’m I’m trying my best to just i explain the principles. But if anyone listening has any questions, like feel free to reach out and we can talk about the specifics of the situation.

Cory (17:18.466)
But everything you’re talking about is what all of my clients wanna do the same thing. All the studio owners wanna restrict as much as possible someone working for them and then taking clients and leading them somewhere else. And so there are legal solutions, but it depends on your business and the specifics and the jurisdiction as well.

Anastasiya Goers (17:35.861)
No, it absolutely makes sense. And I think it’s that’s why I was asking you so many questions because I think a lot of people they still don’t understand the differences in what’s actually possible and impossible in all of those situations. And that’s why it goes obviously like running a business is not just legal, it’s not just teaching, it’s not just admin, it’s everything has to work together and the culture is a huge part of it. And I know you’re at Conscious Council, you’re very big on the culture and everything there. So I think that for every business building that up is an important element for sure.

Cory (18:11.298)
Yeah, it’s it’s it’s respect through legal agreements. I know that most people don’t think about this on a daily basis. This is all I think about because this is what I’ve done for ten years. But when you give someone a document that clearly communicates expectations openly and honestly, proactive law always works. I’ve done this for a long time. All of the issues that I have to solve are revolve around people who did not communicate expectations openly and honestly from the beginning. So that’s always the name of the game and what we’re about.

Anastasiya Goers (18:42.484)
So let’s switch a little bit to the client, because client relationships and specifically waivers. So everybody that’s obviously we’re dealing with health, with you know, dealing with equipment, especially in Pilates, a lot of things can go wrong. So for a Pilates studio specifically, what are some of the waivers or maybe some of the common gaps that maybe you have seen that the studios have in their waivers?

Cory (19:10.926)
Okay, cool. The the first thing is just so everyone understands what a waiver is about, a waiver is a document that somebody signs that says, Hey, I’m gonna be doing the following activities with you. And in doing these activities, we’re gonna be using the following equipment. And if something goes wrong while we’re using this equipment and doing these activities, I agree not to hold you legally responsible. Right.

If you don’t have the signed waiver, you are legally responsible. At law, it’s called a duty of care. If you’re facilitating activities for another person, you’re responsible in the in the event that they get injured or hurt or suffer damages. But if they sign this magic document called a waiver that’s specific enough about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and what damages you might suffer in the event that a risk materializes, you agree not to hold someone responsible. So that’s all that this is about.

The issues for Pilates will always be the same. The document is not specific enough. Right. So, as an example, I had a client, he they had a normal Pilates studio, they got agreements, they never updated their agreements, and they then they started putting heat panels on the ceiling, and they actually there’s two stories that come to mind. One of them someone slipped and fell because they were offering Inferno Pilates.

And the waiver didn’t say anything about slipping on sweat. And another one, one of the panels, another studio, a heat panel fell onto someone during a class. And the waiver of liability did not reach out, it did not cover either of those things. So you always want the waiver of liability to be very, very specific to what you do, how you do it, what equipment is used, what those specific risks are. And if it doesn’t cover that, and so in both of those situations with the heating panel.

In both situations, the waiver did not say anything about slipping or heat or panels falling or equipment breaking or anything like that. And so someone got injured. They hired a lawyer. The lawyer sent a demand letter. My response to my client was please send me a copy of the updated waiver. I looked at the waiver never got updated when they changed their services. And now the argument of the other lawyer is.

Cory (21:28.694)
You’re right. My client agreed not to sue you if it was for Pilates services or, you know, using these, you know, the Cadillac or the Reformer or whatever it is. But it said nothing about heat panels. Therefore, my client still has their legal rights alive. So to answer your question, for Pilates Studios, you want to make sure that the waiver’s very, very specific to everything you do, how you do it. If you have a home studio, it should be a different type of waiver liability. If you do events in spaces, public spaces or anywhere outside of the studio, it has to include it. If you offer other types of services like hit Pilates or Pilates with weights, it everything has to be as specific as possible.

Anastasiya Goers (22:12.143)
So what’s a good rule of thumb for updating those waivers? Because like you’re right, I think a lot of people they just don’t think like, I did it and I’m good to go.

Cory (22:23.264)
Your legal agreements should always reflect your current relationships. So one thing at Conscious Council, I started a membership called CC Plus. so for our Conscious Council Plus members, we do unlimited edits revision support for a 12-month period for them. So that’s like, hey Cory, we’re doing this new thing. Can we? Yeah, cool, awesome. We’ll update the agreement. We’ll update the agreement. If if someone wants to update the agreement, the first step is to reach out and have a relationship with an attorney who understands you and who understands the business. So but but the answer is like you need to update the agreements because as an example, there are a lot of changes that are taking place legally. So as an example, for a waiver you’d need to update it so that it captures all the activities that you offer, all of the equipment, any new things that you’re doing. Also, the rules around canceling a membership and the click to cancel laws that like were put in place and then repealed and now being appealed once more.

Also, like you have to update your membership agreement so that it’s actually following the latest rules. And I get that no one’s waking up in the morning, you know, looking up what the latest rules are for health and wellness. That’s what I do. But but you j you want to make sure that your current documents reflect your current relationships and also are following the latest rules.

Anastasiya Goers (23:43.764)
And do you keep like for the clients that worked with you on the waivers or agreements, like like you mentioned, like if they don’t wake up in the morning thinking about those things, but do you keep them up to speed about like, by the way, here is maybe they’ve done an agreement two, three years ago, like here’s some changes that happen in the law, it might be a good idea to make changes to the agreements, or is it their sole responsibility to keep up with all of that?

Cory (24:11.298)
We’ve got I’ve got s I’m I’m an attorney for more than sixteen hundred businesses. So there are a lot of clients, and I can’t yeah, so what I do is we have a mailing list for conscious counsel. We share an email three times a week and one of the issues will always be one of the emails will always be legal issues. So I’ll give you an example. I went through something recently with a couple of my clients who have studios, Pilates studios, around sexual misconduct issues and not having a sexual misconduct policy.

Anastasiya Goers (24:16.36)
Yeah. But like overall, yeah.

Cory (24:40.78)
So, in one of the situations, one of the clients, a studio member, confessed their love for one of the teachers at the Pilates studio. And it was like it’s a small studio, and there was a lot of drama, and the teacher felt very uncomfortable, and there was a lot of things to unpack and go through. Legally, this client did not have a sexual misconduct policy that both students

students slash clients have to sign and B that the employees slash contractors have to sign as well. And that just says like, hey, this is what is acceptable behavior. This is what is not acceptable. If you behave in an unacceptable manner, you know, we will terminate your membership immediately. You will not be entitled to a refund. You will not be welcome. And just basically allowing them to to do all of these things. This studio did not have a sexual misconduct policy. And it wasn’t something that I required for my clients up until that point.

But I had that issue, and then I had another issue with a student client who wore inappropriate clothing in class. This was actually for a yoga studio, not for Pilates. And it was the same thing of like, how do we deal with this? You know, and so for me, like if something if two things show up at the same time, I just wrote an email to my whole list. I’m like, hey everyone, before we recommended getting a sexual misconduct policy, now you know we’ve we’ve upgraded it to being mandatory.

This is something that any studio needs to have. And Anastasia, I want to explain to you why it’s important to have. In the same concept of, you know, okay, someone could use Chat GPT or, you know, just put a band-aid in in the situation to start. When a situation like this unfolds, the pro any situation, it’s always the same legal process. There’s a complaint. Someone says, Hey, you did this thing wrong, or, you know, there’s this issue. Step two.

The lawyer says, send me a copy of the latest agreement about this, right? Step three, based on what that agreement says, either I can make the problem go away in one email and never come back, or it’s going to be something that costs tens of thousands of dollars. And it all depends on, as an example, in this case, the studio’s ability to show that they were proactive in creating a culture and rules and boundaries that are respectful and create a safe space for people to practice Pilates or yoga and not having that can be deemed negligent. Like if you don’t have a document that says to your members, this is what’s acceptable, this is not, this is what’s not acceptable, and something happens to someone on your team because you didn’t instruct the the students, that you could be deemed negligent for that. So in in every situation, what I’m always looking for is that there are always going to be problems. It’s my job will never stop because there’s no more issues. But the what I want is

When there’s a problem, I want my clients to be having the latest version of the documents with the most updated rules so that I can make everything go away in an email.

Anastasiya Goers (27:38.127)
Yeah, now actually something came to my mind. I was just talking to one of my clients not long ago during a consulting call and that was not a legal issue. However, I know you deal with that a lot. So they received a negative, like a one star Google review. Obviously nothing you can do about it legally. However, the reason for it was because there’s like some person who came in and wanted to film herself during a session, during a class, and you know, the instructor didn’t want the filming

The other clients didn’t want the filming and so that specific person got really mad that she was not allowed to be her influencer on Instagram during the her paid class and she became nasty and left in review. So obviously that part can’t do anything about it legally. However, that brings me to my question about the legal agreements specifically for the photos use of personal information that the studios need to have and I would imagine having those w could also could have been helpful in this situation to point that specific c clients say, Hey, can you this is in our agreement. When you signed up for a class, it said no no videoing or anything like that inside the studio just because it’s one of our rules and agreements that you signed, which probably could have been much easier situation.

Cory (28:57.335)
Anastasia, I I love the I love this story. I’ve actually never heard that sort of example, but let’s just let’s break it down very quickly legally and how that works. So, firstly, there are there are implications legally and there are things that you can do to protect yourself as the studio owner. So, for example, if that’s your studio and you have a membership or a drop-in agreement and you say, Hey, everyone, before you come in, you just sign the iPad and you know, and you agree to the terms of participating at our studio.

One of those rules can be you agree not to film yourself during class and that no cameras or phones are allowed. Full stop. That person breaks out the camera. Hey, you know, I’m really sorry. Before we allowed you into class, you signed an agreement that said that you were not gonna record yourself or others. you know, if you want to record, I’m we can’t have you in class, you know, I’m so sorry for this situation. Feel free to reference the contract. Then it’s like then the it goes from being a situation to nothing. Like cool, you sign this. This is a legal transaction. We’re allowing you into our studio, you’re paying us money, these are the rules. You break the rules, you’re not allowed to practice. The other it is a significant issue as well in that situation. If that person is recording other people or other people are part of the video as well, legally that opens up a lot of exposure, A to the person filming them and B to the person to the studio itself, right? Because now thing the someone’s image, audio, video is being captured and used for some purposes, and legally you need permission to do that. So that document is called it’s called a media release. And and usually we recommend that studio owners include that in in whatever the in in their membership agreement as an addendum. But I can say myself, I would not feel comfortable personally if someone was filming me while I was in a class.

Cory (30:50.956)
And so it’s it’s a bad situation. And the answer is to update the agreements to make sure that they reflect, you know, what is allowed and what’s not allowed at the studio.

Anastasiya Goers (31:01.696)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s great advice. So next thing that I wanted to ask you, and this is something that I’ve been dealing with a lot since I work with the websites a lot, are all of the laws that have come out in the last couple of years specifically about all the privacy policies, cookie policy, all of this policies, ADA compliance, everything together. And specific states they are again,

I’ve heard of situations where businesses have been harassed for the lack of certain agreements on their websites, or lack of information. So what is your advice for f for keeping your website online presence protected legally?

Cory (31:46.179)
Yeah, in in invest in getting a invest in in a lawyer to do it properly at the start and never think about it again. That’s the answer. And it’s just like look, I I get it. I just so everyone knows, I pay my accountant a lot of money, right? So I’m not always so excited when I get a bill from my accountant, but I run a business, I do things properly, and my accountant makes sure that I follows follow the rules so that I can spend my time having awesome conversations like this and supporting my client. So the first thing is, it’s something you have to be compliant about. Just get compliant and stop thinking about it. But, you know, as a general commentary, there’s definitely a pro proliferation of new rules that are that are affecting people. The ADA stuff is crazy because firstly, it’s the new rules to the law, American Disability Act, it used to just apply to the physical space. And what happened is the law changed. So now ADA applies to your digital space as well.

So if you’re a studio owner, that means to your website, but it also means to your booking platform where people book classes, cancel classes, all of that has to be ADA compliant. And there’s a document that we’ve created for our clients, which is called an ADA-compliant document, which shows to the best degree possible how our client has taken steps to be ADA-compliant. The risk and the issue, and it’s crazy, but there are robots that will search different websites.

For small businesses specifically, look for businesses that are not ADA compliant. And then the robot generates a demand letter to the business report threatening to find them, to report them, and you know, to come after them for damages because they’re not being compliant. So it’s not just so everyone knows the reality of the issue. It’s like this is what being a business owner online in 2026 is like. The issue isn’t that there’s someone you from all of the instances of how I’ve supported clients.

There wasn’t actually a a a human person, individual who had an actual disability who filed one of these reports every time it came from some form of robot or program or someone who’s just looking to create problems. But all of that being said, the I don’t make the rules. I just work with my clients to support them. And the answer is to be at best pol, you know, for privacy policy, for ADA stuff, for terms and service, just invest, do it properly, follow the rules, make sure you’re covered.

Anastasiya Goers (34:13.417)
So if you have because this is this is one of the topics I’m not I haven’t dealt with a lot is like especially ADA compliance agreements. So if you put with that ADA compliance, would you put that as one of the agreements on the website well not the agreements or legal pages on the website? Say like, Hey, this is what we’re doing, but if we’re basically not completely up to par, you know, that’s not our problem.

Cory (34:37.12)
It it i exactly. So it it goes as a footer, it goes as a hyperlinked footer on the bottom of the website. And the reason why it’s important is just like just like the other two examples I spoke about with the waiver or with a membership agreement or a sexual misconduct policy. Let’s say you get one of these f you know, complaints against you. When you have an ADA compliance document that sh that shows that you’re following most of the rules and you’re you know you’ve reasonably attempted to accommodate anyone with disabilities.

Cory (35:06.658)
You don’t have to be doing every single thing perfectly, but they’re not gonna they don’t have a strong legal case to come after you if you can demonstrate that you’ve been proactive, you’re mindful of it, and you’re behaving reasonably, right? Then, for them to say, well, you screwed up and you don’t care, you can be like, Well, that’s actually not true. And and it’s it it it applies to to all reasonableness as a standard, is it’s in law, it’s prevalent in everything. The question’s always gonna be.

What would a reasonable person following the rules operating this sort of business do? And that’s why sometimes not having a sexual misconduct policy can be negligent. And that’s why not having anything for ADA means that you’re more exposed to risk. And the answer is this this is the climate that we live in. This is our society. And I just want everyone to focus on growing their business. Like this is, you know, we’re we’re spending so much time talking about this because it’s helpful information. But also, yeah, it’s like,I always just use my accountant ’cause that’s the most relatable thing that I have. Like I don’t ask my accountant, I’m not like, Hey, all of the things. He’s just like, I trust him, I love him, I’ve worked with him for years. He’s like, You have to pay this amount, explain these expenses. And and I I I just want law to be that way so that everyone can focus on being the best for their community, for their teachers, for their clients, for everything.

Anastasiya Goers (36:25.221)
Yeah, that’s great. I love the idea about well your example about the account. I’m looking the same way with it as well. It’s it’s it’s just one last thing that you have to worry about so you can put all your thought, all your passion into something that you’re actually excited about and trying to you know, find some kind of band aid solutions. So to finish up our conversation today, I wanted like one last question for you. So, imagine we have like this situation of a Pilates studio owner who came to you and said, I want to grow but I want to do it the right way. Like grow my studio. What are the first or the most important legal issues or agreements that you tell them to take care of like right away?

Cory (37:10.7)
Okay, cool. Gro grow can mean a lot of things in a lot of different ways. Okay, cool. Awesome.

Anastasiya Goers (37:13.53)
Well expand. Let’s say like let’s like it’s already a a work in student maybe second location or expanding, like bringing in more instructors, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Cory (37:19.586)
Cool. Perfect. Okay. It’s for that you need all of the basics covered. The basics being your waiver has to be airtight. You need to have a great membership agreement. You need to designate the workers correctly, W two or 1099. you need to have all the online stuff. The reason why you need all of that in place is because not having that in place in the future will can affect you and bring you you know, one step forward, 27 steps back. So the first thing you need to do is whatever it is that you’re doing has to be done properly with the agreements. If you’re growing in that way, if you’re expanding, it’s going to come down to intellectual property ownership in the sense of you’re going to register a trademark, you’re going to expand to further locations, you’re going to run a teacher training. So when I say intellectual property ownership, I mean registration of a trademark, which could be the name or the logo or both. It would be a teacher training agreement and it’s the intellectual property around the licensed materials that you’re allowing other people to use. And it would be reviewing a lease for future spaces. But that’s essentially that’s the formula. You have great employee or independent contractor agreements. There’s a great vibe and energy and understanding of of what it means to work at the studio and everyone’s above board with the mission. you’re protected so your membership agreement is updated with the latest rules. So you’re not worried about losing money to refunds or churn or anything like that. And then the way you grow is by creating intellectual property rights, whether that’s through trademarks or by registering copyrights for teacher training materials. You run the teacher trainings, you use that as a revenue channel. And then with the those teachers, then they’re bound to the licensing agreement that’s part of the teacher training agreement. And then you just

Put more and more and more and more. That’s what I would say makes sense to me.

Anastasiya Goers (39:15.223)
Awesome. I will have one question for you to follow up with that. when somebody sets up an agreement, what’s your advice? Like how often should the agreements, like the overall, not be maybe revised or updated or looked at like as a good practice? Because I would imagine, like, yeah, if you’re s changing adding a service, that’s understandable. We discussed that, but

There are certain things that change and maybe you don’t know, maybe the laws change and all of that. What’s a good rule of thumb for the business owners? Okay, every maybe so many years I need to have a revision, or maybe every year I need to have this documents revised. Do you have advice for that?

Cory (39:56.899)
Yeah, the first answer is you once something changes, that’s when you update your agreements. Like I said, your agreements should reflect your current relationships. That’s one. Secondly, you should change you should change I I think it makes sense to check in with your lawyer every six months and just say, Hey, you know, we’ve changed our prices, we’ve done this, we’ve done that. That’s why the membership works so well and our clients love it so much. but otherwise it if things don’t it’s it’s you’re gonna change your agreements either if your business changes, you make changes to your business, or really if the laws change. If your business stays the exact same and the laws have not changed at all, then you don’t need to update the agreements. But it’s like there’s click to cancel, there’s ADA, there’s sexual misconduct, there’s there’s there are a lot of moving pieces of of what’s changing. So it it makes sense to have a relationship with an attorney who understands what’s going on.

Anastasiya Goers (40:52.029)
Yeah, I think like it’s it’s like with an accountant, it’s one thing that you know what’s going on on your end in the studio, but everything all of those external sources, you know, the laws and things like that that could have happened, or like a lawyer in a firm like yours, like you see what’s going on that you know, that maybe okay, that’s a good idea to protect everybody from this kind of situation because it there’s already been a precedence of that. So if anybody wants to work with you and your team.

Could you let me know what how they can reach out? What would be the first steps? How the process works overall.

Cory (41:27.638)
Yes, you we we do we do free legal audits for members of our like our partner communities. So I think the best thing is just to send me an email, Cory at consciouscouncil.ca, or you can just put in into Google Cory Conscious Council and you’ll find our firm. And just you can send me an email and say what’s up, and let me know. And then we can do a free audit. So you can send us your documents, we can let you know how they stand.

And yeah, and I think that’s a great way to start. And also on Instagram, we’re just at Conscious Council. We’re always putting up videos and information about legal changes. So yeah, th those are two great ways to connect with us.

Anastasiya Goers (42:10.004)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Cory, for all the information that you shared. I’m gonna make sure that once this video has been uploaded and ready to go, we’re gonna have all the links also to Cory’s Instagram, the website and ways to connect so that if you do need that free audit, make sure to reach out. If you know that you don’t want to have anything and you just need that full packet done for your studio to get things done right, make sure to reach out to Cory because again

I have I worked with many clients who’ve used Cory services and everybody is super happy with all the advice that they received and all of the the relationship overall.