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Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Sam's Sidebar, where I tackle your

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essential questions about starting and growing a legally protected online business in ten

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minutes or less.

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This week, you'll get legal tips all about scope of practice.

So,

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let's jump right in to Sarah's question.

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I want to preface this by saying, do not check out on me.

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Do not check out on me if you are not in the health and wellness field, because this is

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going to apply to you no matter what kind of coach you are.

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But just hear me out.

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So, Sarah asks, "Can I give macro goals as a nutrition coach if my certification and

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education covers how to do that?"

Oh, goodness.

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I love this question, Sarah.

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I am so, so glad that you asked because this is such an important question to get into in

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terms of whether if you learn something, can you teach it.

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So, like I said, do not check out on this.

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If you are not a health and wellness coach, this applies to you, too, and it also applies

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to you if you are a health and wellness coach.

So,

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scope of practice, which is what you can legally do, say, and teach based on how your

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license, qualified or trained, all that stuff.

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Scope of practice, it applies to all kinds of coaches regardless of our industry.

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So, every type of coach or every type of practitioner has a licensed or professional body

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that's like "above it" that dictates what it can and can't do.

Like,

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a money coach has a CPA and accountant above it.

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A dating coach has a therapist and maybe a doctor above it.

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So, there are these other kinds of professional bodies.

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And I'm not saying this in a qualitative sense.

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I'm just saying, generally speaking, these are kind of what I call hovering professions

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.

So, the reason I actually chose Sarah's question for this week is because of a kind of

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dangerous and misleading trend that I see in our online business industry.

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I see a lot of times how people mention that they're under the impression that they can

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do X, Y, or Z, usually some kind of higher level scope or area of advice that they can

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give because it was something that they learned about in their online program or in some

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sort of certification program.

So,

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here's what you really, really need to know about this.

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Coaching programs or courses run by private individuals that you take to uplevel a skill

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or learn something in your industry, or a program that you take through a certification

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body, like a health coaching program that gives you a certificate at the end or a money

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coaching program that gives you a certificate at the end, they are not able to expand

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your scope of practice.

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In other words, taking a course or a certification program that's run by a private company

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or an individual does not give you any additional right to talk about things that are

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outside of your scope of practice.

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Courses and programs, any of those kinds of things that you're taking to become like a

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such and such coach, none of them are scope expanders.

Our

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scope of practice is simply dictated by our state governments and our laws and our

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regulations that every single state has on the books.

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So, if your state, for example, says that only RDs or licensed nutritionist or doctor

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could give medical advice on nutrition - like macros, for example, in this question -

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then a private program that you signed up for would not be able to make it legal for you

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to teach about macros.

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So, your state is still going to dictate that you can't do that.

Like

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in this example, let's just say your state says you cannot do that.

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There's no certification program or anything that you could take, like online or any of

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that kind of stuff, that would undo that.

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The only thing that would undo it would be, let's say, your state says only RDs could

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teach about nutrition or a doctor can teach about nutrition, then you'd have to go become

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an RD or a doctor.

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That's the only way.

So,

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it always upsets me because I see people spending so much time and spending a lot of hard

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work and a lot of hard earned money and everything else on all of these programs being

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like I took this program because it teaches me in the program about macros or it teaches

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me in the program about meal plans or it teaches me in the program about stocks and

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financial planning.

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So, as long as I learn that there, then I can turn around and teach that to other people.

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So, learning about something does not make it legal for us to teach it to others.

And

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if you listen to Episode 68 of the podcast, you'll know that we also don't need to teach

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everything that we learn to be successful.

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Because there are a lot of reasons for us to keep learning and there are a lot of reasons

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for you to take those courses.

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Like, if you just want to learn about macros, great.

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If you want to learn about stocks, that's great.

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It just doesn't make it legal for us to turn around and start teaching it to other people

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in the eyes of the law.

And

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I know what you might be thinking, too, "Well, wait.

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This program that I took, it told me that we'll teach you about macros so you can teach

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other people." Unfortunately, there is a lot of deceptive marketing out there.

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And just because a program says it doesn't mean it's legal.

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So, you have to do your own due diligence and you have to see what's actually legal for

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you, what's true for you based on you, where you live, how you're qualified, all of that

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kind of stuff.

So,

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I'm only telling you all of this for two reasons.

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One is so that you actually know what's in your scope of practice so you can stay out of

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legal trouble.

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That's the goal.

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And two is so that you have this information available to you before you sign up for

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another coaching program or some sort of certification.

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I want you to go into it thinking like, "Oh.

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I want to have more skills.

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I want to learn about something."

I want you to know that those programs won't make it possible for you to do things that

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are still outside your scope.

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But hear me loud and clear, learning new skills like upleveling, learning about something

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new, just even learning about something new for fun is still so valuable.

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I'm not devaluing any of those things.

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It's more just making sure you know what you're getting and why, what you're going to be

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able to do with it.

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It helps you to be a better coach and a practitioner.

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It can make you more marketable on the job market.

Like,

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if you were taking that course or program and then trying to work for a private company,

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they would probably be really happy, so that would be cool.

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It just doesn't expand your scope of practice within your own online business.

So,

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the long and short of it is, Sarah, who submitted this question, that if prescribing

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macros, for example, isn't within your scope, which is likely not as a nutrition coach,

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then, no, you can't do it even if you learned in your program.

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So, to learn more about scope of practice - if this your first time hearing me talk about

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it, this is actually my fourth episode on scope of practice - I definitely would

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recommend going back and listening to Episodes 2, which is about scope of practice for

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coaches; Episode 69, What Coaches Can Legally Do, Part 2; and then we also have Episode

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86 on what coaches can do legally.

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So, I have lots of different scope of practice episodes for you there.

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So, that's Episodes 2, 69, 86 and then, now, this is number 94, so you have lots of scope

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of practice resources around here.

I

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hope this has been helpful for you.

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If you have a question you want to submit to a future Sam's Sidebar episode, make sure

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you click the link below to submit your legal question.

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I would love to read it on a future episode.

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Thank you so much for joining me here.

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Send me a DM on Instagram, @samvanderwielen, and let me know if this episode was helpful

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.

And for a handy resource on how to write your own scope of practice, how to figure out

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what your scope of practice really is in your business, click the link down below to

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instantly download my legally legit checklist.

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It's super helpful.

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It'll help you get all the legal steps in order for your online business.

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So, thank you so much and I'll see you next week.

Thanks

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so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast.

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Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to

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podcast. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links and more

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at samvanderwielen.com/podcast.

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You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal

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workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow your Online Business, at

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samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram,

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@samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say

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hi.

Just

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remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney and I am not offering you

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legal advice in today's episode.

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This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only.

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It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer.

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And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice.

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I don't ever offer any legal services.

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But I think I offer some pretty good information.