The I Am [Dot. Dot. Dot.] Podcast

Ep#65: Secure Your Content: Strategies to Ensure You Get Paid and Protect Your Work

• Kristen Werner & Mia Steel

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Welcome to a crucial episode of our podcast, where hosts Kristen Werner and Mia Steele tackle an all-too-common issue in the creative industry—ensuring payment and protecting intellectual property. This episode is a must-listen for content creators, digital marketers, and anyone in the creative field who wants to safeguard their work and secure their earnings.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Effective Watermarking Techniques: Discover how to implement watermarking in your videos to deter unauthorized use and protect your visual content effectively.
  • Drafting Strong Contracts: We'll cover essential components of a robust contract that can safeguard your interests and ensure clarity in collaborations with brands and agencies.
  • Monitoring Brand Ad Libraries: Learn strategies to monitor a brand’s use of your content, ensuring your work isn’t used without proper authorization or compensation.
  • Strategies for Addressing Non-Payment: Get practical advice on what actions to take if a brand fails to pay, including when it's appropriate to seek legal advice or draft a compelling demand letter.
  • Personal Experiences and Real-World Solutions: Hear firsthand accounts from Kristen and Mia on dealing with non-payment and content misuse, along with actionable tips they’ve learned along the way.
  • Expert Insights on Protecting Creative Rights: Gain valuable insights on navigating the legal landscape of copyright and content protection, enhancing your ability to secure your work.

Episode Wrap-Up: This episode is packed with expert advice and practical steps to help you manage your creative rights effectively. Join us to gain the knowledge you need to protect your content, ensure payment, and avoid common pitfalls in the creative industry.

Tune in now to empower yourself with the tools and knowledge necessary to protect your creative output and ensure you're paid for your efforts!

💸 Join our FREE Workshop - Want to Know What it Feels Like to Get Paid as a Content Creator (even as a beginner)?

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Speaker 1:

Cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, well happy, just happy. Okay, well happy. I'm just going to have that as a clip and we're just going to use that constantly on the podcast. Okay, well happy.

Speaker 2:

I do that all the time. With stories I'm like happy Wednesday, happy Thursday, happy Friday We'll be happy, Okay welcome to our weekly snackable and delicious content to ease your weekly curiosity.

Speaker 1:

I'm Kristen Werner. You are joined by myself and Mia Steele. Today we are discussing another question and our delicious snackable content of yum yum, yum, yum. You can get it, you can eat it, you can bugger off. It's basically what we're about. So what's this?

Speaker 2:

week's question, mia. All right, let's dive in. So the question is what would you do if you had done a job for a brand? Sent the video through with a watermark, so we'll explain what a watermark is in a minute. They said that they were happy with it and asked for the invoice so I could send the copy without the watermark. I've sent the invoice and now they're ghosting me. He's seen my messages. I've sent about four reminding him of payment. I've also emailed him a few times as well. I just don't understand why he isn't getting back to me. Communication was fine until I sent up the follow-up payment email, so this can happen.

Speaker 1:

This can happen.

Speaker 2:

Fortunately for me, it's never happened that I can remember. But first things first, watermark your work. So what's a watermark? Basically, you create your video. You can go into CapCut and put a transparent image or writing, or what have you, across your video so that the brand can see the video. But then they can't go and use it without paying you first.

Speaker 1:

So then, once you've got payment, Like a Shutterstock or a Getty image, or if a photographer's taken a photo, they'll often put a watermark on it so that you can't just replicate is basically what it is, because that's just stealing content at the end of the day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like when you download a TikTok video, you've got TikTok watermark and it jumps around everywhere. So it's a good idea to watermark your videos With the AI that's around these days. I would assume that there's probably some program that can get rid of the watermark Not entirely sure about that, but it is a good idea to do it. And then when the brand has paid you, then you go okay, I'm going to remove the watermark and then give you the proper copy so you can start running ads. So it's hard to know what's happened in this case. They've said to her that they're happy with the content. Send me the invoice so I can get the video without the watermark.

Speaker 2:

What to do in this case? It's a little bit tricky. There should have been a contract, so you know a contract saying that this is what I'm going to do, this is what I'm going to create. This is how much it is. The thing is, if this happens and a brand has run off with your content, all you can really do is, like what she's done, write the emails you know, tell them multiple times that what's happened and you're waiting for payment, and this is not right.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if it would be worth going to a lawyer and actually doing anything about it, because the cost of that, for what it's worth, is probably you know better, just to craft a very well-worded letter and an email that's kind of like, you know, with the help of Chachi, and I mean you can watch their socials and go to their ad library.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you see your content come up on their socials or you see it running as an ad, you can go into that brand's ad libraries and have a look at what ads they're running. And if you see your content there and they haven't paid for it, then perhaps the next step is to you know, do something about it. But it happens and she's done the right thing by doing the watermark first.

Speaker 1:

So you know it's just one of those things it happens. It sucks. You've wasted your time creating this content. Do you ever get a partial payment before a job or anything like that? Have you ever done anything like that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm pretty trusting. There are UGC creators out there that will get a 50% deposit. So you pay me 50% before I even start doing anything because of reasons like this or they've been burnt before. I assume brands are happy to do that because creators do that. I don't. I'm pretty trusting and I usually try to work up a pretty good relationship with them in the lead up to me doing anything, whether that be getting on a call or you know lots of back and forth beforehand. But that's another way around it to get a 50% deposit. If they don't pay the rest of it, then they don't get the content.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and at least that you know. I've done that before in the past when it comes to different projects that I've worked on as a contractor. It just kind of safeguards you, but at the same time it's not always possible and if you're just beginning, sometimes you might not feel comfortable doing it. So you could always write something like that into a contract that you won't do a job until you're paid, that Now a brand can always say, no, we're not going to, that's on them and you've got to negotiate that. But I think, yeah, like you've said, she's done the right things. Sometimes you just have to take it and be like damn it. But you know what, every single time it's a lesson that you've learned and you've got maybe a different way to move forward next time, knowing that that could happen.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of the bigger brands. Sometimes they only pay creators, like net 30 or net 60, because it's to do with their marketing budget and they can't just, you know, fork out 50% on the day. But generally, working with bigger brands, they're going to pay you because they've got their reputation and they work with a lot of creators and they've probably got their own system set up. So if it's a smaller brand and you get the feeling that there could be, you know, a bit of a communication breakdown, yeah, sometimes you just got to take it on the chin and move on.

Speaker 1:

And I think, no matter what, before we wrap this one up, if you are doing this and you have a gut feeling that you're like I don't know, this doesn't feel right, it doesn't align, then maybe don't do it Like trust yourself as a content creator, trust yourself as a person, that if it doesn't feel right and it's not aligning with you, then maybe it's not the right job for you. I suppose, just to keep that in mind, you don't have to take everything, but you just need to be aware that these things can happen. Sweet.