Last week I received a message from one of my Secret Coach Club subscribers asking me a question about copycats:
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I’ve noticed a few colleagues copying a few of my strategies exactly (ie: my ___________) I believe one of the reasons I get such great engagement from it was because it was original. If more people copy it it loses that. Do I keep doing it anyway? Do I try something new? Thoughts?
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My first thought went to that famous quote by Oscar Wilde: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. If people are copying you, it’s a sign that you’re doing something right.
But that’s small consolation when your work is being ripped off. Nobody likes to see their original thoughts and ideas lifted without consideration.
I just finished reading A Curious Man, the biography of Robert Ripley (of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! fame). After Ripley became the most famous cartoonist in the world because of his Believe It Or Not! cartoons, imitators started popping out of the woodwork.
John Hix was the worst offender, starting a BION ripoff called Strange As It Seems that nipped at Ripley’s heels for over a decade. But Hix could never catch up to Ripley, because people weren’t just buying into Ripley’s cartoons … they were buying into Ripley the man.
Robert Ripley grew up as an awkward boy with buck teeth, who struggled to fit in with others. Because of this experience, he resonated with the strange people he featured in his cartoons and with Americans who felt an affinity for him.
Anyone could pick up a pencil and scratch out cartoons, but they couldn’t replace Ripley’s personality or the connection with his audience.
I’m going to go over a lot more lessons from Robert Ripley’s life in the September issue of the Secret Coach Club newsletter, but my point is to not be discouraged when you’re being copied. Find ways to insert more of your personality, more of your experience, more of “you” into whatever you’re doing and they won’t catch you.
They can steal your ideas, but they can’t steal YOU.
If you’d like to get more of your personality out into the marketplace (and get more clients in the process), my next 10 Clients In 90 Days group starts tomorrow. We had a last-minute cancellation and one spot is now available – if you want in, here you go:
