COPYCATS! How do you deal with them in your business?
Has anyone ever taken your words and then acted as if they created them? Or your product ideas? Or your offerings?
It hurts. It sucks. It's dumb. It's weird. It's useless.... the truth always comes out. But it happens.
All the time. And it happens to good people by (sometimes) good people because we are all inspired by someone somewhere.
However, even if a musician is inspired by artists they listened to growing up, they need permission to use their riffs in their songs. We no longer have that authority unless we trademark things, but even then, you cannot trademark or copyright every word you write or idea you speak.
Someone will see it, steal it, and do with it as they wish. Sometimes they don't mean harm, sometimes they do.
What can you do about it?
Keep going. Keep writing. Keep jiving and shining and thriving. Icky people who steal will always be icky, and their ick speaks VOLUMES to their thousands of followers when it comes out. That's okay. Stay strong and glowing, and don't cover yourself in ick to match. When the ick hits the fan, people are looking for good again, which they ALWAYS do... you will shine brighter simply because you're you. And they'll jive with your ideas because they're good ideas... not because someone flashy with a big bank account spoke to them.
You can't stop them... but you can stop letting them affect you.
Block. Ban. Remove.
It's in your right to protect your feed and your space. If they keep stealing, lawyer up... but if it can't be protected, pray over it that anyone wishing to use your words, creations, and services for their own good bringing harm to you will be silenced in their share. And then let .... it..... go.
Jennifer is a Creative Director for Facets of Hospitality. She began her career as a freelancer under the name FacetHub. She started this at clients' request from a ghostwriting career after she delivered the copywriting, and they asked, "Okay, where do I put this.... and... how?" Now, she owns a marketing company that creates merch stores and grows confidence in marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies worldwide. You can hire her to jazz up your team, or you can request her as project manager on projects you hire from YOUR MARKETING TEAM.
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