E653 | What To Do When People Copy You

In this episode of our audio podcast, Doc Danny delves into a common challenge that many businesses face - dealing with other businesses copying what you do. Drawing from his own experiences with his business, Danny shares how he noticed that as his social media presence grew, other practices would swiftly replicate his exercise videos, unique messaging, and content shared on various platforms.

Initially, Danny found this copying behavior to be quite irksome. However, he recalls a valuable insight he received - the act of copying is actually a form of flattery. It signifies that these other businesses recognize your success and believe that you have something worth emulating. Additionally, the act of copying often reveals a lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of the copiers, as they struggle to create their own original content.

While Danny acknowledges that it can still be frustrating when others directly replicate your work, he encourages listeners to shift their perspective. Instead of dwelling on the annoyance, he advises viewing it as a reflection of your business's admiration and competence. By focusing on your own mission and values, rather than getting distracted by the actions of others, you can cultivate your own authentic voice and identity.

To conclude, Danny highlights that copying others is generally not a wise approach, as it indicates a lack of grasp on the underlying mission. However, for the business being copied, it is important not to become overly annoyed. Take it as a compliment, and use it as fuel to continuously improve and innovate within your own business. By removing any distractions and maintaining a laser focus on continuous learning, you can ensure that your business remains at the forefront of your industry.

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: My name is Danny Mate and over the last 15 years. I've done pretty much everything you can in the profession. I've been a staff PT, I've been an active duty military officer, physical therapist. I've started my own cash practice. I've sold that cash practice. And today my company, Physical Therapy Biz has helped over a thousand clinicians start growing scale their own cash practices.

So if this sounds like something you want to do, listen up, cause I'm here to help you.

Hey, what's going on? Dr. Danny here with the PT entrepreneur podcast. And today we're talking about what do you do when people start copying what you do with your business? This is something that, uh, can be a real annoyance, I think, uh, for business owners, and I started to notice this, I would say probably about a year.

Maybe a year and a half into, uh, starting athletes potential. And I really started to notice this with, uh, really it was like social media, uh, in particular. And we were doing a lot of YouTube videos mainly because we had, we, we would send.

Uh, you know, we're doing a bunch of videos. Uh, probably we have probably a couple hundred on that platform. And I would notice, you know, that people would basically, if I would make a video on something that, uh, there'd be the same exercise video that somebody else would put up and then they would post, uh, you know, on, on their, uh, on their social media, there was something that we had just done like the week before.

And. And then notice like consistently would kind of, that's kind of what would happen. And then from there we started to notice that things that we would share, uh, people would just repackage and share the same thing, you know, so things that were I guess unique to what we were doing uh in our messaging and things we were interested in and trying to share that were Not, I mean, there were just things that we were coming up with, uh, and that we were sort of organizing and, uh, and sharing across our, our social media platforms, as well as our, our email list, we started to see a lot of practices doing the same thing and looking back on it.

It really made me quite bad, um, that people would do that. Even people that would subscribe to like our email newsletter just to, I think, see what we were sending people, you know, I don't know if it's like some sort of secret. Thing they were going to learn from, from subscribing to our, to our emails. Uh, but I'm assuming they probably just were wanting to see what we were, what we were writing and then just probably write the same thing or something very similar.

Uh, and I remember I got. Kind of irritated with this. And I was in a business development group at the time and I brought it up to them. And I remember the person that was running the group just kind of laughed at me. Um, or not me, but I, what I was saying, and she was like, Danny, that means that you're doing something really, really well, because people aren't copying people that they think suck at something.

There aren't seeing success with something, but also. It's not a good place to be if you're copying other people because you're so far behind where they are. And also you don't have any, you haven't developed the understanding of how to create things yourself. All you're doing is just taking what other people are doing and trying to repackage it because, you know, maybe you lack the depth of knowledge to be able to create your own marketing or, uh, you know, your own.

Uh, content. So you just, you know, copy what other people are doing and, and, and then repackage it under your own, um, your own platform. But I think it's a really bad place to be because that is not, there's no growth that comes from that. Uh, and as frustrating as it might be for you, let's say you're listening to this and somebody is just ripping off the stuff that you're doing.

You're, it's such a better place to be if somebody's doing that to you, then, then you being in their shoes where they're doing that, uh, to, to you, where they're trying to basically take what you're doing, the creativity that you're putting into things and they're trying to make it their own. Uh, it's like they're trying to shortcut something, but we all know it's not that simple.

So for instance, let's say you work with a patient and somebody could just like, you know, so they could see exactly the home exercise plan. Like exactly what you send somebody after your first visit. And they just, they're like, cool. Now I know exactly what to do with people to have lower back pain. Well, they missed out on a lot of other things that go into that.

Like that home exercise plan is just one part of what's going on. They didn't see. What you talked to them about, how you communicated with them, the buy in that you were able to get, the trust you're able to build, you know, the false beliefs you're able to break the, uh, you know, the, the education you're able to give somebody that allows them to really understand what's going on and believe that they're in the right place.

And. If you think of marketing and, uh, people kind of ripping you off with your content and stuff like that, I mean, that's, that'd be like somebody taking your home exercise plan and that they're missing out on all these other variables. So I always look at this as more of a sign of weakness when it comes to especially marketing and content.

You just don't really know what's going on. And it's also one of the reasons why, like for me. Hey, sorry to interrupt the podcast, but I have a huge favor to ask of you. If you are a longtime listener or a new listener and you're finding value in this podcast, please head over to iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to the podcast, and please leave a rating and review.

This is actually very helpful for us to get this podcast and really help them develop time and financial freedom. So. If you would do that, I would greatly appreciate it. Now back to the podcast.

I talk a lot about business within, you know, the sort of performance based world, the cash, the cash based world, but I don't pay attention to anybody else. It does. I don't listen to anybody's podcast. I don't read any blogs. I don't follow them on social media. There's nothing that, that I. That I do that has anything to do with them because I'm not interested in somebody else's opinion, swaying what I'm seeing.

I want to see the world for what it is. I want to see my industry for what it is and share with you what my opinion is on that. And because of that, I've never ever had anybody say to themselves like, Oh man, Danny sounds just like X, Y, and Z. Like I just, I don't, because I don't pay attention to him. Uh, and I think that you're better off to not pay attention to people in your area and just focus on what you're doing, uh, instead of, you know, seeing what other people are doing and trying to figure out if you can do something similar, it's just a complete waste of time in my opinion.

And instead of trying to like, figure out what other people are doing, try to figure out how you can actually like. Just be more of yourself, uh, learn more about, you know, how to actually run your business, reinvest in learning stuff that maybe you don't know right now that instead of trying to copy somebody else, you understand the fundamentals of how to write, you know, effective copy, how to create content, how to actually market successfully.

Within these businesses, how to create sales processes, how to hire people, how to become a good leader, all these things that are just so important. And they don't come from just copying somebody's, uh, marketing and or content. Uh, so it is frustrating. Like I've been there, I get it. And I've been way more mad than I probably ever should have been, uh, because of that.

And, and I would say, and my wife as well, because. I mean, some things are just so blatantly obvious that it's, it's so frustrating because you put a lot of time, energy and effort into those things. And then for somebody else to just take what you do and just straight up copy it. Like we've had people this, even with our website, just, they, it's, it's the exact same verbiage.

You know, it's, it's, there's, it's exact same thing, but it's just, we have to keep in mind is it's not necessarily congruent with what they are trying to get across and the vision in which you have for your company. The mission that you have for your company has to be so clear to you that I can't imagine trying to take that from somebody else because it's not mine.

I can't articulate it the same way, the same way I can't. Uh, I'm not as passionate about it. You know, I, I don't understand the mission the same way as if it is truly something that is very important to me that I came up with. I spent a lot of time thinking about, and I have a lot of deeper reasons why.

You're just seeing the superficial, you know, copy on a website. You're not seeing the deep reason why somebody is doing what they do. And I think if anything, when someone does come in to see you. That hopefully that's something that they feel from, from the minute they step in the door. That's how you know your culture's right.

That's how you know you're doing the right thing versus if they read something or, or they see, they see advertising that is incongruent with what happens whenever they show up in person, they're not going to stick around for very long. So, you know, you got to keep that in mind if you're on either side of this, if you're copying people's stuff, like probably not the best idea.

Like, let's be honest. Okay. It's probably not the best idea. It's a real sign of weakness that you just don't know what you're doing. Uh, and it's not really going to get you that far, you know, so just copying other people doing is not a good idea. And if somebody is copying you, Hey, take it as a compliment, you know, don't get super frustrated with it.

It's not really, uh, You know, it's not really going to affect your business in any significant way. Really just focus more on what you're doing. Don't let it distract you from the work you have to do, which is probably a significant amount. Uh, and just double down on what you're trying to do and stay in your lane.

So I would just remove all distractions from practices around you that you feel like are, um, you know, are, are copying what you're doing, uh, and. And just focus on your own business. You can even remove them from, you know, following, uh, following your stuff. So if you want to do that, you can do that too. I mean, I, I, I think you just got to focus on your own stuff.

You got to focus on your own mission, vision, values, and the things that align with that, that are going to help get people. Educated and in your, uh, in your office, uh, and not focus your time and effort and, and you're in frustration that you might feel towards other people that are just honestly, probably just trying to figure out what to do.

They have no idea. And they view you as somebody that is, uh, got your shit together. So they just decided to copy you. So hope this helps. If you're on either side of those, I hope this kind of gives you some stuff to think about. And as always. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you next week.

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