212: Copycats

Welcome back to the Shoot It Straight podcast, my friends. Let’s talk about something that no one in the creative industry wants to admit is happening, but everyone has experienced. Ugh, this gives me so much cringe, but it’s necessary. We’re talking about copying, as in copycats, and I have a lot of thoughts.

So let’s dig in

Welcome to Shoot It Straight, the podcast for women building businesses and lives they actually want. I’m Sabrina Gebhardt, and around here we believe in clarity over hustle, alignment over burnout, and giving yourself permission to want more, more ease, more beauty, more income, more space to live. So if you’re ready to grow without losing yourself in the process, you’re in the right place.

First of all, let’s talk about why people copy. Here’s the hard, clean truth to the matter. It feels like a shortcut. People copy because it feels like a shortcut. They are thinking, “Oh, that person is successful. If I want to do what they do, if I want to be seen as they are seen, if I want to be successful like they are successful, I should just do what they’re doing, so I’m going to copy them,” right?

When you are starting out in business or starting a new direction, whether it be new website, new niche, new branch, moving somewhere new, when you are starting out at square one in whatever it is that you are doing, it feels incredibly overwhelming. It feels incredibly overwhelming because you are brand new.

You don’t know what you don’t know. It seems like a very steep mountain to climb to get to said level of success, whatever it is that you want to go, and copying feels safer than risking your own instincts. The other thing is comparison. Comparison. The internet, social media, we can see what everybody’s doing all the time.

Yes, what we see is a highlight reel, but we still see the highlight reel. We still see the, the mountaintops. We still see the successful launch. We still see the busy calendar. We still see the ideal clients. We still see the revenue numbers. We see what is going well for other people, and so it’s, th- it’s this comparison culture, this comparison all the time that we’re living in that makes it worse.

It truly, it’s making it worse. You are seeing what is working for other people, and naturally, you’ll want it to work for yourself. “If it’s working for her, it can work for me.” And so again, we just think I- I’m just going to do what they’re doing. I’m going to build my business model exactly like theirs.

I’m going to take copy from their website and put it on mine. I’m going to use their images as inspiration for my own. I’m going to show up in my content the same way they’re doing. I’m going to create the same type of content that they’re doing. I’m gonna use the same hooks. I’m gonna write the same email.

I’m gonna create the same product. It feels safer to just see, oh, they already have a blueprint for success. I want that, therefore, I’m going to copy some or all of what they’re doing. Here’s what I truly want you to hear. Most copycats don’t think of themselves a c- as copycats. They are not villains. They are not trying to be the bad guy.

They are not copying you because they want to steal your business, they want to steal your success, they want to steal your identity. They’re copying you because it feels safer, it feels easier, it feels like somebody already did the work, therefore I’m just going to borrow what they’re doing and copy it, right?

They’re inspired. They are modeling things after you, and it’s real bad. But they are not innately villainous. They are not the bad guys I can talk about this today because I have been in both seats. I have been in both seats. In today’s position where I am more than 15 years into this business, I have been copied and am being copied currently, and it’s not fun.

But I can also think back to the very beginning of my business when I absolutely copied some stuff. If you have been a listener for the podcast for a while, or you’ve met me in real life, or you’re one of my coaching students, or we’re friends or whatever, you know that I don’t have a villainous bone in my body.

In fact, when it comes to women succeeding, I want nothing more. I want nothing more than women to succeed. I would never do something to knock someone else down or try and take their success. That’s just not me. To the core, that’s not me. So when I tell you that most copycats don’t think of themselves as copycats, I’m speaking from experience.

I remember when I was brand new in business, like within the first 18 months of business, and I was trying to figure out all the things. I was like, “Well, I need a website. How do I do that? Oh, I need to take photos. How do I pose them? How do I edit them? What kind of offers should I do? What are my pricing?

What is my packaging? What am I…?” Like, e- everything was a question mark. It was literally, like, one big game of, like, what do I do now? And the whole time, I was looking around to see what other people were doing. I did not pick one person to try and emulate, but I was picking from here and from here and from here, for sure.

I don’t remember blatantly copying anybody’s work, anybody’s editing or anything like that, but what I do remember blatantly copying, copying is copy from a website, and I am horrified to tell you that. Horrified to tell you that. And I, I will also say that it did not live, it did not live on my website long.

It… We, we backtracked and fixed that real fast. But it felt so much easier to take someone else’s About page and then change up the information, put in my name instead of theirs, put in my favorite things instead of theirs. It felt so much safer to take the copy on somebody’s offers page and just use that and then change some stuff.

It felt easier. It felt safer. I was not, or nor was I ever trying to take that person’s business. If I’m honest, I don’t even think that person lived in my area, so it’s… we’re not even talking about direct competition. It was a matter of like, “I’m so overwhelmed, and I don’t know what to do. I’m just, I’m just gonna use somebody else’s.”

And again, saying that is horrifying and makes me sound… feel, like, super icky to this day, and this is 15 years later, or 14 years later, okay? But I’ve been in that position I have been in that position. That is the only time that I have blatantly, directly copied somebody. And like I said, it didn’t last long.

It felt icky immediately, and I backtracked and just fixed it myself. Okay. I’m in a situation now, and I have been for a few years, where people copy me, and I want to now tell you what it’s like to be on the other side. It really stinks. It really stinks when someone tries to emulate your offers, when someone tries to emulate their entire business, when someone tries to show up online as you, when someone creates the same frameworks that you create, builds offers exactly like yours.

It’s… It really stings, especially when you have poured in the energy and the time to create something that is unique, that is special, that is yours, and that you have seen success in, that is working for you and your business and your clients, that feels true. And to see someone else take your words, your format, your framework, your aesthetic, your content, your style, and try and take that on as their own, it really stinks.

It’s really, really painful, especially if it’s somebody that is directly in competition with you. It’s the worst. The question that always gets asked or that you ask of yourself in this situation when you are the one being copied is, “Do I say something? Do I say something? Do I let it go? Do I screenshot it?

Do I file it away for later? Do I see if they do anything else? Do I take it to a lawyer?” Like, what do I do, right? Obviously, it, it depends on the level, what, depends on what’s happening to whether you should say something or not. If we’re talking about somebody that is your direct competition in your area, has the same client base, and they are taking somebody, something that could actually hurt your business, I think that’s when you speak up.

If they are infringing on something that you have legally protected, you know, trademark, copyright, something like that, obviously you’re saying something. But if it’s just small beans, so to speak, it doesn’t feel good, but do we always need to speak up? And that’s only something that you can answer. I’ll say in my personal situation, I have spoken up a couple of times.

Most of the other times, I just let it slide. I just let it slide. Generally speaking, I will block the person or unfollow them if I follow them, or I will just kind of stop engaging and kind of remove myself from that situation if it’s somebody that’s been in my online virtual world. A few times I’ve said something.

Um, I have never had to get legal involved, thank goodness. Um, I have had to get some support staff involved at, uh, one time, particularly when it came to my website, but things have worked themselves out, and I’m, I’m lucky. I know I’m very lucky in that. If you wanna make more money in your business but you’re exhausted and don’t want to burn yourself out while you do it, I made something just for you.

It’s called More Money, Less Burnout, and it’s a free 14-day business reset with short daily audios all under three minutes, plus one tiny action step to help you create more income, better boundaries, and some breathing room in your business. It’s simple, self-paced, and designed to actually fit into real life.

You can grab it now at sabrinagebhart.com/business-reset or check the show notes for the link The deeper impact is that when someone copies you, it makes you, the original creator, second-guess everything, quite frankly. It makes you pull back. It makes you want to pull back your, your visibility, uh, how you show up.

It makes you second-guess sharing anything because all of a sudden it feels very fragile that if you share anything, like anything could be taken or stolen. And it makes you wonder if things are worth creating. And if they’re worth creating, how are you gonna share about them if you… It’s, it, it really messes with the person that you’re copying.

And the real damage is not the copying in and of itself, it’s what it does to the original creator’s willingness to keep going. And if we bring it all the way back to what I just said, most people are not copying because they’re villains or because they have it out for someone, or they want to take their clients or their business or whatever.

It’s just because they’re looking for an easy button and because they’re overwhelmed. And so if you have ever found yourself in that place of taking the easy button to try and emulate someone else or someone else’s business, think about what you’re doing to that person who is likely inspiring to you.

I, I, I don’t think that you would be copying someone if you weren’t inspired by them, if you did not look up to them, if you weren’t proud of them, if you weren’t like, like a little kid would say, like, “I wanna be you when I grow up,” you know? And so if you think about it from that perspective, how much damage you’re doing to that person and the way that they think about their business and how they show up, it’s really, really unfair Here’s what I want you to hear if you’re in this position.

A- and listen, I, I am trying to call people out, a- and, and I also raised my hand and said I’ve been in those shoes before. I’ve done icky copycat stuff before. But I really wanna educate on why it’s not the easy button that you think it is. Because at the end of the day, I realize you may have just started your business, and you may have taken copy off of somebody else’s website and, you know, whatever, done similar things.

It’s not actually helping you, and so I’m gonna tell you why this is not actually helping you. It feels like an easy button. It’s actually not. I actually think it’s hurting you, so that you can fix it, so that you can undo it, so that you can show up as yourself and not trying to be someone else. You can copy someone’s words, but you cannot copy the lived experience that they have.

You can copy their words, but you cannot copy their lived experience. So in my example, in my story, not even an example, my story, I copied text off of a website and put it on my own. It may have been generic enough, but it didn’t sound like me. It wasn’t representative of my personality, and I could never be the person whose website I was taking information from because I don’t have the same lived experience as them.

I’m gonna see situations and photograph people in different ways, and it’s, it’s not something that I could… I can’t ever put myself in their shoes. I can take copy off their website. I could take offers. I could take their pricing and their packaging and just slap it together as my own, but it’s never going to be the same experience.

It’s not gonna fully align deeply because I have not had the same lived experience as them Audiences can tell when things are inauthentic. They can smell it a mile away. They can feel the difference between someone who is speaking from the heart and from conviction and from their own lived experience and about their own deep desires.

They can tell versus when they are basically reciting someone else’s script. They can tell when it’s true, when it’s authentic, when it’s genuine. Here’s a great example. If you’ve been, uh, on Instagram and seen influencer culture or on TikTok and influencer culture, it is so obvious to me when a creator is sharing a product that they are genuinely obsessed with versus one that they have a brand deal with, or that, you know, somebody sent them a product to make a video in exchange.

Like, it’s glaringly obvious, and it’s gross. Sell me something that you’re genuinely obsessed with that I need, and I will buy that and use your affiliate link in two seconds flat. Yes. Yes, please and thank you. Try and sell me something that I need, but from the perspective of, like, I got it for free and I’m doing this job and I, I haven’t been using it for ten years religiously, and I’m like, “Yeah, no.”

It doesn’t mean I won’t buy the product, but I’m not buying it through you. Like, gross. We can smell it a w- a, a mile away, and when you are showing up trying to be someone else, trying to have someone else’s business, trying to have somebody else’s offers, trying to photograph your clients or create products or whatever, and it was not your idea, not your passion, doesn’t align with you, not your words, uh, people can tell.

I know you think it is hitting the easy button, but it’s actually hurting your business because your audience is, is literally thinking what I just said. They’re like, “Mm, this doesn’t feel right.” It’s probably why no one’s engaging with your content, maybe why no one’s booking your offers, maybe why your website is not getting, like, a bunch of action.

People can tell Taking this quote unquote shortcut by copying is actually really the long way around because in my example, when I was slapping together copy on my website and I just was like, “I’ll borrow this person’s and use it as my own,” I then had to redo the work again. I had to start back at the beginning and rewrite things and think about what I wanted to say that was true to me.

When you try and emulate someone else’s business or someone else or whatever, y- you then have to backtrack and start the brand-building process eventually anyways. Otherwise, your business is gonna fail. I’m just gonna be totally candid with you. Your business is going to fail if you do not have one that is authentic and genuine and aligned with you.

So the longer that you wear somebody else’s costume, the longer time you are… the more time you’re wasting. The longer you are wearing someone else’s business costume, the more time you are wasting. You’re taking the long route, and that’s a real bummer. I wish you would spend the time up front to get these things dialed in and right so that your business could be on its way and you could be bringing in your ideal clients from the get-go.

The most successful people in small business industries, creative industries specifically, got there by being themselves, not by emulating someone else. The most successful people got there by being themselves, not trying to be someone else. All right? Your brand, and I’ve… Gosh, how many times have we talked about this on the podcast?

But your brand is so much more than your colors and your fonts. I, again, I’ve talked about this so many times. I hope that you are fully aware of that right now. Your brand is so much more than your colors and your fonts. I don’t care what your colors are. I don’t care what your fonts are. Your brand is the way that you see the world and the way that you talk about your work and your product and your ideal clients.

It is you personified in what you are doing as a business. That is your brand. The things that you say over and over and over again that nobody else says quite the same way with the same inflection or the same combination of words, your personality, all of those things are your brand. Plus, let’s add in what you have lived.

What have you been through? What shapes who you are and the way that you show up? What shapes the stories you tell and the, the way you engage with people? That is your brand, too. Those things cannot be copied because they are unique to you And if somebody else is trying to be that version and to put on that costume, so to speak, they’re trying to speak like you, they’re trying to have the same stories as you, they’re trying to show up visually the same way you are, it is obvious to their audience.

It’s obvious to their audience that it is not them and that they are playing a part, and that’s gross. And you are taking so much longer to get to the success finish line that you want to get to. You are making it so much harder for yourself. Spend the time to figure out who you are. If it takes longer to write your website, let it take longer.

If it takes longer to figure out your marketing strategy, let it take longer. If it takes longer and is more frustrating and clunky to figure out your style of getting, showing up on social media, let it take longer. Spend the time to figure out what is authentic to you so that your business succeeds faster.

My friends, don’t copy. It’s not fun. It feels icky. It’s wasting time for yourself, and you’re really hurting the person that you’re copying, the person that you likely look up to, the person that you likely, quote-unquote, “wanna be when you grow up.” Being a copycat is a dead end. I know it feels easy. I know it feels like a quick win.

It is a dead end. The most powerful version of your business is the one that only you could’ve built, the one that is so specific and so nuanced that only you could’ve come up with everything in that exact little format that fits inside the U-shaped box. No one else can copy that. That is the most powerful version of your business.

Let all of that shine. My friend, that’s it for today. I hope you heard this with love, and I would really love to hear from you. If this spoke to you, come send me a DM over on Instagram at xo.sabrinagebhart. And if you’ve got a friend that you think needs to hear this, feel free to share this episode with them.

We’ll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot It Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at sabrinagebhart.com/podcast. Come find me and connect over on the Gram at xo.sabrinagebhart. And if you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you’d hit that subscribe button and leave me a review.

Until next time, my friends.