A coach asked how to deal with people copying her stuff in The Coaching Jungle Facebook group.
This is something that, sooner or later, if you are successful in the world of coaching, you will deal with.
So, let’s discuss…
What are you gonna do about it?
Let’s imagine that you find someone using your content. Maybe they copy your Facebook post. They liberally quote from your book without attribution. They take a concept from your course and teach it themselves.
What do you do?
Our scarcity minded culture would tell us you need to defend your intellectual property. Particularly lawyers advise this. The same lawyers that you would pay thousands of dollars to engage in this defense, and the same lawyers who get to keep their thousands of dollars whether they win or lose.
They’ll tell you to send threatening letters, Cease and Desist, threaten legal action, and take legal action.
The result?
They probably stop copying you. They also hate you. You’ve made an enemy.
The cost of making this one person not copy you?
Hundreds or thousands of wasted dollars.
Weeks of distraction and negative focus.
The benefit?
Um…well…um…you’re lawyer is happy.
Consider this alternative idea.
So, I hear you like my content…
You’ve got someone who feels your content is valuable enough to serve their audience and probably valuable enough to monetize.
What they lack are the delivery mechanisms to serve the audience as you do. Unless we’re talking about your protégé stealing your secret herbs and spices, most copycats are simply copying your content, not your offerings.
Instead of thinking of them as enemies who are stealing your stuff and diverting away your audience, think of them as potential promotional partners. They’re already halfway there anyway. You just need to give them the monetization path.
Reach out to them and, very kindly, point out that you notice that they seem to really like your content. Tell them you are flattered that they are sharing your ideas, honored by their attention, and now you’d like to help them monetize the content they clearly enjoy sharing.
Then offer to make them affiliates.
“You like swiping my content? How about I give you a whole swipe file of content to use!”
They can continue using your content, but they don’t have to figure out how to monetize or deliver it.
They don’t have to deal with the fact that they don’t actually know how to deliver it.
They can just send people to your link and get paid.
As an added benefit, now they will want to credit you, because that creates authority for the content.
Now, you have more authority, credibility, and visibility.
They have more content to use and more revenue from that content with no effort.
You win.
They win.
The lawyers lose.
(Maybe send your lawyer a nice Starbucks gift card to make up for their loss.)
You Don’t Own It Anyway
Do you honestly think that the concepts that you teach are really something you created yourself?
If you teach anything on the mindset and possibilities side, I’ve got really bad news for you. You’re already borrowing from the Bible, the teachings of Buddha, Hindu philosophy, Indigenous storytelling, and ancestral wisdom.
There is nothing you are teaching that is not already found there.
When I created the Nine Foundational Questions of Business, they came to me fully formed, in order, grouped into three groups of three.
I am not so arrogant as to think I created the Nine Questions. I’m not that smart.
God created them, and gave them to me to share.
If God inspires another to take my Nine Questions and teach them, then I will see that as a sign that I am to engage with that person to share this valuable framework.
Summer Diya Selva “stole” my summit format, and I am honored to be invited to speak on that stage. I was inspired to create it, and I am gratified that it has inspired others.
Of course, we are entitled to the revenues of our work. As Paul say, “The workman deserves his wages,” but it’s all licensed from God.
Quick note: when I say God, I refer the infinite and incomprehensible Divine. I believe that God exceeds our human capacity to categorize and name, so we make due with words like God, Allah, and The Universe to interact with the Infinite. Please read that word as whatever word means The Divine to you.
One Day I Will Die, But My Impact Will Live On
At least I hope so.
We don’t like people to “steal” our work because we feel they are stealing the money that would come from that work.
If I do well, then I will create an impact in some form.
I may inspire others.
I may create ideas that live beyond me.
I may impact those that I never even know.
Those ideas may live on with my name attached, or they may enter the discourse without my name forgotten to history. Either way, it is a form of immortality.
This is why I’m not worried about AI incorporating my books and writing into its infoset or model. If some of my ideas become part of the AI model that millions of people use to create and learn from, then that is already a form of immortality.
If you don’t know the names of your great great grandparents, then you probably shouldn’t worry about making sure you get the credit for your precious intellectual property. You should instead focus on creating ideas that will live on when your great great grandchildren have forgotten your name, because God will remember.
If you feel so inspired to steal my ideas and share them, I will not try to stop you.
I will, however, suggest that we collaborate because that’s better for everyone.
-Michael Whitehouse
The Guy Who Knows a Guy
P.S. One could even steal this message and use it as their own, but I’d recommend they replace that line about the Nine Foundational Questions, because personal stories attached to assets don’t plagiarize well.