How I CRUSH copycats, thieves and competition.

Summary

• As your business grows, competition and copycats are inevitable, it's a matter of when, not if.
• Early in my career, I took competition personally, which was more harmful to me than beneficial.
• A mentor taught me that people act in their own best interest, and by understanding this, I could better predict behavior and align interests for mutual benefit.
• When others tried to repurpose my material or solicit my clients, I realized focusing too much energy on them only hurt my business.
• Here are the takeaways if you find yourself in a similar situation:
  • Recognize that I am the source; copycats will always be a step behind since they depend on me.
  • Someone who copies demonstrates that they are followers and not leaders, meaning they will never lead you.
  • Copycats operate from scarcity, focusing more on you than on their customers—where attention goes, money follows.
• If competitors get loud, I get louder with my message but never acknowledge them directly.
• The best business strategy is to out-market, out-sell and provide more value to your customers; beat them in the field.
• Give so much value to your customers that even when offered a cheaper alternative, they choose to stay with you.
• Remember that attempts by others to take what's yours are a sign of your success and desirability in the marketplace.
• Hold onto values and actions that align with how I would want to reflect on my life at 80 or 90 years old, avoiding actions taken out of malice.
• Victory against copycats isn't always fulfilling as they often fade into obscurity without a direct "battle."
• Focus on providing value to customers, as the long-term win is the impact and growth of your own business.
• Don't take rash actions in response to competitors that the future version of yourself wouldn't be proud of.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest starting with understanding that competition is a part of business growth. If you face copycats, don't take it personally. Instead, think about these steps:

• Understand that copycats prove you are the leader. They rely on you, so focus on staying ahead.
• Remember, they're in a scarcity mindset. They focus on you, not their customers. Keep your attention on providing value to your customers instead.
• If competitors get loud, you should amplify your own message about your business. Stay on mission, but never give them the attention they want.

When it comes to your business approach:

• Out-market and out-sell the competition by providing exceptional value. Make your offering so good that clients wouldn't consider a cheaper alternative.
• Focus on long-term wins like customer satisfaction and business impact, instead of short-lived victories against competitors.

Most importantly, make decisions based on values you can look back on with pride. Don’t react with malice but take actions that older you would respect. This includes dealing with competition in a way that leaves you at peace, not just winning a battle.

Remember these points, act on them, and you'll likely find success while keeping good values.

Quotes by Alex Hormozi

"You'll become astonishingly good at predicting the behavior of others if you always assume they will act in their own best interest"

– Alex Hormozi

"The only thing that I can do in response is to get louder about my thing, never acknowledge them"

– Alex Hormozi

"The person who always gives the most to your customers wins, period"

– Alex Hormozi

"You don't have a customer until somebody has offered them a cheaper version of your solution and they have chosen not to take it"

– Alex Hormozi

"If you want something that other people will have, if you have something other people will want, then you should expect that people will try and take it from you"

– Alex Hormozi

Full Transcript

over the last five years i've had 22 different clients and or employees try and repurpose you know our licensing material into their own business and um i wanted to make this video to talk about how to handle that as you inevitably grow in business this is going to happen to you so it's a matter of when not if and what i think have been some of the best strategies that i've that i've used to deal with them so by the way fyi my name's alex from rosie i own acquisition.com we do about 85 million a year in revenue so today i want to talk about uh kind of the the backlash against competition and copycats and things like that so the biggest problem that most entrepreneurs deal with or at least that i was dealing with uh each time especially earlier on when this would happen is that i took it as such a great deep personal affront as in it was a it was a true attack on my character i was like how could you be this way i thought that they were scum and all the many things and thoughts that we you know would naturally go through but i had a mentor early on in my life and she shared something with me that i've always it's always stuck with me and she said you'll become astonishingly good at predicting the behavior of others if you always assume they will act in their own best interest and that has been incredibly telling and so instead of listening to what people say and uh and believing them if you just simply can think what is in this person's own best interest independent of myself or anything that i am you know basically take yourself out of the equation and think from their perspective you will become astonishingly good at predicting what people are going to do right and so the idea if you want to get people to do what you want them to do is that you must align what is in their best interest and what is in your best interest together and if you can do that and accomplish that effectively then you will be able to harness people's selfish nature towards a common goal which is ultimately what a lot of business really is right so back to the story 22 different people have tried to take our stuff repurpose our stuff and it's not just taking it and repurposing it it's typically also uh additionally them talking right about you um and usually soliciting uh other employees or current clients of yours to go with them right and so that then creates even more anger because it feels like someone's taking your stuff etc but this is what i can tell you has happened um in the few instances uh that i did earlier on my career where i focused a ton of time and effort on these people um i even one time dramatically changed my business model in response to uh somebody who was trying to solicit my best clients and my current clients and start a business adjacent to me the only thing that happened was that i just hurt my own business and the reality is the vast majority of my customers had no idea any of this was happening at all it was all happening in my own head and i was magnifying it way out of blowing it out way out of proportion right and so if you're in this situation these are some of the things that i think through or that i think with to help myself feel better about it number one they need me i do not need them i am the source of the thing that they are trying to copy and therefore they will always be a subset of me which means they cannot be bigger than me if the source of everything they have is me right if their source of customers is my customer base if the source of their of their business model is my business model they need me i do not need them right right so that's number one number two the type of person who operates in this way admits that they are a follower and not a leader all right which means that they cannot lead you it's a different way of saying the first one but i think it's worth mentioning right number three the type of person who operates in this way will always operate from a place of scarcity right they will always try and hoard and they will always be focused on you and not their customers alright so where their focus goes right where your attention goes uh shoot what is it where attention goes money flows that's one of my one of my money sayings um if someone is doing that right then they are purposely telling the marketplace that you are the focus not them and not their customers all right and so the thing to do and so these are the actions to take if you're in one of these situations if they get loud you get louder about yourself you get louder about your solutions you get louder about your purpose about your mission you never acknowledge them ever coke never acknowledges pepsi the classic never acknowledges the inferior there's no point you gain nothing the only thing that is gained is what they what they should hope that you do is that you give them credit right and as soon as you speak their name into existence they become more elevated and then they become on your level and so you can never acknowledge that they even exist all right but if they are allowed then your course of action is to become louder about your message and so if you need something to motivate you use it to motivate you to market harder to sell harder and the saying that i like to use in our company is beat them in the field all right if people are talking smack in the stands beat them in the field all right look at the scoreboard that's all we care about all right and so these are some of the things that over time i've kind of accumulated in my little toolkit of you know mental toolkit of how to deal with the haters and the people who copycat and steelers and all that kind of stuff is to understand that they need me i don't need them that when they focus on me they put more attention my way that the only thing that i can do in response is to get louder about my thing never acknowledge them right and finally just remember that the person who always gives the most to your customers wins period and the founder of hubspot said something that i think is really cool and powerful he said you don't have a customer until somebody has offered them a cheaper version of your solution and they have chosen not to take it that is when you have a customer and so i think that's really telling is that if you if you're so confident in the value you provide then you shouldn't be worried about it if you are worried about this person then double down on the value that you're providing to your customers and then it will help you sleep better channel the nervous energy or the angry energy that you have not at the competitor but target into the value that you're gonna provide to your customers all right so i'm not saying you know i'm some saint i'm saying i've done 22. i've got like i was counting with my uh my gm the other day we're talking about every single time somebody has tried to attack what is ours right has tried to take what is yours and uh saying from yellowstone the show that i like is that anything if you if you want anything if you have anything worth having people are going to try and take it from you right the only way to have something that no one will ever take from you is to have something that no one wants and if you want something that other people will have if you have something other people will want then you should expect that people will try and take it from you and you should take the fact that they are trying to take it from you as a sign of success that what you were doing is the right thing because they are trying to take it from me because it's an indicator that what you have is desirable all right and that's the game and the more desirable the state that you have is the more people will try and take her from you and so having these mental things these mental tools in your tool belt is very useful as an entrepreneur and i'll leave you with one final thing i think that when i look back on my life when i'm 80 or 90 years old i will be ashamed of things that i did and actions that i took out of malice and so i think that the truest guide that we can use for what actions we should take in response to others is what values do i want my life to exude what values do i want my actions to stand for and be in alignment with and if you don't think that inaction will be in alignment with the values that you would have when you're 80 or 90 years old and you look back on the situation then don't do it right or do the action that is in alignment with those values and a lot of times the sad part about taking the high path is that when you win because right now i'm 22 for 22 in terms of people that i have defeated who have tried to to take what is ours um you don't actually get you don't get a victory lap you don't get a victory dance because when people lose to you you can't go stand on their corpse and teabag them like a like a uh like a video game right it doesn't work that way in the real world they disappear with a whimper they fade into not in into obscurance or into obscurity they fade into non-existence that's what ends up happening and when asked about why when they tell their own story they'll just say they decided to change their mind and didn't want to pursue it anymore because of xyz reason that they will cite about the industry and never take uh ownership for why they actually sucked and uh if you're one of those 22 people and you're watching this video um i remember you but i will never acknowledge your existence um and so i uh i say that because because when you win it's not that fulfilling because it's it's very rare that you actually get into a hot battle with somebody it's all happening in your mind and most people just don't have the skills to compete with you if you have a business and they'll eventually just disappear and it just sucks to have to deal with it and the thing is is when they disappear you'll have forgotten they exist to begin with and so it's not like you get an envelope in the mail that says the person you know waves the white flag they'll just move on with their lives and so will you until eventually you forget they exist and so yeah so that's the unfulfilling path of the victor but the thing you do get to have is you get the scoreboard and you get the business and you get the clients and you get the impact and that is really the only reward for continuing to act in the way that is in alignment with values and providing more value to your customers is that you'll just continue to win in the long haul and everyone else will just shrink in comparison to you so anyways mossy nation i make these videos a lot of people broke and i want to be one of them i don't want you to take a stupid action as a result of a competitor or ex-employee or an ex-client trying to siphon your clients it happens it's part of business the fact that they're doing it shows you that you're on the right path just don't do anything that 85 year old you wouldn't be proud of all right lots of love keep being awesome i'll catch you guys next video bye