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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.

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Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more

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customers, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way.

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I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

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Over the last five years, I've had 22 different clients and or employees try and repurpose

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our licensing material into their own business. I wanted to make this video to talk about how to

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handle that as you inevitably grow in business. This is going to happen to you, so it's a matter of

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when, not if, and what I think have been some of the best strategies that I've used to deal with them.

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So, by the way, if I have my name is Alex Mosey, I own acquisition.com. We do about $85 million

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a year in revenue. Today I want to talk about the backlash against competition and copycats and

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things like that. So, the biggest problem that most entrepreneurs deal with, or at least that I was

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dealing with each time, especially earlier on when this would happen, is that I took it as such a great

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deep personal front. As in, it was a true attack on my character. I was like, how could you

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be this way? I thought that they were scum. And all the many things and thoughts that we,

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you know, would naturally go through. But I had a mentor early on in my life, and she shared

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something with me that I've always, it's always stuck with me. And she said, you'll become

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astonishingly good at predicting the behavior of others if you always assume they will act in their

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own best interest. And that has been incredibly telling. And so, instead of listening to what people

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say and believing them, if you just simply can think, what is in this person's own best interest

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independent of myself or anything that I am, you know, basically take yourself out of the

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equation and think from their perspective, you will become astonishingly good at predicting

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what people are going to do, right? And so, the idea, if you want to get people to do what you

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want them to do, is that you must align what is in their best interest and what is in your best

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interest together. And if you can do that, and accomplish that effectively, then you will be able

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to harness people's selfish nature towards a common goal, which is ultimately what a lot of

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business really is, right? So, back to the story. 22 different people have tried to take our stuff,

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repurpose our stuff. And it's not just taking any repurposing it. It's typically also

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additionally them talking shit, right, about you. And usually soliciting other employees or

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current clients of yours to go with them, right? And so, that then creates even more anger because

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it feels like someone's taking your stuff, et cetera. But this is what I can tell you has happened.

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In the few instances that I did earlier on my career where I focused a ton of time and effort

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on these people, I even one time dramatically changed my business model in response to somebody who

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was trying to solicit my best clients and my current clients and started business adjacent to me.

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The only thing that happened was that I just hurt my own business. And the reality is the vast

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majority of my customers had no idea any of this was happening at all. It was all happening in my

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own head and I was magnifying it way out of blowing it out way out of proportion, right? And so,

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if you're in this situation, these are some of the things that I think through or that I think with

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to help myself feel better about it. Number one, they need me. I do not need them. I am the source

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of the thing that they are trying to copy. And therefore, they will always be a subset of me,

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which means they cannot be bigger than me if the source of everything they have is me, right? If

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their source of customers is my customer base, if the source of their business model is my business

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model, they need me. I do not need them, right? Right? So that's number one. Number two, the type of

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person who operates in this way admits that they are a follower and not a leader, right? Which means

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that they cannot lead you. It's a different way of saying the first one, but I think it's worth mentioning,

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right? Number three, the type of person who operates in this way will always operate from place

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of scarcity, right? They will always try and hoard and they will always be focused on you

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and not their customers, all right? So where their focus goes, right? Where your attention goes,

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shoot, what is it? Where attention goes, money flows. That's one of my, one of my money sayings.

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If someone is doing that, right? Then they are purposely telling the marketplace that you

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are the focus, not them and not their customers, all right? And so the thing to do, and so these are

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the actions to take if you're in one of these situations. If they get loud, you get louder about

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yourself. You get louder about your solutions. You get louder about your purpose, about your

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mission. You never acknowledge them. Ever. Coke never acknowledges Pepsi. The classic never

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acknowledges the inferior. There's no point you gain nothing. The only thing that is gained with

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what they should hope that you do is that you give them credit, right? And as soon as you speak

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their name into existence, they become more elevated and then they become on your level. And so

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you can never acknowledge that they even exist.

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Hey, Mohsenation, quick break just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn

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and want to connect with you. All right, so send me a connection request and let me know that you

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listen to the show and I will accept it. There's anyone you think that we should be connected with

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tag them in one of my or layless posts and I will give you all the love in the world. All right,

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so let's get back to the show. All right, but if they are loud, then your course of action is to

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become louder about your message. And so if you need something to motivate you, use it to motivate

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you to market harder, to sell harder. And the saying that I like to use in our company is beat them

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in the field. All right, if people are talking smack in the stands, beat them in the field. All right,

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look at the scoreboard. That's all we care about. All right. And so these are some of the things that

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over time I've kind of accumulated in my little toolkit of, you know, mental toolkit of how to

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deal with the haters and the people who copycat and stealers and all that kind of stuff is to

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understand that they need me. I don't need them. That when they focus on me, they put more attention

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my way that the only thing that I can do in response is to get louder about my thing. Never acknowledge

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them. Right. And finally, just remember that the person who always gives the most to your

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customers wins. Period. And the founder of HubSpot said something that I think is really cool and

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powerful. He said, you don't have a customer until somebody has offered them a cheaper version of

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your solution and they have chosen not to take it. That is when you have a customer. And so I

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think that's really telling is that if you, if you're so confident in the value provide,

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then you shouldn't be worried about it. If you are worried about this person, then double down on

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the value that you're providing to your customers and then it will help you sleep better. Channel

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the nervous energy or the angry energy that you have not at the competitor, but target into the

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value that you're going to provide to your customers. All right. So I'm not saying, you know,

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I'm some saint. I'm saying I've done 22. I like I was counting it with my GM the other day.

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We're talking about every single time somebody has tried to attack what is ours. Right. That's

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right. Take what is yours and saying from Yellowstone, the show that I like is that

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anything if you if you want anything, if you have anything worth having, people are going to

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try and take it from you. Right. The only way to have something that no one will ever take from

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you is to have something that no one wants. And if you want something that other people will have,

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excuse me, if you have something other people will want, then you should expect that people will

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try and take it from you. And you should take the fact that they are trying to take it from you

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as a sign of success that what you were doing is the right thing because they are trying to take

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it from you because it's an indicator that what you have is desirable. Right. And that's the game.

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And the more desirable the state that you have is the more people will try and take it from you.

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And so having these mental things, these mental tools in your tool belt is very useful as an

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entrepreneur and I'll leave you with one final thing. I think that when I look back on my life

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when I'm 80 or 90 years old, I will be ashamed of things that I did and actions that I took out of

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malice. And so I think that the truest guide that we can use for what actions we should take in

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response to others is what values do I want my life to exude? What values do I want my actions

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to stand for and be in alignment with? And if you don't think that in action will be an alignment

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with the values that you would have when you're 80 or 90 years old and you look back on the situation,

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then don't do it. Right. Or do the action that is in alignment with those values. And a lot of times

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the sad part about taking the the high path is that when you win because right now I'm 22 for 22

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in terms of people that I have defeated who have tried to to take what is ours.

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You don't actually get you don't get a victory lap. You don't get a victory dance because when

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people lose to you, you can't go stand on their corpse and teabag them like a like a like a

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video game. Right. It doesn't work that way. In the real world, they disappear with a whimper. They

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fade into not into obscurity or into obscurity. They fade into non-existence. That's what ends up

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happening. And when asked about why when they tell their own story, they'll just say they decided

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to change their mind and didn't want to pursue it anymore because of XYZ reason that they will

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cite about the industry and never take ownership for why they actually sucked.

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And if you're one of those 22 people and you're watching this video, I remember you,

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but I will never acknowledge your existence. And so I say that because when you win, it's not

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that fulfilling because it's very rare that you actually get into a hot battle with somebody.

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It's all happening in your mind. And most people just don't have the skills to compete with you

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if you have a business. And they'll eventually just disappear. And it just sucks to have to deal

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with it. And the thing is is when they disappear, you'll have forgotten they exist to begin with.

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And so it's not like you get an envelope in the mail that says the person, you know, waves the

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white flag. They'll just move on with their lives and so will you until eventually you forget they

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exist. And so yeah, so that's the unfulfilling path of the victor. But the thing you do get to have

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is you get the scoreboard and you get the business and you get the clients and you get the impact.

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And that is really the only reward for continuing to act in the way that is alignment with values

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and providing more value to your customers is that you'll just continue to win in the long haul

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and everyone else will just shrink in comparison to you. So anyways, Mosy Nation, I make these

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videos because a lot of people broken on one to be one of them. I don't want you to take a stupid

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action as a result of a competitor or an ex-employee or an ex-client trying to siphon your clients.

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It happens. It's part of business. The fact that they're doing it shows you that you're on the

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right path. Just don't do anything that 85-year-old you wouldn't be proud of. All right, lots of love.

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Keep being awesome. I'll catch you guys in the next video. Bye!