1 00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:05,110 What would you do if somebody stole your content or course material and used it to sell it as their own? 2 00:00:05,130 --> 00:00:15,090 Do you have a plan? Well, I can tell you exactly what I do, because this happens often enough that my team has a whole plug and play process for content copycats, so they get taken 3 00:00:15,090 --> 00:00:17,700 down ASAP attorney style. 4 00:00:17,700 --> 00:00:27,620 If you don't want to be caught off guard while sneaky content thieves sell your content and products as their own while smiling as innocently as a preschooler at a lemonade stand, then 5 00:00:27,630 --> 00:00:29,910 listen up, because I've got something for you. 6 00:00:29,940 --> 00:00:32,790 It's called The Ultimate Guide to Taking Down Copycats. 7 00:00:32,790 --> 00:00:42,480 And it's my new easy to follow PDF Guide with scripts and SOPs to help you feel confident in dealing with or preparing for your first business copycat. 8 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:46,980 Go to copycatschecklist.com right now to get the totally free PDF guide. 9 00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:56,640 And if you're stressed out worrying about a copycat stealing your best business ideas and using them to market as their own, you need to go get your copy of My Ultimate Guide to Taking Down Copycats 10 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:02,220 today. Once you have the guide, you'll know how to stop copycats from stealing your content and what to do if they do. 11 00:01:02,220 --> 00:01:10,450 So, head to copycatschecklist.com to get my free guide today. 12 00:01:10,450 --> 00:01:12,340 Hey there, and welcome back to On Your Terms. 13 00:01:12,340 --> 00:01:14,830 I'm so excited to be chatting with you this week. 14 00:01:14,830 --> 00:01:24,220 I am sharing a juicy one this week, a juicy story that I don't think I've ever sat down and just told you, like, straight out the whole story of what's happened. 15 00:01:24,550 --> 00:01:33,340 I've shared briefly, like, little pieces here and there of things that have happened when I got my entire website stolen by another attorney a couple of years ago. 16 00:01:33,340 --> 00:01:34,780 It was a huge shock. 17 00:01:34,810 --> 00:01:38,410 I don't feel like you'll even believe what I'm about to tell you. 18 00:01:38,410 --> 00:01:42,550 I feel like that's most people's reaction, so it'll probably be yours. 19 00:01:42,820 --> 00:01:52,810 But it is a super wild story, so I'm really excited to just be talking with you today, not just to share my story, but to share with you a little bit about how these things 20 00:01:52,810 --> 00:01:54,390 kind of play out in reality. 21 00:01:54,390 --> 00:01:56,020 Like, what would you actually do? 22 00:01:56,050 --> 00:01:58,060 What are some of the steps that I took? 23 00:01:58,270 --> 00:02:02,170 How does this help you at all to know that this happened to somebody like me? 24 00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:10,770 I'm just hoping that you can take something away from today's episode and realizing, first of all, that you could get through it, but also knowing what you can do about it. 25 00:02:10,770 --> 00:02:14,200 So, I'm really excited to get into it. 26 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:20,290 I'm also excited because today, when you listen to this episode, it's my seventh wedding anniversary. 27 00:02:20,290 --> 00:02:23,830 May 16th is my seventh wedding anniversary with Ryan. 28 00:02:24,250 --> 00:02:26,050 I can't believe it's been seven years. 29 00:02:26,050 --> 00:02:27,190 It's really crazy. 30 00:02:27,430 --> 00:02:29,080 We had the most fun wedding. 31 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,600 We had, like, a really low key wedding. 32 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:33,110 I felt like it was very us. 33 00:02:33,110 --> 00:02:38,500 And we had it at this pizza wine bar right outside of Philly where I'm from. 34 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:41,320 You know, it's like a cool pizza wine bar. 35 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:47,470 It's not like your typical pizza joint, but it was nice and it was just really chill. 36 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,620 And, I don't know, I kind of wanted to have this feel like a cocktail party. 37 00:02:53,620 --> 00:02:56,650 So, we didn't do any sort of formal seating. 38 00:02:56,650 --> 00:02:58,420 We didn't tell people where to sit. 39 00:02:59,140 --> 00:03:01,600 We had open food the whole time. 40 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:05,940 I didn't want to tell people, like, sit down now and eat this meal. 41 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:07,300 And it was just great. 42 00:03:07,300 --> 00:03:17,260 And I just remember looking around the room - if you don't mind me reminiscing for a moment - and seeing my friends from law school talking to my 43 00:03:17,260 --> 00:03:22,300 cousins, and Ryan's family from Wisconsin talking to people I worked with at the firm at the time. 44 00:03:22,300 --> 00:03:30,490 So, it was just like that moment where you kind of see all these different parts of your life and your partner's life, like, meshing. 45 00:03:30,490 --> 00:03:35,350 And I just remember it being like the coolest feeling. 46 00:03:35,350 --> 00:03:42,630 And we also went to Thailand the next day for, like, three weeks and it was really, really amazing because I always wanted to go to Thailand. 47 00:03:42,630 --> 00:03:49,390 And I really wanted to go and volunteer on an elephant nature reserve, which is what we did. 48 00:03:49,390 --> 00:03:55,030 If any of you ever go to Thailand, you have to go in Chiang Mai, you have to go to the Elephant Nature Park. 49 00:03:55,030 --> 00:03:57,610 It is a once in a lifetime experience. 50 00:03:57,610 --> 00:03:59,560 You can volunteer there. You can spend just the day there. 51 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:00,580 You can go live there. 52 00:04:00,580 --> 00:04:01,770 It's so cool. 53 00:04:01,770 --> 00:04:03,850 I highly recommend. 54 00:04:03,850 --> 00:04:09,310 So, I'm recording this on a Friday, and I hope you don't mind but we're having coffee together today. 55 00:04:09,310 --> 00:04:13,900 So, maybe you're sitting having coffee, maybe you're out on a walk, I hope you're having a nice day so far. 56 00:04:14,290 --> 00:04:20,110 It's a Friday for me, and my dad's actually coming up to New York to visit us for the weekend. 57 00:04:20,110 --> 00:04:22,270 So, my dad is sick. 58 00:04:22,270 --> 00:04:25,750 He's had leukemia for the last couple of years and he's not doing so great. 59 00:04:25,750 --> 00:04:29,170 And so, I'm just trying to spend a lot of time with him. 60 00:04:29,170 --> 00:04:36,430 And it's also like a really weird situation because he's not doing well, we can't really go anywhere or I'm very scared of him, like, falling. 61 00:04:36,430 --> 00:04:41,110 He's very fragile these days and he's having a hard time getting around. 62 00:04:41,110 --> 00:04:46,480 And besides being exposed to everything, considering he's so immunocompromised. 63 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:53,860 So, it's simultaneously very stressful but also it's really sweet to spend time together. 64 00:04:54,220 --> 00:04:59,020 So, I foresee a lot of, like, laying on the couch, watching movies, playing with Hudson. 65 00:04:59,380 --> 00:05:03,810 He loves Hudson possibly as much as I do, if that's even possible. 66 00:05:03,810 --> 00:05:06,820 And, hopefully, taking him out to get ice cream or something. 67 00:05:06,820 --> 00:05:09,550 So, that's what we're doing. 68 00:05:09,550 --> 00:05:11,620 Okay. So, let's get into this episode. 69 00:05:12,550 --> 00:05:17,730 I always share with you every single week here on On Your Terms a review of the week. 70 00:05:17,730 --> 00:05:24,520 And this week, I want to give a shoutout to Samantha Burmeister for leaving a review of On Your Terms on Apple Podcasts. 71 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,250 She said, "This is perfect for the next level entrepreneur. 72 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:32,770 This podcast has been a godsend for me as I seek resources that are for someone that's already established in their business. 73 00:05:32,770 --> 00:05:36,010 It's beyond entry level info, but not to over my head. 74 00:05:36,010 --> 00:05:44,410 As Goldilocks said, 'This podcast is just right.'" Well, I love that Samantha and I so appreciate you leaving a review of On Your Terms. 75 00:05:44,410 --> 00:05:49,750 If you leave a review of On Your Terms on Apple Podcasts, then you can get a shoutout in a future episode. 76 00:05:49,750 --> 00:05:54,340 And each month I pick one of the reviewers to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. 77 00:05:54,340 --> 00:06:01,600 So, go head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a review, and, hopefully, you'll get a shoutout on a future episode. 78 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:11,220 And before we get into the behind the scenes of what happened when my site got stolen, if you think that a friend of yours would benefit from this podcast in general, this 79 00:06:11,220 --> 00:06:21,180 episode, go ahead, shoot them as a text real quick - it only takes a sec - letting them know about On Your Terms is so helpful to helping spread the word to helping other people legally protect 80 00:06:21,180 --> 00:06:27,090 their businesses and build these legitimate, sustainable businesses that I'm here to help you build. 81 00:06:27,090 --> 00:06:29,570 So, with that, let's talk theft. 82 00:06:29,570 --> 00:06:33,450 In our space, it seems like theft is really prevalent. 83 00:06:33,450 --> 00:06:41,460 And I don't know if it was always this bad, and just that people are talking about it more, or that it's happening more often. 84 00:06:41,790 --> 00:06:46,770 But I would say that it's happening more often in my observation. 85 00:06:46,780 --> 00:06:48,720 There's no scientific study by any means. 86 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:55,470 But in my opinion, I feel like it's happening more often because we have so many people entering the space. 87 00:06:55,470 --> 00:07:04,710 So, especially within the last two years, like from the pandemic and everything and people leaving their jobs, losing their jobs, we've just seen a huge influx of people trying to start online businesses. 88 00:07:04,710 --> 00:07:09,120 And a lot of people are trying to start online businesses as a means to leave their jobs. 89 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:14,700 And I think that what that's leading to is a little bit of skipping the line. 90 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:17,520 So, people are kind of desperate to be like, "Oh, okay. 91 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:18,840 I want to start this online business. 92 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,720 I see this person is already really successful at doing it. 93 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:31,620 So, I'm just going to take her content, or design my program exactly the same way, or design my products the same way, and I'll just skip ahead." I think people really do 94 00:07:31,650 --> 00:07:38,040 see it as a shortcut. Like, I don't think that people are out to screw you necessarily when they take their stuff. 95 00:07:38,250 --> 00:07:43,770 I think like most things in life, people are thinking about themselves and how this would benefit them. 96 00:07:43,770 --> 00:07:52,710 And so, I think that what I see from my perspective, and all the people who reach out to me all the time when this happens to them, it's always the same scenario. 97 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,900 I call it that I'll have what she's having approach. 98 00:07:56,900 --> 00:08:00,240 And it's like, "Oh, she seems successful and I just want to be like her. 99 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:02,880 So, therefore, I'll just take this and then I'll be successful." 100 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:06,310 But it's all done with the goal of this other person being successful. 101 00:08:06,310 --> 00:08:08,800 They're not just out to screw you over. 102 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:15,930 So, for some reason, it always kind of helps me to step back and remember that, that it's not making it right or anything like this. 103 00:08:15,930 --> 00:08:24,690 I'm just thinking about it's, not necessarily personal so much as it is selfish, but it's not personal to you. 104 00:08:24,690 --> 00:08:31,440 You can really take two steps to protect your content or you can take certain steps to protect your content. 105 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:35,960 But there are two problems that always come up. 106 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:40,730 For one, certain steps allow you to seek certain retribution. 107 00:08:40,730 --> 00:08:45,150 So, failure to take any of those steps leaves you without options. 108 00:08:45,150 --> 00:08:54,810 So, if you decide to protect your content in one way, you might not have any sort of actual retribution to enforce against them 109 00:08:54,810 --> 00:08:58,650 other than sending off nasty letters or something on your own, which is totally fine. 110 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:08,640 Other options that we'll talk about over the next couple of weeks give you a much better position, actually give you something to do about it. 111 00:09:08,970 --> 00:09:16,140 And they would allow you to take really solid legal action against somebody taking your content. 112 00:09:16,140 --> 00:09:26,130 The second is that even with some of these protections in place, whether you register your content, you don't register your content, all that kind of stuff, people still try to steal 113 00:09:26,130 --> 00:09:28,470 and people still do steal. 114 00:09:28,470 --> 00:09:31,380 So, we just have to know what to do about it. 115 00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:36,120 I feel like this isn't very different than anything else I teach you when it comes to legally protecting your business. 116 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:42,480 When I'm like, you've got to form your business and get contracts and get business insurance, that doesn't mean that people can't sue you. 117 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:48,570 It just means that you've put yourself in the absolute best possible scenario that you can to protect yourself. 118 00:09:48,570 --> 00:09:51,870 There would be nothing else left that you could do and it won't affect you personally. 119 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:57,300 That's what I always teach you about building the foundation of your business. 120 00:09:57,300 --> 00:10:05,520 It's very much the same here, where if you don't take certain steps to protect your content, there's not going to be much you can do about it. 121 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,730 But even if you do take those steps, people can still steal it. 122 00:10:08,730 --> 00:10:12,210 It's just about putting yourself in the best position to respond to it. 123 00:10:12,210 --> 00:10:15,780 I just think it's really helpful to be honest about what the actual goal here is. 124 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:25,110 So, that time I got my whole website stolen by another attorney, let me set the picture for you. 125 00:10:25,110 --> 00:10:26,160 Let me get my coffee. 126 00:10:26,740 --> 00:10:28,710 I need something more than coffee, I think. 127 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:32,940 So, I was sitting at We Work. 128 00:10:32,970 --> 00:10:35,920 I was probably drinking coffee. 129 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:39,930 And I was sitting at this really cool new WeWork in Philly at the time. 130 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,090 This was right before the pandemic. 131 00:10:42,090 --> 00:10:44,030 And so, WeWork was still open. 132 00:10:44,030 --> 00:10:46,410 Still a thing I could go do, like, multiple times a week. 133 00:10:46,410 --> 00:10:48,120 And I was still living in Philly. 134 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:57,420 And I was sitting in one of those super cool booths that they have at WeWork that you can spread all your stuff out and, like, take over and have your little office there for the day. 135 00:10:57,570 --> 00:11:07,530 And I was actually on a call with a contractor, Melissa, who was doing some SEO work for me at the time, and has done SEO work for me over the 136 00:11:07,530 --> 00:11:17,240 years. And just a sidebar, you know, I've talked about here a lot on the podcast that my whole business is built on this evergreen SEO 137 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:19,310 driven content strategy. 138 00:11:19,310 --> 00:11:25,850 So, I'm always working on blog posts that are for the long term, YouTube videos for the long term, podcast for the long term, all that kind of stuff. 139 00:11:25,850 --> 00:11:30,590 So, I tend to hire these people every once in a while and do some digging. 140 00:11:30,590 --> 00:11:33,090 So, we were on this call and we were talking. 141 00:11:33,090 --> 00:11:43,070 You know, when you work with somebody with SEO, they talk to you about all kinds of stuff, like phrases that people search for and then that's what leads them to find you, because then you can double down on those phrases more 142 00:11:43,070 --> 00:11:50,660 . Or, you know, certain topics that are hot in your niche that you're not talking about that you could so you could drive additional traffic. 143 00:11:50,660 --> 00:11:53,750 But they also will tell you what traffic sources are driving. 144 00:11:53,750 --> 00:11:56,720 I'm not an SEO person. 145 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:06,590 So, if you're listening to this, then you're probably like, "She doesn't know what she's talking about." But, in general, I just know that the more ping backs, the more links that are 146 00:12:06,590 --> 00:12:12,530 on to you on other people's websites, it can boost you in Google's eyes. 147 00:12:12,530 --> 00:12:20,750 So, she was telling me about certain people, like coaches or programs, places I've given talks, all this kind of stuff that's built up over the years. 148 00:12:20,750 --> 00:12:23,630 I've written a lot of guest post articles for websites. 149 00:12:23,630 --> 00:12:25,280 I've been featured in articles. 150 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:33,440 So, she's telling me about where this traffic is coming from and what we can do to improve that, and get more of it, and all this kind of stuff. 151 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:43,010 And when you look at traffic for your website, there tends to be a bulk of them that will be pretty big and significant. 152 00:12:43,010 --> 00:12:49,670 And then, there'll be a whole bunch that are like two, two, two, two, two, one, one, one, one, like, lots of little ones. 153 00:12:49,670 --> 00:12:59,210 So, after we were looking at kind of the bulk of where the big ones were coming from, I think one of the first ones - it wasn't a one or a two per month, but it was higher 154 00:12:59,210 --> 00:13:04,530 than that and less than the bulk - was this person's website. 155 00:13:04,530 --> 00:13:08,360 And the name of their website actually made it sound like they were a business coach. 156 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,560 So, when I saw it, I was like, "Oh, cool." 157 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:22,400 And so, what I've always done in the past is when I see that somebody is referring me a lot of traffic or I see that there are a lot of click throughs from their course, because sometimes people will mention 158 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:27,760 my products in their course resources, I'll always reach out and thank them. 159 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:29,090 It's what you should do. 160 00:13:29,090 --> 00:13:32,750 So, that's honestly what I thought about this. 161 00:13:32,750 --> 00:13:41,360 I was just like, "Oh, cool. Let me know what her website is because I'm actually just going to reach out and say, 'Hey, it seems like you're been referring some people to me, I really appreciate it. 162 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:43,410 Do you want me to write a guest post? 163 00:13:43,410 --> 00:13:49,880 Do you want me to do a training?'" You know, this is really how I was building my business at that time. 164 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:52,970 And I just typed in the URL because I was curious. 165 00:13:52,970 --> 00:13:55,470 I honestly thought she was a business coach. 166 00:13:55,470 --> 00:14:00,560 And I can't even describe to you what it felt like. 167 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:10,310 It was like, "I must have typed in the wrong URL because this is my website." As soon as I typed it in, it was literally a carbon 168 00:14:10,310 --> 00:14:12,470 copy of my website with her face on it. 169 00:14:13,460 --> 00:14:17,450 I started frantically scrolling through and like, "No, no, no. 170 00:14:17,450 --> 00:14:20,800 This can't be right. I must have missed something. 171 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:22,100 I must be confused. 172 00:14:22,100 --> 00:14:32,000 I don't understand." I mean, I'm like the queen of buying domain, so I was like, "Did I buy this domain and not remember it, but who's this woman?" And my brain was like ping pong-ing all over the 173 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,560 place to try to figure it out. 174 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:42,410 And, honestly, it was like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." It was this terrible, terrible feeling. 175 00:14:42,410 --> 00:14:46,460 It was pretty quickly that I realized she had clearly stolen the whole thing. 176 00:14:46,460 --> 00:14:49,780 But the more that I clicked around, I was just like, "Wait. 177 00:14:49,780 --> 00:14:52,160 Did she just copy my design? 178 00:14:52,190 --> 00:14:58,000 Oh, no, wait. That's my copy." And then, literally everything was the same. 179 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,620 Everywhere, there was a box or a check mark or a button. 180 00:15:01,620 --> 00:15:06,020 And then, the text was all identical, there wasn't a word changed of it. 181 00:15:06,020 --> 00:15:10,910 It was really funny because then that prompted me to just start clicking around and scrolling down all this kind of stuff. 182 00:15:10,910 --> 00:15:16,230 Because I think I initially saw her home page, and then my heart sunk. 183 00:15:16,230 --> 00:15:19,110 And I went to the blog and it was all of my blog posts. 184 00:15:19,110 --> 00:15:28,340 And I was just like, "I cannot believe this." However many years, three or four years, of blog posts that I had spent so much time, so much energy, so much money 185 00:15:28,850 --> 00:15:37,460 on developing that were the backbone of my business, that's what was driving all this traffic, that's why I was in an SEO meeting. 186 00:15:37,460 --> 00:15:46,690 And then, I clicked over to the products page and I was like, "At least don't be such an idiot that you took all of my products." It was all of my products. 187 00:15:46,690 --> 00:15:50,420 All of it. All the products, all the product descriptions, the photos, everything. 188 00:15:53,090 --> 00:15:57,970 For some reason this is always the thing that sticks out to me, but I saw all of my client testimonials. 189 00:15:57,970 --> 00:16:00,860 So, I have client testimonials sliders across the side. 190 00:16:00,860 --> 00:16:05,870 I have them listed out on a testimonials page, like client love page, all this kind of stuff. 191 00:16:05,870 --> 00:16:13,510 And for some reason, that's what I just remember really sticking out to me at the time, because she took my name. 192 00:16:13,510 --> 00:16:17,810 Any time the person said Sam, she just swapped out Sam for her name. 193 00:16:17,810 --> 00:16:21,830 And so, that showed to me that there was some intent there. 194 00:16:21,830 --> 00:16:29,690 And that is what really made my heart sink at the time, because I was like, "This person straight up stole from me. 195 00:16:29,690 --> 00:16:33,320 Like, they stole this on purpose and knew what they were doing." 196 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:34,760 Like, I didn't even know what scenario. 197 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,180 There could be that they could have done this by accident or I don't know. 198 00:16:38,180 --> 00:16:39,780 I was like, "Maybe they hired a web designer. 199 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:42,680 The web designer took it from me." You just never know. 200 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:45,150 But then when I saw that, I was like, "No. 201 00:16:45,150 --> 00:16:50,060 They did this on purpose, that beep, beep, beep." And there was a lot of cursing. 202 00:16:52,070 --> 00:16:53,270 I was devastated. 203 00:16:53,270 --> 00:16:56,710 I'm actually surprised I can get through talking about this at this point. 204 00:16:56,710 --> 00:16:59,270 But I was really, really upset. 205 00:16:59,270 --> 00:17:02,540 And if this has ever happened to you, I think it feels very violating. 206 00:17:02,540 --> 00:17:05,060 It feels like somebody came into your house and stole something, right? 207 00:17:05,060 --> 00:17:13,010 Your website, especially, or any of your content, your courses, it's like your digital home, and somebody literally just came in and took it. 208 00:17:13,010 --> 00:17:22,190 And I remember at the moment, the idea that somebody thought - just like what I was talking about at the beginning - "Oh, I like that. 209 00:17:22,190 --> 00:17:23,710 I think I'm just going to have it. 210 00:17:23,750 --> 00:17:24,830 I'll have what she's having. 211 00:17:24,830 --> 00:17:26,540 She seems like she's doing okay. 212 00:17:26,540 --> 00:17:29,720 So, I'm just going to shortcut this process by taking it." 213 00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:33,110 And I clicked over to her Instagram and everything and I saw that she had just started. 214 00:17:33,740 --> 00:17:37,010 Of course, all her Instagram posts were all modeled off of mine as well. 215 00:17:37,010 --> 00:17:41,690 I think she was only maybe a few weeks, maybe a couple of months. 216 00:17:41,690 --> 00:17:48,350 But the actual legal posts had only started within the last couple of weeks and they were all modelled off mine. 217 00:17:48,350 --> 00:17:51,050 The titles were the same. It was like all the same crap. 218 00:17:51,050 --> 00:17:56,160 So, she was also looking at my social media stuff. 219 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,790 And I was just furious. 220 00:17:58,790 --> 00:18:01,070 I was furious. 221 00:18:01,070 --> 00:18:03,020 So, there were a couple of things that I did. 222 00:18:03,020 --> 00:18:12,890 The first was that I got in touch with my web designer immediately, my web designer and developer, to say, "How did this happen?" Because clearly they took something that I didn't 223 00:18:12,890 --> 00:18:18,200 understand from a tech perspective because it was a carbon copy of my website. 224 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:26,570 So, I was like, "Unless you went over and gave this to them, I don't understand how they got it." She did some digging and she found out that they took the source code from my website. 225 00:18:26,570 --> 00:18:36,140 So, they actually hired somebody in India who was a skilled technician who went in there and took all the stuff behind my website. 226 00:18:36,140 --> 00:18:40,880 The source code, it's like a DNA copy, essentially, of your website. 227 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:46,600 So, literally, it will take copy, it will take products, it will take things that are uploaded, it will take pictures. 228 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:51,010 It will take everything, the whole structure of your site, the theme. 229 00:18:51,010 --> 00:18:52,700 It took everything. 230 00:18:52,700 --> 00:18:57,410 And so, immediately I contacted her and I was like, "Okay. 231 00:18:57,410 --> 00:19:00,340 Will you find out what happened?" And then, she found out really quickly. 232 00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:01,740 And then, I'm like, "Okay. 233 00:19:01,740 --> 00:19:08,350 Now, lock it down. Figure out what you have to do to make sure that this never happens again." Because I kind of saw it as like stopping the bleeding. 234 00:19:08,350 --> 00:19:10,490 And I wasn't sure what was going on. 235 00:19:10,790 --> 00:19:13,010 I wasn't sure if this was part of something larger. 236 00:19:13,010 --> 00:19:19,820 You know, your mind starts to go to a crazy place where I'm like, "Are other people doing this to me?" So, I wanted her to lock it down. 237 00:19:20,450 --> 00:19:30,140 The second thing I did was that I found this person's contact information, and I did so by looking at our website. 238 00:19:30,140 --> 00:19:40,070 She was smart enough, dumb enough, I don't know, to put her actual contact information on the website that she stole from me, so I had a way to get in touch with her. 239 00:19:40,070 --> 00:19:47,100 I have a cease and desist letter template that I give to customers, and also that I'll have coming out for you very soon. 240 00:19:47,340 --> 00:19:53,370 But I have a cease and desist letter temple that I keep one for my own company, like on my Google Drive. 241 00:19:53,370 --> 00:20:03,090 And I just quickly filled that out with a cease and desist letter, just very specific about what was taken, the fact that you own it, that you didn't give any permission, that 242 00:20:03,090 --> 00:20:06,510 permission was never sought, it's being used in an unauthorized way. 243 00:20:06,510 --> 00:20:12,330 And then, you demand that they take it down and you give very specifics, like, "It's taken down today by 5:00 p.m. 244 00:20:12,330 --> 00:20:15,510 Eastern." And then, what's the penalty if they don't. 245 00:20:15,510 --> 00:20:18,280 So, I shot that off to her via email. 246 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:27,870 And she wrote me back very quickly, this kind of snarky email about how she didn't see what the big deal was because I seem successful. 247 00:20:27,870 --> 00:20:35,410 And that she didn't realize that taking somebody's website was copyright protected. 248 00:20:35,410 --> 00:20:43,230 Which, I think at that point I started to blah, blah, blah, like Porky Pigging it because I was just like, "What? 249 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:44,970 You're a lawyer? Are you serious? 250 00:20:44,970 --> 00:20:53,820 Are we really having this conversation?" Sometimes I find things in life so frustrating that I combust, like, I don't even know what to say. 251 00:20:54,390 --> 00:20:56,460 And that's kind of how I felt. 252 00:20:56,460 --> 00:21:00,530 I don't even remember what her name was at this point. 253 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,940 Let's call her Emily. 254 00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:08,160 I was like, "Emily, let's get on the phone now. 255 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,850 Here's my number, and if you don't call me within the next half hour, I'm just going to move forward with this. 256 00:21:13,850 --> 00:21:22,980 I'm not going to go back and forth with you on an email to explain to another lawyer how this is illegal." 257 00:21:22,980 --> 00:21:26,760 So, in the meantime, by the way, I called my friend, Semi. 258 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:28,080 I freaked the heck out. 259 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:29,400 I was crying. 260 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:30,840 I was just so upset. 261 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:32,340 I was outraged. 262 00:21:32,340 --> 00:21:35,130 I was sad. I was all of these things. 263 00:21:35,130 --> 00:21:40,730 But then, finally, this person, Emily, called me and we got on the phone. 264 00:21:40,730 --> 00:21:45,440 And she was clearly very embarrassed by that point, I would say. 265 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:46,980 She was embarrassed that she got caught. 266 00:21:46,980 --> 00:21:49,110 She was embarrassed that she didn't know. 267 00:21:49,830 --> 00:21:53,190 And she was very ashamed. 268 00:21:53,190 --> 00:21:58,140 What was very interesting about our conversation, I was actually very nice to her - I'm very proud to report. 269 00:21:58,140 --> 00:22:02,580 Being from Philadelphia, I give myself a gold star for keeping it together. 270 00:22:02,580 --> 00:22:06,840 I don't believe I used any expletives in the entire conversation. 271 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:08,340 And I kept it together. 272 00:22:09,270 --> 00:22:10,590 It was just very matter of fact. 273 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:20,750 And that's also what I would tell you about this, like, if you ever are communicating with a copycat in some way, which some people end up doing, it's a very emotional process. 274 00:22:20,750 --> 00:22:24,810 But it's very important for this part legally, like, it wasn't about emotion. 275 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:34,560 I could talk to my friends or colleagues or whoever about being so pissed off and feeling so wronged and violated. 276 00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:36,240 I need to talk to her about logistics. 277 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:37,980 Like, "How did you get this? 278 00:22:37,980 --> 00:22:40,650 You need to tell me everything and be honest with me. 279 00:22:40,650 --> 00:22:43,410 Otherwise, I'm going to find out eventually and then I can do something about it. 280 00:22:43,650 --> 00:22:52,350 But if you tell me now, then you're going to save me the time and energy which you owe me to figure out how you did this." So, she told me, and it was all about the source code thing and hiring somebody. 281 00:22:52,350 --> 00:22:54,210 That's how I found all of that out. 282 00:22:54,210 --> 00:23:03,630 And then, I asked her, "How much else do you have of it?" We talked through kind of destroying my stuff and what that would look like, and what I would be comfortable 283 00:23:04,110 --> 00:23:06,120 with, and what assurances I would need. 284 00:23:06,660 --> 00:23:09,990 And I also wanted her to take down the site immediately. 285 00:23:09,990 --> 00:23:18,210 She didn't want to do that because she said that she was going to hire a website designer to create something custom for her and it was going to take her a couple of weeks to finish it. 286 00:23:18,210 --> 00:23:23,010 I said, "I don't really give -" maybe that is when I used an expletive, to be honest. 287 00:23:24,270 --> 00:23:26,730 I was like, "I don't really care how long it takes. 288 00:23:26,730 --> 00:23:36,630 If it takes six months or six hours, this website is coming down now." And so, we came up with a time, I think it was by that evening 289 00:23:36,630 --> 00:23:42,720 because then the person who she had worked with in India would be up and would be available for contact. 290 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:43,920 So, I think it was, like, by 10:00 p.m. 291 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,860 that night it was taken down. 292 00:23:46,860 --> 00:23:50,100 It just had to go to a page that said coming soon or something like that. 293 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:51,570 Whatever she wanted to do, I didn't really care. 294 00:23:51,570 --> 00:23:53,460 It just couldn't be my website anymore. 295 00:23:53,940 --> 00:23:55,800 And that's what she did. 296 00:23:56,130 --> 00:23:57,480 That was it. 297 00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:07,440 Now, another important piece of all of this that I feel like people forget is that, whenever somebody tells you something verbally or even in a damn email, whatever, I don't really care, you want to 298 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,250 follow up with a more formal thing in writing. 299 00:24:10,250 --> 00:24:12,270 So, lawyers call this memorializing. 300 00:24:12,270 --> 00:24:16,320 And you should take this tip for anything you do in your life. 301 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:24,570 When I'm dealing with a contractor, somebody for the city, anybody who does work in our house, any of this kind of stuff, I send a letter. 302 00:24:24,570 --> 00:24:27,930 Or AT&T, Verizon, whoever you have to talk to. 303 00:24:28,290 --> 00:24:38,250 If somebody tells you something on the phone, you can send them a letter or an email, if you have to, saying, this letter is to memorialize our discussion on whatever 304 00:24:38,820 --> 00:24:48,620 day it was, at whatever time it was, by whatever method it was, by phone, by text, by whatever, in which you agreed to remove 305 00:24:48,620 --> 00:24:50,900 your website at X time, by X time. 306 00:24:50,900 --> 00:25:00,350 You admitted to hiring somebody in India to steal the source code of my website with the intent of putting it up as your 307 00:25:00,350 --> 00:25:07,160 own, using my intellectual property as your own, without authorization, without my permission. 308 00:25:07,490 --> 00:25:09,020 You recognize that you've done this. 309 00:25:09,020 --> 00:25:11,020 And it's a mutual agreement between the two of us. 310 00:25:11,030 --> 00:25:12,730 You've agreed to remove all the stuff. 311 00:25:12,730 --> 00:25:15,920 And we will be monitoring your stuff moving forward. 312 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,160 Because that's the other thing. I struck the fear of God in her, which was true. 313 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:23,780 I mean, it was true. And this is what we have done ever since then is that we monitor her. 314 00:25:23,780 --> 00:25:27,050 We monitor her. We monitor a bunch of other people who copy off me all the time, too. 315 00:25:27,500 --> 00:25:30,440 And there are a lot of people who just mimic me all the time. 316 00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:36,210 Like, they try to make their programs like mine, they make their products like mine, they name their webinar like mine. 317 00:25:36,210 --> 00:25:37,310 We follow them. 318 00:25:37,310 --> 00:25:40,520 So, we have people who monitor their stuff and we have an attorney. 319 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,960 I have an attorney now for the for the company because I don't want to do the stuff myself anymore. 320 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,010 And it's too much. It happens too often. 321 00:25:48,010 --> 00:25:50,600 So, we just have a method in place. 322 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:52,130 We have a SOP in the business. 323 00:25:52,130 --> 00:25:54,740 People in the team monitor these people. 324 00:25:54,740 --> 00:25:58,820 Customers report to us all the time about other legal people that are copying off of us. 325 00:25:58,820 --> 00:26:04,430 It's hilarious. So, when you build a very dedicated group or a community of people, they will actually start telling you. 326 00:26:04,430 --> 00:26:07,670 Because a lot of people were asking me like, "How am I supposed to find out? 327 00:26:07,670 --> 00:26:13,010 How do I know?" Well, honestly, sometimes people will start telling you, which is really interesting. 328 00:26:13,010 --> 00:26:15,520 Sometimes the person will be dumb enough to tag you in something. 329 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,990 Or like this person did with my website, she left the links. 330 00:26:18,990 --> 00:26:25,190 Some of the links she forgot to change, so it was driving traffic to my website, it was driving traffic to my Facebook Group. 331 00:26:25,190 --> 00:26:27,320 So, sometimes you get lucky. 332 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:34,040 There are monitoring services that you can set up for things once you've registered them, like trademarks and things like that, you can try to do that. 333 00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:39,080 I think that there are some services that can search the internet for your blog posts and things like that. 334 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,720 You know, I'll leave it to you to try to find some of those. 335 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:43,130 I don't go down those paths. 336 00:26:43,130 --> 00:26:46,010 I wouldn't be able to run my business if I did. 337 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:52,010 But the bigger things, the people who are mimicking me, people who were copying me, we're following them. 338 00:26:52,010 --> 00:26:54,350 We have an SOP in place for the steps that we take. 339 00:26:54,350 --> 00:26:56,040 We screenshot stuff. We save stuff. 340 00:26:56,040 --> 00:27:01,250 And then, I send it off to the lawyer or the team sends it to the lawyer when it gets bad enough. 341 00:27:01,250 --> 00:27:03,740 That's kind of what I would recommend. 342 00:27:03,740 --> 00:27:08,930 And you can do the same. It doesn't matter how big your business is, if somebody legitimately steals from you, you don't need to handle it yourself. 343 00:27:08,930 --> 00:27:10,750 You can send it to a lawyer if you want. 344 00:27:10,750 --> 00:27:14,240 But you've got to have some of the stuff in place in order to protect yourself in the first place. 345 00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:18,620 And that's what we're going to be talking about over the next several weeks. 346 00:27:18,620 --> 00:27:24,560 So, you know that you can go and download My Ultimate Guide to Keeping Copycats Off Your Content. 347 00:27:24,890 --> 00:27:27,530 That link is in the description and the show notes. 348 00:27:27,770 --> 00:27:29,830 It should be on my website now. 349 00:27:29,830 --> 00:27:31,130 And you have access to that. 350 00:27:31,130 --> 00:27:41,030 It's an incredible guide that I've put together for you to go through all of the steps that you need to take to actually protect your content and be able to do something about it even if this happens to you 351 00:27:41,030 --> 00:27:43,100 . It's really important. 352 00:27:43,100 --> 00:27:46,910 You need to learn the basics of content sharing for yourself, that's really important. 353 00:27:48,110 --> 00:27:54,300 I would go back and listen to On Your Terms Episode 19, that's where I teach you how to legally share other people's content. 354 00:27:54,300 --> 00:28:00,080 Because in learning how to legally share other people's content, in doing so, you will learn how people can share yours. 355 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,400 So, it's really important that you do that. 356 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:09,590 You obviously want to take the steps that you can to protect your content, and I walk you through that in that free guide that I have for you in the show notes. 357 00:28:10,700 --> 00:28:14,160 And then, you want to know what steps to take, even if somebody does steal from you. 358 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:24,050 And have an SOP in place as early as you can so that you know exactly what steps to take if somebody copies you, or if somebody is just getting a little too close for comfort and you 359 00:28:24,050 --> 00:28:25,490 want to start monitoring them. 360 00:28:25,490 --> 00:28:26,780 There are all kinds of things. 361 00:28:26,780 --> 00:28:30,980 So, download The Ultimate Guide to Taking Down Copycats in the show notes. 362 00:28:30,980 --> 00:28:33,080 Listen to the podcast over the next several weeks. 363 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:42,890 I've got every single episode coming for you about teaching you how to use the different trademark and copyright symbols, what's the difference between stealing and mimicking, what to do when 364 00:28:42,890 --> 00:28:44,480 somebody actually steals your content. 365 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:46,190 I'll teach you the exact steps. 366 00:28:46,190 --> 00:28:48,650 I have so many great episodes coming up for you. 367 00:28:48,650 --> 00:28:55,720 And I've taken up something really big for you that drops in about two weeks that you're going to want to keep your eyes out for. 368 00:28:55,720 --> 00:29:05,600 If this is something you're interested in, if this is something that you want to take these steps to protect this content and be able to do something about it, but you don't know how or you've only found things that were really expensive, 369 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:06,890 you want to keep your eyes peeled. 370 00:29:06,890 --> 00:29:11,240 I've got something huge for you dropping on June 1st, so definitely stick around. 371 00:29:12,050 --> 00:29:16,340 All right. So, I'll drop those links in the show note to The Ultimate Guide to Taking Down Copycats. 372 00:29:16,340 --> 00:29:17,510 That's my new free resource. 373 00:29:17,510 --> 00:29:20,030 I give you little to-do list in every single section. 374 00:29:20,030 --> 00:29:28,640 It's perfect. And then, Episode 19 of my podcast, you're going to want to listen to, because that's where I teach you how to legally share other people's content. 375 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:30,440 With that, I'll see you next week. 376 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,520 We will be talking about what's the deal with all the symbols, trademark, copyright, all that good stuff. 377 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:39,220 I'll see you next week. 378 00:29:39,220 --> 00:29:41,680 Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast. 379 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:46,350 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. 380 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:53,350 You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. 381 00:29:53,380 --> 00:30:00,370 You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business, at samvanderwielen.com. 382 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:07,540 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram @samvanderwielen, and send me a DM to say 383 00:30:07,540 --> 00:30:18,080 hi. 384 00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:24,590 Just remember that although I am a attorney, I am not your attorney, and I am not offering you legal advice in today's episode. 385 00:30:24,590 --> 00:30:29,330 This episode and all of my episodes are informational and educational only. 386 00:30:29,330 --> 00:30:33,620 It is not a substitute for seeking out your own advice from your own lawyer. 387 00:30:33,620 --> 00:30:36,470 And please keep in mind that I can't offer you legal advice. 388 00:30:36,470 --> 00:30:38,490 I don't ever offer any legal services. 389 00:30:38,490 --> 00:30:41,480 But I think I offer some pretty good information.