Have you ever gone to write the “About Me” section on your website, or write an Instagram caption, and you just draw a blank? There’s a white page with a blinking cursor and your brain is just not working. So, you hop on over to another business owner’s page to see how she does it. Before you know it, you have great ideas for your content!

Well, guess what? That’s most likely plagiarism and that’s illegal. So often it starts out innocent and TRUST US, WE GET IT! We’ve all messed up in this area to one extent or another. But, that doesn’t make it any less illegal or dangerous to you and your business.

Today’s episode gets us a little FIRED UP. This is a touchy topic and we have a LOT to say on this. 

We’re covering WHY plagiarism and copying is so detrimental to your business and break it down into practical ways to tell if you’re copying or being inspired by something. If you struggle to tell the line between copying and getting inspiration, listen up! 

 

Plagiarism and Copying

We all know plagiarism is wrong. But, so often the line gets blurred when you don’t realize that what you are doing IS in fact copying. 

Both Evie and Lindsey have been copied in the past. Their entire website design, website copy, captions, and emails have ALL been completely ripped off. It is so hurtful especially when you put your blood, sweat, and tears into something only for it to be used by someone else. It’s NOT flattery. It’s stealing. If you’ve been copied you KNOW the feeling.

This is about YOU and making sure you’re not hurting YOURSELF and your business. 

 

Why Copying is Wrong

It’s fake! Bottom line. It’s not you. You are hurting yourself more than helping because you are trying to be someone else that you are not. When you copy somebody else’s work, creation, or words, you are not standing out. You are not being true to who you are. You are trying to be someone else and because of that you will only ever be a pale shadow of the other person you are copying. You will only ever be second best.

You are so much better than being second best to something that isn’t even truly you. 

When we are just “blurring the lines” a bit, it’s often because in the moment it saves us time. We think that we are saving time by doing the work up front by using someone else’s work or words, but in the long run you’re creating a mess for yourself.

When you copy someone, you are innately believing the lie that you are not enough.By copying you are believing that you are not capable of being just as amazing as the person you are copying. You are worth showing up as authentically you. You are worthy of being exactly who you are. You do not have to be someone else in order to be successful. God made you for a purpose and the second that you boldly step into who He made you to be, you are going to shine, rise, and lift off. You are so worthy of stepping into your own. You are worthy of showing up as yourself. You are beautiful. You are worth having success by not trying to be somebody else. 

Show up boldly as YOU are, and people will be drawn to that. ALWAYS. People will see RIGHT through something that’s inauthentic and fake. 

 

How to know if you are copying

1. You’re referencing someone’s work or words more than once or twice while creating your own
2. You’re mimicking more than one or MAX two elements of theirs (Ex: fonts, brand colors, layout, design position, etc.)
3. You’re quite literally copying and pasting something from their page/work to your own. Ex: using their exact (or even slightly tweaked) words from their website or caption and using it on your own.

To avoid this, we recommend getting a journal and start writing out your heart and vision for your company and business. Write out the things that make you unique and different. These are the words you need to pull from on your website. 

Ask yourself what your why is. Why are you in this business? What is your heart behind serving your customers? This is where your true mission is going to shine through. This is what is going to connect with people. 

 

How to know if you’re being inspired by someone:

1. You go through their work in order to pinpoint what exactly you love about it. For example you may love the clean lines, flowy fonts, warm colors, etc. Then you are able to create your own one-of-a-kind, unique design or work based on that information.
2. You look at dozens upon dozens (probably hundreds) of different examples and pick tiny little elements of your favorites and combine those little pieces to create your own beautiful, unique creation. This can be phrases or certain visuals you see on Pinterest. Go through Pinterest and pin all the things that you are drawn to and figure out how it can fit it with your brand to create something new. 
3. You’re intentionally looking at every example through the lens of “I’m trying to build a 100% different, unique look that’s never been seen before.”

 

Episode Links

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www.theheartuniversity.com/content

 

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