← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E646 - What If Another Podcaster Copies My Show, My Content and Tries To Steal Away My Audience
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A
Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. Hope you're doing well. Thanks for being here. Thanks for checking out the show. We're talking about. What if another podcaster copies your show? What if another podcaster copies your content? What if somebody on another show tries to steal away your audience? What do you do? Are you nervous? Are you, are you fearful that somebody can rob you of your podcast? Dun dun duh. Well, let's talk about it here on the show because it might happen, but most likely is not. We'll explain. Thanks for being here. If you listen to my show for a while, you're going to kind of hear some of my influence. It's just going to come out. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts about podcasting. I. I love people's ideas. I pick up on them, I tweak them, I change them, I alter them a little bit. But it was their idea. But you got to know that the idea that they had came from somebody else, which also came from someone else, which also came from someone else, which somebody read in a book. That person who wrote the book heard it from someone else and put it in the book. Just so you know, this whole idea about being so uniquely creative and new that nobody's like you. The creativity doesn't come in the fact that you're saying something new. You're saying it maybe in a new way through your lens, through who you are, but it's not net new. And you are influenced by those around you. It happens. I'm a musician, and if you hear me play, like I play bass, guitar, piano and drums, four different instruments on my own band, I just can't play all by myself because it's really hard to play on four instruments at the same time. But when I play bass, I have a little bit of Lenny Kravitz in my bass playing. I have a little bit of Van Halen in my bass playing. I have, like multiple different touch points of bass players that I admire, that I try to emulate, and I blend together into my music. So I am the sum total of all my influences, and so are you. You are influenced by those around you. So you're going to hear on this show, if you go back and the archive, you're going to hear me doing things that, yeah, probably other podcasters have done, and I've tried them. Some things work, some didn't work. Like, for example, I did the Question of the Month. I love that idea. I heard it on another podcast about podcasting, and I thought it was great. Not as much for the question or the answers, but the idea that I could feature you on the show and bring your voice onto the show started out pretty good, and then it just got down to basically a handful of people, whoever, who always responded. And you did. You weren't responding. So it was a lot of work to create that episode. There's a lot of effort to bring everything together and make that all happen. And it. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze. So I stopped doing it for now. Might bring it back in the future, maybe, but for now, it just wasn't. It wasn't connecting with you and you weren't responding. So why do work for no reason, right? Yeah, I think you'd agree with that. So I stopped. But that was influenced by another show, and I thought I'd try here to see if I could leverage that idea and help more podcasters share their show and get more listeners. But even though I have people constantly saying to me, dave, how do I grow my show? I give them that opportunity and they don't respond, it's kind of on you at that point. If you really don't want to grow your show, you know, then it's pretty obvious. There's a simple thing like sharing your podcast and answering a question once a month. I don't know. It wasn't working. So we move on. Right, Podcasters, I want you to breathe easy. If another show copies your format, steals your episode, ideas, your topics, or tries to siphon off your audience, according to Mel Robbins, let them. Products, formats, and ideas can be duplicated. Anything that goes out on the Internet can be copied and will be copied, but you cannot be duplicated, even in a world of AI. In an AI version of you, it's not you. Others might try to mimic your structure. They might repackage your hot takes. I've heard people use my stories that have happened specific to me and repurpose it on their podcast and make it sound like it was their idea. Okay? They might even try to copy your style, but they're never going to capture what happens for you. Like when you wake up in the middle of the night, you're like, wait a minute. Aha. I've got it. Eureka. Right? Those moments. Quick, grab a pen, grab a paper, grab my phone. I gotta make note of this. They can't capture your energy, they can't capture your voice, they can't duplicate you, and they can't have the same impact on your guests as you can you have a unique taste, you have a unique timing, you have the guts that make people want to subscribe to your show. I heard this clip on TikTok and I thought it was a great representation of what I was thinking of when I was working on this episode. And when I heard of it, I thought of you. So I thought I'd just bring it in here. They're not talking specifically about podcasting or of the creative process, but take all that other stuff out and whenever you hear whatever they're referring to, replace it with podcaster and you'll get the idea. But here's the clip.
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They copied your product.
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So what?
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Let them copy the logo, let them mimic your colors, let them repackage your offer like they invented them. Because what they can't copy is you. They can't steal the 2am idea you woke up to write down. They can't fake the energy you pour into every client call. They don't have your taste, your timing, your guts, and they'll never touch your vision. You see, products can be copied it, but presence can't. You're not just selling something. You are the brand. You're the reason it works. You're the touch behind the details. And no one notices until they feel the difference. Let them replicate you. Keep innovating. Let them watch you. Keep moving. They might match your features, but they'll never match your fire. You, you're not in this too imitate. You're in this to dominate.
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We get so caught up with people looking over the fence at what we're doing, and we want to protect it. We want to build bigger fences, taller fences, keep people out from stealing my idea. Don't you take my audience. I'm not going to bring somebody on my show who's my competition because they might steal my people. And everyone's so paranoid that they're going to do something that's going to cause a mass exodus from your show. Don't worry about that. I want to model that on this show. I've had my direct competition on here as a guest co host several, many, many times. People who do podcasting, people who have done podcasting for many, many more years more than I have. People who have been way more successful at podcasting than I have been, people who make money at podcasting, which I don't. And I've brought them on the show and I'm a little bit intimidated by their success. I gotta be transparent because I'm trying my best. I'm doing everything I can think of to grow this show to make money with my podcast, if that's what I work my way towards in the future, I'm. I want to help as many people as possible. I see them come on my show, and they just seem to be doing everything right. I feel like I'm doing everything wrong. And, yeah, you might like them better than me. You might go, you know what? That Demetria Zynga, I like her. There's something about. She's fire. She's a little firecracker. I like. I like what she does. I like how she does it. I'm gonna go listen to her show. Bye, Dave. And the door shuts. I'm like, oh, I just lost a listener to Demetria. Now, did I lose a listener to Demetria, or did somebody graduate to Demetria? I think they graduated. That's kind of how I look at it, and I'm fine with that. For somebody to go from here to soul podcasting with Demetrius Zynga, great, awesome. If that serves you well and helps you podcast longer and that's your community, that's your person, then that's a win for podcasting. And the most important win, it's a win for you as a listener. So, yeah, I don't want to see anybody leave my show. That's kind of a bad growth process to be like, hey, I'm gonna just try to get people to leave my podcast and don't come back. You're. That's not gonna. You're gonna podcast long. So I do want to keep everyone that comes to the show, including you. I want you to stay here and stay with us, because I want to build a community around podcasting, but at the same time, I got to realize that there's opportunities for you to connect with somebody else on a different level, and I'm okay with that. Somebody. If you take your hand right now, I don't know what you're doing right now, if you're driving or whatever, but if you can open your. Your hand and stare at the palm of your hand, Hand open, looking at your palm, and there's nothing in your hand right now. Right? You're looking. I'm doing it right now. I'm looking at my right hand. As I look in my hand. It's open, it's available. Right. I can put something in there, and I can pick things up. I can hold somebody's hand, like my gorgeous wife Jen. I can. I can play. I can play games with my grandchildren with this. My hand. I can wave at you. I'm Waving. You're. You're not waving back, but that's okay. I'm waving at you right now, right? But the moment I, somebody gives me something or I pick up something and I, I put. I have an orange highlighter in my hand right now. I'm putting it in my hand and I'm closing my fist around the highlighter, okay? So it's in the palm of my hand. My fingers have closed over top of it and it's. I have a firm grip on this orange highlighter that I'm using right now. Now, because I have that orange highlighter in my hand, my hand is grasped around it. My hand is no longer receptive to a yellow highlighter because my hand is closed fisted around this orange highlighter. So I'm not receptive to receive anything else. I only have what I have in my hand. Now if I open my hand back up now, the highlighter is just sitting on the palm of my hand. If I turn my hand over, my highlighter is going to fall on the floor, but I'm going to hold it there and it's just sitting there right now. And the beauty of that is if you need an orange highlighter and you're here in my house, A, I want to know how you got in, but B, you could walk over here and pick up this orange highlighter that's just sitting in the palm of my hand and walk away with it. But someone else could go over and give me not only an orange highlighter, but a blue one, a green one, a yellow one, a purple one. You could put more in my hands because my hands open to receive and for you to take. I think as podcasters, we need to be more open handed with our show so that whatever happens, somebody comes to our show, great, that's an addition to her hand. We don't close our fist around them and go, I'm going to keep you. We keep our hands open. Then we have a third person, a fourth person, a fifth, a tenth person. They just keep coming. They just stack them up on our open hand in the palm of our hand. We're open to receive. We're also open for people to leave, for people to come and take people away from us without fear that we're going to run out. This fear of there's not enough for us drives many podcasters to do some pretty outlandish things to gain audience growth. There's not a shortage of people in the world and you just haven't found your entire audience yet. It takes time. So treat Life with an open hand, not a close fist. Closed fists aren't open to more opportunities. And if you hold on to that thing too long, you. You'll never grow. So allow things to come into your life. Allow things to leave your life. And in your podcast, don't be afraid of people taking your audience away from you. Because if one person leaves, one person will come in. Or 2 or 3 or 10. Sometimes we aren't what people need, and you got to be okay with that. I watch my Spotify followers go up and down and up and down and up and down every day. Two new followers. Whoo. Dave's excited. Five people leave. Oh, three new followers. Somebody leaves. Oh, come on. It happens. The hand is open. The highlighter's in my hand. Take it if you need it. Add more if you want to. But I'm not holding on to it for dear life. Why Copycats Can't Win in podcasting your podcast isn't just content. Content's important, but it's not just content. Your podcast is presence, that irresistible spark that comes from your voice and your vision. The pauses when you instinctively add in for drama and where people lean in. The pause like this. The stories that only you can tell from your life. The way that you pivot mid conversation to pull gold from a quiet guest. Clones sound scripted by comparison because they're not you. Copycats can't win. They can't steal your voice and your vision. They can't steal your audience Bond. Listeners stick with you. They're here for you. Your humor, your empathy, or the way that you make complex ideas feel like coffee chats. A copycat feels like a tribute band. Familiar sound, like the original. But they're missing the soul of the band. They didn't write the songs, they're just playing a copy of them. That's what a copycat is. They can't also copy your innovation and your edge. What makes you you. What makes your show yours. While they're reverse engineering last month's hit, you're already three steps ahead, chasing the next hunch. They match yesterday, but they can't create your tomorrow. I like that. They match your yesterday, but they can't create your tomorrow. Only you can do that. Copycats can't win Podcaster specific shields when we get nervous around people stealing what we think is ours. If you're concerned about someone stealing your content, your podcast, your audience, double down on authenticity. Lean harder into personal anecdotes, behind the scenes rants, or only on this show segments. Don't be afraid to Be human. Allow your bloopers to be shown. Allow your humanity to show up on the mic raw. Humanity cannot be scripted. It doesn't come off like an audiobook. It's a podcast. Own your ecosystem. Centralize on your website, not just platforms like social media. Build an email list for direct connections with your audience and create listener only perks like Q&As, specials, special content, merch. Platforms change based on the algorithm, but your home turf advantage endures. This is your field, this is your diamond. This is your court. This is your home team advantage. Leverage it because everyone else is coming in as visitors, they're not the home team document publicly share your process daily. We've talked about this on the podcast in the past. Brainstorm and real life, like just put it out there. It doesn't have to be fully fleshed out and perfect. It's just a work in progress. Here's what I'm thinking. What do you guys think about this? Edit and experiment. Copycats chase polished output. You build a life and a moat around your castle of your content through your reliability and your relatability. Those are the two things. And also one thing I would suggest too is don't be narrow, collaborate wider. Guest swaps with non competitors. Cross promote in fresh niches. Your network becomes a web that somebody from the outside who wants to steal your ideas and steal your content, steal your audience can't duplicate. Keep that in mind. Another good tip, flip the script. When you're getting nervous about losing content, ideas, your podcast, your audience, just flip the script. We've heard this before. That imitation is this most sincerest form of flattery. It's also a great sign of market validation. There's something here, there's something about your show that's caught the attention of your competitor. You have years of reps, they're starting at zero and they're always a few steps behind you. So allow, allow space and get up every day and call your shots. There's like, there's famous baseball players back in the day that would come up to the, to the plate, their bat in their hand, over their shoulder, and they would point in the general, in the direction of where the ball was going to go. It's going to go over the fence in that direction and they point to the right or to the left or down the middle. It's kind of this arrogant, kind of cocky confidence of not only am I going to hit this ball, but that's exactly where I'm going to hit it too. And they would point and the ball Would come across the plate from the pitcher and crack. Guess where they went? Right where they predicted. You know where you're going with your show. Nobody else does. Nobody has the inside knowledge of your brain except you. So when somebody comes around and starts to mimic your show, copy the feel of your show, realize that they can't copy everything. They can only try to copy the results. Like a cover band. They're not the same band. They don't have the same heart, the same feel. They might be really close, they might be really, really good, but they. You don't want their autographs because they're not the real thing. Keep that in mind. So when people come for you, let them copy. Let them copy your show. They'll be chasing your shadows. Protect your fire. Protect your podcast by showing up as only you can. In every episode, your presence dominates. Their replication of your show will fade because you are doing something uniquely different. And they don't have your creativity. They can't keep up with you. They'll always be slightly behind you. Your audience will pick up on that. And you show up and serve your audience and love your community the way you do, you got nothing to worry about. Because everyone else, they're just fake. They have no creativity. They have no spark. They have nothing new to say. All they have is your content on repeat. They're great at recycling, but they're not great at creating. That's what you do best. So lean into what makes you unique. Keep creating the best content and be 10, 15, 20 steps ahead of your competition. Stay creative and don't stop podcasting. That's it. Looking forward to hearing your show. Reach out to me. Howtopodcast cat. So I get asked quite often, usually at the end of a podcast, like right now, Dave, how can we help you? Like, how can we as a listener, like, support the show? Can we come rake your leaves? Can we cut the grass? Shovel the snow? Watch your dog help you move? What can we do? Clean your dishes? Oh, that'd be interesting. Well, if you don't, if you can't do that because you know you're in Poland, maybe you can help us by supporting us with our Buy me a coffee. It's right there on our website and you know, it just will help us to a stay fueled because, you know, we drink a lot of coffee around here and it helps the show. So if you want to help us, it's out of the goodness of your heart. I can tell you that listening to the podcast to this point, you've already helped us. So Much. But I do have people saying, dave, I'd love to give back something small, even just to the show. Buy me a coffee. Link is on our website, howtopodcast ca. And you can support the show that way. It would mean a lot to have you on our team supporting what we do here. If you find value in the show, then that's great. Share the show, tell somebody about it. And when somebody says, dave, I want to start a podcast, who should I check out? Oh, you should go check out the how to Podcast series. Because of all the great co hosts and all the things that happen here, the meetups, everything. And I would appreciate that. And then fill our cup once in a while if you can. But again, thank you so much for being here and supporting how to Podcast series. Take care. Talk soon. Okay? A little bit. Oh, thanks. You're still here, by the way. Thank you. This is for the bonus stuff for the people who stick around and that's you. And I appreciate you. This is assigned to the app that you're listening on that this is a podcast that you're enjoying and it's worth your time. So the app is going to go, we're going to tell more people about this podcast. So thank you. You're already helping me. You didn't even have to give me a rating and review like everyone else asks. You're already doing it by listening. Just you being here has proven it. So thank you. Just a little bit of a pet peeve to share with you. And I think I can share this with you because you're still here. That's good. I work with podcasters and I help podcasters, I coach podcasters, I help them launch their show and grow their show. I also do editing, bunch of behind the scenes stuff for podcasters. When I meet with somebody and they come into my world and they don't want to listen, they're not open to feedback, they're not open to ideas that make their show better. It is super frustrating because I see the potential in them, in their content, in what they could do in podcasting. Yet they won't even accept simple ideas, recommendations, feedback. And what I've been finding is when I meet these people, I'm starting to sniff it out. So sooner than I used to do, they come, they ask questions, you give feedback, they roll their eyes, they push back and they don't listen, they don't implement, they don't act. And what happens over time is they get, they get disillusioned in podcasting and they stop and they just Disappear. I've had some of the most amazing people on my screen who were very actively starting a show and then just, poof, gone. Like, completely fallen off the planet. They're doing other things, but they just gave up for whatever reason. It's frustrating because I. I would love everyone to have a podcast. I realize that that's not practical, that everyone would want to do this. My wife, not interested. My kids, not interested. So I realize that not everybody wants or should be a podcaster. But when there's some potential that I see in a person that would be great for an audience, it's frustrating to see them give up so early. So before you reach out for help, make sure you show up. Whoever you work with, with me or somebody else, show up with a heart that's ready to receive. Don't push back so easily. We can't help you if you won't let us. So if you want help with your show and you're willing to listen, you're willing to do the work, you're willing to accept some notes about what you could do to improve, then we need to talk. If you're unwilling to receive feedback, to hear some harsh things that you are possibly doing that are really undermining the integrity of your show, and you're not willing to accept any of that feedback, then you're not at a maturity level yet to really grow your podcast. And you are going to wallow in low numbers, low connections with your community. You're going to get frustrated, you're going to quit. Because I've already seen it 20, 30 times already in the last half a year, so I know it happens and it's a reality and I want to protect you from that. So before you reach out for help, make sure you're in a mindset where you are willing to receive help before you ask, and you'll get better results. So keep that in mind. Hope we can talk soon, because I want to help you. HowtoPodcast ca take it.