On today’s episode we are talking all about copying in the creative business industry. Before we talk about how to deal with being copied, I first want to dive into “being the copier”. While we initially think of all copying as terrible and malicious, sometimes copying can happen without us even noticing. Many times work is copied because we draw too much inspiration from a certain artist or business. We probably did this to other businesses when we first started, and it is unfortunately bound to happen when someone is first starting a creative business and looking for some type of direction.

Now if you see someone copying you – REACH OUT! The enneagram 9 in me hates this more than anything in the world, but I’ve had to reach out to people on multiple occasions for copying. Even though this will usually work in stopping someone from copying, after a while you cannot reach out to everyone. S how do we prevent this from happening in the future? The short answer is we can’t. It doesn’t matter if you trademark your work, hunt down every single person who copies you, watermark your images, etc., if someone wants to copy you they are going to find a way to copy you.

It is difficult in the creative industry because we do not own certain types of art. I do not own the signature leaf detailing that I do on my pieces, I do not own the certain mixture of print and hand lettering you see on so many of my pieces, I do not own writing last names on pitchers. Even if I did go through the legal steps of trademarking my certain popular designs it would not prevent people from copying me.

At the end of the day we have to come to terms with the fact that we do not have control over the situation, our business is not going to grow and flourish if we are continually worried about the work of others. You want to know the one thing that cannot be copied in your business? You. That is it end of story. I don’t care if someone tried to copy your products, copy your photos, copy anything about your business, they can only get so far because they are not you. It is so important to pour our hearts and our personalities into our business because that it what makes us stand out from the crowd!

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