In this week’s episode, join Alicia Watson as she talks about not being the first or only one with the same idea. Alicia talks about how she saw another business that mimicked her business. She encourages listeners to continue to make their business theirs despite another company have similarities. Listen along as Alicia provides several reasons why you should keep going and not to give up.
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Maybe you're like me and you need something tangible to navigate life's tough seasons. It's important to have the strategy and resources to come out on top. Take this short quiz to be matched with a tool you can use to flourish no matter what life has thrown your way: https://bit.ly/overcomersquiz
In this week’s episode, join Alicia Watson as she talks about not being the first or only one with the same idea. Alicia talks about how she saw another business that mimicked her business. She encourages listeners to continue to make their business theirs despite another company have similarities. Listen along as Alicia provides several reasons why you should keep going and not to give up.
Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it!
Maybe you're like me and you need something tangible to navigate life's tough seasons. It's important to have the strategy and resources to come out on top. Take this short quiz to be matched with a tool you can use to flourish no matter what life has thrown your way: https://bit.ly/overcomersquiz
1 (4s):
You're listening to Maybe, You're Like Me, the transparent musings of a God Girl chasing after her purpose. Maybe you're like me as a podcast for dreamers and doers who take life's lessons and level up to look more like Christ. We'll connect through super relatable stories, growing pains and aha moments that most of us share, just not always out loud. I'm your host, Alicia Watson, creative entrepreneur, playwright, author, wife, mother, daughter of the king, and so much more. And I can't help but to think that Maybe You like me.
2 (45s):
Hey, beautiful people. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Maybe You Like me with Alicia Watson. It's me your girl, Alicia Watson, and I hope you're having an amazing day So far. Me, I'm feeling good, but you know what used to make me feel really bad being copied. I hated being copied, looking like I someone else, anything to do with not being an original. And also what grinded my gears was someone beating me and getting an idea out into the world. If you're like me, then I know how frustrating that can be. So I wanna jump right into this topic today. So maybe you're like me and you're realizing that you don't have to be the first or the only. Since the beginning of my business, there's been one creative that seems to share my brain.
2 (1m 26s):
We are so alike in our creativity and aesthetics that it's almost scary. The problem I would find myself having is that she would move faster to put our ideas onto the world. I would be working away on my stuff and publish, and inevitably would come across something that she did that was similar, but she did it first and I would cringe and I would hate it so, so, so much because I knew that I didn't copy her, but it would look like I did. I don't know why, but for some reason, my website for Ali Watson Media has always been the bane of my existence for as long as I have been in business. I have always been frustrated with my website. I've always designed it myself and really enjoyed doing it, but for some reason it's never really fully right.
2 (2m 11s):
Well, I know the reason, the first two versions I did, I loved, but they looked exactly like homegirls. Not exactly, but there were a lot of elements that were similar. And I would realize this, only after I had put all of this hard work into mind and hit publish, it was totally unintentional, totally coincidental, but it would throw me off so badly. I just really wanted a unique site, a unique place to call home on the internet where people came and knew that it was me, that it was my business, that it was something that was amazing to look at, that they wanted to work with me on. But then there was hers just floating out in the internet world looking just like what I had just done, and hers was out there first.
2 (2m 55s):
So I would have to keep coming back to my website, taking parts down, doing things I didn't like because the iteration that I started with, I really did like, I just didn't want it to look like hers. I wanted a unique site. So after a while, my website started to be perpetually under construction in the back of my mind. I needed to create something that was original and cool and beautiful, and that didn't look like hers or anyone else's. But eventually one year I got sick of saying that it was under construction and just being too busy to construct it. So I hired someone. I told her what I wanted. I sent inspiration. I sent ideas and just all of the details and tell you what, she knocked it out of the park.
2 (3m 37s):
She really did, except that it wasn't optimized for mobile. And we do basically everything on our phones. So we had a few snags in the delivery timeline. So rather than asking her to create a mobile version, I was just gonna do it myself. When I finally got to it, I found that because I asked for a specific creative design that she delivered on most of the concept would not translate to mobile, that I would have to basically design all these elements just to work with a mobile version instead of a desktop version Deep. So I finally had a version I like that was unique to me, but it still sad. Without that mobile version for four years, it still wasn't right.
2 (4m 19s):
I don't know why, but I put so much stock into having a website that way. I don't know why, but I've put so much stock into having the website the way that I want it, and it's honestly been a bottleneck in my business. I have not been able to fully market or just be all in because that one particular thing wasn't finished. It wasn't right. It wasn't specific to me. So fast forward to 2021 and I got a photography coach. I let her know what was going on and what was happening with me and why my business was kind of at a standstill, and she gave me some resources as well as some encouragement. And then she told me to look at some other websites of other photographers, especially within my niche for inspiration just to kind of get out of my love.
2 (5m 1s):
So yeah, I'll never forget clicking on a site that this coach recommended to me that she said reminded her of my brand. And you know why? Because it was basically my brand. My website was clearly the inspiration for this girl's website right now to the colors, my poses, the design, even the wording, my wording that has been on my site since 2014 through all of the iterations, Smoke was coming out of my ears because when I saw it, it just brought back all of those memories from when I was designing my website before and the other girl was beating me to it. It was worse this time because one, I hate being copied, and two, she was making it do what it do with the design that wasn't even as good as mine.
2 (5m 43s):
Basically, she took the essence of my brand and ran with it. I didn't have an excuse and that was what was frustrating. So after screenshots to friends and my husband just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I wasn't, They saw it right away. My, I had to take my own advice. The advice that I gave to a friend who is constantly being copied by someone in her industry. I told her that she can't pre copy you. So she'll always be behind. You're the source material. I'm the source material in this scenario. And there are more ideas where that came from. More creativity, more clients or everything. We're not even in same geographical location. So aside from my ego, this really doesn't hurt me in any way.
2 (6m 23s):
So I've been working on my own site redesign because I love my current design. I'm keeping a lot of the elements of it, but I'm upgrading others. I have the ability and the skillset to fix and change it as much as I want. So it really doesn't serve me to be bitter about her bit. But let's be honest, realistically, my idea might have been inspired by someone else's subconsciously or consciously. And on the other hand, she might have never even seen my site and she might just share the same brain as me in the first creative I mentioned. I don't know for sure and it doesn't even matter. Ecclesias one nine through 11 says, History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
2 (7m 4s):
Sometimes people say, Here is something new, but actually it's old. Nothing is ever truly new. We don't remember what happened in the past and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing. Now, I used to get so discouraged when someone else popped up with my skillset, a new photographer, videographer, a person talking about body image or a podcast. But over the years, maturity has helped me to truly embrace that. What is for me is for me, there's no need to compare or compete. I embrace that there are people that are specifically assigned to me and need what I have to offer. Even if there are a thousand photographers and videographers in this area, and let's be honest, there are likely way more than that. As long as I continue to show up authentically, work on my quality and creativity, tweak my experience, maintain my character, be committed to serving others and be professional, I'll keep working with the phenomenal people like the ones I've been working with, website or not.
2 (7m 56s):
When you feel like you have to be the first or the only, you kind of cut yourself off at the knees. You don't put out what's good in pursuit of what's great and what's special you miss opportunities. Two things that move me forward after some friends talk to me and talk some sense to me, where that, number one, nobody cares about the similarities. They probably never even saw the competitor's site. And number two, the website was a very small part of the total presentation of what I have to offer. I was giving more importance than it really had. So If, you feel the need to be first or to be the only. I wanted to offer some more encouragement to help you get over it. And it's your purpose or your business or your calling or whatever. It's that you have to do that you feel like you need to be the first and only app.
2 (8m 39s):
So the first thing is more than one is good, because it proves that there's a need in a market for your offering. So I'd say to learn from others who've gone before you. You know, you can fill in the gaps where you uniquely fit, but it's a blessing to not have to figure it out to start from the beginning. There's someone who's gone before you who's learned the lessons, and you can just build on those. Number two, not being the only one means that there's an amplified voice. I remember not too long ago, there was a post that I wrote with the message that after I posted it, I found that another popular photographer had already shared a similar message. And again, I cringed because I didn't want people to think that I had copied her.
2 (9m 19s):
But again, I quickly shifted my perspective to this being a message that was relevant obviously, and it needed to be heard and embraced. And if I'm feeling it and she's feeling it, then others are too. And the beauty of it was is that us speaking about it at the same time and the same space and time might actually start a movement or spark a change or allow other people, at the very least to know that they're not alone. So an amplified voice is good If, you're the only voice calling in the wilderness. It's a really lonely place, right? But having that other voice can spark that change that you wanna see that's making you speak out about it in the first place. Number three, no can do what you do. Like you, you have to believe that even If, you do something similar to someone else.
2 (10m 2s):
The way you do it, the why you do it, the when you do it, the how you do it, how much you do it for, all of that can factor into why someone would select you. There's no need to compete and there's no need to be intimidated. Just If you fully embrace the way that you do what you do, why you do what you do, then you won't really have time to focus on the way and why anyone else is doing it. And number four, you are only one person or business. There is room for all If. You truly care that people get what you have to offer. You should rejoice that when you don't have time or capacity, someone else can serve them and solve the problem that grinds your gears. The change that you want to see in the world can be accomplished.
2 (10m 42s):
Even If, you don't have the capacity to do it yourself. So instead of needing to be the first or only in your space, I encourage you to turn your focus to going all in on the way that you are supposed to be doing things. Fully live out your purpose business and calling. Be open to learning and growing and iterating your offer. Be open to being inspired by others and be okay with inspiring others. Listen, nothing is new under the sun, but there is only one. You own that and move confidently in your gifting and you calling. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you're like me, I would love to hear from you.
2 (11m 21s):
Reach out to me on Instagram at the Alicia Watson sy dm and let's chat If, you know, someone who's like us. Please share this episode with them. And don't forget to rate, subscribe, and review wherever you listen to fine podcast. I hope you have an amazing week. Okay?