I'm Sick of Everyone Ripping My Brand - The Downside of Building in Public - Doc the Journey Ep 46

What is going on? I was just filming some shit for some other video I'm trying out and it's actually a Tuesday, which I never record. Document the Journey. I've woken up with man flu the past two days. Feel like fucking shit. Probably sound like shit if you're listening. So apologies. I filmed a few episodes over the past few months where I've sounded like this and I. I feel like. I feel like I sound really blocked up. Maybe I don't. But yeah, I'm actually gonna keep this one pretty short cuz I'm fucking busy like everyone and I just don't know what to put on the YouTube and a few things were pissing me off so I thought I'd make a video and it's, it's what people warned me of when I started doing Document the Journey. Particularly in being so public and building in public. And that's just people ripping the shit out of my brand and not just taking inspiration from or being inspired by, but just flat out fucking ripping me and. And it just fucking pisses me off. And there's no other way to put it. I think it's very different when you are in the dropshipping space and someone steals your ad. Cause you kind of probably stole that ad from someone and they're stealing your product images which you probably got from AliExpress and all that sort of shit. And I'm not saying that I've never been there because I used to be in the dropship space and it was very much like that and it was harder to have a problem because people were all kind of doing the same shit. But I do genuinely feel like with space goods and rainbow dust particularly obviously the main product, I actually fucking invented something like the product from. I invented the product from scratch. It didn't exist before. There was not, at least to my knowledge, an all in one blend. Certainly with this ingredient profile it was completely bespoke. I fucking grinded my ass off, particularly from a place, from a shit place of the previous business being fucked up. I went back to a blank canvas and had to start again and create something from scratch. Then you see people just straight up ripping it off and I've got a document with like all the pure copycats and there's like 10 on here, some of which are more disgustingly obvious than others. Some are like trying to be quite subtle, but it's evident. I mean I know for a fact the founders watch this shit and probably including this video. And yeah, honestly it kind of hurts because it's just Like, I mean, ultimately I know they won't last, but when I've created like a whole, I feel like. I'm not saying I've fucking invented E Commerce, but the aspirational mushroom powder niche, if that is a fucking niche I definitely created, didn't exist before. I've never seen a brand do it. Like I said, the product from scratch, the brand from scratch, the website from scratch. Like, everything was my fucking blood, sweat and tears. And I know how hard I've worked to get off the ground again, particularly because I was in a shit place before. And when you see these people fucking ripping it, like, yeah, deep down I know they're not gonna last, etc. But ultimately they will be selling stuff and they're basically profiting off my effort and also taking food off my table, effectively taking sales off, out of my business, you know. So it's happened ever since I've been in E Comm. Like it happened with Midnight City. Like some idiot actually messaged me about coming on the pod, which always a red flag. They ask. Like six months ago or so. And I went on his website, he had a jewelry brand and literally every image was a rip of images. I remember being in the studio when we shot from my brand. And same with Neon Beach. Like, I fucking created the neon light market on Instagram. Like no one was doing it and then loads of people doing it and they were ripping my ads. And there's still plenty of brands online that are using my ads, like even now using my images, which I physically made myself or someone on my team made. And it's just like, I don't know. It pisses me off because I feel like it's twofold, to be honest. It pisses me off. And I'm being very honest here because I feel like I got really hard done by the past few years. I should have had more fruits of my labor, I guess, after the stuff I believe I've built, I've always built from a very authentic place of like creating a product and never ripped other people. And in jewelry, in jewelry, that's like less creative because, yeah, it's fucking chains. Like neon Lights, I thought was a step above. And I was always. And that was completely bespoke the brand, you know, doing the neon stuff online. But then with this brand even more. Because it was like my. It was like me coming back into the E Commerce space and I've just created this whole thing and people are still fucking ripping in. Just pisses me off. And like I said, I know they're not gonna last. I fucking hope they don't. But it just doesn't feel right. Like, how can people just get away with that? Pure ripping. Like, granted, it's got a different name, but like, when your ingredients are literally the exact same, you've literally copy my entire website layout. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. Just pisses me off because I feel like I should be getting a share of their business in a way because I've fucking. I came up with it. You didn't. I'm not even sure there's that much you can do when it's not like they're not using my images technically, they're just making their own carbon copies, which are 95% similar. And like using the copy that I wrote, which isn't necessarily that good, but I still wrote it. And yeah, just feels that pretty unfair, but life is unfair. And yeah, I think I got fucking screwed over in the past by the brands I built. Not ending particularly well for me. And I feel like I'm building momentum with this one. I don't know, it just feels like there's a lot of people that seem to do alright in life and they spend their entire life just not creating anything and just fucking being a slimy little cunt and ripping people off and ripping other people's designs and shit. And I just never want to be that person. And I'm certainly not, but there are a lot of them out there. A lot of just slimy, miserable people that can't come up with their own shit. But yeah, the point is, I think largely it's kind of, you could say it's my fault, obviously it's not. It's not right that these people are doing it. And if you're watching, you know who the fuck you are and there's plenty of examples and I'll probably start taking action and you'll see. But yeah, building in public, which I feel like. I feel like I'm doing a public service to many people. So I get messages every day still, even now, like over a year in saying how much it helps people and inspires people, all this shit and please keep doing it, blah, blah, blah. But when people are just, yeah, this is the downside to it. People know what's going on. I'm probably too honest. And it attracts competition and more than that, it attracts pure rips, like fraudulent level rips. So, yeah, honestly, it does make me want. Just want to fucking stop doing the YouTube and suck it all off. Probably won't do that. But that's just how it is right now. That's the message I want to put out this week, is if you're doing that, fuck you and stop doing it. And if you don't stop doing it, I'll stop you doing it. Eventually you can get. You can trust. Trust me on that. And yeah, it just, it's. It's not hard to. Well, maybe it's hard to be creative, which is why most people don't build brands and actually come up with shit. Like, even all the drop shippers that think they're like the next Steve Jobs have never actually created anything from scratch. And I guess, like my cheesy slogan from the first movie says, nothing exists until you create it. Well, I guess some stuff does exist if you just rip off other people's creations. But it's a bad way to live life, I think, and deep down you know that it's not. It's not your shit. So, yeah, the message is don't be a ripper. Come up with your own shit. Think maybe life catches up with people that spend their entire life just ripping other people's creations. And yeah, should I sack off the YouTube? Because people are just taking advantage of the fact I share a lot for the. The community's benefit, if I can say that, should I not? And yeah, what else do you want to see on the YouTube? Let me know. Down. I know I said every single time, but I do feel like this channel potentially needs a bit of a pivot. Would like to predom more behind the scenes and more not necessarily vlog, but I think I enjoy the Doc Journey stuff more than the podcast. I'm completely honest because it's just authentic and it's. It's raw and it's easier to film. It's definitely a lot, a lot less time commitment. I think people prefer it. That was the feedback on the Twitter poll and the Instagram poll I did. But always open to hearing feedback on the YouTube as well. So, yeah, I don't know where I'm going with this. As always, rambling, but I'm in a pretty pissed off mood and as always, appreciate you watching. Subscribe to the pod, but please don't break my shit. Have a great week. Peace.