The Game with Alex Hormozi - How To Deal With Haters | Ep 370

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

Copying is a form of flattery. Today, Alex (@AlexHormozi) talks about dealing with backlash, copycats, and how to rise above these kinds of situations.Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you’ll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Timestamps:(1:31) - Backlash and copying ruins your business; predict their actions.(3:58) - Haters focus on you, not their audience; get louder.(7:00) - You have the higher ground; they envy your success.(8:58) - Guide: Align actions with values; never act out of malice.Follow Alex Hormozi’s Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

As in it was a true attack on my character. I was like, how could you be this way? I thought that they were scum. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more per customer, and how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe.

Over the last five years, I've had 22 different clients and or employees try and repurpose, you know, our licensing must. material into their own business. And I wanted to make this video to talk about how to handle that. As you inevitably grow in business, this is going to happen to you. So it's a matter of when, not if, and what I think have been some of the best strategies that I've used to deal with them. So by the way, FYI, my name is Alex Ramosey, Iownacquisition.com. We do about $85 million a year in revenue. Today I want to talk about kind of the backlash against competition and copycats and things like that. So

The biggest problem that most entrepreneurs deal with, or at least that I was dealing with, each time, especially earlier on when this would happen, is that I took it as such a great, deep personal affront, as in it was a true attack on my character. I was like, how could you be this way? I thought that they were scum and all the many things and thoughts that we would naturally go through. But I had a mentor early on in my life, and she shared something with me that it's always stuck with me. And she said, you'll become astonishingly good at predicting the behavior of others if you always assume they will act in their own best interest. And that has been incredibly telling. And so

instead of listening to what people say and believing them, if you just simply can think what is in this person's own best interest independent of myself or anything that I am, you know, basically take yourself out of the equation and think from their perspective, you will become astonishing good at predicting what people are going to do, right? And so the idea, if you want to get people to do what you want them to do, is that you must align what is in their best interest and what is in your best interest together. And if you can do that and accomplish that effectively, then you will be able to harness people's selfish nature towards a common goal, which is ultimately what a lot of business really is. Right. So, back to the story. Twenty-two different people

have tried to take our stuff, repurpose our stuff. And it's not just taking it and repurposing it. It's typically also additionally, them talking shit, right, about you. And usually soliciting other employees or current clients of yours to go with them, right? And so that then creates even more anger because it feels like someone's taking your stuff, et cetera. But this is what I can tell you has happened. in the few instances that I did earlier on my career where I focused a ton of time and effort on these people. I even one time dramatically changed my business model in response to somebody who was trying to solicit my best clients and my current clients and start a business adjacent to me.

The only thing that happened was that I just hurt my own business. And the reality is the vast majority of my customers had no idea any of this was happening at all. It was all happening in my own head and I was magnifying it way out of blowing it out way out of proportion. And so if you're in this situation, these are some of the things that I think through or that I think with to help myself feel better about it. Number one, they need me. I do not need them. I am the source of the thing that they are trying to copy and therefore they will always be a subset of me, which means they cannot be bigger than me if the source of everything they have is me. right if their source of customers is my customer base if the source of their of their business model is my business model they need me i do not need them right right so that's number one number two the type of

person who operates in this way admits that they are a follower and not a leader all right which means that they cannot lead you it's a different way of saying the first one but i think it's worth mentioning right number three the type of person who operates in this way will always operate from a place of scarcity right they will always try and hoard and they will always be focused on you and not their customers all right so where their focus goes right where your attention goes uh shoot what is it where attention goes money flows that's one of my one of my money sayings um if someone is doing that right then they are purposely telling the marketplace that you are the focus not them and not their customers all right and so the thing to do and so these are the actions to take if you're in one of these situations

If they get loud, you get louder about yourself. You get louder about your solutions. You get louder about your purpose, about your mission. You never acknowledge them, ever. Coke never acknowledges Pepsi. The classic never acknowledges the inferior. There's no point you gain nothing. The only thing that is gained, what they should hope that you do,

is that you give them credit, right? And as soon as you speak their name into existence, they become more elevated and then they become on your level. And so you can never acknowledge that they even exist. Hey, Mosin, a nation, quick break just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you. All right, so send me a connection request and note letting me know that you listen to the show and I will accept it. There's anyone you think that we should be connected with, tag them in one of my or layless posts and I will give you all the love in the world. All right. So let's get back to the show.

All right. But if they are allowed, then your course of action is to become louder about your message. And so if you need something to motivate you, use it to motivate you to market harder, to sell harder. And the saying that I like to use in our company is beat them in the field. All right. If people are talking smack in the stands, beat him in the field. All right. Look at the scoreboard. That's all we care about. All right. And so these are some of the things that over time I've kind of accumulated in my little toolkit of, you know, mental toolkit of how to deal with the haters and the people who copycat and stealers and all that kind of stuff is to understand that they need me, I don't need them, that when they focus on me, they put more attention my way, that the only thing that I can do in response is to get louder about my thing, never acknowledge them, right? And finally, just remember that the person who always gives the most to your customers, wins, period. And the founder of HubSpot said something that I think is really cool and powerful. He said, you don't have a customer until somebody has offered them a cheaper version of your solution and they have

chosen not to take it. That is when you have a customer. And so I think that's really telling is that if you're so confident in the value you provide, then you shouldn't be worried about it. If you are worried about this person, then double down on the value that you're providing to your customers and then it will help you sleep better. Channel the nervous energy or the angry energy that you have, not at the competitor, but target into the value that you're going to provide to your customers. All right? So I'm not saying, you know, I'm some saint. I'm saying I've done 22. I'm like I was counting with my GM the other day. We're talking about every single time somebody has tried to attack what is ours, right? I've tried to take what is yours. And saying from Yellowstone,

the show that I like is that anything, if you want anything, if you have anything worth having, people are going to try and take it from you. The only way to have something that no one will ever take from you is to have something that no one wants. And if you want something that other people will have, if you have something other people will want, then you should expect that people will try and take it from you. And you should take the fact that they are trying to take it from you

as a sign of success, that what you are doing is the right thing because they are trying to take it from you because it's an indicator that what you have is desirable. And that's the game. And the more desirable that the state that you have is, the more people will try and take it from you. And so having these mental things, these mental tools in your tool belt is very useful as an entrepreneur. And I'll leave you with one final thing.

I think that when I look back on my life when I'm 80 or 90 years old, I will be ashamed of things that I did and actions that I took out of malice. And so I think that the truest guide that we can use for what actions we should take in response to others, is what values do I want my life to exude? What values do I want my actions to stand for and be in alignment with? And if you don't think that in action will be in alignment with the values that you would have when you're 80 or 90 years old

and you look back on the situation, then don't do it, right? Or do the action that is in alignment with those values. And a lot of times, the sad part about taking the high path is that when you win, because right now I'm 22 for 22 in terms of, of people that I have defeated, who have tried to take what is ours, you don't actually get, you don't get a victory lap, you don't get a victory dance, because when people lose to you, you can't go stand on their corpse and teebag them like a, like a video game, right?

It doesn't work that way. In the real world, they disappear with a whimper. They fade into obscurity. They fade into non-existence. That's what ends up happening. And when asked about why, when they tell their own story, they'll just say they decided to change their mind and didn't want to pursue it anymore because of X, Y, Z reason that they will cite about the industry and never take ownership for why they actually sucked. And if you're one of those 22 people and you're watching this video, I remember you, but I will never acknowledge your existence. And so I say that because when you win, it's not that fulfilling. Because it's very rare that you actually get into a hot battle with somebody. It's all happening in your mind. And most people just don't have the skills to compete with you if you have a business.

And they'll eventually just disappear. And it just sucks to have to deal with it. And the thing is, is when they disappear, you'll have forgotten. they exist to begin with. And so it's not like you get an envelope in the mail that says the person, you know, waves the white flag. They'll just move on with their lives and so will you until eventually you forget they exist. And so yeah, so that's the unfulfilling path of the victor. But the thing you do get to have is you get the scoreboard and you get the business and you get the clients and you get the impact. And that is really the only reward for continuing to act in the way that is

alignment with values and providing more value to your customers is that you'll just continue to win in the long haul and everyone else will just shrink in comparison to you so anyways bozzy nation i make these videos a lot of people broken on which to be one of them i don't want you to take a stupid action as a result of a competitor or an ex-employee or an ex-client trying to siphon your clients it happens it's part of business the fact that they're doing it shows you that you're on the right path just don't do anything that 85-year-old you wouldn't be proud of all right lots of love keep being awesome i'll catch you guys the next video Bye