Latest / Travel Agency in a Year / Day 225: Imitation is the highest form of flattery
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to the Travel Agency to Your Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel K, travel agency owner helping travel advisors become the CEO of their business. And we are on day 225. And also, if you don't know who I am, just go to elevate with Rachel K.com. Okay. Today's episode is your competitor is not the enemy. And your strategy really, like your content, isn't yours. Okay? Sorry. Two ideas that are more connected than they might first seem. Stop judging yourself against your own competition and understand something important about the content you use to market your business. Most of it is not legally your intellectual proper your intellectual property in the way that you might assume. Comparing your agency is a losing game. I I also am a fan of having a nemesis. whether it's someone in your family or a friend that's just like kind of putting you down, doesn't believe in you, or a competitor where you're like, I don't care for that compet competitor or how they do things, and I know I can do this better. Like, have that nemesis like fuel you to get things done. But also comparing your agency to any other travel agencies. Out there is almost always working from incomplete information. You're seeing the highlight reel that they have, the launches that worked for them, the trips that went beautifully, not their slow months, their canceled bookings, or their own private doubts. Okay, so measuring your real full picture that you're in against someone else's curated picture that they're showing the world will make you feel behind no matter how well you're actually doing. And I don't want you to beat yourself up for it. And it's nice to get inspiration from other travel advisors how their co how their content is. And it's nice to like I always advocate for like looking at what your competition's doing. in fact I started mentoring someone and she mentioned her mentor was like doing in another program was more successful and she was like couldn't understand why. And so I went to this mentor's website and I was like, she's really, really clear on who her ICA is in all of her copy. That's why. That's why she's getting the business. And her message, I had didn't even look at this agent's social media. I was like, she's very, very clear in who she serves. And that's step number one. And how she serves them. So There's nothing to really be jealous of. It's just something that you could do. So whenever I'd say go to a competitor's website, if you're like, why are they doing better than me? Maybe. I don't know. But like Maybe you're feeling that weird jealousy and vis envy thing. Go to that competitor's website. Go to their social and see, like, are they marketing consistently? Is their messaging consistent? And is their messaging on social aligned with their website? And can you tell who they're speaking to? You don't have to like their content. You don't have to think it's good. But if they are all aligned every step of the way, that's why they're doing, like at least from a curated perspective, that's why they're doing well as a travel advisor, right? And again, you're not showing the world everything going on in your life. on your social, neither are they. And you don't know how doubtful they are if things are working or if they're s nervous to switch nieces or do their own new rollout. So, just don't compare yourself to others. Just keep your head down and do the strategies that work, regardless, even if you like I get I do need to reply to comments on YouTube. I'm I notice them then I'm like, Well I'm sick. But I do see there are quite a few people who aren't travel advisors but entrepreneurial minded, and they're like, Yep, this is exactly correct. These are all very standard business topics that are being covered, by the way, and how to apply them as a travel advisor. Okay. So let's talk about your ideas versus your expression. And this is something. I have so when I first got I had to go get a business attorney and I got an intellectual property attorney and what he well, he's a CPA and a business attorney. And this was several years ago and he recommended I started an IP L O C. To own all of the spreadsheets and templates and formulas and those that I've created to serve my clients in both of my businesses. Okay? That is intellectual property. When it's like specific formulated things that no one else is doing, that's intellectual property. Ideas for copyright law, ideas, methods. Systems and general strategies are not protected under copyright law. Only the exact specific fixed expression of them is. Okay? So there is it's something called the idea expression distinction. You can't own the idea of a three-tiered pricing structure or content batching system or Travel advisor who shares packing tips. What can it be protected is the specific wording, your specific video, your specific written piece, the actual expression of it, not the underlying concept. Okay? This matters so much because it reframes a lot of the anxiety around someone's doing what I do. News flash. We live in a capitalist society. That's what it that's where we're our where we are right now. And competition exists is allowed to exist freely. And so people can have those same exact concepts, but how they express it must be different. Okay? So if another travel advisor starts offering tiered packages after seeing yours or starts batching their content the way that you've you're not gonna talk about batching your content, but if you were to like make an engagement post and be like it's Tuesday, Tuesday's filming day. I don't care what you do, but if you do that and another travel advisor is like, I'm gonna batch my content on Tuesday, you can't sue them for that. You can't it has to be like an exact copy. of what you're doing, but the concept themselves, you can't say you own it. you don't have any legal claim over any of that. It was never yours to own in the sense, and getting upset about it as though it were like theft misunderstands what's actually protectable. So now if you were to have a travel advisor try to completely take your exact I had this happen. with an organization. Somebody tried to get into a s very specific organization and tried to steal my exact method. And I was like, can't do that! This is mine. You can come up with your own thing, but this is mine. that's what's actually protectable. But so let's say I talk about with my destination weddings And this is a this is part of that story. I do estimated costs for the ceremony events for my couples before they even book the ceremony. And somebody I was mentoring Explicitly told me they weren't making money as a TA and they needed fast money and they needed to make seventy thousand a year. And they paid me for a couple hours and said, Tell me everything you do exactly how you do it. And I said, I can't do that. And I said, But here's a general process. And a few weeks later, colleague of mine, I I'm not gonna name anyone's names, got an email from this very popular organization saying that they're rolling out with the exact same thing. And then I had several colleagues and some of my own agents that work for me on the like my team mention to the owner, like, y y this is already done, you need to talk to Rachel about this. Which never happened, but all of a sudden now the resorts that are heavily involved with that organization have an estimated cost calculator. I can't sue them for that because they figured it out it's only for their resort brand. I don't even like selling that resort brand personally. But that's a thing. And I still have what what I have. Because I had to sit and figure out where to get all the resources, how I wanted the layout to look, how to make it easy, create all the formulas, all of that stuff, have the screen records to onboard my clients for it, how I wanted the mood board to look. Like anyone else can create this on their own, but they can't take mine and do it, right? It's similar if someone took your exact packing list. And just shared it and they didn't pay you for it. They don't have access to that copyright. Are most people going to have very similar packing lists? Yes. It's when it's like your branding and it doesn't even align with their branding. It's like clearly taken. Okay, sorry for that. Let's look at restaurant trends. Dozens of chains are built nearly around Let's see, let me think of these restaurants. Like identical messaging. Eat fresh. There's like six different brands where you could go. I know most of you are gonna go to one brand, but if you think about it, I can think of like six or seven other big national nationwide chain restaurants that sell the exact same thing in a different way. Fresh, customizable, made in front of you, healthy, fast food. Nobody owns that idea. What separates the ones that did thrive from the ones that didn't, it wasn't the idea, it was the execution, the consistency, and the specific brand identity built on top of a widely shared idea. Okay? And y like us in the different niches that we're in, there are gonna be agencies who thrive because. They have their execution down pat, their SOPs. They are consistent in everything they do, even when it's boring and they don't want to do it. And they have built their own brand identity doing safaris or cruises or affinity groups or destination weddings, whatever the heck it is. And they're gonna have very similar messaging, but it's not identical. another example. The freemium softwares. software as a service models, getting the free tier to get people to start using a product, then converting a portion of them to the paid tiers. Dozens of software companies use this like the exact same strategy. And people in the coaching space use the same strategy. Like it's the same concepts everywhere, right? Nobody owns freemium as a concept. What each company owns is their specific education Execution, their specific brand, their specific relationship with their users. So the lesson for you is the idea of like tiered packages, or being able to estimate event and ceremony costs, or having a specific story bank, or using a content calendar or let's see, I'm trying to think of the travel agency, having a packing list or a pre-travel guide or any of that stuff. Custom proposals. Like those are all ideas that everyone, almost everyone uses. These are strategies, they're not intellectual property. What's actually yours and actually worth protecting is your specific voice, your specific relationships, and your specific execution. Which no competitor can replicate. even if they wanted to, because they ain't you. They ain't you. It's not gonna work. If they even tried to replicate it, it's probably gonna bomb because it's not you. It's like if they try to take your exact voice, your exact relationships, your exact execution of how you do things, the concepts themselves doesn't matter. Because like I said, like we all work with we all have the opportunity to work with the same brands and do the same niches and work with the same types of people. But we're all not robots who are identical to each other. And so please do not accuse people of stealing your stuff because you took a b concept and then made a lead magnet from it. Sorry, I didn't mean to get mad about that. But that's another thing, like you do need to be careful. And I talked about this a few weeks ago, because there was an agent that has a fantastic lead magnet. And when they launched it the first time a couple years ago, she told me other travel advisors were signing up for it. And so she's afraid to launch it again. And I'm like, you need to launch it and you need to be okay with that. Because unless they just take the picture out, also, how are you gonna find out about it? Because The second someone gets that lead magnet that isn't from that travel advisor and someone else is trying to fake it like it's theirs, it's not gonna look like them, it's not gonna sound like them, and they may not even be able to execute what is promised. It's not gonna help that travel advisor. And also, if the travel advisor took it for inspo, they should just DM the TA directly, in my opinion. I went on this rant earlier. And also, if they did do that. That should be confirmation that it's a really good lead magnet. Okay? Sorry. Alright, tomorrow we're gonna keep building on this. Why focusing on your own office offer, keeping your head down, instead of chasing every trend, watching every competitor will make you more money with real business examples to back it up. Real actual live businesses, not just travel agencies. Alright, that was day 225. I don't know where I'm at. Yep. 225. Have a wonderful day.