Yes, there’s quite a bit of copying going on — and you can be the target of it without even realising somebody is preparing to copy you. One day a very senior executive of a top tier firm contacted me wanting to learn more about my strategic connecting services. He was training some of his top executives on relationship building and wanted to know more about my workshop/speaking topics.
Off to his office I went and we had a discussion on what he was doing and how I could help. During the talk I noticed he was VERY interested in learning the details of what I do and focused on how I managed to become a strategic connector.
I could see he was trying to extract much more information than someone who was interested in needing a simple service such as workshop. He also attempted to flatter me too (even hinted at a date! Yeah I know right? Give me a break).
Being such a top dog in the business hierarchy I suppose he thought that would work.
It didn’t.
Anyway, he ended the meeting seemingly very interested in what I can do for him and asked for a proposal. I sent one and he wanted to follow up with another meeting but then cancelled the day before and despite my frequent follow ups I have never heard from him since.
Note: he does check me out on LinkedIn regularly though.
Now this would generally be a very normal scenario for a business woman. And I thought that was the case of course — until I noticed an article he wrote on his personal blog soon after we met.
It was an article on strategic connecting. On the importance of it and how to do it. All of a sudden this man had become an overnight expert in something that takes about 10 years to master.
That’s when I had the “FML” moment. This was another instance where a man had pretended to be interested in what I do in order to learn what he can and pass it off as his own.
How did I respond? Silence.
I didn’t say a word to him or to anyone else. I did however learn to perfect my ability to spot the kind of man who’s threatened by intelligent and confident women. Learn to avoid them and call their bluff.
Also, this has given me a great story for my keynote presentations and I know he continues to follow me on LinkedIn, maybe for new content? Who knows…
Either way, a big brand name could not buy him quality of character and the higher up I go the more I recommend his competitor. The ripple effect of such behaviour is long lasting.
I also take comfort in the fact, the next time I’m in a room with him, he will forever feel uncomfortable around me knowing what he’s done which puts me in a position of power. People will sense this power play and gravitate towards the stronger protagonist — which in this case, is me.
