049 My Business Identity Thief 💰👤
What do you do when someone starts using your business name as their own? This is my real-life story of dealing with a business copycat, the legal and practical steps to protect your brand, and how to handle these situations with professionalism and grace.
*Please note that this podcast was previously called THE "Video Confidence Coachcast" and the "Do Video Podcast" previous to 2025. THANK-YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AS I TRANSITION THE BRAND TO BE MORE CONSISTANT FOR YOUR LISTENING AND WATCHING PLEASURE.Quick Quiz Time 🥳
What is one of the best ways to protect your business name from copycats?
A) Filing a lawsuit immediately
B) Registering your business name and securing a matching domain
C) Ignoring the issue and hoping it goes away
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Answer: B – Registering your business name and securing a matching domain. You will thank yourself later 🧡
My Business Identity Thief 💰👤
Imagine getting calls from confused clients asking about a workshop you never ran—because someone else is using your business name! In this episode of the Unboring Your Brand Podcast, we break down what to do when a copycat business pops up, how to protect your brand, and why civility (even when you’re fuming) is key to resolving business identity mix-ups.
It’s frustrating (and a little shocking) when someone starts using your business name, but it happens more often than you’d think. In this episode, we break down the steps to navigate this situation, starting with research. Checking your business name registration, securing a domain, and consistently branding yourself online can help you stay ahead of potential copycats.
When you do run into an issue, communication is key. A civil, direct approach can resolve confusion before it escalates. But if things get messy, understanding your legal rights—like ABN and business name registration—can give you the leverage you need to protect your brand. Here is a link to the ABN Lookup and where to apply to get your ABN.
Most importantly, stay professional. As tempting as it is to vent your frustration online, handling things with grace ensures your reputation remains intact. If you want to strengthen your brand and avoid business identity mishaps, now is the time to work with Zoë Wood, the Video Confidence Coach!
🎧 Listen To Next:
"039 Your Logo Is Not Your Personal Brand" – The true essence of personal branding beyond just a logo.
"032 Haters, love lists, and YOUR people" – Explore strategies for managing negative feedback and internet trolls.
What Was Discussed This Episode + Timecodes:
00:00 – The nightmare begins: receiving calls for a business that isn’t yours
06:15 – Discovering the copycat: a Facebook ad with your business name but someone else’s face
12:45 – The confrontation: reaching out to the copycat and their surprising response
18:30 – Lessons learned: protecting your business, handling legalities, and keeping your cool
21:30 – Final thoughts: why brand consistency and proactive research are non-negotiable
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How would you feel if you came across someone who was using your exact business name and running around and doing their business under your business name that you work so hard to put together? Well, I'm going to tell you what that's like in today's podcast episode. If you're tired of the old cookie cutter marketing advice and want to take your personal brand to the next level with bold actionable strategies that truly reflect you, you're in the right place. Let's untangle your marketing mayhem with Zoe the Video Confidence Coach on the Unboring Your Brand podcast.
Unboring Your Brand was recorded on Wadawurrung land. Today we're going to discuss a story that I had... I have to breathe in a little bit because I think it was around about 2017-2018, I can't exactly remember which, but essentially the full story is I was doing my thing, usually as I was doing, and over a part of about... I want to say over a month, I got a whole bunch of weird calls of people asking for a certain person who I did... I'm Zoe the Video Confidence Coach. I currently run a solo operation and at the time was still continuing to run a solo operation.
I did have a couple of PAs, but none of them went by those names and I would always ask, oh, is who... and then they would mention, oh, I went to a workshop you held up in Sydney and I'm like, I'm sorry, I haven't left Victoria, which is the state in Australia where I live. I haven't left Victoria for six months, I'm sorry, or I haven't run a workshop in Sydney this year or... this kept happening. So over this month period, I think I got like three or four different calls like this and it was very weird and I kept chalking it up to like, okay, maybe someone else is just, you know, maybe giving out my number accidentally instead of like giving out their own, but that would be very bad because if you're running a business and you're giving out someone's number, that's a no-go.
So ultimately, what I found out, and thanks to my website developer at the time, they came across an advert on Facebook for the Video Confidence Coach, but it wasn't my face and it wasn't my branding and when they clicked into the ad, they came across this full website with someone who was based in Sydney. And of course, that was very weird, so they, you know, clicked everything and sent me a message being like, hi, Zoe, just so you know, there's someone running around with your business name, which is weird. And of course, I researched, when I had time, I researched this particular person and it was very strange because there was a lot of talk about, again, the same things that we did, but not exactly the same thing, so we had a very big differentiation on that front, in the sense that she very much did workshops and of course, workshops is one of the skills that I provide, especially to my clients, but it's not my full-fledged, you know, thing that I do very often.
And I was going through the information back end, trying to find an ABN number, trying to find any sort of information and then ultimately, I ended up contacting her. So I ended up calling her and she didn't pick up, so I essentially called her and just said, hey, there seems to be a bit of confusion, you know, my name is Zoe, I'm the video confidence coach, I've been running my business for about four years longer than you have, and it seems like you don't have a business registration in Australia for this business name, I just want to call and confirm and have a chat with you about a few things, because it's a bit confusing. And of course, I've got a couple of clients who are coming to me, seeking you out, and of course, I don't want to leave them stranded.
That was my mentality and that's the message that I left with. Continue not to get any response, so I called back a week later, didn't get a response, and then called back again and then she picked up. So then we had a very civil conversation and of course, when it comes to matters like this, of course, I was first of all a bit annoyed, mainly because on her website, she touted that she has over 25 years of business experience.
For those of us watching right now, you'll be able to see my face of utter, you sure? What I mean by that is in Australia, you need a couple of things to run a business. You need an ABN, an Australian business number, essentially this is a number that you can give the government or give other institutions or even clients that you're working with, saying, hey, I've taken the time to register myself and my business, everything's on the up and up, here is the numbers. And if you are running a business in Australia, you have an Australian business name registration, so ABR, so Australian business name registration, which of course, I, you know, as soon as I started my business and when I went to register my business, I had to make sure that there were no other businesses in Australia who had the same name as me.
Yes, so I was running that through the registration and I update it every three years and I just pay the government for that registration and of course, continue business as I usually do. Now, you can understand my confusion as someone who, and as I was talking to someone, I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, I was trying to be nice and be kind and civil and just say, hey, I've gotten a fair few people coming to me, one of them I actually converted to being one of my clients, not out of malice, I want to stress to you, but it was because she came to me seeking out this other person, but then we talked about her problems and then I ended up working with her, not knowing that this other person was in the picture, of course. And as I was talking to this woman, she kept defaulting blame onto her team, which of course is a very big red flag for someone like myself, where as a leader, you need to take responsibility, even if it was a mistake of one of your team members or a mistake that all of you made, you still need to take responsibility for the mistake being made.
You can't just brush it off to your team and, you know, hope it was fine. And of course, I, again, tried to put the clients first, tried to put the customers first and said, hey, this is really confusing, again, you established your business only in the past two or three months, you still have time to pivot and change the name of your business. Again, you can easily do it by changing one of the words, and as long as, and if I get any more people that come to me for you, then I'll make sure to send them to, you know, your new address and your new business address.
And of course, you know, we had the conversation, we hung up, and of course, as you can imagine, there's a lot of red flags, but then I just, you the girls and a nice chat about that, and they all just said the gumption, the absolute goal. And of course, in my mind, I didn't have this as a malice thing, I just had this as a thing of, okay, we had the same business name. It's very strange that, again, when it came to Facebook, you would call yourself, you know, a video confidence coach, when you, because you couldn't get the video confidence coach page, or any of the other profiles that you had set up.
Maybe that's something. So it's one of those situations where you definitely came across someone, and which was my face, but then you proceeded to ignore that, that's a bit of a red flag. So when it comes to anyone who is listening, or who was watching, who was interested in starting a business, I want to stress to you this now, it is very rare that people with common sense don't like come up with the same business name.
Like I said, using the, if you're in Australia, using the Australian business registration system, you can type in the business name that you're thinking of, and you can see all of the options that are available. Not necessarily available in a domain sense, available in the, what is already existing in the marketplace. And again, this is purely just so people don't confuse you.
Like, you don't know what happened before, where I had all of these clients, all these potential clients, not wanting me, but wanting her, but were getting us confused, because when they Googled, I came up, because I was more established. And of course, we had the same name. So of course, they came to me.
And it was, again, really confusing. So of course, I did my usual, I put her on a regular rotation of checking in, both in my research, but also in contacting her, just saying, hey, how are you going with this change? How are you going with this change? And after, I want to say a month of about me weekly reaching out via email and checking in, I had it on my list of things to do to call her, I called her, and she sounded very flustered. And immediately, again, blamed her team, which, please don't do that.
And then proceeded to say, hey, we changed the name. And I said, awesome, what have you changed it to so I can send your clients there? And she said, oh, we haven't, you know, confirmed it yet. And I said, well, then you haven't changed the name, have you? And again, I'm still at this point, getting people wanting to talk to her, who are contacting me, because my name exists.
So at this point, I'm just like, hey, I'm just, I've got an automatic template, I just send the email to them. Now, of course, I could do the slightly unethical thing and just say, hey, you know, this person, and there was a couple of people who I got on the phone and had enquired and they had asked, oh, so you do work with this person? And I said, no, there seems to be a confusion about the name. And again, giving my benefit of the doubt, not throwing them under the bus.
Turns out later, they did not give me the same. I had an email from one of these team members that they had talked about, saying, some not so nice things about me that they had, that this person had mentioned to me. And again, it was sad to see that someone had to, again, cast this complete stranger down.
So what I mean by this is that she had saying things internally, this person reached out to me and just say, hey, we've, you know, I've had like, you know, I've talked to, so essentially, this person saying, hey, I'm on the team of this other person. I have talked to like five people so far who have really sung your praises. And, you know, I want to thank you for, you know, getting people to come to, making sure the right people come to us.
And I said, that is perfectly fine. I'm, again, that's okay. Because yes, confusion.
Like, it's yes, it's a bit strange that you didn't do the thing of Googling someone's name. But there is also a possibility that they probably did Google. They probably did do some cursory common sense research and then proceeded to go ahead anyway.
Because they're like, oh, she's based out in Victoria and we're based in New South Wales. Despite the fact that I work in New South Wales as well. And Queensland.
And South Australia. So, I digress. Oh, and also Tasmania.
So, I digress. So, again, it's rather interesting to see what people think that other people it's interesting to see what youth that they think that other people can get away with. And of course, I proceeded to follow them up.
For another three months, they still had the video confidence coach name and I proceeded to still get communications from people seeking me out. And then from there, it stopped after that because I checked in and the domain had evaporated. The website was no longer there.
And I researched her and was able to find her new business name, which was different. And I'm like, thank you, thank you. It did take you four and a half months.
But who cares? It's happening now. And I'm getting less people coming to me needing you when, you know, for example, they might be useful for my services. So, at this point, me and my PAs at this point, I just said, ultimately, if we can help them, just say yes.
Like, after the month and a half, I just ultimately just said, hey, try and sell them on us. And if they can't and, you know, if it doesn't work out, then just funnel them towards her. And it's annoying that I had to give up in that respect.
And I don't and I want to stress this, that I don't want to say that I tried to poach any clients of theirs. I had just gotten sick of being this go between for something as simple as doing a cursory Google search when you're starting up a business. So, of course, when you are doing the work that you do or when you're starting a business, like I said, going through the Australian business register and seeing what other businesses are out there.
And also taking that opportunity to cement yourself by purchasing a domain that you can consistently refer back to. Now, you don't need so many domains. You don't need all of the domains.
You just need a name that you are going to be constantly referring to so that when people reach out to you or find information about you, they can go to the right website and the right place. Because there are always going to be bad actors out there, especially in business. But doing your best to be calm, be civil, put the customers first and make whatever you can easier.
So say, for example, my website, vcc.training is my website, is where everything goes, everything is processed. And you can tell because it has. Oops.
I lost the background. You can tell because my face is everywhere. So you can definitely tell it's my website and my personal branding because it has the right colours and the right feels to my branding and not just as well as my logo is also there.
And for those who are listening or watching, feel free to check out the future episode. Your logo is not your personal brand. That is something that we'll definitely be talking about as this rolls forward, as the podcast rolls forward, I should say.
So ultimately, through this story that I have just told you, and I probably waffled on a little bit too long for this podcast episode. But I ultimately want you to take that and take this experience of mine to heart. Not necessarily that you're going to be starting a business anytime soon.
Majority of the people who listen or watch the podcast are already business owners already. But taking that in stride when, yes, it was quite frustrating that someone with 25 years business experience was doing such a rookie error mistake. And of course, with the common sense that I already had of, no, they actually did see my business, didn't think it was a threat and proceeded to do it anyway, which makes it even more annoying.
But of course, I did my best to reach out, to communicate, to be civil and putting the customer first, like making sure that the customer's and client's needs were met first before my own. Of course, there's plenty of red flags running in the background. But when it comes to situations like that, when it comes to any emotional situations like that, especially when it comes to business, I do recommend putting your customers first, when and if you've got the time and breath to be able to think about that, of course, because sometimes you just react from the cuff and from the gut.
And that's not always going to work for you sometimes, but that is okay. Doing your best to put the customer first in all instances of the business and the transactions that you do, like communication that you do, I should say, is going to reflect better for you in the outset than anything else that you do in your business. So of course, as I mentioned, making sure that, for example, if you come across the situation yourself and you've got someone who is operating a website or is operating a social media page, that is definitely not you.
And say, for example, there could be other business names internationally. For example, there was someone who was based in the UK who had a very similar name to me. But again, we were very different people and you could definitely see that in the branding and definitely see that in the messages and the audience that we tried to target.
So it was perfectly fine. And again, I think honestly, I've only had one or two people reach out for them. And of course, I just do my best to funnel them to them.
And yeah, again, being civil and being polite. But of course, the names are similar, but not entirely close. But when it comes to your personal brand and the work that you're doing, of course, making sure that everything is consistent and making sure that you're showing a united front.
So when people come to a social media page and then go to your website, the branding is the same. The faces are the same. And ultimately, the wording is still the same, mainly for SEO search and capability.
But when you are working on your personal brand, trying to keeping everything cohesive is the best step forward. Because a story like that, like I said, yes, there are going to be bad actors out in their world. And yes, it is a little bit annoying where you're trying to do your best for these people that you have never met.
And they proceed to walk all over that goodwill. But that is okay. And I hope that their business is thriving and doing the best that they can from now on, with the knowledge that you need to Google people before you do your business.
Or, you know, check out the Australian Business Register or the ABN, the Australian Business Number, to get an idea of what other people are in the sphere and who also have the same name as you. And one thing that I will touch on to the end of this podcast episode, be careful about venting to strangers online without support, without human support. What I mean by that is be careful about venting maybe any emotional frustrations that you have in a public setting.
Yes, there were situations, so say for example, this particular story did get me riled up a little bit, mainly because I was having to do the admin. That was the part that was annoying me. Not like, yeah, that she'd, you know, taken my business name.
Sure, it wasn't great that she had started a business with using the name that I had already registered, that I had bought, that I had already had websites for, that I had already established myself four years before she had done that, but she had done Facebook ads. And it was like, okay, you have a team behind you, but your team didn't advise you to start a website? Your team didn't advise you to have a cohesive branding strategy? Your team didn't do a cursory Google search? Right, cool. And when venting to people, that's why I like to do it in person, especially with trusted business owners that I have in my, you know, my groups and my associations and stuff like that, is because it is okay to vent.
It is okay to feel angry about a situation, especially one that you don't have full control over. But making sure that you vent that frustration out with someone who is understanding and sympathetic, and then when it comes to the actual object or focus of that anger, making sure that, again, you put those customers first, that you put those clients first. Hey, I'm reaching out because I'm getting people wanting to contact you, but they're coming across me because I'm a more established business.
Can you please change your business name? Because you have no leg to stand on legally. That was the niceness. Obviously, there was a little bit of anger in there, but that was a nice way of putting things.
So when working on your business name, making sure that you do, and when I say common sense research, I mean just simply googling in the business name that you're coming across. And if in the country that you're working with, if you're planning to just work nationally, then awesome, you know, work with what you've got. If you're planning to be international, then making sure that you check out other options out there.
Because again, there are going to, you know, there are so many people in the world, some people are going to have the same idea for a business name, or they're going to slightly change it or tweak it for the spelling of their particular country, for example. And that's okay. Again, your branding should stand out.
Your domain should stand out. The work that you're doing behind a business is not just the business name idea. It's more than that.
It's the work that you're putting out there and the work that you're doing to constantly bolster yourself up over time to boost your personal brand. So it doesn't matter if they have the same name as you, just making sure that you're able to differentiate yourself. Say for example, like Zoe Wood, the video confidence coach, that's how people usually find me.
They also find video confidence coach, video confidence connect, video confidence cast, like video confidence coach cast, like there's all these things that are around, again, the same name that I have registered, that I have ABNed, that I have made sure that I've got legal tenuant rights to. And because I've been running my business from, I think I registered officially in 2017. And yeah, from there, I've been consistently running my business with the same name and the same mentality from there.
So if you are doing that in your business, you are already 10 steps ahead of the potential competition. You are doing so well, and you will continue to do so well. So I'm going to leave you today with the podcast.
Make sure you check out the website as we slowly launch it out, vcc.training, as I mentioned throughout the website, and also check out the show notes where you will get a direct link to the register if you're ever intrigued or just seeing what other options are out there of other people who maybe have similar names to you. If you've ever gotten any weird emails or calls or any of that sort, check out your business register and the other options that they have that are related to your name, just to see what other people have done. All right.
Bye. Thank you for listening or watching Unboring Your Brand. You can find detailed show notes with tools, offers, and episode transcriptions.
Just click the first link in the description or go to vcc.training podcast. Get involved and ask me anything about personal branding, video strategy, or just a friendly small business chat via my email g'day at vcc.training. That is gday at vcc.training. The video confidence coach would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I record my podcast. I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. Look forward to me chatting at you next week, superstars.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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