I'm Done Being Silent About Content Theft

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

In 2019, I watched someone I greatly respected blatantly steal from me.

They took a video I made for Facebook—which got 2,000,000 views—downloaded it, and reposted it natively on their LinkedIn profile.

They tagged me, of course, to wash their hands of blame..

But it was deeply, deeply dirty.

“Why Tom? He was doing you a favor!”

Aww! He was doing me a favor?

So… why not copy the URL of the video and share it instead? Why:

1. Download the video

2. Upload that video to your profile

3. Tag the person who made it?

Because, my friends, there’s a key part of this you should know.. LinkedIn heavily penalizes links to outside websites. Downloading the video and posting it natively was a surefire way to get more views.

And it did. My video got over 200,000 views for them, and almost assuredly led to an avalanche of new followers, email subscribers, and possibly customers.

“But Tom, he tagged you?!”

So? You think people read the description? You think people realized that the guy in the video wasn’t actually the guy who posted the video?

Of course not. This was a huge growth tactic on LinkedIn back in the day. Huge profiles would download Youtube videos, re-upload them natively to LinkedIn, and give credit to the creator (without a link to their channel) at the VERY bottom in fine print.

This, my friends, is what you’d call an ethical gray zone.

Tagging me was a very smart move. It made them look good. But in reality, it was like the U.S. government making reservations for Indigenous North American tribes. They gave me a little bit, but stole basically everything.

This Niche Can Be So Dirty

This person is VERY FAMOUS in the online writing space. They are on Substack. If you like following writers who write about writing, you probably know who they are.

And this is the problem I have with this space..

There’s so many super duper famous “influencers” here who do things that are disingenuous and morally ambiguous.

It seems the only rule in this space is that there are no rules. It’s the wild wild west. The person who stole my video has been in mastermind groups I’ve been apart of, and my peers in this space promote and collaborate with this person all the time because they have a very large following.

It feels so, cussing, dirty.

This same person used to write articles that were eerily similar to original, viral pieces other folks in our mastermind wrote weeks earlier. Sometimes the headlines basically matched except for one word or two.

I used to dunk on this person. I used to name drop them to my list. I used to flame them in public, until one day a few people I respected talked me off the ledge. They told me it wasn’t a good look. That I should consider collaborating with them, not criticize them.

I thought they had a point. It wasn’t a good look to just constantly dunk on this person. It looked petty. Not to mention all the internal turmoil it caused me being bitter about it. So I apologized to this person. I let it go. I tried to just ignore them and do my thing.

I reflected on this recently, and I realized that my younger self was actually more right than I realized.

What this person did was wrong. And everybody who told me to just forget about it and move on showed me just how deeply flawed this entire “niche” really is. This niche of writers who constantly copy each other and sell $497 programs with the slimiest funnels and sales pages.

A year ago I interviewed Kelton Wright, a Substacker with 5,000 subscribers who writes about living in a cabin in Colorado. I’ve found that the writing advice she gave me in 1 hour felt 100x more helpful and genuine than years of writing advice I’ve read from marketers disguised as writers who see that writing about writing can be a very lucrative business.

Ironically, it seems the most successful writing coaches aren’t even true writers. They’re marketers. It’s the marketers who are teaching millions of people how to write better—not writers!

Look. As writers we need to learn from the marketers, too. To be a successful writer online, you need to write well, and you need to understand the business side.

I will give the marketers this… they know the business side VERY well.

But many times it’s all business, and no heart.

There Is So Much ‘Mirrorposting’ That Goes On

Back in January, I had someone basically ‘mirrorpost,’ or steal, a viral Note I wrote back in January and repost it to their profile 12 days later. Here are the two Notes side by side.

My original Note

Their eerily similar Note with the EXACT SAME example.

I’m coining the term ‘mirrorposting,’ because this behavior falls somewhere between plagiarism and paraphrasing. It’s deliberate “mirroring” of content that you saw went viral, in an effort to go viral yourself.

This behavior, to me, is not okay. It’s just not. It’s disingenuous, for one, and it’s borderline plagiarism for two. Now, I get that it’s a slippery slope and there’s no ideas that are 100% original anyway, since what we’re posting about may have been said before….

But there’s a difference between unknowingly having the same thought as someone else, and copying the exact same idea, example, and posting it 12 days later.

This happens all the time in my niche! People imitating content, courses, and messages they saw someone else have success with. It’s so annoying—especially for creators who are actually trying to lead thought.

All last year on Notes, I wrote about slow growth, and taking it easy as a creator. This content was born out of my own personal experience with burnout and obsessing over views.

In 2024, it was fresh, new, and original.

Now, in 2025, everyone and their mother has suddenly become obsessed with telling people to “grow slow,” and “take it easy” as creators. Have you noticed that?

A lot of people complain about all the writing advice on Substack Notes, which I get, but I think the real thing they’re complaining about is that all the writing advice looks, feels, and tastes the same.

Why do we think that is?

Did all the writing coaches suddenly get trapped in a hive mind or something?

No. Of course not. They’re just copying the stuff that went viral before. And here’s the most infuriating thing…. they get more views than the people they are copying. Why? Because they’ve gamified content. Instead of posting Notes once or twice per day, they post 10 times per day, deliberately, to give themselves more chances at going viral.

These same people who say we must “grow slow,” and “be thankful for our 10 subscribers” are pumping out Notes like they’re working in a sweat shop because they’re obsessed with getting more likes, followers, and subscribers.

That’s the dirtiest part of it all for me.

Telling your audience to grow slow while trying to grow as quickly as cussing possible yourself.

That’s like a fitness influencer telling everyone they don’t use steroids, while literally shooting up every day behind the scenes. IT’S DIRTY!

It’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until you’re on the inside, actually innovating.

Following Genuine Creators Is So, So Important

It’s disingenuous. Isn’t that important, too? Isn’t it important people say what they mean, and mean what they say?

If these marketers saw that content about, I don’t know, eating dog food was going gangbusters viral and driving lots of new subscribers, they’d start posting about it TODAY!!

Isn’t that.. kinda wrong? It’s obviously not illegal, but it’s not real, either.

Again, it’s a moral grey zone that these people constantly operate in.

Haven’t you noticed how many people in the “How to grow your Substack” niche all post Notes every week telling people to share their Substacks down below in the comments?

Do you think they’re doing that because they genuinely want to foster connection?

No. Of course not! They’re doing it because these Notes get hundreds upon hundreds of likes, and drive tons of subscriptions. They’re not doing it for you. They’re doing it because it’s a cheap way to get a lot of engagement, and boost the Note in the algorithm.

“So what, Tom! They’re helping people!”

Okay. Well, what would you prefer? That someone close to you said “I love you” and actually meant it, or said “I love you” just to further their own agenda?

I think everyone and their mother would want them to be genuine.

So, why are we so okay with people who are, pretty clearly, not genuine?

Many people in the “How to write and grow on Substack” niche are not genuine at all. They would not be in this niche, writing about writing, if it weren’t profitable. They don’t care about writing. They don’t really care about you, either. They just care about making money.

For me, I couldn’t stop writing if I tried. I love every second of it. More than that, though, I love leading thought and driving the conversation in new, interesting directions.

The ‘Gamifying’ Of Content Turns This Into A Crazy Hamster Wheel

What complicates all of this is the ‘gamifying’ of writing. Yes, if we want to grow, there’s two ways to do it:

1. Copy what’s worked for other people.

2. Be original, and trust people will like this “new” angle you have.

The marketers, who are obsessed with efficiency and optimization, will choose option 1. Every time. They are not interested in wasting their time with failure, experimentation, or originality.

That’s cowardly behavior.

These same people who coach others about how to write better don’t care about being original themselves. It’s so dirty, and I’m sick of ignoring it.

Yes, I write about writing, too—but I also have written over 1,000 articles online about a variety of different topics. In fact, writing isn’t even the topic I’ve written about most online. Just check out my work on Medium.

In the last few weeks, I’ve realized that younger Tom actually had it right the whole time. Younger Tom stood up against this crap while everyone else was too much of a coward to.

There was simply too much opportunity in collaborating with these folks, and too much risk of alienating their audience, and alienating themselves from these influencer “in groups” to speak out.

I was way more brave back in the day. A lot of times I mistake confrontation for wrongdoing—classic people pleaser stuff. In reality, it takes a lot of bravery to speak up and be honest about it.

It costs a lot. It costs money, it costs collaboration opportunities, it costs potential friendships, etc.

People Who Are Doing It Right

There are a couple people in my niche who I really love following on Notes.

Kristi Keller 🇨🇦

come to my mind immediately. Yes, she writes Notes about Substack sometimes, but the ideas always feels fresh, new, and original. She also writes Notes about random things that happen to her, and funny anecdotes.

This is the mark of someone who’s being genuine on social media. Someone who posts some Notes for the heck of it, and is just having fun.

Compare that to the 10+ Notes per day we see other Substack coaches pumping out that all look, sound, and taste the same, and you’ll see what I’m talking about immediately.

What Can We Do About This,

Substack

?

Mirrorposting, idea stealing, and flat out plagiarism have been going on for my entire life as a creator. Remember the Note I showed you above that was plagiarized from mine? I sent this person a private message trying to show them that it’s wrong, and that it felt bad to see that, and that while I didn’t think they were a bad person, I just wish they took more care in the future.

They responded defensively and admitted no wrong-doing.

I asked ChatGPT if I was being too harsh, and it told me this:

“This isn’t just ‘a similar idea.’

This is the same idea, the same metaphor, the same format, the same framing, with the same emotional resonance, released less than 2 weeks later, by someone who follows you and writes in your niche.

If this were a college classroom, it would be marked as plagiarism. Period.”

These people don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.

This shows me just how far adrift we really are, and how much social media really is the wild, wild, west, where anything goes and few receive the punishment they actually deserve.

It feels bad to see your writing plagiarized. It feels worse when you watch these people have even more success than you stealing your writing.

This doesn’t feel good,

Substack

. It’s hard to fix it, because sometimes it’s hard to “prove” someone is just stealing your stuff, but I do know it’s wrong, deep down.

Maybe we can’t stop mirrorposting, but we can stop celebrating it. We can stop pretending it’s okay. We can create a culture that values thought leadership over thought mimicry. And it starts by naming what’s broken—and refusing to play dumb about it.

I hope something can be done.

Can you do me a favor? Share this if you liked it. I want more people to know about it. It’s a huge injustice, and it doesn’t get talked about enough.

Thank you. Have a great weekend.