"As soon as you plant a flag, people will start shooting" - Mel Siff, author of Supertraining, told me that nearly 20 years ago. Innovators and entrepreneurs are often forced to deal with the bad habits of their competitors. When owners are scared, they do shady things: they email clients at other businesses and offer them deep discounts. They copy blog posts and videos. They even make fun of other owners online--can you imagine a more transparent cry for help? Original ideas are sometimes ridiculed by jealous competitors. Out of ideas themselves, they throw rocks because it's the only tool they have. And even businesses serving a similar niche can compromise their core values when they're scared of losing money. But take heart: no competition is forever. And if they're copying, criticizing or complaining, it means you're winning.

For this episode, I asked members of the Two-Brain family to share their best advice on dealing with local competition. I took the first ten responses, and our producer compiled them into a very entertaining and helpful episode. These are the opinions of their contributors, not necessarily Two-Brain. They're uncut and--in some cases--very raw. But on this topic, like all the others, I believe in radical transparency.