The Underlying Blog: Eat Your Own Dogfood OR ELSE

Sometimes, you notice something once, and you laugh it off. Then you notice it again... it annoys you some, but you've still got other things to do. Then you notice it in places it shouldn't be expected, and you spring to action.

Well, you can take the Kyle signal out of the sky. I'm in attack mode, and have my sights set people selling one brand of dogfood and eating another. See, I've noticed a trend toward companies and solopreneurs marketing and selling core competencies they're abysmal at internally. In some cases, they aren't even using the solution they pimp out. Kind of like the hair dresser who looks like Sonic the Hedgehog with bedhead. This piece is my gut feeling: you can pay me by the hour if you want a spreadsheet to back it up (wink).

Go Shorty...

Look folks, it's always, always going to be easier to say one thing and do another. You know, put some chocolate syrup over crap, hope the client doesn't bite in too deep and run like hell into the mountains to drink and forget. Maybe you have an interest in selling a certain product to the customer, but know in your heart what you use is actually better. More often, it's easier to fix everyone else's problems than your own. It sounds good, and you can say with pride that you go about in need so that your clients prosper. I've heard that one a ton of times, and it's still hilarious.

By not practicing what you preach, can you help but deliver a Win/Lose solution? How would you know if the client is doing it right if you're not doing it yourself? Okay, you can say that because you tell everyone else what is right, you have expertise. But if you never actually 'do' it yourself, could you possibly be telling everyone else the wrong things?

And if you can't give a client real-time insight into their implementation, then you run the risk of nodding and smiling in a situation where you would lose the deal if you didn't...Yet... you may have torpedoed a division/company with said smiling & nodding. So, if that's you, I'm sorry bub, you're in the business of screwing people.

Poor Capitalist?

But is that economically viable, even for you the screwer? YEEAAAHHH, you got your check! You leased a car.. you're a star! Never mind what the screwee will plot against you in the coming years. Especially if it's an esoteric product it may take months or years to realize the full extent of the hosing. Your Win/Lose coup will probably get flipped on you the day you learn the delicate cat you thought you could muscle-over 5 years ago was really a lion cub, now fully grown into a you-respective maneater.

Man-Eating Clients

A few months ago, I had the rare pleasure of looking into the eyes of 8-10 tigers simultaneously at night, their eyes aglow with the moon's light. They were in cages shaped in a V, and I allowed myself to kneel down at the widest part of the V and gaze into their eyes. God help me if they were scorned clients with the freedom of movement.

Do the Right Thing and You Can Afford Pop/Soda/Coke with Pizza!

And the silver lining is, your selfish interests are best served by living what you preach. For one thing, you'll know what excellence looks and feels like, because you are it/ you live it/ you enforce it. If you work with clients, you'll intuitively know if they are nearing the edge of the cliff on foot or wing. And that is all the difference between a prosperous consultant and a poor one.

4 Main Dogfood Points:

As I go, I'll burn down in the VSS Solution before I use something other than what I promote to you (or I'll at least disclose and regroup around what I evolve to).
If you and your company try and sell me a product, know that one of my first questions will be: How do you use your solutions internally? Are YOU eating your own dogfood?
Know that if you laughingly tell someone the aspect of YOUR business you fix for others is a mess, they / I have just lost respect for you. Unless you are paying me to fix it (Cheshire grin).
In short, don't call me unless you have mastered what you are selling.

"What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death."-Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson-