The premise of this business principle is that if you're going to eat your own dog food it's a pretty safe bet that it's going to be very tasty.



In this speech I'm going to answer these 3 questions:

1.  What does it mean to "Eat My Own Dog Food"?
2.  What is my "Dog Food"?
3.  How am I going to eat my own dog food?

1. What does it mean to "Eat My Own Dog Food"?

I learned this concept from my time working with Microsoft. To answer this question I'm going address 3 points:

1.1.  The Problem
1.2.  The Solution
1.3.  The Result

Their problem was that in the early days Microsoft had a serious problem with the usability of their computer software. They did not use the tools that they were selling. Their management team found that internally their staff were using a number of their competitors' tools. Because, quite simply, the competitors' tools were better... they actually worked. Of course, in this situation their programmers did not care that they were shipping defective tools because doing so did not impact their personal productivity.

In a flash of genius someone in Microsoft's management team came up with the solution to ban the use of competitors' tools for the production of Microsoft products. Now their development teams could only use the company's own internally developed tools.

The result of this hugely unpopular policy was that initially there were many missed project deadlines. They simply could not get the work done using their own tools. As desired, and in a remarkably short amount of time, Microsoft's management found that their programmers had fixed their tools!

This concept of using what you create came to be called "Eating Your Own Dog Food".

2. What is my "Dog Food"?

I build audiences for Experts, Coaches and Public Speakers. In marketing-speak we say that we build their "platform". When promoting our service we promise our prospects that leading an interview series will give them these 3 primary benefits:

2.1  Fans
2.2  Credibility
2.3  Income

Instead of just building a database of email addresses we build an audience that LOVES their leader. By the time we're done the leader's new audience behave more like fans than customers.

We build a leader's authority and credibility by teaching to interview other experts in their industry. By the end of the first series the leader is is considered, in the minds of their audience, to be a peer of the experts interviewed. By the end of the second series the leader is considered to be a leader of the experts interviewed. A remarkable accomplishment that takes less than a year.

We use proven marketing tactics to generate as much as $2MM in a year. Again, a remarkable accomplishment, as this as much as 3 times the income generated by our competitors.

3. How am I going to eat my own dog food?

Well that's easy I'm going to create and lead an interview series that will generate an audience for my company's services.

The benefits we are going to enjoy are they same we offer to our customers:

2.1  Lots of raving fans
2.2  Instant authority and credibility
2.3  Significant income

But as a 4th, added super bonus, us producing our own interview series (aka "Eating Our Own Dog Food"), will inspire confidence in our prospects. They will have evidence that we are so confident in our services that we use them to grow our own business.

Conclusion

To recap, I answered these 3 questions:

1.  What does it mean to "Eat My Own Dog Food"?
2.  What is my "Dog Food"?
3.  How am I going to eat my own dog food?

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