A contrarian take:

Sometimes consuming over producing is what gives you the leg up.

I’ve always been of the opinion that producing is much more valuable than consuming. It puts you in the driver’s seat, it gives you a new perspective, and to be honest, it makes life more interesting.

When you’re the one producing what others are just eating up, you see things differently.

You have to, or you wouldn’t be the one doing the thing. It becomes a vicious cycle.

But I had a thought this morning while at the gym listening to an interview with the founder of Thursday Boot Company.

They position themselves as a premium leather boot company at half the price of the competition.

And guess what?

I just bought from them.

A pair of beautiful brown leather cap-toe boots. Can’t wait to unbox them.

This single purchase led me to a streak of Youtube reviews, aftercare guides, and comparison videos.

And throughout the entire process, I was ultra-conscious of my thinking.

From picking the color, to finding the right size, to scouring through the FAQs for information about shipping and returns, tax fees etc.

In other words, I was aware of being “the consumer”. And it was awesome.

It was like an out-of-body experience (if you’re a nerd like me, it’s not that rare to have these).

What I realized, is that putting yourself in this mindset makes you think deeper and more critically about your decisions and thought processes.

And in turn, this is useful when you’re switching back to being “the producer”, the entrepreneur, the builder, the leader.

Consume better to produce better.

Consuming better is about being mindful and paying attention to your experience. Producing better is about building cool stuff that makes an impact.

For example on Thursday Boot’s site I had a crazy easy time finding the right size. Obviously I’ll confirm once I get the product, but still the guidance, the step-by-step instructions, and the overall experience, everything was perfect.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, but tomorrow I’ll do a quick write-up of it to show you what I mean.

One question for today:

What’s one way you can switch perspectives on something you’re working on?

Start walking in those shoes and see what you can learn from it.

If you want to learn more about how I do it in my research and haven’t checked it out, I talk about this in a recent podcast:  How to Turn Your SaaS Site Into a Conversion Machine .