I recently returned from an amazing sponsored horse ride in India, where one of my fellow riders taught me an important lesson about marketing.

On the very first day of the ride, the first time we went for a canter, one of the horses towards the front of my group just took off. She bolted straight past the rest of us in a flat out gallop. Her rider tried in vain to pull her up, but the horse was too strong and flew off down the track. As the horse took a sharp bent, she slipped and her rider was ejected. Luckily for her, she had a soft landing with no permanent damage.

A couple of days later I spoke to the rider about the event and learned that she is someone who helps other riders to improve their confidence. She had actually used the experience to her advantage. Instead of going over and over the incident, thinking ‘what if?’ she had dealt with it, to the point that she could actually laugh about what was a very scary incident. She told me that instead of focusing on the negative, she’d looked at what she could learn from it. She realised that she’d been through something that some of her clients experience – something that knocks confidence. She had gained a much clearer idea of what many of them feel – and it gave her a really good insight into how to properly help them.

Now I’m not suggesting that if you put yourself in danger in order to get a better understanding of what your clients go through, but how could you put yourself in your clients’ shoes? What could you do to help you see better how you can help them?