The two passions that are at the heart of freestak are running and social media/marketing. And this post is about how a lesson learned from one can be projected on to the other.

Simon recently ran the London marathon. Aiming for a PB, it was a very focused effort which required dedication and single-mindedness during the training and 100% concentration on the task at hand during the race. He knows that there were friends in London cheering him on, but such was the total absorption in the race that he missed most of them and barely acknowledged the ones that he did see.

There were certainly some lessons learned during the preparation and the race itself. But then four weeks later Simon was off to Copenhagen to run the marathon there with a friend looking to break the magical 4 hour barrier. The lessons learned on this trip were very different.

In Copenhagen, Simon realised that whilst totally focusing on what you do – product development, event planning, retail, coaching services – is great, to a point. However there is a phrase that is important to remember:

it is impossible to read the label when you are inside the bottle

By running with his friend, Simon realised that sometimes we have to experience what we do from the point of view of a customer, client or stake-holder. And so it is in business. If you design and/or manufacture products, you need to wear them and test them. If you run events, it is worthwhile taking part from time to time. If you offer a service, try it out on yourself (sometimes harder to do than it sounds… self massage anyone?)

And if you communicate with your clients and potential customers, make sure you think about what it will feel like for those people to receive your missives and your messages. Will what you do/offer/sell make sense to them in the same way it does to you? Will the terminology all be legible? Will there be enough about them for the communication to be interesting?

In short, put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see how that feels. You might be surprised!

Image from http://instagram.com/vestsigne#