Are Your Feet Moving Backwards?
In April 2010, I attended an event called the Equine Expo, in Columbus, Ohio. At this event, there are many different clinicians and trainers from all over North America offering guidance and advice that have helped them succeed.
One clinician in particular, Richard Winters, said something that really struck me. He said,
Think about that.
Whether you have horses, or dogs, or kids – if you are backing up, you are not standing your ground. You are being guided by their actions instead of guiding them by yours. But we’re not really here to talk about training horses, dogs or kids. This is a business lesson.
Stop trying to do it on your own!
Let me share how it showed up for me.
I was at a social gathering a few years ago and the topic of my business came up. At that point, my business was only about 3 months old – it was still quite new.
All was going well until I kept being asked over and over the same question because they couldn’t comprehend how I work with people. I soon found myself in the hot seat and on the defense. I was moving my feet backwards.
But here’s the thing. Just because the horse has your feet moving backwards doesn’t mean that you give up all training efforts.
There were a couple of times that weekend in Ohio, where even the professionals had their feet moving backwards, but they didn’t quit altogether. They stopped and realized what was happening and then tried something else.
After my night in the hot seat, that’s exactly what I did.
First I’ll admit I was mad. Mad because I didn’t have the skills or the confidence at that time to be able to handle the situation. To be able to reply with confidence of what I knew.
I re-gathered my thoughts and what I could have done differently.
I had to revisit what it was that I was trying to help these business owners with. I thought about their business and their language and then I reached out to meet with them again.
I presented to them, in their language, how I could help them with their business. As a result, I was able to negotiate a contract with them.
