A couple weeks ago, I went recreational skating with a speed skating coach.

I was curious about skating technique, so we started from the ground up.

Most of it was intuitive, he said. Starting. Stopping. The illusion of two skates on the ground when you’re dancing and grooving to the music.

But one idea stuck with me, unique to speed skating.

When you’re on rollerblades:

  • put one foot forward and one foot back
  • tip forward the back skate so (that only the front wheel is touching)
  • tip backward the front skate (so that only the back wheel is touching)

When you do this, you create the third skate.

The third skate is controlled like regular rollerblading.

You can maneuver it, even accelerate with it depending upon your body position.

You maintain balance, because it keeps your center of gravity directly below you (between the first and second skate).

In vintage jazz dance, we have a similar concept: what is created between you and your partner and your relationship with the music.

I’m now tempted to call it “the third dancer”.

The pattern is pretty clear.

The third thing is the intangible thing that’s created as the outcome of the dynamic interplay between two tangible things.

Or, the “invisible” but very real relationship that comes from two parties.

In counseling, when they say both partners need to prioritize “the relationship”? That’s the third skate.

The relationship created between a business and customer, made up of either the warm feelings (or broken promises)? The third skate.

I’ve heard it said that a brand isn’t a logo, or typography, or a product. Or that a brand is the consistency you show in the marketplace.

Perhaps another way of looking at it: your brand is the third skate.