It started with an orange.

My career started in advertising, then branding and marketing, as a creative strategist: the link between a client's bigger picture and the creatives who turned it into ideas. Add nearly two years leading the regional business of a global e-commerce platform, and years of creating large, immersive events. Exciting. And a lot of madness.

In 2001 I'd had enough, and escaped to Brazil for a sabbatical.

2002. Back in Amsterdam after a year away. No job, no clients, and one foot still on the other side of the ocean.

A friend ran a training agency and had landed a big assignment: communication training for 1,500 physiotherapists. He was short of trainers. "You've got this," he said. He picked me up, handed me the manual, and I read it during the two-and-a-half-hour drive.

Then I walked in. Twenty-five physiotherapists in a bright room in a congress centre. Arms folded. It was a mandatory course: two days away from their practice, costing them time and money. Some of them were clearly not happy to be there.

I had no experience as a trainer. So I picked up an orange from the lunch table.

"We're going to throw this to each other. Make eye contact first. It can't hit the floor. When you catch it, tell us your name and what you want out of these two days."

People started throwing. Joking. Laughing.

By the end of the second day there was openness. People talked about things they were really struggling with, and we used those as our examples. They told me how much it had helped them.

That's when I knew: this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.