The pace of your equine assisted business can be frustrating at times.
Do you feel like your business moves in fits and spurts?
Or maybe you feel like the star character in Failure To Launch?
So you stop trying or resign yourself to the fact that it just isn't meant to be?
I've so been there....just yesterday. LOL - This is part of the journey in being a human reaching for that next level of experience in your equine assisted business. I've been at this horse assisted gig for 14 years and the coaching and counseling gig over 23 years. It has felt like a roller coaster ride at times.
I would love to tell you that my story is - I was born and became a kick-ass equine assisted professional. However, that would be a HUGE lie.
Business development in an equine assisted learning, coaching, or psychotherapy endeavor is not always an easy journey.
My journey from the start includes chapters about burnout, fear, frustration, failures to launch, fights with my husband and my team, disappointments, hurt, rejection (sometimes by the very groups I was working to support) and any other negative experience to be had in business.
I also experienced chapters about happy, exhileration, abundance, finding my herd, creativity, celebration and cohesion.
Here's the thing: I know how it feels when no matter what you do, you just can't seem to get your business off the ground and flying on it's own at the altitude you need or want it to. I want to share with you three key elements needed to create that path to success...hmmm...sounds like the beginning of a book title. Wink Wink.
I graduated from Coach U and built my coaching practice while I was in grad school to become a counselor. In those days, dinaosaurs roamed the earth and private sessions seemed to be the focus so I built that. I would slide into Friday night feeling like Bill the cat. I would sometimes take 40+ client sessions in the week. I hit the wall of burnout.
The time I took to rejuvenate from that led me to take more training in business coaching and adding horses to the mix. I came out of that starting gate excited, head down and running hard. The first year was awesome and I was tracking to burn myself out again. You see, I did not have the foundation or the path laid out before me for what would make the journey easier and definitely less stressful.
I want to share some insights and key elements so you avoid the path to burnout and pick up the pace on your path to success.
Key element number one
Your mindset and mental fitness around money and marketing. You will market and promote your business only to the level that you are comfortable being seen. I work on this one element more so than all the others because I recognized early on that I would hit a stopping point. It became bizarre to me how and where I would stop, but I first had to recognize it was me subconsciously stopping and blaming external circumstances. Happiness and success are an inside job.
Key element number two
Foundation - like the sole of a horse's hoof, you need a healthy foundation that is balanced and bringing rhythm to your work with horses. I feel like a broken record on this one because it is so critical.
- What is your brand telling your audience? Your brand is the promise of the experience.
- How is your business model rolling out? Delivery matters.
- Who are you aiming at? Aiming at everyone = marketing to no one.
- How are you pricing your services? If you are calling your buddy that does equine assisted work and asking what to charge, you are doing yourself and the horses a disservice.
Key element number three
The pathway to where you want to be...the pathway to success has to be defined by you and created by you. There is no magical formula or book out there that is "it." If all we needed was a Tony Robbins book, a social media strategy, or some other tactic - we'd all be sipping umbrella drinks in the French Riviera and you wouldn't be reading this.
This is where the application and action comes into play. Doing it. Laying out the pathway - putting yourself out there courageously. Being willing to feel the fear and doing it anyway. I love Brene Brown's work in this area of vulnerability and authenticity. This is where element number one, mindset and mental fitness, comes into play BIG TIME.
I keep a coach (or three) and / or a therapist all the time. Why? Because my humanness gets in the way of where I am going. Causes me to leave the clear path and get lost over in the weeds. They pull me forward, help me breakthrough barriers, and leave my mind clear and creative so I can continue down that path toward the vision I hold...to make horses the "go to" for personal and professional development. To raise the value of horses in the eyes of humans, so both human and horse experience a higher vibration in life.
Do I meet resistance? Did I mention I keep a coach and/or counselor in my hip pocket all the time? You will meet resistance, sometimes from your own colleagues, sometimes from organization leaders, AND it is their stuff, not yours. I have met all of that in big and loud ways, I know in my heart I am on the path of my soul's purpose and I urge you to stay on your path of purpose with horses.
To pick up the pace in moving toward success with horses -
1. Know thyself. Know where you are stopped and ask for support to keep going.
2. If you find yourself standing on the sidelines criticizing (yourself or others) - create something, it feels better and moves you in the direction you really want to go.
3. Get clear in the three elements I have outlined here. This is where it gets easier.
I promise that once you get these three key elements going strong - the pace of your success picks up...BIG TIME!
If you are at a point where you'd like some experienced support in clearing your path to success, I'd love to chat with you. Use this link to schedule with me. No obligation beyond us getting acquainted. Get some insights and resources that can scoot you down your path to success.