If you’re new here, Welcome! I’m beyond excited to share business tips + cool tools + my Equus journey with you.

A little background on my heart’s true passion, Equus Coaching, and how I got here….

Have you ever thought, “I see others… (like my husband! Okay, I’m speaking directly about him)…always wanting for things, working harder to always have more and never seeming to have enough!”?

Growing up, I was taught things like–you should work hard to save your money; you should always be able to make in one week what your mortgage/rent payment is; you only spend money when it’s absolutely necessary; and on and on. Having this limiting belief has oftentimes made it a struggle when it comes to willingly fulfilling my husband’s wants and desires. Until recently.

I truly realize now how much of a gift it is to have him be this way and to be in my life. Once, when my husband and I were still dating, my dad made the comment, “He’s such a dreamer.” And you know what, it’s true. He is! But I can honestly say that ALL of the things he’s imagined for his life and for our life together have become a reality in the 19 years we’ve been together. Was I always willing to support him? Most likely not; not at first, anyway! The best part of it though–he’s encouraged me to take risks and chances that I never would have, had it not been for him.

I feel the need to share this with you because if it weren’t for his ability to dream big, and his unconditional love and support for me, and our children, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. The Equus Coach Training is a huge journey for me right now, and a big shift in how I show up for my clients and family every day.

Check out the text conversation we had in April while I sat in the airport before I left for my first Equus group onsite training in California. Thank God for his understanding of what it means to pursue a dream like this.

Luckily, my husband understands that it’s time for me to make changes in how I do business. He knows that I’ve had this need to show up more as myself—someone who knows how to help people, and who loves horses big-time. Because of this, deciding to formally learn and implement the Equus Coach Training has turned out to be a perfect fit for me and where I’m at right now…right where I belong!

My Equus Journey

So, here I am, on this wonderful journey of Equus Coach Training. And you’re thinking…Say what? Coaching horses? Training horses? Training coaches with horses? I know; it’s not exactly a common household term, right? I get a lot of questions about it, and a few awkward looks! As it’s still new to a lot of my friends, family and clients, I want to share a bit of what Equus is…

First, it’s pronounced – eck-wuss, with a short “e” sound.

Simply put, Equus is a non-verbal language. It’s a kind and effective way of communicating with a horse, and of a horse communicating with you—all without even getting on a horse!

By learning to effectively and authentically have a “conversation” in this way, it allows us to create and maintain a solid relationship with the animal. Surprisingly, this process is also how humans work, which is what drew me to it.

Horses are so amazing in that they have such a strong sensitivity in non-verbal communication that they mirror back to us exactly what our body is communicating to them. This, in a teeny tiny nutshell, is how Equus Coaching works.  In other words, they are able to reproduce exactly what our body is internally communicating, helping us to see ourselves and show up in the way we want to, verses meandering through our lives and businesses.

For instance, if you’re feeling nervous before entering a space with a horse, but keep telling yourself you’re not nervous, or you don’t want the horse to know your nervous–guess what? He already knew from the moment you walked in. And since your actions aren’t congruent with what you’re feeling, chances are the horse will keep its distance from you. Once you become aware of this and are able to ground yourself and really honor how you’re feeling (because it is okay to be nervous in the presence of a 1,200 lb giant), oftentimes the horse will walk right up to you. It’s truly magical.

This amazing process allows you to see how your own resistance or nervousness shows up when you step out of the horse ring and into other areas of your life. When you need to perform at your very best for a client, host an amazing webinar that genuinely helps your prospects and turns them into customers, or you’re at that family birthday gathering where things normally go sideways 30 minutes into it, Equus Coaching gives you the tools to be fully centered and in greater control of how you show up, allowing you to get ahead instead of feeling like you just dropped the ball at that critical moment. The results of Equus Coaching are truly impressive and fully transformative.

Horses provide us with non-judgmental feedback. They show us when we are internally matching how we’re feeling externally and when we aren’t. They do it in such a gentle yet immediate way that it allows us to be honest about how we’re feeling in the moment, and play with it, experiment with it, and learn from it.

I can’t wait to share more on Equus Coaching with you, and I’d love to hear your initial thoughts on the subject! Or perhaps you’ve got an Equus story of your own that you’d like to share. Please feel free to comment below!

Throughout our lives, we all need to have someone in our corner acting as coach, mentor or cheerleader, as committed to our success as we are. Rarely does a day go by where I don’t see that in my own business and life. As I continue to build and grow my business, pursue my own personal passion of becoming an equus coach, and work hard at being the best wife, mother and friend I can be, I’m constantly reminded of how difficult all of this would be without these special people in my life.

I’ve worked with business coaches since I first launched my VA business, and let me just say there is no better single decision you can make for yourself and your new business than the decision to sign on with a qualified business coach. You have the vision and the goals for what you want your business to be. A qualified business coach can help you lay out the plan, work towards the goals and manage the pitfalls that all entrepreneurs face. They’ve been there, done that. It’s the same with life coaches. They fill in the details of your plan, and hold you accountable for working that plan. Most of my wonderful clients are coaches. I see the impact they have on the lives and businesses of those they work with, and I’m constantly in awe of  them!

Mentors are another treasure in our lives! The dictionary defines a mentor as “a wise or trusted advisor or guide.” Is that ever true! Whereas a coach may get more into the nuts and bolts of building a plan and helping you work through the steps, a mentor is often that person you look to as a role model. They can be the image of what you aspire to be; there to offer advice and guidance as you need it. Mentors can be anyone in your life or business that you admire and respect; a parent, grandparent, or sibling; a business leader or colleague; even your old high school teacher! Really, didn’t we all have that one teacher that we loved and turned to whenever we needed advice during those challenging teenage, high school years?! I know I did, and I still appreciate them for being there for me!

Along with your coaches and mentors, who may come and go in your life, your personal cheerleaders are oftentimes the ones you need the most! They are the family, spouses, and friends who are always in your corner, supporting you every step of the way as you journey through this wonderful crazy world! They get you; they understand who you are and what you want, and they encourage you to be your best self and live your best life. And when you fall, they lift you up, dust you off, give you a hug and send you on your way again!Life can be a sea of highs and lows, and we all need people in our lives to help us navigate the rough waters.

Find yourself a coach, a mentor and a cheerleader (actually, you can never have too many cheerleaders!), and let them help you become all you’re meant to be. And remember to pay it forward!

Since our focus the past few weeks has been all things social media, I thought it might be helpful (and fun!) to end the month with a list of terms commonly found in our social media and other online circles. If you’re like me sometimes, just reading through some of today’s articles and postings is like trying to read a foreign language! Avatars and hashtags and tweets, oh my! Not to mention the acronyms! There’s an acronym for almost everything these days! LOL, right?

Here’s a quick list of some of today’s widely-used terms in social media and online in general. Of course, the key word here is today, because new ones are trending and going viral all the time!

To give kudos where kudos are due, the list below was compiled from a recent blog on the awesome social media site, HubSpot.com. To keep the list here brief, some of the descriptions have been shortened. You can find HubSpot’s full list in its entirety here.

• Avatar – An avatar is an image or username that represents a person online, most often within forums and social networks.
• Chat – Chat can refer to any kind of communication over the internet but traditionally refers to one-to-one communication through a text-based chat application, commonly referred to as instant messaging (IM) applications.
• Connections – The LinkedIn equivalent of a Facebook ‘friend’ is a ‘connection.’
• Fans – Fans is the term used to describe people who like your Facebook Page.
• Favorite – Represented by the small star icon on Twitter, favoriting a tweet signals to the creator that you liked their content or post.
• Follower – In a social media setting, a follower refers to a person who subscribes to your account in order to receive your updates.
• Friends – Friends is the term used on Facebook to represent the connections you make and the people you follow.
• Handle – Handle is the term used to describe someone’s @username on Twitter.
• Hashtag – A hashtag is a tag used on a variety of social networks as a way to annotate a message. A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a “#” (i.e. #InboundMarketing).
• Like – A Like is an action that can be made by a Facebook or Instagram user.
• Meme – A meme on the internet is used to describe a thought, idea, joke, or concept that’s widely shared online. It is typically an image with text above and below it, but can also come in video and link form.
• Mention – A mention is a Twitter term used to describe an instance in which a user includes someone else’s @username in their tweet to attribute a piece of content or start a discussion.
• Recommendation – A recommendation on LinkedIn is a term used to describe a written note from another LinkedIn member that aims to reinforce the user’s professional credibility or expertise.
• Retweet – A retweet is when someone on Twitter sees your message and decides to re-share it with his or her followers.
• Tag – Tagging is a social media functionality commonly used on Facebook and Instagram that allows users to create a link back to the profile of the person shown in the picture or targeted by the update.

Here are just a few of the common acronyms you’re likely to see…

• Application Programming Interface (API) – An API is a documented interface that allows one software application to interact with another application.
• Direct Message– Direct messages — also referred to as “DMs” — are private conversations that occur on Twitter.
• Instant Messaging – Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time, direct text-based communication between two or more people.
• PPC – PPC is an acronym for pay per click. Pay per click is an online advertising model in which advertisers display ads on various websites or search engines and pay when a visitor clicks through.
• RSS Feed – RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs and videos in a standardized format.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of unpaid traffic to a website from search engines.

And then, just for fun, here are a few common texting abbreviations that you often see…

• AAR – At Any Rate
• ADDY – Address
• BRB – Be Right Back
• BRT – Be Right There
• BW – Best Wishes
• CAAC – Cool As A Cucumber
• CM – Call Me
• COB – Close Of Business
• COL – Chuckle Out Loud
• DIY – Do It Yourself
• DK – Don’t Know
• IMO – In My Opinion
• IYSS – If You Say So
• IKR – I Know, Right?
• LOL – Laughing Out Loud or Lots Of Love

Now that you know some of the terms and fun shortcuts, you’ll be all CAAC the next time you Friend, Like, Connect, Link and Mention!

When talking about social media, most of us immediately think about the usual suspects…Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Some of us may go a bit farther down the list of 200+ social media sites and include Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr. All are great sites for connecting with your audience! But there’s another key platform that’s really making headway these days as a successful marketing strategy, and that’s online business forums.

Whether you join an existing forum, or create your own, an online business forum is a powerful way to connect with people in the same industry, as well as potential or existing clients. For coaches with group programs, establishing a private online forum is a convenient way for your coaching clients to connect and share, get questions answered and find support and encouragement as they go through their coaching program.

Just as with the other social networking platforms, there are many professional forum sites to choose from, such as ProBoards.com and Boardhost.com. If you’re interested in adding online business forums to your marketing strategy, here are a few guidelines to help you get started:

• Find the forums that are right for you. Just as with the other networking sites, you want to be where your audience is. Do your research, and ask your colleagues and peers where they hang out. You can also visit forum hub sites such as Board Reader and search for specific niche keywords.

• Read the fine print. While all user agreements will include the typical legalese, each site will have its own specific rules. You need to understand them and make sure they fit with your goals for selecting that forum.

• Create a reader-friendly username and avatar. Select a name and image that reflect your business, are easy to identify, remember and pronounce. Using your high school nickname and your dog’s image may be cool for you, but will it speak to others as an identifier of your business? In keeping with that, you’ll also want to make sure your profile clearly describes your expertise and business services. You can include a few bits of personal info like hobbies or favorite sports, but keep it brief.

• Be professional. Many forum users are respected experts and bloggers in the area of interest of that particular forum, so you’ll want to maintain a high level of professionalism as you engage with the other users. Remember, you’re using this forum ultimately as a marketing strategy, so be aware of the underlying message you’re sending as you post your messages to the group.

There are so many benefits to using online forums as part of your business marketing strategy. For more great tips and advice, I recommend this article at Inc.com.

If you need help with your marketing strategy for online business forums, we are here to assist you! Our Virtual Team works with extraordinary life and business coaches who are looking for a true business partner to bring their BIG ideas into tangible, clickable reality. Want to learn more?