How Horses Can Make You A Better Entrepreneur: Meet Jessica Baker

Jessica Baker spent years in corporate sales, a career she didn’t particularly love. There came a day when she finally hit her point of no return:

I couldn’t stand going to the corporate environment anymore, sitting around board table meetings with people that were not being authentic. It was just like I had this completely visceral “I cannot do this anymore” response.

Fast forward to today, Jessica helps healers and wellness professionals to create solid, profitable, sustainable businesses they love, and she does that using powerful methods that involve one of her most beloved things: horses.

Why horses? She was already a lifetime horsewoman, a love affair that started when she was a child:

People say “How long have you had horses?” I’m like “Well, I was practically born on a horse.” My mom was pregnant with me, and while it was safe, was still working around the horses with me. There’s pictures of me at 2 years old riding my horse by myself.

When Jessica was clear that she had to leave corporate business, she knew only one thing-that she wanted to work with horses-and from there, serendipity took over:

I made a choice that I really wanted to follow my heart and do something that helped people and that worked with the horses because the horses were my love. I needed to be doing something with them…

So I mentioned it one day to the barn owner-the woman where my horse, Magnum, was boarded-and she said, “You know, Jessica, with everything you’ve been through, and how much personal development you’ve done, and with what you’re interested in and talented with people, there’s this program called Equine-assisted Coaching…maybe this is something that would really be a good fit for you.”

And when she said it, it was like, “Oh, this is it! This is the culmination of all of my talents.” It was just this “Yeah, I need to be doing something like this.”

So I went and researched…and within a couple of months, I went and got trained in that, and started facilitating those types of experiences right away.

Of course, I wanted to know how exactly do the horses help entrepreneurs become better at what they do. Jessica explained:

One thing that horses are really fantastic at teaching is about listening to your heart and your intuition, and being in alignment with that. They are so super sensitive to energy. When we’re not in alignment, they’re the first to let you know.

So they really help my clients-and they really help entrepreneurs of all kinds-to recognize places internally that they may not be 100% in alignment with their heart or with their intuition. They open people up to something within themselves that allows them to be vulnerable and to really see who they are.

There are many other things the horses can help with as well:

One of the really fun things I love to use them for is helping entrepreneurs to get into the energy of business, the energy of entrepreneurship, because there’s an energy we need to be in as women entrepreneurs, specifically healers, to attract clients and to build a business. We need to be moving forward. We need to be in our power.

We need to be willing to set really clear boundaries, and take courageous action and hold true to our message and to ourselves. And the horses are really fantastic at teaching that energy of how to get into the flow, how to get into the playfulness, the creativity and how to do that authentically from your heart.

Jessica went on to share a specific example of how a client learned about her own personal power from one of the horses:

I had one client who, recently we did a three-day retreat together and she needed support in stepping into her own personal power, but she didn’t even realize this until she was with one of the lead mares in this herd.

We went in with her and I said “I want you to ask her to move out of your way. I want you to ask her, just with your body and your energy to have the horse move.”

She struggled with that, which is perfectly okay. So she struggled with that for a moment and I said “What’s coming up for you?” And it was around power, and what power really meant and what her experience of power was.

And so literally I said “Let’s Google the exact definition of power while we’re here.” So we did. I can’t remember what it is, but it’s very clear. There’s no emotions around power. Power is just, I think, an ability to create a reaction, basically, is all power means.

So I read that to her right there-thank God for iPhones-while we’re in the horse pasture and she got it. She goes, “Oh, I always thought power was around manipulation, or fear, or control, and I was afraid of that.” So I said “Okay. Let’s remove all that. Now ask the horse to move out of your way.”

She stepped up. I asked her to step into the energy of her power literally. “Step into that. Step forward. Ask the horse to move out of the way.” Boom! It happened and she was like, she was crying just having had that experience of moving the horse and feeling her own power.

[Working with horses in this way is] really just this beautiful, organic process, depending on what is going on for each person.

I find that seriously cool!  You can watch my entire interview with Jessica here, in which we talk about many more things including:

• The life-altering events and choices that put Jessica on her right career path
• What depression really is and how to get out of it
• The way most of us limit our possibilities and how to crack those limits open
• How she funded her transition from corporate business to being a full-time entrepreneur
• How the risks she’s taken have paid off
• What she did to get her husband on board with her vision (and the mistake she made that she suggests you avoid)
• And more!

You can find out more about Jessica at Jess-Baker.com. She is also hosting a free online event in June called the Healers Wealth Revolution, designed to help healers, therapy practitioners, and wellness professionals create a 6-figure business sharing their gifts.

Have you ever heard of, or worked with, specialists who use animals as catalysts for growth and professional skills development? 

Photo: Clara Carmen Phoenix