The Busiest Time of the Year!
Keep kicking up dust right through the fall and into the New Year, because the best way to go into 2022 is on top of your game.
If you work in the horse industry, you know: Fall is the craziest, busiest, most exhilarating (and exhausting) time of the year. With year-end conferences, major events, and annual deadlines looming, not to mention the holidays, it’ll be tax season before we recover from the intensity of the last few months of the year.
Here’s how I’m capping off 2021—the attempt to return to normal!
Published the fall NRHA Pro Trainer, which you can find here. We covered some important subjects, including choosing a business model, preparing to be interviewed, navigating murky waters of sales and commissions, and finding personal health insurance when you’re self-employed. And that’s my photo on the cover from NRHA Professional Shane Brown’s place.
Completed monthly blog posts for Horse&Rider, which you can find here. I especially learned from Ryan Rushing’s insights concerning stepping away to find solutions.
Attended the American Horse Publications annual seminar and Equine Media Awards. I’m an AHP board member and relished the chance to reconnect with my partners in equine media and fellow board members. The seminar sessions provided great educational and collaborative opportunities (attend next year!), and I was surprised to win the coveted Service to the Reader category for a feature I assigned and edited that appeared in the NRHA Reiner last year.
Launched our first class of nominations for the Ray Barron Strength & Honor Fund, a scholarship developed in my dad’s name to recognize strength and honor shown by Colorado wrestlers. We’ll award our first $10,000 scholarship to one deserving Colorado wrestler in 2022, and I can’t wait to see who’s chosen. It’s been a labor of love (and healing) to work on this project, and I’m proud to serve as president of the organization.
Consulted on numerous projects for Equibrand, a company I’m proud to partner with and provide content varying from SEO and catalog copy to packaging copy to native feature-writing to promote new products.
Began work on the 2022 issue of The Instructor, the official publication of the Certified Horsemanship Association.
And this week I’ll travel to the NRHA Futurity in Oklahoma City! It’s one of my favorite events of the year, and is a perfect way to celebrate accomplishments for the year. It gives me a chance to connect with my audience on a personal level by speaking with professionals as well as reinvigorate my creativity to dive headfirst into 2022.
How are you wrapping up 2021? I’d love to lend my talents to your year-end efforts and to help planning for a successful, positive 2022.