Hosts Jennifer Connor and Jennifer Wood discuss the 2025 Equestrian Businesswomen Networking Brunch and the highlights of the event. Listen in...

Equestrian B2B Guests and Links Episode 88:

• Hosts: Jennifer Wood and Jennifer Connor of EQ Businesswomen
• Sponsor: EQBW Networking Brunch
• Equestrian Businesswomen: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Foreign.

You are listening to the Horse Radio Network, part of the Equine Network family.

Hi, I'm Jennifer Wood.

And I'm Jennifer Connor from Equestrian Businesswomen.

And you're listening to Equestrian B2B, the podcast that brings together industry leaders, entrepreneurs and equestrians for conversations about how they build and sustain a successful business.

Tickets for the event include an expert panel discussion, networking exercises, wine and drinks, a gift bag, and a delectable dinner.

The EQBW Networking Night out will offer a wonderful opportunity for attendees from a variety of disciplines and types of businesses to meet, mingle, talk and listen.

The event helps women make connections, provides them with resources, and creates a community to foster professional development for successful, fulfilling businesses.

Get your ticket today and join us at the EQBW Networking Night out at the Desert International horse Park on March 7th.

Buy your ticket today at eqbusinesswomen.com well.

Cheers to another successful event.

Yeah, I was just going to say the same.

It was a great year and I think we had a really successful event and a lot of great feedback from everyone.

I loved getting emails afterward from people who said they really enjoyed it and that they loved seeing people that they had met and made friends with in previous years from the event.

And then they got to meet new people this year as well, which I think is great.

There's people that have come all three years and then we have brand new people as well.

So I just love the mix of people that we get and just the entire atmosphere of the day is so cool.

Yeah, it's awesome.

It's very energizing and I always feel like so much camaraderie is in the room.

Totally, you know, so supportive and yeah.

And I this year I had invited a couple of people who are outside of the hunter jumper world, more in the racing world to come because she started a new position and I was able to just like easily bring her in and introduce her to a couple of people who introduced her to a couple of people and she really had a great time.

Like the feedback from her was like, that was like awesome.

Like such a good time and unexpected on her Part because I don't think she was expecting it to be so open and welcoming and interesting the way it was.

Yeah, that was fun.

When they walked in, I was like, oh, those are racing people.

Like, those are not our usual people.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's, it's really great.

And, and the mix of businesses and people, jobs that people have, it's.

It's so fun and I just really, I really enjoy it.

I always am sad that I don't get to spend more time with the people that I.

I know and I've met in the past.

And I really want to chat with and I want to catch up with.

I feel like I need a Florida so that I could like, go around.

And catch up with everybody I know.

Yeah, same.

I wanted to actually do the networking part of it.

And I think you.

And I miss out on that a bit because we're organizing and we're talking and we're moderating and so maybe that's something to think about for the future is how we get our networking time in.

Yeah.

For real.

I know, but I just love being up on stage holding a microphone.

Oh, yeah, I know you do.

Oh, well.

We were so fortunate to have such great partners and sponsors with us this year.

And then to like.

The speakers were wonderful.

I mean, the speaker and the panelists were great as well.

Yeah, yeah.

We had, you know, speaking of our partners, the Hatfield Schwartz Law Group and Elite Estate Management and Terra Nova Equestrian Center.

They were three of our supportive partners who, you know, were new and wanted to support us.

And then we had all sorts of, you know, partners who donated to our gift bags, which is always awesome.

They made them really special for people.

Mars Equestrian and FLM are always great sending us chocolates that everyone really appreciates.

You know, decra, of course, supporting us with our AV and yeah, it was just really cool.

And I love the horse spot idea where we had the boys talk about.

Horse spot and, you know, her overwhelming energy and enthusiasm.

Not overwhelming.

Incredible.

I guess that's a better word.

Because I was like.

Because remember when she was like, oh, I'll just, I'll just go get it and I'll bring it in the morning.

And I was like, it's a six foot board.

Yeah.

And it was like a six foot four.

We're like, yeah, I don't think we need an eight foot board.

But it turned out great.

It was so fun.

It's such a good idea.

I love it.

Yeah.

And you can see pictures, pictures on our Instagram of it.

It was a really Great idea from Horse Spot of putting a board up.

And then there were places for everyone to write the best piece of advice they'd ever gotten.

I thought it was really cool reading everyone's.

There was some really inspirational ones.

There were some funny ones.

So you can see those on our social and on Horse Spot social.

So go and follow them and take a look at what they do and.

And, you know, the great support and stuff they do for horse shows and events like ours.

Yeah.

And then we had the bags that are amazing from Ride Every Stride.

Yep.

And you teased our new merch line coming soon.

Yeah, I can't wait for that to happen.

Yeah.

And it was really funny.

I overheard somebody saying, oh, my God.

I had.

I came last year and I got one of these bags and I left it somewhere, and I was so mad at myself, and I'm so excited that giving them out again, I was like, yeah, it's a good bag.

It is a good bag.

I use it all the time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But all that stuff is.

All of her stuff is great.

Right?

So.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's funny as we talk about, like, the swag that we get.

And last year at this event, India Wilkinson from R.

Main Street Market.

Main Street Market gave us coffee mugs.

Yeah.

And it ended up being one that I just really liked.

It was a good size for me, and I used it, like, every morning.

And I don't know where that thing went.

Like, I don't know if the kids hit it or Mark broke it and threw it away.

I don't know what happened.

And I was messaging with India before this year's event, and I was like, and I never ask for free stuff.

Right.

We never know.

And I was like, is there any chance you have those mugs left?

Like, you could bring me one?

She's like, I literally have one left.

I will bring it for you.

You're amazing.

Thank you.

And I'm back to having my coffee in it, everybody.

That's funny.

It's funny.

You know, we're old when we were, like, very finicky about the mugs.

I know I have a favorite coffee mug.

I mean, who am I?

This is.

It's funny.

Also, we have to give a big shout out to Wellington.

They work with us.

Wellington International.

They work with us so well every year.

That's a great spot.

Yeah.

And we had people just comment about how special it is to be able to go to an event and have show jumping right there out the window as we're talking.

So, like, you know, in the breaks, they can sit and watch.

And what was cool is we had to move it a week later than we had it previously.

And usually the.

The.

The last week or the last years we had it, the big FEI classes were out on the grass at the other facility.

And this year there was a meter 50 going on.

Yeah, that was amazing during our event.

So it was cool.

Like, all the big riders were showing and it was like Laura Kraut going around while we were talking.

And I was like, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, that was great.

It just like you said, the atmosphere of it is special there.

Yeah, it was super fun.

So our keynote speaker was Lisa Ellis, who's the CEO of Brain Juice, and they are a big sponsor at Wellington International.

But if you look at her background and her career, it's really incredible and how varied it is.

She has some marketing positions at huge companies, you know, like Reebok.

And.

And then I think, you know, where she really made her impact was at Sony and working in their music division.

And like, she worked with really cool artists.

And yeah, like, I mean, I.

I'm pretty sure she worked with Lauryn Hill, which I was like, oh, my God, that's so cool.

Well, we were.

When we were looking up her bio and stuff ahead of time, we were all fangirling over her.

Totally.

Yeah.

And yeah, so we reached out to her and, you know, I think it was cool to see not only did she work in a huge.

In huge corporate roles and kind of in the entertainment industry, then she went to start firms with people that she worked with in the past.

So she, you know, had kind of that experience as well of starting businesses from the ground up too.

And, you know, Brain Juice is just another one of the companies that started that she helped start, and now that's kind of her main focus.

And she's an equestrian, which is awesome.

She has two horses showing at wef.

But it was really, really interesting to hear her talk about, you know, her.

Her career and kind of the.

The steps and the building blocks of each position that she had and kind of what she learned from each that helped her into the next.

I thought she did a really good job at kind of going through and explaining and connect, making all those connections, and it all kind of circled back at the end, which I thought was really cool, because the man who was kind of her.

Her mentor at the beginning, who was the founder and former CEO of Reebok, which was one of her first positions, they.

She started that.

That firm for luxury consumer products with him.

So I.

I just really thought how cool it was kind of going full circle.

And she just really had a lot to say about, you know, what it meant to her as a woman in business, as a black woman in business.

And, you know, how hard she worked.

We had a Q and A at the end, and I don't remember what the question was, but, you know, she talked about how she worked her butt off.

Yeah.

You know, and that's.

I think one of.

She talked about the expectations of young people today and how you can't just expect to jump into your perfect job and how.

How hard you really do have to work to get to something that is what you love.

Right.

And.

And that's what I think was so interesting because I.

I remember one of the questions being kind of like, about work life balance sort of, in a way.

And she was like, listen, like, you're in the equestrian business.

It is a hard knocking business.

Yeah.

It is a lifestyle you have to live in.

And I was like, hey, we talk about that all the time.

Right?

Yeah, yeah.

And.

And she was very honest about it, you know, like, that you have to work hard and it's.

It's an industry that you're just gonna have to work hard in, and that's kind of the lifestyle you have to live and lead.

And it wasn't like discouraging that you're never gonna have to have time to yourself, but it was very much like this.

Listen, it's a labor of love in this industry and.

Right.

I like that about her.

I like that she's been able to connect a product that is so outside the realm of equestrian.

Yeah.

Into the equestrian industry.

Yeah.

Right.

And bring it awareness and connect it in there and then connect it with other products.

Like, it's kind of like this marketing genius.

When she was talking about they're doing something with cask coming up and, you.

Know, protecting your brain.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, my God, that's so brilliant to be able to, like, take these two very different things and then bring it in and connect it together.

And so I thought, like, she was super inspiring that she's had all these transitions, she's collected all this knowledge along the way, and now she's out there and incorporating it into riding and horses that she loves in with a product that is out there to help people.

When you were talking before about how Lisa was transitioning through all these roles and collecting all of this information, it started to make me think about the panelists that we had.

And we had such a great panel and they were from very different parts of the industry.

Yes.

Right.

And you got to moderate that panel.

And the reason why I was thinking of what you're talking about with Lisa and connecting it into the panelists was, like, the first panelist that you were talking to was Nancy.

Nancy Dye.

Yep.

And she was very much about your mindset and how that whole mindset helps you.

And I think she was, like, so blunt and, you know, no BS type of person.

And what it makes me think about is, in the end, what she said about how you may have a goal, but it's not necessarily about the goal.

It's like, the journey of getting there.

Right, right.

And so you, you know, put yourself out there with this goal.

You say her example was somebody asked, like, I want to be a Grand Prix rider.

And she was like, okay, so that's fine, and you're gonna get there, but you have to do, like, X, Y, and Z to get there.

And she and I had a conversation after the fact, and I was comparing it to being at PodFest talking about a strategy meeting.

And the guy who was talking about strategy was, like, a couple of things.

He was like, first of all, you need to treat yourself like an employee because you let yourself off the hook more than you ever would let any employee let themselves off the hook.

Like, the reason why you're not getting there is because you let yourself off the hook, number one.

Number two, like, so what if you don't get to the end?

It's all the things that you've collected that may have opened up doors and opportunities along the way.

And I feel like that very much relates back to Lisa and what she was talking about, like, with her career and all these, you know, different pivots that she made, things that she's done and collected along the way.

And you know what?

Maybe she's at where she wants to be.

Maybe she has other things she wants to do, too.

But it's opened up so many doors along the way.

And I love that about Nancy, like, connecting all of that at the end.

Yeah, totally.

I called Nancy my wild card panel.

Yeah.

Because I didn't know her, and she had been recommended to me, and, you know, we had talked over email a few times, and things had just not worked out for last year's event and being on our podcast and things like that.

But it.

It just.

It worked out this year, and I'm so glad she was able to come.

And she was super cool, and I loved her vibe.

She's very much a vibe.

Yes.

Like, you either get it or you don't.

Yep.

You either like it or you don't.

Yeah.

And I liked it.

And I'm not the type of person usually to kind of be like that, I guess, but I did like how straightforward she was.

And.

And I thought when I asked her in the beginning, like, you know, my questions were about how to improve your resilience and how do you get unstuck and break bad habits?

And she mostly talked about what you say to yourself.

Right.

Yeah.

And.

And I think this really connects to our last podcast episode with Krista Kehoe.

Yep.

Very similar, I think.

And, you know, she.

But I feel like their vibes are completely different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And same message, different delivery.

Very much so.

And yeah.

And, you know, she gave the example of, like.

Of stopping or halting.

Yeah.

When you're saying, I can't do something.

So she did an example, and.

And I thought it was too simplistic.

Right.

Which I think when you are trying to get your point across in, like, five to 10 minutes in front of a bunch of people, you probably do have to be simplistic.

But I could kind of feel like maybe people were skeptical.

Yeah, I was skeptical, honestly.

Like, I liked her and I thought she was funny, but I was like, I don't know about that.

And so, you know, at the end, I kind of questioned it.

You know, I was like, well, honestly, Nancy, like, anybody can say, I want to be a Grand Prix rider.

And we all know most, 95% of us are never going to be Grand Prix riders, whether we want to or think we can.

Right.

I know in my heart of hearts, I will never be a Grand Prix rider.

And that's when she went.

She had a little more time to go more into it, and I think we can play this clip of how she explained it, and that's really when it made sense to me.

I know.

Because they were like, how am I not being delusional?

Yeah.

I was trying to think of a.

Better word, and it just wasn't there.

Nope.

But it was perfect.

It was perfect because I think that everybody in the room could relate to what you were saying.

Right.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that was really good.

Yeah.

And then the next panelist was Jenna Hahn, and we love Jenna.

She's been on the podcast before.

She was on.

On one of the really early episodes.

She's great.

I get to see her a lot at different functions with my real job because she works at Butterfly, and so I always appreciate input that she has for people.

Yeah.

She's in the animal health industry.

And that's kind of what she was talking about, you know, about her career and what she's learned from it and, you know, kind of advising women who are interested in getting started.

And I think this clip will explain, you know, her thoughts of, of why and how great the industry is for women and how everybody supports each other in it.

And I also, at the end I asked her a question because I sort of know the answer, but I wanted to hear what she had to say.

And it was about whether or not you needed a degree to get into animal health.

Because to be honest, I know a lot of people in the industry who didn't go to colle, especially in the equine side of things.

I won't speak so much to the companion animal side, but for equine, I think that a lot of people didn't go to school or went to school briefly, but it's there.

It's different than like say human pharma because we have our own lingo and having that hands on experience in the equine world is so important to connect with people in the equine world and customers and veterinarians and having a comfort level with them that typically you don't have to have in some of those other parts of pharmaceutical professions.

And so she had a really good answer for that, saying no.

And she, she's had people who have started and worked for her and now are VPs of companies or COOs and have maybe started, maybe don't think about starting at the highest level, but get yourself in the door, get your foot in the door and work your way up and you know, figure it out, figure out what position you want and kind of hone your skills for that.

So that's kind of a good information for people who are sitting in the room who may be like, oh, well, I, I could never do it because I don't have a degree.

You gotta ask, you gotta put yourself out there.

Maybe not start with the big, big players who have huge HR departments, but like, right, why don't you start?

There's small companies out there.

Get your foot in the door, find a friend network and make a connection to it and get yourself in there and you know, it could potentially be.

A fit for you for sure.

I think there's so many people in our industry that are so smart and you know, whether school didn't work out for them or they just knew that they loved horses and they wanted to be with horses and, and that was their career and now they've Found that, you know, they need to make a change or they want to do something different.

I think this is a really awesome way for them to try and find something new to do and have it be a real career that can support them and have availability for growth.

Yeah.

And I always think about when you're writing your resumes, people always like, well, you know, I did this with the horses.

Or that.

Yeah, those are important jobs.

That is, there's a lot of skills that come along with that.

That's not just feeding the horses.

It's organized.

It's time management.

It's, you know, so many things.

And you have to think of it outside the box.

You have to think of those things and apply them towards what.

What that skill would equal in.

In a corporation.

So.

Yeah.

And Ann Hawkins from Live eq.

Yep.

Was our third panelist.

It was great to meet her.

And because we'd only, you know, met online and not in person.

Yeah.

I loved having her there.

And I think, I mean, social media is always our most popular topic whenever we have somebody who is an expert to talk about it at these events.

So there were lots of questions for her, but I liked she had a very specific topic to talk about rather than just like random, how do I do social media?

Yeah.

Hers was, you know, how to make ambassador programs successful and how to work with influencers to really make revenue and to have them work for your company.

And because I think so many companies, especially in the equestrian industry, where there's so many small businesses that.

That don't have the money to grow around and maybe they don't even have the money to, like, send a ton of product to people.

You know, they.

What's the best way for them to use these relationships successfully.

Yeah.

And she was really good at explaining what to do, giving really specific.

Yeah.

Rules of how to go about doing it.

So I thought she was great.

I think a lot of people got some really valuable information from her.

Yeah.

Like me on how to be an influencer.

Because that's what I answered.

You're gonna have to grow that following, girl.

I know, I know.

She was like, post consistently.

I was like, who's got time for that?

Yeah.

That was my question to her.

I want to know how to be an influencer.

Not really, though.

But, you know, I thought that there might be other people in the room who were thinking the same thing.

Like, yeah, like, tell me how to get to the influencers, but how do I be one?

So, yeah.

On a side note, though, like, I wish I had watched this Before I had, we had talked to her.

This is a little bit like Squirrel for me, but follow, follow along.

So I just watched, I just watched on Netflix.

I think it was Netflix or Prime.

No, it's Prime, a video about LSU and their sports program and Nil.

Yes.

And I was like with the Angel Reese.

Yes.

Angel Reef and Olivia Dunn and Yes, the gymnast.

The gymnast, yeah.

She's like the highest paid Nil player.

And I was like, okay, one, I'm glad that we didn't have social media at college, but two, I'm not because I think I would have crushed Nil.

We would have gotten paid and go.

Yes, yes, that would have been amazing.

But anyway, I was thinking, I wish that I had watched that before we talked to Ann so that I could like ask her if there.

They've had anybody approach them, you know, and worked with anybody who is doing Nil in the equestrian.

That would be interesting to know if that is happening.

Yeah.

Because you know, there certainly are well known enough young riders in college, you know, like in the NCEA programs that could probably gain from that.

Yeah.

I wonder, maybe that's a follow up for Anne.

I know on the podcast.

And if anybody knows it, email me.

I'm dying to know.

I'm nosy.

How much money are you making?

Yeah, I could be like, dang, I could have made it.

Could you imagine?

And then you'll know who to be your next ambassador for.

Writers Rent.

Exactly.

I was thinking the same thing.

I was like, oh, man, how could like, I mean, I don't have a lot of money for writers Rent, but you know, like when I was in college, 100 bucks would do me good.

I would have posted all day long for a hundred doll or a bottle of vodka.

You're pretty easy.

But for that.

Yeah, I don't think you can do that, you know, for a college program, but probably not.

But anyway, I wonder, are there liquor brands that do nil with college athletes?

I haven't seen.

I don't think so.

No, I haven't seen any.

No.

But like the local food joints.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, if Grouchos wanted to give me free sandwiches, I would have posted all day long.

Oh, just for free.

Free sandwiches.

And what's the sauce?

57 sauce?

I have no idea.

I don't remember.

And sweet tea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But anyway, we digress.

Yeah.

So.

But Anne was great and I think that's something to think about going forward is, you know, how to have some type of topic that, that can really help people directly yeah.

And what I really like about these networking brunch panels is that we.

For each one, we've gotten three people together who have nothing in common, really, in their businesses, and we ask them separate questions, but then they all kind of comment with each other and they get into conversations with each other or reference back to each other, which I think is really cool because in our original summit, we picked topics that we wanted to talk about, and then we had three or four people in that same.

Right.

Area of the industry to talk about that one specific topic.

So we had like four.

Four.

Four panels.

Yeah.

On four different topics.

But I, you know, we don't have time for that in a brunch.

Right.

But I.

I love having people from different areas talking about their expertise.

Yeah.

And then.

And they make these connections that, like, we might not have made when they're sitting up there discussing things between them.

So, yeah, it's super cool.

And it gives everybody, like, some diverse nuggets of information to take home, too, rather than it just being one subject.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah.

I think they can gain more out of it, hearing about three different things than just one in one afternoon.

Yeah.

So I'm really excited to keep growing this and doing more of them, and I think people get excited about it.

Like, we've heard.

Oh, so, you know, people can't wait for next year and they're gonna come and it's like, oh, next year.

So far away.

Will they remember us then?

But I.

I really hope they seem to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So just keep rolling because it's.

It's great.

It's super fun to do, and I think that everybody gets a lot out of it and enjoys themselves.

If you are on the west coast and able to make it to Desert International Horse park on Friday, March 7, tickets are on sale now for the EQBW networking night out, which is going to be really cool.

It'll be our second year there, and we're going to have a really awesome panel there, too.

We're just finalizing our confirmations on a few people and then we'll be announcing that.

But, yeah, definitely get your tickets there.

It's such a different vibe, too.

And if you went to the one in Wellington, you want to go to the one in California.

We welcome you to do that as well.

Please do come out and.

And see what California is all about.

Yeah.

I think you'd be surprised at the vibe being different than what it is in Wellington.

Yeah, that was fun.

I can't wait to go back out.

Well, we both have to get on our way to Ocala so we can do this weekend all for Horses Expo and we're going to close out by.

Find the links to today's guests and the show notes@www.eqbusinesswomen.com.

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SA.