From Teacher to Thriving Horse Business Owner

Trading Classrooms for Stables: Briana’s Journey to a Purpose-Driven Life

After over a decade as a teacher, Briana felt a deep pull toward something greater—her lifelong passion for connecting people with horses. Owning a horse property, she dreamed of turning it into more than just a personal space, but a place where others could experience the joy of working with horses. It wasn’t until she was introduced to network marketing that she realized she had the ability to build a business around what she truly loved. Taking the leap, Briana left the classroom behind to offer horse lessons, riding experiences, and leasing opportunities. Now, she wakes up every day feeling fulfilled, doing work that fuels her soul and impacts others at her facility Sunhaven in Cheney, Washington. 

In this episode, Briana shares what it took to make the transition, the lessons she learned along the way, and how pursuing her passion has changed her life. If you’ve ever felt stuck in a career that no longer lights you up, this conversation will inspire you to take the reins on your own purpose-driven journey!

Transcript

And I wanted to be that, and I tried, and I found out that it didn't light me up. It was, you know, like I just, I got everything done. It was fine. But nobody wants a life of fine. You want something that's like getting you out of bed, like making you so excited. And then in that company, specifically, I really realized that you don't have to be special to own a business

like you don't have to have a degree in business to be able to run a business, right? Once you have these like life skills that can translate into whatever type of thing you want to do, you can be successful. Welcome to her purpose, the podcast where together we dive into the inspiring journeys of women who are living out their purpose, not just for themselves, but in a way that serves others and creates lasting impact. I'm your host, Kindra Morse, and I'm here to share stories of women who've discovered their passions, overcome obstacles and found fulfillment in stepping into the work that they know they were meant to do. In each episode, we'll explore what it means to live fully, embrace your unique gifts, discover their purpose and past experiences, often painful ones, and use them to make a difference in the world. So if you're ready to be inspired and empowered to pursue your own path of meaningful purpose, then you're in the right place. Let's get started and remember, let no one clip your wings.

After over a decade as a teacher, Briana felt a deep pull towards something greater. Her life long passion for connecting people with horses. She owned her own horse property, but she dreamed of turning it into more than just her own riding space, but a place where others could experience the joy of working with horses. It wasn't until she was introduced to network marketing that she realized that she did have the ability to build a business around something that she truly loved. She took the leap. She left the classroom behind, and now she offers horse lessons, writing experiences and leasing opportunities. She wakes up every day feeling fulfilled, doing work that fuels her soul and impacts so many others. In this episode, Brianna shares what it took to make that transition, the lessons that she learned along the way, the things that maybe didn't work, and how pursuing her passion has absolutely changed her life. If you've ever felt stuck in a career that no longer lights you up. This conversation will inspire you to take the reins on your own purpose driven journey. I am so excited to talk to you today. So when I like I've known you for so long, I feel like I've known you for so many years. I've been around you at Braille races. I've been at your place for clinics. Recently, I had my daughter take a lesson with you, and I saw an entirely different version of you that I had never seen before. I just saw you in your element, the best way I can describe it. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is a different person than I know, but like you. Loved helping my daughter with her mommy, and working with her and seeing her light up and just the way you communicated with her, I was like, Oh, she's in her element. Well, I recently decided to start doing this podcast. I want to bring stories of women living in their purpose to to life, and you were one of the first people that I thought of, because I just remembered realizing how much this job that you do meant to you, I could see that like just so clearly. So when I know horses obviously are passionate of yours, but when did you decide you wanted to have some kind of a career or do something with helping people with their horses? Well, first of all, Berkeley was so incredibly easy to teach because she's a doll, and what a lucky mom and lucky dad Dan is for her. Like, What a sweetheart. She made my job very easy, as did you. You kind of let me do my thing, which was so valuable in the sporting world and in the horse world, we encounter a lot of parents that maybe like to say and teach at the same time. So it was really fun and special to get to work with her. So thank you for letting me work with her, and just glad that you guys all had a good time. But
so I was a facility more she has just so, you know, she has asked, When does she get to go back to Brianna? So, I mean, that's super cool. I love it, and I love that she was, like, into the homework, right? Like, ever? Like, yes, I can't wait to go home and do my homework, right? So that was super cool. So, um, so anyhow, yeah, I was a school teacher prior to owning Sun Haven, so I taught middle school special ed online for the most part, and then previously in the classroom. And at one point in my career, I taught everything between K to eight kindergarten, eighth grade, general ed, special ed, even was like a math Tosa for a little bit of time, and did some specializing, but, but before I owned Sun Haven, I was a teacher, and so it was a very natural shift to one.
To incorporate all of my skills as being a teacher into something that I love, which is horses and horseback riding. And like, the sentence that I always
kind of strive for when I open my business, was connecting people to horses. So I wanted to be the bridge that connected people that were interested or passionate, or, you know, like, didn't quite know where to begin, and I wanted to provide that interaction and that experience. And then so the win was when I was teaching, and it was maybe, like 2000 and like 13 something around there ish, maybe a little bit earlier,
and then specifically, even to back up from that. But that's kind of when I had the thought in my head, like I could do this. I could, I could build a business based on what I love and my degree and what I had been doing for a little bit. But the why that is something that you might be very interested in is that I had been introduced to Network Marketing and in network marketing, yeah, oh, yeah. And so it was very early,
like right after Chad and I got married, and his brother introduced us to this network marketing company. And long story short, it ended up not being for us, but it was great. The thing It introduced me to was the books and the like personal development. And I remember me remember reading like How to Win Friends and Influence People, and like all of those classics, and like a Tony Robbins book that was like 600 pages or something. And I remember reading these books and being so inspired, and then applying that just to like my life, like those self help or whatever we want to call them personal development books, right? Just really impacted me. And then fast forward a few different years, my best friend from college introduced me to a second network marketing company, and we were a part of that, and oh my gosh,
I know it's wild, and so it's
funny, I actually made a little bit of money, like, not much like, but I got a couple residual checks, and continued my like reading journey, and read a lot, and learned a ton from her and all of the people that I worked with,
and then in that company specifically, I really realized that you don't have to be special to own a business
like you don't have to have a degree in business to be able to run a business. Once you have these that can translate into whatever type of thing you want to do, you can be successful. And so that second network marketing business also didn't work out for me, but gave me the like personal courage and the whatever to pursue Sun Haven. And so then in 2018
officially opened my doors. Had all my insurance, had all of my, you know, legal things going the LLC. I had, you know, a ton of help from our equine lawyer. And so everything was like full swing in 2018
and so now it's so 2013
to 2018 so that's five years, right? Yeah, so five years from when the seed was planted to when it went live. Yes, so were you progressing like forward towards that dream all five years? Or was there periods where it went on hold? Or was it like you thought about it but you hadn't acted on it for those five years? I think it just it took, the time it took to develop all of the things within me that I needed to take the next step. And it took the time it took those five years, I suppose it was, to continue learning and maturing and refining what it would look like for me in my life and with my husband and with our children, and what that would really look like. And I said I said I was an online school teacher, and so that was super cool to be in my house and learn how to frame my day, knowing that I had to be productive and getting things done because I had a full time job, and I have two children, and I have the horses. And so I think the period of time when I was an online school teacher working in my home, I really learned how to time manage and how to get stuff done when you're in your house, and there's like, the dishes over there, and there's the vacuuming and there's like, a horse to ride, you know, so like, that was really important to learn how to do, like, time management. And I think that that really clicked in over time. And then it just was like, I can do this, you know, like that confidence kind of just showed up when it did. And then I didn't hard leave my job at first. I took a leave of absence for a year. Yeah.
And that gave me the like insurance policy of having a teaching job while I took this year to try and get my feet a little bit wet, build, you know, a few clients and see if it was going to work out. And it totally worked out, right.
Yeah, yeah. How long? So when you first got started and you're trying to find clients, or you're not sure if you can do this, struggling. Like, what were you thinking at that time? Were you waffling between like, Oh, I got this, and like, Oh my gosh. What if it doesn't work? You know? I so I talked about books. One of the books that I really love, and I still continue to read, read every every so often is the secret and the law of attraction. So I always had the belief I have this. I know I'm going to build this. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I have done. Right talking about things in the past or present tense really helped me. So
maybe it was just like blind optimism, I don't know, but no, I never was like, this isn't going to work out. You do have the
the first couple of years when I was in business at Sun Haven, you say yes to every client, you say yes to weekends, you say yes to 6pm at night, you say yes to whatever time, and you miss family things, and you do whatever you have to do, you know, you host groups on a day that maybe there's another family thing, but you choose to do the things to propel the business forward. And so those first couple of years, you know, you just you work all the time, and you say yes,
and it's so fun, because you're so excited that you're actually doing the thing you love to do, and you would probably do this for free, right? Like, for my whole life, I've had horses, and if anybody ever wants to ride, I'm like, Yeah, let's do this, you know, let's have some fun. Let's go for a trail ride, or Let's ride the arena, whatever. And I did that for my whole life, until I realized, you know, people like this,
I can provide this as a service, and people will love it. People will have fun, they'll learn, they'll get an experience. And then I'm happy for sharing my passion, plus I'm supporting my family and supporting, you know, a life that I want to build so,
so, yeah, that's so that for those years. Go ahead. Oh, just, I'm sure you've read it, but like, you should read it again. That's really good. It's easy, easy read.
Oh my gosh, I've always said that network marketing. What I've loved so much about network marketing is the books that you read, the people that you meet, and the books that you read, and the way they shape the way you think about life. They change the entire way you think about life, and what you it opens up doors of possibility that you never had prior to those types of books and that type of an environment, because you're surrounded by The Dreamers, the doers, the what if this is like? What if we could do it a different way? What if we could live life a different way? What if we could live life on our terms, do things that we're passionate about, make an impact in the world like so? So I was going to ask you about those years when you between 2013 and 2018 when you're still teaching. Were you prior to 2013 you probably thought, This is my job, this is my career. But like in that time period after maybe I could do something different. How were you, how did you relate to your job? Was it more and more like, this isn't how I want to spend my life, you know? And it was, yeah, that was a process that did happen. Like, you know, I think we're kind of, we're raised, we're taken through school. Many of us go to college, and this is the track you do, you get a job, you work it for 40 years or whatever, and then you retire and you die, and that's just what you accept as normal
and and as you like, get into that like I was, I think, you know, in the workforce at almost 10 plus years at that time, and just the realization, like, Oh, my God, a lot more years of doing something that I really like, I really liked being a teacher, and I think I was okay at it, but like, did I love it? No, I didn't love it. And did it like failure, your sense of purpose? No,
it didn't fulfill my sense of purpose. Being a teacher was lovely, but I never was like, This is it? This is what I love. I love helping these kids, and some people do feel that. Some people are beautiful teachers. I have so many amazing teachers in my life, a lot of my family, many of my friends, and I love that, and I wanted to be that, and I tried, and I found out that it didn't light me up. It was, you know, like I just, I got everything done. It was fine. But nobody wants a life of fine. You want something that's like eating you out of bed.
Said, like, making you so excited.
And we thankfully had a space that we could morph into something that the public could use too, right? We bought this property knowing that I love horses. My husband doesn't love horses. Likes them, but like, He's so awesome. No, he's so awesome. He's so supportive. Yeah, I mean, he's so supportive. I can see that from the outside. We we haven't done, like, a lot of life together, necessarily, but I can absolutely see that he's incredibly supportive, even though he's not a horse guy, he's not a horse guy. And so then for us as a couple, to purchase his property was totally out of his wheelhouse and so, but ever since then, it has morphed on down to what it is now, and we have a space that is safe for people to ride and to learn, and a community that has built around that that reflects those qualities too. So, yeah, so when, when you bought the property, you had no idea you plan to build this business there. No I had no idea. I just knew that I was horse crazy, and I love horses, and I love horseback riding. And growing up in the Seattle area, where it rains all the time, if you had an indoor arena, it was like gold, right? And so moving to the east side of the state, there seems to be more indoor arenas, for whatever reason, compared to where I grew up. And so we found a property that had an indoor arena. Granted, it's not the dodgema Hall. It's very small, but it does the job, and I love it. I absolutely do it. And so we bought this property with the thought, like, this barn is amazing, and I don't think we could probably build this barn in our current life situation. That was in 2008 you know, and I was pregnant with our son, Jackson, who's now 16. So
we, we did buy this property with the intention of always having horses and to fulfill my dream of living in a horse property,
the house was not livable. The house needed so much work, it was disgusting. We lived at our Chad's parents for a month because it had to be gutted and redone, and the barn was always solid and perfect, so but then through the years, we added changed so it could become a place where people could learn and grow in their horsemanship.
So now you're teaching all ages of people. How is it like every day? Do you feel like you're living out what you're you were meant to do on this earth? Absolutely, yes, I I love it. I wouldn't trade a day for it. And on the worst days, it's still better than any other day doing any other thing for me. So, you know, like background work of running a business. Like nobody really likes tracking expenses or taxes or, like, you know, the paperwork aspect of it. But when I'm actively working with people and improving their riding, helping their confidence in the saddle, giving them the skills, sharing the property, like doing the things that makes me feel like this is awesome, and the leasing program specifically makes me feel super awesome. These conversations show us that living with purpose is so not about perfection, it's about trusting the whispers of your heart, embracing what is probably going to feel like a mess, and having the courage to take that first or next step when you probably won't feel ready. I do believe that every woman has a story that's unfolding, and every story can become a spark of inspiration for someone else. So if today's episode has touched you in any way, my ask is this, share it with a woman you love who might need a reminder that she's not alone, and those whispers she's feeling, they're there for a reason. All right, let's get back to the episode, because it makes me feel so good when I see that relationship develop over time and people lease a horse and can grow that more than one hour a week, I love teaching lessons, but there's something special about seeing the same horse and the same rider like go through a journey together that is longer than an hour, that's, you know, like A month, six months a How does that work? So they're your horses, and then you're leasing them to people, but you're retaining like response. You have them on your property. They come when they want. How does that work? Yeah. So it's an on site lease, and it's monthly, so the person, the client, decides they want to lease a horse, and then it's kind of matchmaking, slash, based on availability of any horse that I have that is available to lease, um, and then they can come out during my open hours and ride, you know, to their hearts content. And um.
Have to be current clients, so I have to be already having a relationship with them, know that they're trustworthy, know that their skills have progressed to a certain level that I don't need to be with them the entire time that they're with the horse. So,
but it's great. You get to see growth. You get to see change over time and the relationship with the horse. And,
you know, growing up in the horse world myself like that was so incredibly huge. Like I loved the horses that I got to grow up with and to ride and to show and to race and to compete on. So I wanted to provide that for people who, for whatever reason, you know, don't live on a horse property, or don't want to pursue boarding, or maybe just this part of their line for their journey is something that they don't have to be completely responsible for all the time.
So, yeah, so leasing is super special and super fun. Um, so there are they hauling and competing on horses, or all of the is it all on your property? It's mostly on my property. My I don't want to be a trainer that takes people to races or that takes people to events like my family time
for me is at the paramount for the weekends, right? I like to go to races with my daughter few close friends. Once a year or so, I'm happy to take clients to a race, and I totally have enjoyed that, or to an event other clients. We've gone to clinics together. It's been fun. But as a
as a whole, for the program, it is an on site lease, yeah. And so how did you develop that concept? I've actually never really heard of that specific concept in the horse world. So how I mean, I think that's so freaking awesome that you looked at what would work for your family, what would work for your time, what would work for the lifestyle you want to live, and you found a way to have a business that meets your friend like is a profitable business, but isn't running your life. So how did that come about? How do you experience experienced that before as a customer? I yeah, I had heard her about leasing from a couple different avenues. One of my, you know, like people I really admire in the horse community around here, is Jennifer Ballard. And Jennifer Ballard had a wonderful leasing program, and still does. And so I picked her brain a couple times, and she was so helpful, and has been helpful in the whole journey of Sun Haven. Such a great, you know, type mentor and friend to me. So, yeah, she had a leasing program that I took a lot of inspiration from,
and just it like, as you get into business, and
this is so cliche, but you see a problem, and then the best business models fix that problem or provide a solution. And so from teaching these hour long lessons, you know, I saw the problem of, you know, people want more
people want to have more interaction with the horses. People want to connect on a deeper level, more long term, but not necessarily a horse purchase. So, um, so it almost provided a solution to a little bit of a, you know, quote, unquote problem that I saw teaching these horseback riding lessons. How long have you been doing that? So how long did you do just lessons versus when you transitioned into more is? And would you say more of your program is around that, or is it 5050
I'd say it's about 5050 you know, the lessons
and leasing probably are 5050 and then the time I'd have to look back it, you know, it was not Originally. It was a good, you know, two plus years into the business, I think that it really it showed up that people wanted more more interaction and more time with the horses and
and I love having horses, training horses, bringing them along, providing
tune ups for the horses that I own to continue to have them be really, really good animals and really, really good partners, um, and it just kind of morphed on its own, I suppose, if that makes sense, right? Yeah. So then do the people that are going through this leasing type program advance on to purchasing a horse at some point, or purchasing the horse they leased. Or do they? Does it kind of is a season of life for some people, and then it's no longer a season. Is it? What have you lost there? I think, um, you know, I think time will tell what really shows up as a pattern. Um, one of the things that I know from just my background in horses is a lot of pre teen girls are horse Crazy, right? And then maybe they get a little bit older, like, let's say that the family purchases a horse, they dump a ton of time, energy and money, and then another.
Pattern that we see develop is 15, 1617, year old girls sell that horse because they have gotten into sports, gotten into boyfriends, gotten into anything else in their life. And then the horse goes down the road. And then what a
just it's a life mountain to climb for the families that have to do this, and then the horses always,
you know, or then re homed, and that's always a hassle. And so I really thought of that time in life specifically, and how many people I had seen gone through this to provide another solution for that too. So as for trends, for the business, time will tell you know, everybody is an individual, and everyone is unique.
I value every path, right? If you go on to own a horse, I'm so happy for you. If you go on and, you know, go into a different path, I'm so happy for you, and so happy to have been part of your journey. So
it is not successful just to go on to horse ownership, any path is always successful.
And it's never the goal to be like, I know that you're starting riding lessons, and your end goal is to, you know, like, ranch or own a farm, or go down the road and barrel race. Like,
I always try and have a very open ended perspective. Like, yeah. Children may come to us for horseback riding lessons, for exposure, similar to swimming lessons, right? Adults may come to us to gain confidence, get that confidence, and then graduate on to whatever they do. Some people might stay with us for years and years and years and continue to learn, grow and like vibe with our you know, flavor out here at Sun Haven so any interaction is fabulous. I just, like I said, I've never heard of this. That's so and then as far as, like, marketing that side of your program, I've never seen that. We're friends on Facebook, so I'm sure I'm not seeing all of your marketing. But how do you go about marketing that side of it is all just relational. I'm guessing it's all just relational. Yeah, it absolutely is. You know, at the beginning of the business, I did a lot of Facebook, a lot of Instagram, I made a goal for myself to post something each and every day. And then a few years in, I started, you know, getting less and less and less and
and then I have a website, which is wonderful, and it's really not updated, because I do the the marketing end and the then technology and less and less and less, because the days are full of interacting with the people and the horses
um, and The word of mouth, honestly, has been the biggest continuing factor.
And I think that just stems from treating people well, right. Like when you treat people well, right, put people first.
When you you know, honor them in their in their individualness, then it seems to create more interactions with other new people.
I would like to get back to like, more updating the website, more marketing, you know, trying to spread the word that we do leasing. But then it becomes
like, I only have x amount of horses, you know what I mean, and there's only so many hours of the day.
And so
the fullness becomes a limiting factor. Well, I've heard, the better you are at providing a service, the less you have to be good at marketing. And that's essentially what you've seen, is the better service you've provided, the more your customers that you've provided that service to are marketing for you. I see you tagged in, we're in we live in the same area, so I see you tagged in the Cheney moms group, as when people say, Do you know anyone that does this? I see you tagged, and I tag you and but I see that. And so you've obviously built that over time, built that, know, like and trust with your customers, so that they tell other people, we had a good experience. You should go there too.
Yeah, it's, it's, I've watched it grow. So we've, you've started it in, let's see, 2018 so that's two years after we lived we moved to this house, so I think I watched the whole like growth process of your program. I'm pretty sure I knew about it pretty early on, and it's been so fun to be a part of your play days and all of that. But, yeah, it's really, really neat, super inspiring. Well, thank you. I'm so glad that you've been empowered. Yeah, do you think that there's as far as, like, other people that are feeling like they like to pursue something like this? Like, what advice would you give? Oh, I would just say that you should find something you would do for free, find what you just love. Love, love to do, and think about a way to monetize it. How can you make a living, or how can you support yourself by doing something that you already think is so cool that you would do it anyway? And if you can find something that you love that.
Much and that you honestly would continue to do regardless of the paycheck,