In this episode of the Business Animal Podcast, I interviews Tiffany Sedorus of Valor Through Gestalt. Tiffany, a Veteran, has faced many challenges on her entrepreneurial journey. She openly shares about her experience in manifesting her dream property on which to build her business and an inspirational story of how we sometimes get exactly what we want and then find out it no longer fits the future vision. Tiffany’s story is one that will show you dreams not only come true, but they change, morph, and continue to build as long as you’re willing to follow the flow of energy and do your part to keep moving forward.
Visit https://valorthroughgestalt.com/ for more information on Tiffany and Valor Through Gestalt
Tiffany’s story shared from her website:
After more than 10 years in therapy, numerous anti-depressants, serious bouts of contemplating suicide thinking I would never fit back into life outside of that uniform, something had to give. I made up my mind that these demons needed to be laid to rest once and for all. I had met a woman who told me about the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method and how it didn’t involve riding or obstacles to work with the horse. I knew there had to be some merit to it because every time I showed up to the barn in tears, my horses carried me through the pain and I left a little bit better even if I was simply sitting in their stalls while they were eating.
In January of 2019, I started on my own journey to my Equine Gestalt Coaching Certification. For the first time in my life, I have clarity. Not only am I sleeping better more often, my anxiety and fear, and depression are gradually finding their way out of my body and laying to rest in the sand in the arena with the help of my equine partners. I have, once again, become part of something so much bigger than me. The difference is that this time, it’s working for the good of humanity without the use of force and bullets. A little bit at a time, I have healed and am continuing to heal in a way I never thought possible.
Now, my ultimate life mission has become clear: Walk with my fellow veterans on their own healing path and encourage my horses to help provide them with the clarity they need in their own lives. I’m determined to leave no soldier or their family behind. I will partner with my horses and encourage them to do what they do best and show each person the strength and support they need.
I’ll never experience what happened at home during the 14 months I was gone; I will never be able to look back without the memories of my deployment; I will never know what life would be like without the military being part of my story. Relaizing that I am now OK with these things. I know that I can move forward despite my history. I know that deep down, I did what I needed to when I needed to and my life is better for those decisions.
Transcript
Hey there Business Animals welcome to The Business Animal podcast I'm Kim with Be More Business and I am here today with Tiffany Sedorus and Tiffany you have a brand new business name and I can't remember exactly what it is so tell me what what the new business name is I know you as Happy Hooves Oasis but you're you're launching something totally new so tell me what that is
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes, this summer I rebranded to Valor Through Gestalt
Kim Beer (:Nice. And there's a whole meaning behind that. And we're going to dive into that deep. as you know,
This particular month's theme that I'm working off of is manifestation. so I think you are an excellent interview for this particular theme, because you've had some dalliances with manifestation over the time period. So first of all, would you introduce yourself and your business and talk about your business like the person you're talking to knows little to nothing about Gestalt. And listeners, I'm sure
They've listened over time, understand what gestalt is, because I talk about it all the time, but somebody might be totally new. So go ahead and explain what you do and who you are.
Tiffany Sedorus (:me is Tiffany Sedorus and, in:It didn't embrace everything I wanted my business to say. So I went back to the drawing board and rebranded to Valor through Gestalt. Gestalt, as you and I know it, is a really cool healing modality. I haven't found a person it doesn't work for yet. So as a veteran myself, I spent so many years in therapy.
before I found Gestalt and in way less time, I had way better results. And it wasn't as traditional. I wasn't sitting on somebody's couch. I wasn't sitting in an office and going here, here's a pill to fix that here. Here's another pill to fix that one. Did they interact? Don't know. And so Gestalt was, let's find out what's really going on. Let's
dig a little bit deeper. And one of my favorite things that I learned about myself was I wasn't broken. I had just put together different pieces of myself to be the main version of me, and that wasn't working anymore. So I broke down all those little pieces and went, those pieces aren't necessary. Now I can go back to being friendly, being less tense.
I can smile for real instead of to cover something up. And so that's, that's the biggest thing that I took away from Gustav is none of us are actually broken. We've just created these versions of ourselves with the pieces that we needed the most at the hardest times in our life. And now I get to play with the pieces that I haven't.
Tiffany Sedorus (:gotten to see of myself in a long time. And that's fun.
Kim Beer (:Absolutely. And so one of the things that I find so interesting about this in your specific niche that you work with with veterans, I took this really intensive training at one of our herd mates ranches this spring with Nancy DeSantis of Horses for Heroes. And I don't have a military background. I know I've dated military guys. I am the daughter of a World War II veteran. I was raised
by him, but he didn't particularly like to talk about his experiences. And I just didn't know enough about it. And the truth of it is, even though veterans aren't my niche or who I specifically work with, there are a lot of veterans who start businesses as entrepreneurs. And frankly, a lot of veterans show up here, not because they're veterans, but because they want to experience the healing that happens through horses. They want to work on their business. They want to work on their creativity.
and there's going to be veterans here. And I think one of the biggest takeaways that I took from that training was how different the lifestyle is for a veteran than a civilian. There's so much that a veteran has to
conform to maybe not the right word, but just adopt their entire beingness to this way of being. And you get to live in that lifestyle for a period of time, and then you come back out of it, and you have a completely different world that you're walking into. The civilian world does things so differently, and it can be such a culture shock, no matter whether you came out of that as just
just a person who went through, I don't want to say just, but as a person who served our country and never went overseas or to a war zone, or just as importantly, people who did see combat. And so I completely get what you just said about now I can understand the parts of myself in a completely different way than I could. So you are doing some really interesting work with the VA. Would you talk about that for just a moment?
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yeah, so I am running group on what we call Ward 2P. That's our inpatient ward for people who need that break, who aren't adapting to civilian life so well and who are really struggling. And on the weekends, I go up there and I run it. The group is called Taking Charge of My Life and Health, and it's through a fairly new section to the Boise VA.
called Whole Health, it takes a look at the veteran as a whole person. It takes a look at every single aspect of their life, not just the, how are you physically, how are you mentally. It dives in to what they really need, and it dives into what they want their health for, and who they are now that they're a veteran and not active duty, and who they are now that they're a veteran.
and their home, like their home with their families. Sometimes that gets really overwhelming. And it asks them, what do you want? Like, what do you really want out of your health? You can show up to your doctor's appointment, say my knee hurts. Cool. Why do you want it to not hurt? And so the class that I do dives into that. And then it dives into, and I kind of take a little bit of my own liberty to do this.
Kim Beer (:Yes.
Tiffany Sedorus (:I dive into how do you need to show up to be able to speak up for yourself, to be able to get that health that you want, to be able to talk to your providers and say, the basics aren't good enough. Yeah, I can walk up and downstairs, but I want to be able to run a 5k. So that's it. I do a lot of diving into the parts of self and who they need to unpack and who needs to take a vacation.
Kim Beer (:Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, just what you mentioned right here, who do you want to be? Because, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you're in the military, you are who you're told to be. You don't have that autonomy. And that autonomy can feel really awkward when you come out of that situation in being able to make your own decisions, because a lot of those things have been wrapped up for you.
And even though that may not have been what you would have desired, now you're out here in the world.
and again, this falls back into our manifestation theme, you have to manifest your own destiny. It's no longer pathed out for you. And I find that that particular work must be incredibly rewarding to help people walk through that experience. What does that feel like from your perspective to be able to help people move from not knowing into more confidence and surety about where they want to go?
Tiffany Sedorus (:For me it's exciting. I look back at my time when I was fairly new out of the military and even in the first five to six years after I got out and I wish I had a version of me. And that's why I do what I do is because I don't want veterans to sit there and twiddle their thumbs and go, well, I guess I'm following directions again, even though I don't want to and I don't
wait, I don't have to. So I love seeing that look on their faces when they're like, I get it. Maybe I'm not as broken as people keep telling me I am. Maybe there is more to this than my experiences. Cause we had a lot of experiences before the military. It's just that the military has now taken over those experiences. So those are squished to the bottom and we forget
that we're humans. We're so trained to wear the uniform and show up, like be in the right place in the right uniform at the right time. That's our motto. And now we don't have a uniform. Some of us don't have schedules. So we're like, well, where is the right place and what is the right time and what do I wear? So it's fun to see their faces light up.
Kim Beer (:Absolutely.
Tiffany Sedorus (:when they have those aha moments of I get to choose. This is my decision now.
Kim Beer (:Yeah, and that's to me, that is one of the biggest gifts of Gestalt is to offer you back choice. And I often tell people it's a choice that you get handed back whether you want to have a reaction or choose a response. And the being able to choose a response is so critical in in every aspect of life, whether it's military entrepreneurship, wherever you're at in your world, being able to choose and then also being able to realize you have a choice and
then not be overwhelmed by that choice. And I think a stall really truly helps people figure, walk through that, figure it out, walk through it so that they can make the right choice for themselves and feel good about it, even if they want to change their mind a little bit later, right? So I think in many ways it gave me back that power. And I had a very similar experience to you and the fact that
I went through a lot of the civilian mental health system and it did not work for me where Gestalt worked for me right out of the gate. It was a big benefit. And I know as a veterans, the veterans that I have met have not been the type of people who want to sit in a therapist chair. They want to have something that's interactive and doesn't feel like therapy or somebody
picking them apart when and like you said, them feel or encouraging them to feel broken versus whole and that is definitely something Gestalt does not do. It definitely helps you feel whole. So.
So when you were in the military, then you left the military, what was the catalyst that pushed you to the Equine Gestalt program into entrepreneurship? what is that story?
Tiffany Sedorus (:So, I was actually introduced to the Equine Gestalt program a long time before I actually applied. Like I applied once and I got accepted and then something inside me said, you can't do this. That little troll on my shoulder said, you can't do this. Don't do it. It's scary. It's gonna, you know, it's expensive. It's this, it's... All those little things came into play. And then...
In:I had always had it in my mind, I'm going through the EJC program. Like that's something I will do later. And someday, we bought a horse for my stepson and the connection I saw between them was unreal. he was, gosh, how old was he? think he was nine. And all of a sudden he had somebody to talk to and he opened up.
Kim Beer (:Someday.
Tiffany Sedorus (:and all of his big big feelings didn't feel quite so smothering anymore. The kids were going through a rough time. Life was just kind of in turmoil. So I bought this horse specifically to do Gestalt. And so finally I joined the program and the whole first year was a mess and I thought to myself, what am I doing?
Like, my body is not ready for this. This is a terrible idea.
And I did it anyway. launching my business, figuring out who I wanted to work with was hard because I wanted to work with veterans like me. was like, my God, it works. It works. There is some relief out there. And all the veterans I ran into, they didn't want to do the work. They didn't like they didn't want to invest in themselves. They wanted the military or the VA to fix them because it was the military that
broke them. And so I walked away from that and I moved into part-time single moms, spouses of military people. And I moved into grief, working with people who were survivors of suicide or family members of people who had committed suicide. And that was super fulfilling. And then I did GCM, which is our master
Gestalt program. And all of a sudden the wheel started turning again and it went, no, no. Like the families need you. Yes. People with grief need you. Yes. And veterans really need you. Like they, that was where my heart was, was people like me who were super, super struggling. And funny enough, once I rebranded this summer, I mean, we've been at a GCM for
Tiffany Sedorus (:not quite a year, I about nine months or so, when I rebranded, all of a sudden it was like, we got it right. Like the Veterans Chamber of Commerce is knocking on my door again. More veterans events are coming up. I'm getting involved in more veteran-based nonprofits who can help with scholarships to people to come see me. And that was like,
Yeah, that's kind of the story, but watching my stepson with his horse and I know that horse is probably what saved him from having PTSD now as a teenager. So that was, that was my big, we're going to do this. This has to be done.
Kim Beer (:And I love how the dream morphs over time, right? You don't always go into this. Some people go into a business or into EGC or into any kind of a training with a very specific goal in mind and they actually get there. There's a whole world of people, however, who go into any type of training or start a business. And it's not always the destination they reach isn't always where they started on the
journey to go. And that's one thing I love about entrepreneurship is it lets you morph and change and make choices that you didn't even know were possible until you got into it. And I want to unpack a couple of things in the conversation that you just had. And one was around changing your logo and rebranding. Now, from a marketing perspective, I can tell you without a doubt that is became you that the reason that that happened
is because you became very, clear on who you were serving. And when you're very clear on who you're serving, people are attracted to that message because they go, okay, that's for me. So I feel like that is that clarity definitely manifested the clientele that you are seeking and these opportunities that just have like magically opened up in some ways for you, which I know
Cause I've known you a while now, known you for, multiple years. I've, I've watched you through this process. And in most recent times you do have, seems like one opportunity after another opening up. And for those of you who are listening out there, this has not been an easy journey for Tiffany at all. I, she's shaken her head. If you're listening to this on, on an audio podcast, has definitely not been an easy journey.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yeah.
Kim Beer (:And since we're on that subject, so you manifested yourself. So part of equine gestalt is that you need a place to do equine gestalt.
And some people are okay doing that in like a boarding barn in a city. And then some people want to have like a full on experience kind of ranch situation going on like we have here. I was blessed to inherit this from my parents. And I feel like I came with the facility attached. It's not perfect for equine gestalt, but we're making it do for now until we can perfect a few things. But Tiffany, you made
manifested a ranch. So tell us about that particular journey.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Idaho since we moved here in:Like, it's beautiful. You can plant trees. And it was these 40 acre parcels and there were five of them left. So we drove up there in the snow in March. The road just happened to be passable. And I looked out over that landscape and I fell in love. Absolutely in love. Like I knew that that's where I needed to be. So.
Kim Beer (:Yeah.
Tiffany Sedorus (:After the snow melted, we went back up, we looked at the property again and absolutely fell in love. I stood in that driveway, which we didn't even know there was a driveway at that point. We just kind of knew sort of where the property was. Found out there was a mile long driveway and it was a very nice driveway. And I stood at that driveway at the top of the cul-de-sac in the center of that 200 acres and I looked out and I said, I'm home. This is it. Like, I don't care what it costs. This is it. This is.
This is mine. And very quickly we made it happen on this enormous piece of property for, and we had the money. So we were just like, yep, let's do it. We're doing it. And we moved everything up there. We had no power, no water, no septic. mean, we were, we were in our RV on a generator hauling in water for all of the animals every day. We made it one whole winter.
And everyone was like, my God, this is one of the worst winters we've ever had up here. I'm like, it wasn't that bad. It was okay. We lived. We got the truck stuck. I don't know how many times that year. My car didn't move for five months because it didn't have the ground clearance. And getting people up there was almost impossible. It was 35 miles of dirt road.
Kim Beer (:Yeah.
Tiffany Sedorus (:once you hit dirt. And I think it was like 10 or 15 miles just to get to the dirt road. And it was hard. And then it wasn't fun anymore. Then it wasn't exciting. That adventure, that big adventure that I wanted it to be was gone. Then it was nothing but work. And I wasn't happy.
I wasn't happy. And finances were tight and getting up and down the mountain was ridiculous. We were putting new tires on the car every four to six months. And there were times we couldn't get out of our driveway. We had to be prepared every single day for being stuck there for a week. There was no there was no getting out. I we probably could have hiked out through the snow, but our driveway was a mile to get to the main driveway, which was another half mile to the road.
So we didn't have any neighbors close by. I mean, we could see all of them because there were no trees, but they weren't close. And I finally decided maybe 35 miles of dirt that winds along the river with 200 foot cliffs is not the road I want my clients to be on with no cell phone reception coming and going from a session or a weekend or a retreat or anything else.
And I made the really hard decision. came home from our final, our senior GCM camp and I said, I'm leaving this mountain with or without you to my husband. I said, I won't do this for another winter. I won't watch my horses do it for another winter. I don't need to lose any more animals. don't, I won't, I won't. It wasn't, I can't. It was a definite, I won't.
And I think it was two weeks later, I had a boarding barn for my horses and moved them off the mountain in two trailer loads. A couple of weeks later, the cows were sold, the goats were sold, the chickens and ducks were sold. Like everything was gone. And we tore all the fences down and we got everything out of there. And on January 15th, we had been there for
Tiffany Sedorus (:four days. We got a snowstorm and we were snowed in for four days. The guy we bought the property from plowed us out and the next morning we hooked up the trailer and we were gone. And of course we were kind of back and forth getting stuff out of there and you know making sure what we could find under the snow. And we left and I had no idea where we were going. I had no idea. All I knew was we needed to be
not that far. So we got down the mountain, we moved into an RV park, and my cousin, who's a state trooper here, he's amazing, he knows everybody in this town, and he was looking for a house for him and his family until his house with the state police was built, and he knew that we were looking for a place, and we weren't in any hurry. I we'd been in our camper like two and half years at that point, so we really weren't in a hurry. And
He came across the house we're in now and he says, my family would destroy this place. This is not for me. There's just no way. And he put us in touch with the owner of this place. says, well, it's been an Airbnb. I'm tired of cleaning up after people. need long-term renters. I have somebody leasing the fields for the next seven years. So this place isn't going anywhere. And I said, well, I've got horses and I'm not going to keep boarding them. I won't.
They need to be at home. And he goes, well, you can have the cattle pens. can have, you know, the pasture goes all the way down to the river. There's a hot spring, there's water, there's grass. There's, I just planted this in grass. We're putting in a new fence here. And it was this little perfect, I think it's right around 10 to 12 acres is what we have now. And then there's 300 acres behind us in fields and cliffs. And it's beautiful. It's on the river. And he said,
I said, well, can I have my business out of here? Is that okay? I don't know what the rules are in this count, like in this town, in this County. And he goes, it's so commercial. You're fine. I said, really? Okay. And so this landed in my lap and you were with me at GCM camp and I was doing a vision guided meditation more or less with our mentor, Melissa Pierce. And she was like, you need.
Tiffany Sedorus (:five to 10 acres and this cute little house and just enough land that you can take care of and plenty of space for your horses. And that's exactly what this is. I walk out my back door and there's probably 25 feet, maybe 30 feet of yard. And then there's my horse fence and I feed my horses at that fence and I have a gate. They can come right into the yard if I want them to. And I have just enough yard, a push mower works.
and I have my horse trailer, I have our camper, you we have everything we need in this little house and it came fully furnished. I didn't have to buy anything. It was so easy. We came here on a Sunday. We, well, my husband came here. The next time we came, we talked to the guy we toured the place. The following week we had a lease to sign and we signed it. And on March 1st, we moved in.
And it was all like from January 15th to March 1st was we're moving off this mountain. Where are we going? You know, we'll land somewhere and that's OK. And March 1st I had my five to 10 acres of my little house. It's super easy to keep fully furnished. We were able to unpack storage units and I have my library back. That's really nice.
I have storage, have places to put things, and I have a safe place for clients to come where I don't have neighbors overlooking me. And I'm seven minutes from the freeway.
So it's, this is it. This is home. This is home right now.
Kim Beer (:So the manifestation process, and this is the thing I would love for my clients to be able to believe in themselves is that there is an answer out there. Because I remember sitting with you at the camp and I remember you struggling really hard because that ranch at the top of the mountain, up those dirt roads was really a dream for you come true. You felt it, you knew it in your heart.
It was a lot for you to turn loose of that and say, okay, I got what I wanted. Thank you. I'm going to stand in gratitude, but it's no longer what I want. And now I need to move in a different direction. And I when I interviewed people, I'm in this process of validating this whole project that I've got coming up in January. And when I asked people, I asked them specifically about the podcast, you know, do you want me to change anything about the podcast? What do you
like about it. the biggest response I've gotten back is we love to listen or I if that was an individual, I love to listen to the stories of people who have struggled and then succeeded because when you're in the struggle, when you're in that moment of making that decision of making that last drive up that mountain to tell your husband, hey, I'm not staying in her any longer.
That's hard ass work, right? I mean, it's heart wrenching, there's tears, it's problematic. But on the other side of that, and really quickly on the other side of that for you, there was something better.
And I think that that is such an important lesson for everyone to hear out there. And I'm curious, how did you couch that lesson for yourself? What do you think the message was that the universe sent you about this particular process?
Tiffany Sedorus (:So the one thing that comes to mind when you ask that is our coach, Marsha Bresic. She's this little fireball. What is she? Four foot five? She's tiny. At one point I was on a call with her and I was bawling, just bawling like, Marsha, how am I going to get through this? What is going to happen? And she says, well, I think you're too attached to the outcome. And I said, but.
Kim Beer (:She is.
Tiffany Sedorus (:You know, this is my dream. This is my life. We're talking about, of course, I'm attached to the outcome. And she gave me a scenario and she says, if this happens, what will you feel? And I said, my God, Marsha, if that happened, I would I would be relieved, absolutely relieved. Like a weight would be lifted off my shoulders. It would be amazing. And she goes, OK. She says, if this happened.
Kim Beer (:Absolutely.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Like the absolute opposite. If this happened, what would you feel? And I was like, that would be a serious relief. Like I would be, I'd be over the moon. That weight would be lifted. And she goes, so why are you attached to the outcome? Be attached to the feeling that you want and see where it goes. So that's what I did. And when I told my husband,
we're letting go of this place on the mountain, which was a dream, an absolute dream. I mean, there is no scenery on the planet that I've ever seen that's as pretty as that place and nothing more calming than that place. And I told him, I said, I'm done. We're done. I'm, I'm out. And he goes, how are you so calm about this? He goes inside. am. I don't know what to do. He says, how are you so okay with this? And I said,
because I'm more attached to being in relief and having that weight gone and the pressure gone and being comfortable and being happy. I don't care where we go. I really don't. I want my animals to be safe. I want us to be safe. And I want us to not be at each other's throats. I want to be happy. I want to feel joy. And however that looks when we get there,
Kim Beer (:Yeah.
Tiffany Sedorus (:is exactly how it looks. As long as the relief and the stress is gone. Like as long as the stress is gone and I have relief and I'm, I can breathe. Like that was a big thing. Can I breathe? And that's how I handled it. I was more attached to the feelings that I wanted than I was of that picture I had in my head.
And funny enough, this place down here, my views aren't that different. I mean, I can see the house across the river, but the river's right here. If I look out the back window, we still have the Butte and the mountains and it's still, I mean, it is still Idaho. It is still the high desert of Idaho and it is still beautiful. And my driveway is not all that different. It's long and straight.
This one has trees on the side exactly like we want it. So that's a benefit.
Kim Beer (:So your husband got his trees.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes, my husband got his trees.
Kim Beer (:So, but that, you know, so many times I work with business owners that they get an idea in their head of how their business should be and should look. And there's a thousand little drops of wisdom that come along the way that offer them opportunities to do something different. And because they first decided this is the way I need to do it, they fight and fight and fight and fight.
to get that original vision created versus being able to flex and flow with the stream of where their life and business is going toward happiness. And that's one of the reasons I put my tagline in as I've gone through my rebranding into create a business that supports the life you want to live versus creating a life to support the business you think you should have.
And I think you've definitely lived that in this experience. And so I ask people two questions on this podcast through every interview. And question one is, how has Valor through Gestalt, how does it support the life you want to live?
Tiffany Sedorus (:it gives my horses a job that doesn't require a lot of work on my end. And that, and now it sounds like, well horses are meant to have jobs. You know, they need to be busy. They need whatever. And for a long time, I wanted gypsy banners because I love Melissa's horses and I love like, they're so pretty. And then we were sitting at a core.
And she goes, it takes me six hours to groom one horse to get them ready for a show or a photo shoot. And I went, I'm not that high maintenance. No, I've got seven horses and I can bathe, groom and ride all of them in six hours. So I, I needed like low maintenance, but I still wanted my horses to have a purpose. And so this gives them.
Kim Beer (:Not my happy place.
Kim Beer (:Yeah.
Tiffany Sedorus (:that opportunity. And I mean, I have one horse, I call her my wild child because she's still, she's still not super sure about people. And I have not pushed her. I have not done a lot of things that a typical trainer or anybody on the outside thinks that I should have done with her. I'm like, no, if she wants to coach, she can coach right now. She's safe. She's happy. She's healthy. Like she's not
I mean, aside from being an escape artist and showing the other horses where the gates are open, she really is a good girl. She loads on the trailer by herself. She's a really good horse. And even she shows up to coach. Like even she's like, I can do this. And she supports the other horses. She supports clients. She's just in her own little world and that's okay. So there's less pressure for me to say, all right, I got to get you in a round pen. I've got to get, you know,
all of these things taken care of. have to be able to pick up your feet. You have to be able to, you know, lead, back, tie, blah, blah, blah, all of these things. And I've been blessed that I haven't had to do those things in a time crunch with her because I do feel like she would just brain explode and she's, she's just sensitive. She's sensitive. And now that she's safe, she's less sensitive.
And now she's more, hey, you got cookies over the fence. Hey, you got treats. Hey, know, back scratches, butt scratches. What are we in for today? And so this has given my horses the opportunity to work without a saddle on their back or without, you know, long trail rides, which I do have one horse who particularly loves her long trail rides. And we do enjoy those. So that's, that's one of the things. And then.
letting me work with veterans, like working with people like me that need it and want it. And I know that the veterans on 2P, if they didn't want help, they would have stayed home and done something terrible. They would have crossed over in whatever way they wanted. So I have the opportunity to sit and talk with those veterans and I can honestly say I'm a veteran, I have a combat action badge, and I've also been inpatient.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Like I have been in that chair next to you. I don't know exactly why you're here. I don't know exactly what's going on in your life. And I've also been here. I spent eight days inpatient because I couldn't handle it. My world was crashing down and I wanted out. I wanted out bad. And now I can sit across from those people who I know need me the most.
and say, I'm one of you, let's do this together. And that's not something, that's not something I ever thought I would really want to do. I know I wanted to work with veterans cause they get me. You we have these quirky senses of humor that are probably not super appropriate all the time. But now I get to work with them and I get to make that difference.
Kim Beer (:Yeah, yeah, you have comments, yeah.
Kim Beer (:I think that's lovely. That is a great why or worthy hell yeah for your business. All right, Tiffany, the last question I have for you before we end this interview is, do you have a story about an animal or group of animals that you want to share that has impacted you in a way that helps in your personal growth or has made you a better entrepreneur?
Tiffany Sedorus (:That's a good question. Actually, I do. I have a mare, her name is Katie, and she's hauled her bread. And for the non-animal people, those are those funky looking horses that look like they look like beef cattle on toothpicks. I mean, they're very poorly put together. They have very straight, uncomfortable legs. They're very big, very big. And...
she she was broke like cowboy broke at at two and then she was used as a broodmare and then I had the opportunity to take her on a trade and I said no I want a baby so I got this yearling who was absolutely adorable and six months later the barn owner said well Katie's still for sale are you sure you don't want her he said I don't
And my husband goes, you don't have any rideable horses right now. And you've got like three or four years before the babies are rideable. So we should probably think about getting you a riding horse. So we got Katie and she greeted me at the gate. She was hard to catch, but she was always at the gate waiting for me. She didn't want to halt her, but she would sit with her head over my shoulder and I would pet her nose and just love on her. And the barn owner was like, she's your horse. Like you, you can't tell me no anymore. She's your horse.
So I took her and I started groundwork for like from the ground up, like relearning how to halt her, how to lead, how to pick up her feet, even though she was broke. And we went to workshops together, like we went to training weekends together. We had so much fun. And there was one day I was in this mood. was like, the horses are going, like we can't do this anymore. Financially, we just can't handle it.
n the EGC program, so this is:Tiffany Sedorus (:So I had a traumatic brain injury that between the kick and all of the concussions I've had throughout my life finally compounded. And I walked into Katie's pen and I said, Kate, I need your help. I said, if you are going to stay and if I'm going to keep you, I really need your help. I need you to teach me to ride again. And I need you to show up for clients. Like I, I need these things from you. And if you're willing to do that,
you are the only horse that will never be sold. Like you have a home for life. And she walked up to me and she put her head over my shoulder and she's not much of a of a hugger. Like she's not a touchy feely horse. She's kind of a I'll walk with you, but please don't touch me. Like she's she's not a lovey-dovey and she comes up, she puts her head over my shoulder and she pulls me into her chest. And I was like, okay, like we've got a deal. We've got a deal.
and I think it was two or three months later my doctor was like okay you can ride again but you got to wear a helmet and this is maybe nine months after nine ten months after my stroke and he goes you can ride again but you got to wear a helmet I said okay so I get Katie out and I saddle her up I said all right Kate you haven't been ridden in nine months you're a little fresh I get it it's okay he said all I asked is that you walk me around this farm today don't kill me
Like that's it. will not ask anything else from you. Walk me around this farm and keep me in, help keep me in the saddle, like stay underneath me. And we did for an hour. We walked around the farm. We went on the trail around the farm. We went everywhere. And if I got off balance, she would sidestep slowly underneath me and get me back in the center of the saddle. And ever since then, that's, she taught me how to ask for something.
in a way that wasn't demanding. And now I do that with all of my horses. Like I make a contract at the beginning of our session. This is what I need from you today. Are you up for it? And that was a whole new way of training for me because I grew up in an area where training horses was not as nice as it is today. Like I was rough on my first horse. I loved her to death. She and I butted heads a lot.
Tiffany Sedorus (:I was rough on her and she was an Arabian which made it, you know, an argument with quarter horses not the same as an argument with a spicy Arabian. And Katie taught me, you know, this is how you, if this is how you show up, I will show up for you 110 % all the time. And I, it was sometime, I think it was that following year I pulled out Katie's papers.
because she is a registered Appaloosa. doesn't have any spots, but she is registered Appaloosa. I pulled out our papers and I looked down. She has the exact same birthday as my very first horse. And I looked at her, I said, all right, Kate, like you're home, I'm home. I will ask you to work with other people besides me though. Like I would like it if you would work with clients. And now she does. Like there are some days she's like, I'm not working with that person. That's a gelding person.
That's not me.
Kim Beer (:Yeah.
It's funny, I have ones that do that same thing. They're like, okay, that is not my client. That's his client or they'll more apt, mine are, whoever wants the client will be at the gate. They'll be like, that's my client is coming today. I feel the energy coming onto the farm. That's my client. So Tiffany, I just want to point out that that deal you made with Kate, it's a lot the same deal that you're asking that your
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yeah.
Kim Beer (:veterans make with you? Do you recognize how the way Kate showed up for you? You show up in that same space for the people that come and sit in your circle or come to your ranch. And I think that is so beautiful because that's, to me, that's the true gift that horses teach us is they teach us how to be a better version of who we are. And then also what we can bring out into the world. And I think that is a lovely thing. Thank
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes.
Kim Beer (:you for sharing that story. And thank you everyone for tuning in and listening today. Tiffany, how if people are interested in working with you or under getting to know a little bit more about valor through gestalt, how can they get in touch with you?
Tiffany Sedorus (:My website is live Valor through gestalt calm I have two emails And actually I have both of them on my phone. So I do check them regularly I have my info at Valor through gestalt where if you sign up on my website and hit the contact me That's where that one goes If you want to get to me directly, it's Tiffany at Valor through gestalt calm and through is spelled out th R O U G H it's not
Kim Beer (:Okay. Perfect. Perfect. And you work with, you're located in Idaho just outside of Boise, correct?
Tiffany Sedorus (:shortened in any way. But yeah, through my website or through emails.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Yes, I'm about an hour out of Boise. The nearest big city is called Mountain Home. There's an Air Force base there. So if you look on a map and you look at Mountain Home, it'll say Mountain Home Air Force Base. But yeah, I'm about 25 minutes out of Mountain Home, which is about an hour and 10 minutes out of Boise.
Kim Beer (:So if you want if you're a veteran or if you love a veteran and are interested in Equine Gestalt Tiffany is a great place to reach out to so and you can find her and then I'll put all that information in the show notes as well. And thank you all for tuning in today. Make sure you like and subscribe and follow on whatever you're listening to this on and so you can get future episodes. Thank you again for hanging out with me today, Tiffany. I appreciate it.
Tiffany Sedorus (:Thanks for having me, Kim.
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