To Reach Peak Performance Find Your Inner Calm with Barbra Schulte

I recently renewed my long time passion for horseback riding and met today’s guest — Barbra Schulte — at the C Lazy U dude ranch in Granby, Colorado where she was teaching peak performance on and off a horse.  Barbra is a Professional Cutting Horse Trainer, personal peak performance coach, and Equine Consultant. She is a Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee and, this January, Barbra will be awarded the prestigious Women of the West Award given by Western Horseman Magazine. Barbra joins me on the podcast to discuss how she became interested in optimal human performance and to share some of her tips on finding your path to peak performance.  Listen in to learn the connection between positive and negative emotions and their impact on performance and to gain some serious tips on how to move past your hurdles and get yourself to your highest peak performance level.   The 3 biggest hurdles to peak performance and how to move past them   Blame — even self-blame — is a way to trick your mind into taking the pressure off of yourself in a situation — “who cares, I’m not putting any more energy into this”. It is the most difficult emotion to get past to achieve high performance.   Anger — unlike blame, anger has some measure of energy and so you can propel yourself towards peak performance with it; make sure to watch the direction of this energy, steer it away from blame.   Nerves/anxiety/fear — nerves are the closest emotion to shifting into that positive emotional mindset and peak performance.    How to shift away from negative emotions and find your calmness: Recognize your current state and name it Get calm — conscious breathing (inhale for four, exhale for four) — take the time you need to lower your heart rate; it takes practice. Direct your energy and move forward. Over time, you can work to condition the calmness by adding a physical trigger.   About Karen Tiber Leland   Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding, marketing, and color strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business, and team brands. Her clients include Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn, and Twitter.   She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally-published business books that have sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. She regularly writes for Inc.com and Entrepreneur.com and has had articles published in Self, The Los Angeles Times, American Way, The Boston Globe, and many others.   Karen has spoken for Harvard, The AMA, Direct Marketing Association, and Stanford, among others. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and Oprah.   Get in touch with Karen on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook   About Our Guest   Barbra Schulte is a Professional Cutting Horse Trainer, Personal Performance Coach, Author, Clinician, and Equine Consultant. Barbra has been involved with horses her entire life. Beginning in early childhood and continuing through college, she helped market and show many of her family’s 500 head of horses. She competed in western pleasure, reining, horsemanship, and cutting.   After high school, Barbra went on to gain a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology. In a few short years, she became an administrator at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and taught at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.   In 1983, Barbra’s love of horses led her back to the competitive arena where she embarked on a career as a Professional Horse Trainer. In 1986, after reading Mental Toughness for Sports, by Dr. James Loehr of LGE Sports Science, Inc., she began to incorporate his training techniques into her regimen.   You can learn more about Barbra Schulte on her Website   Mentioned Dr. Jim Loehr Human Performance Institute Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum Women of the West Award   Resources   We are almost at the end of 2020 and one of the things you want to think about is the kind of brand you want to be building for 2021. Because of COVID-19 and where we are technologically, there are more eyeballs than ever looking at people online. How you look and how your brand looks online really makes a difference in how you get and convert clients.   If you feel like you might want some help planning your 2021 personal or business brand, you should consider a Rent My Brain session. That's a one-hour session I do with you to take a look at where you are with your brand, where you want to be, and how to get there.   If you’re interested, just reach out to me at [email protected].