Devoted to women of color in business

Erica Ross-Krieger, M.A., N.E., has been inspiring entrepreneurs and corporate executives throughout the world to come to life more fully for more than 20 years. She is a seasoned professional business and wellness coach, nutrition educator, author of Seven Sacred Attitudes® – How to Live in the Richness of the Moment, and an entrepreneur, owning three successful businesses.

Erica currently provides inspiration and no-nonsense wellness coaching to a select group of entrepreneurs from around the world via individual and group sessions, teleclasses and small retreats held once each year. Her work helps clients cultivate attitudes of wellness and leads them to live more joyful and meaningful lives.

Ms. Ross-Krieger knows the topic of wellness for entrepreneurs quite intimately. In her words, "I've ‘been there done that' when it comes to entrepreneurial burn-out. I was wise enough to heed a wake-up call and then re-created my entrepreneurial life to embody wellness from the inside out." Her clients, readers, and blog www.WellnessCoach.com visitors are glad she did.

She holds a B.A. in Social Welfare from UCBerkeley, a Master's degree in Organization Development from USF, and lots more post-graduate work and credentials you can read about here  www.ericarosskrieger.com/meet_erica.php.

Erica lives in northern California with her husband, Steve, and a garden of lavender that soothes her soul.

Spotlight on Success questions continued.... 

Where I got started in my business:

I have several business now* and have had several in the past...and a walk back in time over the last 25 years seems daunting ...so let me sum things up. If readers want to know more, they can certainly feel free to call me or go look at the lengthy Bio on my blog☺

The first inclination of what I would be up to in my professional life came during my sophomore year at UC Berkeley. A class called "You and Your Body/Mind" was offered in a joint effort through the Anatomy and Psych Departments. Not such a remarkable-sounding course to be offered now, but in 1978, it was the first of its kind. I knew right then that this world of the Body/Mind was the arena for me and I signed up. One thing led to another and I began to pursue the world of Wellness. Before college was over, I had already sold a nutritious recipe to a restaurant, begun doing peer counseling and had plans for starting my own wellness business one day. So some aspects of my present businesses started there. But other aspects came a few jobs and several years later.

I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. Even during the years after college that I spent doing Executive Outplacement Counseling for a major outplacement firm, and the years I managed a Training and Development function within PG&E, I was looking at things as if I were building my portfolio -- I wanted to start my own consulting business. I did so in 1989, at the age of 32. I had big dreams, a few clients lined up and a lot of determination. I guess you could say that this first Management Consulting business was how I got started doing what I do now.

Alongside the entrepreneur in me, I have also always been a writer (yes, I still have journals and poems from high school). Right after college, a friend's uncle saw a few of my poems and published two of them for me in a book he compiled of other poets. That really started my writing career.

So looking back, I can say that the Body/Mind class in college launched my interest in Wellness, the encouragement of someone who believed in my writing helped start the writing part of my business, and keeping my eye on the ball while gathering consulting, coaching and nutrition skills (in other words, holding a clear intention and picture of my own business) are what helped me start the first business...that led to all the rest.

*I am cofounder of New Attitudes Corporation and WellnessCoach.com where I am a Professional Wellness Coach and am building a cadre of other wellness coaches that will work under the New Attitudes / Wellnesscoach.com umbrella. I'm also co-founder of VisionPoint Consulting Team, which my husband Steve now runs. VisionPoint provides top-notch Teambuilding and Leadership Effectiveness programs. Together, Steve and I own a new Salad Creations franchise in Oakland's Business District and are the Area Developers for the entire SF Bay Area of Salad Creations. I have an active real estate and small-business investment portfolio (which is a business in itself)....and I'm a writer and published author with articles in professional magazines and across the internet, an essay in Chicken Soup to Inspire the Body & Soul, and my first book, Seven Sacred Attitudes – How to Live in the Richness of the Moment.

Values I try to live by:

I'm a strong believer in taking time out to assess our values at different life stages. So as I stand here in life at age 50 this year, I would say I most value: love, health, recognition, aesthetics, achievement, financial freedom, straight-up and authentic communication, inner peace, making a difference in others lives, the wisdom of elders, and honoring this amazing planet we live on. I also value the state of humanness and slender threads that connect us all. I think those values will be in place in my life for at least another decade.

Role Models:

I have many role models. When it comes to appreciating life and enjoying every drop of it, my mom is a grand role model. At 73, she works, plays golf, volunteers, swims, cooks rock-star meals and is always there when her friends or family needs her. She's a delight to know.

When it comes to a business role model, I look to entrepreneur and Millionaire-Maker® Loral Langemeier for inspiration. It's not that I want the huge business and international stage that Loral has built with LiveOutLoud.com, but it is the way she approaches her business that I model in my own. Integrity, honesty, saying what's so, and staying in action are what I learn from Loral.

In the health and wellness arena, my role model is Dr. Patricia Meyer, naturopathic physician and founder of the Namaste Natural Healing Center in Portland, Oregon. If I can bring even one-quarter of the compassion, knowledge, spiritual understanding, and commitment to health and wellness to my own life and the lives of my clients, that Dr. Meyer exhibits in a single day, I would say I've done well.

My husband, Steve, is a role model for me in the arena of acceptance. His capacity for accepting and appreciating differences is amazing. His loyalty and love form a rock-solid presence in my life, and are also role-model qualities I like to emulate.

Finally, and in a huge way, I admire my mentor, Rick Carson, author of Taming Your Gremlin®, and counselor/psychologist/role-model extraordinaire. Rick's unwavering commitment to authenticity and connecting with the heart inspires me in all I do, every day.

A big challenge and how I learned from that situation:

In 1990, I survived a near-fatal car accident. At the time, my business consumed me—I was traveling too much, working long hours, and paying the price with my physical health. I figured I'd slow down "some day." Well, I did. Between the dramatic wake-up call of that car accident and a health challenge that popped up about the same time, my own life suddenly got my attention. I realized that LIFE IS TOO SHORT to wait for "some day." I heeded the wake-up call and re-created my entrepreneurial life to embody wellness from the inside out. I learned in a big way that each of us must clarify our unique definition of success then focus our energy on what's important. For me, that means spending time with the people I love, being outdoors, taking time to notice my breath, managing creative projects, and encouraging other entrepreneurs to self-define and live in a state of success and wellness from the inside out.

Most Successful Moment to Date:

I guess it all depends on how I define success at a given moment. When my dad was dying this year, spending time with him during his last hours on the planet and telling him that I loved him were successful moments for me.

In an entirely different arena, my husband and I signed on the dotted line last November and bought the SF Bay Area Developer Area Developer rights for a new franchise called Salad Creations -- that was a different kind of success.

And recently, a coaching client called to tell me she was appearing on TV's View From the Bay and wanted to thank me for helping nudge her forward in her new writing and speaking career – the sense I've contributed to someone else's life really fits another piece of my definition of success.

But most days, I do as I have been taught by a most special teacher in my life, Maharaji, and give thanks for this breath that comes into me each day  – just being alive seems to me to be the ultimate success.