By Sadie Blassuci
When media personality and best-selling author Erika De La Cruz founded Passion to Paycheck and Passionista, her goal was to fill a hotel with hundreds of people, big-time brands, career tools and good vibes to guide attendees (fondly called Passionistas) to align their mindset for success. This year, founder and self-proclaimed “Mental Fitness Coach” pivoted like never before, and brought inspiration to thousands, virtually.
Typically, Erika hosts the event alongside brands like Bumble Biz and Hyatt with personalities like Emmy Award-winning journalist Shaun Robinson, The Bachelor‘s Eric Bigger, and host Rosci Diaz, to bring young entrepreneurs in-person networking, career and mental health tools. This year, Erika and her team took the event online but instead of losing steam, it grew — by a lot!
Brands like Ceremonia, Wirecast, Forward Female and Latina Made not Maid, joined forces to host a live event with Spanish translation, viewed by over 1,000 attendees. The event taught Vision Boarding, a success tool taught by Oprah and the like. Vision Boarding and Manifesting can be either revered or trivialized by broader culture, so students of the subject often start with big misconceptions. Helping people both learn and unlearn is easier in person, but within days of launching her event and supplemental course on Manifestation taught by Erika, community members were reporting signing brand deals with the partner of their dreams and others starting new businesses!
Since her book, Passionistas: Tips, Tales & Tweetables From Women Pursuing Their Dreams, Erika’s approach has always been centered around success via Mental Fitness, and it is the reason a one-off event is now an event series, member community, and online course, serving thousands.
Her intimate online presence, consistent high-end brand collaborations (think: Mazda and Versace), and accessible tools for mindset guidance, make her audience a consistently growing base of dedicated Passionistas, many in underserved communities. There aren’t many places you can turn to for consistent and accessible guidance on how to align your mindset for success, or what “aligning your mindset” even means. Erika is inclusive and cultivates a brand of endless positivity, so no matter your background, you can learn a little something about how to help yourself — and even harder — how to get out of your way.
When you feel stuck, where do you turn? For the, now, 600-member Passion to Paycheck community, it is to Erika’s course or Instagram. Her content, teachings, and collaborations all point to one thing: you reaching your full potential. She guides by example on how to create optimistic thoughts to support your own dreams, even during a year like 2020.
When it is easy to overlook feeling good, Erika’s products and shareable tips remind us how important it is. Whether she is in full-force positivity, in a relatability sluggish morning mood, or in boss-mode, Erika’s unapologetic spiritual and ambitious approach to life and business is inspiring. She has managed to maintain growth and impact by consistently providing tangible tools for topics that can seem conceptual. Erika’s success this year goes to show every community can access the tools they need to live well and support their own dreams, and positivity (virtual or otherwise) is powerful. Connect with the Passionista at https://erikadelacruz.com/, or follow along her journey across social media.
Sadie Blassuci is Founder of Nesting Dolls Inc.
3 of Erika’s Quotes to Inspire You to Feel Better Today:
“When you go to the gym, you see the results in your body; when you work out the mind, you see the results in your reality.”
“I may not have woken up on auto-positive, but I certainly didn’t wake up on auto-pilot.”
“Add a ‘to-be’ list to your routine. To-do lists are great, but if you can figure out who you’re being while taking the action, nothing can stop you.”
– Erika De La Cruz
Find a Home-Based Business to Start-Up >>> Hundreds of Business Listings.
Great article.