Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Rice.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Christina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I fell into the health and wellness space when I was in college and was struggling with a mystery illness that no doctor seemed to be able to figure out. I stopped digesting food and dropped about 50 pounds in three months, and my whole body started shutting down. That launched a health journey that lasted for years and led to a number of diagnoses – parasites, SIBO, Candida overgrowth, prediabetes, hypothyroidism, hypothalamic amenorrhea, mold illness, and Lyme disease. I wasn’t getting the help I wanted from conventional medicine, so I started researching for myself and found alternative medicine. I began healing my body with the power of nutrition, lifestyle changes, and energy work after countless doctors told me there was nothing they could do to help me. Through that experience, I knew I wanted to help others heal from the inside out as well. I wanted to give others hope because I knew what it felt like to feel hopeless and alone.
I started blogging when I was in the thick of my illness in college as a way to share what I was learning and fell in love with listening to podcasts, which were one of the most helpful ways I was learning about health & wellness. I decided to start my own podcast when I was 20 as a hobby, not realizing it would one day become a huge part of my business.
While I was still in college, blogging and podcasting, I started working for a popular wellness blogger and author in L.A., who taught me invaluable lessons about content creation, monetizing online content, running a business as an entrepreneur, and the wellness space in general. During that time, I was building up my own content, and my blog and podcast were starting to grow in popularity. I became a certified health coach and started seeing health coaching clients on the side.
After graduating from UCLA, I became a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner through the Nutritional Therapy Association, and during that time, I left my job to focus solely on my own business. It was a whirlwind of my 1:1 practice growing, my podcast and blog growing, starting a second podcast, and getting some more media attention from my health journey. As my message spread, I was connected with more and more people who struggled with chronic illness but weren’t getting answers. Energy healing became an increasingly important part of my life, so I decided to become a Reiki practitioner so that I could incorporate energy healing into my own practice. From there, I learned more about brain rewiring and using the power of the mind to overcome health issues, which was another huge turning point for my own health & my work with clients.
After a few years working with women 1:1 and in my group coaching program to overcome chronic health issues naturally, I realized I could help even more people if I supported other practitioners in building their own practices. After building a successful business in my early 20s through organic marketing from many angles – 1:1 services, group programs, online courses, ebooks, blogging, podcasting – I was getting a lot of questions related to business, and I decided to turn my “side business consulting” into my main work. I no longer see nutrition clients 1:1, and instead, empower people to heal holistically through my online programs and monthly membership. My 1:1 practice is now focused on business coaching for other online health coaches and energy healing, and I work with clients in the group setting through my group business coaching program and Brain Rewiring Certification program. I feel very lucky to be able to have such multi-faceted business and work with such incredible women every day, empowering them in business and health.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has not been a smooth road – is entrepreneurship ever smooth? However, every bump in the road has taught me crucial lessons that have allowed me to think in new ways and continue to grow. Starting my blog and podcast in college and becoming an entrepreneur straight out of college definitely wasn’t easy – I faced a lot of criticism, many moments of self-doubt, and a lot of loneliness. Some of the biggest struggles for me along the way, though, were balancing my own health issues with my work.
I turned things around when I was 21, but as my business grew very quickly after college, my health started to suffer again. The stress, long hours, overworking myself, and putting too much pressure on myself triggered many of my symptoms to come back. I found out I had mold illness and later Lyme disease, which were draining all of my energy and making it hard for me to move through my daily life. There were many days I could barely get out of bed, and plenty of days when my brain fog, vision, tinnitus were so bad, I couldn’t work even if I could make it out of bed. My body felt like it was shutting down even worse than it had before. I ended up taking three months off work completely to start to move toward recovery, and I was back to seeing countless practitioners of every specialty.
At that crossroads with my health, I moved from L.A. to San Diego for a fresh start, and dove deeper into energy work and brain rewiring to build my body back up, and grow my business in a new way that felt more like flow than hustle. I’ve had to learn that lesson many times – slowing down to speed up. There have been times when I just didn’t know if my physically body could keep up, but it taught me to look for healing in out-of-the-box ways, which ended up making me a much better coach. With business, I had to find smarter ways to build my business – increasing revenue streams, changing my offers, and being more efficient overall. Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for every bump in the road, because I’m now able to teach other coaches how to build their practices in a smarter way, so they don’t have to burn themselves out in the process of building a successful business.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
At its core, my business is about empowering people to create the best version of themselves. My work as a holistic nutritionist and Reiki practitioner helps women naturally heal physically and emotionally, focusing especially on those struggling with chronic symptoms. Most of my clients have struggled with a number of digestive issues, amenorrhea, anxiety, disordered eating, or weight imbalances. I now support thousands of women through my online membership, UPLEVEL, that has hundreds of hours of content to help women overhaul their health and wellness, and through my DIY online courses – Wellness Foundations, the Paleo Women Lifestyle Program, & Ditch Your Acne, Control Your Health. What makes my work different than others is that I take a truly mind, body, spirit approach, incorporating individualized diet protocols (I’m known for trying and studying EVERY diet out there – carnivore, potato diet, low-FODMAP, keto, GAPS, vegan – you name it!), proper supplementation, nontoxic living, functional movement, energy healing, deep mindset work, and brain rewiring. This gives people lasting transformations at the root level.
My work as a business coach is different than most because I focus on the energetics of business and mindset work just as much as content creation and marketing strategy. My clients will tell you that it’s life coaching as much as it is business coaching. This is how I help people build businesses that are fully in alignment and feel more like flow than hustle – because you shouldn’t have to hit burnout to build your dream business. The more my business grows, the clearer it is to me that your mindset and energy is the key to efficiency with growth. I’m known for my no-BS approach with business – I am all about results. I also teach my clients how to actually coach, so they can get their clients incredible results. Most health coaching certification programs teach their students information about food and the body, but don’t have any helpful marketing content or really teach application, so I fill in the gap.
I teach ambitious health coaches how to build 6 & 7-figure online coaching businesses using Instagram as their main marketing platform. I truly believe this is the most efficient way to build a coaching business in today’s world and is exactly how I do it. I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve built my business with totally organic marketing up until now (who knows what the future holds…) I have never paid a dime for marketing. It’s all about the right strategy! My group coaching program, No Bullshit Business School, is an accelerated program that teaches exactly how to build an online coaching business from the ground up using these principles.
For coaches who want to get their clients unprecedented results and learn the most powerful way to shift their energy to bring in more clients and income, my partner Rachel Barber and I developed our Brain Rewiring Certification Program, which is a 6-month coaching certification that trains coaches to use brain rewiring in their own practice.
My website, ChristinaRiceWellness.com, has been the hub of my business for the past six years and is the home to thousands of blog posts to help people heal holistically, covering nutrition, fitness, mental health, spirituality, recipes, supplements, mindset work, and more. It’s also where people can find my #NoSugarNoProblems recipe ebooks (sugar-free desserts!), monthly membership, and online courses. I’m incredibly proud of the seemingly endless content on my website, which has been with me since I was 19!
And of course, my podcast, Wellness Realness, has a very special place in my heart. I’ve published over 300 episodes, including raw personal episodes and countless interviews with top experts in the health & wellness space, and I’m known to ask the awkward questions. Nothing is taboo, and I like to get a wide variety of perspectives on my show, never sugarcoating opinions. Episodes take a deep dive into nutrition, fitness, healing from chronic illness, entrepreneurship, mental health, spirituality, relationships, and more. Through all of my content, coaching, and programs, I’m lucky to have cultivated an incredible community of go-getters who think deeply, ask the difficult questions, and are on the path to becoming the best versions of themselves. It’s an inspiring place to be.
What were you like growing up?
As a child, I was very outgoing, opinionated, and had a ton of interests. I loved to read, write, draw, and dance. I had a big imagination, and I also always felt very different from other people. I got along best with people who were older than me. As I hit middle school and high school, I quieted down and became much more introverted. I was always a foodie and very interested in the beauty world. I became intrigued with blogging, vlogging, and all kinds of digital content and used that as my escape, which is what eventually led me to start my own blog in college!
Pricing:
- UPLEVEL monthly membership – $20/month (cancel anytime)
Contact Info:
- Website: christinaricewellness.com
- Email: info@christinaricewellness.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/christinaricewellness
- Other: brainrewiringcoach.com
Image Credit:
Photography: Jessica Livingston, Gaby Deimeke, Kendall Wheeler
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