Meet Elle Ross-Cotteral | Wellness Coach & Business Strategist for Fitness Professionals

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elle Ross-Cotteral and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elle, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind my success and the success of my brand is creating a consistent routine with persistent execution. Before starting my journey toward holistic health and becoming a business owner, I had not solid routine or sense of direction for what I wanted for my life. It was not until I gained clarity on my goals and created actionable steps on how to achieve them that my life began to shift for the better. I developed a new morning routine of healthier success habits and consistent discipline to execute on those tasks daily. My mornings went from waking up 30 minutes before needing to leave out the door for work, to giving myself an extra 2-3 hours to focus on my personal well-being. That included morning prayer and meditation, reading, journaling my intentions and goals for the day, exercise, hydration and a well-balanced breakfast. Then executing on the goals and priorities I set for myself. By setting up my morning with structure and focused intention my productivity at work increased, my energy and mental clarity improved, and my health improved tremendously. From pre-diabetic to my glucose levels dropping to healthier levels. I gained so much mental and physical strength and sharing my personal transformation was what started the growth and success of my personal brand. Sharing how my breakdown lead to my breakthrough. Writing my first best-selling book “The Blueprint: The 90-Day Breakthrough to Shift Your Mindset & Transform Your Life” to second book/growth journal “The Habit Reset.” My story helped gain me clients when I was laid off from my corporate job to pursue wellness coaching full-time. Building my B-FIT with Elle Fitness & Nutrition business to the point other wellness coaches would reach out to find out my secret to success. Now I have been able to successfully transition to Business Coaching and co-founded The Brand Trainer University. Where my business partner and I coach fitness professionals how to launch and automate profitable online programs. All of this success would not have happened had I not began to get clear on my vision and the goals that I wanted for my life. Determine WHO I wanted to become and develop actionable strategies on how to get there. Establish consistent daily success habits and a powerful morning routine. A routine that I still implement till this day. Along with investing in mentors and coaches to help advise me along my growth journey.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
What sets my business apart from others is the desire to truly help my clients succeed and win in life. It’s not just a one time transaction, but a lifetime transformative experience. I still maintain a relationship with many of my past clients, some are still with me until this day. Occasionally checking in to see how they are progressing or just a friendly ‘Happy Birthday or holiday celebration; How are things?… I pray all is well.’ goes a long way. In addition, my programs are not just given, but guided with success coaching and consistent motivation and accountability, assuring clients are executing the tasks given. There is a clear understanding of what is expected throughout the program. There is a community and constant support. Relationships outside of me as the coach are formed giving is a sense of camaraderie amongst clients. Programs are longer than the average 1-3 month program. Reason being because real progress takes longer than 21-90 days in order for a new behavior, habits to stick or a business to transform. It takes at least 6 months to experience real change. By this point new success habits should be embedded within the deep subconscious where the newer habits become second nature. Businesses can see and measure consistent progression and enter new levels of achievement within their company. But none of the above came easy. Developing this structure of programming took time through trial and error and learning from past mistakes that failed. Any failure I looked at as stepping stones and learned lessons. Anything I struggled with or did not understand, I would invest in an experienced coach to help. Guide and advise me on what actions I needed to take, what I needed to let go of, where I needed to delegate, what I could improve and where I needed to focus. Investing in my business is where real growth took place. I would like the world to know that success, personal development and growth doesn’t happen overnight. I am where I am today through struggles, set backs, loss and countless late nights and long hours. Pure sacrifice. The road to success has not been easy, but it has all been worth it. Those breakdown moments only helped make me stronger and build character. I no longer stress the small things, and when hardships occur I handle them a lot more efficiently than in the past. I always keep my head high and walk forward in faith. God is a big part of my foundation. I pray often and stress less. I strongly believe if you make choices with confidence and take the necessary action to make that vision your reality, you most certainly will succeed! Along with maintaining an attitude of gratitude and humility and you’ll be just fine.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I will be honest, I personally do not get out often. If someone were coming to visit, I would end up being a tourist in my own town along with them. Pre-covid, I would check out what events were happening in the area while they’re in town and plan to attend. Anything that involves live music, reggae or latin, and great food would be my go to spot. I personally am not a big drinker, so I’m not big on bars. But I do enjoy an occasional glass of wine (when not pregnant). If the weather permits we would drive up to the Chateau Elan for a wine tasting and delicious food. During the summer I enjoy the outdoors, so definitely a trip to Piedmont Park, a bike ride along the Atlanta Beltline and stop at Krog Street Market for a bite to eat. Plan a trip to one of the many outdoor trails, such as Sweet Water Creek or hike up Stone Mountain. We would check out downtown and tour the Coca-Cola Factory, visit the Georgia Aquarium and ride the Ferris Wheel. Depending on the season catch an Atlanta United Game, Atlanta Falcons or the Atlanta Braves game. In regards to food, depending on our mood I would just look on Yelp for what’s the hottest most rated spot to go check out. But with Covid, I am pretty low-key and in all honesty a home-body. My best friend is too. When she comes to visit now we either order take out or make a home cooked meal, get a good bottle of wine (pre-pregnancy) and Netflix and chill. Spending quality time catching up is our take on a good time. Along with a great walk or hike outdoors with nature. At the end of the day the experience truly comes from surrounding yourself with quality friends who can enjoy the simple pleasures in life. All the extravagant events are nice and can be entertaining, but when you’re with excellent company you don’t need much to have fun and a good time. This is just my personal opinion.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to give a personal shout out to the one person who aided in the jump start to my transformation growth journey. My younger brother Azias Ross. He is one my best friends and I like to call him my little big brother due to all the wisdom he possesses. When I told him my goals and how I wanted to completely change and improve my habits and the outcome I wanted to achieve, he was the most supportive every choice along the way. He recommended books to read, specifically on mindset, habits and creating internal spiritual and business growth. I studied those books, some I read more than once. I took notes and implemented the new skill sets I was learning. Reading and executing on the knowledge I learned and having deep intellectual conversations with my brother definitely not only helped me stay on track, but the support, love and encouragement helped maintain my motivation to succeed. The books I read: Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire – Deepak Chopra The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Joseph Murphy The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey The Success Principles – Jack Canfeild Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy Awaken The Giant Within – Tony Robbins Unshakable – Tony Robbins The Power of Ambition – Jim Rohn 6 Months to 6 Figures – Peter Voogd The Motivation Manifesto – Brendon Burchard The Millionaire Fastlane -MJ DeMarco The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod The list goes on. But these are some of the first books I read at the start of my journey and sometimes go back and reference from time to time. I have read more books since and continue to invest in books to promote further growth in my personal development in life and business.

Website: www.theelleross.com | www.trainthebrand.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theelleross/ | https://www.instagram.com/thebrandtrainers

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theelleross/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theelleross

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheElleRoss/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/b-fit-with-elle-atlanta

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BFITwithElleRoss

Other: Clubhouse: @theelleross

Image Credits
Photographers: Erica J. Simmons and Joshua Jackson