Dr. Verlaine Crawford is a Transformational Coach, author, and international speaker. She has helped individuals overcome internal blocks and achieve success in health, wealth, relationships, and self-expression. With decades of experience in marketing, coaching, and personal development, she has conducted workshops worldwide and developed the Infusion Integration Process. Dr. Crawford has received numerous accolades, including an Honorary Doctorate in Humanitarianism and multiple awards recognizing her contributions to entrepreneurship and personal growth.
What sparked your journey as a coach/entrepreneur? Was there a moment, challenge, or person that pushed you to take this path?
Over forty years as a marketing expert, whether as an employee or consultant to businesses, people would come to my office seeking advice for personal and professional concerns. For over fifty years, I had been studying and practicing the concept that our thoughts create our reality.
It all started when I was twenty-two in 1966. A man in an elevator told me to make a list of the things I wanted and the date by which they would happen. He gave me the book, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. It was March, and I wrote an outrageous list: I would be modeling by April 10, appear on TV by May 5, live in an apartment at the beach by June 15, and be driving an XKE Jaguar on my birthday in December.
Everything took place before the date. It was like a treasure hunt where I followed intuition and observed signs and indicators that sounded interesting to me. A friend of mine calls it “The free float to the supreme float.” With my surprising success, I told everyone I knew about making a list. I was surprised to discover that they didn’t always receive their desires, even if they were practicing positive thinking. I began a search to understand the glitch in the manifesting process.
I continued looking for answers as I experienced many adventures, great jobs, international travel, and meeting my soulmate by listening to my intuition. (John and I have been together for 55 years.) In 1987, I began working with clients to help them overcome their internal blocks to reaching their goals by using the Infusion Integration Process.
Tell us a bit about what you do! What’s the purpose behind your business, and how does it make a difference in people’s lives?
As the years went by, I tested many different lists and had wonderful results. Yet, I had a terrible negative event happen. I was stabbed by an assailant in an underground parking garage in 1971 when I was working as chief copywriter for an ad agency in Los Angeles. It is a long story, but after my collapsed lung healed, I moved out of L.A. and back to my hometown, Carmel, CA.
Three years later, I took an NLP workshop. A small part of the three-day event was devoted to an integration technique. I volunteered to go through the integration, and it changed my life. My PTSD cleared, and I was able to travel alone once again.
I began using the integration process for a wide variety of trauma/drama experiences, large and small, for myself and others. I was becoming a Transformational Coach. I help people with the Four Cornerstones of Life: Health, Wealth, Love (relationships), and Self-Expression. If any of those four cornerstones are missing, the building (our lives) begins to collapse.
I discovered that we have subpersonalities that are the keepers of our beliefs. Often, we hold opposing beliefs, such as one part wanting to be wealthy, and another part thinking it might be too much trouble.
The non-wealthy part of you might think the advantages of not being wealthy include knowing you are liked for yourself, not your money; not having to pay high taxes; and avoiding the hassle of investing. Thus, we create a battle within ourselves between wanting and not wanting wealth. Those opposing beliefs become the blocks to achieving our goals.
I developed what I call the Infusion Integration Process, which brings together the different parts of ourselves. The integration unleashes “The Power of Wholeness,” which is the name of my latest book—an update on my first book, Ending the Battle Within.
Thinking back to the start of your career, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced in establishing yourself as a coach/entrepreneur? How did you work through them?
I was very fortunate to have my clients begin to appear in 1987 when I opened to other dimensions, and I started helping people transform their lives. Groups formed at my home as I began teaching workshops about manifesting the desires of the heart. Soon, friends were setting up groups in their homes for me to teach across Southern California. Then I was invited to teach in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Bali, France, and Italy.
My biggest challenge has been to listen to and follow my intuition consistently. The concept of Free Will is a great idea, but I have found that inner guidance is impeccable. Intuition can come in the form of a voice, a feeling, or a vision. This inner knowing protects us and leads us to opportunities.
Listen closely. Your intuition is always the first thought. The follow-up statements are your mind arguing. For instance, you are driving on the freeway and hear, “Turn to the right.” You quickly move over to the right lane, and then you see an out-of-control car going the wrong direction in the lane you were just in. The car would have hit you if you hadn’t moved.
Another example: You see a card on a poster board in a coffee shop advertising a speaker. It looks interesting. You decide to go and meet a person who becomes your contact to a network of people who love what you offer.
Following your intuition is the most important life-enhancing and life-saving activity you can do to better your life.
Is there a milestone or achievement you’re really proud of that you’d like to share?
In 1992, I was invited to teach personal growth and spiritual awakening six times in Japan, then in Hong Kong, Australia, Bali, France, and Italy. It was and is an incredible experience to expand into a higher state of consciousness and retrieve information that one would normally not be able to access.
In 2023, I received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humanitarianism from the Global International Advocate University in Atlanta, Georgia. Other awards include the Visionary Woman of the Year Award 2024 from Olympus Awards, Miracle Woman of the Year 2024 from GSFE (Global Society of Female Entrepreneurs), and LOANI (Leaders of All Nations International).
Women are making big moves in workplaces around the world, leading alongside their male counterparts. What are your thoughts on women in leadership today?
I think it is wonderful that women are allowing themselves and men are welcoming them to be in leadership positions. Women bring to the table a deep understanding of relationship-building and creating new ways of handling problems and concerns in a wide range of activities in the world today.
I had the good fortune to be a trailblazer for women’s leadership when I became the first female Sales Director for a 5-star resort at the Lodge of Pebble Beach. I filled the hotel with top corporations for five years in the future.
I was one of the first female Executive Directors of a Chamber of Commerce on the Monterey Peninsula, in San Juan Capistrano, and Laguna Beach. I was also the first female executive for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley—Vice President of Marketing and part-owner of Intelligent Technologies. I sold that company and was invited to do the same for Syntactics Corp.
What advice would you give to future women leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs?
I would advise women to think in terms of camaraderie and communication rather than competition with their male counterparts, bosses, or employees.
Times have changed, and men see women doing fabulous jobs in business and politics. It is important to look beyond the surface in terms of men’s behavior and respond to the inner person who needs compliments and consideration.
Early in my career, I learned about the seven chakras—the energy wheels that connect us to higher dimensions. When working with men in business, I imagined slightly closing the second chakra, the sexual chakra, while keeping all others open. I was never treated as a sexual object or “hit upon”—only with respect. Try it. It works if you want it to.
