Amber Lee Forrester is a coach, facilitator, positive psychology practitioner, motivational speaker, content creator, event producer and serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of Quartz Wellness Collective, a personal growth and development organization that provides life-enhancing resources and tools for women who seek to live healthier, happier, and more purposeful lifestyles. The Quartz Wellness Collective hosts and produces uplifting events, transformational workshops, retreats, and online content designed to promote mental, physical, emotional, financial and social well-being.
Amber’s robust background has contributed a highly transferrable skill set that gives her the confidence and know-how to continue her purpose-driven career path. Her high school and college modeling, hosting and on-camera interviewing experience formed her comfort and self-assured presence on stage and in front of the camera, and built up her ability to engage people in meaningful conversation. Her fifteen years of event experience supports her ability to create, coordinate, design and execute entertaining and impactful events. With ten years of apparel design, manufacturing, sales and marketing for her designer dog apparel company, Kane & Couture, she is masterful at product development, branding and online retail.
Amber is a visionary. Her top strengths are her creativity, love of learning, resourcefulness, resilience, and her ability to execute down to the minor details of her vision to bring her ideas to life. Her personal motto is “always do your best.” Her list of accomplishments reflect the hard work and dedication she applies when she decides to commit to a goal. A few notable accomplishments include: graduating from each level of schooling with honors; being chosen from a national multi-city search as the Seagrams Gin Live Veejay in 2003; acceptance into the highly competitive inaugural Macy’s Workshop vendor development initiative that resulted in Amber selling Kane & Couture into Macy’s and becoming one of the faces of the program; being selected from tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to appear on ABC’s hit show, Shark Tank, where she struck a deal with Daymond John and Lori Greiner; creating, producing and executing a wellness retreat to Grenada where 50 women of color joined together for four days of transformational mind and body activities. Amber has spoken at schools, churches, entrepreneur conferences, and her own wellness events and retreats motivating people to find purpose, let go of limiting beliefs and have the confidence to show up and accomplish what one’s heart desires.
Amber is happily married and the mother of two young children. Her husband, Garvin Forrester is aerospace engineer by trade, but also a serial entrepreneur with ownership in multiple companies. The Forresters are currently working together to bring positive entertainment and wellness to metropolitan areas through a series of concerts and festivals.
EARLY YEARS
Amber was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan by her mother, a hard-working, divorced, dedicated single mom. She was an active only child who excelled in school and made many friends wherever she went. Amber grew up engaged in art, doing gymnastics and playing the clarinet—activities that kept her busy and out of trouble. In high school, she received a full scholarship to attend one of Michigan’s most prestigious schools, Detroit Country Day School. Attending a non-denominational church, Transforming Love Community and experiencing the wealth and success of the families at her high school opened Amber’s eyes and heart to greater possibilities and expanded her vision of what she wanted to accomplish in life.
COLLEGE YEARS
Amber was determined to be a part of a world much bigger than the confines of the city that shaped her. After graduating from Detroit Country Day School in 2000, she moved to New York City to pursue a Bachelor of Science at Fordham University’s College of Business Administration. While at Fordham, Amber worked jobs to expand her New York connections and build her career. As an ambitious business student, during her junior year, she convinced her professors to allow her take classes from the road while she toured 29 cities as the red carpet host of a concert tour. In her senior year, she worked full-time as a marketing and public relations assistant at local New York radio stations WBLS and WLIB, while taking six classes per semester and maintaining a 3.5 GPA.
THE ROARING TWENTIES
After graduating from Fordham in 2004, Amber went to work for Frontline Marketing as a manager on a national marketing campaign for Martell Cognac and Seagram’s Gin. She doubled as the New York Representative for Martell, a contract position, which required her to start her first company, Divinity Entertainment. Amber expanded under her own company to handle local and national marketing initiatives for a host of beverage companies. In 2006, FIJI Water asked her to come on board as the Southeast Marketing and Event Coordinator. FIJI relocated her to Miami, where she worked full time from her home office, while expanding her client base to include Motley Bird Energy Drink, FASTrainer Fitness and MOGUL PR.
In 2008, Amber was ready for something new. After two years of working with FIJI Water and gathering as much knowledge as she could about retail sales, Amber started building the foundation for Kane & Couture Dog Apparel. She spent the summer of ‘08 in New York’s Garment District researching and buying materials, sourcing clothing manufacturers, sample makers, screen printers and the sort. She consulted with extensive network of business owners, retailers, designers and manufacturers, who provided valuable insight for her venture.
In 2009, Amber successfully launched Kane & Couture, despite the down economy, and returned to live in New York City. Kane & Couture gained popularity exhibiting at esteemed pet industry tradeshows, such as Backer Spring and Christmas Shows, Superzoo, New York Pet Fashion Week and Global Pet Expo. In July 2010, Kane & Couture was chosen as one of five dog apparel companies to be featured at Henri Bendel’s “Dog Days of Summer,” a week long doggie trunk show that took place at the Fifth Avenue Flagship Store, “one of Manhattan’s chicest shopping destinations”. Within a year, the up-and-coming dog fashion company expanded into over 80 retail stores in North and South America.
2011 was a busy year for Amber. In April, she got married and in May, Kane & Couture reached another milestone when chosen as one of 22 companies to attend The WORKSHOP at Macy’s, a comprehensive retail vendor development program designed to educate, prepare, and mentor high potential multicultural and/or women-owned business owners on how to perform and sustain growth in the retail industry. Eager to learn and excel, Amber attended the intensive, week-long workshop, while 9 months pregnant with her first child. Her efforts paid off. She successfully pitched Kane & Couture as the first dog collar company to be sold on Macys.com.
In 2013, Amber was chosen to pitch Kane & Couture to the Sharks of ABC’s hit show, Shark Tank in front of millions of people. Amber spent months preparing and surviving the producer’s cuts to finally fly out to Los Angeles and tape season 5, episode 2 where she successfully pitched Daymond John and Lori Grenier on air. This accomplishment bought notoriety to her business and her personal brand. Her online sales flourished, but behind the scenes, the sharks weren’t sure what to do in an industry that at the time was unfamiliar to them. There plans of using Lori Greneir’s QVC connection to get her a spot on air were ruined when they found out that QVC was not doing pet product features anymore. Amber continued to build the brand on her own, knowing that she was gaining skills, knowledge and connections that would lead to something much larger in the future.
MOVING ON
After ten years of building a noteworthy business in pet apparel and accessories, Amber found herself inclined to dig deeper, define her purpose and make a transition in her career. As a wife and mother of baby boy and six-year-old girl, the demands of life and her interests were quite different from her prior life of businesswoman on the go. Her journey of exploration included traveling, reading, journaling, taking classes and coaching. After deep introspection, Amber decided to transition her life-long passion of self-exploration, personal growth and well-being into a career in wellness, coaching and motivational speaking. In an effort to test the waters and explore the needs of the women she wanted to serve, Amber created and executed IPower, a young women’s empowerment camp, and The Glow Up Retreat, a women’s wellness retreat in Grenada, West Indies, attended by over 50 women.
After witnessing the success of her purpose-driven work, she decided to form her new company, Quartz Wellness Collective and further her education by getting a certification in applied positive psychology. Positive psychology focuses on getting people “north of neutral” by building on their strengths and empowering them to thrive in their personal and professional lives. Amber is building a social wellness community connecting like-minded, multi-cultural women in urban communities to a collective of professionals, coaches and brands focused on well-being. The Quartz Wellness Collective website features a blog full of positive, inspirational and nutritional content, online courses, mindful merchandise and a calendar of wellness pop-up events and workshops and international wellness retreats. You can find Amber on Facebook and Instagram at @AmberKane, @QuartzWellness.
