Meet Erika Royal | Chief Executive Officer – The Life Coach School

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erika Royal and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erika, how do you think about risk?
I think about risk taking as being strategic. A small part of risk-taking is making sure that you’re in front of the right people in the right place at the right time. A more significant part is making sure that you’re managing your mind to be able take advantage of opportunities so that when opportunity knocks, you don’t let fear or self-doubt keep you from stepping up and raising your hand. I’ve been in the right place at the right time and not raised my hand because I wasn’t managing my mind. I was too afraid to put myself out there, and that is how thought work has helped me the most. I’m probably always going to be scared and anxious about trying something new and stepping into something I’ve never done before. And also, I do challenging things and learn stuff all the time, so I still need to raise my hand even though I feel afraid or uncertain.
An example of this approach to risk taking is me leaving my former career. I worked at a large national AmLaw 100 firm for 22 years, first as an associate and then a partner. I was doing fine in that job and I probably would have continued to do that for a while longer, but then 2020 happened. I don’t think I’m the only person to realize that what I thought were hard and fast rules were not, and things that I thought couldn’t change actually could change very quickly.
2020 changed my belief about what was possible and allowed me to start raising my hand. It started at my firm with raising my hand and speaking out about the social injustices that were happening in real time — being able to have difficult conversations and not shying away. And then, in the midst of doing that, getting the opportunity to come into this role.
I was in a job that was fine, but not inspiring — suddenly looking at a job that seemed so appealing. I knew nothing about this new job and was petrified about jumping in and potentially failing at it. But I still made the jump because I realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I had to try! One thing that Brooke Castillo, the Founder of The Life Coach School says that I love is that “even if you try something and you fail, it still moves you closer to becoming the person that you want to be.” Leaving my job as a law firm partner to take on this role as CEO has definitely moved me closer to the person I want to be.

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?
Please tell us more about your business. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about.

The Life Coach School is the premier institution for both life coach certification and personal coaching. Through its Coach Certification Program and coaching program, Self Coaching Scholars, the School sets the standard for the coaching industry. The Life Coach School works to inspire individuals to become their best selves by being the ultimate example of what’s possible.
The Life Coach School has had an enormous impact on me. personally. Before I came to work here, I was a consumer of the product. I am a certified life coach and I had been in our Self-Coaching Scholars program for years before joining the company as CEO. Being able to work inside this company and influence the direction that it’s going in is beyond exciting to me.
One of our core values is that we are an example of what is possible with the self-coaching model. I see this a massive opportunity for me to make an impact because I know that learning about and implementing thought work has changed my life. I can be that example of what’s possible for Black and Brown women who may not even know what a life coach is. As CEO, I can help to ensure that we are more intentional about whom we market and reach out to! It’s an amazing opportunity for me personally and for the School to really broaden and branch out and spread this work everywhere. I look forward to attracting coaches and clients who make our community look more representative of the world at large. I’m motivated at the prospect of doing that.

How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

To be honest, I could not have planned this out. The way that this all happened couldn’t have been part of some ten-year plan by me. I had gone to law school and was working as an employment lawyer at an AmLaw 100 law firm. Four years ago, I decided to work with a life coach who had been certified by The Life Coach School. I think that I was drawn to her because she had been a lawyer, too and, at the time, she was only coaching lawyers. Her messaging really resonated with me. The reason that I turned to coaching was that I was just existing, not living my life. I felt like my life looked pretty good from the outside, but I was always wondering if there was something better. I existed in this what-if world and never did anything about it meaning that I never put myself out there to look for a different job. But, I was working with an executive coach and through her, I learned about the woman who would become my life coach. I began listening to her podcast and eventually decided that I wanted to work with her. This was very unusual for me. The idea of spending money, nonetheless a lot of money, on a life coach was not something I had considered before and it seemed pretty extreme. But everything that she was saying was speaking to me! So I felt like I just had to do it!
Once I began working with a coach, I started thinking about becoming one. As a litigator, my mindset had been that I would become a mediator at the end of my career. That prospect did not excite me. However, coming out of being coached for eight months, I felt so strongly that I knew so many women, particularly women lawyers, who had no idea how much this could change their lives. Working with my coach, I learned that my thoughts were creating my feelings, actions and results. Through thought work, I was able to change my perspective and identify my gaps and challenges. I learned that feeling happy was available to me and I began to feel like I was truly living and enjoying my life. The idea of bringing this work to other women lawyers was so appealing and motivating. I talked to my coach and she recommended that I get certified at The Life Coach School as she had. I enrolled in October 2018.
After I completed the certification, I had to figure out what to do next. I was still working and I had three kids. I did not think that I could just quit my law firm job. I started coaching people in my spare time, at nights and on weekends. I also started looking for opportunities to bring coaching into my life at the firm because I knew that the market was there. In 2019, my executive coach invited me to be a coach facilitator at a yearlong mastermind in 2020. This was the first time that I was paid to work to work as a coach and it felt like I was moving in the right direction. Then 2020 happened, and everything just sped up exponentially.
By March 2020, I no longer had to work in an office. Being 100% virtual had never been an option before and working that way broadened my perspective on what was possible. The Life Coach School Founder, Brooke Castillo, had been looking for a CEO. She had talked about it on her podcast a few times. I had never thought about myself as a candidate for that job, so I had never applied. Then I met her. We had one conversation and then another, and then one day, she asked me to join her on zoom, and we talked about this opportunity.
At first, I was very surprised and hesitant. My first thought was that I could not do it because I had never run a company before. Of course, if you always look to the past to see what you are capable of, you will never do anything different. One of the things that made me appealing for the role was that I had not run a company before and would not come in with preconceived notions about the “right” way to do things. I would be open-minded, but I also had a legal background and tons of experience counseling clients on managing employees. Eventually, I started to believe that everything I had done up to that point – my career focus on employment law, hiring a life coach and getting tremendous results, becoming a certified coach myself – had been leading me to this opportunity.
Despite this, I had to work on my mind a lot to leave my job of 22 years for something so different. Ultimately, I was scared of failing. However, failure is a necessary ingredient for change and growth. Knowing that failure was not just okay, but expected, allowed me to take the risk of leaving my law career and falling flat on my face. This past year has challenged so many of my beliefs about who I thought I was, my perfectionism, what I thought I was capable of. I have had to be open to making mistakes and failing because failing is how you level up. It has not been easy, but the change that I see in myself in just one year has been so worth it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I recently told a friend that I was so busy working and dealing with kids for so many years that I forgot what I even liked. Now, I am more intentional making time for fun and self-care. My pandemic solutions include riding a Peloton and taking walks just to get out of my house.

If my best friend came to town, I would say let’s see Florida as a tourist. I would suggest getting a hotel on the beach (the Diplomat is a long time favorite), spending the day hanging out at the pool, and spending some time at the spa. Then, we could dress up and maybe check out some art exhibits at The Pérez Art Museum Miami. Then, because everyone I know wants to go to South Beach, we would eat amazing food at Prime 112 while people watching.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank my family for their unwavering support, encouragement and belief in me. I am extremely lucky and blessed to be surrounded with so much love and fun.

Website: https://thelifecoachschool.com/

Instagram: @lifecoachschool

Linkedin: The Life Coach School

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLifeCoachSchool/videos

Image Credits
Photographer: Heather Curiel