Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erika Royal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

By the time I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer. I thought that lawyers were smart and the work seemed challenging and interesting. I also thought that entering a profession like the law would provide me with a financial security that, growing up as the oldest of three children with divorced parents, I did not have. In high school, I participated in mock trials and I loved pretending to be an attorney. After college, I worked in a law office as a legal secretary and that experience further confirmed to me that I was meant to be a lawyer. I attended Harvard Law School and got a job at a prominent Florida law firm that would become an international member of the AmLaw 100. Shortly after I gave birth to my third child, my son, I was promoted to partner at the firm. By the time that I turned 40, I was married, with three amazing children, and a partner at a well-respected, national law firm. I should have been on top of the world. Instead, I was filled with self doubt and anxiety. Law firm life was not what I expected. I knew that there would be tremendous pressure to perform and succeed. The stakes, and the expectations, are high. But I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to try to succeed as a Black woman in a large corporate environment. I was one of very few at my firm and was often the only woman or person of color in a room, whether that room was a boardroom or a courtroom. I felt like I was always performing, trying to manage how other people perceived me and make them feel comfortable. As I neared my 20 year anniversary at the firm, I was drained physically and emotionally. It was around that time that I began working with a life coach. I had worked with executive coaches at the firm, but a life coach was different. My executive coaches all created great plans and told me what to do. My life coach empowered me to realize that I knew what to do and helped me find the blocks that were keeping me from taking action. Coaching helped me so much that I ultimately decided to become certified as a life coach, believing that I could use those skills to help women lawyers learn to live in the present moment and enjoy their lives. In 2020, in the midst of the national crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movement, I met the founder of the organization where I had obtained my life coaching certification. A few months later, I applied for the role of CEO at the company and was offered the position. Most of the people I knew thought that I was out of my mind to leave my job as a law firm partner to run an internet startup business certifying life coaches. But I knew that life coaching had completely changed my life and the lives of so many others. I saw the offer as a once in a lifetime opportunity to do work that mattered and that fed my soul. In December 2020, I left my position as a law firm partner and started in my current role the following month. That decision, to begin an entirely new career after 22 years, was the best thing that I have ever done for myself and for my family. I have never looked back.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Erika Royal is the current CEO of the Life Coach School, best known for setting the standard for the life coaching industry by inspiring people to invest in and care for their mental health and training the best coaches in the world by serving as an example of what’s possible with a well- managed mind. The Life Coach School (LCS) consists of a self-coaching and scholars program, a standard and online coach certification program, and more. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and before joining The Life Coach School she worked as an employment law partner at an AmLaw 100 law firm. Erika brings a warm personality with an energy of professionalism, a strong strategic mindset, and well-rounded leadership skills to the Life Coach School.

The Life Coach School promotes thoughtfulness and inclusion. They encourage their clients to pay attention to their thoughts because value is created with our minds, showing their clients a clear path to self- reliance, self management, and self direction. As CEO, Erika strives to be an example of what is possible. As a mother and wife, an integral part of Erika’s leadership style is unapologetically showing up as her whole and authentic self; serving as a role model for Black women & girls and stands as proof that anything is possible and you can create any result you want.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had gone to law school and was working as an employment lawyer at an AmLaw 100 law firm. Five 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 directly 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 myself. 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 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 it is one of the best decisions that I ever made.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I think that it is very important to make sure that you know your company’s mission and purpose. Then take very talented and driven people whose personal missions align with the company’s, set them up for success, and let them go to work. I am extremely proud of the fact that we have created tremendous success with such a lean team, but that is because every member is exceptional and perfect for their role. It is crucial to acknowledge the contributions of individual team members towards achieving the company’s larger goals. And, I believe that it is important for leaders to model for their teams that mistakes will be made. It is important to acknowledge that we will all, at some point, fail at something. What matters is how you handle that failure and how you get back up. I am willing to be real and vulnerable with my team because I believe that people connect with vulnerability and are inspired when leaders overcome adversity, not when a seemingly perfect person does everything perfectly.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thelifecoachschool.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifecoachschool
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifecoachschool
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/school/lifecoachschool/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLifeCoachSchool