Founder of Your Right to Be
Meet erika chalkley: REVOLUTIONARY BUSINESS MENTOR
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted people to be free. Your Right to Be is my small contribution to that work of freedom.
It’s born out of my own struggles and the lessons I’ve learnt along the way. It’s my imperfect activism.
I hope you’ll join me.
I believe…
I believe in heart-led, visionary women being radically resourced.
I believe that small, elegant businesses can have a world-changing impact.
And that we don’t have to sacrifice our well-being, our joy or our ethics to be successful.
The path that led me here.
The body as teacher
What I also want to share is that those thousands of hours in meditation halls were anything but easy for me. I have ADHD and lived most of my life undiagnosed. Traditional meditation was, and still is, incredibly hard for me. But that struggle became one of my greatest teachers. I had to find another way in, and I discovered it through the body and embodied practice.
Since then, I've trained with some of the world's leading embodiment teachers and spent thousands of hours bringing all of this together in service of women bringing their sacred work into the world.
The frontlines of human freedom
I didn't come to this work through a business course.
I spent over a decade as a community organiser and social worker in the UK's most deprived neighbourhoods, and later among Dalit women in India who were reclaiming their value in a society that told them they were worth nothing.
I hold an MA in Human Rights and have worked for the UK Parliament and world-leading NGOs.
I spent years on the frontlines of what it means to help women re-discover their dignity and power.
Over time, I became disillusioned and burnt out by the traditional corridors of power and frustrated with by limitations.
What those years taught me was that real, lasting change doesn't happen through policy papers (important as those are).
The meditation halls
In my mid-twenties, searching for something truer than the path I was on, I found Buddhism.
And in the Buddha's teachings, I felt, for the first time, I understood what true freedom meant. Freedom from the inside out.
I’ve spent over 15 years in serious practice, training toward ordination as a Buddhist Teacher.
Thousands of hours in meditation halls, deep study and radical community have brought me more peace, joy and creativity than I knew was possible.
My Approach
I work with soulful, values-led women who are building meaningful businesses, while quietly dismantling everything they were taught success had to look like.
They include embodiment coaches, therapists, yoga teachers, facilitators, creatives, and other specialists working in deeply human-centred roles.
What they share is a desire to grow in a way that actually feels good.
My work helps them build businesses that nourish rather than deplete them.
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Most business advice is built on urgency, comparison, and scarcity. Push harder. Show up more. If you're not growing, you're failing. “Go big or go home” mentality."
Gentle business practices start from a different premise entirely: that ease and ambition can co-exist, that restfulness is foundational to success, and that the businesses with the most longevity are the ones built on having the most fun.
I bring my Buddhist wisdom into the practical day-to-day of running a business, weaving sacredness with strategy.
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Your body contains wisdom your mind often cannot access.
When you know what to do but can't make yourself do it, when you freeze in overwhelm mid-launch, or procrastinate on the things that matters most. That's your nervous system signalling that something feels unsafe.
Somatic work goes where mindset work can't. We work in a trauma-informed way to gently expand your capacity for visibility, income, and enjoyment, so that your actions can finally match your intentions.
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The patterns quietly sabotaging your business and your wellbeing: the overworking, the undercharging, the overgiving, are not character flaws. They are the perfectly logical result of being raised as a woman in a culture that rewards compliance and punishes selfhood.
Working with thousands of women I identified four main ‘Good Girl Archetypes’: the Superwoman, the Selfless Woman, the Sidekick, the Silent Woman. Chances are you recognise yourself in more than one.
Together, we name them, we understand them in their cultural context, and we gently, methodically dismantle them, because you cannot build a nourishing business on a foundation of self-abandonment.
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You were never meant to work in straight lines.
Your energy moves in seasons, in cycles, in rhythms that ebb and swell. The menstrual cycle. The lunar calendar. The turn of the year from winter stillness to summer aliveness. When your business works with these rhythms rather than against them, something extraordinary happens: you stop fighting yourself, and you start flowing in alignment.
I'm an animist at heart. I believe the earth carries great wisdom, that we are not separate from the natural world, but deeply, intimately part of it.
When we realign our businesses with the seasons, with our cycles, with the intelligence of the natural world we unlock a regenerative power that no productivity system can replicate.
Here’s how I can support you
Time
Alchemy
Reclaim your relationship with time and transform overwhelm into radiant embodiment. This self-paced course teaches you a sacred, somatic approach to scheduling aligned with your body's wisdom.
The Sanctuary
Create a business that feels like a sanctuary. This six-month group programme gives you the depth needed for business and personal transformation - with sustainable support, embodied practice, and authentic momentum.
Private Mentoring
Embodied mentoring tailored specifically to you. This 1:1 container offers personalized guidance and support for your unique journey - meeting you exactly where you are with deep presence and care.
"The secret to having more impact and genuine fulfilment is to become more of who you truly are — and less of who the world told you to be.”
-Erika Chalkley
