Executive Coaching for Corporate Leaders: The 5% Club

Shayla King
  • 5.0 (27)
  • Management
  • Updated Weekly

I’m Shayla King, a former C-suite executive turned Performance + Happiness Coach. This is the podcast for leaders who want it all: the promotions, the paychecks, and luxurious amounts of time for what matters most. Each week, I’ll teach you the mindset, skillset, and systems from my proven Performance + Happiness Formula to help you rise to the top without burnout or overwhelm. Work less, make more, and design a life you love—that’s exactly what we do in the 5% Club. Let’s Go, or Let's evolve together!

  1. 5d ago

    How I Lost 35 Pounds: My Health & Wellness Routine from Hot Mess Mom to Strong, Fit & Happy

    Shayla King, executive coach and founder of Evolve Coaching, has never talked about this in depth on the podcast before: her actual health and wellness routine. How did she lose 35 pounds and keep it off for years while managing four autoimmune diseases and a demanding executive career? What does she actually eat? How does she train? And what changed first, the body or the belief? In this episode of The 5% Club Podcast, Shayla walks through the real plan behind her transformation from "hot mess mom," exhausted and running on stress and coffee, to strong, fit, and genuinely happy. She explains why identity work always comes before behavior change, how she rebuilt her workout habit from the ground up after relearning to walk following a coma, and the simple, high-protein food approach that keeps her energy steady without obsessing over food. She also shares how she resets her physical and emotional energy between meetings, and why managing her inner dialogue has done more for her performance than any workout ever has. This is not a universal plan to copy. It's a demonstration of what it looks like to treat yourself as the asset, protecting your energy, your body, and your mind with the same intention you'd bring to any high-stakes goal. Every morning before the gym, Shayla mixes three things into her water: creatine, Perfect Aminos, and Amino Energy in green apple. The creatine and the Perfect Aminos support muscle. The Amino Energy is her pre-workout, that's where the caffeine lives. In the afternoon, she repeats the creatine and Perfect Aminos, minus the caffeine. In addition to building muscle, new studies have shown that creatine is great for brain support. Shayla use it twice a day and it keeps her mentally sharp in the afternoon. Perfect Aminos (BodyHealth): https://www.bodyhealthaffiliates.com/72HLHTR/3QQG7/ Creatine Monohydrate (Naked Nutrition): https://nakednutrition.com/products/creatine-monohydrate-powder Amino Energy, Green Apple (Optimum Nutrition): https://www.optimumnutrition.com/en-us/products/essential-amino-energy-pre-workout-powder Some links are affiliate links, which means Shayla may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more about Shayla and the Performance + Happiness Lab at shaylaking.com.

    How I Lost 35 Pounds: My Health & Wellness Routine from Hot Mess Mom to Strong, Fit & Happy

  2. Aug 4

    Almost 30's Krista Williams: Why the World Loves a Suffering Woman (Female Friendship + Nervous System Work) | Part 2

    In this episode, Shayla King sits down for part two of her conversation with Krista Williams, author, speaker, and host of Almost 30, a podcast with over 120 million downloads. Shayla opens with a line she can't shake: the world loves a suffering woman. Neither of them is buying into it, and what follows is one of the deepest episodes of The 5% Club Podcast yet. Shayla and Krista explore why the world often struggles to embrace a happy, thriving, confident woman, tracing it back to a cultural belief that success has to be earned through suffering. They talk candidly about why a man's success makes him more likable while a woman's success can make her less likable in corporate America, and what it takes to catch yourself doing that to other women instead of celebrating them. The conversation moves into friendship, specifically the shift from volume-based friendships to depth, and why growing apart from people who no longer fit is a sign of growth, not something to feel guilty about. Krista also opens up about setting a boundary with a parent, and the belief that blood relationships don't come with a choice. She closes with a story about her father, a borrowed Jaguar, and a smashed mailbox that became one of the clearest examples of unconditional, regulated love in her life. This is a conversation about performance and happiness for the woman who has been told she has to choose. She doesn't. Learn more about the Performance + Happiness Lab at shaylaking.com/phlab or visit shaylaking.com. Find Krista Williams at itskrista.com and listen to Almost 30 at almost30.com.

    Almost 30's Krista Williams: Why the World Loves a Suffering Woman (Female Friendship + Nervous System Work) | Part 2

  3. Jul 28

    What If It Could Be Easy? How High-Performing Women Can Stop Over-Functioning

    In this episode, Shayla King, executive coach and host of The 5% Club Podcast, explores what it really takes for high-performing women to stop over-functioning and start letting life be easier. Drawing from her own upbringing and a lifetime of proving her strength by carrying everyone else's load, Shayla unpacks the survival identity so many women in corporate leadership quietly operate from, and the moment she realized carrying everything early never actually gave her a head start. At the center of this conversation is a concept Shayla calls the separation of tasks: learning what's genuinely yours to carry and what belongs to someone else. She walks through real-world examples of over-functioning, from smoothing conflicts that were never yours to manage to absorbing your kids' hard moments as your own, and shares a coaching session where a client works through supporting aging parents without falling into guilt or resentment. Shayla also opens up about the harder question she's sitting with as a mom: how much of what she models as capability is really just old hypervigilance passed forward. This episode is a reminder that performance and happiness are not opposites, and that women in leadership don't have to earn rest after proving enough. For executive women navigating burnout, boundaries, and the mental load of doing it all, this conversation offers real permission to want less of what isn't theirs, and more of a life that feels light. For more from Shayla King and to learn about the Performance + Happiness Lab, visit shaylaking.com/phlab.

    What If It Could Be Easy? How High-Performing Women Can Stop Over-Functioning

  4. Jul 21

    The $200,000 Pool With No Instructions: A Customer Service Lesson for Corporate Leaders

    In this episode of The 5% Club Podcast, executive coach Shayla King shares what a year of contractor chaos, a pool designer, a countertop crew, and a missed pool school appointment, taught her about executive presence. Her core argument: it's not the most talented person in the room who gets promoted, referred, and trusted with more. It's the easiest person to do business with. Shayla walks through three lessons pulled directly from her own frustrating experiences and translates each one into a leadership principle for corporate women aiming for their next role. She covers why meeting people in the communication format they actually need matters more than defaulting to what's convenient for you, why silence from a client, boss, or direct report is often a sign they've already found someone else, and why consistently doing what you say you'll do is one of the most underrated executive presence skills in leadership. Shayla connects this directly to why capable women get stuck in middle management, and how removing friction, not adding more effort, is the real path to being trusted with a bigger role. This episode blends career growth strategy with the performance and happiness philosophy at the center of Shayla's coaching work, proving that becoming easier to work with is a skill you can build on purpose. Learn more about the Performance + Happiness Lab at shaylaking.com/phlab.

    The $200,000 Pool With No Instructions: A Customer Service Lesson for Corporate Leaders

  5. Jul 14

    The Proof: “You Can’t Have It All at Once” Is a Lie

    Everyone repeats the same line: you can have it all, just not at once. Pick a season. Career now, life later. It sounds like wisdom. It's actually permission to keep waiting. Lynn Mulligan didn't wait. She came to the PH+ Lab not burned out, not in crisis, just quietly certain that something wasn't hitting the way it should. Seventeen years at the same company. Good work. A team she liked And a feeling she couldn't shake that more was possible. She invested in happiness first. Everything else followed. In this conversation with Shayla King, Lynn walks through a year that covered every area of her life at once: a new job at a culture that genuinely values her, executive communication skills that got recognized by a senior leader in her final interview, more presence with her eight-year-old son, the confidence to date with clarity as a single mom, and a Nashville birthday trip she almost convinced herself was too inconvenient to book. The tools do not stay in one lane. That's the whole point. If you've been told the "not at once" line one too many times, this episode is your proof that it's a lie. The Performance + Happiness Lab is where this work happens. shaylaking.com/phlab

    The Proof: “You Can’t Have It All at Once” Is a Lie

  6. Jul 7

    Villains, Victims, and Your Happiness: How Corporate Women Give Away Their Power (And How to Take It Back)

    In this episode, Shayla King tackles the one habit that quietly costs ambitious women their power, their peace, and their happiness: the villain story. Most high-performing women would never describe themselves as having a victim mindset. Shayla wouldn't have either, five years ago. And yet she was running it constantly without knowing. The tell is simple: if there is someone in your life who is wrong, difficult, or the reason things aren't going the way they should, you are in the victim seat. And every day that villain lives in your story, you pay for it in energy, heaviness, and happiness. Shayla walks through the three types of villain stories that show up most for women in corporate: the active villain who did something real, the passive villain whose absence became an excuse, and the emotional villain who made you feel something you haven't let go of. She offers a language reframe that puts you back in control of your emotions immediately, and a simple weekly practice for starting to notice where you're handing your power away. This is not about bypassing hard situations or pretending people don't do frustrating things. It is about understanding that the villain story and addressing what actually happened are two completely different moves. One is strategy. The other keeps you small. The episode closes with a personal reflection on intentional spending and joy, including a sneak peek at the upcoming Resourcing Workshop. Join the Performance + Happiness Lab at shaylaking.com/phlab. And be the first to know when the Resourcing Workshop drops: https://shaylaking.kit.com/ec64d55e8f Learn More at www.ShaylaKing.com

    Villains, Victims, and Your Happiness: How Corporate Women Give Away Their Power (And How to Take It Back)

  7. Jun 30

    Almost 30's Krista Williams: Why Ambitious Women Stay Stuck (Mother Wound + Nervous System Work) | Part 1

    In this episode, Shayla King sits down with Krista Williams, host of The Almost 30 Podcast, for one of the most candid conversations in 5% Club history. Krista has over 120 million podcast downloads and specializes in IFS, parts work, and nervous system regulation. Shayla hired her as a one-on-one coach. And she had been actively avoiding one topic on their agenda: the mother wound. Not as a vehicle for blame, but as an honest look at the unconscious programming that drives high-performing women to over-function, over-give, and keep performing for love long after they've left the house they grew up in. Good Girl Conditioning, it turns out, does not stay at the door when you walk into the boardroom. It shows up as office housework, leaky boundaries, and the compulsive need to make sure everyone in the room is okay before you are. Shayla shares openly about resisting this work, why she didn't want to be a victim, and what changed when she finally let herself look at it. Krista introduces the concept of ancestral gems alongside ancestral burdens, the parts work framework that helps women stop performing for approval, and the practice of becoming your own inner mother when the one you had wasn't able to show up that way. This is Part 1. The conversation kept going. Part 2 is coming. CONNECT WITH KRISTA WILLIAMS Almost 30 Podcast: https://almost30.com/ https://www.instagram.com/almost30podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itskrista/ Website: https://itskrista.com/ The Performance + Happiness Lab is Shayla's group coaching program for Director-to-VP women who are done following the broken playbook. Learn more at shaylaking.com/phlab. Work with Shayla: www.ShaylaKing.com

    Almost 30's Krista Williams: Why Ambitious Women Stay Stuck (Mother Wound + Nervous System Work) | Part 1

  8. Jun 23

    5 ways life can actually be easier and lighter for Female Executives in corporate

    The exhaustion you're carrying is not the price of ambition. It is the price of a playbook that was never designed for you to win. In this episode, executive coach Shayla King follows up last week's case for the lighter life with something more actionable: five specific ways life actually gets easier when you step into the 5% life. Not inspiration. Reality. She opens with a client who felt held hostage by her son's saxophone lesson, and uses that story to unpack something far bigger: how many women have quietly handed the steering wheel of their lives over without ever realizing it. From there, Shayla walks through each of the five shifts her clients make, including letting go of the need to be liked at work, exiting the emotional triangles that drain relationship energy, replacing self-criticism with honest self-assessment, and treating health as non-negotiable rather than optional. The truth in all five: you have more choice than you have been using. Not in a motivational poster way. In a practical, this week, on a Tuesday kind of way. This is Part 2 of the Lighter Life series. If you haven't heard Part 1, start there first. The 5% life is not built in one big decision. It is built in a hundred small moments where you choose yourself. The career and the life. Both. Not someday. During the climb. Learn more about the PH+ Lab: https://shaylaking.com/phlab Join the Resourcing Workshop waitlist: https://shaylaking.kit.com/ec64d55e8f Work with Shayla: https://shaylaking.com

    5 ways life can actually be easier and lighter for Female Executives in corporate
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About

I’m Shayla King, a former C-suite executive turned Performance + Happiness Coach. This is the podcast for leaders who want it all: the promotions, the paychecks, and luxurious amounts of time for what matters most. Each week, I’ll teach you the mindset, skillset, and systems from my proven Performance + Happiness Formula to help you rise to the top without burnout or overwhelm. Work less, make more, and design a life you love—that’s exactly what we do in the 5% Club. Let’s Go, or Let's evolve together!

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