Layla El Khadri of Feminine Leadership Mentor: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry
An Interview With Dina Aletras
Permit yourself to go “all in” in whatever area of life you are genuinely interested in! That will carry you through to becoming a thought leader.
For me, this meant to dive into the wisdom of Eastern philosophies. No matter how crazy or out there some things were. I knew that if the wisdom of the feminine had been repressed for thousands of years, I had to go to thousands of years old traditions to find it. This journey opened the door for me for so much more & led me to where I am today.
As part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Layla El Khadri.
Layla knows how to get you to access your awe-inspiring magnetism. She has over a decade of experience guiding women to express their absolute highest potential & embody their magic.
Layla is the founder of She Leads, a business that guide women to tap into their feminine power, find their unique gifts & turn them into mission-driven business to create a positive impact in the world.
Layla El Khadri, Artist, Muse & Feminine Leadership Mentor.
Layla knows how to get you to access your awe-inspiring magnetism. She has over a decade of experience guiding women to express their absolute highest potential & embody their magic.
Layla is the founder of She Leads, a business that guide women to tap into their feminine power, find their unique gifts & turn them into mission-driven business to create a positive impact in the world.
With over ten years of experience as a mentor, a degree in Film making, & a master in Somatic Therapy, Layla’s passion for personal transformation has taken her all over the world studying, mastering, and distilling the most potent tools and techniques for self-empowerment.
The Art Layla has created has touched millions of women across the globe inspiring them to grow, to connect in sisterhood, and to grow their lives & businesses.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Hi! I am Layla El Khadri, known for my contribution to the field of Feminine Leadership & the reclamation of Feminine Wisdom as well as Embodied Leadership through somatic work.
Over twelve years ago my life changed radically when at the edge of my anxiety & disenchantment with life I took myself to a silent retreat. The voices in my head had been so loud I couldn’t hear who I was or what I truly wanted. But this retreat opened a door for me into a new reality, and as I stepped through that door I never came back to the “normal world”. I spent the following years traveling through Southeast Asia studying with a Masters in ancient wisdom. From Taoism to Tantra, Meditation, Somatic Therapy, and Breathwork. Then I went into the jungle and sat with shamans & medicine women. To finally integrate it all through my Somatic Therapy & NLP training.
I found other ways of living, loving & leading.
These discoveries made me know that the sky wasn’t even the limit when it came to my dreams & I created an online business & global community of women who are on a similar path of growth & expansion. Generating content that inspired millions of women all over the world to turn towards the nature of their feminine wisdom, open & integrate the qualities of Yin (the feminine polarity of the Yin & Yang).
Years later I incorporated business mentorship into my work because I realized to spread this wisdom & truly inspire the entire world, many more had to share their gifts, their discoveries & their experience. We are facing a huge narrative shift in our society & collective consciousness. Every single voice is needed.
Today I am a mentor to powerful inspiring women all over the world on a mission to share their gifts & generate a positive impact. While I keep creating art & content that inspires others to keep looking behind the veils & unlocking the true potential of our human nature.
Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority about the topic of thought leadership?
I feel that every person who dares to dive deep into an area of life & develop her/his ideas is a thought leader.
Thought leaders are those who lead through their thoughts. Ideally through conscious, original, free & empiric thought.
This means thoughts that don’t slave to some higher authority, that aren’t copied or stolen from others & that are not disembodied. Thoughts and ideas that come from personal experience, careful observation & real respect for the area of life we choose to advance.
In my case, I have devoted myself to the study of human potential & very specifically the activation of the feminine polarity & its qualities. This is beyond gender. The feminine here stands for the Yin in the Ying & Yang. It is the primordial polarity of our planet.
I specialized in working with women & understanding what moves through us and how. Our minds, bodies, and emotional intelligence.
I have dedicated my life to unlocking what’s hiding behind all our conditioning & learning how our being’s work. From biology to spirituality, to somatic.
After working with hundreds and hundreds of women I have gathered a vast experience, and I continue growing every single day.
Leadership is the devotion to moving forward oneself & inspiring others to do the same.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
Well, being a thought leader is a bit like being a celebrity sometimes. If people know what you are up to & they feel inspired by your take on life you get invited to amazing places. The one time when I applied for A-Fest in Bali (Mind Valley annual event) and they accepted me as a paying participant, but in the welcome email I replied that I was a thought leader in the field of Somatic Therapy & that my new creation PRESENCE (at the time I used to call it Transformational Movement) was the best fit for the A-fest Tribe. A few hours later I was on the phone with the event coordinator & got invited to attend the event as a speaker & teacher.
This kind of major door opening is a result of the work and dedication to our field of expertise.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I can’t think of a funny one right now!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define what a ‘Thought Leader’ is? How is a thought leader different from a typical leader? How is a thought leader different from an influencer?
Thought leadership has become a beacon for visionary individuals who push the boundaries of conventional thinking. A thought leader is someone who dares to stand at the leading edge of an area of life & adds new perspectives, discoveries & ideas to it.
Thought leaders are visionaries who advance their expertise by introducing new perspectives and ideas. Unlike typical leaders, who may adhere to established instructions, thought leaders innovate and drive progress by building on existing knowledge and adding unique value. While influencers can sway public opinion, not all influencers are thought leaders. True thought leadership requires influencing through profound ideas and experiences, not just social media presence.
The Journey and Benefits of Becoming a Thought Leader.
For those destined to be thought leaders, the journey is often driven by an intense passion and a desire to innovate. This path is not chosen for benefits alone; it is a calling, a destiny.
The intrinsic rewards of this journey include embodied confidence, the freedom to create and lead, and the gratification of contributing to the evolution of humanity. Thought leaders are deeply involved in building a better future and empowering others to do the same.
If you feel called to become a thought leader know that the rewards will come as a reflection of the contribution you make to the field of thought you choose to lead. No more, and no less.
Can you talk to our readers a bit about the benefits of becoming a thought leader? Why do you think it is worthwhile to invest resources and energy into this?
I honestly don’t think you become a thought leader because it is worthwhile, you do because it’s your passion. Because there is something you are so passionate about that you are willing to learn all that there is to learn and then keep going and discover new things!
Once you have made this choice the world opens up. You have a sense of freedom, you allow yourself to explore that which moves you, that which turns your heart on fire. And you get to be heard, seen & felt as an authority. Which inspires you to go even deeper.
If you can pair that with a good entrepreneurial mind or if you get the right business mentor, turning your thought leadership into a business would be a very fulfilling and rewarding next step. Because now you can help others with your discoveries while generating abundance for yourself.
If you are passionate about something & you pride yourself on having a good mind, sharp intelligence, a good heart & a huge dose of empathy, you might become a really good thought leader & building a business from your thought leadership will be a fascinating & rewarding journey I will be very happy to assist you with!
Let’s talk about business opportunities specifically. Can you share a few examples of how thought leadership can help a business grow or create lucrative opportunities?
Of course! This is what the women in my Mastermind the Creatrix are doing. Each one of them is an expert in an area of life. They have developed original content & we are now building a business around it by creating automated funnels that allow them to deliver their wisdom to a specific audience who needs it. And make money from it!
A funnel is a customer experience that can happen online or offline. Where you guide your customer to have a real sense of your product. If you are a thought leader will be an information-based product. Digital or otherwise.
Once these funnels or customer journeys are designed & built, using your thought leadership to capture more interest is the only thing you need to focus on. Then we funnel such attention & interest into the funnels & offer the products you build.
It’s simple, not easy. It’s powerful & rewarding. It’s deeply fulfilling if this is your calling. It’s the best thing I have done in my life. And helping others do the same has been one of my greatest contributions to this world.
Ok. Now that we have that behind us, we’d love to hear your thoughts about how to eventually become a thought leader. Can you share 5 strategies that a person should implement to become known as a thought leader in their industry?
1. Permit yourself to go “all in” in whatever area of life you are genuinely interested in! That will carry you through to becoming a thought leader.
For me, this meant to dive into the wisdom of Eastern philosophies. No matter how crazy or out there some things were. I knew that if the wisdom of the feminine had been repressed for thousands of years, I had to go to thousands of years old traditions to find it. This journey opened the door for me for so much more & led me to where I am today.
2. Challenge the status quo. To advance a field of thought you have to allow yourself to challenge the limits imposed.
For me, this was a real thing a decade ago when I started sharing about feminine wisdom. One of the areas where I had to challenge a lot the status quo was in the field of female sexuality & the female reproductive system. The influence of our sexuality in all areas of life but very specially in our mental capacity & states of consciousness was not a popular opinion.
Picture 26-year-old Layla coming into C-suite rooms and telling women that if they learned about their menstrual cycle & aligned their work schedule with it their productivity & overall well-being would rise… was kind of challenging!
3. Work your wounds & trauma around being seen & heard.
If you desire to become a thought leader you will be seen & heard. Or that’s the goal at least. If you have wounds, fears, or trauma around being seen & heard you will end up sabotaging your success. This is not a small thing. It will indeed become the reason why you might fail at making it a sustainable career for you. So, I inspire you to start looking into it now!
4. Develop Mastery. Discipline is key.
When we dare to say: “I am a thought leader!” What we are saying is: “I know enough about something I can lead you through. I am a role model”.
This means you have in some shape or form mastered that thing. Mastery is a state of being. It’s a state of consciousness & an art.
Mastery is when you can integrate wisdom into your everyday life & can carry yourself, your thoughts, emotions, and physical well-being with impeccability.
5. Walk your talk.
Nothing is worse than finding out that your meditation teacher doesn’t meditate, or your nutritionist eats fast food.
Be a role model. Walk your talk. Embody the wisdom. Be an example. You will earn the respect of your community.
For me, this is what keeps me evolving as a person. My career keeps me on my toes. Being a role model for women constantly brings out the best of me.
In your opinion, who is an example of someone who has done a fantastic job as a thought leader? Which specific things have impressed you about that person? What lessons can we learn from this person’s approach?
There are many thought leaders I admire. One of them is Brene Brown. I love how she leaned into the topic of vulnerability & explored it in depth. What impressed me the most was how authentic she kept the entire process. She models vulnerability while talking and researching about it. Her is embodied knowledge, which turns into wisdom.
We can learn from here to stay real, honest & true. To not let academia, research, or the rigors of language disconnect us from the passion that connects us to a topic. Because only when it’s alive, felt & embodied your knowledge will resonate & be felt by the world.
I have seen some discussion that the term “thought leader” is trite, overused, and should be avoided. What is your feeling about this?
I feel like every time we create something good, we get excited, overuse it, and then become self-conscious and start judging it. Is an addictive pattern in our behavior and it manifests in the collective as well as the individual.
Sure, there is attention to be paid to not overusing a term. I default to everyone’s intelligence to make the distinction.
But I wouldn’t choose to avoid a term like this because some are misused. Is like not drinking any more water because some are polluting it.
Let’s get impeccable with the use of our words (in general) rather than stop using them, or else we going to get really dumb!
What advice would you give to other leaders to thrive and avoid burnout?
Listen to your body & find her rhythms. Once you understand what your body needs in its natural state (when there is no pressure of time, deliverables, or addictions to sugars or other things) then give it to yourself.
Unapologetically. You need to be in an optimal mind-body-soul connection to be a thought leader. Your mind needs to be fresh & rested.
Your own needs are extremely important.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I am currently working on a project that aims to become a global movement. The working title is My Body Is Sacred. It’s a campaign to raise awareness about the effects of censorship of the body in human consciousness. For this project, I have dedicated 3 years of research & experimentation with a group of experts & artists to understand the implications of body shaming in human consciousness.
The project aims to engage people by providing a platform for them to express how censorship has affected them personally. We will also offer resources to de-condition our bodies & reconnect with them in a healthy way through somatic, therapy & conscious entertainment.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Get the issue out of the tissue & program success in your flesh”
It’s a sentence that came to me during my Somatic Therapy training & has accompanied me ever since as the magic key to unlocking my potential also to let go of my fears, clearing my trauma & priming my body for success.
It’s also the sentence behind my newest body of work PRESENCE, a somatic practice for leadership that feels like a Jedi training for visionaries & leaders who need to activate their bodies to reach their potential because they were born to do something great!
We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have lunch or breakfast? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
Oh, wouldn’t that be amazing! Well, I would love to have lunch with Joe Dispenza, Teal Swan or Alison Armstrong or Deepak Chopra! Or with Alicia Keys! Hahaha
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Get my Somatic Practice PRESENCE for free — https://www.thefemininerise.com/presence-masterclass
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/laylaelkhadri
Facebook Page — https://www.facebook.com/laylaelkhadri.ie
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/LaylaElKhadri
Website — https://www.laylaelkhadri.com
Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
