“Changing your life is hard, and I want to weed out the weaklings right away,” says Erika Lyremark, a self-styled “professional ass kicker.”
She ditches the namby-pamby coddling of other career and life coaches and instead gives clients the Daily Whip, her tough-love, occasional-profanities-included, six-week coaching programs ($695 to $1,395).
Lyremark is still a partner with Ellis Properties, LLP, a commercial real estate brokerage in Minneapolis. Before that, she was a stripper for nine years, a vocation that gave her some useful hustle. She’s not glib about translating the experience into a business. Her dominatrix-style coaching isn’t everyone’s cuppa tea, she acknowledges, but it’s pragmatic at the core: She helps (forces!) clients to take responsibility for their actions, and honors accountability above all else.
“People may think one thing before they meet me,” Lyremark says. “But then they do, and they realize I’m smart, straightforward, and personable. Oh, and I can kick your ass.”
