I'm Esther Boykin.
Cultural strategist. Intensive coach.
Doula for transformation.
The person in the room who goes deep quickly and isn't afraid to stay there.
For more than two decades, I sat across from brilliant, exhausted people who had done everything right. They read the books. Built their careers. Went to therapy. Showed up for everyone. And still, something essential was missing… not broken, just not quite whole.
That work shaped everything I believe. And eventually, it changed how I do it.
I'm not interested in helping people optimize their lives. I'm interested in helping them come home to themselves — to stop going through the motions, stop managing their way through, and start building something that actually feels alive from the inside.
What I know after 23 years is this: real change doesn't happen in increments. It happens in depth. Not faster — deeper. Not more discipline — more devotion. To yourself. To your own humanity, and by extension, to the humanity in others.
This is the thread running through everything I do: whether I'm holding space for a couple in a Weekend Intensive, working with a high-achieving individual ready to stop circling what's hard, leading a keynote about why laziness is a lie we tell to manage our own empathic distress, or guiding a meditation on Insight Timer at 6 am. The container changes. The invitation doesn't.
Pace before you pivot. Discern before you design. And before any of it — pause long enough to actually hear yourself.
That's not advice I give. It's how I've learned to build a life that actually fulfills and sustains me.
The Official Story
Esther Boykin is a consultant, speaker, and cultural strategist reimagining how we live, work, and lead when compassion is at the center. For more than 23 years, she has been a trusted voice on relationships, leadership, and wellness, blending clinical wisdom with strategic insight to help people and organizations thrive without self-abandonment or burnout.
Through Esther B. Consulting, she partners with leaders and companies to turn care into culture- designing retreats, workshops, and her signature Blueprint that transform wellness from an occasional perk into a foundational pillar of sustainable success. She is also the founder of Compassion Collective, which offers intimate, luxuriously restorative retreats and wellness-focused events and experiences for high-achieving Black women. There, she creates what she calls soft places to land: spaces where ambition meets belonging, and where self-devotion nurtures collective care.
Across all her brands, her mission is clear: to move people from episodic self-care into intentional practices of self-compassion and communal care.
Her influence extends far beyond her companies. Esther serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the black healing collective, a nonprofit committed to the holistic wellness of Black women and femmes. She also sits on advisory boards for SimplePractice, Tigerlily Foundation, and The Fuschia Tent.
She has been a keynote speaker for national conferences, a frequent media guest with appearances on The Today Show, Good Day DC, Good Morning Washington, and The Real Housewives of Potomac, and the author of multiple books and affirmation decks. Her TEDx talk, The Antidote to Laziness is Not What You Think, continues to spark conversations about the power of self-compassion and the impact of empathic distress and systemic oppression.
Whether she’s in the boardroom, on stage, in front of a camera, or holding space at a retreat, Esther’s presence is warm, wise, and galvanizing. She creates spaces where culture, care, and strategy meet, inviting people to reclaim ease, lead with clarity, and build lives that feel as good as they look.
In her downtime, Esther can be found obsessing over interior design, exploring new wines, brewing the perfect cup of coffee, or looking for a new book to read. She is a mom to two adult children and two spoiled rescue dogs. She resides in Washington, DC, but is always ready for a quick trip somewhere new.