Meet Elizabeth Boykewich | Coach, Facilitator, Mindfulness Guide & Podcaster

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elizabeth Boykewich and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I am a coach, a facilitator, mindfulness guide and podcaster.  I work with people inside the entertainment business and people that have nothing to do with Hollywood.I’m a big Carl Rodgers fan and believe “The good life is a process, not a state of being”. Supporting people through their process, wherever they are in their journey, helping them create more space and peace inside and room to make shifts in their lives and relationships, to live more fully into themselves and their dreams, is purposeful and meaningful work.

The pandemic changed the audition process. Auditions no longer take place in person. Actors are now responsible for taping their own auditions at home and sending them digitally. Callbacks are held in virtual meeting rooms. There is no longer the chance to meet casting directors in person and build a relationship. Actors friends have told me it feels like a continued process of tossing endless audition tapes into the ocean. This is a confidence and enthusiasm killer. Actors do their best work when they feel supported and have a relationship with the person they are auditioning for.

I got curious. How could I use my experience and relationships to help bridge this gap for a community I love? I launched a podcast to fill the hole “The EB Co: Off Book”. It’s a bit like the podcast Script Notes but for the acting community. I interview a different casting director each episode. I asked actors, “If you could ask a casting director anything, what would it be?” Listeners get to know the casting director and then we answer actors’ questions. Each episode is filled with suggestions and advice actors can put into immediate action. The feedback has been incredible, INFACT, WE’RE IN THE TOP 100 IN PERFORMING ARTS ON APPLE PODCASTS in the US (#79) and CANADA (#72). This data is provided by podstatus.com. Listeners feel encouraged and supported. It’s exactly what I intended as I put it together. All episodes are available on Spotify and Apple. You can find a link to submit questions on my website.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have extensive experience as a Hollywood executive and as a casting director for film, tv and theater. I love all things show business. I love artists. I love contributing to the storytelling process. Working in Hollywood is exciting, challenging, rewarding and demanding. It’s very easy to become disconnected from your personal life and values. Stress finds you, it’s up to us to look for and find reconnection and realignment. It’s in this space that we are free and inspired to create. I witnessed how the exponential stress load and nonstop pace took a terrible toll on so many talented people. I saw the fallout of artists grinding to land an acting job, sell a script, get a show made. On the shifting sands that is show business, I knew there was something more that I needed and everyone around me needed too.

In 2013 while working as an executive at Disney I went back to school and received my Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology with an emphasis in Coaching & Facilitation. I was determined to build a life that had space for the goal line and the soul line. I studied under Davidji for several years and then became certified in his Masters of Wisdom & Teacher Meditation Training. I’m certified as an Unplug Meditation Guide as well.

With my 17 years of executive experience, 20 plus years of casting expertise and armed with my spiritual psychology learnings and deep mindfulness training, I decided to put it all together and started The EB Co.

Being curious, taking risks, leaning into growth, tuning into what I need, making one small step each day. I made decisions to pull threads that felt risky but were exciting and “felt right” to me. There is growth in success and failure.

I repeat Newton’s Law of Motion to myself everyday, “Objects in motion stay in motion”.
It’s what got me through finishing my Bachelors while earning my Masters and working full time. It’s what helped me build my business. It’s how I muddled through making and launching a podcast. I am still learning as I go along.

Everyone has hard days, everyone has days they feel like they don’t know what to do. Notice where you are, be compassionate with yourself and take a mindful small step. It can look like a walk when you don’t feel like taking care of your body, watching a YouTube lesson from a master of the craft you’re working on. It can look like resting while not judging yourself for it. One daily mindful step in the direction of what you’d like to create in your life adds up very quickly.
I’d like people to know there’s no such thing as work life balance. It’s a continued process of balancing, assessing and adjusting. It’s like thinking one day you will arrive. There isn’t a fixed point of arrival. Life asks us to continue to arrive each day. You win an Emmy or an Oscar? You land a huge contract? Amazing, congratulations! Guess what? You still have to show up and live your life the next day.

A better, happier life is not outside of you. Your life will not be happier or better when you get the job, the title, the lover, the accolades or the money. Your life is happening right now. Each day you lay another pathstone down.
Allow yourself to get curious about what’s nagging at you: the mystery body pain, the recurring flashes of anger or sadness, the part of you that feels unfulfilled, that is where our work starts. I support you as you cultivate space and make the shifts needed for better experiences, relationships and work. You have the power within to lead a happier and more joyful life.

I’m inspired every day by vulnerability and growth. I am inspired by people who share their hearts and experiences for others to learn, grow and feel seen. I’m inspired when I see people share expressions of gratitude and appreciation. I am inspired by my clients’ lightbulb moments. I am inspired by performers’ and writers’ fully expressed creations.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d start the day with a morning walk along the LA River before we hit Just What I Kneaded (Vegan Cafe & Bakery) in Frogtown for breakfast. Catch a book reading at Skylight Books in Los Feliz then stroll down to La Luz de Jesus Gallery to check out whatever is on exhibit. La Luz de Jeus has been around since the early 1970’s and gave birth to a genre of California art now known as Lowbrow. The gallery is inside Wacko Soap Plant which is a purveyor of post-pop culture items. As far as I’m concerned it’s the best place to shop for gifts in Los Angeles. Dinner at Guelaguetza for traditional mole and mezcal flights. Their food is not to be missed! (Guelaguetza was opened by immigrant husband and wife Fernando Lopez and Maria Monterrubio. Their goal is to showcase the best of their family recipes and stay true to authentic Oaxacan ingredients.) We’d finish the night with a Saturday night comedy show at Spoke Bicycle Cafe. The lineup of standup comics are always amazing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Artists and creatives! I became obsessed with television, movies and standup comedy at an early age. I loved going to art museums. I listened to music constantly. When I was in grammar school I remember diving into the Sunday New York Times Arts section every weekend. Reading about creatives lit me up. Reading about people from different walks of life, with different lived experiences from mine got me excited. I wanted to see every play, every film, every work of art, hear every poem. Through art I was able to articulate who I was and what I believed. And the art that didn’t resonate with me I knew resonated with someone else. Art allows people to feel seen and known. It lets us know we aren’t alone. It gives us a sense of community and belonging.

During my junior year in college I landed a casting internship at a theater in New York and loved it. I worked in several fancy NY casting offices, was responsible for the NY talent search for The Parent Trap remake (Lindsay Lohan was cast from my search) then decided to move to LA and work my way up to casting director. In 2005 I was hired as the casting executive at a new YA (young adult) network called ABCFamily.

I had lots of experience doing searches for new talent, working for Roger Mussenden on Big Daddy (Cole & Dylan Sprouse came from that search) and See Spot Run (Angus Jones came from that search) and that’s what ABCFamily needed. Exciting actors, new in their career to lead our series and capture the audience’s hearts. We became known for finding and launching stars.

It was exciting to be a foundation hire in a startup. There were six people when I started, there were no original programs on the air. We got to do it all! Watching our shows catch on and resonate with audiences and helping grow a network from scratch was so exciting. In 2016 I got to do it again when we launched Freeform.

Website: https://theeb.co

Instagram: @the.eb.co

Other: Podcast The EB Co: Off Book Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1pM4mVwjsVpCKXHp80T4BV?si=740572d6af7642f9 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eb-co/id1649004585

Image Credits
The one of me in pink teaching meditation was taken by David Young-Wolff. The other two are personal photos