Tiara Nicole Riley is a life coach, motivational speaker, author and HR manager. She also serves as a board member for Stillborn And Infant Loss Support (SAILS), a nonprofit dedicated to helping people who have been affected by the loss of a baby.
She began working as a life coach, motivational speaker, and published author as a way to find purpose after miscarrying twins. She believes that if she is able to help someone by sharing her pain and experiences, then it makes the pain worth it. In the effort to Rethink her life, she started her life coaching firm, Rethinking Me in 2023, to help other life coaches get their start and help her clients create the life they LOVE!
“Losing my twins was very life-changing, but the healing through that process was changing in the best way it could have been. I have since decided to live my life in their honor and to live a life that they would have been proud to be a part of,” she shares.
Before her miscarriage, Tiara was a psychology student at Virginia Tech. As she completed her Bachelor’s degree she worked at Best Buy and decided to keep this job after graduation.
“I wasn’t completely clear on what my next steps were,” she says. “I grew into leadership positions and opportunities.”
While working at Best Buy, Tiara also started her Master’s in HR.
“I landed on HR because it was the part of my job I enjoyed most,” Tiara explains. “I enjoyed coaching and developing my team and the joy and the fun of hiring people and giving them that shot to their future.”
She eventually left Best Buy and turned to full-time entrepreneurship. She wrote her first of five books and was asked to speak at a women’s empowerment event for her sorority.
“It just felt right. It felt like that’s what I’m supposed to be doing,” she adds.
After reading her books and listening to her speak, people began asking Tiara to coach them.
“A large part of my business has been doing what I feel like I’m supposed to be doing and really looking at God as my business partner and having a clear understanding of ‘this is what He told me to do,” Tiara shares.
Tiara has started bringing on more speakers and coaches to give her the space and time to “train the trainer.” She also works a day job in HR management – a path she continued when she became pregnant with her daughter a few years ago.
Pick the Cards You Want
Tiara’s approach to life was shaped by her miscarriage but also by a conversation she had with her dad. One day he casually mentioned that he hated having a long commute to work and would only take a job that he could walk to; he’d either switch jobs or move – and something clicked for Tiara.
“If that can work regarding commute to work, I can do that with anything. I can do this for any area of my life,” she explains.
This mindset shift caused Tiara to question every part of her life. She got clarity about the things she wanted and encourages others – through her motivational speaking and coaching – to do the same.
“I feel like a lot of times, especially as women and particularly Black women, we get conditioned to just make the best of what life gives you,” she says. “What if I just take the whole deck and pick the cards that I want?”
Be Intentional
Tiara works hard to be intentional and regularly asks herself if decisions feel good to her nervous system.
“Does this person, does this opportunity, does this place, does this thing feel good to my nervous system? Because our body knows,” she adds.
Finding clarity has led her to make some difficult decisions but it’s been through those decisions that Tiara is living the life she wants.
“They’ve been some freeing decisions and the other side of that has been peace of mind, it has been regaining self-confidence, it’s been the ability to have clarity around what I want,” she says.
Tiara has also been very intentional about the energy in her daughter’s life.
“I want her to be surrounded by energy that says, ‘I love you, I want to be around you, you are wanted,’” she explains.
As she continues her journey as a mother and entrepreneur, Tiara intends to spread the message to both her daughter and all young Black women that they are enough.
“It’s just something that you have to own and walk in that you really are enough and you are capable of doing whatever you want to do,” she adds.