How to create a distributive react-native app for iOS?

I have created a react-native app using the tools - VS Code, expo, react-native.

I am able to run the app on expo client as well as xcode simulator easily on my laptop. What I want now is to make a distributive file for iOS like we have .apk for androids for this app.

I referred to this question How to build .ipa application for react-native-ios?

and tried

react-native run-ios --configuration=release

but I get an error:

Error iOS project folder not found. Are you sure this is a React Native project?

Don't know what I am missing here? I am a beginner with react-native, would really appreciate any help on this.