(upbeat music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, Lauren Eckhardt.

Lauren's the CEO and founder of Burning Soul Press.

Welcome Lauren.

- Thank you, Matt.

- Well, I'm glad you're here.

You came over from Bloomington-Normal.

- I did.

- Alright.

So before we get to the cool name of your business, let's start off with you.

So you're an entrepreneur at heart, but it's really your two kids that drive you for what you do, right?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- Tell me about it, - Yeah, I have two kids, they are two and a half and five and they are everything to me.

It's funny because like you said, I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit but it really wasn't until they were born and in front of me that it kicked in the overdrive.

And I was looking at them.

I just remember this so clearly too.

I was looking at them one day and I was still in my corporate job at this point.

I have a 10 years in human resources and I was looking at them one day going, I don't want you all to stay in boxes.

I want you to believe, I want you to be whatever it is that you are inside and feel comfortable with that coming out and whatever dreams you have, I want to see them bloom.

- Wow!

- But to do that, I had to set the example.

So it really allowed me, I mean, you know, how it is having kids, with having five children, it gives you a chance to really look into yourself and see what's there.

See, what's always been there and it challenges you in so many different ways as well to step outside of that.

And for me, I had to prove that my dreams were possible that I could be all of the things I've always wanted to be, which in my life was an author since I was six years old.

And then once I became an author, I realized there was actually more behind that door, behind that dream that I didn't see until step one was reached.

- I think what we're going to get to that because I think there's a lot of people that think they can write or just do it for hobbies or whatever it may be.

But really back to the children, it is different.

No kids, I'm working a corporate job, you do what you gotta do to get by, but then now you're working for some thing else.

And it's that drive that really kicks into another gear - A hundred percent.

I mean, they became my why and I think it's so important to find that.

- Yeah, so that's Simon Sinek.

So there's another reference of an author.

So very cool name for a business, "Burning Soul Press."

How did you come up with that name?

- It actually goes back to one of the first books I wrote when I was just nine years old.

It was my first collection of essays, kind of all my thoughts of everything in the world.

I laugh now like being a parent because it was pretty deep for a nine year old.

It was my perspective on topics like divorce, and racism and abuse and all of these things, just the collection of my thoughts.

And I called it "One Burning Soul" because I had this vision in my head at the time of someone like stuck in a glass box and kind of pounding on that box, screaming, people walking by not seeing them.

And I didn't recognize it at the time.

I mean, obviously nine-year-old thoughts, you know they have to develop a little bit to understand that vision, but it stuck with me for all of those years.

And I realized that it was this desire to be seen and to be heard and understood for who you truly are.

- So do you still have those writings?

- I don't.

- Oh, why?

- I don't.

And I remember it's funny.

I can close my eyes and I can see it all put together, glued together on the edges, you know with all of the papers.

It was all handwritten at the time.

That my very first book called, "The Locker That Ate My Books," I don't have those anymore.

I think just with all of the moves throughout the year I know it breaks my heart but that's where one burning soul.

I mean, it was my screen name.

I came up, you know, I'm 37.

So I grew up in a time when the internet was really just kicking off.

And it was actually my screen name when there was like the instant messenger and all of that back then.

And it just made sense, for the company too, to have that link.

- That's a cool link.

- Thank you.

- So you're an award-winning and best-selling author and ghostwriter and CEO of this company.

So if you had those writings you could actually put them in a museum type of thing when you become HarperCollins or as big as some of these other publishing companies, right?

- You know, I think that they have to be hidden somewhere like maybe in a drawer of an old apartment or something someone could locate them and make a lot of money someday.

It's awful.

- I think what's really neat about doing this show is really the prep work that goes into it because it's learning so many things about business, about entrepreneurship, about all these different things.

So something I thought was really cool when we talked last week was about how you flipped it back on to me and you wanted, the call was about you.

I wanted it to be about you and you flipped it back on me.

Not too many people do that.

And that was an interesting way of doing it.

- My entire life, I've been fascinated by people's stories.

So yeah, I mean, like I said, even at that call I knew it was about me, but I have to know about you.

You know, for me that helps really establish the relationship and it's been amazing my entire life.

Even when I was a little kid, I had adults kind of just stop me no matter where I was.

And they would tell me everything about their lives, just open up to me and it's been that way since I was a little girl and I never knew what to do with that.

I mean, I would always listen because I feel like everyone needs to be heard.

- Be heard.

- Yeah, and I would always listen.

And it was one of those things like realizing that about my life that made me see the path I should be on with helping people write their stories and all of that.

- Interesting.

So when we spoke, I thought it was going to be a five, 10 minute conversation, ended up being about a 35 minute conversation, which is totally fine.

It was a great talk.

So using me as an example, me telling you a story does your writing mind go into gear and start thinking of other stories or other articles or whatever it may be?

'Cause it doesn't always have to be a book.

It could be a magazine article or it could be a newspaper article.

Where does your mind go in this process?

- So I fully believe that every single person has a very specific message.

I call it the soul's message.

I mean, it goes in line with my company, but I listen for their message.

What really lights them up, their previous experience, journeys in life, what they've been through that they feel like they are now carrying forth and everything that they do.

And so when I listen to these stories, I'm constantly thinking about their message and who else could hear about your life, your experiences, even the little that you shared with me in that phone call, I'm thinking about who else would be so inspired by hearing some of those things that you shared with me.

- Yeah, and being in the non-profit world, like, I mean, there's, you know, we see stories and we tell stories every day and some are good and some are bad and it's hard to really separate the good from the bad sometimes because they intermingle.

And, but it's actually, when you look at my business, the nonprofit world, it's really what we do.

And I always say we change lives and save lives daily.

And, but that equals stories.

It's exactly - A hundred percent.

And I've always sat on that note that like books are being what I feel like the number one physical tool in this world that saves lives.

And I feel like a big part of that or the stories that make up the books of course - The number one tool in this world, - Absolutely.

- Is books.

And that's cool.

- Saves more lives than anything I can like.

- I like that.

That's pretty cool.

Burning Soul Press.

So it's not just publishing, you publish books.

- Right.

- But you do more tell us about the coaching aspect of it.

- Yeah, you know, I really believe that a lot of people have this idea for a book within them but they let so much of their minds and these doubts stop them from writing the book.

And so a big part of our company is really helping people not only recognize that book idea but step into the confidence of being an author.

One of the first things I do with is take a deep breath and tell yourself that you're an author.

You have to start owning it before you step into it.

So it's really a lot of mindset work that we do with people who have thought about writing a book and then we give them the tools, the support to continue down that journey so they can produce a book and, you know get to that publishing piece.

- It's interesting because, you know, I've been leading nonprofits for 20, 30 years and tells you how old I am.

And when I wrote my book, I put author first because you have that sense of pride in telling your story because it, no matter what the story is, it's hard to tell.

It's hard to talk about yourself, I guess is what I'm getting at, isn't it?

- Yeah, a hundred percent.

And I think it's a good challenge for people to do that.

You know, we always tell people to start with just getting the story out of your head onto paper or out of your heart and onto paper.

Don't think about everything else that's associated with it.

Don't think about the editing process or who's going to read it.

You can take care of all of that later, but for now, just let the story flow out of you.

And I almost feel like a lot of times with our minds, like you know, we put those blocks in front of us.

We try to convince ourselves that we can't do this or we can't tell a story.

And a lot of times you actually have to shut off your mind to let that story roll out, because otherwise it will never come out.

- Yeah, you know, I go back to, you know different ways to handle stress and, you know journaling is a big thing right now.

And you talk about, I'm kind of straying from where I was going with this but my mind is just now going into this past 11 months with COVID and I'm guessing journaling has really picked up in popularity or maybe I'm using the wrong term but writing or whatever it may be, it's probably picked up a lot, has it?

- I hope so.

I really do.

I feel like during this time it's allowed people to recognize the importance of that at least maybe be still long enough to right.

Because, you know, especially before COVID, we're just constantly on the go and we're not really spending that time to write our thoughts or our ideas that hit.

So I hope it'd be interesting to see if there's any sort of statistics on that.

But we've definitely seen an increase as far as people who are like, okay, I'm ready.

Like I'm ready to sit down and write this book and finally explore these author thoughts or dreams I've had my entire life.

So there has definitely been an increase with that, I feel like.

- Yeah, here's, what's interesting.

And all the shows that I've done, and had business owners, CEOs, you name it.

The theme that has run through each show is people are coming off the sidelines and taking action.

That's what they're doing.

And so in this case, they're coming off the sidelines and saying, you know what, it's time to invest my brain power into something that I've always wanted to do.

And are you seeing that piece of it?

Is that what you're basically saying?

Because I'm seeing it everywhere right now.

- Yeah, and I think action creates clarity, right?

It's when you take the steps to figure things out then you get clarity on what you want to do in life or the streams that you have or the direction you should go in.

You can think about things all you want, plan all you want but it's not until you actually take action that that clarity comes to you.

So I love that you're seeing that everywhere.

- Yeah, we just had somebody who was opening up a new business.

And typically what would happen is this person was talking about talking to a venture capitalist or trying to figure out how they're going to fund the business and we were talking about how do you actually have the plan first and put it to paper like you just said, and it's no different.

If you're opening up a restaurant or writing a book you still have to put it down to something first and conceptualize it, right?

- Yeah, I feel like you have to have that vision and you have to be willing to step into that vision.

- That vision you're right.

So you have an interesting and very unique way of running your business.

You say, you're on a mission to create safe spaces for the sharing of our stories to create deeper connections and help more people in this world with the truth of their journeys.

What does that mean?

- You've done your research.

- I did.

- That's very impressive.

- I did my research.

- You know, let me ask you this question.

You know, think about the 10 people that are closest to you in your life, family, coworkers.

How many of those people do you actually know their entire life journey?

The peaks, the valleys, the light, the darkness.

I know in my own world, I was raised where we're not to talk about those things.

You know, it's kind of sweep those darker issues especially under the rug.

And this is my philosophy behind it.

We've gone through this.

We've risen out of it.

Our character and who we are today has been shaped by our journeys.

So why are we hiding them?

Why aren't we talking about them and embracing them?

And personally, with all of the darkness I went through in the past year, it can be hard to talk about, hard to own it, but that's how you help other people.

You know, I'm a big believer that I think a lot of people get hung up on this fact like I have to be perfect.

I have to be at expert level before I help somebody else.

And my visual with it has always been, all you're doing is being what I call one rock ahead from someone else.

Like if you are just crossing a raging river, all you're doing is helping the person holding their hand get from one rock to the next one, one rock ahead.

And that's what it is a matter of journeys, how we can help people, but we have to open up about them and share them.

- Yeah, and so when you, I'm, we're going to talk process.

Now we're kind of pivot into this, but when you are thinking of, if I came to you and said, Hey, I've got a story, but I stink in writing.

You pull that out of me?

I mean, is that one of your jobs is to pull the story out of me?

- A hundred percent.

It's funny, we have our, we have one of our programs called the Soul Rider Journey program where we work with 18 to 20 people at once through the program and helping them with writing, marketing, publishing, launching their books.

So we just kicked it off February 1st, but the new cohort.

And there's probably, like I said there's 18 people in this one.

There are probably five people who have been like, "Oh I'm terrible at writing."

I'm terrible at writing.

But when I dig in a lot of times, they go back to, I was a C student in English in high school.

- And they'll tell you out there.

- Yeah.

- And that was me.

- But there's such a difference between academic writing and creative writing.

Big, big difference with that.

And a lot of times with writing, you're telling a story.

So if you are worried that you're a bad writer, pick up a recorder, talk your message, your story into the recorder and have it transcribed for your book.

There are so many different ways around that but to hold yourself back just because you believe in high school you were told a bad writer and that stuck, you know that you're a bad writer and that stuck with your sins.

that's no reason to hold you back from writing a book.

- Right.

So first question here on process.

I want to write, I've thought about it, but what I only want to do it if it helps my business.

So are there people that just think that way, this is going to be I'm in a corporate job right now, like you were, and I want a plan B and transition out 'cause I want to be a consultant or public speaker, right?

- Yes, lots of people with that plan.

It's funny because with who we work with, The Burning Soul Press, I liked the mission aspect.

If you want to take your message from your book and turn it into a full fledged mission, with a workshop or public speaking or anything like that we want to help you do that.

Those are specifically the people we want to work with.

For the people who are just like, I want to boost my business and that's it, you know I just want to put a book out there.

And just so my name's on a book, we actually don't work with those people in Burning Soul Press.

There are so many different options out there for publishing.

And it's really important for us to work with the people who even if they might want to bring clients to them, that's fine.

If their focus is on helping people and doing more with that message.

- Yeah.

So I had someone tell me once this book will be your business card for life.

Have you heard that one before?

- I have heard that before.

- I always thought that was an interesting statement.

This will be your business card for life.

- And I look at it as it'll be part of your legacy for life because your book is going to last many years past your time here on this planet.

And that's why I think it's so important that you're leaving behind that message.

So I guess it's kind of a business card for life.

- And a legacy for life - And a legacy for life.

- What exactly is ghost writing?

- Hmm.

So ghost writing really, when I will say the people who don't have maybe the time, the interest, they don't think they have the talent to, or the energy for that matter to put forth in a book.

So they ended up hiring a ghost writer who can help them develop that story, take it, run with it.

We offer ghost writing story or ghost writing services in Burning Soul Press.

But we also do it two fold.

Like we offer us a ghost writer where our names are anonymous.

You know, it's all focused on the person where, you know, it's their story.

And a lot of ways we do a lot of memoirs or it's their story ideas.

So, you know, their name gets all the credit.

There's also a co-authoring option with ghost writing, where they can opt to put, you know essentially who helped pull that story out of them and do a lot of their writing.

- Is that what James Patterson does with all?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- He's known for that.

- I was wondering 'cause it comes out with a book it seems like every week.

- So often, yeah.

- Okay.

- It's just not humanly possible for someone to write that.

- How can he had so many books?

- Yeah, and I think he's pretty open about that now.

I want to say, or at least the cat got out of the bag.

It's, you know, and it's funny, it's one of those things that a lot of people used to look down on but it's so accepted even more, because to me if you have a story to share, - Share.

- Share it.

It doesn't matter how it's delivered.

I know it doesn't matter.

And especially because it's usually the person who's providing the outline of what the story is going to look like, the message, the points, and that's the most significant part.

- Perfect.

What if I want to jump in but I don't want to write right away.

I mean, you've got classes, I'm guessing or online tutorials with COVID maybe you had seminars online or something, is this what you do?

- Yeah, it's a hundred percent digital and virtual right now with what we do.

We want to do more in-person workshops, but you know, we were launched right before COVID hit.

So we immediately had a DACA as part of our business plan.

So working with clients globally which is fantastic because I'm not sure if we would have done that scope otherwise.

So it's interesting how that switched, but yeah, we have, if you go to burningsoulpress.com, we have a free workshop that I run a few times a year.

I just did one at the end of January that was live but you can go back and watch the recordings.

You can get the documents, the tools to help you with your writing journey.

But then our also our big program the Soul Writer Journey program, you can start at any time, do the modules, take in the information, get your book ready to go, and then join one of our cohorts to hit the ground running and try to write your book in two months.

- Two months.

- Two months.

And then we do, it's a four month program.

But the challenge is to write it in two months.

- Now, when you say book, how many pages is a typical, if I was writing a something about myself how many pages is that?

Or does it vary?

- It varies.

It always varies on, you know, your story, your genre.

But if it's a memoir, for example, if you're talking about a book about yourself, usually between 40 to 80,000 words.

We usually say 60,000 words is the sweet spot.

I go off words more than pages but that might be like 240 pages or so.

- Yeah because you don't want to write a pamphlet.

(all laughing) - Maybe it could, but I'm not sure how far that would go.

- So when talking about leadership, you start your business, it's in the infancy stage, but you've ramped up.

And you're one of the many businesses; there have been businesses that have struggled because of COVID.

But like you just said, you've done some pivoting.

You made some calls, it's made you probably get out of your comfort zone and do some things that weren't in your original business plan or game plan.

So tell me about your leadership philosophy with your team that you've built up and how you are taking this business to another level.

- Yeah, you know, one of the number one, take risks, take risks.

That's what I live by.

I encourage my team members to do it too.

Measured risks, don't get me wrong.

But you don't grow unless you take those risks, until you take the leap and you figure out what works and what doesn't work.

So that's what I live by with running the business.

That's what I encourage all of my employees to do as well.

They all have that freedom to do it because I want them to try new things out figure out what works, what doesn't.

And I'm very open with them.

Anytime I make a mistake or if things don't go well because it's a learning experience for all of us.

And I honestly think that's been part of what's contributed to our growth is that willingness to take risks and step outside of our comfort zone.

- That's pretty cool.

So you are based in Bloomington-Normal, but you have, you have clients overseas, right?

- Yeah.

- That's pretty neat too.

So you wouldn't have been able to necessarily get those clients if you didn't make those changes in my way.

- I think it contributed to it.

- Okay.

- Sure, Absolutely.

Part of that global vision has always been on my board as part of this, but it definitely forced us into that where, you know it didn't limit us to in-person events.

We put everything on the digital front.

And so we do have, so I'm in Bloomington-Normal, we have two other team members who are in Bloomington-Normal.

We have team members who are all over the country and then clients all over the world.

And my goal is to eventually grow employee-wise all over the world as well.

- Good luck to you.

Lastly, I want to talk to you about mentors.

Have you had mentors along the way, in helping you?

- Yeah, I have business coaches.

I'm a firm believer in investing in business coaches that help you.

I felt like every coach needs a coach, right?

I mean, every successful person has had a coach.

I do have a mentor in terms of someone that I fully plan to enroll in his mastermind hopefully by next year.

But I take every course that he has, James Wide Morris is his name.

Yeah, incredible entrepreneur, really just the way he delivers information and his approach to everything he does in business really speaks to me.

So I consume his content like crazy.

- Yeah, so do you, so people who want to write a book they just can call you and kind of tell you their story and then you can guide them down the right path.

Is that correct?

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

We have on Burning Soul Press's page on the website we call them "Journey Calls."

So we can really tap into what their journey looks like for their stories.

And they can get on there and book a call with me or one of my team members, and that's what we do.

We just listen to people.

- It's awesome.

- Yeah.

- You're listening to me last week, and so now you've got me thinking I want to write another book.

I think I have another book in me.

- That's good.

It's addicting.

You know, it's funny because a lot of people look at writing a book.

I mean, once you get started, it's hard.

I mean, you know, from going through it, it sounds great.

And then you start diving in and you're like, wow this is actually a little bit more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

But once you climb the mountains, once you, you know really develop those muscles for it, it becomes an addiction because you do start thinking about all of those other ideas and how you can take on.

- Yeah, it's, what's interesting with how I did it, you know, I've got a full-time job, I've got five kids.

I'm very busy and I found the time and I don't go to bed early.

I work and so I did most of my writing between nine o'clock at night when the kids were down and midnight.

And I stuck to a cadence that really was Monday through Friday, some on Sunday.

And really I got through the book and it made me feel good.

It makes you feel like you've accomplished something that would never be on your radar, right?

I mean, it's fun.

So I really appreciate you coming on, Lauren Eckhardt, you have a really, really cool business and good luck to you and come back anytime.

I'm Matt, George and this is another episode of Business Forward.

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