Lorie Kleiner Eckert, Motivational Speaker-Episode #376

Lorie Kleiner Eckert thinks of herself as a cheerleader with the message: life is difficult, but you can handle it!

For ten years, she worked as a motivational speaker, addressing more than 22,000 people during more than 250 appearances in 11 states. She’s spoken to every sort of group from PTAs to Procter & Gamble. What makes her programs unique is that they’re illustrated by her artwork, quilts with words and symbols pieced into the design.

For three years, she wrote an award-winning motivational column that was syndicated in regional newspapers across the United States.

Lorie also sells her motivational quilts on Etsy.  In all formats – the spoken word, the written word, and the quilted word – Lorie uses the same M.O. She tells the stories of her life, hoping that her audience will glean life lessons from them.

Her fifth book, Chai on Life, was published by Bancroft Press in April 2025. I’ve read Chai on Life and found it to be deeply inspiring in how I think of my life and how I can be a better me. I highly recommend Chai on Life to you.

Episode Transcript

Steve Cu (00:00):
On today's Story Beat.
Really, the trick is to sit down and write, whichpeople don't seem to understand that really sit
down and do it. People have so many. So that's thehard part of doing it, is getting started. Sit
down and do it.
This is Story Beat with Steve Cuden. A podcast forthe creative mind. Storybeat explores how masters

(00:27):
of creativity develop. And produce brilliant worksthat people everywhere love and admire. So join us
as we discover how talented creators find successin the worlds of imagination and entertainment.
Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.

(00:49):
Thanks for joining us on Story Beat. We're comingto you from the Steel City, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. My guest today, Lori Kleiner Eckertthinks of herself as a cheerleader with the
message, life is difficult, but you can handle it.
For 10 years, she worked as a motivationalspeaker, addressing more than 22,000 people.
During more than 250 appearances in 11 states,she's spoken to every sort of group from PTAs to

(01:15):
Proctor and Gamble. What makes her programs uniqueis that they're illustrated by her artwork. Quilts
with words and symbols pieced into the design. Forthree years, she wrote an award winning
motivational column that was syndicated inregional newspapers across the United States.
Laurie also sells her motivational quilts on Etsyin all formats. The spoken word, the written word

(01:39):
and the quilted word. Laurie uses the same MO shetells the stories of her life, hoping that her
audience will glean life lessons from them. Herfifth book, High on Life, was published by
Bancroft Press in April 2025. I've read high onLife and found it to be deeply inspiring in how I

(01:59):
think of my life and how I can be a better me. Ihighly recommend High on Life to you. So for all
those reasons and many more, I'm truly honored tohave the motivational force better known as Lori
Kleiner Eckert join me today. Lori, welcome toStory Beat.
Thank you, Steve. That was a lovely introduction.
I appreciate it.

(02:20):
Well, it's for, a lovely person and you've got alovely message. So let's go back in time just a
little bit. How old were you when you realized youcould actually motivate people with your life and
your thoughts? What triggered you to become amotivator?
Well, when I was in high school, I used to haveall of the underdogs call me and, and talk to me

(02:45):
and cried to me and I would give them pep talks.
And my dad, though, said to me, you know, when I'dget off the phone crying over their Problems. If
you can't help on the phone without crying, thenyou can't talk on the phone anymore. So I've
always been, I've always been giving pep talks andit can be draining. I mean I'm not trained as a

(03:10):
psychologist, I'm trained as an elementaryeducator. But when I became a motivational speaker
what I realized was that I was doing the samething from the stage. I was the same rah rah girl.
I'm not saying anything that's brilliant ororiginal. I'm just reminding you of what you know,
which is what I did with all these friends whowere suffering from no dates. One friend's mother

(03:33):
passed away. You know all those kinds of things. Iwas just up there doing what I did on the phone,
encouraging people.
Do you think of yourself in general as a teacherfirst?
I guess so. when I, as I'm sure we'll get to Myjourney started out, my professional journey

(03:54):
started out as a result of divorce. And at thattime I went and took ah, tests to see where my
interests lie again. I had a degree in elementaryeducation but I had not taught except for my own
kids. And the test came back this kind ofeducator, that kind of educator was like, like 12
different ways they thought I should be a teacher.

(04:15):
And the only other thing they said was bus driverif you'll believe that.

Steve Cuden (04:19):
Bus driver.
So I guess I'm a teacher. I guess that's what Iam.
Were you always a reader and a writer? Was thissomething that's followed you throughout your
life?
My mother was a big reader and I tried to be likeher but I I bought a lot of books when I was a kid
and in high school and I never read them. And thenmy never, never and then my ex husband and I moved

(04:49):
from LA and San Diego back to the Midwest where wehad grown up and I thought okay, now I'm going to
take up reading. And I did. So when we got to aslower paced live and we had two kids at home at
that point I started to read. So that's wherereading came from. And then but always following
in my mother's footsteps and as far as writing goat my grandma's house I used to, she had orange

(05:16):
paper for some reason and I used to 8 and a halfby 11 sheets of orange paper and I used to cut
those into quarters and then I would like sew themtogether to make a book. but I never wrote in it.
I created the book but I never.
Got around you Created a blank paged book.
I did a blank page book and I never wrote it. AndI bet I did that all the time. All the time at my

(05:43):
grandma.
All the books that you started to read, were anyof them about motivation? Were they self help
books? Were they something like that? Is that whatgave you the notion to go on and do stuff like
that?
Oh, God. I have a nasty confession to make is thatI don't like books like that. And even though I

(06:03):
was a motivational speaker and I really gave awonderful, unique program, I really did. I really
did a great job patting myself on the back. Iwould never go to a class like the one I taught. I
just don't do things like that, you know, But Idon't. I don't know. It really stems from being a

(06:26):
high school student giving pep talks to otherpeople and that. I was good at that. And, as far
as writing. Oh, my God, everyone loved my thankyou notes. So that was my background in motivation
and in, writing.
I have to imagine that you got some of yourmotivational concepts from being a mother as well.

(06:49):
Oh, sure. Well, you've read my book, so you knowthat it's just full of stories about the kids and.
Yeah. A slice of life that I. Then I hope I'm notreal obvious in how I turn it around and tell you
what you may take away from it. I hope that thatjust happens naturally.

(07:09):
Yeah, no, I don't think so. I think. I think youlay it out as this is the way you see it and that
means that the reader can take away. Well, yeah, Isee it that way too. Or what a great way to think
about something.
Uh-huh. Or this lady's crazy. I think xyz, whichis also fine, you know, hey, go right. Go write it
down and verify who you are.

(07:30):
You know what, Laurie? I don't think anybody who'sever succeeded in a little bit crazy.

Lori Kleiner Eckert (07:35):
Yeah, Yeah.
I just think that's part of the thing. It makes.
It's what makes you you. It makes you unique anddifferent. If everybody were exactly the same and
no one was a little bit different or offbeat orwhatever they are, then it would be a very boring
world we'd live in. So I. I think that's whatmakes people in the entertainment industry unique,
is that they're a little bit, offbeat in some way.

(07:59):
Yeah. Well, we always have to go to Lucille Ball,who, you know, when she was on a talk to show, was
the least fun, funny person you ever heard speak.
So, yeah. So we. We are what we are. Yeah. I liveinside my head, so I'm kind of aloof when I'm out
in the world and stuff like that. But if you callme one on one and you got a problem, I got broad

(08:21):
shoulders, and I'm willing to listen. And if. Andthe true gift, in my opinion, is if you need to
tell me the same thing three times, call me threetimes and tell it to me. Because that. Sometimes
you have to do that, you know? So, I'm. I'm yourgirl.
All right. So who do you think is most likely orwould be most benefited by your work? Who do you

(08:44):
think this should appeal to your work? And we'lltalk about the book more in a bit. But who do you
think is your audience?
Well, I really think women. So when I was themotivational speaker, most of my audiences were
women's wellness events and stuff like that. Butthen really, Procter and Gamble had me come speak,

(09:05):
and I had all these professional men in myaudience, and they did fine. But, most, yeah, I
think my audience is women. I actually thinkyou're not supposed to say that your writing is
for everyone. But I really think that any agegroup, kind of like Sesame street, you might hit
it on a different level if you're in your 20s thanif you're in your 40s or whatever. But I think

(09:28):
women of any age.
And especially folks who may be having a littlebit of difficulty getting through life on their
own terms, that you're giving them inspiration asto how to think about the way to proceed
throughout life. Yes.
Oh, definitely. But I think that everyone ishaving difficulty getting through life. I think
that it is a given that life is difficult. That'smy starting point. I don't know. Is my cup half

(09:55):
empty or cup half full or is it just what it is?
I'm not sure, but life is difficult. As a mom, Iwent to my daughter's, breakfast for seniors. It
was opening day of school. And I knew what traumamy daughter was going through at that moment in
her life. I mean, traditional kinds of trauma. Butas I stood there serving donuts and orange juice,

(10:20):
I thought, oh, that kid probably thinks his outfitisn't right. And that kid's, you know, face broke
out overnight. Oh, my God, look at that kid'shair. And I was bleeding for all of them. So I do
think life is difficult, but you can do it. And Ithink I'm ahead of happy person. I think I have it
all, but I just understand that it's A challenge.

(10:45):
And it's okay to be a challenge.
It is a challenge. And there's no doubt that evenpeople who appear to have perfect lives or close
to perfect lives somewhere behind the scenes, itreally, they're struggling in some way, because
everyone does. And that's what is helpful aboutwhat your message is, is that you can get through
this by thinking in one way or another. So howlong have you been quilting?

(11:08):
Oh, I started quilting, right after my youngestchild was born. And I used to make the joke that
if I took up quilting a year earlier, I wouldn'thave three children. I'd only have two. But I'm so
glad that it happened the way it did because Iadore my Lisa. But I took up quilting and, so that
would have been like in 80, 1983 or 4. Quiltinghas just changed dramatically through the years.

(11:36):
The business of quilting or your quilting, orboth.
the quilting world. When I started quilting, itwas a crime and a sin to do anything at all on a
sewing machine. You cannot piece the piecestogether. God forbid you would quilt the quilt
sandwich together using the sewing machine. No,no, no. It was all done by hand. And then I kind

(12:00):
of took a 10 year hiatus from quilting when I washaving grandchildren. Well, I should say I just
made baby quilts at that point instead of the kindof stuff I did quilts with words pieced into the
design. And in that time period, there was just anentire blossoming of, of machine quilting and very

(12:20):
beautiful artistic machine quilting. And now thereare long arm quilts, quilting machines that are
programmed. And you just put the quilt in, Ithink, and it's dances around over the quilt.
Quilting it by machine, that was, like, I say itwas a crime and a sin. Back in the 80s, you would
not do that. And now it's an art form, so it'schanged dramatically. And when I started, where I.

(12:47):
What happened with me in quilting is that I had,you know, made quilts for every bed in the house,
every wall in the house had quilts. And then, oh,my. I got divorced. And so it's like, okay, so we
have to have some kind of a, paid profession here.
And I thought I'd turned my hobby of quilting intoa paid profession.

(13:08):
So how did you learn to quilt in the first place?
How did that come about?
Yeah, I took adult education at Sycamore HighSchool and we made a sampler quilt. So it was,
five rows of five blocks and with each block youlearned a different technique. You learned to
piece and to applique and to string piece. And Ithink that was all at the time. There are other

(13:33):
techniques now now, and I think it was like a 10week class. So every week we must have made two
blocks and if we got our whole quilt together, wewon and the whole class helped us piece it. So
after you make the top of a quilt, you still haveto layer it with the batting and with the backing
and you have to pin that or sew that all togetherand then with teeny tiny stitches, hold it

(13:57):
together. So your reward for finishing your quiltwas that the class helped you baste it together.
So I won. And that was my first quilt. It was aking size quilt and every single stitch in it is
by hand.
Wow. And so you quilted for a while, then youstopped quilting for 10 years or so, except for
baby quilts. And then you started to use quilts. Iguess at some point in your motivational work,

(14:24):
what prompted you to think to do that?
Well, so again, I needed to get a job and Ithought since there are quilt guilds, quilt shows,
quilt seminars, all over the world all the timethat there was a quilt lecture circuit. There is
not. But I thought that if I made a dozen quilts,I could take my show on the road. And, and I was

(14:50):
going to, gave myself a real stiff goal. I wasgoing to make a quilt every two weeks, but I was
making wall hangings. I wasn't making bed quilts,but I was doing that because my goal was to take
my show on the road. And, and I'm a tall woman,but I'm, kind of, you know, weakling. And I
couldn't. There's no way to schlep a dozen bedsized quilts around the country with you. So they

(15:13):
were wall hangings. And though I'm a very goodquilt technician, meaning that if it's a star, I
don't chop off the points accidentally. If thefabric has Christmas trees on and all of them
stand upright, none of them lie down on theirside. so I'm a great technician, but I didn't
think I was a great quilt artist, so I wanted todo something different. So I started to make

(15:38):
quilts with words pieced into the design becauseno one was doing that. And so I, again, very stiff
goal. I'm going to make a quilt every two weeks.
And I did that. And at the end of six months, Ihad 12 quilts. And they said whatever I wanted
them to say bloom. Soar Come as you are. You'relovely. Whatever. Whatever came to me. And. And

(16:01):
where do ideas come from? Who knows? And thenafter creating the 12 quilts, I woke up one day in
a slightly more poetic version of the words on thequilts were running through my head. And it was
vows you would make to yourself as you start a newportion of your life. I was divorced, looking for
a new portion of my life. So at that point, I. Ididn't say I wrote a book, but a book wrote

(16:27):
itself, and I submitted it to 22 publishers.
Months until I finally found Pelican PublishingCompany, who created an adult picture book. So it
was the picture of the quilt on one side and thewords of the vow on the other.
Now I'm very fascinated. Always when, artistsdiscover something in the process, you were making

(16:50):
quilts with no real intention of having thembecome motivational, concepts or anything like
that, and you woke up one day and had an epiphany.
This is something. It works in a different way orit works in a special way or a better way, and off
you go to the races. But you didn't set out to dothat. You discovered it.

(17:12):
Yeah. Did not set out to do that at all. Yeah. Itake full credit for making the quilts, but I kind
of think that I channeled the book. The bookhappened. So the beginning of the, vows you would
make to yourself is I love you is the sequel. Withacceptance and love of the self, the story that
must come first, and towards this lofty goal. I,you know, wander forth today, making these vows to

(17:36):
myself. And then there were the vows, that wentwith the quilt. And I really think it's a
beautiful book. I'm very proud of all the thingsI've done. I am.
you know, I think that there's a hallmark increative people. There's something that runs
throughout many, many tales of creativity. Thatthe work comes through you, that you don't

(18:01):
actually create it. It's coming from the universe,from God, whatever, what people want to say. and
that's what it sounds like it is for you, that it.
The book came through you, that you didn't sitthere and cogitate over it for hours and days. it
happened exactly.
Exactly. And also my message was one of thejourney towards self acceptance and love. And that

(18:27):
isn't a message. That's just for quilters. I mean,my goal was to go to quilt groups, but it was
like, wait a minute, this is not just for quiltgroups. And guess what? Quilt groups paid like,
$125 for a program, and Procter and Gamble paid awhole lot more. So I really thought that I was an
inspirational speaker, but that smacked ofreligion, so I called myself a motivational

(18:51):
speaker, and then I booked myself with every kindof group from PTAs to Proctor and Campbell. Yeah.
So do you find that work, when you're doing it,fulfilling? Is it fulfilling in any major way?
I did it for 10 years, and then I gave it up.
Did you get tired of it? Is that what happened?

(19:13):
I guess I would be. there's been two times in mylife where I've been aware that my brain was doing
the two things at the same time. One, I was tryingto learn piano, and I was very aware that my left
hand and right hand were doing different things.
And, oh, my God, that was very confusing. And,towards the end of my speaking career, as I was

(19:33):
sitting there being charming and telling mystories, my brain was saying, I don't want to do
this anymore. Run. So, like I say, I didn't have amemorized speech, you know, but I had these 12
quilts, and you knew what made people laugh, soyou made sure to tell the story that way so you'd
get the laugh. So I m. Knew the whole shtick, youknow, and it came out automatically as my brain

(20:00):
said, no more. Get me out of here.
So what do you think motivates you? How do youmotivate yourself?
I'm gonna go back to. Oh, this is going to soundconceited. I go back to a Charlie, Brown poster
when I was a K kid that said there's no greaterburden than a great potential. And I think that I

(20:22):
have that. I can tell you a lot of things that arewrong with me. Like, I get brain farts and stuff
like that. but there's a lot that's right with me.
I feel I've got a lot of gifts, and so I've alwaysfelt like I have to make the most of them. So
that's where I am.
So you. You know that you have talents and skills,and it's not a, secret to you. And you have set

(20:46):
out in your life to give them to the world, so tospeak, to use them for yourself and others can
benefit from it.
Yes. But give me also the part of me that I know,all of the things that I don't do. Well, some of
my friends who read my, the blogs that I put out,put out two blogs a month these days on my

(21:09):
website, and they'll say to me, you need to getmotivated. I know a good book you can read. And
they're suggesting my book to me, you know, kindof thing. So there's the part of me that thinks
I'm, a screw up, and there's a part of me thatknows I believe I have a spark. I believe we all
have a spark of the divine and so make the most ofit.

(21:31):
I think that that's a very good way to look at it.
So let's talk now for a while about High on Life.
It's your fifth book. What inspired you to writeit and why now?
It was my fourth book that inspired me to write myfifth book. So my first three book were published
by Pelican Publishing Company and then theychanged course. Dr. Calhoun, who owned it, I

(21:57):
think, passed away and the company was sold to adifferent publisher and they changed gears. So
they weren't interested in my fourth book, whichis, Love, Loss and Moving On. And it's a story
about getting past the loss of a loved one. Butwhen you're going through a hard time, you
sometimes do really weird things. Like some peopleturn to drugs or to alcohol or to promiscuity. No,

(22:21):
not me. I got a big crush on British actor BillNye instead. So I. So this is it started off, the
working title of the book was Loving, Bill Nye, AFan's Fantasy. And by watching all of his movies
over the months was part of my healing on thatjourney. So anyway, couldn't find a publisher.

(22:47):
Actually, from listening to your shows, I see howmany people are self published, but that didn't
feel real comfortable to me. But my fourth book isself published. So a guru in the self publishing
world, Jane Friedman, was a paid consultant, forme. And so she was telling me, well, you need an
author's website. Okay, did that. And then mywebsite guy said, okay, now you have to get people

(23:13):
to your website. It's like, what? I thought, I'mdone, you know, oh, no, you have to write
something. You have to write a blog. So they come.
So it's kind of like having a baby, you know, youthink you're done, you give birth and then you
have to raise this child. and my oldest child is49 and I'm still the mom, you know. So I created

(23:39):
this website and I started writing a blog twice amonth and to get people to my website and I was
writing my slice of life stories exactly what I'vealways done, telling the stories of my life,
hoping you can glean life lessons from them. And,so I think I'm currently writing number 166 or

(24:03):
something. So somebody do the math on that. Howmany years I've been at this. And some of the
stories, I mean, none of my stories are like,newsworthy. Well, I shouldn't say they're not
newsworthy. There's some that I was reallyreacting to, the pandemic, for instance, so those
maybe aren't as evergreen as everything else, but,oh, my gosh, I was writing evergreen stories. So I

(24:26):
thought, let's m. Put them together. Let's put ittogether and call it a book.
So High on Life is a compendium of articles you'vewritten. Is that what it is?
Yes. It's 36 stories that I wrote. For anyone inyour Jewish audience, hai is a, mystical word in

(24:47):
Hebrew that means life or whatever. and it can bepronounced as hai. So my book is Hai on Life, with
a Jewish slant. But chai is also a number inHebrew. It's 18. And Jewish folks often give gifts
in multiples of chai. So you give $18 instead of20, you give $36 instead of 25 or whatever. and so

(25:10):
when I submitted it to the publisher, I actuallygave him 18 stories because it was high. It was
18. And he said he was loathe to print such ashort book. Could I make a double high? So sure. I
mean, I had all these stories, so I plucked somemore stories out, but I plucked them with the. I,

(25:32):
that's. I have 10 grandchildren and these are, thethings I want them to know. These are important
things that I'm telling them about.
So before you actually put the book together, youhad a pretty good sense that it had an effect for
people, that it would work in various ways forvarious people. Is that true? You already knew

(25:53):
that it would work?
Yeah. So before I was writing my blog, let's see,I have two books out that are. The first two books
are Illustrative with Quilts. Okay. The first bookwas just a series of vows. The second book was a
picture in a thousand words. So it was 12 quilts,and each one had an essay of about a thousand

(26:14):
words. And it was after writing that that Irealized I like to write. So I started to write a
weekly column back then. This is in the late1990s. And I self syndicated that across the
country. Some papers were weekly, some weremonthly. You know, and I just say, pay me whatever
you pay for one time writes. And this onenewspaper in Connecticut. The lady wrote me a

(26:39):
personal check for $25, you know, for my story,because she used it. That was when I started to
write. And the response to it was very gratifying.
I would hear from people, I was writing mostlyabout being single in midlife, kind of saying, I

(27:00):
know you don't want to be single, but you can doit. You know, my same basic rah, rah, you can do
it. And I heard from a woman who said, you know, Ijust love your column. She was in Houston, and
Houston published me weekly. They were a weeklypaper. I just love your column. And it may
surprise you to know that I'm not a single woman.
In fact, I've been married for 53 years. Butsomehow when I read your stories, I think you're

(27:25):
sitting here in my family room talking to Jim. AndI have heard that so many times. And so my writing
is very chatty. It's not formal, it's chatty.
You're doing what all great writers do is you'rewriting in your voice. It's as if you're speaking
to the audience and they can hear you speaking onpaper or on the screen, whatever they're reading

(27:50):
it on. And so that's the key to being, I think, a,successful and well read author, is that you're
able to come out with a voice that people hear intheir heads.
I agree. And I think that what I'm doing is, safefrom AI because how AI doesn't have stories to

(28:11):
write about their grandchildren.
I don't mean to be pessimistic on that note, but Iwill be for a half a beat because I think AI is at
the very, very, very earliest stages as we'rehaving this conversation. And I do think that at
some point it will become smart enough to be ableto do what we do. That's what worries me the most

(28:32):
about AI And I don't want to go off on a tangent,but I think right now you're correct. I'm not so
confident that down the road that that will holdtrue. so I do want to talk about the development
of the book. Obviously, you had most, if not allof it in hand before you started. You didn't sit
down and write the book. The book was alreadybasically written, but you then needed to put it

(28:54):
together in a way. And did you then sit down andsay, okay, I want these stories before those
stories. How did you do that?
Let's see. So my first two books are illustratedwith quilts. And after I did that first series of
quilts and did a lecture. People liked my program.
They wanted me to come back. But you can't comeback with the same program. So I made another 12.

(29:17):
12 quilts that then made another book. They wantedme to come back, so I made another 12 quilts. So I
have 12 quilts that are not in a book. So Istarted out to write about those 12 quilts. And so
there are 12 stories in the book that have neverbeen published before. And those are the 12

(29:38):
quilts. But it didn't coalesce, it didn't gotogether to tell one story. My first, my first
book is the journey towards self acceptance andlove. My second book is having the courage to say
yes to your life. This one was justhodgepodgenous, you know. Anyway, so I had now
these new stories and we as writers know. Well, Iguess things are different now. But in the old

(30:02):
days when I was submitting story by story bystory, it's a very tedious task with lots of pink
slips. But I guess these days you don't even getthe pink slips. But, but anyway, so I had some
news stories and indeed my. My favorite story inthe book is a story about my mom. The more I look
for my mom, the more I find her in my heart.

(30:22):
That's my very favorite story. And that. That'sone of the new ones. So I had 12 and I submitted
18 to Bruce Bortz, my publisher. He wanted 36. SoI went back and I figured out, you know, looked
through all my writing, what's evergreen, what'snot, and plucked it out. And I said to him, go to

(30:47):
my website and read it and tell me which storiesyou want. And he said, no, you take the first pass
at it. So I never thought that this was thefinished project. I Even the illustrations, I
didn't, I didn't know if I was. I did theillustrations. Each story has an illustration that
goes with it with a one line takeaway. And I,didn't even know if he was going to use my

(31:10):
illustrations. I didn't know. And then suddenly,here's the book. He didn't give me an edited
version. He gave me, what's it called? An arc. A,advanced reader's copy. That was the next thing I
got from him. So I just picked them by hook orcrook and I scattered them all over the floor,

(31:31):
trying to see how they might go together. And Idid group them into life lessons.
How long did that process take you once youstarted to piece it all together? How long did it
take to put the book together.
It was very brief because I had a publisherwilling to publish and I wanted to get it to him.

(31:53):
And again, I didn't think it was the final projectI thought he was going to have.
What you're talking about is highly unusual. Mostof the time there's this big long ordeal that
authors go through with a publisher where you'reback and forth and there's editing and all the
rest of it.
Yours just flew through, you know, really, Evenwith Pelican, that's the way it was. They kind of

(32:17):
moved commas around. My son is, has many degrees.
One of them is an English teacher, so he has sincegiven me a lesson on commas. But my first two
books I really moved commas around. My third book,I wrote a story about my friend's 80 year old
father and they wanted to call him elderly. And Isaid he's not elderly, he's 80. That was the

(32:39):
editorial comment on my third book. So I'm notsaying I'm a great writer, but I must pick
publishers that like what I do. I don't know.
Well, yes. so you're not writing, you know,thousand page tomes. You're writing things that
are very specific, quite pithy, very, easy toabsorb, easy to read, easy to get through. And all

(33:04):
of that, believe it or not, from my opinion, isextremely difficult to do well. That's maybe m.
It's like doing haiku. Well, it's 17 syllables,but it's extremely hard to do well. And so I think
that that's, you're obviously doing somethingright. If the publishers take it and just, just go
with it, that's a pretty good sign. I want to askyou some things very specific from the book

(33:29):
because I've got a bunch of questions from thebook itself. You say that quote, your mind
believes what you tell it, so tell it positivethings. Where's that come from? Why do. I mean, I
know why you're saying it, but where does thatcome from?
it comes from my morning exercises when I'm tryingto do 100 crunches. And if I, I get to 70 or 80

(33:52):
and I start going, I can't get to 100. So I justmake sure that I don't groan and grunt. I just do
100 sit ups. It's so clear to me. I mean, that isthe perfect example. Yeah, I can do this. Piece of
cake. Yeah.
So it's the positive mindset and do you have inyour life negative thoughts that you must overcome

(34:20):
oh, my God.
Yes. This is like I say, don't. Yes. Oh. Oh, myGod. So you just told my daughter the 25,000
things I'm, upset about in life. One of them beingthat I went from a coffee maker to a Keurig
because I hated washing the coffee pot. I mean,this is, you know, a dozen years ago, but now I

(34:42):
hate putting water in the water reservoir. I justhate when the light goes on that it needs water.
And so my daughter is just really. I do take an,anti anxiety drug, but she does want me to up my
dosage, which I don't want to do. So I said toher, I forgot I can't tell you my problems because

(35:03):
then you want me to go on drugs. And she said,okay, tell me your problems. I won't say that
anymore. So thank you. When I tell my problems tomy son, which is usually something not working in
the house, he wants me to move. So, you know, andI don't know if he wants me to move, downsize, or
move to assisted living, you know, but I'm notgoing there. So. Okay, I'm not telling him my

(35:25):
problems. Yes, I have lots of problems. I'm socrazy.
So the book that you wrote is applicable to you.
You're not just being, an advice giver. You areactually living in that world of needing the
advice yourself.
Oh, definitely. The story that is going to post onnext Tuesday, it's called, appetizers and main

(35:48):
dishes and desserts. Oh, my. And it's about makingthe Rosh Hashanah meal. We just had the Jewish
holiday, and I'm having almost 20 people to thehouse for dinner. And I'm usually very organized.
Everything happens well in advance. And here itis, nine o' clock in the morning, the day of the
party. They're coming at 5. And I have only madeone dessert and I usually serve four. And I really

(36:15):
didn't quite know what to do with myself. And Iwent to the bakery and I bought baked goods.

Steve Cuden (36:23):
Well, that works.
It works. You know, and I quoted. I can't think ofhis name. He's a chef like Dave Buck Kiss or
something like that. I don't know what.
I don't know.
He was quoted. He was quoted in, He's Neil PatrickHarris's spouse. Okay, that helps. But anyway, he
was quoted in Parade magazine, which has been outof print forever, you know, a million years ago,

(36:49):
as saying that when he gets himself in troublecreating a party, it's because, he tries to make
everything from Scratch. And so his one wordanswer is, is outsource.
Did you get any complaints that it was bought at astore?
Nobody complained. As long you have a lot ofoptions. There's just so happy. Of course. So

(37:11):
that. So that's the story. But I know my friend inNew York is going to object to this story. He's
going to tell me, you're too hard on yourself.
Because three quarters of the way down I say, Iguess I'm feeling guilty about this or I wouldn't
be writing about it. It, you know. But in thiscrazy world where you don't even have time to get

(37:36):
to the grocery store, much less cook, it's a goodthing to still have parties and have the family
together. And amen.
If I show up at somebody's house for dinner or aparty and they have served pre made food that they
didn't make, I don't care, as long as it tastesgood.
Yep, yep, yep. Well, we had a raspberry cheesecakeand we had a chocolate mousse cake and we had a

(37:59):
box of chocolates to go with, with the cookiesthat I had made earlier in the week.
There you go.
Everyone loved it. Loved it. Yeah. So, yeah, allof these things that I worry about, I really worry
about. I really, I really do. And I get aggravatedover. I wrote a story about sports socks that they
have an L and an R, so you have to put it on theright foot, which means at my age, you have to go

(38:23):
get your glasses to put your socks on. Am I right?
You know, so these are the things I write about,but then I turn it around somehow and make nice.
Well, that leads me to then say in your book, youalso talk about acceptance. And so that that's
partly what you're talking about here. To acceptyourself as you are, to accept the fact that maybe

(38:48):
you didn't make five desserts or four dessertsthat you can accept for yourself, that you went
out and bought desserts or that you're treating itdifferently, that's part of the process of
embracing yourself. Is that acceptance? Am Icorrect?
Oh, definitely. And by me saying it's okay for meto do it, I hope you understand I'm telling you
it's okay for you to do it.

(39:10):
So I am a naturally obsessive person. I'm not ocd,but I obsess over things. I even perseverate,
which is a big word, but I'm a perseverator. AndI'm wondering from your point of view, how can one
Overcome that and still succeed.
I don't know. I did a little bit of cognitivebehavioral therapy. And so when you start thinking

(39:34):
this, you're supposed to stop and think that. Andso that does help a little bit. And so I came up
with a great acronym that works for everybody, butbest for me. So my oldest grandchild is Tilly T I
L L I E. And my pep talk is think instead likelife is excellent. This is when the Keurig needs

(39:59):
water. Think instead like life is excellent. Andin my case I can say think instead like Laurie is
excellent. So it's okay Laurie, that this bothersyou, but just fill stupid reservoir. So I don't
know. Cognitive behavioral therapy. I don't know.
Because much of what we obsess about in lifeultimately is small, meaningless, not really that

(40:25):
relevant or important. It just is at the moment itseems important, but it really over the grand
scheme of things is not explain what you mean inthe book by the word flossom.
Yes, we are all flossum. We have, have flaws, butwe're awesome just the same. So I was that that

(40:46):
story came about from a class that I took on wiseaging. And it was a great exercise. We had to
write a love letter to a part of our body. So I'ma thin person, but I have a belly. But I also had
three kids. So I wrote a love letter to my belly.
And you know, because I'm flossomed, my belly isflawed, but I'm awesome just the same. And really

(41:12):
where I came around to was the only thing I everwanted in life was to be a mom. And I'm a mom. And
so you know what a big gift my Bella gave me.
Scott, Shane and Lisa. And so of course it's big.
Amen. I, really would like to use amen more oftenthan I do in my stories. Almost all of them. I

(41:33):
want to say amen at the end. End. But anyway,there you have it.
So that is also a part of another part of the bookwhich you talk about traditions. And the word amen
is a very frequently a religious word used in,prayers and so on. What do you believe about
traditions and what do traditions do for us?
Oh, just traditions are so comforting. So thecookie that I had made in advance for Rosh

(41:59):
Hashanah is Jewish. biscotti. We call itmandelbread or commish bread. Our family calls it
commish bread. And when I had moved my dad herefrom St. Louis, I'm in Cincinnati, moved him here
for the Last, as it turned out, 10 months of hislife, and he didn't have anything. He couldn't
even watch Cardinals baseball, you know, I mean,he had nothing. He didn't have anything that was

(42:22):
familiar to him. And so here came the Jewishholiday. And I thought, you know what this cookie
recipe is? A famous cookie that my dad's sistermade, my Aunt Tilly, for whom my granddaughter is
named, and I'll make that cookie. I'm going togive him tradition, just like in Fiddler and the
Roof. And I'm going to give him comfort throughtradition. And so that's what I did. And that

(42:45):
first year, I actually had my little Tilly, shewas probably three years old, help bake. And in
subsequent years, that has become a tradition.
Same, way we have a tradition that I make fudgefor Hanukkah for. No, I make it for Thanksgiving.
We eat half the recipe for Thanksgiving and thisother half of the recipe for Hanukkah. So these

(43:07):
traditions are great, and it's something to lookforward to. Oh, my gosh. I love tradition. Yeah.
Shall we sing like Tevye?
It has. I think that we probably don't want to dothat, but we could, but we're not gonna.
I think that what you're also talking about whenyou're. It's similar when you're talking about in
the book, and I'm quoting here, when you go to abirthday party, be sure to eat the cake. That's a

(43:32):
traditional thing. But why do you say that? Whatis the purpose of making sure to eat the cake?
Well, that story is about unusual lessons that Ilearned in the gym. So, Whereas, yes, you would
always eat the cake at a birthday party. You know,that's part of the fun, but it was more
significant. So my personal trainer, I have turnedin a food diary to this man for almost every week,

(43:59):
for almost 20 years. And so one time, I turned inthe food diary, and I said to him, I failed. I
went to birthday party, I ate the cake. And hesaid, no, not at all. If you didn't eat the cake,
you would have failed. You're not on a diet.
You're living your life. You're making wisechoices regularly. But at a birthday party, you

(44:22):
eat the cake. By the same token, at the statefair, you eat funnel cake. You know, you just do
it. These are things that you do. And then, myfather, who, if you read anything I write, you
know, I adored my father, when he was dying, Rob,the personal trainer, always encouraged me to have
Ice cream every night, because I love ice cream.

(44:43):
And he said during this period of time, you shouldeat ice cream twice a day. You'll get back to your
normal diet. So that's the significance of eatingcake in that story, that you're not on a diet,
you're living your life. And amen. Oh, I did itagain.

(45:04):
Well, you know, there's that old cliche,everything in moderation. and so there's a reason
why you should enjoy your life and let. Unless itcauses you some kind of harm. You can, should eat
pretty much anything you want to eat. Unless, it'sdefinitely going to create a different problem for
you. you also write about. Life isn't aboutwaiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning

(45:27):
to dance in the rain, which I think is a greatphrase that's similar to eating the cake, isn't
it?
Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah. I mean, if you're waiting foreverything to be perfect, you know, the, great
example is having children. You know, if you'rewaiting till you can afford it, until you have the
right house or whatever, it ain't never going tohappen, you know, so you just have to really live

(45:51):
life right now.
You also say having everything is not equal tohaving everything. What do you mean?
Well, so when I got divorced, I moved out of thefamily house and my ex and took very little. I
bought a new house and bought everything to go init. But so we wanted the family house to look like

(46:14):
it had always looked. And it was a little bitheartbreaking to leave behind all my collections
and all these millions of things, which at thetime included a four cup coffee maker. Coffee's
important. But anyway, so it was a little bit achyand in pain for leaving everything behind, but I
realized that clearly those things never made mehappy or I wouldn't be getting divorced. And so I,

(46:43):
I've been fortunate all my life. Maybe I have lowexpectations or something, but I have always had
everything. I have the basics, you know, and it'snot things, it's everything else.
Things are, things are less important than familyand emotion and the way that you feel and all
those things. That's what I think.

(47:04):
Oh, definitely. Oh, definitely. Yeah. I mean,really.
so I love that you also have a quote in here thatgoes, you don't have to have it all figured out to
move forward, just take the next step. I thinkthat's really great.
Well, so I have some very basic themes that I workon a lot and one of them is self express

(47:26):
Acceptance. And one is on personal reinvention,which is really what my fourth book was when I
was, you know, going through the loss of Big Irv,as we called him after Big Irv died. So we have
all reinvented ourselves many times when wegraduated college, we had to reinvent ourselves.
You know, you think again, you think you're done,you had the baby, it's over. But, there was a

(47:50):
Broadway music, what was it called? Avenue Qmaybe. And this opening line is a guy comes out on
stage and says, I just got a bachelor's degree inEnglish. What do you do with a bachelor's degree
in English? And so even when something goodhappens, like graduating from college, you're
reinventing yourself. You get married, you'rereinventing yourself, or, you know, empty nest. A

(48:12):
sad reinvention. There's happy and sadreinventions, but we do it all the time. And so I
have a two step plan for reinvention which I layout specifically in high. In life as a two step
plan. Whereas in love, loss and moving on, Imodeled the behavior over 200 pages. but it

(48:33):
involves having a healthy routine. So you have toget dressed every day, you have to eat
nutritiously, but ice cream every night, and cakeat birthday parties. But then you have to take,
take one step a day. Even if it's teeny tiny, youhave to take one step a day in the direction of

(48:54):
your new life. Yeah. So the smallest step is goingto move you forward. There's lots of quotes like
that in the book. You didn't mention that. Soevery story, so the 36 stories each have a one
line takeaway. So that's what you're giving us,some of the one line takeaways.
Right, That's.
And my favorite story for its takeaway is, 30reasons to be Grateful at my Granddaughter's

(49:18):
soccer game. And one of the reasons was that someother granny had her shirt on inside out, but it
wasn't me. And then the takeaway from that isthere's always something to be grateful for. Which
there is. There's always something to be gratefulfor. One of the stories in the book is about my

(49:38):
dad's death. But that's a very sweet story of abeautiful moment that my son had with my dad right
there, literally the day he was going to hospice,you know, so there's always something to be
grateful for.
Well, every day is a new opportunity. andsometimes I think it's very hard to see it while

(49:59):
it's happening. But it's nice when you can see itthat every day is this opportunity for a new start
of sorts. And I, think that that's part of whatthe inspiration in the book is. Even though you
don't like the word inspiration, but motivation, Ithink that that's a very good motivator, is that
you can look at every day as a new start. youalso. It's very important to me, this concept of

(50:23):
listening. Right now we're having a conversation,and I'm doing my best to listen to you. And I
think there's two levels on listening. There'slistening and there's hearing. And, hearing, is an
autonomic response. Everybody that has hearing andaren't deaf, you're hearing all the time, whether
you want to or not. But listening, it takes activenotion in your brain. You talk about listening

(50:50):
being vital. Why?
Oh, what? Wow. Because everybody wants to telltheir story, don't they? I mean, so I've been the
broad shoulders that people want to tell theirstories to, and I think that's a gift I'm giving
people. So listening is a wonderful thing. AndI've said it, said it before. If somebody has to
tell their story three times, okay, I can hear itthree times. So I. I don't know. I just think

(51:15):
listening is extremely important. Extremely. Youknow, we're not that good at it anymore. We're
kind of, like, distracted by our phones, what'sbuzzing in our pocket. It's all that kind of
stuff. So. Yeah, even more so now than ever.
Yeah, I. I agree. And I think listening has becomenot quite a lost art, but it's. We're losing that,

(51:41):
because people are buried in their phones andtheir computers and on their televisions and
whatever, and not paying attention to others. Andthat's what listening requires, is paying
attention and not just hearing, which is justpassing by you. I think that that's, really vital.
I'm glad that that's in the book. So I've beenhaving just a wonderful, enlightening conversation

(52:03):
for almost an hour now with Lori Kleiner Eckertabout, her book, High on Life and Life and How It
Works. And. And we're going to wind the show downjust a little bit now. And I'm wondering, you've
been telling us all these great stories. I'mwondering over your career and your writing career
and your publishing of books and teaching and soon. Are you able to share with us a story that's

(52:24):
either weird, quirky, offbeat, strange, or justplain m funny more than what you've already told
us?
yeah. well, I have a story that goes towards theconcept, that the best laid plans kind of thing.
So I m am a person who lives inside of my head.
And so I was, This was towards the end of myspeaking career that I was going to have my

(52:47):
biggest audience in Texas. So I'm, again, I'm inCincinnati. It was cheaper to fly out through
Columbus, which is an hour and a half away. So I,drove to Columbus on the day that I was flying to
Texas. And the next day was going to have, I think800 people in my audience would have been amazing
and wonderful. So, I, but I don't like, listen tothe radio. I don't listen to music. I just inside

(53:13):
my head. So I get up to the Columbus airport andit's strangely quiet up there. There's a
McDonald's on the way down towards the long termparking lot. And so I had planned to go into the
McDonald's to have lunch before going into theairport. So I went into the McDonald's, I said,
what's wrong? It's so quiet here. And they pointedup to TVs that were, you know, in the restaurant

(53:38):
and they said, that's New York, the twin towers.
So it was September 11, 2001 that I was supposedto fly to Texas for my biggest audience on
September 12th. But the best laid plans, as youknow, airspace, was closed.
Oh yeah.

(53:58):
And that's why there was no one at the airport.
And then I did turn on the radio to drive home andthere was the the one plane that went down where
in Pennsylvania, which was a little too close.
Yeah. And it was like, oh my God, am I even safeto drive home? So that was, was real freaky. And

(54:19):
another time when I, when I was speaking, I, I wasat a women's wellness conference in Colorado. And
I like to say that I was Wayne Dyer's warm up act.
But in reality there were many speakers on thevenue. He was the keynote, but I was one of the
other speakers and I had gotten there the daybefore and I came down the day of the event. I'm

(54:42):
having breakfast with the various things ladies atthis event and I say, I'm from Ohio. And one,
said, oh, Cincinnati. Yeah, well, you know, whatabout the tornado? It's like, what tornado? So
there had been a tornado. I ran back up to myhotel room and here are the aerial views of

(55:02):
Cincinnati and it's literally the shopping centeracross the street from My house.
Wow.

Lo (55:08):
That had been. Hit it. Yeah.

Steve Cuden (55:11):
That's, close.
Yeah. So, I don't know. Maybe I learned don'tleave town for speaking engagements.
But. But you certainly dodged a few, potential badscenarios there.
I did, dodged a few bullets there. We've alldodged a few bullets, haven't we? Yeah.
Yes, I have dodged a few in my life, too. Noquestion. So our last question for you today,

(55:35):
Laurie. you've shared with us a massive amount ofadvice throughout this whole show, but I'm
wondering if you have a single solid piece ofadvice or a tip that you like to give to those
that are just starting out as either writers ormotivational speakers or whatever. or maybe
they're in a little bit trying to push to the nextlevel.
Yeah. well, I'm definitely one step at a time. Idefinitely tell people to get a new notebook.

(56:02):
That's an accountability log, so that you justwrite down the one thing you do a day. so I
definitely think that's the case. And if you havetrouble getting started, a tip for add kids is to
set a timer. So set a timer for 15 minutes and dowhatever, and maybe you'll get on a roll and want
to do more, but at least do one something andwrite it down in your notebook to get started. But

(56:25):
for writers, really, the trick is to sit down andwrite, which people don't seem to understand that.
And they go to writing conferences, and they. Idon't know what they do. Sit down and write. so I
do talk about a friend of mine in High on Life. Italk about a little bit plus a little bit equals a

(56:48):
whole lot. And my friend Mike Kahn has, a boy thatI went to high school with. We're really not dear
friends, though he did blurb my book for me. I'mvery appreciative, but I don't want to suppose
that we were dear friends or anything. Anyway,Mike Kahn is the father of five and a trial
attorney, and he wrote during those years, like, Idon't know, a dozen novels, I think Rachel Gold

(57:15):
was his detective. And all of his stories were setin St. Louis, where he lived. And he did it by
writing one page a night when the kids went tobed. And if you write one page a night, and we're
not talking Monday through Friday, we're talkingone page a night over a year's time, you've got
365 pages, which is the average size of a book. Soreally, sit down and do it. People have so many so

(57:44):
that's the hard part of doing it, is gettingstarted. Sit down and do it.
That's very, true and wise advice. And it is a onestep at a time process. as a teacher, I used to
teach my students, when you look at a wholescreenplay or a whole book, if you're trying to
think about the whole thing, it can sometimes beso daunting and so overwhelming that you just

(58:05):
can't get started. So you have to break it down inyour head into little teeny steps to get where
you're going. I think that's very, very wiseadvice. Lori Kleiner Eckert. This has been a
really tremendously fun story, beat for an hour.
And I, I can't thank you enough for your time,your energy, and for all this wisdom that you've,

(58:25):
given to people over all the years. Thank you somuch.
Thank you. And I thank you for doing this podcastbecause I've learned so much from listening to
other people. Really, everyone's process is just alittle bit different, and everyone has something
to really teach us. So that's great. Thank you.
And so we've come to the end of today's StoryBeat. If you like this episode, won't you please

(58:49):
take a moment to give us a comment, rating, orreview on whatever app or platform you're
listening to? Your support helps us bring moregreat Story Beat episodes to you. Story Beat is
available on all major podcast apps and platforms,including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify,
iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and many others. Until nexttime, I'm Steve Cuden and may all your stories be

(59:15):
unforgettable.