Lauren Eckhardt of Burning Soul Press On Becoming Free From The Fear Of Failure
An Interview With Savio P. Clemente
Trust yourself. You have to believe in yourself and what you’re capable of to truly be able to jump and give it your all. If you go at something at only 50% or 60% or anything that’s not 100%, you’re doing an injustice to your full capabilities and potential for impact.
The Fear of Failure is one of the most common restraints that holds people back from pursuing great ideas. Imagine if we could become totally free from the fear of failure. Imagine what we could then manifest and create. In this interview series, we are talking to leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Becoming Free From the Fear of Failure.” As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Lauren Eckhardt.
Lauren Eckhardt is the CEO and Founder of Burning Soul Press. An award-winning, and best-selling author and ghostwriter, she is passionate about helping purpose-driven people capture their life story in a book-led movement that changes lives. Lauren founded Burning Soul Press in 2020, after 12 years in the human resources field, to work with aspiring and career authors in pursuit of sharing a powerful and deeply impactful story or message. She always ensures people feel truly seen, heard, and understood and accepted as their most authentic self. Lauren is a tree-obsessed, laughing-all-the-time, multi-passionate creative and has fun trying everything — even if she isn’t good at it. Learning how to do anything is one of her favorite hobbies.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
Even though I knew I wanted to be an author since I was six years old, I spent twelve years after college in the human resources field, chasing degrees, certifications, and promotions, always successful, but never fulfilled. I kept going for what I was supposed to have to elevate myself versus the things that felt purposeful. Once my boys were born, they became a new why that drives me. I wanted to prove to them that big dreams were possible to reach. I finally wrote my first book (and 4 more immediately afterward) and became an author. Not long after, other people asked for my help to write and publish their books. Every time I helped someone, my soul was lit on fire, and a new dream emerged: helping people share their stories and overcome the challenge of writing about their own personal journey and what they want to share with the world.
I started Burning Soul Press in April 2020 as a one-woman show and it quickly grew to a multi-six-figure company with an amazing team that supports all our global clients in helping them share their stories. It’s been an amazing experience exploring new dreams and goals that have come into my path and I now lead a life I couldn’t have imagined even two years ago.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
So much of my work in helping other people stems from many things that I did wrong in my own experience as an author. It’s funny because as much as it fuels my passion to ensure that people do things the right way and really treat writing a book as a true reflection of their time here in this world, I also equally struggle with the imposter syndrome of once making so many mistakes. It’s easier to hide between the imposter syndrome sometimes than what it is to step out and own my mistakes for being some of the best learning lessons of my life and connecting me with what I consider my purpose here in this world. It’s forced me to really own how I can help people get the results they need instead of internalizing fears and doubts that randomly strike.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Adaptability — I’ve learned I have to be open to how I may arrive at the things I want to achieve instead of being married to the specific steps to get there. There were times I thought I knew everything I needed to know to take the path I wanted to take, but then had to pivot or learn something new in a haste to get to the next step. Or I had to brainstorm new ways to approach it. Having the willingness and fearlessness to adapt when problems arise by staying focused on my why behind it all has been one of the most beneficial traits.
Grit — When things get messy and hard and turn out to not always match the vision I had, I persevere and keep going. I’m willing to face challenging situations head on and not run away from them, trusting in the impact I want to make above all else.
Growth-oriented — I’m okay feeling uncomfortable if it means I’m growing and expanding to reach new heights and goals. I surround myself with other impact-driven entrepreneurs who are at the next level so I can learn from them and be challenged instead of letting the intimidation get the best of me.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the concept of becoming free from failure. Let’s zoom in a bit. From your experience, why exactly are people so afraid of failure? Why is failure so frightening to us?
I think it has a lot to do with associating failure with “the end of it all” or associating it with embarrassment or shame. If people see failure as the end, they’re not looking at what they’re supposed to learn from what happened. Some will declare it as a “roadblock” as though that simply means it wasn’t meant to happen, when many times, it’s a chance to step up and hit it harder than ever before now that you’re armed with the experience and knowledge of going through it once before. It is truly an opportunity to do things better and prove to yourself what you’re truly capable of. It’s a word that has been painted darker than what it needs to be. If everyone could see failure as the opportunity to learn and grow, it would be embraced more and seen for how it can add value to one’s life.
What are the downsides of being afraid of failure? How can it limit people?
It keeps people small in the sense of preventing them from thinking bigger and growing into their fullest potential. Fear of failure means already being limited to the boundaries that one’s mind is putting on them verses trusting themselves to be capable of what they know deep inside they can truly become or do.
In contrast, can you help articulate a few ways how becoming free from the free of failure can help improve our lives?
It means freedom from the captivity of our mind. It allows us to fully realize and own that we are powerful enough as humans to be the thinker of our thoughts. Our thoughts don’t have to contain us. We have power over the direction they go in and how we use those thoughts to step into the greatest version of who we are. It keeps us open to new opportunities, ideas, creativity, and more that serves our positive desires and intentions that fuels our purpose in this life.
We would love to hear your story about your experience dealing with failure. Would you be able to share a story about that with us?
I’ve had failure in all areas of my life from education, careers, relationships, and more. The term used to bring me down quite a bit, until I realized that failure only comes from expectations. The term is birthed from the expectations that we put on ourselves or that others put on us and what we’re setting out to do. Reframing how we view failure is truly the only way to manage this. For me, success has now been rooted in how I’m learning from every experience and using that learning to grow and become a better person.
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. In your opinion, what are 5 steps that everyone can take to become free from the fear of failure”? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Trust yourself. You have to believe in yourself and what you’re capable of to truly be able to jump and give it your all. If you go at something at only 50% or 60% or anything that’s not 100%, you’re doing an injustice to your full capabilities and potential for impact.
- Be aware when your thoughts have taken your power.instead of you having the power over your thoughts. We as humans are capable of getting to a higher level of consciousness where we can recognize this. Control the fear of failure instead of letting it control you.
- Instead of asking “what could go wrong” allow yourself to dream and fully step into what can go right. Usually this can be propelled by your why for setting out to achieve something being strong enough and more important enough to break apart any fears. If your why isn’t doing that for you, dig deeper until your why is strong enough to do just that.
- Consider your impact that you want to leave in this world, or your overall legacy. Does the fear of failure aid or retract from the impact you want to have?
- Envision the most powerful, capable, and possible version of who you are in your most natural state. Would that person have the same fear of failure, or would they use every thought, emotion, feeling, experience, opportunity, skill, knowledge, and passion they have to succeed?
The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.” Based on your experience, have you found this quote to be true? What do you think Aristotle really meant?
I believe what he’s saying is to succeed is to do so with trust and courage in trying. Succeeding isn’t thinking about the failure or being hung up on the times that you have. It’s moving forward always so that you always give it your all.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would love to inspire a movement where people write and share their stories freely and authentically without fear of judgement — or failure! I believe that when we share our stories in a way that empowers and inspires others, the world becomes a better place. I also want to break down the barriers that hold people back from writing or publishing the books that are the most meaningful to their true purpose and most authentic self. That’s why we build our programs at Burning Soul Press to empower writers with knowledge and steps in writing, publishing, marketing and PR to take the writing and sharing of their story in their own hands while making the greatest lifetime impact possible with their story.
We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them :-)
Taylor Swift. I admire her storytelling abilities above all else, but also, how she’s dealt with everything in the spotlight with such grace and continually pushes herself to explore new creative realms with courage and put herself out there as fueled by love, true service, and trust in herself.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Feel free to follow us on social media, links below. If you’re interested in working with us, check us out at www.burningsoulpress.com
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TikTok: @burningsoulpress
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
