We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Ready recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I spend a decade working in television news; first behind the cameras as a production assistance and then eventually in front of the camera reporting the day’s (and night’s) news for local television. It taught me everything I know about connecting with people, finding stories and sharing them with others. But there was something missing. I reported the news and moved on to the next story assignment and overtime covered a lot of sensational stories.

When I left my dream job as a TV reporter, I made it my mission to build a company that told the rest of the story; the story beyond the headline. Often that’s rooted in connecting with people who are on the ground, doing the work to make change in our community.

So now, my team and I (at Forever Ready Productions) work to tell the stories of nonprofits and small businesses, through video, so that we can all realize and harness our collective impact and purpose.

It’s rooted in everything we do.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a keynote speaker and the Principal Storyteller of Forever Ready Productions, a video production company with offices in Memphis and Chicago. We tell mission-driven stories for nonprofits and businesses so they can realize and harness their collective purpose and impact. Together, we’ve helped nonprofits across the country raise more than $10 million in the last decade, to support their goals and grow their impact.

I started my TV news career as a production assistant at 17 (yes, in high school). I spent the next ten years as a video journalist working in Iowa, Nebraska, and Memphis to cover local and national breaking news.

After nearly a decade working in newsrooms, I left my job to run Forever Ready Productions full time. Since then we’ve grown from one employee (me) that operated out of her downtown condo, to 7 employees in two offices. My team is truly incredible!

I’ve received 5 regional Emmys and had various short documentaries win awards.

Most recently, our film “What We Will Never Know” about a teen who falsely confessed to murder, won the Indie Memphis Hometowner Documentary Shorts Jury and Audience Choice. The film was also awarded ‘Best Social Justice Short Doc” by the Lane Doc Film Festival in 2022. You can watch the important film at www.foreverreadyllc.com/wwnk. We really hope the story influences a change in laws across the country.

Today, I speak to audiences across the country about my journey from dream job to building a business, video storytelling and entrepreneurship; hoping to inspire everyone to take leaps in big and small ways.

And while we’re here, you should know that I am a certified drone pilot, taking photo and video to new heights.

And most importantly of all, I am a wife and mom who loves going on adventures with my family!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Self awareness tools have been a game changer for me as I’ve grown as a leader. I love the enneagram and Positive Intelligence. By taking these assessments, learning about my personality and understanding how much my thoughts influence my actions, I have grown so much in self-awareness.

They day I learned what a saboteur is and what my top 3 are, I began noticing when negative thoughts came to mind. The awareness alone has helped me move through negative thoughts and recognize how much it helps to flip them.

I also wish I had learned and studied stoicism earlier in life. Stoicism teachers you to focus on what you can control. When you do that, it allows you to recognize what you can influence and what you can’t. And that all leads back to more self awareness.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner is my husband. We met in a bar…your typical 20-something story. More than a decade later, what I love most about our working relationship is how much we play off of each others strengths. When we got married we had no intention to ever start a business or work together. But over the years we started to realize that our opposite strengths could help take us to the next level. My husband, Scott, has an IT and corporate background. I have a background in television news and journalism. I am a visionary, he is an integrator. Together we’ve built one business that helps tell video stories. And we have dreams of building an investment property business, that we hope will help tackle the affordable housing problem in our community.

I’m amazed at how well we work together. And I credit our opposite strengths, interests and complimentary goals. We are goal oriented but don’t ever let our business interests get in the way of our relationship. It’s very important to us that we put our relationship and family first.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laurenready.com + www.foreverreadyllc.com
• Instagram: @laurenisready @ReadySheDrones
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaurenIsReady
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmready/
• Twitter: @LaurenIsReady
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@laurenisready
• Other: What We’ll Never Know – Short Documentary – www.foreverreadyllc.com/wwnk

Image Credits
Jamie Harmon