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.

Pia Mailhot-Leichter is a creative partner, published author, certified coach, and entrepreneur. Her path has been anything but ordinary: a recovering nomad, she’s reported as a journalist in Sri Lanka, graduated summa cum laude from NYU, and worked as an award-winning creative director for some of the biggest brands in the world. Now, as the founder of Kollektiv Studio, through creative partnership, from storytelling to coaching, Pia is uniquely positioned to co-create wild visions and ventures.

Kollektiv Studio works with founders, leaders, and creatives with a rebellious spirit and visionary tendencies. As Pia puts it, "The outcome isn't just what you create—it's who you become in the process."

She recently published Welcome to the Creative Club, a book that challenges everything people thought they knew about creativity. Praised by Google's Global Head of Creative & Innovation as "life-changing," and by iconic fashion designer Betsey Johnson as "a wild ride," this part-memoir, part-guide invites readers to make life their biggest art project and reclaim their creative power.

I’ve read Welcome to the Creative Club and as a lifelong creator myself, I found it to be eye-opening in how Pia cuts straight to the heart of overcoming the stumbling blocks that most creatives encounter. If you’re looking to supercharge your creativity, I highly recommend Welcome to the Creative Club to you.

Barry Greenfield began his musical ride in 1965 when he was just 15 years old. Over the subsequent decades, Barry has become a greatly appreciated, old-school, singer songwriter, with three number one records, twenty-five plus covers, and life as a touring musician and storyteller.

He actually walked away from the music business in the mid-70s saying, “it’s not for me,” and yet he remained a dedicated songwriter and performer, releasing twelve LP’s while sharing his music with audiences everywhere.

Barry’s autobiography, My Journey to Blue Sky, was recently published by New Haven Publishing. It covers the intimate details of his professional years, including, standing on the shoulders of various giants that he has known or worked with, like Cher, John Lennon, Larry Carlton, Supertramp, Kenny Rogers, Harry Nilsson, 10cc, and more.

Barry’s classic album, Blue Sky, released by RCA, has reached its 50th anniversary. And now with his book, Barry reveals the life changing experiences he received while attending the ‘music school’ of the real world in those halcyon days of 1963 to 1975. Barry learned everything by listening, watching, and questioning.

Please be sure to stick around at the end of the show for a very special treat. Barry has graciously lent us his powerful hit song, “New York is Closed Tonight.,” which we’ll play for everyone to enjoy. After 9/11, CNN played “New York is Closed Tonight,” juxtaposed to what was happening to the twin towers.

Paul Chitlik is appearing on StoryBeat for the third time. Paul is a truly gifted storyteller and teacher who has written screenplays, novels, and non-fiction, including writing for all the major networks and studios in both English and in Spanish.

Paul’s been a story editor, director, and producer in both TV and features. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for "The Twilight Zone" and a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Telemundo’s "Los Beltrán.” And he won a Genesis Award for a Showtime Family movie.

He also happens to be one of the best screenwriting teachers in the world. He’s taught in various MFA programs around the world, including: UCLA and Loyola Marymount in L.A., and in Barcelona, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, and Sweden.

His highly regarded book, Rewrite, is one of the essential, must-read books for anyone interested in writing screenplays, teleplays, plays, and even novels.

I’ve read his latest screenwriting book, The Screenwriting Sensei, which I thoroughly enjoyed because it took me straight back to Graduate School at UCLA when I was one of Paul’s numerous students. Paul’s teachings have remained exceptionally influential on me for both my own writing and in my subsequent years as a college professor of screenwriting. I highly urge anyone interested in writing for the screen to check out The Screenwriting Sensei.

This is the second appearance of Scott Christian Sava on StoryBeat. Scott’s an artist, animator, illustrator, writer, director, and producer, whose work over the last 30 years, has brought some of the world’s most beloved characters to life in film, television, comics, and games, from Casper the Friendly Ghost to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Star Trek to Spider-Man and more. Scott’s unique talents and vision have been called upon by Marvel Comics, Disney, Universal Studios, Nickelodeon, and various others.

In 2000, he founded Blue Dream Studios, which, in addition to creating its own line of kids’ graphic novels, has produced work for Star Wars, The X-Files, Aliens vs. Predator, and other franchises. The studio’s first feature film, Animal Crackers, is available on Netflix and was the summer of 2020’s #1 animated movie in the world.

I’ve read Scott’s latest book, “Becoming an Artist: How to Make Art Like a Human by Embracing Failure, Discovering Your Creative Voice, and Finding Joy in the Process.” I found the very useful concepts of Becoming an Artist easy and fun to read while being highly inspirational for anyone seeking to become a finely tuned artist.

Scott also produces videos online dedicated to his over 4 million followers where he talks about art, autism, and how to be both a kindlier artist and human. Scott’s mission is to “make the world a kinder, gentler place, one story at a time.”

Anthony Swofford is an American writer and former U.S. Marine, best known for his memoir, Jarhead, which details his experiences in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War as part of a Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon. He received the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir for Jarhead.

A feature film of Jarhead, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring Jake Gyllenhall, playing Tony Swofford, was released in 2005.

Subsequent to his military service, Tony pursued writing, earning a B.A. from UC Davis and an M.F.A. from the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop. He’s taught at the University of Iowa, Lewis and Clark College, and currently Carnegie-Mellon University.

I’ve read Jarhead and watched the movie multiple times and can tell you Tony’s story is as harrowing as it is darkly funny. I was blown away by the depths of Tony’s beautifully written, dare I say poetic telling of such a deeply personal, nerve-wracking experience.

I’ve also read another of Tony’s memoirs, Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails, which is an equally wild ride through his personal and family life, especially dealing with his ailing father who was trying to maintain his boisterous lifestyle as his body was failing him. Both books are brilliantly written. I highly recommend them to you, as well as his novel, Exit A.

Tony has also published fiction and nonfiction in numerous major publications. including The New York Times and Harper's.

Susan Gorrell has been the Executive Director of the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival for more than a decade. This renowned festival has grown under Susan’s direction to become one of the most well-respected film festivals in the indie filmmaking world, attracting filmmakers and film lovers from far and wide. MovieMaker Magazine recognized it as one of the “25 coolest film festivals in the world” and one of the “Top 50 film festivals worth the submission fee.” The festival is among the Top 100 Best-Rated Festivals on FilmFreeway.com.

Susan is also an Indie film producer and co-founder of Oakmill Entertainment. In 2016 she produced the internationally released feature film, Supercon, starring John Malkovich, Clancy Brown, Mike Epps, Tyrus and more.

Since then, she’s produced multiple indie features, shorts, a TV Pilot and even a documentary traveling across the United States in an RV.

Susan comes from a musical family that have been in the Christian recording and distribution industry for over 40 years. Her husband, Ken, has worked in the film industry for over 30 years as a Special Effects Supervisor on major motion pictures.

https://www.oakmillentertainment.com/

Tom Ruegger is the fourteen-time Emmy Award-winning producer and creative force behind many of the most popular and successful animated TV series of all time, including: Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Histeria, Road Rovers, and the feature film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Tom also co-wrote the pilot and served as a script editor of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Tutenstein.

Tom began his career as an animator at Hanna-Barbera Productions on such familiar cartoon series as Scooby Doo, The New Flintstones, Casper, and Godzilla. Later, as a story editor and producer, he worked on shows like Pound Puppies, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Tom created and produced A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the first Scooby-Doo series to be nominated for an Emmy.

After honing his writing skills working at Filmation Studios on TV series like Blackstar, and Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Tom would subsequently join Warner Bros. Animation where he went on to head up production on Tiny Toon Adventures, beginning a decade-long, wildly successful creative collaboration with Steven Spielberg, spanning five hit series resulting in over 30 Emmy Awards in numerous categories.

In 1993, in collaboration with Mr. Spielberg, Tom created a cast of breakout characters for Animaniacs, the multi-award-winning "hellzapoppin'-style" cartoon show, starring the zany siblings Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner. Tom served as the show's senior producer, story editor, writer and lyricist.

Tom served as chief creative executive of Warner Bros. Animation during its second "Golden Age." Along with Jean MacCurdy, Tom executive-produced: Taz-Mania and Batman: The Animated Series.