In this engaging and story-driven talk, Lauren, an Emmy-winning filmmaker, bestselling author of Ask Like a Leader, and founder of Forever Ready Productions, explores how curiosity and asking the right questions can shape the way we learn, lead, and connect with others. Drawing on her journey from a Loras College student to award-winning journalist, documentary storyteller, and entrepreneur, she shares powerful moments when a single question changed the course of a story, and even her own life.

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MEET LAUREN

She is the Founder and Principal Storyteller of Forever Ready Productions, a nationally recognized video production company that has helped nonprofits raise over $20 million through purpose-driven storytelling. A six-time Regional Emmy award winner, Lauren’s work has changed laws, shaped campaigns, and sparked movements—most notably with her acclaimed short documentary What We Will Never Know, which led to a change in child interrogation laws in Tennessee. 

Lauren began her storytelling journey at just 17 as a production assistant in local TV news. Over the next decade, she became an award-winning video journalist, covering national and local breaking news across Iowa, Nebraska, and Memphis. In 2014, she launched Forever Ready Productions to make high-impact video storytelling accessible to mission-driven organizations. 

She has been honored as the Memphis Business Journal’s Small Business of the Year, a Super Woman in Business, and a Top 40 Under 40 leader. And in 2018 was honored with the Loras College Young Alumni Award. In 2024, she was named a Just Society Awards Finalist by Evident Change for her contributions to criminal justice reform through storytelling. 

Based in Memphis with her husband Scott and their son Max, Lauren is also a certified drone pilot—among the less than 7% of women in the U.S. with that credential—and an avid explorer committed to visiting every U.S. National Park, camera in hand and curiosity leading the way.