The Rise Above Podcast EP:1 Gurpreet Virdi-Bains

Children’s Author, Entrepreneur, Mom Blogger, Influencer and Social Worker Gurpreet Virdi-Bains joins Bram Bains on this episode of The Rise Above Podcast. They talk about Gurpreet’s first book, the inspiration behind the book, advice for others looking to start a business and more.

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Interview Transcript

[00:35] Bram: Welcome to the rise above podcast. This is episode one. My name is Bram Baines, and I am your host for this evening. Today we have a very special guest, social worker, life coach, mom blogger, influencer, and now children's author and entrepreneur, my beautiful wife Gurpreet Verde Baines, aka GVB

[01:06] Gurpreet: What's up. What's up. You tell me. I live with you.,

[01:09] Bram: You know, what's up too. It's book launch week, man.

[01:12] Gurpreet: It is the, we have, we're just five days away from the book coming out. 

[01:16] Bram: How do you feel? I feel excited, but I kind of feel nervous. I hope the book lives up to everyone's expectations, but I know it will. I think.

[01:27] Bram: It's a good book. You got to be proud of that. You built that. That's an idea that you had, and you put it out there. I mean, I'm sure everyone's going to love it because it's got a piece of you in there, right? 

[01:37] Gurpreet: I hope so. 

[01:40] Bram: Anyway, jumping right into it, I wanted to use this opportunity to help get to know you a little bit better. I mean, for from a perspective of your audience. I know you like to do the Sunday polls and engage with your audience, and it's gained quite a bit of popularity. I thought it might be interesting to ask you a couple of questions, some icebreakers. Get you a little bit loosened up and warmed up and start talking about the book.

I'm going to ask you 10 questions. Speed round kind of style, but I mean, you can answer how you want, if you want to expand on anything. I mean, the floor is yours. Okay. First thing's first, what is your most used emoji?

[02:25] Gurpreet: It would be the laughing and crying face.

[02:30] Bram: If you could kill any fashion trend forever, what would it be? 

[02:34] Gurpreet: It's actually not a trend right now, but I hope it doesn't come back and its low-rise jeans because my stomach does not look the way it used to when I was younger. I think a lot of moms out there can relate to that.

[02:51] Bram: Okay. Okay. You have to sing karaoke. What song are you picking?

[02:54] Gurpreet: 1,000 miles by Vanessa Carlton or maybe the boy is mine. Cause then I can play two different people.

[03:09] Bram: What book did you read that changed her life the most?

[03:15] Gurpreet: That would have to be the secret by Rhonda Byrne. I read that in high school and it kind of opened up the door to the law of attraction and manifesting for me. That obviously was like the biggest, most transformational book I've ever read.

[03:30] Bram: You put me on that book too. So, thank you. I appreciate that. Changed my life as well. What's the best piece of advice that you've ever been given?

[03:39] Gurpreet: Oh, okay. I've been given a lot of good advice. On the top of my head, I could think of something my therapist said to me once. She said to me, whenever I have thoughts, thoughts that are not happy thoughts, it's not a fact. She says to me to question the thought and say, well, who told you that? It isn't true. Then it made me think, oh, I am just making stuff up in my head and believing it. To me that was good advice. Cause I use it every day.

[04:12] Bram: Good stuff. Good stuff. What would you like to be known or remembered for?

[04:20] Gurpreet: I want to be known or remembered for someone who brought mindfulness into their child's lives through books and different tools.

[04:31] Bram: Nice. If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would you teach?

[04:36] Gurpreet: Positive psychology and fun fact, I actually just enrolled into a Yale university course for gratitude. It's online obviously. I would have to teach that.

[04:50] Bram: You would love to teach a course on gratitude?

[04:51] Gurpreet: Yeah. That's I'm learning it. Joking. I'm joking. But I think that's something I would love to teach.

[04:59] Bram: If aliens landed on earth and offered to take you with them, would you go?

[05:05] Gurpreet: Yes. You know, this. We've talked about this a lot of times. There's no doubt. I hope that it's something that happens to me one day. I know they'll return me too. 

[05:19] Bram: They might think you're weird. Just drop you back off.

[05:22] Gurpreet: No, they'll drop me off and pick me up again at a later time. 

[05:26] Bram: They'll be like this was fun. We should do this again. What's your favorite place of all the places that you've traveled?

[05:33] Gurpreet: I'm going to say Bali. Bali's beautiful. Peaceful.

[05:42] Bram: Okay. The last question here. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

[05:48] Gurpreet: I grew up wanting to be Oprah Winfrey. I liked how she interviewed people and I always wanted to be that person in the chair to interview somebody. Kind of like what you're doing to me right now, actually. As a kid, I used to role play a lot. I used to pretend that there was someone sitting in front of me, and I'd have a clipboard and I'd ask them questions. I always kind of wanted to be Oprah Winfrey.

[06:16] Bram: Okay. How about this? If you could interview Oprah Winfrey, what would you want to know about her? What would you ask?

[06:23] Gurpreet: I kind of already know about her upbringing, and how she got to where she did in her story, but I think I'd want to hear it from her sitting in front of her.

[06:35] Bram: Okay. That being said, why don't, why don't you tell us a little bit about your upbringing and your story?

[06:42] Gurpreet: I don't know if you have enough time for my story. I'm just the simple girl who grew up, had a baby,and just wanted the best for her kid, found that I couldn't find books out there to teach my daughter the things I want to teach her. I made it happen and it's not the first product. There's another one coming up and it's not the last book. I found a solution for something that was missing. 

[07:18] Bram: You found a need there in the marketplace and you decided that you're gonna create something and fill that need. Not just for your child, but I guess for children everywhere.

[07:29] Gurpreet: Yeah. The future generation. There are books on gratitude for children, but they're not at the reading level that we would teach young children. I think it's important to start at a very young age and in a way that children can understand it. That's why I wrote the book the way that I wrote it. 

[07:51] Bram: Speaking about the book, what was your inspiration for writing about gratitude and specifically about nature?

[08:03] Gurpreet: Well, during quarantine, we weren't allowed to go anywhere. We spent all our time outdoors and we really saw how much our daughter loved nature. She loved like pulling grass, playing with pinecones, putting leaves in her mouth. Just something about her nature, just running barefoot. She loved it, loved it, loved it and so did I. I've always connected to nature, but I really connected more so during the time that I was experiencing postpartum depression. I found that every time I went out into nature, I would instantly feel better just with my bare feet in the grass sun shining on me. 

It was like a real mood booster. I really started to appreciate the little things about nature. Then I started thinking about it from a child's perspective. Then I realized there's so much to be grateful for. There are things are around us, that we take for granted every day. 

[09:10] Bram: Definitely. I mean I think that's great and I'm kind of biased here because I've been with you every single time through the quarantine that we'd take her out and just seeing how she would light up and how much she enjoyed being outdoors. It's a beautiful thing. I think it's amazing that you turned that inspiration into a book, into a product that you're going to put out there. You're blossoming into this powerful entrepreneur. Do you have any kind of business background or business experience before you decided that you wanted to release a book? 

What kind of got you. How did you do this? Because you did this all from scratch. Like what resources did you use?How did you figure it out? What was that process like for you? Being that you're doing this independently?

[10:11] Gurpreet: I have no business background whatsoever. That's all you. I kind of did the research on my own. The power of the internet. I did everything on my own. I copyrighted the book. I did the ISP and barcoding illustration everything on my own. That was all done through personal research on good old Google. I don't have any business background. I kind of leaned on you for a lot of that. I'm more like the creative part.

[10:45] Bram: You're a lot more business savvy than you even know. Believe me. I was just here just cheering you on along the way. I mean, give yourself some credit for that. You said Google and YouTube.

[10:58] Gurpreet: Not YouTube actually. I didn't use YouTube at all. I kind of learned more by reading. I don't like to really watch instructional videos, if that makes any sense. I'm also HSP highly sensitive, so I don't like a lot of sound and videos. It's too stimulating for me. I like to read information. A lot of it was found on the internet, but I also feel like when you do something that you really, really like doing, you really enjoy the research part of it as well. It's exciting. I think the most exciting part about this whole adventure is creating it. That was all a part of it.

[11:35] Bram: Just having an idea and seeing it come to life. So, the whole process from inspiration to research to research then executing and creating and this entire launch. How long of a process, like would you say that was?

[11:55] Gurpreet: I would say about six months. Sorry once it got here?

[12:00] Bram: From idea to the point in time that we are today, where you're getting ready to release this book in a few days.

[12:08] Gurpreet: I'm going to say about six to eight months. Once you have the idea, everything else starts kind of rolling pretty fast. Once you have the illustrator in place and you have the idea. I think the hardest part is figuring out the wording for the book and kind of the message you're trying to convey, and making sure, everything sounds right and looks right with the illustrations.

[12:37] Bram: So, when you say six to eight months, I mean, granted, there's a lot of time in between where there's, inactivity, like you're waiting for illustrator to get back to you. You're waiting for samples to come in and so forth. That whole process with all the gaps and so forth in between, what kept you motivated to keep on moving forward?

[13:03] Gurpreet: To be honest, I mean, well you know this, for me, it was on to the next product. What other products are complimentary to a book about learning gratitude? How do we cater to different types of learners? Not everyone likes to read. Some people like to play. I started developing my next product.

[13:24] Bram: Okay. Okay. Do you want to speak on that as well a little bit?

[13:28] Gurpreet: I mean, it's going to be a set of gratitude flashcards, and those will be coming out hopefully by summer of this year. But that's another thing that kind of kept me busy. Cause I feel like when you have a flow of creativity, you have to run with it and use it up, because that energy and that flow doesn't come to you all the time. And you know me, once I lose it, I lose it. There were times where I would have like four or five days of not doing anything. I would just sit upstairs in the room and just like want to sleep. But then when I had the drive to do it, nothing could stop me. 

[14:09] Bram: So, you just kind of keep moving it forward and then pick it up every time you get that burst. Because I mean, give yourself credit at the same time. You're a new mom and going through a pandemic and whatnot, I guess you just kind of structured your time accordingly based on when you felt the inspiration to put in some work, you put in that work.

[14:28] Gurpreet: Yeah. Thankfully inspirational was struck after [inaudible 14:32] goes to sleep, but I'm also someone who's like mind comes to life at nighttime. I'm most creative at night and most productive at night. No,I'm not most productive at night. That's not true ever since I became a mom, but my ideas flow to me more at nighttime. That's something that kind of was cool and worked for me.

[14:52] Bram: You've always been a creative person. You've got a large imagination. We have some great talks and a lot of jokes. We have a lot of good conversations. I mean, this can't be the first idea that you've ever had. I'm sure you've had many ideas in the past. 

[15:13] Gurpreet: Yeah. Actually, when I was younger, I thought I was the first person who was going to invent this. But back in the day when we were young, we never had Google or at least I never got access to it. I thought I was the first person who was gonna invent a heated ice cream, scoop. You can scoop the ice cream without having to run it under top water.  Then obviously it was already there. But I used to think of adventures a lot actually, now that I think about it when I was a kid, but in my adult years, I've always known, I want to write a book.

[15:49] Bram: That was one of the things that's been on kind of your vision board. 

[15:53] Gurpreet: Yeah. I think I told you this when I first met you too.

[15:59] Bram: I'm asking for the people. I know these things. 

[16:06] Gurpreet: Anyone who knows me personally knows that I've always wanted to write a book. 

[16:09] Bram: So, all the ideas you've had in the past, this one, what was different about this one that you were like, I'm just going to push it all the way I'm going to take a chance. I'm going to bet on myself. I'm gonna put out this book. What was different this time?

[16:23] Gurpreet: It was different because I had my daughter, and I was doing it for her, and she was the drive. I want her to grow up, having these kinds of books and resources around her. When I look at her every day, I feel so motivated and inspired to do something, to create something because of her. I mean, there was no way I wasn't not going to do it. She's like my biggest inspiration. 

[16:52] Bram: This book it's going to be released on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. What's the significance of that day for you? Why did you pick Valentine’s Day to release this book?

[17:05] Gurpreet: I think Valentine’s Day because the book is titled Aura's gratitude for nature. On February 14th, Valentine’s Day, I took a pregnancy test and found out that we were pregnant with Aura. it was only fitting that we were going to release this book on Valentine's Day two years later. Fun fact, the book was her first birthday present. First sample, which was a shitty sample. Thank God we didn't go with that type of book. But it was Aura's first birthday present.

[17:51] Bram: When you say it was a shitty sample, like you mean, it was the first one, right. Your kind of were getting a feel for the thing.

[18:01] Gurpreet: Yeah, were feeling out different materials for hard cover books and the cover was just not hard enough. Like it, everything was mending together. Like you've seen it. Over time the pages started to kind of all kinds of fold into each other. The quality wasn't good. We did our own kind of quality control and we wanted to make sure that, we had all these samples for a while and we wanted to just keep them in the sun, pour water all over them, rub crayons all over them, just to see if they could withstand all that. Cause with kids, everything gets dirty. We test the different materials and that first sample we had didn't make it. But the one we have now is super durable, pages are always going to be protected and you can spill water on that thing. Nothing's going to happen.

[18:56] Bram: So, we know it's a durable book. We know you were inspired by Aura; it's releasing on Valentine's Day. It's a significant thing for you. You want to be known for being a kind person and teaching people gratitude. I think this is a great product. I mean, I've personally, I've seen the whole process start to end and I can tell you and you know this too. Aura loves that book. It's replaced I love you through and through as her favorite book.

[19:39] Gurpreet: We've been reading, I love you through and through to Aura since she's been born and she knows the book so well, like she will touch her ears before that page even comes. She will touch her eyes. But when I started reading her my book or her book, she like instantly was drawn to it. She understands that we're saying Aura, that it's her. She points at herself in every page, and she kisses herself, which is adorable. We still read her I love you through and through because it's part of her routine and we don't want to take that away from her, but she always follows it with her book.

[20:18] Bram:  The main event is now Aura's gratitude for nature. The opening act is the I love you through and through. Yeah. I mean, you touched on it right theirbedtime routine. Do you want to kind of share what you know about bedtime routines and what the routine is that we use for aura? 

[20:41] Gurpreet: I think that's actually really good, I think to get into, because that is also a part of the inspiration for the book. We've had the same bedtime routine for Aura for the longest time since she was born. We started doing affirmations with her when she was really young. I remember I used to rub like oil on her body and say I am strong, I'm smart, etc.

That's kind of where it started. There's something that we do every single night. We're during bath time is we thank the water for making her clean. You know, we thank the lotion, thank the warm milk, all that. We've kind of started instilling gratitude into her daily routine bedtime routine. I think it was just a nice addition to have a book about gratitude. For that to be the last thing she hears before she goes to sleep. Actually, I think something really cool I should share with everyone is that the first word of 2021 from Aura was thank you. Which was pretty cool. Cause I think she started saying it like on January 1st, right? Around new year's, she started saying, thank you. It's so fitting, so fitting.

[21:57] Bram: Okay. Gurpreet another question I have here for you is, pretend I'm out there and I have a dream as well. You mentioned earlier that you have a dream, you wanted to write a children's book and now you're accomplishing that dream of yours. I have a dream too. I'm out there. I'm listening to this podcast, and I also want to write a book. What advice would you give to me?

[22:24] Gurpreet: I would say when you feel the inspiration strike, take lots of notes. Write everything out, whether it's imagery. If you have pictures that come to your mind, that things that you want to illustrate. Words, outcomes, learning outcomes, whatever it is, just write everything down. Once you've written it down, just kind of, I guess, meditate with the ideas, sit for a while. Don't expect the words just to come together overnight, take your time with it, write it out and then start looking online for people who can help you, whether it's illustrators or editors. There are so many people out there. The year is 2021. 

We have so many like services out there that we can go to for help when it comes to publishing books and whatnot. But the first thing is to have your idea, write it down, solidify what your idea is and just keep your imagination running and just writing everything down and make it come to life.

[23:31] Bram: Nice. Okay. Good stuff. Write down the idea, meditate with the idea. Don't be afraid to ask for help and just try to keep moving it forward. Don't let it ever kind of disappear, right?

[23:43] Gurpreet: Yeah. Cause I've heard this analogy once where it's like, if you don't on your idea, it's an idea like an Adam it'll go to someone else. If you don't take that idea and make it yours, don't be surprised if someone comes out with it later because that happens. That's happened and it's not because someone knows what your idea is. It's just the ideas travel like that. I truly believe in that. That's why I acted on it right away.

[24:09] Bram: Good stuff. Okay. Okay. Well, hey, thank you for doing this. Definitely, really appreciate your time. Definitely I know a lot of people are gonna benefit from hearing your story and I know that's not going to be the first time that people hear from your story. You've been on quite a remarkable journey. It's been fun to see the milestones that you've been checking off. It's been really fun to see your growth and converting what started off as a life coaching blog into a motherhood blog into now, a self-published author and an entrepreneur, creating a business to sell products to the audience that you've created. It's been truly amazing to watch. As well as be a part of. So,thank you for that. Thank you for being generous here with your time, just to kind of go over your story and give back a little bit of information to those that might be looking to do the same thing as you. I think that's very important and there's honor in that. Again, thank you on behalf of everybody. Tell us where people can get the book when it launches on Feb 14th.

[25:29] Gurpreet: Yeah. The book will be available at www.aurakids.ca. I also wanted to mention if any of your listeners have any questions that they want to follow up with that I haven't answered in the podcast, they can reach out to you, and I'd be happy to answer any questions to help make other people's dreams come true. 

[25:53] Bram: I haven't thought that far ahead about contact information for myself, but yeah, you can, you can feel free to shoot me a message and we can arrange for a part two with some more follow up questions and whatever it is that people want to hear about. Purchase that book Feb 14th, www. aurakids.ca follow Gurpreet on Instagram at raising aura and follow Aura kids on Instagram at aura kids co.

[26:31] Gurpreet: All right. Thanks for having me. I'm always happy to discuss or have conversations in the comfort of my own home, my pajamas with my feet up. This has been nice.

[26:42] Bram: It's been very nice. Thank you so much. That's the first episode of the rise above podcast. Be sure to leave a review like this podcast, share it with a friend and definitely feel free to reach out if there are any questions you have for Gurpreet. We'll definitely do a follow-up after this, by then the book should be out too. Many of you should have your copy as well. It'll be fun to kind of share some feedback about what you guys think about the book as well. Thank you, guys, again for your time. This was the rise above podcast. My name is Bram Bains signing out. Have a great night.

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