Richard Eckley is the Founder of The Eckley Global Community school, a movement teaching the 4 keys to success health, wealth, relationships and mindset. After his 20-year marriage ended in divorce, he was left a single dad with 3 teenage kids, he wanted to give them a guide to know everything would be ok. He has studied personal development for 30 years giving him an in-depth knowledge. He then wrote his first book (Your 4 keys to a healthier happier you) a starting point to this process, this led on to deeper dive books in his ( coffee reads) series and the development of the Eckley Global Community School working with local schools and individual students in 5 countries. His ethos: create the life you want
Richard Eckley, Eckley Global Community School
Although I’m now a no.1 best-selling author, podcaster and founder of the Eckley Global Community School I didn’t start off as an entrepreneur; I was a happily married man with 3 children in a career I loved which was carpentry, in 2005 the construction industry was in a boom period, I was earning great money with lovely family holidays, even buying a 4 bedroom luxury villa with swimming pool in Orlando Florida, 25 min drive from Disney World. Renting it out and enjoying holidays there ourselves. Life was good and after an amazing day at Disney World seeing the shows, chasing the characters around with the kids getting their autographs, seeing the parade and amazing firework display and relaxing in our pool in the evening I thought “this is it this is a good life, how life is meant to be” but in a few years it had all changed.
The 2007/2008 global housing recession brought everything crashing down, as luck would have it or (Murphy’s law) if it can go wrong it will. Just as the recession started to hit the UK I tore my calf muscle at work, I thought “ I’ll just rest it over the weekend and back to work on Monday” however anyone who has suffered this painful injury knows there is no quick fix. I had to rest it for 6 weeks no work and only walking with the aid of crutches. Things had started to slow down when I had this injury, but 6 weeks later it was a total collapse in the building sector. Fences and locks went up around most building projects shutting them down to wait out the recession. The house rentals in Orlando also dried up, all income had stopped and all the savings got wiped out as quickly as the recession had hit. Foreclosure on the villa soon followed and with the fear of loosing the family home in the UK too, I found work in Guernsey the Channel Islands, thinking I could work there and return home every 2 weeks to see my family and keep the family home, however on getting there, the cost of returning home and paying all the debts meant I could only afford to return once every 6 weeks, for a very short weekend. ”I remember tears in my eyes every time I had to drive away knowing I wouldn’t see them for another 6 weeks” Even taking a small piece of my son's Lego with me to remind me ( when I was feeling down) why I was doing this. I was a family man, never working weekends before this time, as that was (family time) taking the kids swimming and playing with them over the weekend was the highlight of my week. After 12 months the thought of my kids growing up without me and missing their birthdays, I had to get back home again, fortunately I was able to secure more local work again and returned home full time. But life had changed, my wife had struggled during these 12 months and when I returned home she was a different person. I held the marriage together for another 4 years, until she left to be with someone else. I was now a single dad with 3 children aged from 12 up to 18. I wanted to give them a guide to know everything would be ok. But wasn’t quite sure how to do that, until It was recommended I should write a book, as I had been involved with personal development industry since the mid 1990’s, studying 1000’s of books and courses and implementing these teachings into my own life, slowly improving each area, so had a lot of experience in this field.
Your business Eckley Global Community School focuses on teaching people the 4 keys to success health, wealth, relationships and mindset. How did it start? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Yes, After taking a book writing course, my first book (Your 4 keys to a healthier happier you) was self-published. This was a guide to better health, wealth, relationships and mindset. A starting point to improve all 4 areas of anyone’s life, with cartoons and work pages guiding them along a structured path to follow. I knew this first book was just the starting point for me too, as I planned on writing more books going into more detail on each subject.
The following year I wrote and published (Mastering your Mindset) a deeper dive into the mind and how you can use it to help create the life you want., by getting control of your conscious and sub-conscious mind. Building up your self-belief and self-confidence.
Followed by (How to master Your Health) the steps required to build a stronger healthier body, helping to fight off illness and disease and even possibly extend your life. Through creating a new healthier lifestyle.
My last book was my Amazon no.1 best seller (How to create Wealth) the back stories of many millionaires and billionaires From Richard Branson, J.K.Rowling, Sara Blakely and Jeff Bezos to Rolls-Royce and Cadbury Chocolate plus many more and how they built their fortunes, also a 10 step guide to create wealth in your own life.
I am currently writing (How to develop Better relationships) giving a guide to not only how you feel and act but also your partner, and how society has changed causing our hormones to change and how your hormones can actually make you feel attracted or repelled to your partner in certain situations, this is due for publication in July.
This is the last in my (coffee reads) series of books “ 30 mins with a coffee and a good book can really get your mind going”
It was during the Covid lockdown I started the Eckley Global Community school, an online school teaching the 4 keys to success health, wealth, relationships and mindset, teaching how to master each area. My first students were in Africa, I wanted to prove this system could work anywhere in the world, all my students needed was a mobile phone with internet access and an email address, plus the willingness to change their life for the better. Teaching them how to master their mindset first, so they can go on to create the life they want. With many students now living by the school motto ( our deeds surpass our words) .
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
Yes for me my biggest achievements are through my students, one of my first students felt lost and scared about his future before joining the school, both his parents had died and he was living with his grandmother, not sure where his life was going to go, after getting guidance from the school, he has now gone on to develop 2 businesses of his own, put himself through a top University, has written an eBook and is about to publish ( Malawi it’s land and people) stories from the birthplace of mankind, fables and ancient traditions passed down by his 90-year-old grandmother. He is also planning on opening his own school in the future when he finishes university, to teach these techniques to the next generation.
What kind of audience do Eckley Global Community School targets? The school is now operating with individuals in 5 countries and has started working in collaboration with certain schools in the UK to help the 6th formers get the best start to their careers. Although my first book was written as a guide for my teenage children it acts as a great reminder for all ages who are struggling with certain areas of their life. The Eckley Global Community school carries on where the book ( Your 4 keys to a healthier happier you) leaves off, helping those that are looking to change their life for the better, a clear path to follow, improving each area that is most important to them, before moving on to the next area. One course my students like the best is how to write their own eBook, not only how to break it down into easy stages but how to upload it onto Amazon and start to promote it. Making them a published author, which gives them immediate authority in their chosen industry and self-confidence to be able to take their life in which ever direction they choose.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and Eckley Global Community School in the future?
The Eckley Global Community School is now my passion and will be for the rest of my life. The more people I can help realise they can create the life they want the more inspired I become. The school is always on the look out for those who want to improve their lives, and are ready to be self-responsible in taking the action required. Access to the school is through invitation only after an application process has been completed. The Eckley Global Community school is continuing to expand into many more countries, with over 8 billion people now on this planet and more and more getting internet access, we aim to improve education, teaching vital skills that are not taught in schools or colleges at the moment. Being an online school we can keep overheads low, so making the cost of enrolment affordable to many more thousands of people that traditional education is too expensive to afford. Learning from past masters in personal development like Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, Napolean Hill and many others, also specialists in health conditions, relationships and wealth creation all in one place making this the (college in your pocket) with just a click of your mobile phone. You can study anytime and anyplace, this is the future of education available today.
Where did the idea of an affordable school come from?
Two different men who were alive over 100 years apart first Russell Conwell the author of the great book (Acres Of Diamonds ) telling the true story of an African farmer who sold his farm to go looking for diamonds across Africa ending up broke and destitute, and the man who bought his farm finding the biggest diamond mine on that very farm, teaching us we all have natural abilities within us that we should try to develop first before heading off and looking elsewhere.
He also founded Temple University in 1884 when he was asked by young students if he would teach them, as they couldn’t afford to go to college, so he travelled the country giving speeches and raised the money required to set up the college and provide a college education to those who couldn’t afford it.
The second Man David McCourt the Chairman of Granahan McCourt Capital and National Broadband Ireland On a meeting with him in London in 2019 through Rob Moore ( the Disruptive Entrepreneur) he said something that got me thinking , “education needs to be rethought from the bottom up but no government is able to do that”. The costs of buildings, employees, insurance all the overheads of a normal university or college is astronomical which puts up the price of admission,
I then did some research and according to the UK government Student Loan Company, the average debt for students who started their undergraduate studies in England in 2020 is estimated to be around £40,000. While we don’t teach individual courses, like a traditional college, we teach how to get the knowledge you need and apply it directly to your life, saving you years of time and thousands of pounds.
The long term vision of the school is to have a million students in all countries of the world , improving their lives, creating the life they want by being self-responsible and living by the school values of integrity, mental fulfilment, Family connections, health practices, financial security, Leave a legacy and developing strong relationships.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
Earl Nightingale known as the Father of personal development, has had the biggest influence on my life. He is best known for his motivational recordings and books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 1956, he recorded a spoken-word album called "The Strangest Secret," which became a bestseller and launched his career as a motivational speaker. He went on to produce over 7,000 radio broadcasts and authored numerous books, including "Lead the Field," "The Essence of Success," and "Acres of Diamonds."
Nightingale's messages were centred on the power of positive thinking, personal development, and self-improvement. He believed that anyone could achieve success and happiness by setting clear goals, developing a positive mindset, and taking consistent action towards their desired outcomes. He passed away in 1989 but his work continues to inspire and influence people around the world to this day. I continue to listen to his recording on a daily basis.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
It would be to let people who are looking at the personal development industry know self-education is the way forward, our schools and colleges have been teaching the same way for over 100 years, which has become out dated, We are now moving from the information age, there is an abundance of information available now with the internet. Into the psychological age, the age where we use our minds to create the life we want, I always say “we are a mind with a body, not a body with a mind” I read a great saying a few years ago “the only thing about a person that is unique is their mind, all the other body parts you can find in a horse or a pig” This is so true once we realize we create our own lives by…
the way we think
the decisions we make
the actions we take
and the habits we create
We can start our lives on a whole new path, we have created the life we currently have by the way we having been using these 4 over the past 5 years, they have given us our current body shape, bank balance, relationship condition and our thought process. By changing them, we can change the direction of our lives for the better. If you first think how you want your lie to be, actually write it down and define it, making it your main focus, then make a committed decision to make this thought a reality, taking action on that thought, pushing you out of your comfort zone, moving you towards the outcome you would like, finally keep repeating this process until it becomes a habit, one that moves you forward every day one step at a time. Then you are unstoppable, your self-confidence is high and you know. No matter how long it takes, you will achieve your desired result.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
Sometimes life has plans for you that you can’t see at the time and they end up much better then you can imagine. When my marriage ended after 20 years, I felt like a failure, being a single dad, with no clue how to pay all the bills and teenagers to deal with, working full time to keep a roof over our heads, still paying off the debts left from the recession. It was a struggle, but when I started the book writing process everything seemed to click into place and I knew what I had to do, soon after my book was published I was invited on to a sky TV talk show ( Chrissy B) talking about how I turned my life around. Being interviewed fired me up, I knew then that personal development was in my blood and something I would continue with for the rest of my life, teaching it to anyone who would listen and even some who didn’t want to.
I enjoyed the research part of writing a book and becoming an author was another thing I had never planned on being, I also did a training on podcasting so started my own podcast under the same name as the book ( Your 4 keys to a healthier happier you the 4-minute warning) , as the podcasts are short and sharp just 4 mins long each giving tips on health, wealth, relationships and mindset.
Each event in my life led to another one, each book I write also educates me on that subject changing my own habits as I learn new skills and abilities, all these little events led me to starting the Eckley Global Community School, now I’m 56 years old I feel I’m just getting started, it’s so exciting as I have so many more books and ideas yet to make a reality, the future is an exciting place as I slowly create it into the vision of how I want it to be.
Another pivotal moment was a random Facebook request from a lady I didn’t know, I was still single and hadn’t yet thought about dating again, but I accepted the friend request and we started talking online, living 100 miles apart we had our first date a month later, this was my first date for over 20 years, so to say I was nervous was an understatement, but I’m pleased to say it went well and we continued dating only being able to see each other at weekends. I married Stacey in August 2021 after a year’s delay due to covid. She is so supportive in everything I do, so loving and caring I feel so lucky that she came into my world and that life had plans for me I hadn’t even dreamed of and the adventure just keeps getting better.
