Publisher taps inner-self for spiritual, financial gain

LOUISVILLE ? From a one-room, one-person business in 1985, a Boulder publishing company has grown into a 56-employee organization now located in Louisville.

Tami Simon, founder and president of Sounds True, said the company has already outgrown the 13,000 square-foot building built in 1997 at the Colorado Technology Center, about a mile north of Interlocken. “We grew so fast, we had to lease a 10,000 square-foot warehouse for our inventory and shipping division,” she said.

The Sounds True label publishes spoken-word audio programs, videos and music for the inner life, which includes spiritual traditions, meditation, psychology, creativity, health and healing, self-discovery, relationships and personal development. The company records prominent authors and teachers in its Louisville studios, then edits and produces the content for tapes it sells on its Web site, through its catalog, and through local and national retail book stores like the Boulder Book Store and Borders Books Music & Cafe.

Sounds True releases about 60 titles a year and its catalog has more than 400 titles. It mails more than two million catalogs annually. “Almost half our business is catalog sales and about 55 percent retail trade,” Simon said.

The company projects more than $4 million in direct sales and between $4 million and $6 million in retail sales for 2001. “There’s more volatility in the trade sales because of the fluctuation in orders from bookstores,” she said. She’s launched a Web site at www.soundstrue.com, where tapes are available for listening before buying.

After 16 years in business, Simon said the real miracle is not the growth of the company financially, but that products transforming peoples’ lives, normally sold through non-profit companies, can make a profit and allow her to stick to her original mission ? disseminating spiritual wisdom. Simon’s belief is that her company serves people, and people help serve the world.

“We provide the resources that help people work on relations, health and careers from a spiritual perspective,” Simon said. “When I started, I had no idea I was going to be an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to do it, and I guess I’m just a bull-headed producer.”

Simon began Sounds True as a conference recording service and continues to record a handful of national conferences every year. Its audio archive represents one of the largest resources of its kind, preserving thousands of lectures that can be purchased through its conference division.

“I gave it everything I had. I recorded in the day and edited at night. My father had died and left me a small inheritance ? about $50,000. I used the money and my experience in radio while at Swarthmore College (in Pennsylvania) and as a volunteer at KGNU Boulder to get the business going,” Simon said.

A turning point for the company happened in 1987 when Simon met Devon Chirtensen, a direct-marketing expert. “On a handshake, we became partners with the understanding that in exchange for a salary, if the company succeeded, he would own a percentage of the business,” she said. Christensen owns 20 percent of the company, all of it earned with sweat equity.

Sounds True serves as an interfaith university that embraces the world’s major spiritual traditions, arts and humanities taught by leading authors, teachers and experts such as Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Thich Nhat Hanh, Huston Smith, Julia Cameron, Jack Kornfield, Alice Walker, Ram Dass, Marion Woodman and Jean Shinoda Bolen. Caroline Myss and Andrew Weil are the current bestsellers.

Sounds True also offers storytelling kits of world wisdom tales for children. More than just listening, children have the opportunity to pick a card with an image from a story on tape and tell their own story, like what happened when they wished upon a star. The series resulted from a collaboration between Sounds True and Windhorse, a community services organization in Boulder.

The next step for the company is producing two new series. With an introductory date of 2002, Sounds True is producing a series called “In Good Company” that brings the values and ethics of spiritual life into business. One of the contributors for the series is Peter Block, author of “The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work” and “Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest.” The other contributor is Gay Hendricks, author of “The Corporate Mystic and Conscious Living.”

The second series consists of beginner guides that use the best from past instructional programs produced by Sounds True, including guides to meditation, chakras, Buddhism and kabbalah. The guides will be released in CD format.

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