Overview

On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews Jack Canfield the author of the Success Principles and co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series.

Topics Discussed:

• What’s Jack most excited about right now?
  • He’s spent the last fifty years training people to be more successful.
  • He’s now training trainers, 3,000 from over 100 countries and doing online training.
  • His life purpose statement is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in a context of love and joy.
• Tell us about your journey?
  • He grew up in the hippie period of history.
  • He started changing his mind about success – the more money you have the more good you can do.
  • In college, he started to wake up in terms of liberation and fairness.
  • He applied to Harvard, Yale, and Brown.
    • He went to Harvard and majored in Chinese history.
  • Why Harvard?
    • What stood out was that there were 25 girl schools nearby.
    • It was near big cities, etc.
    • He took a course and encounter group where people talked about feelings and relationships.
      • He woke up in this class and realized that’s what he wanted to do.
    • He taught in an all-black inner city school and became more interested in motivating students.
  • What kind of relationship did you have with your first mentor?
    • He was taken under the wings of several mentors.
    • His mentors taught him not to waste his time on what we don’t agree on.
    • He was surrounded by gurus of positive belief.
  • What happened after you taught in the inner city?
    • He went back to Chicago and then to the University of Massachusetts.
    • He got arrogant that he didn’t need a Ph.D. and wrote a book.
    • He had a best-selling author professor and asked him how he did it.
    • He left school and started a growth center leading weekend workshops.
  • At what point did Chicken Soup for the Soul begin?
    • He learned that the only time the kids paid attention is when he told a story.
    • He started looking for stories of African Americans who’d “made it.”
    • He decided to write two stories every week and in a year he’d have a book.
    • His co-author came in and rounded out the book.
  • Talk about finding strategic partnerships.
    • Every entrepreneur has a genius.
    • Find people who love to do what you don’t love to do.
  • Talk about the name Chicken Soup for the Soul
    • They meditated for a week to come up with a title.
    • After pitching the name Chicken Soup for the Soul 144 times, they were rejected.
      • One publishing company agreed and it ended up selling millions of copies.
    • Talk about how to be persistent without being annoying.
      • If you’re coming from desperation people want to push you away.
      • If you start with passion and your “why” people get excited about it.
      • Jack talks about the 9 No’s Exercise.
    • Was there ever a time when you were open to workshopping the name?
      • He trusted the name and people who weren’t publishers loved the name.
    • Talk about entitlement vs. perseverance.
      • There’s a difference and a lot of people feel that they deserve a yes because they ask.
      • Negativity does not get you anywhere.
    • Talk about the marketing part of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
      • Chicken Soup for the Soul got to the top of the Best Seller List and stayed there for three years.
      • You’ve got to do at least one radio interview every day – three a day when you first start.
      • There are over 200 books in the series.
    • Talk about the difference between putting together Chicken Soup for the Soul and The Success Principles.
      • He wrote what he taught in the Success Principles.
      • Chicken soup was more aggregated content.
      • Both books utilize stories to inspire.
    • Which success principle means the most to you personally, of the ones in the book?
      • Take 100% responsibility. If you don’t get the outcomes you want, don’t blame the even, change your response.
      • Go within – meditation. Every great breakthrough came from a meditation.
      • You’ve got to act, respond to the feedback and persevere.
    • Talk about the difference between taking fault vs. responsibility.
      • It’s not about blame, it’s that if you don’t want it to keep happening, see what you might be doing.
      • The hard part is changing your behavior once you figure it out.
    • Touch on E+R=O
      • Everything you experience in your life is the direct effect of something else you did.
      • If I’m not getting what I want, what am I doing that’s producing that outcome.
      • You have control over your actions including what you say.
      • You have control over your visual images.
    • What do you think makes you a great networker?
      • It’s not natural, he was very shy as a kid.
      • He learned early on that who you know is as important as what you know.
      • He started attending conferences, workshops, and church.
      • When you go somewhere, act like a host.
    • Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important, and why?
      • They’re both important, but you need expertise of some kind.
      • If nobody knows you’re good at something, it’s useless.
      • The third thing is focusing on your being – if you come off like a jerk you’ve disqualified yourself.
      • You’ve got to be present.
      • His morning routine is divided into three parts.
    • How do you balance being more confident with looking cocky or arrogant?
      • True confidence is not arrogant.
      • If you’re truly confident, arrogance just doesn’t happen.
      • If someone is over-pushing their message they’re not confident.
      • Confidence comes from surviving a risk.
      • You have to be okay with someone not liking you.
    • How does someone go about finding a mentor?
      • You have to find the people who are doing what you want to do or know what you want to know.
        • Always go a couple levels up, not five levels up.
      • If you’re really passionate about what you do then tell the person why.
      • Ask for ten minutes a month.
    • How many mentors is a good amount to have?
      • It depends on how many things you’re interested in.

The Random Round:

• • What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
    • Tennis, movie director
  • If you could sit on a park bench with anyone for an hour who would it be, and why?
    • Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed
  • How do you like to consume content?
    • Experiential workshops going through a process
    • Second, books
  • What is a book you’d recommend?
    • The One Thing
  • Give us a glimpse of your morning routine?
    • 20 minutes of meditation
    • Blender Drink
    • Workout for 20-30 minutes
    • Shower
    • Read in the office for a half hour.
    • Plan the day the night before
  • What is something that you are not very good at?
    • Math, numbers, finances
  • What is your go-to pump up song?
    • Gonna Be Startin Somethin by Michael Jackson
  • What is one place where we can find you the most?
    • com
    • facebook/jackcanfield

Tweetable Quotes:

• We know too much now for people to be suffering.
• Find people who love to do what you don’t love to do.
• How committed are you? There’s a yes out there.
• Fear is self-created by imagining something in the future that hasn’t happened yet.
• When you’re just yourself, the people who would be responsive to you are attracted in.

Resources Mentioned:

Buildyournetwork.co – Podcast website

BYN.media/fb – Facebook Group

jackcanfield.com

Chicken Soup for the Soul

The Success Principles – book by Jack Canfield