Jack Canfield Reveals Audacious 8.5 Billion Goal to World

(Newswire.net — February 1, 2016) — With the turbulent economy over the past several years, and the increased globalization of the world via technology and the internet, people are seeking guidance and help in succeeding in life within this new competitive world.  As a result, people are increasingly looking to new and better ways to accomplish their goals and dreams.  In fact, self-help, personal development, and life coaching has matured into a $10 billion dollars a year industry.  Many people attribute the massive growth of this industry over the past few decades to people like Napolean Hill, Earl Nightengale, Bob Proctor, Tony Robbins, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield.
With over 500 million people worldwide having purchased one of the books from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, I was curious to know what Jack Canfield, one of the original co-authors of the 1993 best-selling title, was doing today over 2 decades later. 
Turns out that Jack Canfield has been very busy!  In addition to releasing his 10th Anniversary Edition of The Success Principles, and co-authoring The 30-Day Sobriety Solution that launched in January 2016,  Jack has been hosting 5-day workshops called Breakthrough To Success (BTS) twice a year. [Note: The next one is taking place on February 23-27, 2016 in Newport Beach, CA]  I invited Jack to do a video interview, and he and his team graciously accepted the offer. We were instructed to meet with a lady named Patty Aubery upon our arrival at their Scottsdale event.
As my wife Julie and I arrived promptly at the appointed time, we strode into the conference room and were warmly greeted by one of Jack’s team, a gentleman named Rick Kurzak. We learned that Rick just recently retired from his family-run business, Kamloops Home Hardware Building Centre, and helps Jack to run these training events. Upon learning about the interview, Rick quickly led us over to Jack, who was still seated upon the elevated stage from where he had been speaking and training to his audience.
So on the 5th and final day of his Breakthough To Success workshop, Jack Canfield took time away from his short lunch break to allow us to conduct the following interview:

 
I was amazed that with all of the success that Jack Canfield has had over the past couple of decades, that he’s currently on a mission to literally have his training reach all of Planet Earth’s population. It would be very easy for him to coast on prior efforts and enjoy his journey into the “sunset”.  However, Jack Canfield seemed driven to accomplish even more. He estimates that the entirety of humankind will reach 8.5 billion people by the time it would take to scale his training to that size. It seems like a Herculean task that is rather daunting.

Having his Chicken Soup for the Soul series reach 500 million people is an impressive accomplishment, putting him in elite company. However, the limiting factor in this instance is the direct book-to-purchaser relationship, and that not everyone will consume the entirety of the book. Is it possible for Jack Canfield to plant enough seeds and grow a network of trainers worldwide that can reach even 1 billion people? That would be a spectacular feat. What about 8,500,000,000 people? Yes, that’s a big, audacious number isn’t it? 

Upon conclusion of the interview, I realized that we hadn’t connected with Patty Aubery, who was supposed to be our original point of contact. As a professional, I felt compelled to meet with her and thank her for her assistance in arranging the interview.

Patty Aubery was quite busy filming video testimonials of the students who had participated in the 5-day event. After a brief introduction, Patty generously invited us to partake in their lunch offering that was included in the program while Patty finished her work. We took a seat inside the eating area, and within minutes she returned.

After the usual formalities, Patty revealed her role as Jack’s “right-hand woman” and has been working with Jack all the way before the launch of the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book. Interestly, Patty replied to a newspaper ad offering $25,000/year for a salary as an executive assistant. She interviewed with Jack and was initially rejected. However, within a couple of months, Jack reached out to her and made her an “offer she couldn’t refuse.”  Today, Patty is the President of Jack Canfield Companies, and has been championing his crusade for over 20 years.

During that conversation over lunch, Rick Kurzak approached my wife, Julie Christopher, and said that she should return to the main conference room in 5 minutes and that “He’d be ready.” Bewildered, I asked Julie about what just transpired. Unbeknownst to me, while I was breaking down the video equipment, Julie and Rick were having a conversion about health, stress, and healing. Julie, who’s a business intuitive consultant and healer, was able to detect that Rick Kurzak was experiencing some physical discomfort and offered to do some healing work. It turns out that Rick politely declined and, in a generous move, asked if Julie would be willing to help Jack Canfield himself, as Rick thought he could benefit from it, after Jack’s 5 arduous days of coaching and activity.

So after our meeeting with Patty Aubery, we were whisked away to the main conference room, where the event was back in session. Jack had segmented the audience into small groups of people, encircled and involved in the activities at hand. Surprisingly, during this exercise, Jack retreated to the registration table area, promptly sat down, and Julie proceeded to do her healing and energy work. During that time, Rick asked me how I knew her, and that’s when I revealed she was my wife. He’d made the assumption that she either worked for me or was a colleague. We shared a good laugh. After a short amount of time, Jack arose and took control of the room again, his booming voice offering insights and instructions to the group.

Within a few minutes, he returned to our corner of the room, and quickly gave Julie his sincere thanks and flashed a big smile of gratitude. He returned his focus upon the students, and Julie and I prepared for our exit. It was then that Rick revealed that a special class was to take place the next day regarding Jack’s Train the Trainer program, whereby a smaller subsection of students from the BTS program would get specialized training and stated it may be possible for us to interview some of their students about their experience. He briskly ambled over to Jack Canfield, now on stage, whispered into his ear, and returned with the affirmation that we were not only invited to interview their students, but that Jack invited us to attend the entire full day function.

Normally, on such short notice, we wouldn’t have the time to invest several hours on a Saturday. However, with our curiosity peaked, we made the necessary arrangements to attend. It’s not often you receive a such a kind and generous offer, so we were honored to accept.

The next day’s training began with a hugging session, as the day’s participants milled about, engaging each other in hugs and embraces. As we were not truly a part of this group, we felt it best to not participate, but to simply observe. After this brief exercise, Jack Canfield took the stage, outlined the day’s agenda, and introduced that day’s special guest trainer.

The rest of the day mostly revolved around Steve Harrison, founder of Bradley Communications Corp.  His company is dedicated to creating publicity and media exposure for entrepreneurs, with a primary emphasis on authors, speakers, and coaches.  Surprisingly, Jack revealed that Steve was instrumental in successfully publicizing the Chicken Soup for the Soul book, and that Steve is one of his most trusted business associates. Steve then conducted a comprehensive training program for the audience, sharing his story along the way. 

Here was the main tenets of Steve Harrison’s training that day about how to be successful as a trainer, coach, or industry expert. I’d love to share more details on each area, but wish to respect the investment each student made to attend that day’s private training event:

On the surface, this may seem fundamentally basic, but as Steve delved into greater detail and shared his stories, the audience seemed overwhelming pleased with the information and content revealed to them.

I found one of Steve’s stories particularly interesting. He announced his passion for Shakespeare and shared how he’d had a long-time desire to participate in a Shakespeare play. Throughout his tale, Steve entertained the audience by intermittently quoting lines of Shakespeare. He used his own example of how he was able to create his own publicity for the show, “Hamlet”, of which he was the leading man. He explained that he wanted a local publication to promote the show, but they rejected his story.

Steve then proceeded to reach out to various famous actors, all former Hamlet leading men, asking for their wisdom and insights on how to best play the role. Amazingly he got several replies, including that of Dustin Hoffman, Mel Gibson, Patrick Stewart and Emma Thompson. He then wrote a new story about the entire process, and re-submitted this story to that very same local publication. Of course, this time they published the story, and their production of Hamlet sold out for 11 shows in Philadelphia. It was quite illustrative of how a bit of creativity and ingenuity can help anyone succeed in their own marketing efforts, regardless of their business.
After the event concluded, I asked Steve Harrison about his relationship with Jack Canfield, here’s what Steve had to say, “The thing I love about Jack is that he is able to think big and small at the same time.  My company began working with Jack when his credit cards were maxed out and no one knew who he was.  But he was clear that he wanted to be a New York Times bestselling author.   We helped him create ‘hooks’  to grab the attention of radio and TV producers.  As a result of our work together, he was interviewed on well over 200 talk shows and Chicken Soup for the Soul hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there. But that would never have happened if he hadn’t had the passion, drive, and willingness to get expert guidance.”

Harrison’s company has successfully helped many other experts, speakers and entrepreneurs to become well-known, including Robert Kiyosaki, author of RICH DAD, POOR DAD.  Recently, Harrison and Canfield have teamed up to create www.BestsellerBlueprint.com, where they offer free training videos and an online course on how to write a book and make it a big success. When I asked him what it takes to become a successful author or speaker, Steve said, “Focus on on serving people with your message.  And realize you’ll serve more people when you have an intentional promotion strategy that makes you and your message famous.”

So can Jack Canfield really connect and reach 8.5 billion people over the next decade or longer? This is quite a lofty and ambitious goal. As a best-selling author that has syndicated hundreds of millions of books worldwide, in dozens of languages, and as an experienced motivational speaker and success coach who has trained thousands of people already, one would think that Jack Canfield has the vision and background to succeed. Whether or not he succeeds isn’t relevant… it’s about pursuing a dream to positively affect and influence millions of lives. Regardless of your opinion of the self-help and personal development industry, how can you argue with Jack Canfield’s mission to enriching and empowering people to live happier, healthier, and abundant lives? Nevertheless, do you believe that Jack Canfield will accomplish his mission?