#311 Snippets of wisdom: The story of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Agi Keramidas  0:00  
Welcome to personal development mastery podcast. And this is another snippets of wisdom episode where I select my favourite most insightful moments from previous episodes of the podcast. Today's snippet of wisdom comes from my conversation with Mitzi Purdue, the author of the book, Mark Victor Hansen, relentless, which is the biography of Mark Victor Hansen, the co author of the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, which has set world records in book sales with over 500 million books sold. The snippet that chose to play for you from that conversation is about the tenacity and persistence it took for this book to become the milestone that it is. I hope this story is us, inspirational for you, as it was for me.

Mitzi Perdue  1:00  
So they now had the book, and they had the title. How do you sell it? Well, the title, which has been extraordinarily successful Chicken Soup for the sole, a lot of people didn't see it that way. Jack Canfield assistant, quit, because she said, this is such a Mickey Mouse kind of foolish title, nobody will want it. And you're, you're lowering the brand. I don't want to be part of it. She quit. They hired an agent to help them find a publisher. The agent said, I hate the title. And they said, No, we really like it. He he tried with 20 different publishers to to sell the book. And finally, something that doesn't happen very often, the agent has fired his clients, because he said nobody wants a book of stories written by somebody else. Nobody wants a book with this funny title. So now the two men are on their own. And they keep I think it was for like a year and a half. They kept calling in different publishers doing everything they possibly could. And finally, there's something called the American Booksellers Association convention. It's three days, and you have the men, Mark, Mark Victor Hansen. And Jack Canfield aren't just going around to all the publishers have probably 1000s of them. And over and over again, not only were they turned down, but people wouldn't even look at them because of the title of the book. Oh my gosh, finally, the last day, they met somebody who said, I'll give it a look. But I don't make any promises. The guy took the book. And then when he was in the airport, he did what nobody else had done. He started reading the book. And he said it was so moving, that he was starting to cry. And he was feeling self conscious. Because he's thinking here I am in an airport. I'm a grown man, I've got a book in my hand, and I'm crying. And he was wondering what what good all the people in the airport are thinking of him. But he, you know, he felt the book really had something. But he didn't want to commit without his partner, his partner read it. And the two partners agreed and they they bought the book or the rights to the book. But they said, you know, this is a little niche book, it might tell sell 20,000 Mark, and Jack said, No, it's going to sell a million. And the publisher said you guys are crazy. And oh my gosh, the the first few weeks of when the book came out. Who can even believe this? The book bombed? Nobody would review it, the booksellers wouldn't carry it. If you're going to have a best seller. You know, it's a really good sign if you can sell 5000 The first week they sold at the book was bombing. So now what do you do? Nobody likes the book. Nobody likes the title. Who could have ever even dreamed that one day it would? It would be in the Guinness Book of World Records. Since since the booksellers in general wouldn't carry it. They began giving it away. And then something wonderful happened. And oh, is this ever the value of persistence and not giving up? You know, here they had gone through 144 Different turn downs, and I believe it was 143 turns downs in the 140/4 said yes. But then nobody's buying it. They begin giving it away. And people would be given a book, say at one of their talks, that take it home and think, oh my gosh, this is this is life changing. And they'd go by five more. And Mark and Jack, they, they would accept radio interviews, sometimes five or six a night and speaking engagements on top of that, and within a year and a half, they had sold more than a million copies. But, you know, if they had given up by it seemed to have bombed at the beginning, we wouldn't have a half a billion books in print from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. And I would like to invite our listeners just to imagine where What resources can you call on to avoid giving up because it might be you know, the next step that you take that might bring the success that you want to don't give up too early.

Agi Keramidas  6:06  
Thank you for tuning in, you can listen to the full conversation in Episode 240. The link is in the show notes. And I also have a free and useful resource to share with you a curated catalogue of the 10 best episodes of the podcast in three main categories of life. So the top 10 episodes about money, the top 10 about health and the top 10 about mastering your personal development. To get this free ebook, go to personal development mastery podcast.com/top 10 You will also find the link in the show notes

Agi Keramidas  6:47  
Until next time, stand out don't fit in!