Souper guru

Jack Canfield. Photo / Supplied

You can buy Chicken Soup for the Soul greeting cards, calendars, puzzle books, Bibles and even pet food.

The American millionaire behind the world's biggest self-help franchise did baulk at Chicken Soup toilet paper - but he didn't hesitate when two working mums from the Hawke's Bay wrote to him and proposed Chicken Soup for New Zealand.

For New Zealand? But isn't living here wholesome enough already?

Not for Natasha Bing and Sky Leigh.

After marriage break-ups, job losses, mounting debt and gloom, the two women needed more than Weet-Bix and Hawke's Bay sunshine to pick them up. They found Jack Canfield.

"I'd basically hit rock bottom," says Bing, 34. "I knew I had to find a way to change my life, to live my life in a better way, achieve better results and become a better person ... I Googled Jack Canfield and came across the Success Principles."

Leigh, 31, paid $4000 for a set of CDs and life-coaching sessions by phone with an American counsellor. She says within three months, her life had turned around.

Fancy getting rich, losing weight, finding the love of your life, starting a new career, gaining spiritual fulfillment or improving your family relationships? That's what Canfield offers.

And that's what he's delivering, Bing and Leigh believe. They wrote to him, invited him to New Zealand, and set up a business called Inspirational Seminars.

This alone won't make them rich, but they will be charging between $675 and $2995 for tickets to hear him speak in Auckland or Wellington this November.



Over the past 20 years, Canfield has gained a loyal following for the scores of books he's published and the motivational seminars he's held in 34 different countries.

He's best-known for the phenomenally successful Chicken Soup for the Soul series, the first of which came out in 1993 and was written by Canfield and fellow motivational speaker Mark Victor Hansen.

The books - supposedly named after Canfield's grandmother's chicken soup, which she told him cured everything - are collections of inspiring stories of "ordinary people doing extraordinary things".

The range now features more than 200 titles, the more curious including Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul, Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause.

And it doesn't stop there. Today, the Chicken Soup empire reaches far beyond the shelves of booksellers.

"We've probably turned down three times as much as we've said yes to," says Canfield from his home in Santa Barbara, California.

Chicken Soup for the Soul toilet paper, with inspirational stories printed on each square, was one branding proposition that didn't make the cut. "We thought that was a little below the standard of where we were coming from."

Last year, Canfield sold the Chicken Soup franchise to an internet media group but says he still reviews the books editorially.

He won't say how much it sold for, but it's clear Canfield has done very, very well out of Chicken Soup. Ever the positive thinker, he says he set out to write a best-selling book, but admits: "The phenomenon far exceeded anything in our vision. We didn't set out to start a brand, we just wanted to write some books that uplift people."

While its detractors may group the self-help industry with those other thank-God-we've-moved-on phenomena of the 1990s, the truth is it's still going strong - as is 68-year-old Canfield.

For proof of both, look no further than 2006 self-help film The Secret. It featured interviews with a range of people, Canfield included, on "the law of attraction" - the idea that feelings and thoughts can attract events.

Basically, what you think about, you bring about. Not exactly earth-shattering, but apparently those in power have tried to keep this age-old "secret" from the public for years.

The Da Vinci Code of self-help, it would seem.

The film and a subsequent book sold like hot cakes and attracted a lot of attention from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, as had Chicken Soup before it.

In New Zealand, the book is still the bestseller in the category of "Mind, body and soul" at Whitcoulls.

On the back of The Secret's success, Canfield published The Key to Living the Law of Attraction. His other recent work is what he considers "the most important book I've written".

Canfield describes The Success Principles, published in 2005, as a "one-stop shop Bible of success" and the book's guarantee - to give you everything you want out of life - may to the more cynical seem to be absurdly optimistic.

But extreme positivity is what self-help is all about.

Canfield agrees with the criticism of certain aspects of the self-help industry and says many in it are just out to make a buck, but defends his own work strenuously.

"I get emails every single day as to how people's lives have changed based on the principles, so I know they work because we see constant results with our students," he says.

With the recession hanging over our heads, Bing and Leigh have chosen the perfect time to bring their guru to New Zealand.

Canfield has seen an increase in people seeking his help as they struggle to cope in the economic crisis.

His book sales are on the rise, and his seminars and workshops attract throngs of devotees, despite their price tags in the hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of dollars.

He is not the only self-help guru to do well out of the downturn: Eckhart Tolle was in New Zealand recently promoting his bestseller, The Power of Now.

The suggestion that some may see it as exploitative to capitalise on those struggling ever-so-slightly shakes Canfield's calm and level demeanour.

He responds sharply: "I've never been accused of exploiting people. Basically I've devoted my life to service.

"I never set out to be wealthy, I set out to make a difference."

Certainly, Bing and Leigh are adamant the cost is worth it.

"It was like being handed a toolbox. It was like I was trying to drive a route but had no idea where I was going and someone handed me a map," says Leigh.

"It's about making a choice to invest in yourself."