Chicken Soup meets American Idol

Today, I welcome award-winning keynote speaker, seminar leader, and author Debra Poneman. Debra is the founder and president of Yes to Success, Inc. and her methods have helped to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. She is also a frequent television and radio show guest. Debra´s latest book is Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, which shares inspiring and heartwarming stories from some of the Idols, backstage crew, and fans of the show that has become a cultural phenomenon.

Welcome, Debra. It´s an honor and a pleasure to have you with us.

Thank you. It´s an honor and a pleasure to be here with you.

Let´s get started by finding out more about you and Yes to Success, Inc. How long has the company been in business? What inspired you to start a company that teaches people the laws of real success and prosperity?

In the winter of 1981, I was working as an account executive for an LA investment company, and the firm sent us to an evening seminar entitled, "Money Magic." Thinking at first that I was walking into yet another boring financial tutorial, I was transfixed as the seminar leader shared radical ideas about how prosperity is really created – ideas that had nothing to do with working hard or investing wisely – but rather with how you thought and where you directed your energy. Feeling as if every fiber of my being was resonating with the seminar leader's words, I knew that night that my life's work was to study this knowledge and share these principles with the world.

The next morning I quit my job and spent the next several months studying the laws of true success and prosperity expounded on by such icons as Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles, Earl Nightengale and Florence Shin. In early 1982, I founded Yes to Success Seminars, Inc., a company dedicated to teaching enlightened, timeless principles of success and prosperity – in modern day language.

By 1983, my seminar was being taught in over a dozen major US cities and by the end of 1984, I had reps teaching my ever-growing body of knowledge in seven countries internationally.

Do you work with individuals, as well as, business professionals?

Actually I don´t work one on one. In other words, I don´t do individual success coaching. I do key-notes for businesses and organizations as well as workshops that last anywhere from several hours to several days.

What will people get from attending one of your seminars?

They will get the tools they need to live a happy, prosperous, successful life. Then it´s up to them to use those tools – or not. I personally believe that people today are ready to go for the gold and live the life they were put here for. People know that there is something more to life than what they´re currently experiencing. The knowledge in my seminar will help them begin to experience that "more."

In addition to your many professional roles, you are also a wife and mother. How do you find that perfect balance between your career and personal life?

It´s not hard to find the balance when you´re clear on your priorities and passions in life. I always say move out of your head and into your heart and from there make your decisions. If you listen to your heart, which is also your higher self or intuition speaking to you, you´ll always make the right decisions. Even if the decision seems irrational, everything will fall into place. What is balance for one person might not look like balance to another. I find the balance by being true to myself and learning to say no.

You actually left the work force for twenty years to raise your children. Was it a difficult decision to make when your career was going so well?

It wasn´t difficult at all, although everyone else said I was out of my mind. I told them they were absolutely right. I had gone completely out of my mind and into my heart. I took one look at my new born baby girl and there was no decision. Traveling and teaching or staying home with this little miracle? Now that´s a tough one…

And I firmly believe that each one of us was put on this earth with a mission – something we were born to do. If I took 20 years to be with my kids, my mission in life wouldn´t go away. Quite to the contrary, if you follow your heart or as James Campbell says, "follow your bliss," your mission and all the people, opportunities and circumstances to help you achieve that mission will miraculously appear when you´re ready. A decision only becomes difficult when you´re torn between what you think you "should" do and you go against your intuition.

What´s different about the business now than from when you left?

Twenty-six years ago in 1982 when I taught my first Yes to Success seminar and the cornerstone of the seminar was the Law of Attraction, hardly anyone had even heard that concept before – that is, the fact that we attract what we think about. Now there are thousands of people teaching and living the concept – which is wonderful.

Let´s talk about your writing. How many books have you authored?

Actually, other than Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, I´ve only had one other book published called, What, No Meat? What To Do When Your Kid Becomes a Vegetarian. It´s a handbook for parents to help them accommodate their vegetarian children. I used to write a newspaper column which discussed different principles of success each week. I´ve also written for other Chicken Soup books and many magazines and anthologies.

How did the idea of Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul come about?

Well, actually, the journey started out with my son…

When Daniel was 10 he began watching American Idol Season One. He was totally transfixed by this show, which was unusual because we´re not a big TV- watching family. One day he said, "Mom you have to watch this with me. You´d love it." And I´m thinking, "Oh please anything but that, don´t make me watch a talent show." But being the consummate mother, and really appreciating a way I could spend time with Daniel, I put on a smile and said, "Great Daniel, I´d just love to watch this with you." And, well, it didn´t take me more than 2 shows and I was a full fledged AI fanatic. And of course we went to the American Idol live tour that summer and the next, and the next…And all along I would say to my kids that one day we were going to get to know the Idols personally. I just knew it. It was an intuition. I knew I was going to do something with them – I just didn´t know what.

At the end of Season Two, I also discovered that my dear friend Marci Shimoff, author of Chicken Soup for the Women´s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother´s Soul, was also a closet Idol-oholic and we started e-mailing back and forth our own weekly reviews of every show complete with scathing editorials.

This went on for years and one day we were talking about how our editorials were so utterly brilliant that we should write some kind of Idol book when simultaneously we exclaimed, "Chicken Soup for the American idol Soul!!!"

What was involved in taking on a project such as this that included multiple participants?

Truthfully, working with the Idols was a dream -- although some of them could have been a little bit more prompt in returning phone calls or e-mails -- but besides having to chase them down or deal with over-protective managers, what could be more fun than spending your days interviewing Idols and talking with them about their lives? And believe it or not, they were all as sweet as can be. Not an egomaniac in the bunch. They were gracious and very appreciative of being included in the book. I´m still having fun now because we´re doing a national book signing tour with Borders so I get to go and sign books with them which is a blast.

What do you like the best about American Idol?

I believe that the show is all about the American Dream. As Radhika Schwartz says in her story in the book called The American Dream Still Lives, "Our ancestors came to America with the belief that here anything was possible. Generations later, on American Idol, we´re witnessing the same fearless, naïve, and innocent idealism that allowed impossible dreams to be realized, being played out every week, right before our eyes. People watch American Idol because they, too, have hopes and dreams inside them. Each week when these kids win, viewers feel like they have won as well. We´re tired of hearing about fear. We´d rather hear about hope. And hope is what this show is all about. American Idol has reignited the American Dream." That´s what I love the best.

When you were watching the show in its infancy did you have any idea that it would become such a cultural phenomenon?

There wasn´t time to wonder, it became a phenom the first season!!! To quote another story in the book, Deb Williams the stage manager talks about her experience at the end of season one in her story Family Ties: "I had no idea how big this show really was even after I started working on it until I began to see kids camping outside the studio and then 10,000 fans showing up at the MGM Grand for the special we did live from Las Vegas after the end of Season One. The fans had signs saying, "We Love Justin," and "Tamyra is My Idol," and they were dressed up like Kelly Clarkson. I remember turning to Ryan and saying, 'I guess people know about us.' "

The stories from the fans of American Idol are something I especially enjoyed. It is inspiring to see how the contestants have made such an impact on the lives of people they barely know.

When people scoff at American Idol or get on their high horse implying it´s somehow beneath them to watch such fluff, I would love for them to read the fan stories. I can´t begin to even count how many Idols have made "wishes" come true for sick children, which, of course you read about in Vonzell Solomon´s story, Nikki McKibbin´s and the story written about Ace Young by Amy Johnson the mother of four year old leukemia patient Mackenzie. But I also love the story about the young women whose husband is in Afghanistan and what Idol meant to her – and of course the one about the couple who had separated and Idol brought them back together! Fantastic!

What have you done to promote Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul?

The best promotion has been the book signing tour with Borders. When American Idols come to a town to do a signing, the press definitely turns out! We almost always get print, radio and TV coverage. We also have contests with radio stations leading up to the signings where we give away books and Borders gift cards. And sometimes really exciting prizes like lunch with Ace Young!! I´d like to win that contest!

Some of the proceeds from the sales of this book go to various charities. Can you tell us about them?

Yes, as with all Chicken Soup books, a percentage goes to a charity or charities chosen by the authors. We chose three charities for this book: Ace Young´s High Roller´s With Heart that benefits the Children´s Hospital in Denver; Clay Aiken´s charity, The Bubel Aiken Foundation whose goal is to create an environment for children with disabilities where barriers are broken down and inclusion is embraced; and Idol Gives Back which raises money and awareness to benefit children and young people living in poverty in the US and Africa.

Where can readers find a copy of Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul?

Well if they don´t want to get up off their chairs they can go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. If they want to go outside on a beautiful spring day, they can walk over to their local bookstore. It should be there, and if it´s not, they can get all indignant and say, "You´ve go to be kidding me!?!?"

What´s up next for you? Are there exciting projects in the works you would like to share with us?

There is another exciting American Idol project in the works but I can´t let that cat out of the bag just yet. I´m also going to be a featured author in an exciting new anthology called Thank God I…Other than that, just a lot of speaking engagements and watching this season´s American Idol shows with my family!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Well I hate to end this interview with what might appear to be a gratuitous platitude but I really do hope that your readers get a copy of Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul and that the stories inspire them and allow them to realize that anyone´s dreams can indeed come true.

Thanks for joining us today, Debra. And thanks for helping to set up the interviews with all the Idols, the crews, and fans. I´m thrilled to have a tiny part in promoting such an uplifting and inspiring story collection. I wish you continued success and much happiness.

Thank you so much.