Inspirational Woman March 2015: Marci Shimoff
Marci Shimoff is a #1 NY Times bestselling author, a celebrated transformational leader, and a leading expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love. She is the author of the runaway bestsellers Love for No Reason and Happy for No Reason, which offer revolutionary approaches to experiencing deep and lasting love and happiness. These books soared to the top of many national bestseller lists including The New York Times, Amazon, and the Wall Street Journal and have been translated into 33 languages around the world.
Marci is also the woman’s face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her six bestselling titles in the series, including Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, have met with stunning success. Combined, all of her books have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and have been on the New York Times bestseller list for a total of 118 weeks. Marci is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time.
In addition, Marci’s the host of the national PBS television show called Happy for No Reason She’s also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, The Secret , and has appeared in more than a dozen other documentaries. She narrated the award-winning movie called Happy .
Marci is currently leading a large one-year mentoring program called Your Year of Miracles. Her seminar has been heard by more than 50,000 people around the world.
President and co-founder of the Esteem Group, Marci delivers keynote addresses and seminars on self-esteem, self-empowerment, and peak performance to corporations, professional and non-profit organizations, and women’s associations. She’s been a top-rated trainer for numerous Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, GM, Sears, Kaiser Permanente, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Marci inspires people with her breakthrough methods for personal fulfillment and professional success.
Marci has traveled all over the world delivering her speeches and workshops. In addition to the United States and Canada, Marci has wowed audiences Russia to Turkey, from China to India, and throughout all of Central and South America.
As an acclaimed authority on success and happiness, Marci is often approached by media for her insights and advice. She has been on more than 600 national and regional television and radio shows, including The Today Show, MSNBC News, and The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch, and she’s been interviewed for over 100 newspaper articles worldwide.
Marci earned her MBA from UCLA and holds an advanced certificate as a stress management consultant. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of 100 top leaders serving over ten million people in the self-development market. Through her books and her presentations, Marci’s message has touched the hearts and rekindled the spirits of millions of people throughout the world. She is dedicated to fulfilling her life’s purpose of helping people live more empowered and joy-filled lives.
1) You are a legend in the world of self-help and transformational leadership. What made you embrace the self-help industry?
There’s a saying in my business that we teach what we most want to learn. I was not born happy, and so my burning desire in life was to I find how to become happy. That’s what motivated me to get so involved in the self-help world.
On top of that, when I was 13 years old I saw my first inspirational speaker – Zig Ziglar. As soon as I saw him inspire an entire room full of people, I knew that’s what I was here to do. I saw myself traveling the world inspiring millions of people. So, I was fortunate to have the vision of my calling at such an early age.
2) You are the face of ‘Chicken Soup for The Woman’s Soul’ and ‘Chicken Soup for The Mother’s Soul.’ Why do you feel women want soul empowerment?
Women face unique challenges. While we all share similar challenges in terms of relationships and health and finances, women have been trained differently than men and that causes some specific challenges. For example, women tend to be over givers. We’ve been taught to think about other people’s needs before our own needs and so we give and we give and we give and we tend to get burned out and resentful if we have over given. One of the lessons that many women need to learn is how to balance their giving and how to open up to receiving.
3) Women are the foundations of every community. Why do you think women do not take a time to appreciate their own power?
We weren’t taught to acknowledge ourselves. Very often, girls were taught that speaking well of themselves was bragging. There’s a distinction between acknowledging ourselves and bragging. Bragging is saying, “I’m the best, nobody’s better.” But acknowledging our self for qualities that we appreciate about ourselves is a very vulnerable act. To say I appreciate myself because I’m a loving person or because I’m competent at my job is not bragging. It’s merely telling the truth about our own strengths.
4) Tell us an inspiring story of a woman you’ve crossed paths with in your book tours.
There are thousands of inspiring stories that I can tell you but perhaps the most extreme and most meaningful to me have been those times when someone has come up to me and said, “Marci, I was thinking of taking my own life, but after hearing you speak or after reading your book, I realized that life is worth living. Thank you for saving my life.” This has happened to me more than a dozen times and I am truly humbled by these stories.
5) You are a featured teacher in the phenomenon, ‘The Secret.’ Tell us why you believe it has such a strong message.
‘The Secret’ certainly took the world by storm. I understand that it’s been seen or read by almost one billion people. ‘The Secret’ talks about the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction says that everything in the universe is energy and that we attract to us based on the energy of our thoughts, our words, our feelings and our actions. I think people felt very empowered by this message to recognize that they can make a difference in their own life, that they can influence their life by the quality and energy of their thoughts, words, feelings and actions.
6) Now, your latest love, ‘Happy For No Reason,’ why did you focus on the topic of happiness when most authors are focusing on getting richer or getting healthier?
I think we have it backwards in our society. We think that success will bring us happiness but it doesn’t. The opposite is what happens–happiness will bring us success. The research shows that when we’re happier, we have more success, we will make on average over $1 million more over the course of our life. Happier people also are healthier, they’re one-third less likely to get sick and on average, they live nine years longer. So, happiness is really the key to success and to health.
7) How did you begin your writing career?
I never intended to be a writer. The vision that I had when I was 13 years old was that I would travel the world inspiring millions of people through speaking. But Jack Canfield was my mentor and he’s the originator of the ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’ books. He taught me how to lead programs on self-esteem that I later started teaching to women. One day, I had the idea for ‘Chicken Soup for The Woman’s Soul’ knowing that women would love to hear stories about other women. At the time, none of the other ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’ books were conceived of–only the original ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’ was published, so this was a new idea. It was the beginning of all of the books of the ‘Chicken Soup in The Soul’ series. So, I was honored to co-author a number of ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’ books with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, and that was what launched my writing career.
8) Many women want to write, teach, share their experiences for benefit of others but many are afraid to take the leap, what advice would you give women who doubt themselves?
Take the leap anyway. We all have self-doubt. I have self-doubt; everyone I know has some self-doubt. Don’t wait for it to go away. But listen to the stronger call of your heart to help others. Be pulled by that stronger purpose to share what you have with others and the voice of self-doubt will start to fade as you listened to that voice in your heart.
9) You are by all means defined as a success, what are your top three keys to success?
A number of years ago, I learned a brilliant formula from a coach of mine, Bill Levacy. He said there are three main keys to success and I love these because they rhyme. 1. intention, 2. attention, 3. no tension. So, first there’s intention–you must be clear on what it is that you want to create in your life; second is attention–make sure that your thoughts, your words, your feelings and your actions are aligned with your intention; third, no tension–be in a state of ease, peace and happiness so that you aren’t attached to the outcome of your actions. In this state of ease when your intention is clear and you’ve put your attention on it, your success will unfold.
10) Lastly, who has taught you to be happy?
Well, I was very fortunate because I had a happiness mentor early in my life and that was my father. My father passed away at age 91 but every morning of his life, he woke up with a big smile on his face. He used to say that any day he was breathing was a good day. I saw from his modelling what was possible, how a person could truly be happy for no reason so he was my great inspiration. I then studied a lot of the research on happiness and I interviewed hundreds of people about how they became happy for no reason and I compiled all of that information. I found 21 happiness habits that anyone could practice to raise their happiness level. I would say I went from a D+ in happiness to an A. I’m always still working on it but it’s a very different life now and that’s why I am so grateful and passionate about sharing this message with others because anyone can be happy and it is every person’s birthright.
Get Marci Shimoff’s New York Times best selling book, personal learning course and free coaching at www.HappyForNoReason.com and visit her website at www.MarciShimoff.com
