Heroes in Business - Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor Chicken Soup for the Soul over 500Million Copies sold, Ask latest book with wife Crystal Dwyer Hansen

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

You Have a Book in You... Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor Chicken Soup for the Soul over 500Million Copies sold, Ask latest book with wife Crystal Dwyer Hansen, and You have a book in you program is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes Show. Broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio and online syndication.

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. All right, well, we're back. And again, we've got an amazing day today. Later on, we've got the original host of The Doctors show with 13 seasons. And we'll be ending the show with the CEO of Varsity Spirit, who's created a $2 billion company. And thank you again for the feedback. We continue to have Richard Branson on that I interviewed.

So make sure that you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Why? Because it's the only place where entrepreneurs align. Well, our next hero, what does it have to do with the soul? Well, it is amazing because we have with us, are you ready for this? The co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, over 500 million copies sold. Mark Victor Hansen, along with his amazing,

amazing wife here too, Crystal Dwyer Hansen, who will be talking about the book that they both have put out and created together. And welcome to the show, both of you. It's our honor and privilege to be with our dear friend. Thanks, David. Happy to be with our dear friend thanks david happy to be with you today very exciting very exciting both are beautiful both of you are beautiful um so mark i want to first just go into a little bit of the chicken soup for the soul you're co your co-author

of the chicken soup for the soul series i mean 500 million books sold. How is that possible? Well, it almost wasn't possible. 144 publishers actually said, hit the road, Jack, my partner, Dr. Canfield. And then our agent fired us. So we decided to wrap a little backpacks on our things with Three Ring Binder, went to ADA, American Bookseller. And we sold it ourselves after three more days slugging through the group and hearing a lot of rejection. So everyone out there to become successful, whether you're an inventor, a writer, a singer, an entrepreneur, a business person, has got to become rejection-proof and know that when somebody rejects you, you just say, N-E-X-T, next, and keep

on moving. Right, because Mark, how many people would have just said after the first person said no, said, you know what, I guess this isn't worth pursuing. We heard that a lot. Amazing. And can you believe, too, looking back at how many different series have been created from when you originally first created it? We literally sold 374 million in China. And when Crystal and I go to China, we've been to 80 countries around the world, talked to 7 million people. The amount of people that had their life

transformed, that's why we write and keep writing because people are having enormous transformations. I mean, one guy at ABA came up to us with basically no arms and said, you know, you saved my country, Lebanon, because every night we read your stories and we had to send people out into war to lose life and limb like I do. And if I could, would you and Jack just hug me because I can't hug you. I've got no arms left. And he kissed our cheeks. And I mean, we were just bundles of tears, stuff that you could never predict that kind of stuff could happen. I mean, you know, I couldn't imagine that I could help save a country. Incredible, incredible.

Well, again, and you can reach them both by going to MarkVictorHansen.com. Again, we'll have it on our website, but MarkVictorHansen.com. All right. So let's get into Ask. So, Crystal, talk to us about how this even came to be of ask and what you want our listeners and viewers to get out of that. Right. So Mark and I are privileged to be able to travel the world and meet so many amazing people. And we noticed there was a difference between those who were achieving, you know, had mega success and those who were falling short. And it wasn't because

either group lacked in any talent, skills or ability. We noticed that people who should be running a city or a company were super talented, but just not achieving their greatest. What it boiled down to was the ability to ask, because asking literally is the bridge from your dreams to your destiny. And every single person, when we started interviewing the 26 people that we interviewed for this book, we found that their success had come about through a series of questions and answers and following that path that led to the next step and the next step. And what we discovered is there are actually three channels through which you need to learn to ask. And those are ask yourself, ask others and ask God. And each of those channels is equally important for you to be able to take the next step forward to your destiny.

So what's the best way, though? What do people ask for? What have you seen? And what do you think is the greatest ask that someone can have? Well, when I was bankrupt and upside down, I went into my inner being, which is what we're teaching here. You ask yourself, ask others, ask God. I said, God, what's your destiny for me? God, what's your destiny for me? God, what's your destiny for me? Which we recommend to everybody.

And then you've got to have paper and pen next to the bed and tell your sweetheekens, hey, I'm going to probably wake up in the middle of the night based on what Mark and Crystal are saying, and the answer will come. But I got to immediately write it down because when it comes, it's ephemeral. It'll disappear. And I wrote down that I wanted to talk to people that care about things that matter, that would make a life transformative difference. I go down to my roommates in Hicksville, Long Island, New York, after going bankrupt for $2 million.

I said, guys, there ain't anyone out speaking doing what I want to do. And they said, yeah, this kid in Hop Hog, Long Island, New York, after going bankrupt for $2 million. I said, guys, there ain't anyone out speaking doing what I want to do. And they said, yeah, this kid in Hoppog, Long Island, New York. Well, I race out there and get blown away. He said, I got a ticket for you here. I can't go. You take my ticket. I mean, it was a miracle. Once I decided what my destiny was and what we're saying in our book,

ask, is that everyone has a destiny. It's a great destiny. Coming out of COVID confinement, you've got to find your destiny. And we got 121 letters the other day of people saying they read every question in a book with their spouse or their business partner or mastermind partner,

and their lives are transformed. They've broken out. And we're saying, hey, look, 8 billion of us have been confined. We got to break out and break through and go through all the obstacles like I did. And then I became a great speaker and luckily a writer. So I'm blessed. And we have with us again, Mark Victor Hanson, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul series, over 500 million copies

sold, along with his beautiful and amazing wife, Crystal. Also, so here today too, and again, you can reach them both at markvictorhansen.com. Make sure you check out their book, Get Asked. You can buy it on Amazon and probably everywhere else. So I need to ask you both because this is what our, again, we want to know is, is from the two of you that seem to quite have everything. What is both of yours asks? What do you ask for? Well, you know, mostly we start with asking ourselves if we're on track, what our priorities are. We spend the first part of every day just in an hour of prayer and meditation. And within that hour, we ask a lot of questions of each other and of God, you know, are we fulfilling our destiny? What is our

greatest priority? What matters to us? And, you know, for every person, it's different. On the ask yourself part, we say there are like three critical phases to asking. Those are critical phase number one is where am I now? Because we cannot in this life figure out where we want to go or where we should be unless we understand where we are right now. And all the sub questions that come after that, David, like what is working? What is not working? Am I even happy? All of these things that will start to clarify to us where we need to go next. Because when we ask, the science shows that when we ask ourselves a question, a different part of our brain lights up, okay? It's in the prefrontal cortex. It's a part of our mind that does critical thinking,

and it sends out a flood to the rest of your brain that starts to tap into all those neural connections that we've made in a lifetime that start to put the pieces of the puzzle together for us. So you can't ask a question without it being answered. It will come to you if you consistently ask. And suddenly you'll ask a question, you'll get an answer, you'll get a solution. A plan will suddenly come to you. A breakthrough will happen,

but it doesn't happen unless you take the time to ask those questions. So the first critical phase is, where am I now? Second critical phase is, where do I want to be? And we say that it's super important to ask that from the nth degree of your ultimate vision for yourself. God gave us all this incredible thing called imagination, which is exactly what the portal that allows us to co-create with God. But we don't use that so often. We just look outside and think that's the indication of what our life is going to be. Okay. And that's everything we're looking at in our life

is just the programming and the baggage that we've taken on from the past. If we want something different, we need to say, what do I want? Where do I want my life to be? What's the next step? Imagine that in the nth degree of your greatest vision of what you're doing in your career. How am I contributing? What does that look like? How does that feel? Who am I talking to every day? What service am I providing?

What products am I providing? How am I changing the world in big or small ways? And in that way, you start to engineer your perfect life sort of backwards from the greatest vision of what you want for yourself. And the final stage of the critical phases is, you know, where am I? Where am I now? Where do I want to be? And what specific action do I need to take to get there? Because we're in this physical material plane. So we do need to put our asking journey in motion. And when people start to do this, things change so dramatically that they're just on fire. It's been amazing. The feedback we're getting from people is absolutely amazing. It is life changing. Well, I've asked and it's come true

to be able to have the opportunity to interview two amazing people who are changing the world and have changed the world and changing the world now. Again, Mark Victor Hansen, also to Crystal here that's here today. Both are authors of Ask so you can get their book on Amazon because you're listening and watching me. David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. So you know the only place to go is alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. As a matter of fact, Mark, you're part of the

alliances community. You've attended and been involved within the community. And Mr. Dynamite, Summers White, had originally invited you and stuff. And when you come, I know everybody flocks to you and has got so many questions on that. What has it been like, Mark, for you to have experienced and be part of the alliances? What happens is everyone succeeds or fails based on knowing what they want, like Crystal was saying and asking themselves, putting in writing. And number three, you've got to have a mastermind alliance, a dream to get your team. And team, I say, is together everyone accomplishes miracles. And that's literally what we're talking about when you learn how to ask. And what I love about the alliances is it

is that miracle dream team because you've got one of everything in there. If you need a banker, you've got a banker. If you need a consultant, you've got guys like my dear friend for life, Long Summers White. You've got people like you that just know everybody that's anybody in town. When we wanted to do local media, who did I call? I called David, and David said, ta-da, and here we are.

The point is, if you join eAlliances, whatever you need, if you will be honest with yourself, ask the questions, put it in writing, you will go to the meetings, you will meet the right people for the right reasons, get the right results right here and right now. Chris, I want to ask you, you mentioned things about happy and that. Crystal, I want to ask you, you mentioned things about happy and that. How do we, you know, there's times when we think we're happy, but are we just trying to make ourself happy? How do we know that we're truly happy? Because from the view here too, you definitely both look very genuinely happy. Right. And I think it's because of the deep

inner work that we do. And we really like to take people back, you know, back into that inner world and almost back it up a little bit like to your childhood. You know, what is it about a child? When we're children, David, we come into this world so beautifully uncorrupted in our ability to ask for everything out of life, right? We want to know who, what, when, where, why, how. And we also are not afraid as children as children to ask for more and more and more and pretty much ask for everything. Right. But that's the beautiful, the beauty of

the human spirit that we all came to this earth with. And then over time, depending on how we were parented, how we were schooled, what happened, we were told to sit still, be quiet, don't ask questions. That's enough. I don't want to hear from you. You know, the way what happened to jobs where we were shut down, just basic life rejection. And suddenly we're standing there as an adult human being, pretty much terrified to ask anybody anything and almost ashamed that we don't already have all the answers. And it's so sad because once we, when we get to that place, we stop asking and we shut down our own curiosity, that beautiful curiosity that we had as children, where we wanted to explore everything, ask every question, figure out everything and not be ashamed to not know, because that is why children accelerate their their brains accelerate so

quickly the growth of children happen so quickly they're infinitely curious but at some point we think we can't do that anymore and what we're saying um we're inviting people to take this asking journey with us and say open up that beautiful curiosity again because i promise you when you start to connect again to your heart, you are going to feel completely different. You start to come alive again. And in the book, we talk about the seven roadblocks to asking. And one of those roadblocks is disconnection. And that is what that means, David, is that that disconnection is that you've disconnected from the dreams in your heart. And I can't tell you how many people really have no idea what the dreams are in their heart anymore. They're so disconnected. And we're helping people get that heart brain coherence back again, because your

heart needs to be part of that, that decision part of that life force, you know, your heart actually radiates a magnetic field that goes out three feet from you. So it's sad for me when people disconnect from that, disconnect from the dreams in their heart, because that is critical to taking the most amazing journey in this life. I want to know what secrets you could share with them. You mentioned a lot about children and the beginning and stuff, but what you could share with parents now who have young ones, they wanna be able to raise, to be successful.

And I think within all of us, the innate where they are truly happy, so to speak, right? What kind of secrets would you share with them now that they can instill in their children? Do you wanna hit it? Okay, first of all, I think the most important thing you can teach your children is that this world is a magical place and foster that beautiful curiosity within them teach them to ask about everything teach them to question why you know don't shut them

down it is important it it is the basis of everything that that questioning process is how we end up with the truth. It's how we even end up with honest governments. It's how we end up with every good thing in our life is to question our way forward. And then look for the answers, you know, formulate the questions that will lead us to the next step in the next step. We're and always be that truth seeker, I think always teach your children to seek the truth, because in this life, it is important to be able to determine that truth within your own heart so that you are just not a, you know, being led around or misled in a direction that you weren't meant to go. May I add, David?

So we have five kids and six grandkids that we love, bless, and adore. And our grandkids get to have a sleepover and they ask endless questions. And the trouble, like Crystal was saying, is most people have their spirits crushed out. I'm saying, when you were little, David, you asked too many questions. Would you quit all that? And then they do the same thing in school. Just listen to what you're taught. And then the military and then job. So our example is that we're on Hawaii two years ago, and we're just starting to write this book. And our little grandson is six years old, and he is precocious. He's gifted. And maybe every grandparent has that same adoration to their kid,

I hope. But this kid is that. And he had gotten for Christmas a Dick Tracy Gizmo watch. I don't know if you know the Gizmo watch. But he could only call on his cell phone the grandparents and his parents. So all of a sudden, we're on the beach in Oahu. And all of a sudden, the phone call comes in. And I say, yes. And he says, Grampy, are you alone?

I said, no, I'm with Mimi. That's the name she goes by. And I say, Grampy, are you alone? I said, no, I'm with Mimi. That's the name she goes by. And I say, what is it? He says, are you still writing great books like Chicken Soup? I said, yes, sir. He said, can I help you write the next one? And I said, yeah. So we put him as the first story in here because instead of crushing and diminishing and demeaning a kid's spirit, we want it to be open.

And there are going to be questions like, why is the sky blue? And how high is up? And all that, you know, and why, period. Why is there air? I mean, all those questions are wonderful. And what we do with the grandkids is we probe them as best we can. We look up the answers together so they understand. And as a result, this kid is doing beyond phenomenally.

I mean, he is, you know, while he's in elementary school, he's in the higher grades of reading, and he's able to teach himself stuff that just astounds both of us. And what we're saying is, we believe with this Ask journey that it wakes up illumination, it wakes up insight, it wakes up revelation, and it starts best when you're a young person, as long as you don't get shut down. Well, it certainly has been truly magical here. Crystal Dwyer Hanson, Mark Victor Hanson, you inspire readers, you inspire the world. Make sure you go and get the book Ask.

A-S-K. Ask. That's right. Both of you, heroes in helping the world. go and get the book Ask, A-S-K, Ask. That's right, both of you, heroes in helping the world. Make sure you can also go to markvictorhansen.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Challenge.