Presenting 2015's most influential leaders in
self-improvement
To come up with the 25 most influential people in personal development of
the past year, we researched book sales, social media reach, other online
activity including blogs and podcasts, live appearances, TV and radio presence,
online videos including TED Talks and YouTube, print articles and columns, and
the awards or honors these individuals received. We also considered work from
previous years that is still widely read or viewed.
GABRIELLE BERNSTEIN
Dubbed “a next-generation thought leader” by Oprah Winfrey and “a new role
model” by
The New York Times, Gabrielle Bernstein is bringing personal
development to a new demographic: young women. In 2015, the author, life coach
and speaker released the paperback version of
Miracles
Now: 108 Life-Changing Tools for Less Stress, More Flow, and Finding Your True
Purpose
. A former party girl, Bernstein shared her transformation
in 2012’s best-selling
Spirit
Junkie: A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles
. “These days I’m addicted to finding my love and
happiness inside myself,” she writes, spreading her message of self-acceptance
through appearances on
The Dr. Oz Show and
TODAY; as a
YouTube Next Vlogger; on Hay House radio; via dozens of podcasts; and through
events like Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, TEDxWomen and her Spirit Junkie
Masterclass.
KEN BLANCHARD
The best-selling author and Amazon Hall of Famer—with more than 60 books and
20 million copies sold—continued his publishing streak in 2015 with
Refire!
Don’t Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
and
The
New One Minute Manager
. “This new version of the classic story deals with a
new
world,” Ken Blanchard writes in the latter. The management expert spoke at
several events in 2015, including the Servant Leadership Conference, LEAD by
HR.com and the Association for Talent Development International Conference.
MARCUS BUCKINGHAM
In 2015’s
StandOut
2.0: Assess Your Strengths, Find Your Edge, Win at Work
, researcher and consultant Marcus Buckingham expanded
upon his “strengths revolution,” encouraging individuals to embrace their
strongest skills. In his book, then Amazon’s No. 1 new release in human
resources and personnel management, the
New York Times best-selling
author declared a goal of fostering “a world in which each of us knows how to
identify, contribute and develop the very best of ourselves.” Buckingham,
founder and chairman of the training and development firm TMBC, also released
Take
Control of Your Career and Your Life with Marcus Buckingham, a
podcast class on Oprah.com honored as one of LearnOutLoud.com’s “50 Best
Podcasts You Can Learn From.” He has worked with the likes of Toyota, Coca-Cola
and Microsoft, and he is a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory
Committee on Leadership and Management.
BRENÉ BROWN
Social scientist and research professor Brené Brown has spent 13 years
studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness and shame. Last summer, she
released
Rising
Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
, a No. 1
New York Times best-seller. “The
truth is that falling hurts,” she writes. “The dare is to keep being brave and
feel your way back up.” In 2015 she released the paperback version of her 2012
book
Daring
Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love,
Parent, and Lead
, which spent eight weeks on the
New York Times
best-seller list, as well as the paperback version of 2010’s
The
Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and
Embrace Who You Are
. The paperback version spent more than a year on the
New
York Times best-seller list for advice and how-to. Brown’s 2010 TEDx talk,
“The Power of Vulnerability,” is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in
the world, with more than 20 million views. She recently spoke at the Disney
IDEATION Summit and the Emerging Women Live Conference.
BRENDON BURCHARD
After nearly dying in a car accident at age 19, Brendon Burchard reinvented
himself as a personal-development trainer, motivational speaker and
New
York Times best-selling author to help people “find their charge.”
Burchard’s digital presence is expansive, reaching over 20 million people
weekly via blogs, videos, newsletters and his website. His YouTube channel
contains some of the platform’s most-watched self-help videos, and his
The Charged Life
podcast debuted at No. 1 in all categories worldwide. Burchard is a Top 100
Most Followed Public Figure on Facebook—sharing daily affirmations such as
“Walking the grounds of gratitude, I came upon the palace of happiness”—and the
highest-paid marketing trainer in the world.
GARY CHAPMAN
Relationship counselor and author Gary Chapman recently released two new
editions of his 1995 book
The
5 Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
, in which he posits that individuals in relationships
express love in different ways. “Once you identify and learn to speak your
spouse’s primary love language... you will have discovered the key to a long-lasting,
loving marriage,” he writes in the 2015 reissue,
The
5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts
. The original book, which sold more than 10 million
copies and spent two years on the
New York Times best-seller list,
serves as the basis for ebooks, blogs, DVDs and study guides as well as
versions for teens, men, singles and children. A Baptist pastor and director of
Marriage and Family Life Consultants Inc., Chapman held The Marriage You’ve
Always Wanted Conference in three states last fall, drawing thousands of
couples.
PETER DIAMANDIS
Peter Diamandis—engineer, physician, entrepreneur, best-selling author and
speaker—focuses on the fields of innovation, incentive competitions and
commercial space. In 2015 he released
Bold:
How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
, which became a best-seller, including Amazon’s No. 1
best-seller in environmental engineering. Named one of “The World’s 50 Greatest
Leaders” by
Fortune in 2014, Diamandis is chairman and CEO of the
XPRIZE
Foundation, known for its $10 million Ansari XPRIZE for private
spaceflight, and co-founder and executive chairman of Singularity University, a
Silicon Valley institution studying growing technologies. Every year, Diamandis
delivers 40 to 50 keynotes. His personal motto: “The best way to predict the
future is to create it yourself.”
TIM FERRISS
In his exploration of accelerated learning, lifestyle design and peak
performance, Tim Ferriss is his own guinea pig, as seen in such
New York
Times best-sellers as
The
4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
and
The
4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming
Superhuman
. “The New Rich are those who... create luxury lifestyles
in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility,” he
writes in the former. The entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker—called “this
generation’s self-help guru” by
The New Yorker—hosts the No. 1
self-improvement site,
FourHourWorkweek.com, and
The Tim Ferriss Show,
the No. 1 business podcast on iTunes most days—sometimes No. 1 of all
podcasts. Last spring, he debuted a new show on YouTube,
The Tim Ferriss
Experiment.
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Most of us first met Elizabeth Gilbert in 2006 through the soul-searching
memoir
Eat,
Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
; the paperback version was a
New York Times
nonfiction best-seller for more than 200 weeks. This fall, she released
Big
Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
. “Defending yourself as a creative person begins by
defining yourself,” she writes. “It begins when you declare your intent.” In
October a two-part interview with her from Oprah Winfrey’s
Super Soul
Sunday aired on OWN, and Gilbert was a featured presenter at the Emerging
Women Live Conference. The popular TED speaker is fascinated by “genius,
creativity and how we get in our own way when it comes to both,” according to
TED.com.
SETH GODIN
After rewriting the rules of modern marketing and going on to focus on
leadership, Seth Godin has become known for his iconoclastic approach—so his
latest title should come as no surprise. In
We
Are All Weird: The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normal
, the
New York Times best-selling author warns:
“Mass is dead. Here comes weird.” In 2015 the entrepreneur and speaker was
featured on many podcasts, most notably Brian Koppelman’s
The Moment,
and Godin launched two online courses, the highly popular
Seth
Godin’s Freelancer Course and the altMBA. Godin is consistently ranked in
the top 1 percent of presenters at events where he speaks.
MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
Marshall Goldsmith has worked with more than 150 major executives, and the
leadership coach was recognized as one of the world’s 15 most influential
business thinkers in a 2013 study sponsored by
The (London) Times and
Forbes.
Last May, he released
Triggers:
Creating Behavior Change That Lasts—Becoming the Person You Want to Be
(with Mark Reiter), which spent six weeks on the
New
York Times and PW/Nielsen best-seller lists. In it, he writes, “Fate is
the hand of cards we’ve been dealt. Choice is how we play the hand.” Goldsmith—who
helps “leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior,” according to his
site—heads
The Marshall Goldsmith Group, providing leadership
education and executive coaching.
BRIAN GRAZER
Based on decades of weekly “curiosity conversations” with accomplished
strangers that have inspired the likes of
24 and
A Beautiful Mind,
film and television producer Brian Grazer (with Charles Fishman) wrote
A
Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life
. “Curiosity is what gives energy and insight to everything
else I do,” Grazer writes. “I loved being curious long before I loved the
movie business.” The book was published last spring and ranked on both the
New
York Times and PW/Nielsen best-sellers lists. Since then, the co-founder
(with Ron Howard) of Imagine Entertainment has shared insights from the book at
South by Southwest, the Milken Institute Global Conference and Oprah Winfrey’s
Super
Soul Sunday.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
In 2015 media mogul Arianna Huffington published the best-selling paperback
of her blockbuster,
Thrive:
The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being,
Wisdom, and Wonder
, which spent 19 weeks on the
New York Times
best-seller list. “
Thrive is structured to fix our broken definition
of success,” she writes, and Huffington continues to spread its message through
speeches and interviews.
The Huffington Post, of which she is
president and editor in chief, was ranked the No. 1 blog by eBiz with 110
million monthly visitors, and her 2010 TED Talk,
“How to Succeed? Get More Sleep,” has more than 3.2 million
views.
BERT AND JOHN JACOBS
Since founding Life is Good in 1994 with $78 to their name, brothers Bert
and John Jacobs have grown their positive apparel brand to $100 million in global
sales—with nary an advertisement. In September the Jacobses released
Life
is Good: The Book
, which shares their personal journey, champions the power
of optimism and outlines 10 “superpowers” in all people. “Optimism is a
powerful and pragmatic strategy for accomplishing goals and living a fulfilling
life,” they write. Last year, they spoke at the Iconic Conference and held a
nationwide book tour. Life is Good products are sold by more than 4,500
retailers nationwide and in 30 countries.
T.D. JAKES
Pastor and best-selling author T.D. Jakes, known for his prolific works on spirituality
and personal development, released
Destiny:
Step into Your Purpose
last year, which hit No. 1 on the Apple iBooks U.S.
best-seller list for spirituality and religion. “When you live with the belief
that God has a plan for your life, you make decisions differently,” he writes.
Also in 2015, the new
T.D. Jakes Show had a trial run in four U.S.
television markets. Recently called “America’s Best Preacher” by
Time,
Jakes heads
The Potter’s House, a global humanitarian organization and
30,000-plus-member church with a multimedia ministry (including live streaming)
that reaches millions of viewers.
TORY JOHNSON
In September Tory Johnson—author,
SUCCESS columnist, and founder
and CEO of Women for Hire—released
Shift
for Good: Simple Changes for Lasting Joy Inside and Out
, a follow-up to her 2009 No. 1
New York Times
best-seller,
The
Shift: How I Finally Lost Weight and Discovered a Happier Life
. “I wanted to Shift the way I viewed and lived other
parts of my life with the same determination I had used to lose weight,” she
writes in the former. Johnson is also founder of
Spark & Hustle,
a series of conferences for established and aspiring small-business owners
nationwide, and a weekly contributor on
Good Morning America, reaching
millions with her “Deals & Steals.”
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Named the most popular leadership expert in the world by
Inc. in
2014, coach, pastor, SUCCESS Ambassador and best-selling author John C. Maxwell
is still going strong. In 2015 he published
JumpStart
Your Growth: A 90-Day Improvement Plan
, which became Amazon’s No. 1 new release in business
leadership, followed by
Intentional
Living: Choosing a Life That Matters. “What I love about
Intentional
Living is that it causes you to start. It doesn’t allow good intentions to
stay as merely intentions,” he recently told
SUCCESS. Maxwell also
debuted the
How
Successful People Think
digital course and 20
A Minute with Maxwell
podcasts in addition to speaking at the Pureflow Leadership Summit, the Nordic
Business Forum (in Helsinki), Live2Lead and more.
JOEL OSTEEN
In 2015, Joel Osteen, senior pastor of America’s largest nondenominational
church, continued his steady publishing history with the release of
The
Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today
. “Here’s the principle: Whatever follows the ‘I am’ [out
of your mouth] will eventually find you,” writes the author of seven
New
York Times best-sellers. Seven million viewers tune in for his services
weekly (Nielsen Media Research says he’s the most-watched inspirational figure
in America), not just for his biblical teachings but also for his message of
positivity and hope. His podcasts receive 48 million plays a week, regularly
placing them in the top five globally.
DAVE RAMSEY
Having opened up about his own financial struggles, Dave Ramsey has struck a
chord with Americans seeking practical fiscal advice. Readers found just that
in his five
New York Times best-sellers, as well as on his syndicated
The Dave Ramsey Show,
heard by more than 8.5 million listeners weekly on more than 550 radio
stations. Last year his 2003 best-seller,
The
Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
, topped 5 million copies sold and remained on the
PW/Nielsen best-seller list. “Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20
percent head knowledge,” he writes. Ramsey recently reached audiences in person
via his EntreLeadership and Smart Money events across the country.
TOM RATH
Tom Rath is a researcher, adviser and author focusing on the role of human
behavior in business, health and well-being. He recently debuted
Are
You Fully Charged? The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life
, which ranked as high as No. 3 on the
Wall Street
Journal best-seller list for business hardcover. In it, he writes, “I am
far more effective in my work on days when I am fully charged.… Until recently,
it was unclear to me what specific actions create this daily charge.” Rath—the
author of six best-sellers, with more than 6 million copies sold—bases his
work on the latest, most practical research.
GRETCHEN RUBIN
A Yale Law grad who ditched her legal career, Gretchen Rubin is an author
and speaker on happiness and good habits. Her books have sold more than 2
million copies in 30 languages, and last year she released the
New York
Times best-seller
Better
Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
. She writes, “It’s simple to change habits, but it’s not
easy.… Harness the power of habits to make change in your own life.” Best-known
for 2009’s
The
Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean
My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
, she also has a podcast,
Happier with Gretchen Rubin,
that ranks in the top 1 percent of podcasts, and Rubin was named one of the
“100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness” by Greatist.
TONY ROBBINS
The entrepreneur, philanthropist, and life and business strategist—known for
harnessing the power of peak performance psychology—held programs in eight
countries last year. Robbins also hit a record for the highest attendance at
his Unleash the Power Within event with 7,000 guests, and his 2014 book,
Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom
, was in the top 10 on the
New York Times
best-seller list for nine months. As of press time, he had reached 80 percent
progress in his
100 Million Meals Challenge with Feeding America, seeking
to feed the country’s 49 million hungry people: “I know that those are more
than startling statistics—those numbers are human beings suffering—and I came
from one of those families,” Robbins says.
BRIAN TRACY
The best-selling author, speaker and personal-development trainer released
two books last year,
Find
Your Balance Point: Clarify Your Priorities, Simplify Your Life, and Achieve
More
and
Bull's
Eye: The Power of Focus
. “Each one of us has a different way of achieving true
balance,” he writes in the former. “Each person experiences true balance when
she is operating at her own unique balance point.” That clear, simple
language—addressing everything from success strategy to goal-setting to
leadership—resonated with about 250,000 people at events worldwide in 2015.
Tracy also reaches audiences through hundreds of products such as mobile apps,
online training programs and audio downloads.
OPRAH WINFREY
Media powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, a longtime champion of personal growth, in
2015 continued to produce inspiring programs such as
Super
Soul Sunday, Oprah’s Lifeclass and
Oprah’s Masterclass on her
OWN network. She also released Audible and audio CD versions of 2014’s
What
I Know For Sure
. “What I know for sure is that every day brings a chance
for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and step out and dance,” she
writes. Winfrey—one of three black female billionaires on the 2015
Forbes billionaires
list—reaches millions of fans via Oprah.com, with more than 70 million page
views a week; Twitter, with 30 million followers; and
O: The Oprah Magazine,
with paid circulation of more than 2.4 million. Last year her The Life You Want
Tour visited eight citi
es.
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