Say Yes to Success: How to Thrive in Every Season of Life – An Interview with Debra Poneman

Are you missing the one thing that could transform your life, success, and Inner Peace? Debra Poneman reveals her secrets!

Debra Poneman is a powerhouse of inspiration, success, and spiritual wisdom. As the founder of Yes to Success and a bestselling author, her journey has been anything but ordinary. From marching on Washington in the 1960s to diving deep into Transcendental Meditation, Debra’s path has been filled with pivotal moments that transformed her life. She built her Yes to Success program long before the Law of Attraction was even a buzzword, sharing practical principles for living a prosperous and fulfilled life. Her insights are relatable, timeless, and rooted in real-life experiences.

In this conversation, Debra opens up about the rollercoaster of her journey—choosing motherhood over a skyrocketing career, only to later return with fresh purpose and new programs like Ageless and Awake. With humor, honesty, and deep compassion, she shares powerful lessons on listening to your inner voice, nurturing authentic relationships, and embracing your true calling. Whether you’re struggling to find your path, looking to deepen your spiritual practice, or simply wanting to be inspired by someone who’s walked the walk, Debra’s story offers a wealth of wisdom and encouragement. To enjoy the conversation, keep reading or listen and subscribe for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or YouTube.

Can you share your journey of awakening to consciousness, mindfulness, spirituality? Did you grow up with faith or spirituality or was it something you found later?

Debra Poneman: I could start out on the day I was born, but I’ll spare you that. But we didn’t have a lot of spirituality in our home. I was raised Jewish, and we were very cultural Jews, and we loved the holidays. But I just grew up with a whole lot of love and a whole lot of awareness about being kind and charitable.

But I did come of age in the 1960s, so there was also activism and human rights to fight for, and I did march on Washington in the 60s, and I protested at the Democratic convention to end the war in Vietnam in 1968.

Like so many young people back then, I was also part of a growing awareness that real change has to come from within. I remember in 1970, I saw a poster of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that said, “Expansion of happiness is the purpose of life,” and I had been kind of like an angry protester. I thought, “That’s interesting. Expansion of happiness is the purpose of life.” So, I learned to meditate. 

How did you learn—was there a specific teacher or book that influenced you?

Debra Poneman: Transcendental Meditation. Actually, when I saw the picture of Maharishi on the poster, I was like, oh, I’m going to learn from this dude with the beard and the long hair. And I went, and it was a nice lady from Germany.

But soon after that, because my life changed so dramatically, I became a TM teacher and started instructing thousands worldwide. Those people also probably expected Maharishi and got me. But I spent years going to courses with Maharishi, and that was during the time when celebrities like the Beatles and the Beach Boys. I was in a small learning group with the Beach Boys, Donovan, Andy Kaufman, and later David Lynch—may he rest in peace.

They were all part of our meditation community, and this is something that people find surprising: I spent months at a time meditating 8, 10, 12 hours a day—fasting, in complete silence. I mean, now I don’t know if I could spend 8, 10, 12 minutes in silence, but I did it back then. And then, teaching, giving people techniques to wake up their consciousness.

In 1974, I moved to Fairfield, Iowa, to Maharishi International University. Some of the people who you were having on the cover of your wonderful magazine—Marci Shimoff, I met her in Fairfield, Iowa. Hopefully, Janet Atwood will be on it soon. But also people like John Gray, Barbara DeAngelis—we were all in Fairfield, Iowa, together, committed to raising the consciousness of the planet.

Debra Poneman and Marci Shimoff

Andy Kaufman was part of the TM movement—are you serious?

Debra Poneman: Oh, yeah, I loved him. I’m thinking of this one time—I was the assistant director of campus activities, and he used to come all the time and do his show for us. Yeah, we would sit around and talk.

Actually, one of my former husbands—I’ve had a few—says that he was responsible for Andy’s fame. Andy was the custodian at the TM Center in Boston in the early ‘70s, and Fred said he was so bad at it, but he was so funny, that he told him, “You’ve got to go out and be a comedian.” And he fired him from his job as a custodian at the TM movement, and Andy went out and started doing shows at the local laugh shop—or whatever they were called. So, Fred says it was because of him.

You shifted from activism to Transcendental Meditation, but I imagine activism stayed with you. What did your family think about your move to Iowa?

Debra Poneman: They were happy. My mother, even though she didn’t understand it, called him the Maharishi. I kept saying, “Mom, it’s Maharishi, not the Maharishi,” but to the day she died, she said, “I will always be thankful to the Maharishi.”

Because, again, it was the ‘60s. What did we do in the ‘60s? We did drugs, we took acid. I lived on communes, and she didn’t know where I was for months at a time—there were no cell phones, no pay phones. I lived in this place called the Kingdom of Heaven, outside of Guadalupe, New Mexico.

But then, when I started meditating and decided to become a teacher, she knew I was in a safe place. She knew I wasn’t doing drugs anymore. She saw that there was a shift. And then she started meditating—and she meditated twice a day until the day she died in her 90s.

After Iowa, you traveled to teach TM. What did that look like? Where did you go, and who did you teach?

Debra Poneman: Well, actually, it was a little bit different. I taught meditation full-time from the time I came back from my teacher training in 1972. So, I’ve been a meditation teacher for 53 years.

Then, I moved to Fairfield, Iowa, and that was when Maharishi International University was established, which was a fully accredited university, as a matter of fact. We had pre-kindergarten through the PhD level. It still exists in Fairfield. My kids were born there, and it’s beautiful community.

But what happened was after being part of this nonprofit for the entire, pretty much, decade of the 70s, that was when I realized that woman does not live by mantra alone and I needed some money. I needed health insurance, car insurance, maybe even a car to insure. I’m living in my community, I’m really happy. But I thought, okay, how do people make a lot of money fast and where? And the answer came to me, which was seemed obvious, they make a lot of money in Los Angeles. And how do they do it? They sell investments. I mean it looked to me like everybody in LA was wealthy. I mean I watched the Beverly Hillbillies. So, I left Iowa, set up for LA. 

I get a job selling investments. I was so not good at it that I literally did not make one sale. Actually, I sold one investment to my father because he felt sorry for me. But now I was not only broke, but at least when I was back in Iowa, I got a stipend in my meals and a roof over my head. Now, I’m in LA. I don’t have the money to pay the high rent. 

I remember this one day I was so despondent because I was so beyond broke, that broke would look good and I was doing something that so was not me—selling investments. But besides that I was in an unhappy marriage. I had just had a painful miscarriage. I had another major health situation and I remember going down to the ocean in Santa Monica and sitting on a bench and just weeping. It was a classic dark night of the soul, and I was crying in desperation and asking God why someone who I thought was a really good person was in this horrible situation, and I think probably some of your listeners can relate. Dark night of the soul, no way out, begging God to give me an answer. 

After I had a really good cry—which I highly recommend—I felt this sense of peace come over me, and I heard the words, And this too shall pass.

Literally, the next day, I was led—by accident—to a seminar where I first heard that there was a formula for ending the struggle and creating a prosperous life. It was at the Learning Annex—remember the Learning Annex in LA? The leader was talking about the law of attraction. This was 1979, way before The Secret, way before Esther Hicks made the Law of Attraction a household concept. 

The guy giving the presentation said, We are like tuning forks. If a tuning fork is vibrating at an F-sharp and a B-flat comes toward it, it repels. But if an F-sharp vibrating and it comes toward it, it augments that sound. Then he explained: If we are always saying, “I’ll never get out of debt,” “I’ll never make a lot of money,” “I’ll never find my soulmate,” then that’s how we’re vibrating. Even if your soulmate wants to come toward you, you’re going to repel them by your vibration.

Another thing he said if you really want to be prosperous become prosperous on the inside and by doing meditation and by doing things that create inner silence, which I was an ace at already. But he said also mentor other people, help other people, make connections, like, “oh, you should meet such and such” like we were doing before we came on the air. You should know so-and-so, give people advice, wish people success, even strangers. 

He also said that there’s plenty of success and prosperity to go around and if one person becomes successful, it will not take anything away from you. And if you could rejoice in another person’s success, even if they’re in the same field as you actually, especially if they’re in the same field as you, that is a sure way to magnetize more success, more prosperity, more happiness. 

I had never heard of these ideas before, but the next morning—true story—I open up my eyes and I woke up my then husband (which one was it? No, no. I only had two), his name was Mark. I said I know the reason why we upended our lives and we moved to LA, it’s because I was supposed to go to that event and I’m supposed to teach these concepts of how to create success and prosperity. 

And I started studying and reading every book I could and learning from the great masters— Napoleon Hill and Wallace Wattles and Catherine Ponder. Six months later, I was ready to roll out my Yes To Success program and I froze. 

Self-doubt started creeping in. I was only 28 years old. I was a woman—which made a difference back then. I had no business experience except teaching meditation. I had a bachelor’s degree from Maharishi International University. I drove a beat-up old Chevy Bel Air. I was beyond broke and I was going to teach people how to be successful. But can I give you the first key to true success?

Let’s hear it. 

Debra Poneman: I’ll lay it on you and I know you’re going to agree with this. 

An idea comes to you because it is supposed to be manifested through you. If your ideas—everybody listening—wanted to be manifested by me, your idea would have come to me. You dream the dreams that you’re supposed to realize. I dream the dreams that I’m supposed to realize, and ideas come to you at a time when the universe needs that idea. 

I believe that God—source spirit, the God of your own understanding—depends on us to listen to those whispers in order to uphold creation. That’s why you have the idea to begin this amazing Awakened Magazine platform for spreading knowledge to the world through these powerful interviews. I wasn’t given that idea and God can’t go out and start a platform like this and start doing interviews. So, you received that message and if you didn’t do it, the idea would have gone to someone else who was willing to do it, because God has no hands but yours. So, if your dream is to be a writer or a speaker or a leadership coach, that is an idea that was whispered in your ear because you are supposed to do it. 

The creator isn’t a trickster. The creator won’t say to you here’s a dream, but ha, ha, ha, I’m not going to give you what you need to fulfill it. No! And I think a lot of people—who are listening right now—they had a brilliant idea at some time in their lives, didn’t act on it, and a year or two or three later, someone else did and they became famous or a millionaire because that idea needed to be manifest. 

So, guys, you at first dibs, you didn’t act on it. There’s an old Arabian proverb that goes, there are three things in life that are irretractable—the spoken word, the released arrow and the neglected opportunity. So, in my case, these principles of success wanted to be taught by me. 

How did the name “Yes to Success” come to you? Was it a sudden idea, or did you consider multiple names?

Debra Poneman: Oh, that is so funny. I haven’t been asked that in ages and I love that question. 

I held a contest. I really did. What happened? It was like 1981 by then, and the name of my company again Transparency. It was called Successful Woman Unlimited because I wanted to speak to women, because I saw that women did not—back in 1980—have the opportunities that men had, and I wanted to give women the inspiration to make their dreams come true. 

What happened was—you’re going to love this Marci Shimoff, who was one of your. I call us cover girls—Marci was my secretary assistant at the time. I love her and she is such an amazing woman and such an amazing teacher. 

So, she was my secretary assistant at the time and one day we looked at each other, and we looked out of the audience and there were just as many men and women and we said, I think we should change the name of this business. So, we held a contest and after, Yes to Success, the number two entry was Yellow Brick Road Seminars. 

Starting out in LA, how did you land your first speaking events and seminars with few contacts?

Debra Poneman: You are asking all of my favorite questions. I’m putting together my program and the first thing that I did was I used one of the principles that I learned from the great masters that I was studying and I recommend everybody do this and that is when you have an idea that fills the need or answers a gap in society. Don’t go around telling everyone what you’re going to do, because sacred and secret come from the same root and your precious ideas are sacred.

When you start telling everybody what you’re going to do, one of two things is going to happen. Number one you’re going to get so many accolades, “Oh, that’s a great idea.” You don’t do it because you already feel satisfied with everybody telling you how brilliant you are. 

But more likely, you’re going to run up against what I call the discouragement committee, and you know who I’m talking about. Those people who will tell you all the reasons why your idea is not going to work. So, keep your ideas safe and warm inside, and I know that probably your listeners are thinking right now. That happened to me. I had this precious idea and it was crushed like a tiny seed.

Sometimes it can even be crushed just by innuendo like, “Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea,” and you know they don’t think so. And boom, you just shrink in that idea never to be realized, and people say, “Oh, share,” and then people will hold you accountable. No one, ultimately, is gonna hold you accountable, except yourself. People are too busy going around telling everyone about the book that they’re never gonna write or the business they’re never gonna start because they shared the idea too soon and it got crushed by the discouragement committee. “Oh, so many people already wrote a book on leadership.” Don’t let that happen to you. 

What I did is I kept my idea safe and warm inside until I was ready to put up the posters. I rented a room at the Santa Monica library. And, by the way, I’m not telling people not to tell others, because someone is going to steal your idea. Don’t use that excuse. The truth is there could be 10,000 people out there doing the same thing as you. Thousands have beautiful magazines. Thousands talk on leadership. Thousands teach you how to find your soulmate. Tens of thousands write vegetarian blogs, but they’re not you. There are people whose contract in this lifetime is with you and they’re waiting patiently to read your magazine. They’re waiting patiently to have their life changed by your business to buy the property from you, whatever it is. 

I had my idea. I kept it safe and warm inside, and then one day I couldn’t pretend anymore that I wasn’t ready. So, I took a step from which there was no turning back, and that is I rented a room at the Santa Monica Public Library, no matter how scared I was. And again, I was barely 30 years old. You know my background, still driving the beat-up old Chevy Bel Air. 

I put up the posters and, believe me, the discouragement committee came out and said no one’s going to come to a presentation about how your thoughts create your reality. But I know ideas are the starting point of all great achievement and the road to despair is paved with ideas that are never acted on. I’m big on quotes. 

Another quote from Theodore Roosevelt, “in any moment of decision, the best thing you could do is the right thing, the next best is the wrong thing. The worst thing you could do is nothing.” So, I went out, put up the posters and even though the discouragement committee showed up, after the posters were up, I walked in to the Santa Monica public library and there was standing room only. 

How did things grow for you over the next few years?

Debra Poneman: But, by the way, I have to say I did have a leg up on most people and that is because I had been a teacher of TM full time. I had contacts, not only all over the US but all over the world. So within a few years, my seminars were being taught in most major US cities and in 12 countries on four or five continents because I had so many contacts. So I have to say I did have that advantage. But before I knew it, I had corporate clients. Some of the most renowned transformational leaders today attribute their start from what they learned in my seminar. 

Within I think it was about two years, I traded in that Chevy Bel Air for a Mercedes. Actually, I didn’t trade it in, I gave it away and bought a Mercedes, and so that’s it. And we didn’t have the internet. We had phones with curly cords that were connected to the walls. 

But one of the things that I learned and I actually learned this from my son, that’s a whole part of my story, basically, what I did was I cashed in my relationship capital because, for example, I gave Marci her first stage, the first time she ever talked on the stage was because I got sick and I said, honey, if you want to be paid this month, you got to go do it. No, okay, well, no, no talking, no pay. And so she did it. 

And then she got the bug and of course now she’s one of the most popular speakers in the country and sold a gazillion Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul books and her Your of Year Miracles program is one of the most successful of its kind. 

At the height of your success—speaking, traveling, driving a Mercedes—how did you integrate that external success with your deep spiritual practice? Did it feel like separate seasons, or did they merge?

Debra Poneman: How I process it is that I would never be where I am today if I didn’t have that. I no longer teach through the Transcendental Meditation organization, although I love my friends, I love the technique—as my mother would say, “It saved Debbie’s life”—but I now teach through the Art of Living Foundation, which comes from the same tradition, and I recommend either of those.

But the truth is that—especially now—the world is shaken. And I love the quote from the Hugging Saint, Ammaji, who said, “Now is the time to cling to our spiritual practices. So, when the world shakes, we remain unshakable.”

And the truth is, the meditation that I have been doing for 55 years—this October will be 55 years—I don’t miss. I meditate not just 20 minutes twice a day, but an hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening. And that is my foundation.

I don’t know how anybody lives without a foundation that has been scientifically proven to create inner silence and get rid of anxiety. It’s kind of like trying to build a tall skyscraper without a solid, deep foundation. You can’t build a tall skyscraper of your life without a strong foundation of silence.

So, that’s why I recommend a scientifically proven form of meditation—either TM or the meditation that I teach through the Art of Living Foundation—because then, when the world shakes, you do remain unshakable.

And that’s why I was able to—of course, was it smooth sailing for me, building an international organization? Of course not. There are always going to be challenges, there are always going to be obstacles. But they didn’t shake me.

And it wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m a meditator, I won’t get shaken.” By doing your meditation, you do establish that silence so that when the world shakes, you remain unshakable.

We’re in a time of great uncertainty. You strongly advocate meditation, but for those who feel overwhelmed by it, where should they start?

Debra Poneman: Well, because you know I’m going to be honest with you. There are a lot of meditations out there where people just thought of something like, Oh, feel your feet on the floor, and this and that. They’re all beautiful. Guided meditations are lovely, but I would say that if you can’t meditate, then you’re not learning a meditation that actually meditates you.

That’s why I recommend TM and the Art of Living meditation called Sahaj Samadhi, because even if you say, Oh, my mind races all the time, I can’t sit still, you sit down, you learn this technique, and it meditates you. You don’t want to get up after a few moments because you are so relaxed.

And it’s all been scientifically proven. It’s proven to enhance your health, your concentration, your happiness, your heart expansion, your brainwave coherence. And that isn’t just Debra throwing these things out—that has been proven in scientific laboratories.

So, I would say, if you’re feeling like, I just can’t meditate, learn a meditation that is grounded in a 5,000-year-old tradition, the way we teach it. We teach it the same way it was taught for thousands of years—and it meditates you.

After building a successful business, you walked away from it. Why?

Debra Poneman: Well, it happened on July 5th of 1988. I know the date and I was about to have my own daytime TV talk show, my Yes to Success book was in the hands of a renowned agent who was in negotiations with a couple of different publishers in New York. And on July 5th, 1988, I gave birth to my first child. And the moment the midwife handed me my baby daughter and I looked into her eyes and I touched her little fingers. I knew that if I was going to be true to my own teaching, the cornerstone of which is always to listen to your inner voice and follow your heart, I knew that my career would have to come to a screeching halt. 

If I didn’t walk my talk, how could I expect anyone else to trust my words? I believe that people have built in authenticity meters and my meter reading would have been way over in the negativity, in the negative territory, if I kept traveling around the world when my heart was home with my daughter and, three years later, my son. I mean, I didn’t want to leave her to go to the bathroom. 

I remember I was supposed to do a tour of Southeast Asia. And when my daughter is born, my friend Xiong says, okay, let’s get the tour on the books. And I said, Xiong, you’re going to have to call me back in 18 years. He’s still my friend. He teases me about that. 

No one was happy with me. I had a line of people that had been waiting for me to push that baby out and get back to work, the agent, the publisher, the producer, Janet Atwood, founder of the Passion Test. She was then my secretary and she took notes while I was meeting with the producer, and they were all like, have you gone out of your mind? And the answer was, yeah. It’s precisely what I happened. 

I had gone completely out of my mind, right into my heart, and I’m telling you everyone, if you could just move—because your mind is filled with all of these lies that were told you about you not being smart enough, not being the right color, not being the right gender, not being the right sexual orientation, not being the right religion—it’s all lies. 

If you have a dream in your heart, that dream is there because you are supposed to manifest that dream, but if you’re going through your mind, there are all of these screens that you have to filter your desires through. 

But if you move into your heart—and you know, my favorite question is what would love do? And love would not lead you astray. Love would give you the courage to follow your heart to the path that the God of your understanding whispered in your ear. So, don’t mind those things that are in your head—follow your heart. 

People were telling me you’re giving up a career, but what I knew was that we are all put on earth for a reason, and that reason is not going to go away if you take a few years out to be with your mother while she’s making her transition or a few years out to work on a political campaign, or, in my case, two decades out to be a mom at home. 

Did you ever second-guess your decision, or were you clear from the moment you made it?

Debra Poneman: Truth. People always say, like you’re saying, did you ever doubt? And the answer is absolutely yeah. 

In fact, I remember this one day and I was home with my two kids while many of my students were off at their book launch parties, with the hot brie with the walnuts and the honey on top of it, and I just got back from Chuck E Cheese. I remember this one day that my kids were really out of sorts and usually I didn’t put them in front of the TV, but it was a TV day. I know nobody listening ever had it to hear with your kids, but I did. My kids were like two and five, I remember, because Daniel was still on diapers and they wanted to watch Barney, that big purple dinosaur thing. I said, okay, I’ll find Barney. Turn on the TV. 

True story. I’m doing a channel check for Barney. What do I see? One of my students on Oprah, with the New York Times bestselling book, doing a demonstration for Oprah that he had learned in my seminar about the power of your mind to move matter. And Oprah is like, Oh my goodness, this is so amazing. So, I’m standing in front of the TV, I burst into tears because at that moment I felt like I had ruined my life. He gets Oprah, I get them. I am standing in front of the TV weeping because it was like just one of those days. I’m weeping and the only thing that kind of shook me out of my self-imposed pity party was when my daughter says to me mommy, and I said, yes, sweetheart, she goes, I think you forgot our popsicles.

And I just have to tell you the rest of the story because it’s pretty profound. I went. So, I find Barney, I go into the kitchen and I am mad at God. Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re really mad at God, and I wanted to trust but I was mad. So I am pouring the orange juice into the popsicle mold and I’m saying why did you do this to me? That was supposed to be me on Oprah, and he gets Oprah and I get them. 

And I heard this voice. And when I say heard the voice of God, it’s not like Charlton Heston, like Debra, no, but I heard just a little voice. Remember the book? I’m like I do remember the book. It was hands of the publisher. God is like no, not that book. 

And I saw this book about somebody who had died, was revived, came back and wrote a book and in the book he said that he had died, he had gone through this long tunnel of darkness and at the end of the tunnel, darkness there is a being of light who showed him the highlights of his whole life, and it was a very short kind of movie reel. It showed him showing his son how to swing a baseball bat, dancing with his daughter at her wedding, and he’s like, what about when I brought my company public? And what about when I opened the factories in Japan? And the being of light said, all of those moments glorified you. 

Then the being of light showed him the life of somebody else who had just passed away and in the book it said these curtains of golden light parted and it was the woman who used to take a couple of buses to come to his house and clean his toilets. And the being of light said, that she had permission to show the man the highlights of this woman’s life. 

And it showed her carrying a pot of soup to a sick friend. It showed her stroking her mother’s hair as her mother’s making her transition. It shows her cheering at the baseball games for the kids, whose parents couldn’t be there because they had also had to work two or three jobs just to put food on the table. It showed her going to church and hugging everybody up and saying how are you doing today? 

And then the being of light said to the man, you judged her as such a poor, pathetic creature, but she had a glorious life. And when you get here you realize that the only thing that matters while you’re on earth is, how much love you give? 

So, me, I just put the popsicles in the freezer, I went back, I sat between my two babies and watched me some Barney and just surrendered. I just put away Napoleon Hill and Clement Stone and Wallace Wattles and surrendered to learning from my two greatest teachers, who, of course, are the two teachers who call me mom. 

When did you feel called to return to speaking, teaching, and coaching? How did that unfold?

Debra Poneman: It was another very specific moment although I don’t know the date. Again, each of us was put on earth for a God-given purpose and if you follow your heart, even if it appears to take you on a detour for 20 years, it’s not going to go away. 

One day, I get a call from my friend, Janet Atwood, and never a woman to mince words. You have to have her on one of your covers. She is a superstar. She calls me and she says to me “Okay, Debbie, don’t you think it’s time you start speaking again and stop pretending that your kids need you?” And, of course, she was right. I mean, they were like saying to me the same thing mom, we’re 21 and 18. We don’t need you to read us Harry Potter anymore. And, I mean I’m not even sure if they ever really needed me, but I was kind of the one who needed them, because to me, “one I love you so much, mommy, you’re the best mommy in the world” was worth more than a thousand standing ovations, but it was time to get back to my dharma. 

Then remember what I said early on when you cheer somebody on who’s in your same field, that’s when the grace and the glory is going to come back to you a thousand-fold. So, what does Janet do? She gets me on a stage just like that and she and I speak about something very similar. And I remember saying to her Janet, you know, we speak about something similar and you’re getting me this stage, and it was huge, it was in Canada and with Greg Habstritt, and I said, what if they like me better than they like you? 

And she said, then somebody else will like me better than they like you. And then, shortly after that, Marci calls me up and has this idea to start this company called, Your Year of Miracles and invites me to be her partner. And for the first five glorious years, Marci and I taught Your Year of Miracles together. 

Again, one of the things that is so key to being successful is helping other people because you don’t do it because my son taught me the saying building relationship capital. And I wish I could tell you that story, but I’m not sure we have time for it. But you know people don’t forget when you do something for them. They in most cases want to do something for you. So, here are these two women who I helped decades before and Marci also got me handed me a bestselling book to write, Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, combining the number one TV, reality series and the number one book series. She hands it to me because she was too busy to do it at the time. She was working on her book, Happy for No Reason, so they wanted someone to write that. 

Social media amplifies comparison and the pressure to build a personal brand. What advice do you have for those struggling with this mindset?

Debra Poneman: Well, what I would say is number one, if you find yourself going on social media and seeing somebody has a million likes and you have 20 likes, start doing that yourself. What I do personally when I see somebody getting a book deal or getting, I get contracted for a second. The first thing I do is I rejoice in their success. I wish them continued, even greater success and prosperity. I send them love from my heart to theirs, and so that’s what I do. 

But if you find that it really, really contracts you, just don’t look at it. Okay, just do your own path. Comparison can be death, and just know that you were put on earth. As I said, there could be 10,000 people who talk on leadership, but nobody is you. And there are people who came into this lifetime because you’re supposed to be their teacher, not the person with 100,000 likes or whatever it is. Just know that there are people waiting for you. 

Don’t wait for everything to be perfectly in place, because never is there going to be a time that everything is perfectly in place. We live in a universe where there are always going to be loose ends, loose ends, and all just take a step from which there is no turning back. I put up my posters and rented the room at the Santa Monica Public Library at the age of 28 that I was going to teach people how to be successful, but that idea was whispered into my ear. 

Daniel, my little guy always loved basketball when he was five and all of the kids wanted to have their parties at the aforementioned Chuck E Cheese. Daniel insisted on having his fifth birthday at Michael Jordan’s restaurant so he could sit next to the Holy Grail of Michael Jordan’s shoe. And when he was 14, he made the A-team. But you know the expression white boys can’t jump, they kind of can’t. He was the only white kid on the A-team at Evanston High School that year. 

But he traveled all over the City of Chicago warming the bench. But he realized that he had an eye for talent and he started making videos and sending them out to college coaches all over the country. And, Chicago is so rich with talent. And by the time he was 16, he was known as the go-to scout. He was featured on ESPN, ABC, Comcast, full page article about him in Sports Illustrated. 

But the reason why I tell you that is that he still felt that he was moving too slowly. Sending out one video, one video, one video. I mean there’s a problem. He was getting these kids scholarship but he wasn’t making any money. So, first of all he came to me and he said mom, I have this idea. Instead of making films, why don’t I put on a showcase? We were never the discouragement committee for our kids, ever, ever, ever. 

If God gave them an idea, who am I to say that’ll never work. Right, we said great idea. So, he decides because these kids Nike put on showcases, Reebok put on showcases. It was $250 to be in a showcase. Most of the kids in the hood didn’t have $2.50 to take a bus. 

Daniel starts a nonprofit at the age of 16, starts putting on free showcases, raises a bunch of money to put on these free showcases. His first one was like 10 coaches and 50 kids and as time went on, they grew and they grew and they grew and his last showcase was like 200 coaches and 400 kids and to date, he has raised close to $100 million in college scholarships for the kids on the South and West sides of Chicago and I’m so proud of him. 

But what I want to tell you this is, when he’s getting all of these scholarships for the kids and he’s sleeping on my couch, I’m paying. I’m paying for the car that he uses, I’m paying for the cameras that he’s using and I’m like, Daniel, isn’t there some way you could make money? 

And he said, and I quote, “Mom, don’t worry.” Actually he said, “mom chill,” but he was so respectful, Mom don’t worry, I’m building relationship capital. And then he started putting on these showcases and, even though he still didn’t take a penny for himself, people saw what he was doing. 

Then, one day, he decided he wanted to make a movie about basketball in Chicago and one of the people who he had built relationship capital with, who saw what he was doing, not taking a penny for himself, gave him half a million dollars to make a movie and it was nominated for an Emmy. 

Now everybody wants a piece of Team Daniel. I could just give you a little bit of an idea. I don’t know if you know who Anthony Davis is. If you look at Google and the kid who discovered Anthony Davis, you’ll see Daniel Poneman, and he was also just named one of the 100 most influential people in the world of basketball. Slam Dunk remember, Mac McClung? He was Mac McClung’s agent for years and years. The guy who jumped over the Kia remember. 

By the way, when he made his movie, Dwyane Wade and Chance the Rapper were the executive producers. And when nobody knew Chance the Rapper in Chicago, Daniel would go around and get people to go to his concerts. Not because he thought, Oh well, I’m going to get people to go to Chance’s concerts and later on he’ll executive produce my movie. He didn’t even know what an executive producer was, but he built relationship capital. 

So, here’s the point, at 15 he knew the law of abundance. He didn’t support these kids because he thought one day they’ll be in the NBA and they’ll get me good seats at the playoffs. As a matter of fact, he focused on Division II kids who will never go to the NBA. 

Anthony was an anomaly, but he grew up with privilege and to him that meant he needed to give back. Even though I never said that to him. He said, isn’t that what people do when they grow up with privilege? 

But anyway, some doesn’t say you know, give me light. And it’s like you give, because that’s what human beings do, and you just build relationship capital and it always comes back. 

You’ve shared incredible stories about generosity, success, and your son. With all your programs and speaking engagements, are you planning to slow down anytime soon?

Debra Poneman: No, I just found it ageless a couple of years ago and it’s anti-aging for your brain, your body and your future. Because I saw people who were my same age, aches and pains and forgetful, and I realized that I know how to remain ageless. I know, and so I teamed up with a friend of mine who happens to be a Harvard trained mind, body researcher. I don’t know if you remember the 1990s there was a cover of Newsweek, Have we discovered the fountain of youth? That was her team’s research at Harvard. 

So, she and I teamed up just a couple of years ago and we started teaching our ageless course. Because people think, Oh, well, my father had Alzheimer’s or my mother had arthritis. There are lifestyle changes you can make that will. Do you know that only 5% of people with Alzheimer’s have a relative that have Alzheimer’s? The other 95%, it’s lifestyle decisions that you can choose, eat this or eat that, sleep this way, sleep that way, exercise this way, exercise that way. And we knew what to do and we know what to do, how to slow, stop and reverse aging. 

And I am so not close to slowing down. I’m 73 and I just recently started yet another company, which I’m not going to tell you what it is, because what is sacred must be kept secret. But learn our anti-aging secrets, and then you won’t slow down either. 

Where can people learn more about the Ageless program?

Debra Poneman: Everything is at yestosuccess.com. My Ageless, my Awake, my Yes to Success programs. I even teach a communications course on how to be effective on Zoom and how to be effective from the stage. So I teach a lot of things and it’s all there at yestosuccess.com. 

Which social media platforms do you enjoy most or recommend?

Debra Poneman: Well, I’m not going to say right now because we’re revamping my social media presence, except for I have a YouTube channel and I do something called Success Saturday. 

Every Saturday it’s a 5 to 10, sometimes I go 15 minutes, depending on what’s happening in the world, sometimes I have to, but I teach tips for health, but mostly tips for living a life that you love, and becoming awake because you know what. That’s why, awakened, it is time to get the tools so that we can wake up. And there are tools, there are ways, like your wonderful guests share, to become more awake. 

Now is the time to do it because the more awake we are and the more bright our light is, because people are like how do I contribute to the world? What can I do to contribute to the world? 

Wake up, become a bright light and your light is going to radiate and it is going to counteract the darkness.