As we chased down Dave Chilton for an interview, the question begged an answer. What the heck is the Waterloo, Ont., author of a best-selling book on financial planning doing pitching cookbooks and low-fat cheesecake?

At first inspection, it seemed an odd reincarnation for this one-time stockbroker, author of The Wealthy Barber and highly acclaimed after-dinner speaker.

When you think about it, though, it all starts to make sense.

Why shouldn't one who taught Canadians how to become wealthy with a healthy financial diet cooked up by a wealthy barber teach us how to Eat, Shrink and Be Merry (which, by the way, is the title of the third cookbook he is publishing with sisters Janet and Greta Podleski)?

Ken Kerr, Business Edge
The Wealthy Barber author Dave Chilton is trying his hand at other products, including food products and cookbooks.

When the Podleski sisters, fans of The Wealthy Barber, tempted Chilton with cheesecake, the entrepreneur knew he'd tasted a winner.

So let them eat cake. Low-fat cheesecake, that is.

1.What was your boyhood dream - to play for the Detroit Tigers or manage money for Warren Buffett?

"Absolutely, to play for the Tigers. It's still my dream. I'm 43 and I'll admit it's looking very unlikely at this point, but if I'm laying in bed fantasizing, it's certainly not about money - it's always about the Tigers.

I haven't changed much on that front. My son shares that dream by the way. He's 15 and a huge baseball fanatic. I was very much a normal kid in terms of enjoying sports and hanging around with the guys, but I was interested in money at quite a young age - not in the conventional, obsessive or materialistic way at all.

In fact, I'm still not really like that.

I live in a pretty humble house. I've got 1,400 sq. ft. I don't have a garage."

2. What sparked your interest in the financial world?

"I liked the math of money and I liked the common sense. As I got older, I even enjoyed the psychology of it and figuring out why people made some of the same mistakes over and over. When I think of all the things that helped me in my career, I was lucky to have loved reading financial books, which is pretty unusual. When I was maybe 25 years old and just starting to write The Wealthy Barber, I had literally read every financial planning book out in Canada and the States. That's not as big of a deal as it sounds, because at that time there were probably only 25 to 30 books that made up the financial planning genre."

3. What are your recollections of your three years as a stockbroker and the impact it had on your career?

"The big upside for me was the fact that I dealt one-on-one with a tremendous amount of clients on the personal-finance front and it became very clear that very few Canadians - including affluent Canadians - knew much about common-sense money management. Even the basics had escaped most people. I knew there was a need out there to get the information across. As shallow as it sounds, the whole idea for the speaking tour and then The Wealthy Barber really came from that experience and from watching people flail away and not knowing which way to turn. I used to provide them with a lot of other financial-planning books and they wouldn't read them. They thought they were too boring or too intimidating. I realized someone had to take an approach teaching the basics more effectively using humour, using different types of examples, taking the intimidation and dryness out of the subject. That's where the idea eventually came for The Wealthy Barber. Initially, I took it onstage (as a speaker). I actually spoke before I wrote. A lot of people don't know that I actually left being a broker to teach financial planning to teachers (in Ontario). I wanted a way that I could take these kinds of explanations and examples and get them out there in a more leveraged form - like a book or a TV show. That's where I first started thinking about a book and that eventually led to The Wealthy Barber."

4. In 1984, you had the highest mark in Canada in the Canadian Securities Course. How did that influence your career?

"I didn't realize what a big deal it was at the time. From a credibility standpoint, it really opened up doors. It was because of that reward that Exchange Magazine called and asked me to start writing a column. It was because of that reward that I got my first couple of speaking engagements, as well. That really led me into a profession that I ended up enjoying immensely. I much prefer the education end of things to the selling end of things. Even when I was a broker, I knew that that wasn't what I was going to do long term."

5. Were you a millionaire before you wrote The Wealthy Barber?

"Not at all. Quite the opposite. I did fairly well as a broker, but nothing unbelievable. I wasn't anywhere close to a millionaire. In fact, when I went to write The Wealthy Barber, I decided halfway through the writing process to self-publish and I knew that that was going to take most of the monies that I had accumulated, which was $30,000 to $40,000, to get into the marketplace. Plus, of course, I had no income for that full year. It was very much a humble project. I had no dreams at that point of it selling hundreds of thousands of copies. The goal initially was 10,000, which in Canada is not that bad. In Canada right now, it has sold between 1.6 and 1.7 million (copies). I made a huge mistake with The Wealthy Barber at the end of the first year in 1989. The book was actually slowing down a little bit and I was starting to get a lot of speaking invitations. I felt that that would be my primary revenue-raiser and focus. I sold the book to Stoddard Publishing, and since that point on, there have been 95 per cent of the sales, and I have made strictly royalty as opposed to the self-publishing profits. I've done very well with the book, by the way, and I'm definitely not trying to hide that, but I haven't made the kind of money that most writers have estimated I've made. That being said, I don't have a negative word to say about The Wealthy Barber. It introduced nothing but good things into my life."

6. Who was The Wealthy Barber?

"It was all fictional. It wasn't patterned after anybody at all. I would say about 50 per cent of the readers in the first few years thought the book was a true story. We got dozens and dozens of letters and calls from everybody from interviewers to everyday people who just wanted to meet the barber. One guy actually called and said he had driven all the way from Lansing (Mich.) to Port Huron (Ont.) because he wanted to find the barbershop. He was in Port Huron when he called and I had to explain to him that there isn't one, and he was mad at me. One guy wrote us a letter asking if I could set him up with my sister (a character in the book).

"The Wealthy Barber was conventional wisdom. It was the opposite of a get-rich-quick scheme. I don't make any apologies for the fact that I wasn't wealthy when I wrote it, because I wasn't holding out to people: 'If you do this, you too will be wealthy at the age of 25.' Quite the opposite. I was saying if you do these things right over a 30-year period, you'll be financially secure when you retire. There was only one new concept that was pushed in The Wealthy Barber, and that was that budgeting doesn't work. Ninety per cent of the book was very similar to what you would find in other financial-planning books. While I wrote this book, in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself: 'Would my friends read this, would my neighbours read this?' At one point, I got my slo-pitch team involved in reading the book. I was making a lot of mistakes. I was very much a neophyte writer and not a naturally gifted writer by any stretch. I come from a very literate family - my sister is an editor for Living Magazine, my father is very gifted - but I had to work hard at it and they were a huge help."

7. Are you now wealthier than The Wealthy Barber?

"One thing I'm proud to say is that I have followed everything I have taught in The Wealthy Barber. If anybody followed my finances, there wouldn't be any hypocrisy. I probably use individual common stocks more than mutual funds and more than I would suggest most people do, but that's not inconsistent. That's my training. With the exception of that, my financial plan is totally consistent with what I preached in The Wealthy Barber. I never got involved in limited partnerships and commodities, I don't do anything crazy, I don't leverage. I paid off my mortgage and got my will."

8. How has the book changed your life?

"I know this sounds fairly corny, but the most positive thing was the travelling, in that I got to meet so many people. I don't like the airports and hotels every night and, of course, you miss your kids when they are very young. It put in perspective for me that despite what you perceive from what you read in the newspapers - that being that it's a huge, bad world out there - the vast majority of people are extremely nice. I was treated very well everywhere I went, and I have friends everywhere because I have spoken at even the tiniest of places five, six and seven times."

9. How many people have told you they have become millionaires after reading the book?

"A lot. If I had to guess, I would say hundreds, maybe more. Maybe thousands. We were out in Prince Edward Island this summer and met three people who basically said that the book changed their lives. In fact, we were laughing because one guy had done a way better job than I had. He actually read the book, and, unlike most people who have read it, he opted to go into real estate with his 10 per cent (the book's concept of savings for investments). One of the things The Wealthy Barber did relatively well was that it tried to keep people away from the weird stuff. You know, don't get involved in things you don't understand. Don't get involved in leverage, in commodities and tax shelters. Just pay off your debt and keep it simple, because that in the long run is what works."

10. Have you sent a copy of the book to the NHL owners?

"Yeah, no kidding, hey? Or even some of the players (should read the book). Interestingly enough, I am amazed at how little I miss hockey. I have always been a fan. It's amazing how quickly you fill in with other things and move on. The NHL in particular has to be sensitive to that because their on-ice product - the regular-season product, in particular - is not that compelling any more, with the offence being stifled by the new style of hockey. I think a lot of us have not missed the regular-season hockey that much."

11. Did you escape from the dot-com market crash unscathed?

"Yeah, I did. I had four or five stocks, but a very small percentage of my portfolio there, and was lucky enough that I got out of most of the stocks when the markets were quite robust. I have always - with my own money and with everyone else's - emphasized broad diversification. I don't think any one segment in the market doing poorly is ever going to have too much of a negative impact. I'm just not that kind of an investor. I don't love the market right now. I've always kept most of my investments in the markets. I've kept some cash available, because every so often I get involved in a new business venture. For example, we're publishing the third cookbook in a series soon, and we've got to have the capital available to print that. For the most part, I try to stay relatively close to fully invested, and I don't try to time the markets because I'm not that smart."

12. Can you talk about the cookbooks and how that venture that started?

"It was a huge break for me. About seven years ago I got a call from a young woman named Janet Podleski and you could tell, even on the phone, that she had a tremendous amount of charisma and she told me that she and her sister (Greta) had written a cookbook. They wanted some help and I pointed out to them that I quite honestly had never cooked a meal in my life. She just kept pushing and she said: 'Do you mind if we take the train down tomorrow from Ottawa?' When she said train, I thought, 'That's weird, I mean who the heck takes the train nowadays?' I felt like a kid again. So I went and picked them up and it was a lucky stroke because they are very passionate. The cookbook was very unique. It had cartoons and funny recipe names. Eventually, I called the two sisters up and said on the spot: 'We'll start a three-way partnership and we'll launch the cookbook.' We brought Looneyspoons out and it sold 850,000 copies in Canada. We had a follow-up called Crazy Plates and it sold over 400,000 copies. The third cookbook is coming out now, and it looks even better than the first two. It's called Eat, Shrink and Be Merry. We are also selling Crazy Plates Meal Kits. The publishing is a more profitable business (than the meal kits). I would say I probably spend 75 to 85 per cent of my time on their businesses."

13. You returned to the speaking tour recently. What message do you want to convey?

"I got back into speaking entirely by accident. I hit a wall about five years ago where, after giving literally 1,500 speeches over a nine- or 10-year period, I just decided that that was it. I home-schooled my kids for three years, which I enjoyed immensely. Last summer, I gave a speech down in Toronto for the United Way and I just kind of walked up and winged it. I talked about everything from the health-care system to the experiences of the entrepreneur, and then I branched into a long session on perspective. I talked about how, even though I loved travelling, the one negative thing that jumped out at me is how much we complain and how little perspective we have about how lucky we are to be here as opposed to the rest of the world. The speech couldn't have gone over better, and I have received a ton of requests to do it again since. I'm doing a few financial speeches, too, but very few."

14. Who's the entrepreneur you most admire?

"I think the brand I most admire is Tim Horton's and the power they have been able to hold over Canadians.

I don't really have an entrepreneurial mentor or hero, as much as I admire a lot of different people who have done things well.

"Certainly, there's Howard Schultz (chairman of Starbucks). I followed that story very closely and read all the books that have come out on it. He's a guy who I really like for the passion he has shown, and the fact that he has been able to create a different experience. I do a tremendous amount of reading and I read business books almost exclusively."

15. Have you thought about a follow-up book to The Wealthy Barber?

"Lately I have but, amazingly enough, for the first 10 to 12 years (after The Wealthy Barber), it never really crossed my mind. I'm not sure they would be Wealthy Barber sequels per se. In fact, I might not even use The Wealthy Barber brand at all, but I am thinking about writing. If I do write again, I've got to do it fairly soon because I don't know if, in my 50s, I would want to go back to the (book tours). At one point, I worked on a book for a few weeks just in my head called Who Shot The Wealthy Barber. It was a mystery, obviously about the wealthy barber being murdered and it all tied into financial planning. I may do something like that, but you've got to put enough work into that so it can carry itself on both merits: For financial advice and for the writing aspect. Not being a naturally gifted writer, that would be a tremendous amount of work. I'm not averse to that, but I just can't do it now because we have the third cookbook coming out."

16. Is it intimidating for you to follow The Wealthy Barber with another financial book?

"Yeah, it is. The only slight negative to The Wealthy Barber is that nothing I ever do will live up to The Wealthy Barber. I know that. You're never going to write another book that everyone will like. It's just not going to happen. If I wrote a book again, even if 80 per cent of the people liked it, that would still be a lot different than the last one, and even if it sold 200,000 copies, by Wealthy Barber standards that's a letdown. Now, I don't let it bother me too much, but there is no doubt that, in terms of impact and reception, I peaked at a very young age, sadly.

My dad always jokes about that. He was once asked by Maclean's magazine: 'Are you worried that David is going to be a one-hit wonder?' He said: 'Well, that's one hit more than we thought he would have.' I think that sums it up pretty good."

17. If God taps you on the shoulder and says you can change one thing in your life, what would it be?

"I wouldn't change anything, and I don't say that to be corny. I always tell people I'm the luckiest guy going. I see my parents three to four times a week, I have two great kids, I love my job, I've been healthy all my life and so has everyone else in my life. I never complain. I'm very, very fortunate. I mean, if I could make big-picture changes in the world and bring peace to certain regions and that type of thing, obviously I would. But in terms of changing my own life, I don't have too many complaints. If I could make Nibs (candy) healthy food instead of just pure licorice, I would be a very happy man."

18. It's 2020. Where are you, and what are you doing?

"I'm 99-per-cent sure I'll still be working in some capacity. I enjoy work and I look forward to it almost every day. I think I'll still be speaking, not necessarily 130 times a year, but 10 to 20 (times). I think if I am still involved in a business directly, as opposed to consulting, it will be publishing. I've loved books for a long time - I collect books - and for some reason, that is the industry that I enjoy most, so I think I'll be involved in it in some way, shape or form."

19. Is there some other challenge you'd like to tackle in your future?

"I have always wanted to try to write a play. That's one thing that I am annoyed about, not having had the discipline, frankly, to work harder on that. I've got a lot of ideas and I have always wanted to try to do that."

20. What is your most prized material possession?

"I have a desk that has been handed down from generation to generation in our family. I think at one point it was in one of the major political offices down in the States because one of our great, great-grandfathers was a consulate in the States for Canada. I love that desk. It's really unique looking and I grew up with it in my grandmother's house, and now it's in my house. That's about it. I'm not really into that stuff that much. I also have a signed etching of Albert Einstein that's framed, but those are about the only things. I don't really have a lot of things that have a lot of sentimental value in my life."

IN PROFILE: DAVE CHILTON

* Title: President, Financial Awareness Corp., Crazy Plates Inc.

* Born/Raised/Age: Kitchener, Ont./43.

* Education: Wilfrid Laurier University, economics degree.

* Family: Two children.

* Claim To Fame: Chilton is author of one of Canada's all-time best-selling books, The Wealthy Barber - The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning, which has sold more than two million copies in North America.

* Food For Thought: Chilton recently published two low-fat cookbooks - Looneyspoons and Crazy Plates, authored by his business partners Janet and Greta Podleski - and is currently head of Waterloo-based Crazy Plates Inc., which markets Crazy Plates Meal Kits sold in Loblaws' banner supermarkets, including Superstore. He is also a motivational speaker.

* Accolades: Chilton is a former recipient of the H.L. Gassard Award for the highest mark in the country in the Canadian Securities Course.

* Favourite Investment Book (besides The Wealthy Barber): The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, by Andrew Tobias.

* Favourite Entrepreneur: Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman.

* Passions: Rooting for the Detroit Tigers, playing slo-pitch.

* Websites: www.wealthybarber.com, www.crazyplates.com.

* Office: Suite 102, 470 Weber St. N., Waterloo, Ont., N2L 6J2.

* Phone/Fax: 416-747-2298/416-747-2294.

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)