1h 46m
The Original Publisher · Since 1956
Where the personal-development audio program was born.
Nightingale-Conant published the first spoken-word success recording to sell a million copies — and has curated the field's defining voices ever since. This is where classic self-improvement audio comes from.
The Story
It began with a record nobody thought would sell.
In 1956, radio broadcaster Earl Nightingale pressed a recording of a talk he had given his own sales team — The Strangest Secret. It became the first spoken-word record to sell more than a million copies and go Gold.
Four years later, in 1960, Earl Nightingale partnered with Lloyd Conant to build a company around a simple, radical idea: that the best thinking in personal development belonged on audio a listener could return to again and again. For the first time, self-improvement was something you could listen your way into — not a book you read once and shelved, but a designed audio course built for repetition.
In doing so, they invented an industry. Over the six decades since, Nightingale-Conant has published the field's defining voices — Napoleon Hill's success philosophy, Brian Tracy on the psychology of achievement, Jim Rohn on the art of a life well lived, Zig Ziglar on setting and reaching goals — each professionally produced and narrated for serious listeners. The catalog below is the founding line of that library: the originals that created the category, and the modern torchbearers who carried it forward.
01
The first, literally
Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret (1956) was the first spoken-word recording to go Gold — the moment personal development became something you could listen to, not just read.
02
The voices that defined it
Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar — the authors who built the field recorded their definitive programs here, not as audiobooks but as designed audio courses.
03
Made to be heard
Studio-produced, session-structured, built for repetition and the commute — the deliberate audio format Nightingale-Conant invented and has refined for six decades.
The Originals · 1956–1975
Where the format began
The founding recordings that created the category. Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret and Lead the Field, alongside Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich — the success philosophy the whole field grew from.
5h 40m
7h 40m
The Modern Torchbearers
The authors who carried it forward
Once the format was proven, a new generation of teachers recorded their definitive programs with Nightingale-Conant — Brian Tracy on the psychology of achievement, Jim Rohn on the art of exceptional living, and Zig Ziglar on reaching the top.
5h 51m
4h 41m
4h 53m
The Dean of Personal Development
Earl Nightingale
Biography · 5h 40m
Lead the Field
Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) is remembered as the Dean of Personal Development. A radio broadcaster who spent years studying what separates successful people from everyone else, he pressed his conclusion onto a single recording — The Strangest Secret — which in 1956 became the first spoken-word album to sell more than a million copies and earn a Gold Record. In 1960 he co-founded Nightingale-Conant with Lloyd Conant, inventing an entire industry: the wisdom of the world's most successful people, recorded, produced, and delivered straight into a listener's ears. Every classic self-improvement audio program traces back to that idea.
Keep Exploring
1956
The publisher that invented personal-development audio.
From the recording that launched the industry to the modern programs of Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Zig Ziglar, Nightingale-Conant has published the definitive classic self-improvement audio for more than sixty years — professionally produced and narrated for serious listeners.
1956First Gold Record
1M+Copies — The Strangest Secret
60+ YearsOf Publishing Leadership
20+Field-Defining Authors
Classic Self-Improvement Audio — Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the original publisher of classic self-improvement audio programs?
Nightingale-Conant. Founded in 1960 by Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant, it published the first spoken-word success recording to go Gold and has curated the personal-development audio field — Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and others — for more than sixty years.
What was the first personal-development audio program?
Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret (1956) — the first spoken-word recording to sell more than a million copies and earn a Gold Record. It established the audio program as the format for self-improvement, distinct from a narrated book.
Who publishes Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, and Brian Tracy audio programs?
Nightingale-Conant is the publisher of the definitive audio editions — including The Strangest Secret, Lead the Field, Think and Grow Rich, and The New Psychology of Achievement — available on nightingale.com and Audible.
What are the classic self-improvement audio programs everyone should start with?
Begin with the founding line: Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret and Lead the Field, and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich — the recordings that created the category. From there, the modern classics from Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Zig Ziglar carry the same tradition forward, all published by Nightingale-Conant.