263. Tom Ziglar Interview: The Power of Hope in Difficult Times

Tom Ziglar 00:00
And so what happened to dad? That was a black swan event. And that's what we're in right now. Susan, that's what happened to you. You just had that, you decided you were gonna go quadruple down and do four in a row. But we all have this idea. So the question I want to ask everybody is this. Did that response to that situation, that dad came up with, did he like, think about it and come up with it on that bed or did he literally have 60 years of preparation for that response?

Susan Sly 00:33
Welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship,

Susan Sly 00:36
the show that dares to bring no nonsense insight to those who have the courage to start, grow and scale a business. I'm your host, Susan sly. This incredible, incredible man. His father was the late Zig Ziglar. And I love what Zig said. He said, You don't have to be great at something to start but you have to start to be great at something. Whoa. So this gentleman had the real privilege of spending his whole life by the ultimate mentor, Zig Ziglar. Can you imagine those dinners and Christmases and, you know, he is the CEO of Ziglar Inc. He was a collaborator on his father's 30th bestseller born to win. He has his first solo title that came out last year choose to win. And he expands on the Ziggler philosophies and the secrets of winning at life. Tom is so successful in his own right, he speaks around the world to billion dollar companies, small business owners, he speaks at academic institutions like Cambridge and Harvard. And he, the Ziglar brand is more relevant today than it ever was before. It has over 5 million likes on Facebook, the Ziglar show is one of the top rated rated business podcasts. And when I reached out to this man, and I said, Hey, would you be open to doing this? We're just gonna serve. There was absolutely no hesitation he said, Yes. So with that, Tom Ziglar, I would like to welcome you to the summit of health, and I'm here to learn and take notes from you.

Tom Ziglar 02:10
Well, Susan, thank you so much. What a, what a great opportunity to share a little bit of love, hope and encouragement. You know, when I was a little boy, I asked Dad, I said, Dad, what are we, you know, what do we do? What, you know, what's our business? And he said, son, we sell hope. And so we've always been in the hope business. And I want to start with the story. I don't really share this story that often. But in 2007, I was on a trip in Mexico, and I got a call. And the call was come home. Dad's fallen. And so my father, Zig Ziglar, had been speaking in Los Angeles. You know, 12,000 people, big arena. He flies home, it was great. He's 80 years old at the time. So imagine, 80 you know, he's, he's out there rocking it. And he gets home and he's, he goes to bed. And we don't know why, for some reason, he gets up in the middle of night. And he goes down the hallway. And instead of, we think he was going into his office, but he turned left instead of right. And he hit the first step. And he goes tumbling down a staircase, hits his head on the marble floor at the bottom and gets a double brain bleed. So you can imagine mom's there. She calls the emergency, they take him in and they do all the stuff. And it's, it's a bad concussion. It's a serious thing. So we're trying to get home. And he instantly lost the short term memory. So the next day, I still hadn't made it back yet. He's in the hospital room. My sisters are there. My mom's there. The doctor comes in and gives him the report, hey, this is what's going on. You know, we're watching this, you have some swelling. But you know, we're gonna play it by ear. He had vertigo at that time, and he had the swelling, had little headaches still. And as the doctor is about to leave dad says, Hey, today, I think is Tuesday because he was looking at the board and had the date on it like in the hospital room. He says on Thursday, I'm supposed to speak in Houston. And there's about 15,000 people who are counting on me being there. Can you get me out of here so I can go there and speak. And the doctor looks at him and says, Well, Mr. Ziglar, you won't be going to Houston and you really need to think about the fact that you're probably never going to speak again. So have any of you ever had somebody put a cap on your life? So my sister Julie said, the dad just smiled. He didn't say a word. And then when the doctor left, you know, just a few seconds later, dad looked at my sister Julie and he called, he called Julie's nickname. He had a nickname for all of us. He called Julie little one. He said little one, I still have something to say. We're just going to have to figure out a different way to say it. And right there on that hospital bed is when the idea came about that dad would still go to these events. And Julie would interview him on stage. And so think about this- over the next four and a half years, he did over 100 events, 10 to 12,000, on average at these events, and lives were impacted and changed that never would have been impacted and changed because they saw Zig Ziglar, not as the powerhouse speaker going back and forth with every word perfect. But as a real, transparent, authentic human being, who was there for one reason only, and that's because he loved everyone in the room. And lives were impacted and changed. And so what happened to dad? That was a black swan event. And that's what we're in right now, Susan, that's what happened to you. You just had that, you decided you were going to go quadruple down and do four in a row. But we all have this idea. So the question I want to ask everybody is this. Did that response to that situation that dad came up with, did he like, think about it and come up with it on that bed or did he literally have 60 years of preparation for that response? Yeah, 60 years. That's exactly right. Yeah. And the reason is, is dad said this, we don't, we can't choose what happens to us. But we can choose how we respond to what happens to us. And so what I want to do real quick, is I'm going to share a PowerPoint. And I've just got two slides that I want to show you, or three. And it's this what we call the stronger mindset. And I just want you to hear what I believe is a choice that we have right now. When I was a boy, you know, 13 years old, Sunday would roll around and dad would wake us up at gosh, he'd wake us up at 7:30 in the morning, hey, it's time to go to church. And I said, Dad, do I have to go to church? And he said, No, you get to go to church.

Tom Ziglar 07:04
Here's the reality, we're all going through this, okay? I want you to choose today that you're going to not go through it, you're going to grow through it. Because I believe that everybody on this call, you were built, you were made, you were designed for such a time as this. In other words, those around you, those you love, your family, your friends, your co workers, your teammates, your clients, your customers, everybody who's in your network, they are looking to you right now, for that little bit of hope and encouragement. And so I was thinking if Zig Ziglar was here, if dad were here, what advice, what word would he give, and I found this quote, and I want to break it down. Here's the stronger mindset that I want you to take with you during this time. Expect the best, prepare for the worst, maximize what comes. So what does that mean? Expect the best. Hey, look, we've got to have the attitude of gratitude, the attitude of courageous hope and encouragement. Dad said we needed to have that little curve that sets everything straight. That's the smile. When people hear us talk,when they hear us communicate on social media, when they see our texting, when they, whatever the situation is, they need to feel in our spirit that we believe tomorrow is going to be better the next day or the next day. Why? Because we're all in this together. And you see when we feed our minds the right information, when we take in the good to clean up the powerful and the positive so that we can reflect this attitude of you know what, we're going to get through this together. When we do those things, it literally lifts our own spirits, scientifically and medically, we know that when our spirits are lifted, our immune system is boosted. Has there ever been a time where we need a stronger immune system. And when we lift the spirits of someone else, we literally lift their immune system. Lives are counting on our attitude right now more than ever, this hope, this encouragement. So that's the first thing. The second is we got to prepare for the worst. But wait, how do those two things go together? Let me tell you how they go together. We need to look at the future and say, You know what, what if this takes a little longer than I wanted to? How would I prepare today? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to exercise I'm going to eat right, I'm going to get my eight hours of sleep, I'm going to feed my mind and my spirit, the right things. I'm going to take care of myself in every area. I'm going to look at my business and my career, the things that I have going on in the future. And I'm going to say if this takes longer than I want it to what can I do now to create margin in my life? And why do we want margin in our life? It's real simple. You've probably already had the two o'clock phone message or call Hey, I'm scared, I'm lonely. What do I do? We've got to maximize what comes. And how do we maximize what comes? We give that, that hope and encouragement to everybody. You know, we let them know we care and we love them and then we follow up with a little bit extra the next day. Hey, I was praying about you this morning. You're on my heart. Is there anything I can do for you? And in your business, it's the same thing. You're gonna have customers call you, hey, I'm covered up with problems, can you help? That's what you do is you help. You maximize that opportunity, then you give them a little bit extra, the little word of encouragement, the smile, the lifting of the spirits. My good friend's name is Rabbi Daniel Lapin. He's a mentor of mine. He said this. God is never happier with his children than when they're solving the problems of his other children. Hey, guess what, from a military perspective, we are in a target rich environment, we are surrounded by problems. When you expect the best, prepare for the worst, and maximize what comes you can serve your fellow man. Lift, take the burden off of them, lighten their load and in the process, it'll fill you up. Alright, Susan, thank you so much. Man, 10 minutes goes fast. So I hope that was, I hope that was good. And I hope everybody here was blessed and are really taking notes and are using what you learned today.

Susan Sly 11:00
Tom, that was beautiful. I just took a page of notes and the chat is going crazy. And so thank you so much, Tom. That was so beautiful.