Author, CEO of Ziglar, Inc, and son of legendary speaker and salesman Zig Ziglar, Tom Ziglar, explains how intentional = meaningful and the importance of getting a check-up from the neck up, and shares some of Zig’s favorite foods and activities, what he was like offstage, and why to “be, do, have”, in that order.

Today, we are talking with the son of legendary Zig Ziglar,

a man who has become a legend in his own right, Tom Ziglar. He's

the CEO of Ziglar, Inc, and has been bent a career in in sales

and has been working with Zig Ziglar Corporation since 1987.

As obviously spoken all across, really the planet and you know,

the Ziglar roots run deep and wide, and everybody who does

anything significant in the speaking world, and the training

world is somehow tied to this wonderful family. And so Tom,

man, it's good to have you. Thank you so much for being on

the show. I appreciate you just being open to kind of give us a

little insight or access into your life. I mean, what was it

like growing up as a Zig Ziglar son? Like, can you talk to us

about that just a little bit?

Well, first off, it was amazing. As much as dad was

loved on stage, and through his books, and people who've met

him, he was even better at home. I mean, he, one of my friend

said, you know, your dad walks his talk, and he's a really good

talker. And so he was kind and consider that a love mob like

you wouldn't believe. And I always had time for me. We

played many, many, many hours of golf together, we took golf

trips together. I know, because I've seen somebody, my friend go

through, you know, challenges and their family life. We just

didn't I didn't add that. Also, I don't know what another

experience would be like. So it's just coming from my

perspective. But he's the real deal. He never said anything on

stage that he didn't back up. And then so that whole, I

remember is a boy and come up to me and apologizing. And I didn't

even really think he'd done anything wrong. He wanted me to

know that he wasn't bigger than an apology. You know, he wanted

me to know that he he wanted to follow the board and do what was

right. And if he got out of line a little bit, he prayed out and

go mica right. And whoever was so that was just, I was shut

down.

What's your favorite memory of your dad?

Oh, my gosh, I have so many of them. Playing golf,

always just a special time looking forward to. Oh, he'd

love to compete. He'd had so much fun. And man, he would

literally he did a good shot. And he would lick his lips and

the intensity of the of the joy that came out of that. Probably,

you know, there's favorite memories, and there's meaningful

memories. And one of them did have to do with golf. I was

about 22 or 23 years old, I've just been married. And we were

playing golf. And in those days, I would a lot of times he'd say,

Hey, you want to play and I deal by his house and pick him up

that he lives right next to the golf course we drive over there.

And we play and if you don't my mind at that time, he liked the

best dad who ever lived, right? So we come home, I dropped him

off, I get down, I take his bag into the garage. And I'm saying

goodbye to it. And he says, Wait a second thought I'd turn

around, and I look him in the eye. And he says I need to tell

you something. And he put his hand on my shoulder. And he

says, I don't know if I've told you now that I love you. And I'm

proud of. And it just like the intentionality of that. You

know, you could tell that he'd been thinking about it, praying

about it. And of course, if you'd asked me I'd have been

like, Dad, wait a second, he told me costal you told me

verbally you tell me, Sharon, what you do. Just imagine doing

this with your child or your father putting their hands at a

quiet moment, one hand on one shoulder the other hand on the

other tool, just the impact.

It's such a simple moment.

And it's funny because earlier today, I was

talking to a good friend and we were talking about the Masters

golf tournament and he said, Have you ever been there? I

said, Yeah, he goes to the tournament. No, I've got to play

there. And he said, we'll do it. I said, Well, my dad, and it was

beyond awesome. But it wasn't as meaningful as the story I told

you about a normal rounded off finish by an intimate

conversation. And that just serves that we don't have to

have special circumstances or events or memorable places to

add a life changing conversation. It just needs to

be intentional.

What was the height of your dad's career? I know that

you weren't always in the business. But you've been I

mean, you've been in business since 1987. So what do you think

he thought was the height of his career?

Oh my God. He always thought at the height of his

career was in front of it. And so I think it finally came true

on November 28 2012. When he went ahead that's the height of

his career. The public would say either, you know, when he was

speaking in the in the 80s and 90s and 2000s to the, you know,

the arena's that had had 20,000 30,000 the biggest event he ever

did had 82,000 people in a in a, in a dome stadium. That's pretty

cool. He went to Brazil and filled up soccer stadiums down

there, in the course of the book sold millions of copies. So we

had so many of those career pipe highlights. But if you would ask

dad, he had always done it. It was still in front of it.

82,000 people good night.

After the first 20,000 they all look the same,

right?

What were some of the favorite things that were more

random? Like I had no idea. I didn't know that. I didn't know

that he loved golfing that much. I mean, I knew he was

competitor. So that makes total sense.

Oh my gosh, well, he loved Well, golf. Definitely. He

beloved, just hanging out with the family, having the whole

family in the house activity going on him. Now this isn't

going to surprise you either. But him with a book that has no

pad reading and a chair or working on his next presentation

or his next book while all the family gets going on. That's

life happened to him. Even better to the lake house with

the fire in the fireplace that he'd built out of in the piney

woods, you know, just a really quiet serene place. He loved ice

cream. I mean, he you know whether it's French talk that

Auburn or vanilla or whenever it was he just loved it. And

another another thing that he loved was cornbread, buttermilk,

so he would have that for dinner. We'd go to Luby's

cafeteria. If they had crispy cornbread there. He'd ask for

buttermilk in the back and he'd have a glass of cornbread

buttered dough.

I think he read something like two hours a day?

Yeah actually he did study and research and reading

at least three hours. He got so excited. I mean, he could just

see it when he had a new idea. And his sole purpose of that

idea was, if he could translate it into simple language that

somebody else can apply, they could change their life. He got

so excited about having a little part of that. So he was always

on that cliff. I remember this was kind of a flashback slowly

that I remember when he would come home from the road. And

this is what he was in his 70s Because he was still traveling

all over the 70s speaking and even like 70s And so you're

getting in and out of airplanes. You don't treat as well on the

road. He come home and he walks through the door and it's in his

shoulders would be flooding from physical exhaustion. And his

face will be lit up with complete emotional contentment.

God well done energized emotionally, he do it all you

want to do and and he was Hoh. It I used to think how does that

happen to somebody as a kid and growing up in Washington due to

the IRS? How did that happen? Last year, I had one of those

leaks, you know, or maybe two years ago, we're outside of the

three different cities and I came home. And I was physically

worn out. But emotionally I was I was excited. And then I

realized that a secret. Think about this. And he did prepare

three hours every day. And then three hours for that specific

talk before he gave. So that means he was putting the right

information in his mind that old time. And then he gave the talk.

Well, when you think guess who else hears that of the side of

the audience, the speaker, and then he would get feedback

before he left because people autographed and so on, you know

about talking about how they read his book, is that cool, we

can all do that in our own way we can, we can study to make

somebody else better. That builds us. We can share it with

somebody that builds up. And then when they give us feedback

about the success that add whether that builds us to that's

what I understood that thicker, he wasn't being drained, he

would be filled up by what he did.

That's so cool.

And no matter what career we have, you know, if we

have a career that has to do with things and products and

technical things, then it's draining. But if we realized

that our career is really about the relationships that we have

inside that career, and those we work with and those we serve,

all of a sudden it can be filling out because ours are

still there. And we can't hope to get filled up in the process

of filling them up.

Absolutely. Well, what's going on with Ziglar? Now like

what do you guys really focused on? And what is what is the plan

for the future of sort of the Ziglar brand and the Ziglar

business?

Well, as everybody can imagine, we been going

through a transition for for a number of years, even before dad

graduated to his ultimate goal which was to get him in because

he wasn't speaking the last few years that he was here. But we

have been really laser focused on attracting and connecting

with all the people who've been impacted by him through the

years and now our Facebook is going nuts. The littler fanpage

is the place to go. If you need a checkup from the neck up. You

just want to get some Zukul vote and some inspiration. It's the

community it's just amazing. But there's nothing about dads

simple saying his clones that are viral that hit home, that

even though you've heard it before, you need to hear him

again, you know, there's just something about it. That's been

really cool because the legacy lives on. I mean, let's face it,

we are in a better position today than ever to reach the

world. And so if we know that the principles that dad taught

this philosophy work, then we have a bigger opportunity than

we've ever had. So, so we are now taking our core programs,

and allowing people to be certified to teach and try knows

wherever they are in the world. There are three core areas, the

dad is known for one in personal development. One is relationship

building, and one is goal setting. And so if you're a

trainer, speaker, or consultant, or coach, you know, your

audience or your customer is going to want information in

those areas. And so we realized that, hey, if we can equip

people to teach dad's core material, how fast and how cool

is that? Well, they can just take the best of the best and

use it in their own way. And so we created a five day

certification class, where you come through, you learn how to

teach it, you're giving them the materials, the Leaders Guide,

the student manuals, the PowerPoint is everything, you

need to be turned key, so that you can go back to your

audience. And then we went one step further, we kind of almost

adopted these folks into the family. And we give them the

logo because it will ever get the certification logo, so that

they can call themselves by that name, which gives a huge amount

of credibility when you're going into associations or businesses

or things like that. He wants to bring in somebody who's really

there maybe from the local community, but they want to know

what credibility they bring to the table. So this means that

he's got the Ziglar stamp of approval on it. I love it

because it's like finding brothers and sisters I didn't

know I had I mean that's the coolest part.

Yeah, and so where do they go, just ziglar.com for that?

Or you could call the office, all those are good

places.

Last little thing Tom, I just wanted to get kind of your

ideas; what is one of the most lasting principles that he

always promoted offstage that you that you really you know, as

you look back on your time with him, this is one of the one of

the biggest things that I learned from my dad that I carry

with me forever.

God, it was all Conoco you can have everything

in water, if you want, it will just help enough other people

get what they want. The motive needs to be to help other people

be do and have more than they thought possible. And dad kind

of coined the beat you in hand philosophy, you gotta be before

you can do or you got to do before you can have, and our

culture is so wrapped up into the do have to have, right, I

want to have the car, I want to have the house, I'm gonna have

to burn it. I want to get I want to do this cool job. I want the

applause. I want the big stage. And that's the duty. And dad

always said, no, no, no, that's good. But what you want to focus

on first is being the right kind of person. And we'll give the

right kind of person first, and then you didn't do the right

things. Eventually, you'll have all a lot of fast offer. And

that's why lottery winners lose their money so fast, because

they weren't the right person to handle in the first place. If

we're going to achieve success and fame and keep it because

believe me, you've seen the track record of speakers that

are industry who do very well for a time and then kind of

disappear. It's not their speaking talent that goes away.

It's usually an integrity issue. They lose their credibility from

that perspective. So maintain and develop and work on your

integrity every day. Adapt to defer that will pass

sustainability.

If you help enough other people get what they want. You

will always get what you want. Tom thanks for stopping by on

the show.

Alright, thank you.