This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Tom Ziglar. Tom probably doesn’t need much of an introduction as CEO of Ziglar Inc one of the most renowned training and personal development organizations in the world. I was fortunate to have the opportunity in my youth to study directly with his father. Zig Ziglar. Tom has carried on Zig’s legacy and taken the company to even new heights.
Tom is one of the most sought after thought leaders and speakers by billion dollar companies, smaller business owners, prestigious institutions, and people looking for inspiration, motivation, and hope.
Tom and Ziglar Inc. are focused on success, significance, and legacy, the latter of which I really want to dig into with Tom in the episode…
www.Ziglar.com
Tom@Ziglar.com
Tom and I discuss how the Ziglar firm started as a support mechanism for Zig for his speaking and grew from there. It was a vehicle to meet the needs and solve the problems of people that needed encouragement and promise for success with a plan. It is estimated that the organization has impacted over 250 million people throughout its life.
Over the last 7-8 years, the company has gone through a transformation to maintain its impact and relevance in today’s world. The mission hasn’t changed because it is timeless and that is simply that “You can get what you want if you can just help enough other people get what they want.”
How has Ziglar Inc. navigated the change and transition to stay relevant today?
“It’s more difficult to transition or reinvent a company than it is to start from scratch…”
- The principles can stay the same, but whenever new leadership comes and works to pivot, it is different from the founder and the way they did things.
- You have to maintain the principles at the core and understand that it will not be easy to go through the transition.
- The biggest change has been in how Ziglar provides its services. In the past, everything came from Ziglar Inc., now the focus is on empowering individuals and teaching and equipping them with the tools and support to be able to train and teach the Ziglar principles throughout the world.
People are on a journey and follow a path that looks like this:
- Survival: You don’t how you are or what you are called to do. You take input from others and typically transition from one thing to the next, but are not finding the true calling that you stick with.
- Stability: You move from survival to stability when you determine who you are and who you want to become. You identify the character qualities, skills, traits, and the things that are truly important in your life.
- Success: You move from stability to success is when you start developing the skills and qualities you’ve been gifted with and making an impact.
- Significance: You move from success to significance when you are able to equip someone else to be, do, or have more than they thought possible.
- Legacy: An inheritance is what you leave to someone one, a legacy is what you leave in someone.
What is the most important piece of advice you received from your dad from a fatherly standpoint?
- A lot of things were “caught” more than “taught”
- How Zig lived his life was advice in itself
- You are what you are and where you are because of what’s gone into your mind - and you can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind
- What we choose to accept and believe is who we are – but the #1 lesson is that you can change that – you can choose your input and that will change your life.
- You cannot determine your future, but you can determine your habits, and your habits will determine your future.
- The simple habit of putting the right things into your mind changes EVERYTHING.
It seems so simple that what you put into your mind and the way you think will determine your results, but why do so few actually realize this and take advantage of this power in their lives?
At the 16 min mark, Tom goes into detail in answering this question
- Part of it is the awareness, but part of it also preparation to be prepare yourself for the life you want to have, who you want to be, and to be able to control your inputs into your mind in a situation.
- It also comes down to choice and if you are prepared with a pre-planned response to a circumstance beyond your control determine how your attitude will be. By making it a habit to put the good information and pre-planning in your brain everyday because things will go wrong and you need to be prepared in advance.
- The reason most people don’t do this is that it has to be learned and they don’t know they should learn it. They have been taught or told.
“To get the most out of life, you have to make a habit out of putting the right things in your mind, educational and inspirational to help you get through the challenges when they come up. And something is really a habit when you can recognize when you go through a day and miss it and feel like the day is not complete without it.”
At the 21 minute mark, Tom shares his “Performance Formula”
A x E x S = P
Attitude multiplied by Efforts multiplied by Skill equals Performance
- So many people settle for the middle ground, but the top 5% that outearn the average 5 or 6 times to 1, they have the ownership mentality – they own their own attitude, their effort, and maximizing their skills and learning to hone them.
- A little bit better can make such an exponential difference…
- Think about if you have an attitude set at 2x2x2 = 8 compared to someone with a 4x4x4 = 64. Now, think about if you have a -2 attitude -2x-2x-2 = -8
- It comes down to choice. You can choose to be great or not.
At the 28 min mark, Tom shares his Live to Win Philosophy
The fastest way to success?
Replace a bad habit with a good habit
Ways to sustain motivation?
- It is more than willpower – it is the why
- What is you why, your purpose, your big goal, or dream? Do you even have one? You need an anchor to keep you going and you need to figure out what it is…
- The why becomes your guiding light that keeps you going to follow through
- Don’t trade what you want most for what you want now
What have you found that truly matters?
- Success is what we do for ourselves, what we achieve, the material things
- Significance is how you help others be, do, and have more than they thought possible
- Legacy is transferring the principles, values, and wisdom, so that people can carry it through eternity
- What matters is equipping people for eternity. It is teaching you family, loved ones, and those that you can the principles, values, and wisdom. It is love
- Legacy and love go hand in hand
- Legacy is by design – you cannot stumble into it. It is purposeful.
At the 43 minute mark, Tom explains how anyone can create a lasting legacy
- Why and How you do it, is more important than what you do…
- The most powerful way to reach our own dream is to help others reach theirs…
- When you have a team of people working for a dream, it is powerful thing…
At the 49 minute mark, Tom goes his through process of Engage, Equip, and Transfer
- Engage: Hope. People need hope to take action. As a leader your job is to give people hope that the better future they hope for is possible and show them the way to it.
- Equip: Never give a promise without a plan. Start with hope, but then put a plan together to get to what you or the people you are working with want.
- Transfer: Empower those around you to teach others what they’ve learned
Best Quote: “To get the most out of life, you have to make a habit out of putting the right things in your mind, educational and inspirational to help you get through the challenges when they come up. And something is really a habit when you can recognize when you go through a day and miss it and feel like the day is not complete without it.”
Tom's Misfit 3:
- Know the source of your talent. We were created for something more, so understanding our creator and source of our talent is critical.
- Develop that talent with grit. You must persevere through everything to get where you know you have to go. Own the responsibility to develop your talent to the highest level.
- Have the humility to teach your talent or gift to other people. Power doesn’t come from keeping the deepest things we’ve learned inside us. It comes from teaching them to others.