Tom Ziglar

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Show Notes

Robert Peterson 0:31
Welcome to the add value to entrepreneurs podcast, the place where we help entrepreneurs to not hate their boss. Our mission is to end entrepreneurial unhappiness. If you dream of changing the world, but you're not sure where to start. The Add valued entrepreneurs podcast will help you transform your life in business. This podcast is for entrepreneurs who want more freedom and fulfillment from their work so they can live the life that they desire. You deserve it, and it is possible. My name is Robert Peterson, Farmer passer turned CEO and the smiling coach. I believe that success without happiness is failing. But there is hope. Join us each week as we bring you an inspiring leader or message to help you. Thanks for investing time with us today. Our guest today has had the rare privilege of spending his entire life surrounded by world class leaders, innovators and motivators. family dinner included the presence of the world's top motivator, his father, Zig Ziglar. As a result, Tom Ziegler's arsenal of experience and information is absolutely unparalleled.

Noelle Peterson 1:40
A more productive, fulfilling and meaningful life is available to those willing to follow His easy to implement sequence of making one small choice at a time, through the time tested seven key areas mental, spiritual, physical, family, financial, personal and career.

Robert Peterson 2:01
Robert Nuala have a wonderful conversation with Tom Ziggler, the CEO of the Ziggler Corporation, where they continue to carry on the legacy of his father, Zig

Noelle Peterson 2:11
Ziglar brand is more relevant today than ever. Ziggler has exceeded 5 million likes on Facebook, and the Ziggler show has become one of the top ranked business podcasts.

Robert Peterson 2:21
The world is hungry for inspiration, motivation and hope. With Tom's innovation. Ziglar has become the go to resource. If you're an entrepreneur who started their business with a purpose and a passion that has been lost in the busyness of the daily grind, we get it. That is why we've opened up our free strategy calls. A lot of entrepreneurs, probably including you just want a sense of clarity on the barriers holding them back that you need to overcome in order to accelerate your growth and achieve your dreams. These short 30 Minute Calls give you a chance to work with one of our coaches without any commitment or pressure. Scheduling is easy, just go to smiling cole.com. Let's jump on a call and get you the help and clarity you need. Select a time and let's build your business. It's time for you to add value. Well, Tom, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm excited to have this conversation.

Unknown Speaker 3:17
I'm excited to be here. I'm good. I tell you what, it's always good or when you get to hang out with people like you smile. They're actually smiling on the screen right now. So I'm hard.

Robert Peterson 3:33
Alright, so typically we interview entrepreneurs and they share their entrepreneurial journey but you've obviously got a business journey. And so what, what led you from being the son of Zig Ziglar to the CEO of Zig Ziglar Corporation?

Unknown Speaker 3:49
Well, when I was in college, I wanted to be a professional golfer PGA play on the tour, played college golf. got out of college traveled and I needed a job to pay for my golf habit. And so I got a job in the warehouse at our company. So I started off packing and shipping boxes and moving inventory. And then I moved over to our product production areas. So we used to make our own VHS tapes way back in the day cassette tapes. If you remember what that was, and a couple of years, maybe 18 months into it I realized that those people playing golf out there were really good. And I'd moved into sales and it really fallen in love with sales as a salesperson and so just really got excited about out selling and then moved into sales management and moved up that way. But, you know, it was just just a great journey. I'll tell you kind of two pivot points in that. When I went to train for sales, we went through a whole week of training, and all the product, all the material, you know, the conversation, the sales process, and, and back then people used to call us it was in the good old days when your phone used to ring I don't know. And so I remember my very first day, I get a call. And I say, Good morning. This is Tom Ziegler. How can I help you? And so this man goes, Oh, Tom Ziglar. Are you related? I said, Yes, he goes, and I told him and he said, fantastic. I need some help. He said, My, my son in law and daughter are going through a difficult time. My son in law is a dentist, and he just bought a practice. He's got college debt. And he's got the debt of the new practice. And they have three kids under five. And they're going to be fine. But I need to get them some encouragement. What do you recommend? And so as a green salesperson, I went into catalog mode, right? Oh, well, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, just what I learned. And a minute into it. He just says, Tom, that's okay. Why don't you here's my American Express card, just send them anything you think they need? Is it okay, if we pray? Wow. So that was my first sale. And I think it was the first time I realized how valuable a reputation is because I didn't make that sale. Right? That was reputation. So that's what I got to step into. And that was my very first sale.

Noelle Peterson 7:14
You said two pivot points. What was the other

Unknown Speaker 7:16
the other one a few years later. Now, I was managing a group of salespeople, and we went to a big Amway event. And this one had 30,000 people in it. And we were, we were selling product at the back of the room. And so we had all these tables lined up, and it was in a big auditorium. The auditorium had, like I said, 30,000 people, and they emptied out the auditorium for dinner. So at five o'clock, 30,000 people leave. And dad was the surprise guest for the event. Wow. Okay. And so that meant that we said all our product tables up at five o'clock when everybody was out. So we had all these books, all these audio albums VHS on about 20 tables. And they made us put tablecloths on top of them. And so they opened the door at seven. And the idea was is 30,000 People would run into this big arena, this big basketball arena and, and they would go down to the front and get their seats. And they couldn't tell who was speaking because it was all covered, right? Well, the first group runs in and this guy at the very front looks over and he stops and he looks at the corner of our table and the tablecloth had not been put all the way down. And he comes over to me and he goes is Zig Ziglar speaking here tonight. And I put my I put my hand up to my lips. And I said sure. Don't tell anybody and I put the tablecloth back down. And he said, is Zig Ziglar? Is he going to sign autographs? And I said, Yeah, he is. And he said, Well, where is that going to be? And I pointed over to a table. He said, Well, is it can I go stand in line? And I said, I said well, he is the surprise guest. And he's not scheduled to go on until midnight. Which means it'll be one o'clock in the morning before he actually gets on because it's an all way event. I said why don't you go get a great seat, and then about 1130 Come back here and you can get in line because nobody knows it exists. And he says, I'll just get in line now. Wow. So here's a guy in line for to get an autograph that nobody knows exists. And so in my head, I'm thinking he's only going to last a little while. An hour and a half later, I go over to him. And I say okay, what's your story? And so here's the story. He says, Well, I'm from Central America, and I moved here a few Two years ago, and I moved in with my brother. And after three weeks, I told my brother, I said, I need to be successful United States and I need to learn English. How do you think I should learn English. And he said, My brother handed me a book. And he said, translate the book from English to Spanish. And then from Spanish back to English. And when you do that, you'll learn English, and it will change your life. And he starts crying. And the book will see you at the top. And he says, it saved my marriage, I was an alcoholic. And I read the book, and it changed my life. And I started doing what it said, and I quit drinking, and I moved my family here. And I'm living the American dream because of this book, and because of your dad's message. And that's when I guess I was probably 27 at that point. And that's when I really understood what business we were in. We weren't in the book and type business, we were in the life changing business. And so those were two kind of transition points for me, and the business that we're in and what it really means to people.

Robert Peterson 11:29
Well, I love that. So So what does family mean, to the Ziggler family to the Ziggler Corporation?

Unknown Speaker 11:40
Well, how internally, we call ourselves Ziggler. It's a and it means it really means everything. Dad always talked to home court advantage, you know, if you're going to, you know, if two teams are equally matched, whichever team is playing at home, they usually win. And when you have a great family, a great marriage, great relationships, that means that over time, you're usually going to win, right? Because no matter what's going on in the world, you've got this home court advantage. And then with our coaches and those in our, our speakers and trainers who come through, who we license and certify, we tell them we adopt them. So they get adopted into the family. So I'm a big believer in adoption. But it's it starts you know, it's like there's a there's a really kind of interesting radio commercial in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And it's about it's a divorce attorney. And he wrote he, he represents men and divorces. And he says, Okay, so you've you've traded your health, and you've traded your family for success, as the world defines that you've got some money. Was it worth it? And so it just kind of goes back to we got to have our priorities. And this is one of the things that that you know, the pandemic has been tough on everybody. But one of the things that I think it's shown a lot of people is that what we prioritize in the past, usually our career. That's not the most important thing. We we want our family relationships, the difference, we want to work for something that matters, something that makes a difference. We need our health. And so people's priorities have come back a little bit to the family. And so I'm really, that's one of the greatest benefits of the fallout that we've been through, or people are realizing that you know what you can be successful in your business or in your career, but if your family suffers or your health suffers, it's not worth it.

Robert Peterson 14:05
So true. Absolutely.

Noelle Peterson 14:07
So we know Zig Ziglar the motivator. Tell us about this. He was like what are the dad?

Unknown Speaker 14:15
Well, I tell everybody, he was better off stage than he was on stage. So and he was pretty good on stage. He was a little bit of an introvert kind of quiet. Always very intentional. When you were around him, you just you knew he was paying attention to you. Right? Even if he's in the even if you're sitting together and he's working on something, you know, he's always looking over and and then even read something new or learn something that you've tried out on you and so that was good. He always when I was growing up, he traveled a lot but whenever he's in town, he always took me to school. He made it a point to do that and then We played a lot of golf than I did that was, we'd love to do that together. I would say probably the word on his family was intentionality. You know, he just, he had it when he wrote, he wrote two books on on the family, raising positive kids in a negative world, and then courtship after marriage. And one of the sayings that the, you know, the courtship after marriage, well, how do you how do you have a happy marriage? You treat your spouse after you get married, just like you did? Right? before you got married? Right? Yeah. Most people it goes downhill a little bit. But dad's you know, never did. But but he used to say this, he said,

Unknown Speaker 15:48
quality time is important. But it can never take the place of quantity time.

Unknown Speaker 15:57
And so I think we forget that we just got to be with our family a lot, because it's in the unplanned events of life where the moments happen. And then we've got to be tuned in enough to see the moment and I think that's the biggest challenge today is the noise in our culture, right, the distraction, you know, back then we didn't growing up. We didn't have self you know, smart smartphones. smarts, the right word, but

Noelle Peterson 16:33
know, it reminds me that it was Jim Rohn talked about the your your life, the five people you hang around. So if you're around your family, and you're having your kids do things with you, and you're being intentional in that relationship, they get to see and hear their feedback and their criticism and their growth and their inspiration from you. And that's what you want.

Unknown Speaker 16:53
Yep. They want you know, the, when we talk about family, the words that I use on family, our influence and example. And so in the family first got the right example. And that had this philosophy that said this You got to be before you can do, and you got to do before you can have. And what he meant was, is you've got to be the right kind of person, and then do the right things in order to have all that life has to offer. And then what we say is when you have, then you can give because you can't give something you do not have. And then the ultimate gift is legacy. And so when we're the right example, it means that we're the right person. And it starts with the mental or mindset or attitude or belief, you know, the way we view the world, our spiritual, which is our faith, you know, and all the virtues like kindness and love and generosity. And then there's the physical, which is our overall health, you know, how, you know, our exercise, our nutrition, our sleep, how we handle stress. And so when we think of family, we've got to be the right example, which means we're mentally, spiritually and physically right. Okay. Well, when when those three things are right, and that allows us to have the right influence. Right, because what you what you just said earlier, is that, when we spend a lot of time with our family, the way we respond or react to the world is what they really learn from. Right. So respond is positive, react isn't negative. And so if mentally, spiritually, and physically, I'm solid, and then the world throws what it throws at us, because it happens all the time. Well, then our kid knows we do life with they see that response, and that has a bigger influence on them than anything. Right? So the example we set when life happens is what makes the difference. And so those are the words that that we go by.

Robert Peterson 19:06
That's fantastic. So you mentioned virtue, so I'm gonna throw it out there, your new book 1010 leadership virtues for disruptive times. And I really, really appreciate the the virtues obviously are so important, but I think even the, the format and the way you you went about the book is similar to what you just described to being an example. Because you you talk about, you know, who do you need to be how do you need to be and then what needs to be done? So tell us a little bit what what led to the writing of this book?

Unknown Speaker 19:42
Yeah, so the book came out at the very end of 2021 came out in December of 2021. And the when we wrote the book, my first book was called choose to win. That came out in 2019. And Thomas Nelson He's the publisher, when when we went to them as a publisher, they said, You know what we want to do this deal with you. But we want you to do two books instead of one. And all I had was choose to win, right? That's the only book. And I kind of I kind of liked to for one. And I said to him, that's fine. But I don't even know what the next book is gonna be. And they said, don't worry about it, you've got a whole year to come up with it. Because we did that agreement probably in early 2018. And so 2019 comes in, they postpone it. So they're saying, Okay, you have a little bit more time, we don't need it right away. And then at the end of 2019, I started writing a book. And then 2020 happen in the pandemic. And the whole publishing world shuts down. And at that point in March, probably May, it was either April or May, right after the shutdown. I started studying every change happening to business because of the pandemic. And so now, for almost three years, that's where the majority of my research and study has been, is what's different today in the business world, because of all the dominoes that changed. And so that's how that book got read. And so, I believe, will the 10 leadership virtues for disruptive times, I believe in this is great news, that the disruption is only going to increase in intensity and frequency. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's inflation, or Ukraine or political unrest, or whatever it is technology advance, disruption is just going to continue to increase. And so the book was really written for a leader who wanted to thrive in disruption. And so that's kind of how the book came about. There's three sections in the book. The first section is on mindset. How do we embrace disruption, the bulk of the book is about the 10 leadership virtues. Everybody says love your people, but nobody tells you how. Right? Walking out those virtues is how you love people. And then the last part of the book is I believe we all need to become coach leaders. And as a leader, when we have a kind of a coach relationship with our direct reports, we are then being very, very intentional about helping them become more effective tomorrow than they are today. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a leader, you have people on your team, I really believe that your job is to pay your people more money. That's your job. And I've said that in front of a large audience and a bunch of business owners and they look up. And so that a lot of them have team members there. And I said for those of you who work for your for a company, how many of you agree with me, it's 100% of the hands go up? And I say okay, yeah, that's right. So, but, but here's the relationship. In order for me as a leader to pay you more money, it means that you have to be more effective at what you do. Which means that your contribution to the business has to result in growth or profitability, or some measurable. And if that happens, then I'm going to pay you more money. Does that sound fair? And then all of a sudden, we've got an owner, and their team or the leader and their team on the same page, hey, you know what, in order to grow, we have to be more effective tomorrow than we are today. So how are we going to improve? And we teach a very simple coaching conversation that does that, and keeps that going.

Noelle Peterson 24:17
So powerful.

Robert Peterson 24:18
Well, I love I mean, obviously, the virtues are character traits character development. And I feel like the the Who do we need to be in you talk about kindness, selflessness, respect and humility. Those aren't necessarily the traits that most leaders would aspire to.

Unknown Speaker 24:45
Yeah, well, I think everybody says they're important. One of the things you know, some people will say, well, what's the one virtue that would help all the other virtues in the Chi In this chapter, golly, just think if our leaders were just kind of imagined just out and out. Just imagine that. And but the funny thing is, is that if you ask somebody, Hey, are you kind? They'll tell you, yeah, I'm kind. But if you follow them around with a camera, they're not behaving so kind. And so whenever there is disagreement, and there's two different views, two different opinions. And just imagine if they sat down at the table, and they were both kind to each other in the conversation, how much better would the world be? Right? It's just an amazing thing, then humility. So, you know, we just went through a political season. And I didn't see one political ad that said, vote for so and so because they're smart. And they know the issues. And they're eloquent in front of the room, and they've been very successful. And they're a fool. Okay? Because nobody wants to vote for a fool. But at the same time, so what do we want in a leader? We want them. But I didn't see one candidate run on a platform of wisdom, vote for me or vote for someone. So because they have wisdom, because they're so so why is that? Because it's hard to tell if somebody's wise, right. Usually wisdom comes from experience, which means they've made some mistakes. Right? But but we all have been around wise people, and we know it. And so this is what I tell people. Vote for someone who's wise. And if you don't know if they're wise, then ask yourself, are they humble? Because the only way to become wise, is through humility. Because humility understands, I don't know all the answers. Humility understands that you might know something, I don't know. And if we can work on this together, we're probably going to get a better result.

Robert Peterson 27:27
We will be right back after this short break. This episode is sponsored by perfect publishing a different approach to publishing a book. Perfect publishing carefully chooses heroes of Hope, who exemplify living a life they created through faith, hope, patience, and persistence. No matter what page you open to, in this mini cube of hope, you will find a leader with a big heart, you will see you are not alone. The authors may share similar challenges that only hope and action could resolve, get your free ebook, at get a dose of hope.com. Welcome back, let's get back to more greatness.

Unknown Speaker 28:03
And so there's so many powerful things about humility is one of those components is a virtue. But a leader, you know, Patrick Lencioni, in five dysfunctions of a team, he says the greatest attribute of a leader is vulnerability, right, which is simply the willingness to say, hey, that was my fault. I own it, right? Or you think that's bad? Look at what I did, right? I mean, it's that ability to be vulnerable, and to let people know you're not perfect. Well, vulnerability and humility go hand in hand. If we're humble, we can hear a different view from someone else and take that into consideration. If we're arrogant or prideful, or we think we know all the answers, then we're shutting off the new information that's going to allow us to thrive in this disruption. And so it's a key component.

Robert Peterson 29:01
When I think even in the coaching conversation, if somebody thinks they know, their brain says, Oh, I know that and they shut off versus the person right ability to open to say, Oh, this is something I can learn or it's a reminder or something I need to take action on.

Unknown Speaker 29:22
Yep, absolutely. And that's why if you really adopt a coaching style as a leader, what you're really doing is you're preparing very curious questions. And if you do that from a perspective of humility, then you're really going to learn things you didn't know before about that person, which makes you more able to guide or direct them or ask Stephen better questions. The other thing that happens is when I asked Great questions. Like if I asked somebody, Hey, in your job role, what attitudes Could you demonstrate that would make you more effective? Well, if I'm asked you that question, and you're on my team, that the way you answer tells me a lot. If you've been there for 30 days, you may not know, right? You might be grained, this might be your first experience. Well, that tells me how much hands on attention I need to give you. If you're a little bit of a veteran, and you know your personality, and you say, Well, you know, I'm kind of, I'm kind of an introvert, I don't smile much. So I need to remember to smile whenever I'm with the customer, right? Because they will read me as being closed off. And so the answer tells you a lot. And then when they say, well, I need to smile more with the customer, then you asked the follow up question. Okay, that's great. Well, you know, how are you going to prepare to smile more before you go meet with the customer? And see, that's another question. And so now they've got to think about the answer. And so they give you an answer, oh, I might listen to some Zig Ziglar on the way to the to the appointment. That'll get me excited. that'll remind me to smile when I knock on the door. Well, great, that's a great idea. Why don't you write that down. And so in this process, the person who you're coaching creates their own plan, right, your questions, guide them, but they create their own plan. And then because they create their own plan, they have ownership in it. And when they own their own plan, they're far more likely to follow through. Because at the end, as a coach leader, you would simply say, Hey, that's a great, that's a great plan you have, is it okay? If I hold you accountable to your plan? What are they going to say they just created it. And then that other word that you mentioned, the R word, the respect word. There's a certain level of respect that you show somebody, when you're just revealing to them that they already know a lot of the answers, right? And you're just showing them they know the answers, well, that that's a different, you walk out of that meeting going, you know, always knew that was the right thing. I just got confirmation. That's respect. When you get told what to do you leave with, they didn't even hear me. Or asked me that's disrespect. And so you, you by doing the coaching process correctly, we show respect in there. And we show humility, and we show kindness because sometimes they'll give us answers that we didn't expect. And we'll dig into it. And then we learn things we didn't know. And, and allows us to, to meet them where they are.

Robert Peterson 33:06
It's so powerful. So the second next section really has two things that are my favorite, obviously, positivity is, is super important, and a big part of the things that we do, but I love the last trait looking looking for the best. And defining that as a virtue is just beautiful.

Unknown Speaker 33:30
Yeah, you know, Dad used to say far too many people have been told what they can't do, instead of what they can do. And when we have a high standard, and we expect the best, but then we go in every situation looking for the best. I like to do assessments and I like to do different personal profiles, whether it's disk or, or Strength Finders or what Patrick, the six geniuses that that that I just went through. And the interesting thing is that somebody told me a story years ago, this was back when Tony Romo was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. And he's had a he'd had a really great season and of course, the Cowboys had a disappointing end again. But it wasn't Romo's fault. You know, he carried the team on his back. And they came to me and they said, you know, did you hear about the interview with Tony and the coaches? And I said no. And he said, Yeah, they met with Tony one on one. And they went over a season stats and they said, Tony, man, your completion percentage outside of the pocket was the best in the league, your ability to Audible at the line that might be one of your greatest strengths. Your ability to shake off a defender and throw it to the open person. Wow, you're you're one of the top quarterbacks in the league. That's fantastic. But then they say You know, there's three areas where you're not very good at. You're a terrible tackler. You can't kick field goals. And on special teams, You're horrible. So this offseason, we're going to work on your tackling your kicking and your special teams skills. Did they say that to Tony Romo? No, that'd be crazy. Right? Instead, what did they do, they went to his strengths. And they said, We need to get you another offensive lineman, we need to design plays, that are going to maximize your natural athletic ability outside of the pocket, we need to get your receivers who don't give up on the route, but who continue to run routes even even when the normal play is over. And so when we go in looking for the best, that's kind of the mindset that we're doing, we're going to, we're going to see what the strengths are the people on our team, we're going to highlight those. And we're going to see how we can involve those strengths into more of the plays. And the biggest one is this is we let them know what their strengths are. And we do that, depending on the person and the personality, we can do that in a team meeting. Or we can do it one on one, we can do it in email, we can do it in both. But I'll just give you a practical example. Let's suppose you had a salesperson on your team. And they had a big deal that was about to come through. And then all of a sudden, it started to blow up at the end. And this happened. And that happened and and they just went the extra mile, you know, they worked three nights in a row getting everything together. And they called out and they made special arrangements and they did stuff outside of their area, just to make it happen and end up closing the deal. Right, and it's a huge win for them and for the organization. And so what you could do is you could be a good finder, and you could point out in front of the team, and in front of the business, hey, what a great job they did, they went the extra mile. This is fantastic. This is such a huge win for the company. And that's important. And you should do that. If you really want to look for the good for the best, you would take it one step further. And you would say but the thing I'm most proud of, is that you going the extra mile really shows your character and your integrity around your commitment to serving the client to supporting the mission of the organization. So even though you did all this hard work and we've got this big win, I want you to know what I'm most grateful for his your integrity. So why is that important? Well, if the next day the client calls and says, Hey, Deal's off, sorry, we just got bought out, we can't follow through. If all you recognize them for was the win. It's a it's a deflating event. But if you recognize them for their integrity, you can go to them and say, you know that stuff happens. But your integrity is intact and that's why you're on the team and that's why I'm grateful for you. And that lasts forever. If you are leading somebody and you make that kind of integrity or virtues statement towards them sincerely around an example like that, people will cry when you share that with them. Because they've never been told that so we got so crazy.

Robert Peterson 39:04
Too many leaders are right finders instead of good finders.

Unknown Speaker 39:10
Yeah. Right. Yeah, right finder. Hey, you got that right. You got to deal Well, yeah, that's right. And you know, but a good finder says and we got the deal because of your virtue. Right? Yes. Activity. Yeah. We're celebrating their character, which they have control over. The when we asked for the when we asked for yet dad with us he you know, he never complimented on our us on our intelligence because we don't have control over that he would always compliment us on our on our on how hard we studied or discipline or our work ethic or things that we had control. rollover. And so our character our virtue, we have control over those things. Their choices

Noelle Peterson 40:08
you can choose how to respond.

Robert Peterson 40:11
So things to be done now. Obviously being the light, never giving up and standing firm are all characteristics of that that front person, right

Unknown Speaker 40:29
Yep, absolutely. What my standing firm I love the movie, the greatest showmen. And I think I've watched it seven or eight times, like me just whatever. Especially if I'm on a long flight, you know, I'll go into the deal. Watch it again. And I cry every time I see it. So my wife liked the movie, too. We watched it together three or four of those times. And Hugh Jackman came to Dallas, and he did the greatest showmen musical right stage show. So we go down to American Airlines winner. And it wasn't just songs from the greatest showmen, probably 70% were but there were, you know, some of his things. And so the opening scene is they bring everybody on and they're doing the dance, and he's singing the song, you know, and the music is just going and you're getting that feeling, right. And the movie is all about a leader who brought people onto the team who, quote unquote, didn't fit, right. They were misfits. Right. They were the bearded woman or the giant or the or the little person or whatever. And he said, No, you're special in and you have a story to tell and a song to sing. And you're valuable just the way you are. And so he brought these people. And that's the way we all feel. Right? That's the way everybody to some extent is do I fit in? Do I belong? Am I good enough? You know, and so he brings them all in. And you see, and that's the business that we're in it Ziggler is, you know, we're constantly showing people Hey, you're good enough, right, you've got, you've got everything inside of you already, you need to be successful, you just got to recognize, claim, develop and use those qualities that you already have in there. And that's the business that we're in. And so in this at the finale of this opening song, he's got his his black top hat on, and he's got his red coat like you were in the circus, right and as white pants, and he in the stage staging goes all the way out into the crowd. Right? So they're in so he walks maybe 20 rows into the audience on this stage. And his whole, the whole group is behind them. And they come to the crescendo and the music's pops, and he throws his arms down by his side. And he looks up and he sticks his chest out. And it's like he's just telling the audience, he's telling everybody there. This is my team. In the standing firm, the stand is the warrior spine, and the open heart. And so as a leader, we have this warrior spine, right? We've got this posture that says we're ready to go to war, we're ready to fight the good fight, we're ready, do whatever it takes. And when we go to battle, who do we want leading us? We want a warrior who's got scars, right? We want somebody who's been there before somebody who knows the cost of battle. And then when he throws his arms down by a side and sticks his chest out, that's open heart. And what he's saying is, I'm showing you, right, so that's a cis unique stance of power and vulnerability all at the same time. And what he was really saying was, don't look at me look at my team. And that's what we as leaders and entrepreneurs and owners, and that's what we got to do with our people is we got to kind of recognize the greatness you know, look for the best and then we got to we got to go to that, you know, out in front and lead with that warrior spine and open heart and standing firm no matter what's going on. Because we The reason we're gonna win is the people on the team.

Robert Peterson 44:42
Well and how they react, right? Because if the leader freaks out, the people are gonna freak out and then and then decisions become fear decisions instead of competence decisions.

Unknown Speaker 44:54
100% You know, in the first part of the book where we talk about mindset There's a story I used to illustrate this. Tom Watson, the golfer, he won eight major championships. And five of those championships were British. And so they were interviewing him and they said, Tom, how did you win five British opens? And he said, bad weather. And the interviewer said, What do you mean bad weather? And he said, Well, here's the thing. I'm an elite golfer. And so when I'm playing well, and I enter a tournament, there's 150 players. He said, But I've only got to be 20 of them, if I'm playing well. Now, if the weather's bad, the weather will take out 15 of those 20. Mentally, they don't know how to handle it. And the British Open has the worst weather of any golf tournament we play. It's notorious for 40 mile an hour winds and hail and sleet and wind direction changes in temperature up and down by 30 degrees. He said, so that's why I have one bad weather. And they journalist said, Well, how do you prepare for the British Open and he said, I pray for rain. And so as a leader, if you can message your team constantly, we love disruption. Disruption is where we thrive because our team knows how to learn and grow. And the more disruption there is. You see, the world thinks it causes problems, but we look at it as there's more opportunities. And so when disruption comes and people have problems, we're there to serve, we're there to solve their problems. And other people might freeze when disruption comes, but we thrive in it. So when the team gets gets built around this idea that it's fantastic when it rains, because that's when we serve more and when more then that standing firm, right? In the storm. That's where those two that mindset and that posture come hand in hand. It's hard if you don't create the mindset in advance, it's hard to stand firm when the storm comes.

Robert Peterson 47:23
Absolutely. All right, the last chapter is probably my favorite. And the idea of creating your future. I love helping business owners see that they can design a life, and they can build their business to support it. And be very intentional, like your father was very intentional with his family very intentional with his business. So let's talk a little bit about creating your future.

Unknown Speaker 47:48
Yeah, there's, there's a quote that I use, it says we create the future we see. And so if you can't see it, you can't create it. And you know, I've got a got a bottle of water here. And before this bottle of water ever became a physical product. It was a mental it was the thought somebody thought college would be great to have a bottle of water. And so they thought, you know, how big would it be? What's it going to be made? Are we going to Cheryl's? How are we going to manufacture all those thoughts? God put into a, you know, a plan, write a design, and then that person called around said, Hey, can you make us this? And they did. And now it's a physical product. So we need to get a vision of the future we want to create, what is it that you know, why are we building our business? What's the why that drives it? And when we start to see that, then not only does that give us clarity on where we want to go, but it also gives us hope. Right? because hope is really that belief. There's something we can do to make things better. And so if I've got a clearer vision of what I want, all I've got to do is say, Okay, what's one thing I can do to get closer to that? And so when we got a vision of the future we want, and we have hope that we can go and get it. That changes our thinking today. Right? Because if I've got hope for the future, and there's things I can do, my thinking is positive. It's action oriented, it's Let's go do it. If I truly believe there's nothing I can do to change my future, then why take action on anything? Right. And so hope creates an attitude that lifts my thinking today. Well, my thinking today changes my performance today. So if my thinking is right, my performance is going to go up if my thinking is wrong, or how plus my performance is going to go down. And then of course, our performance today determines the future that we create. And so we've got to create the future first to elevate our thinking so that it changes how we do something which increases the likelihood we get it. So it starts with that.

Robert Peterson 50:21
Tom, that is so fantastic. All right, we end every episode with the guests sharing their words of wisdom. So Tom, what are your words of wisdom to entrepreneurs listening be?

Unknown Speaker 50:34
Yeah, so I have a new formula. Brand new this morning. I was born this morning.

Robert Peterson 50:42
Wow.

Unknown Speaker 50:46
Here it is. P minus h equals our potential minus habits equals regrets.

Unknown Speaker 51:12
So I think if you go around and you say, Hey, do you have untapped potential inside of you? Everybody says, Yeah, I do. Okay, so your potential, okay. If you don't build habits, okay. And in businesses, we build systems. So systems are just habits for your business. And habits are just systems for your personal life, right? That's all it is. And so if we, if we know we've got this potential, then what we got to do is build habits to draw out that potential. And then, instead of, if we do that, instead of regrets, you will have legacy will have rewards will have a life well lived. So I look at the idea of potential habits are what allow us to step into our potential. Dad said that the success is the maximum utilization of the abilities that God gave you. Yeah. And so and so we're everybody's definition of success is based on the abilities that God gave you? Well, another way to look at that. It's, it's, it's, it's maximizing the potential that God's given you. And how do we do that we, we implement habits? And it's in so that's a very, very simple thing. So what are the habits in your life, that that will maximize the potential in any direction you want to go? That's what we got to focus on. If we don't, we're gonna have regrets. There's, if you if you give it all your God, and you develop all the right habits, and you get the silver medal in the Olympics, you didn't get the gold, but you know what else you didn't get regrets. Right. But if you don't give you got if you don't maximize what you have. That's that's a bad place to be.

Noelle Peterson 53:20
Now, thank you so much, Tom, for joining us today. And there's so much encouragement and enlightenment and things to think on and lots of things to share with our audience. So just to appreciate you come in and join us today.

Unknown Speaker 53:32
All right, thanks for having me.

Robert Peterson 53:34
This episode is brought to you by intentional decisions that lead to massive success. No, those aren't companies promoting our show their qualities that you need to build your business and take control of your life. So to help you out, I'm offering my most popular worksheets to help you plan the future you want and audit your calendar today. The best way to get what you want is to know what it is and start making sure that your calendar matches. You can download them free today at add value mindset.com. If you will take action by just completing these two activities, they will change your life in business. I promise you a new level of results in the coming year. The problem is that we make things so complicated and we lose focus on what is really important. These tools will help you refocus on what matters most. When you align your passion with your purpose in your work. You can be happier and start doing the things you wanted to in the first place, like spending more quality time with the kids. To get your free copy of the tools to start tackling your busy schedule. Go to add value mindset.com If you enjoy this show, please like subscribe, leave a review. But most importantly, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Share, share share. In our next episode, Jason Croft and Robert discuss his journey as an entrepreneur podcaster and media expert he has leveraged his experience He's in relationships to create a business helping entrepreneurs with their lead generation His mission is to put a spotlight on his clients for the world to see