He Walked His Talk, with Tom Ziglar – Episode 38 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

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.

About Tom:

As CEO of Ziglar and key collaborator on his father’s 30th book, “Born to Win”, Tom Ziglar carries on the organization’s “profoundly simple” philosophy that “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

The world hungers for inspiration, motivation, and hope. With Tom’s innovation and world-class coaching, Ziglar is the go-to resource, helping busy people achieve true success through a one step action plan.

Tom’s father, Zig Ziglar (1926-2012), inspired more than 250 million people worldwide in the areas of self-improvement, motivation and success. Having spent the past 30 years inside Ziglar, Inc., from starting out in the warehouse stocking tapes to his present role as President and CEO, Tom’s mission is to share the Ziglar message with billion-dollar companies, small-business owners, academic institutions and individuals, inspiring a whole new generation of successful professionals and people worldwide, and allowing thousands of clients to take their business further than they ever dreamed possible.

From keynote speaking engagements to on-site workshops, from books to webinars, digital courses, certification programs and podcasts, Ziglar, Inc. inspires, equips and emboldens the leaders of tomorrow with the timeless wisdom, truth and inspiration that Tom’s father built their business on.

Learn more at Ziglar.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
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?

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
What’s your favorite memory of your dad?

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
It’s such a simple moment.

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
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?

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
82,000 people good night.

Tom Ziglar
After the first 20,000 they all look the same, right?

Host
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.

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
I think he read something like two hours a day?

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
That’s so cool.

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
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?

Tom Ziglar
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.

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

Tom Ziglar
Or you could call the office, all those are good places.

Host
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.

Tom Ziglar
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.

Host
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.

Tom Ziglar
Alright, thank you.