In Honor of Zig Ziglar

For the Record, I am a Zig Ziglar Wannabe

And I’m so proud to claim it.

Today, I learned that Mr. Ziglar passed away. What a glorious song the angels must have sang to welcome this great man home.

One Life, One Word-Can Make All the Difference

Zig always spoke about the guiding principles in his life; and as I sit here crying for the loss of a man that I only really know through his great influence in my life, I’m so grateful for his guiding principles that I adopted as a young woman and have applied to my own daily walk.

Zig said many things that “stuck” with me. However, the impact of thought that “when you help enough other people get what they want then you’ll get what you want” has been something that has helped me in my saleswomanship, and even the ability to be the kind of friend, sister, wife, mother, and leader that I think I’m destined to be. Maybe it sounds grandiose but I believe that we are all here for a reason. I think Zig Ziglar captured his gift and spent his life spreading his motivational upbeat spirit.

For me, he is a model human being and the impact of his life on others is profound. I’m so glad that in my early 20’s I was exposed to this man’s style of teaching and to the never ending positive spin he placed on his approach to life.

Zig Ziglar is that beautiful example of what happens when you toss a pebble into the middle of a lake. If you watch long enough you can track the ripple of the wave that the little rock creates all the way back to the shore. That’s how he is for me. Every day something that Zig Ziglar said touches my life.

He was gifted with enthusiasm and humor. If you’ve never listened to this great speaker or read a word from this great author then I encourage you today to go to youtube and pick ANY clip, sign on to his website and buy ANY book and your life will be enriched forever. Currently I am re-reading See you at the Top.

Mr. Ziglar, Tom, “The Beautiful Red Head”, I’m just one woman that lives across town from you; and I want you to know that your dad and your husband means so much to me. I honor you, and I’ll always honor and be grateful to him for the influence he has had in my life.

For those of you that are my dear friends who took the time to check on me-I thank you. I can’t even express how much I appreciate your love.

Beth

I’ll Try-Code for “I Might”

“I’ll Try” are potentially words of mediocrity or fear. If the pilot said, “I’m going to try a get us from DFW to Orlando” I’m pretty sure I would drive. Yoda said it best: click on the You Tube Video and you can have fun with the message today!

How many times a day do we hear or say those words, “I’ll try?” It seems like a good thing full of meaningful intention. However, I feel certain that when you think about an employee and their job performance, or a favorite sports team, or even yourself that you would rather your team member, “do” their job or your favorite team to “win” their game.

Yoda said it best. There is “do and not do” but no try. Try sets you up to be off the hook if or when you fail. Failure is a natural part of success. I’d rather go down doing something than to sit on the sidelines trying to do it. I hope that makes sense to you. I hope that every time in the future when the words you start to utter include “I’ll try”…that you will stop and figure out if you can “do or not to” whatever you are “trying” to commit to.

If I have to say, “I’ll try to get back to you by Thursday”, you can just bet money that I probably won’t get that done. I personally have to set an appointment, put it on my calendar, and then I’m set up to succeed. If I “try” to get back to you by Thursday then there is no commitment. OH, I have just had a huge epiphany. I keep “trying” to lose weight. Oh my Lord. (sorry for the digression.).

Let me get back on track and finish the message for today. I challenge you to replace try with do or not do. If you can’t get to something, if you are unsure of your ability, or if you simply do not really want to do what’s in front of you, consider the alternative to trying. Be honest with yourself and others. Let them know that you can’t fit it in or that you don’t believe you have the talent for what’s being ask of you today.

There’s no FEAR here. Let me tell you what will happen. If it’s a talent issue, then those that either believe you can do this thing that in the past you would “try” to do, can give you more training or encouragement and you can move from uncertainty (which I think “try” is shrouded in) to knowing that you can either commit or not to the request.

We work with sales teams every week. And those folks are challenged to reach out to 100 contacts per week. The reality is that when they make that kind of focused attempt they will usually talk to 50 folks. Those 50 go into the sales pipeline and become potential group business.

Any time a sales person says I WILL attempt to talk to 100 clients this week they do that and more. When they say I’ll try, they rarely meet their goals. I should keep it personal and tell you that this happens to me as well. My guess is that the things you “try” to do are also much more difficult than the decisions you make to “do” or “not do” the stuff in your world too.

If you have a good example, I’d love to see it. Share it with me and your fellow readers. OH and don’t “try” to do that, just “do” it!

Clearing Through the Clutter?

People are bombarded with marketing messages today. Since TV made its’ debut the amount of “buy me” messages cloud any busy day with pick my, try me, buy me, me me, me, me. I think people (ok I’ll just talk about what I know)… I think I have learned to filter and ignore many of those messages in order to just stay focused. An email pops into my box with an intriguing subject line, you can’t visit a website without dealing with an ad, even facebook peppers the side bar with, “try me” seductions. It’s overwhelming. A billboard here, a flyer there. Is it any wonder that people don’t see the signs in your building. We are conditioned to look past the clutter. The noise in our heads is already loud enough. So I thought about the simple things this week.

Here is a good for instance with one of the things we do for marketing at our company. I spend as much time thinking about what to title this newsletter as I do writing the article. I do that each week in hopes that you’ll open it and get something from the time you spend reading it. I bring this up today because the NEW YEAR is upon us. January is always such a perfect time to freshen up products, brochures, and to create something new. If you are planning to jump into the new year demanding something more than you got last year I have a little advice that I received from a speaker that I saw at the East Coast Trade show.

Ron Rosenberg spoke and sent out some great information following his presentation. One of the things that really grabbed my attention was all about creating great copy that makes people respond or take action or really just to pay attention to what you have to say.

Whether you are creating birthday brochure, a facebook post, blogging for a mommie’s group or simply trying to think of a good subject line for your email, I thought this bit of information from Ron said it all:

“A letter written by a 5th grader has more chance
of getting read than a graduate thesis.

Why? Because

a letter written by a kid is cute, engaging, and
probably more fun than the academic jargon
written by a college graduate.”

Since our businesses exude fun, I thought Ron’s advice was terrific. Take a look at your messaging. What are you saying to your customers? How are you saying it? Does it represent the fun you are trying to create for them?

As always, I’m grateful and inspired that you take time each week to read our newsletter.

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