The Conscious Investor

Ep505 Unlocking Success: Lessons from Zig Ziglar's Legacy with Tom Ziglar

July 11, 2024 • Julie Holly

Share episode

What if the keys to personal and professional success were hidden in the wisdom passed down from one of the most influential motivators of our time? Join us as we welcome Tom Ziglar, CEO of Zig Ziglar Corporation, who takes us through his unique journey growing up under the tutelage of his father, Zig Ziglar. Tom reveals how his father's powerful teachings shaped his mindset and career, and discusses the company’s mission to empower leaders through coaching and certification programs. Learn about the transformative impact of Zig Ziglar's principles and how they were internalized from an early age, fostering a 'can-do' and 'get-to' environment that propelled Tom to recognize the significance of his father's enduring legacy.

Moreover, we tackle the complex challenges of wealth transfer and redefine the true essence of wealth beyond mere dollars. Hear an intriguing story of a wealthy oil investor grappling with legacy planning and discover how solving problems for others is the real driver of wealth. We revisit a crucial moment with real estate expert Steve McKnight that reshaped our perspectives on business growth and legacy, and share an inspiring tale of a real estate investor revitalizing communities. Our conversation concludes by highlighting the power of humility as the bedrock of wisdom and growth, emphasizing continuous personal development across various facets of life, and the critical role of habits in nurturing a growth mindset.

Access Julie's calendar, the investor club, Conscious Investor Growth Summit, social profiles and more when you CLICK HERE

Episodes referenced in the introduction:



Speaker 1:

Hello Conscious Investor and welcome back. I'm your host, julie Hawley. For over four years, I've paired my background in real estate, investing, education and coaching to create powerful content for you each week. This podcast is where we take a holistic approach to investing by focusing on three ingredients to a life of personal freedom health, mindset and wealth. We'll talk about everything from passive investing through syndication and how to use your retirement accounts to boost your investing, to mineral balancing and gut brain health, and into topics that cultivate your inner strength and resilience so you can thrive regardless of any of life's current events. And yes, those are all episodes currently available and linked in the show notes below. Join me each Monday for a mindset episode and later in the week for an interview with expert investors and health professionals, so that you can experience your greatest health, strongest mindset and build the wisest wealth. Tom, I've been looking forward to having you on the Conscious Investor Podcast. Welcome.

Speaker 2:

Wow, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on, Julie.

Speaker 1:

I really appreciate your time. I know that you're busy not busy but you're productive. We don't like the busy word You're very productive and do so many awesome things in this world. I'd love to know the standard question that we open with on the Conscious Investor is you know?

Speaker 2:

what do you do and how did you get started? Yeah, so I'm the CEO of Zig Ziglar Corporation, ziglar Inc. And primarily what we do now is we work with leaders and what in a program called Coach Leadership and we're really working with companies of all sizes, business owners, coaching leaders how to coach their people, and then we also do a lot of certification. So people who want to go out and take the Zig Ziglar programs in coaching and in training and go out and teach them or coach around them, we certify those. So coaching is our biggest thing, it's the thing closest to my heart. I love working with coaches.

Speaker 2:

Dad, zig Ziglar, my father, said years ago never give a promise without a plan, without a plan. And when you know with coaches, it's awesome because you get to draw out who you're working with, what their, what their dream is, what their purpose is, what their why is, and then you get to walk with them with the plan, and so that's what fills my soul. I tell people I've been doing this 59 years, born into it, grew up in it, started work in the company right after I got out of college, and so it's, you know, because of my father, zig Ziglar, and his legacy and the difference that he's made in the 250 million some odd people he's impacted in his life and in his works. So it's just, it's really cool because I can travel anywhere in the world and speak and train and I meet friends and family I'd never met before because of that. So yeah, a little background.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely love that and that was, you know, the primary reason that I reached out. You know, to invite you onto the podcast and I'm going to get. I'm crazy, I'm all glossy eyed over here, Conscious of us, or if you're watching on YouTube, you'll probably notice it. But you know it's really interesting how our fathers have had such a profound effect on our lives and literally on our choice of occupation and how we go about doing things, and it's absolutely magnificent. One of the most powerful things is I used to listen to your dad in my dad's car, as my dad's driving around. You know he was in real estate sales and I drive around and I grew up listening to Zig and then I would do my Zig impersonations and it was so much fun.

Speaker 1:

And I always think the impact this is leading into a question, wait for it. It's interesting the impact that my dad had on me by the way of the choice of how he chose to live his life and the influences he invited into his life For instance, your dad listening to the cassette tapes back in the day and so I wonder often how much of my mindset has been influenced, because I have a very strong growth mindset just by nature of both of our dads. So my question to you there is a question I promised you in all of this is how? How did you internalize everything that your dad was doing here? You are a teenager, you know. I mean, like you grew up. This isn't, this, isn't dad. Right, like, or this is dad. This isn't necessarily. Oh, like or this is dad, this isn't necessarily. Oh. Wow, there's the professional speaker. That's your dad. How did you internalize everything that he was saying and grow that within you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So you know, when it's your dad, it's just the way life is. And then when you grow older and you talk to enough other people, you realize how lucky and fortunate and blessed and unique your situation is. Right because, you know, dad had a quote. He said uh, far too many people have been told what they can can't do and they haven't been told what they can do, and so so I grew up in a can-do and a get-to house, you know. So if I didn't like it, we got to do it. And if I, you know, if I wanted it, he said you can do that right. So it's like that whole mindset and so it was just normal. And then I realized he was different. But I'll tell you, like there was a moment where everything like shifted. I was probably 27, 28 years old.

Speaker 2:

We were on the road, dad was speaking at a big Amway event, about 30,000 people in this arena, and the way it worked is they were having an afternoon session. Then they made everybody leave the arena and they brought us in and we were setting up the product tables at the back of the room and I don't know if you ever went to one of those, but you know we had about 20 tables in the back and we had this was back in the day, so it was all audio cassette, vhs and books. Right, there's all these product packages and dad was the secret surprise guest. So 30,000 people knew that at midnight the secret guest was going to be there to speak, but they didn't know who it was. And so we set up these product tables and then they gave us these tablecloths and we had to cover all the product on the product table so that nobody would know who it was. Wow, okay, so we set it all up.

Speaker 2:

At seven o'clock they opened the doors and it's like a stampede of people are going to get their seats and one of the first people through the door probably early 30s he's running by and he looks over and he stops and I look down and the table cloth was pulled up and there was a picture of my dad on the front of the album and he comes right to me and he goes is Zig Ziglar speaking here today? And I'm like uh-oh, and I'm like shh, don't tell anybody. And I put the thing down and I go, you can't tell anybody. But yes, he goes. Is he going to be signing autographs? And I said yeah, and he said well, where? And I pointed around the corner. There was a table there. I said he's going to be there. He, well, I'm going to go get in line. And I look at him and I go well, it's seven o'clock now. He's scheduled to speak at midnight. It's amway, so it's going to be closer to one o'clock because nothing runs on time. Go get your seat, get a good seat, and then30, come back here and then you only stand in line for an hour, hour and a half, instead of what five and a half hours. He goes no, I'm going to stand in line now. So he goes over to a line that doesn't exist for somebody, who nobody even knows they're there, and I'm like how long is this going to take before he goes and sits down? So about an hour and a half later he's still over there. He's having a great time enjoying the program.

Speaker 2:

But he's the very back of the arena just standing in line and I go over to him and I say what's your story? And he, and he looks at me and he says here's my story. He goes I'm from Central America. And then I realized he kind of had broken English and he said I came here for the American dream and he said the reality was is my marriage was in trouble, I was an alcoholic, I was trying to make a better life for my family and I moved in with my brother in Chicago and I went to my brother after about a month and I said I need to be successful, I need to learn English. And he said my brother gave me the book See you at the Top, wow, wow. And he said this is in english, translated into spanish using a dictionary and then translate it back into english. And he said you'll learn english and it will change your life.

Speaker 2:

And then this guy starts crying right there. He said I'm married, my kids are with me, but I'm living the American dream and it's because of your dad. And that's when I kind of grew up to. You know it's, you can be good at business, you can be good at different things, but if, if you don't have that balanced success and you've never been taught how and you don't know what it is, it's hard. And so that's when I realized the business that we were in. We were in the life changing business, and so it's just kind of grown from there, and so that's when my heart understood the difference between what dad was saying on stage and the in the lives that were being changed, because I heard people come up to him, you know and say you know how grateful they were for him.

Speaker 1:

but I'd never like had that one-on-one experience it's amazing that you also were drawn and chose to go and ask him that question and to follow that curiosity and the wonder and just be like what is going on here I want to know more yeah, you know, because you went from like, okay, so is this guy going to be a crazy fan or a pest, or, or, or.

Speaker 2:

You know and this is, nobody had cell phones back then, so it wasn't a selfie seeker or anything like that. It was like a truly grateful human being. And then, when we would, then I started noticing you know cause, because of dad's stages that he had and his status and the difference he made, I got to be in a lot of green rooms and I got to see a lot of really famous people, whether it was presidents or athletes or whatever. And it was different, right, because when people came, like when we would be eating out and somebody would recognize him, usually after he said something more than looking at him, right, they recognize the voice. It would always come up with gratitude and tell them the difference he made. And you know what that's if you're, that's never an interruption.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh Never.

Speaker 2:

And I feel sorry for the athletes and stars and stuff who get interrupted because somebody wants a self-serving autograph or photo right. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

That's a powerful differentiation right there, a very powerful differentiation, and I appreciate that One of the elements of the conscious investor is that true wealth is transferable wealth. We have tangible wealth. I lovingly and affectionately like to say that's the boomers and my Gen Xer peers we like the toys, generally speaking. And then there's intangible wealth, where it's just the more millennial style of experiences and minimalistic lifestyles. I think they're two sides of the same coin. Then we also have transferable wealth, and transferable wealth is when we take our wisdom, knowledge, skills and experience and we impart them to others, which is what you do, it's what your dad did.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people are into legacy wealth in my investing space and unfortunately, 90% of wealth is lost by the third generation. I'm curious how, because there aren't very many successful transitions where it's like, hey, I've built this and now I can hand this off and you can take the helm of the ship. I'm curious if there's any secret sauce. I don't really like the word secret sauce, but you know that that took place where you were really prepared to take over the enterprise prepared to take over the enterprise.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we started as a family. So dad passed away. It'll be 13 years in November, and so we started preparing 10 years before that and really, today is the day you prepare for it, right, Whatever, wherever you are, right. So it was intentional in the preparation. Mark Batterson has a great quote. He says an inheritance is what you leave to someone, a legacy is what you leave in someone. Okay, and so I have a quote, and my quote is legacy is intentionally preparing those you love to grow through life's most difficult challenges, right, and so legacy is when you teach and transfer the habits, the wisdom, the knowledge that somebody needs to make good choices. Right, those are all things that are like I've grown up with, and so I started thinking legacy over 20 years ago. And you've got to be very intentional about what your, what, your big why or purpose is in that, right, it's not it's. I remember this is like 20 years ago.

Speaker 2:

One of my friends was selling oil investments and we were having lunch and he was being very successful in it and I said how's it going? And he goes, well, he goes. I'm kind of stuck with a client and I go. Well, tell me about it. Well, this client was like super wealthy, had 20 oil wells outright and you know a bunch in the pipeline and I said, well, that sounds like a good problem. And he goes. Well. The problem is is he's trying to figure out how to leave his oil wealth to his kids without them snorting it up their nose legit like real, like real world, and so it's always been a priority.

Speaker 2:

but then when that transition happens, as prepared as you are for it, it's always different than what you imagine. Right, because our business is a brand and it's a personality, and we had board members that came to me and they said you know, it's much harder to change the way a business operates, with the incredible brand and reputation you have around a personality, than it is to start from scratch. Right, and it was actually a. There's a gentleman named Steve McKnight and he's do you know him?

Speaker 1:

I don't know him personally, but I know.

Speaker 2:

He's one of the greatest. He's probably the number one real estate investing guy in Australia. He's amazing. And so he asked me 13 years ago the question. He said the question. He said, tom, we were having lunch in Fort Myers and he was actually. He bought like 70 properties during the mortgage meltdown after that happened. So he was visiting his property in Fort Myers.

Speaker 2:

So I went to meet with him and he asked me this question. He said so what are you doing to carry on the legacy, because it's too important to let it go? And I told him and all I did was because dad had passed away three months earlier. He said he said so let me ask it to you a different way. I said okay.

Speaker 2:

He said imagine you pick up your phone right now and on the other end of the line is somebody and they tell you this. They say we've kidnapped your wife and daughter and the only way you'll ever see them again is that over the next year you have to generate 10 times the revenue in your business than you are now. What would you do? And so that was like for me at that moment like a super clarifying question, because a lot of times we have to let go of the good in order to get the great Right, and we had so many good things that we were doing, but they were hinged on on dad's unique skills and personality.

Speaker 2:

But they were hinged on on dad's unique skills and personality, right, it's not that we were letting go of the reputation, the character, the, you know, all the assets that we have. It was that we couldn't do it the same way, and so I think that was probably the big transition that was for me is. You know, and dad had told me and my sisters this, like many times before this, he said you'll never know true freedom until I'm gone. And we didn't know what he meant and what he saw was is that we were spending all of our time supporting him and muting our own gifts and talents to some extent to elevate his right, and it was the right thing to do. But he said, look, your own gifts and talents are what are going to take us beyond that, and they're different than mine. And so I started to understand that.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if I answered your question, but and so I started to understand that I don't know if I answered your question, but, oh gosh, you did and and more, and it's so even pointing out, you know, hey, this person has a mass fortune and their greatest concern is what are my kids going to do? They're going to blow it. You know on on. They're going to blow it. They're you know on on whatever. They're going to blow it. If it's up their nose or buying a bunch of toys, it's. You know it's not going to be something productive and a contribution to the world, it's just, it's going to be lost.

Speaker 1:

And it's very rare that we find that. Going back to it, it's like it's very rare to find a true transfer of wealth, and what I'm finding is that it really does come down to how people are thinking about wealth, instead of not necessarily uncoupling it from the dollars and cents of it and saying wealth is so much more, so much more. And I'd love to hear for the conscious investor I know that you think about wealth and you're transitioning. You're thinking about wealth. This is, for a lot of you, this is a new concept. When we think about wealth is monetary, but it is so much more. What would you say, is the greatest element of wealth.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've actually been studying this quite a bit, so it's all internal, right. It's like any event that happens is neither good or bad, it's what we do with it. And so when we have no want, then we have freedom. And then, at the same time, wealth to me is just, it's the byproduct of solving a problem. I mean it's just. And so as soon as it becomes self-centered we get in trouble. But as soon as we go out to solve problems, but as soon as we go out to solve problems, then it's an incredible thing.

Speaker 2:

And I'll tell you a story that I've got a good friend. He's a real estate investor. He buys apartment complexes, you know class C, and then revitalizes neighborhoods Right, I mean just amazing. And it's just amazing the lives that get changed in the process, right. And so he comes to me and he says, hey, we have a tenant and we're, and I've got a story for you. And I go, okay, and so some of their projects or properties had Section 8 housing in them. And so he said she's Section 8.

Speaker 2:

She's really smart, single mom. And so we got to know her and we said what's your dream? What do you want? She said, well, I want to be a nurse. And so they did research and they helped her get her GED. She had to drop out of high school early. They got her into community college so she ended up over a couple of years becoming a nurse and so now she's making eight times what she's ever made right, just really killing it.

Speaker 2:

And then he says she goes into her social worker and because if you're on section a, you know you meet with that social worker because you're on government support and the social worker is like you know, you're, you're why we do what we do, you're why we provide the safety net, you're, you're the living example of what, what gives me fuel. And the social worker said but there's only one problem you, you make way too much money to qualify for section eight housing. So you no longer get that, you don't qualify. And so this nurse went home and quit. She quit her job Because she'd been told her whole life that wealth was having a guaranteed place to sleep, that wealth was having a guaranteed place to sleep. And so you never jeopardize your Section 8 housing.

Speaker 1:

Wow, wow. That took a turn at the end there that I was not expecting. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2:

And so when you think about the people who have all the right reasons to do something and then they actually start to achieve success and then they self sabotage themselves out of the situation, and you look back and you go what it's a core belief back and you go what it's a core belief right, it's a core belief that is off. And so when we, when we certify our coaches and we have hundreds of coaches now you know what we're. What we're really saying is that, ultimately, somebody's long-term, sustainable success depends on two things it depends on their self-image and their belief, because we can all do it for a while. But you know, and you've seen it, people who get early wealth fairly easily and then it disappears, it's because their belief and self-image doesn't match where they are.

Speaker 2:

And so we've always got to remember that, as people are learning and growing that belief of who they are, it's not what they do or what they have. That's important, it's who they are, and that wealth is just the fruit of solving other people's problems. I mean, that's, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. And so now, the more people I serve, the more fun I have, and the more things you know, the more things turn out. But if your definition of wealth is guaranteed place to sleep, then you'll make decisions that don't make any sense you'll make decisions that don't make any sense.

Speaker 1:

That's so important. That's a premise I completely believe in, as well as I've been. I'm working on a book and it is talking about everything flows from the inside out, like if our internal world needs some remodel the remodeling, or maybe even like a full-on demo. Like let's just go in and get this place and like do some massive reconstruction. Like we all have spots in our life that just have to. You know, like we've grown, we've evolved. We could be great, wonderful, we are great, wonderful people, conscious ambassador, it's like. But you know what? We've grown and evolved. Maybe that room needs some remodeling, an update, a refresh, because it's no longer, you know, current and we can still default back into those old habits, old ways, and what got us where we are now isn't I know, you know this isn't necessarily what's going to help us get to where we need to go. It got us where we are here now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you know I'm kind of a nerd, I love neuroscience and research, and we have over 60,000 thoughts a day, and 90% of them are about the past and 85% of them are negative.

Speaker 2:

And so whenever we're trying to grow out of our comfort zone and trying to break barriers or do something different, the thought patterns are still there, right, we still go back into the negative past. And so we have to change that thought pattern. We have to change how we think on a daily basis, and I like to think of the possible future, right, so we do mind time traveling, so we take the negative past thinking into possible future and get somebody to really envision what that looks like and how their life is every single day, and then anchor it in the present, because that's the only time we can do anything. So what can you do right now that moves you towards that? Right, and so that's the big key. And so we can do all that self-work, and you know, practice that every single day. Do all that self work and you know, practice that every single day, or we can get it.

Speaker 2:

And I would say and not or and get a coach who's holding you accountable to that, who can catch you when you're slipping back, cause it's just natural to slip. You know, we've got our whole life experience doing that. We're wired that way, but it's not the way we were designed. It's just the way it is.

Speaker 1:

It is. I love your edit on the word and and or. I often do the same edit with the word, but it's like actually no, it usually always is and and it's misappropriated. So it's interesting. I'm going to be wrestling with the word or, I think in the future. I'm curious if you wouldn't mind sharing over the last year. Is there an area where you see that you default to? This is where this stems from. Is that? You know there's so much personal development that we do as humans, especially you know, there are some of us that are very gung-ho and like I want to grow and I want to continue this growth journey and I just I wonder if there's a point. I think I know the answer, but I don't think it's ever. I always tell my coaching clients, like it's a no, it's a unfolding process throughout life, like is there an area where you've personally had to reground and just say wait, no, this is where we're going in the future and I love time traveling.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So at Ziegler, what we do is we look at life and we we make it pretty simple. We break life into seven areas, right, the we call it the wheel of life. The mental, which is kind of the way I view the world, my mindset, my outlook. The spiritual, which is not just faith but also all the character, qualities and virtues and values that you live by. And then the physical, which is what we eat, how much we sleep, exercise, how we handle stress. And then there's family, and then financial, and then personal and career. And so what I've noticed is that my belief and mindset and self-image is different in each one of those areas, right. And so it's like somebody might say, well, you look like you're doing pretty good, but when I'm self-aware and I dig in, I'm like, yeah, you know, I need some work over here. Right, I need some some adjustment over here. And then, the more you learn, I need some work over here, right, I need some adjustment over here. And then the more you learn, it's like the further you could go. It's like, you know, dad said, you go as far as you can see, and when you get there you'll be able to see even farther.

Speaker 2:

And so the last book I wrote, which is called Ten Leadership Virtues for Disruptive Times. In that book, the virtues right, there's ten virtues, and one of the virtues is humility, and there's a quote that I you know. After the book came out, I came up with this quote, and it's humility is the taproot of wisdom. Okay, so. So if you find truly wise people, it's that they've embraced humility and they enter every situation with this awareness that they don't know everything and there's a lot more to learn, right. And so, when you think about it, humility is the opposite of arrogance, and so you won't find arrogant people who are, in general, wise, they just don't. That isn't a partner right, slates don't go together, and so kind of like, the deeper I've gone into that, uh, the more I know that I don't know which.

Speaker 2:

And then I get excited, because one of the one of the things is humble. People get excited about not knowing something because now there's something else where they can learn. Well, that feeds into the growth mindset, and our advantage is not what we know, it's how, it's how. How fast we can learn right. And how fast we can learn is usually determined by how receptive we are to the learning right and and so. So that's been like the in my own journey, just having that humble digging in and going what else can I learn here? That's that's helped me more than anything else. And when I travel around the world and meet people from like like I did Leadership training in Vietnam, a communist country, and I loved it and they loved it Right, and it's the same thing I teach here. And so I'm like how's that possible? You know one's communist, one's capitalist, but we have this thing in common and it's because you go in just humble, giving respect, and it's amazing what comes back.

Speaker 1:

I love the anchor of humility and I haven't heard. I grew up in an agricultural area of California and so, yeah, sometimes our pastor at our church would talk about a taproot and I haven't heard that in so long. It was refreshing to be reminded of a taproot if something is essential a tree's, how about this one?

Speaker 2:

a tree's fruitfulness depends on its rootfulness, and so imagine a tree that has seven roots and those seven areas of life. Right, yeah, and the?

Speaker 1:

the nourishment that our roots need come from our habits uh, absolutely, and that tie, that connection I've, um, and maybe this resonates. But just when we look at ego and we look at where is the ego involved ego not always being bad. It's like you kind of alluded to this earlier about not placing a value necessarily on everything, but looking at even with is, is this a part of the ego that's coming involved, that's going to debilitate me and show up in a way that's not going to allow for that curiosity and that flourishing that comes with deep humility. It is a wellspring of life.

Speaker 2:

Yep for sure.

Speaker 1:

It is, tom. I appreciate your time so much. I want to honor that and you know there's so much that the Ziegler Institute offers and I'm grateful for that. Conscious Investor. We're going to leave links down in the show notes so that you can go and check this out Because for a lot of you this might be your first interaction at all and I want you to be. I want to encourage you go check out Tom's books and I want to encourage you go check out Tom's books, go check out his dad's books and pick up some of the audio forms of everything. Go follow, go subscribe. But I'm also wondering, tom, is there anything you would like to leave Parting words of wisdom? Because you have so much wisdom and I value your work tremendously. It's been a powerful influence in my life and I thank you for that. Is there any parting wisdom that you would have for the conscious investor?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So one of the best questions I ever got was I was speaking on the Ziegler message and the audience was real estate investors and there was a man in the room early 40s and I took questions and he said his question was what is the fastest way to success? What is the fastest way to success? And later on, the second question was what was the number one thing that Zig Ziglar did that made him successful? So I love both of those, right, because most people just say how do I become successful? Or what are the three keys to success?

Speaker 2:

This guy wanted to know the fastest way, what's the shortcut? And so, to make a long story short, I said to replace bad habits with good habits. And so principle number one is, even if you go into scripture in the Old Testament, it's never, you know, it's never keep doing bad and just do more good than you do bad. It's always stop doing bad and do good Right. So and so success is the same way. We got to stop digging that hole Right. We've got to, like, stop doing the things that are taking us away.

Speaker 2:

And then the second part of that was you know what was Zig Ziglar's number one secret? And there's not one. But this is the answer I gave him, and that is that for over four decades like almost 50 years dad, every single day he spent two to three hours in the morning Researching, reading, studying God's word, books, audios, taking in new information to internalize and simplify so that he could share it with someone else, to someone else, for their benefit. So just think about that Share for their benefit. And so, if there's one thing you, if there was one habit that you could do, that would change everything. What if you just took five minutes a day to learn something new that you simplified, internalized and then you shared it with somebody you cared about for their benefit? If you did that every day for a year, what kind of a human being would you be at the end of the year? Would you be different? I mean, it's like when you attach motive, the right motive, with life-changing ideas and thoughts, that's a world-changing combination.

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh, it sure is Number three You've got the first two.

Speaker 2:

Oh, there were. What was the three things? Or did you ask me three?

Speaker 1:

oh, I think you I maybe I misunderstood.

Speaker 2:

I think you said there were three yeah, those two things is, uh, replace a bad habit with a good habit, and then, and the third one is, do one and two. How about that? There's the third one.

Speaker 1:

That's how I solve things. Also, I love that. It is so, so important. Now, now I have to I gotta ask do you spend? Do you use a similar morning profile as your dad of internalizing and spending time in scripture and intros information to simplify it and sharing it?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So every day I do what I call the perfect start, and I talk about that in the book choose to win. And so every day I do my goals, my gratitude. Then I'm doing five things now instead of three, and then I read Proverbs or Scripture, then I journal, and the journaling doesn't take long, it's just whatever that thought is. And then I've been using ChatG GPT every day for over a year now, and so what I'll do is like today, what's today the 17th?

Speaker 2:

So I read Proverbs 17,. And then I'll go in and I'll say in, you know, let's just say, proverbs 17, 1 through 3, based on ancient Jewish tradition, the original Hebrew, explain what Proverbs 17, 1 through 3 mean and how I can apply it. And so it's pretty interesting when you see the original text and what the word really meant and the cultural context that it was in, and you do it. But what a great instant resource. Right 20 years ago you'd spend three hours doing that, and now three minutes, and it's really powerful. So that's kind of my perfect start every day, powerful. So that's my kind of my perfect start every day, and then most days, because it's hot in Texas now I'm working out either right in the middle of that or right after it, and my gratitude list is I just write three things down every day I'm grateful for, and so I'm almost halfway through the year. I've got over 500 things written down that I'm grateful for this year. It's amazing what that does.

Speaker 1:

It's amazing how it shifts your perspective and we have a very similar routine at morning practice. I have not incorporated chat, gpt, and now I'm so curious, I'm like, oh, that sounds really fascinating and to your point. Typically we'd have to go to a concordance and go get all these different references and tools in order to understand the breakdown of basic language and, wow yeah, technology being used for something super great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's really it's like. So this is something I believe. I believe that the number one skill anybody can develop today is the coaching skill, and coaching is just questioning right, it's just being curious and asking those questions. It's also the number one skill that somebody could use to really benefit from chat, gpt or any AI. It's the power of the prompt that gets the right information out. So if you're in your morning routine, if you're contemplating something, you can just chat in. You know I'm thinking about this. What are some great quotes that would also mean the same thing, and it's just unbelievable where it'll take you, right.

Speaker 1:

Curiosity and wonder right there.

Speaker 2:

Learning, learning.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I'm ever, always learning, always reading, always wanting to grow ambitious, but there's so much good that comes from it. I find to you know exactly what you're saying. I'm always sharing a podcast, a book, a scripture. I'm always sharing a podcast, a book, a scripture. I'm always sharing it with someone else and inevitably within a short proximity of learning something, god put somebody in my life and it's like this is intended for that person. It was intended for me, but it's flowing through me also to somebody else and it's pretty remarkable to me how often that happens.

Speaker 2:

I think it happens constantly, but we only notice it every now and then Fair point. Dad always said that coincidence was just God's way of staying anonymous.

Speaker 1:

So true, so true. Tom, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time. Would you do you have a special place you'd like the Conscious Investor to connect with you, or would you like them to go to a website? What's the best?

Speaker 2:

Zigglercom is the best place.

Speaker 1:

It is the best place, yep. Thank you again, tom and Conscious Investor. Remember this podcast isn't just for you, it is for you and someone else. So make sure that, whoever comes to your mind, whoever's on your heart, that you take a moment to share this episode, and to do that not just with the Conscious Investor podcast, but with any podcast that you were listening to, or anything on YouTube. Whatever you're consuming, it's for you and somebody else, so make it a point to give it a share. Until next time, live big love bigger and do great things.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Julie Holly

Host