What can Zig teach you without speaking from a stage or a book? Let his youngest daughter tell you. He really was mortal, he wasn’t perfect, but the story is compelling. Plus, get inspired by Julie’s message on “being the right person” as the key to your success. Thanks to Julie’s company, Prime Property Realty, for supporting this show. See what they have to offer you in investment values!
This is THE Ziglar Show…episode 438, and today I have something different for you. We are going to look at two things: One…we’re going to look at Zig Ziglar and how we can relate and what we can learn and aspire to. But NOT from what he said from the stage or the pages of a book, but from how he lived. Because…we have an insider. His youngest daughter, Julie Ziglar Norman. Our second focus is her specific message as a sought-after speaker, presenter and author. This will be an eye-opening discussion!
OK, Folks, so…this is going to be an insightful show. You are used to hearing from Tom Ziglar, CEO, and his experience of his dad, Zig Ziglar. Julie is nine-and-a-half years older and has different insights that I believe will open your eyes to the man and father and human Zig was. A guy who I think you’ll be able to relate to more.
So, who is Julie?
JULIE ZIGLAR NORMAN is the daughter of Zig Ziglar and worked for twenty years as his personal editor. She has a background in the service industry, sales, and business management; she has become a respected international inspirational speaker. As her famous father once did, Julie has shared the platform with greats like General Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Howard Putnam, Joe Montana, Lou Holtz, Steve Forbes, Sarah Palin, Goldie Hawn, and many others.
Julie lives in Alvord, Texas, and continues the Ziglar legacy of encouragement through keynote speaking, her book, Growing Up Ziglar: A Daughter’s Broken Journey from Heartache to Hope, Ziglar Legacy Certification Training, and Ziglar Principle-Based Life Coaching. She also helps men and women build financial security through commercial, multi-family and single family real estate, which you heard briefly about as the sponsor of today’s show, Prime Properties Realty in Dallas/Ft Worth TX.
Find out more and connect with Julie at:
www.julieziglarnorman.com
Here, then, I bring you…Julie Ziglar Norman
Well, Julie, I revived and have been hosting the Ziglar Show for exactly two years and two days as of right now. How I’ve failed to have you on the show thus far…well, just grateful to have you here!
I want to use our time today to understand some aspects of your dad, Zig Ziglar, that I believe will help people further be able to embrace the Ziglar principles. But I also want to dig into your personal calling and platform and message. And on that…the front page of your website www.julieziglarnorman.com, you lead off with this statement:
“To succeed you must be the kind of person people want to do business with. In far too many cases, individuals focus all of their attention on marketing the product or service they provide, when their time would be far better spent learning how to be the right kind of person.”
In reading that, I thought how we can have a propensity to also focus all our attention on WHAT we can do and offer, our experience, skills and abilities we bring to the table.
But you are calling us to who we…be. Who we are. Does this primarily just start by reframing our efforts on the relationships we have with those around us as priority?
>>Listen to Julie’s responses on the show
“Experience has taught me that the majority of people who meet me for the first time have one burning question: ‘What is it like to grow up with Zig Ziglar, the most positive man in the universe, for a father?’ As you can well imagine, growing up with the Motivator’s Motivator was different…very different. Sometimes it was just plain weird growing up with Dad.”
- I appreciate this Julie, as if someone is superhuman, we can’t relate. You make him sound…mortal.
>>Listen to the show
I’d guess people are surprised at the title of your book, Growing Up Ziglar: A Daughter’s Broken Journey from Heartache to Hope.
You’re Zig’s kid, but you experienced heartache?
>>Listen to Julie’s comments
You said, “In our family we weren’t allowed to say negative things…we never used the word stupid, or the word hate. And trying to find a way to express yourself when you felt less than perfect was a challenge. When I became a typical teenager….you know the type…just a little sullen, emotionally unstable, and totally unsure of myself, I got so tired of positive thinking I said that when I grew up I was going to write a book called I’m Positive I’m Miserable!”
OK, so this is interesting. I grew up with a father who was a student of Zig. Likewise, there wasn’t a lot of negativity in the house. But…maybe I went too far, as in my marriage we discovered that I didn’t really have a right to not allow my wife and kids to share ANY negative feelings, and that got in the way of intimacy in the relationship.
So how do you not have stinkin’ thinkin’, but also be allowed to share hurts and doubts and frustrations?
>>Listen to Julie Ziglar Norman
“Daddy’s nature is to be happy, to look on the bright side, to expect the best. His enthusiasm and humor, his rock-solid belief in America being the land of opportunity, and his conviction that integrity had to be the bedrock foundation of our lives, set all of us on the path of positive thinking.”
Julie, I, of course, am close with Tom, the baby of the family. But you…you saw Zig before he was the Zig we all know. Did you see him transform into the Zig we all know?
> >Listen to Julie’s responses
Sunday afternoons were spent looking at land to buy. There we’d stand, among the tall swaying pines, listening to Mom and Dad discuss where on this particular piece of land they’d build the house, put the pool, and build the horse barn – just as soon as Dad became the success he knew he could be.
My father was a dreamer…but, more important, he was a doer. He knew full well what he would have to do to achieve his dreams. First, he’d have to become the kind of person who could succeed AND maintain his success
I would claim the same about myself, but though I’ve achieved great fruit from these dreams, I also have past experience where it was hard on my family, namely my wife. I’d shoot for the stars, and was stoked if we just made it to the next ridge. But my wife bought in and then expected the stars, and had a hard time when we only hit the ridge. Was it ever hard on your mom, or any of you kids? Or just always inspiring?
>> Hear Julie’s comments on the show
Now, Julie, you’re a speaker, presenter, trainer, consultant, author…You are building your own legacy. You spend a lot of your time in present day working with people to build financial security through commercial, multi-family and single family real estate, which you heard briefly about as the sponsor of today’s show, Prime Properties Realty in Dallas/Ft Worth, TX. What got you into this line of work?
>>Listen to Julie Ziglar Norman
I know you have an upcoming event I want folks to know about, but you work investment property in the D/FW area for folks all across the country, right?
So tell us about the upcoming event, “Women Can Invest in Real Estate Too.”
>>Hear Julie’s responses
Here is another quote from you I want to discuss:
“Your most often overlooked asset, the very thing that makes everything you want to be, do, or have possible, is YOU! You are the one person you can count on every time. You are the only one who can use your ability. You are in control of you.”
Julie, we are recording the day after the 2016 election, which we’d have to say is at the top of the most volatile presidential elections ever. I posted to my family yesterday morning this quote from Dr. Joseph Mercola: “Regardless of who wins the presidency today, realize that your power as an individual lies in your day-to-day decisions."
From a faith-based standpoint, stating that “you are in control” is controversial, but you didn’t say that. You said…”You are in control of…you.” On one hand, that is empowering, but you know that it can also feel…overwhelmingly daunting to be fully responsible for ourselves. How do you reconcile this?
“A well-meaning friend of mine, upon hearing that I was going to be speaking on the big Get Motivated seminar platform without my father and with the likes of Rudy Giuliani, First Lady Laura Bush, President George W. Bush, Goldie Hawn, and Sarah Palin, to name a few, exclaimed. ‘Oh, my gosh…this is great! You need to get out your dad’s old videos and watch how he moves. Memorize his gestures and do what he did on stage. Get down on one knee and point…. dangle your feet off the stage…. that will be so cool!’
“He was so excited for me I couldn’t help but love his enthusiasm…but I said, ‘Friend, you may have been watching my dad but I don’t think you were listening to what he was saying. My dad has spent over 50 years trying to convince me that I am the only one who can use my ability and it is my duty to be the best me I can be. Dad would feel like a failure if he thought I believed that being me wasn’t enough…he’d be so sad if I or anyone settled for being a mediocre replica of him instead of being a stellar example of themselves.’”
OK, this brings up somewhat of a challenge. On one hand we should model success. On the other, we need to have our own voice.
So maybe a balance of relevant mechanics vs. style and flavor? With Zig, we need to model some of his foundational skills of how to deliver a message, verbally and from stage. But we don’t need to talk with his accent, use his jokes, or even copy his antics.
Can you help us understand this tension? Our own authentic voice, but is it on top of foundational principles?
> > Listen to Julie Ziglar Norman
CONFIDENCE!
“I’ve experienced confidence and, on occasion, I still experience a lack of confidence. The truth about confidence is that it is a process. We all have areas of great competence and confidence [but], if we’re lifetime learners and risk-takers, we’ll find ourselves occasionally revisiting the lack of confidence issue.”
What you cite here is a big deal. You’re saying that if we are lifetime learners and risk-takers, from which to me says, “If we are always pursuing progress in our lives,” confidence will not be a place we permanently arrive, but it will ebb and flow. Yes?
> >Listen to Julie’s response