What is more important than mastering one’s self? The world acclaims those who have mastered a skill and we glorify people for what they can do. What we fail to recognize is the necessary mastery of self that preceded the act the person is on stage for. Did you get that? The performance, whether on stage or an a sports field or on camera or in the workplace, is the result of a level of mastery of self. It is not the most talented who win. We’ve all seen great talent go to waste because the perso...
May 04, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 781
Sometimes it’s just tiring to go against the flow. We want to belong with and trust the society we live in. Sometimes we may even just want to chill out and be average. But then we realize we are answering the call of responsibility to grow and evolve and strive toward our full potential and it requires doing more than the average. In this show we hear a four minute message from Zig Ziglar on this topic, and from it I posted this question on Facebook, “Having more than average means doing more t...
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 780
I want to figure out what is healthiest, best, right, and true and just simply to that over and over again. Simple. Black and white. But alas, the world, humanity, and circumstances don’t often play along with these rules. Often we must discern what is best in one particular moment and the next and one may require an opposite response even though it is a very similar circumstance. In episode 777 I brought you master sculptor Scott Stearman and a very deep discussion on faith and influence. His n...
Apr 27, 2020•31 min•Ep. 779
“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” It’s a pithy quote we often find on placards in gift shops. I have one on a pottery disc hanging by our kitchen sink. In reality we can always fail. So I came at it a different way and asked the Ziglar audience this question, “If you were offered a $50k grant to try something growth oriented in your personal or professional life, what would it be?” The attempt is the same, to remove reasons we have for not going after pursuits we desire. In epi...
Apr 22, 2020•51 min•Ep. 778
Tune in for a profound message. You are painting a picture to everyone you have contact with, at every moment of your life, with every action. What does the picture represent? The concept of how and what you are influencing is relevant to all, though we also go deep into Christianity. Scott Stearman is a renowned sculptor whose life size sculptures are the focal point of many military compounds and faith based institutions and universities across America. He has a message he is now delivering on...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 777
The greatest asset your business and you can have is people’s trust. However, most everyone believes they are trustworthy, yet in truth, few employ the tangible actions to actually gain trust. So many people claim terms like “integrity” and “honesty” or expect their good intent to shine through. To actually gain trust and customer loyalty takes specific methodologies which are fairly simple to put into action, and very, very rare. We kick off the show with a two and a half minute message from Zi...
Apr 15, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 776
If you’ve heard that before, consider it again. This is a common thread we’ve had on the show. Busyness and hurry are not producing good works. The faster we run the slower we produce. Or at least, the shallower we produce. If your life is a blur of lots of shallow work, then speed may be your gig. But to do the great work, the deep work, the valuable and profitable work, we are learning speed kills. This is our Habit’s episode with Jennifer Allwood, my guest from show 773 where we discussed, “S...
Apr 13, 2020•22 min•Ep. 775
That word, “busy”, means, having a great deal to do. Do you have a great deal to do? Are you enjoying the pace? Are you creating your best from the go-go-go grind? I think we are in a special place in time where busy is losing its luster. Not because we aren’t capable of maintaining it, but rather we’re learning it provides lesser, not greater value. Instead of the busy person seeming more important, I’m starting to see them as poor decision makers and living life at a shallower level. Actually ...
Apr 08, 2020•53 min•Ep. 774
Fear and being stuck. Everyone can relate to those realities and they are not where we want to be. Jennifer Allwood truly provides a breath of fresh air to this issue, and she does it by relating, commiserating, and having compassion. You can not fully eradicate fear from your life. But you can manage it and move forward anyway. Jennifer cites you can have emotions, feel emotions, recognize emotions, but still do big, hard, and scary things in spite of those emotions. Jennifer uses her social me...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 773
We are in an unprecedented global crisis with the coronavirus. Nearly every American and human is being impacted. I asked this short question on Facebook, “Would you share a positive and a negative regarding how COVID-19 is affecting your life right now?” In just over 24 hours we have in depth comments from 76 people. There was very little sugar coating, but some distinct threads regarding loss of money as the negative and down time and time for relationships as a positive. Really interesting to...
Apr 01, 2020•55 min•Ep. 772
Are you able to concentrate? Focus? Think critically and creatively? In episode #767 I brought you John Mark Comer and we discussed the profound message in his book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” An issue we discussed was the scattered attention caused by the massive distractions of today’s world. What with our electronic devices and social media, our attention spans are at an all time low. The consequences are, as John Mark cites, we are chipping away at our capacity for concentration an...
Mar 30, 2020•28 min•Ep. 771
Encouragement. Especially in a time of crisis, it is simply the difference between success and failure. Are you feeling encouraged? Are the “facts”, “reality”, and the latest statistics from the media directing your attitude and anxiety or are you holding fast to faith and truth and inspiration? This is a special edition episode with Tom Ziglar sharing a message straight from the heart of everything Ziglar stands for. Encouragement. Not pollyanna platitudes, but the true belief of those who will...
Mar 25, 2020•39 min•Ep. 770
As of this episode publishing in March, 2020, we are amidst the coronavirus epidemic. Much will be lost in small business during these coming weeks and possibly months. Not all will be salvaged. The greatest value will likely be how to insulate ourselves from future calamity and not taking the status quo for granted. I posted this question on Facebook, “Is your business being negatively impacted by the coronavirus?” Droves of responses from small business owners who are seeing a slight challenge...
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 769
Being positive instead of negative, we’ve all heard plenty about. But then we go about our days and our lives being...what? Are we really changing ourselves? As I often seek to do, I want to know the root. If we are dealing with any negativity, why? Where is it coming from? I’m not going to tell you, instead, I’m asking. I did ask, actually. I posted this question on Facebook, “Which of these are you most prone to struggle with? 1. Complaining, 2. Criticizing, 3. Gossiping, 4. Sarcasm. And about...
Mar 18, 2020•55 min•Ep. 768
We are all busy and we’re all in a hurry. Who just loves it? Who feels they are producing their best work while in such a harried state? Yet, who feels trapped by it? So now I’m going to give you some miracle, “seven steps” formula that sounds nice and shiny, but we all know...nothing is going to change, right?” But alas, there is no formula. It comes down to awareness of what is really driving us, and what we believe. I’m part of a prayer group of about a dozen men, all business owners with big...
Mar 16, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 767
For all of you with a product or service: 1) Who is your specific customer, 2) What problem do you solve for them, and 3) How do you stand out from your competition? I’m sure you’ve heard messages around these topics before. But listen again. There is very little chance you are communicating these things well, as it’s very counterintuitive to how we think as business owners. We think of the benefit there is for people. Fulfilling a desire. I recently attended a business event with Pete Vargas’ A...
Mar 11, 2020•56 min•Ep. 766
So often in business start ups, and even in well established businesses, we make huge investments in giving people what we think and believe they want. We know we can help solve a problem or fulfill a desire. Over 20 years ago I invested over $50,000 in a business I knew solved a big problem. It legitimately did. It was not till the money was spent and the business fully launched that I found out, it wasn’t a solution people wanted. Today the problem still exists! But human nature and habit triu...
Mar 09, 2020•28 min•Ep. 765
Nothing changes till something changes. An oft quoted saying. But if you sit down right now and look at your life and where you want to progress or where you are dissatisfied, and take out pen and paper and ask yourself, “What needs to change?”, it really is profound. It’s always convicting to me to consider the cost if I don’t change something. Am I ok if nothing in my life changes over the next six month? This time next year, am I ok with the status quo? And yes, I do believe it’s healthy to f...
Mar 04, 2020•55 min•Ep. 764
You want more success and better fruition for your life. What you are about to have revealed is possibly your greatest, most detrimental bad habit. As English is the international business language, complaining is the international language we use in relationships with other humans. In this show I bring you Will Bowen, the founder and purveyor of an initiative called A Complaint Free World. You will hear why his fans include Maya Angelo and Oprah Winfrey and he’s been featured on The Today Show,...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 763
I did not intend for this to be a show, it was just an honest question. But 52 comments later, it became a show. I simply asked this question on Facebook (agentkmiller), “I often ponder the spirit of my own industry of self-help and motivation. It seems the most popular style these days is someone who went from zero to hero and is full of self-confidence, trying to fervently appeal to their audience to adopt the self-confidence they have found and believe you should be able to tap into. Does it ...
Feb 26, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 762
We would all agree to that statement, “Success doesn’t happen by accident.” But the reality is, most people subconsciously feel it will either happen to them or not. Our culture today takes less responsibility than ever for the realities of life. Chronic illness and disease is on a radically high growth curve and while we know most of it is a result of poor lifestyle choices, the average person believes it’s genetics and the luck of the draw. But you know better, which is why you are here listen...
Feb 24, 2020•27 min•Ep. 761
Check this out, I asked Ziglar listeners this question, “Throughout a given day, do you generally behave as you intend to? If/when you don’t, what tends to derail you?” As responses started pouring in, a very common thread was “people”. So I gave a follow up question, “When you get upset with people, does your emotion come from Fear or Pride? Fear = abandonment, rejection, loss. Pride = justice, fairness, enabling. I asked Stephen & Mara Klemich to join me, they were my recent guests in show...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 760
Would you like to know just why you do what you do, and don’t do much of what you’d wish yourself to do? Like implementing the plans that would progress your life? This is the focus my guest in this episode brings us. Howard Partridge’s new book is titled, FTI, Failure to Implement. He walks us through 10 Principles for business and life success. But what jumped out at me is looking at these 10 areas and realizing they were a great business and personal audit. Meaning, we can take each area and ...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 759
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets, said W Edwards Deming. Right now your system, your habits and routines, are designed to produce the results you are getting. Same with me. If we want to change the results, we must change the system. No secret or brilliance in that statement, you’ve heard the concept before. The problem, and opportunity, is us. I believe we are all simply living up to our expectations. What is interesting is how we would reshape our living based upon...
Feb 12, 2020•39 min•Ep. 758
In this show I am appealing to your logic, not your emotion. Your intellect, not your inspiration. Chances are you are living under a false assumption about your vocational role in life. If not false, at least minimized. You see yourself a certain way and thus expect a level of performance from yourself. I am not vying for you to increase the amount of your performance as much as the caliber. And to a great degree, simply the way you hold, conduct and care for yourself. I’m going to play a two m...
Feb 11, 2020•32 min•Ep. 757
How we treat people has a direct, immediate, and long term impact on us just as much as what we eat. Live on fast food and you will end up looking and feeling like a milkshake. Treating difficult people like they deserve and how you treat random people you come into contact with in life can be slowly poisoning you, depending on your attitude. Most people will testify to treating all people well, all the time, no matter what. Few of us truly do, and minimizing the issue is a disservice to us. Whi...
Feb 05, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 756
Your time, especially your personal time, has three components. The time you give to “I”, yourself, is vitally necessary. “We” time would be working together or parenting or the duties of life, even social engagements. “Us” is intentional, focused time on the relationship, like “date night”. This highlights the Relationship spoke on the Ziglar Wheel of life for Stephen & Mara Klemich, my guests from show 753 where we talked about the four principles of behavior that rule our lives, from thei...
Feb 03, 2020•49 min•Ep. 755
Recognizing who has helped you is vitally important, as it fosters the reality of how valuable help is. How much you need it and benefit from it. Or what if you haven’t received much positive help from others? How do you get it? In this episode we listen to a clip from Zig Ziglar on the dramatic influence of others investing in you, and you in them. Then I posted this question to the Ziglar audience, “: Name or tag someone who truly made a positive difference in your life, and please explain how...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 754
Why do we do the things we do? Especially, why do we so often not do the things we want to do, and do what we don’t want to do? Why do we intend to act one way, then get derailed and sabotage ourselves or a situation or a relationship? I generally go to the weakness and appetite of my mind and flesh, but today I bring two guests whose research shows it is deeper than this and we can get to the root and literally change our behaviors. Stephen Klemich is a corporate consultant and his wife Mara Kl...
Jan 27, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 753
Most people listening to this show have an idea what their personality style is, from one of the many personality profiles out there. But what we uncover in this Q&A episode is you can know your personality style and be wholly ignorant of your literal, tangible, working style in the main roles and duties of your life. Along with that you can know your spouse’s personality type, your co-worker’s, kid’s, and more, and completely miss and bang up against their styles, again, in the main roles a...
Jan 23, 2020•51 min•Ep. 752
