What do you do when confronted with a negative person? Whether they are just spouting negativity to or around you, or outright attacking you. Unless you live and work alone and are a veritable hermit, negative people are unavoidable. In this episode I play an impacting message from Zig Ziglar that does a profound job of highlighting the consequences of unleashed negativity. From it, I posed this question to the Ziglar audience, “How do you cope when you’re on the receiving end of negativity...so you don’t become negative yourself?” The responses ranged from “Run away, far and fast and avoid at all cost,” to striving to understand the person and help bring them around to a more positive outlook. Many cited the need for compassion on hurting people. But what seemed to bubble to the surface was the necessity for us all to be emotionally confident in order to healthily deal with negative people. Tom Ziglar joined me for the discussion and actually charged us to become “emotional ninjas!” I invite you to join me for these weekly discussions, just find and friend me on Facebook at agentkmiller.com

We can’t hear it enough, the quality and routine of our morning is the primary indicator of our success for the day. Yet the fact remains that the majority of people, even aspiring people like the Ziglar Show listeners, do not have a healthy routine to start the morning. In show 707 I brought you Hal Elrod, bestselling phenomenon of the book The Miracle Morning. In this show we walk through the seven spokes of the Ziglar Wheel of Life with Hal and hear his personal habits for success. He has some significant, unique habits in all areas, but it’s hard to not highlight what he cited for the Mental spoke, and it’s his routine he coined SAVERS: silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing, that he attributes his primary success to. I’ve had a solid morning routine for a couple years now, but Hal has inspired me to more...because I want even more out of my day. 

There is a relatively new thief that is stealing our time, attention and literally...peace. It’s crept up on us. Even a decade ago you’d never stand in line and see everyone starting at a little screen in their hand. They were looking around, noticing the world around them. Maybe talking with someone. At lunch you just talked with whoever you were with, the only distractions being other people in the restaurant or a possible phone call to your cell phone. Now we find a constant companion on our smart phone that we as a culture rarely ignore for more than 5-10 minutes at at time. The smartphone made a seemingly benight entrance into our lives but has now commanded a literal cultural shift. What started with text messages has now ballooned to over 2.2 million apps. Enough to keep your attention 24 hours a day. Though it’s just a handful of social media apps that command the lion’s share. The question is, how are you doing? Do you control your device time or is it controlling you? I went to the Ziglar audience and asked them, “Have you done anything to limit your smartphone usage? Have you found yourself being distracted by it?” Most cited steps they are taking to limit their time and many admitted to the very real struggle and how they are finding it’s much more than a time-waster, but a literal depth-of-life culprit. I brought an expert on the show with me, Cal Newport, our computer science professor and best selling author from show 703. The conversation went immediately into some major issues affecting us at the hands of big business who makes money the more they get us looking at these screens. It was inspiring to hear what some have gained back now that they’ve put limits on their phones. You’ll get some great ideas from this show on how you can better manage your smartphone usage, and what the positive pay off truly is!

Hal Elrod has influenced millions of people with the message of his bestselling book, “The Miracle Morning.” What’s intriguing is his concern with inspiring so many people, but not being satisfied with how many were taking real action as a result of the inspiration. His latest book is the Miracle Equation and it tackles these issues. Hal almost died twice, once from a head on collision with a drunk driver, then from a rare form of aggressive cancer. The principles that helped him come back stronger from both accidents is what fuels his guidance for us in our everyday lives to finally take the necessary steps toward achieving the things we honestly desire. The discussion on overcoming negative emotions alone is worth the listen, it’s flat out profound. Don’t miss what Hal has to offer - themiracleequation.com (new book!) and annual event bestyeareverlive.com

What is more valuable than having human relations skills? Maybe...nothing. The quality of your relationships, the quantity of your relationships, and the joy in your relationships is equal to your human relations abilities. Along the way, we all learn some basics and out of Zig Ziglar’s 10 Commandments of Human Relations, you are probably doing some of them well, and benefiting from them. But where are you not doing well, and suffering? Or at least not benefiting where you could. We play a four minute clip from Zig Ziglar where he quickly takes us down his list. Judging that Zig is held up as one of the very top, most successful communicators of all time, the list feels fairly irrefutable. I asked the Ziglar audience, which of Zig’s 10 commandments do you most succeed with and which ones do you most struggle with? Tom Ziglar joined me to talk through your comments. I’ll tell you this right off, the area people are weakest in, nearly 50%, said they failed at remembering and calling people by their names! Zig’s rule number three. But listen on and you will want to hear the rest.

Steve Martin’s career guidance in his memoir, “Born Standing Up”, is to be so good they can’t ignore you. Ivy league computer science professor Cal Newport took it to heart. So much so that he wrote a best selling book with that title! Cal was my featured guest in show 703 where we discussed his book Deep Work and his latest book, Digital Minimalism. In this episode he shares his habits for success. Cal is one of the more influential personalities of...today’s influencers. Some of what you’ll hear is, Cal is a follower of Michael Pollan and Mark Sisson and primal eating and exercising. He's big into cognitive fitness and the reality that the brain is a muscle that needs to be worked out consistently. He's a fan of multiple streams of income and literally states he never trusts one stream of income. His best career advice, we already covered! He seeks high quality leisure and plays guitar in some bands. All in all, not the picture you might have of a professor of computer science at an Ivy League school. Connect with Cal at calnewport.com

Do you get decision fatigue? Or fear in making important decisions? You are not alone. In show 699, titled “How to make decisions with confidence” we talked with decision making expert, David Meltzer. Incredible information from this former consultant for the movie, Jerry Maguire, which I love! So I went to you, the Ziglar audience, and asked this question, “On a scale from 1-10 (10 best), how would you rate your confidence in making important decisions? And why?” It was incredibly revealing. Some highlights - no surprise people tend to feel far less confident when in crisis. Many shared they are more confident in helping guide others in decision making than when it’s about them. People pleasers, which I admittedly struggle with, have a hard time when their decisions include other people. Many found it harder when there are a lot of choices. Some felt they were generally confident, but it often took them a long, long time. Seeking counsel from others was a common thread. The term “analysis paralysis” came up multiple times. The aspect of having to remove emotion when making decisions was brought up. Then much discussion came around the role in decision making of experience, maturity and the big one...faith.

Why would renowned associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University Cal Newport shun social media and keep ultra tight tight restrictions on his own technology usage? Because he desires to master his life, peace and productivity and he knows the limiting power of unleashed electronics in his life. Imagine waking up and immediately eating a donut. Getting ready for work and having a breakfast of...donuts. On the way to work, have a donut. As a matter of fact, you just keep a dozen with you at all times and rarely let 15-20 minutes go by without at least having a bite. I mean, what harm is there in just a bite here and there? But by day’s end you never had enough room in your belly to get any good nutrition in and you feel a bit woozy from all the sugar and carbs, even as you sneak a couple bites as your head hits the pillow and you try to get some sleep, which is disturbed by the days intake of junk. Or constant spending of your money? We all know we must budget our nutritional intake and financial expenses. We know we can’t binge on anything continuously. But in a short amount of time, our electronics and devices have crept in and many of us find ourselves on a near non-stop diet. What is it doing to us? This is our topic today. As I mentioned, Cal Newport is an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of six books, including his most recent, Digital Minimalism - Choosing a focused life in a noisy world. Two of his books, Deep Work “Rules for focused success in a distracted world” and So Good They Can't Ignore You are books I’ve heard so many world influencers reference. It was the testimony of Michael Hyatt that prompted me to do this interview with Cal. You won't find Cal on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, but you can often find him at home with his family in Washington, DC, or writing essays for his popular website calnewport.com. Gratefully, he took time to have an in depth conversation with us. We all need to hear this message.

Welcome to The Ziglar Show, I’m your host, Kevin Miller and this is our Q&A show. Every week I post a personal development question on my facebook page at agentkmiller to hear the real-world testimonies of people’s journeys to change and grow. In this episode our topic is around an age old cliche’. We hear a short story and message from Zig Ziglar that wraps up with him stating a core value for humanity is “How fast you get up after being knocked down”. I think I can safely assume everyone has heard this. If you’ve ever played football, I can guarantee it! But do we take it to heart? Here’s the deal and point of this episode, if nothing hard happens to you, you aren’t stretching yourself more, you’re playing it safe. That’s your choice. But if you ARE striving, you will have some trials. Things that don’t work out for you. And you may very well be victimized, that can happen to anyone. The point isn’t staying in a bubble. It’s going out and at some point, getting your bubble burst. So the value, the valor, goes to how you...recover. Do you get back up? Do you do it with hope and faith instead of bitterness and cynicism? Do you allow the trial to strengthen or weaken you? So from Zig’s message I posted this question:“What is a failure you’ve had or valley you were in or trauma you’ve recovered from that you are proud of and better for? And what was the catalyst for your overcoming?" We heard about recoveries from abuse, financial valleys, infertility, death of loved ones and more. I’m joined by Michelle Prince to talk through the comments. We also addressed some big issues in regards to why some people bounce back and others don’t, and we get into muddy water with the concept of God being in control and having a plan... I think you’ll find this an affirming message. Hey, I have a favor to ask, and something to offer in return. It helps me when you share The Ziglar Show with others on social media, and when you leave a review wherever you access your podcasts. But this takes your time. So what can I offer you? You tell me. Seriously. Share the show or write a review, then send it to me at [email protected] and...tell me how I can help you. Answer a question? Give some guidance? Help you find a resource? You tell me. As Zig says, we’ll help each other get what the other wants. 

In citing what he most wanted to impart the Ziglar audience, David Meltzer replied, “I want to challenge the audience to build a habit machine.” David was our guest in show 699 titled, “How to make decisions with confidence” and I started off the show fawning over the fact he was one of the main consultants for the movie Jerry Maguire. His new book is, Game-Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Business Strategies from the Biggest Names in Sports. In this show of course we walked through his personal habits. Highlights for me...David cited he spent much of his life with the perspective of family and work coming first, but now feels his personal, physical wellness must comes first because without that, he can’t serve his family or his work well. Thus he spends an hour per day on his health. The last year and a half have seen his greatest growth in relationships after he started some habits of consistent communication, which you’ll hear more about. Being a student of his calendar is a big aid for his mental peace and wellness. He is shameless in making money a priority, as with it he can shop for the things he needs to do what he wants and needs to. In regards to that he views his primary vocation doing activities he gets paid for. He believes our culture has a happiness problem and a big personal focus is learning to love all that he is doing. You will gain much from this show. Again, get David’s book, Game-Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Business Strategies from the Biggest Names in Sports, wherever you buy books.