BEHIND THE MIKE

The Aun family knew him as Ziggy. He was a student at The University of South Carolina in Columbia when I met him as a child. He sold my parents their first “new” set of pots and pans.

Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar was his real name, but as children, we called him “Ziggy,” a cool way to address our “pot-and-pan salesman.” As Zig would tell the story later, he found himself attending the University of South Carolina and newly married to “the redhead,” as he affectionately called his wife Jean, who was with child.

“I needed to find a job so I could get my firstborn out of the hospital,” Zig said. He became a pot and pan salesman to make ends meet. Little did he know that he was laying the groundwork for his success. He delivered thousands of “free” presentations to clients like the Aun family, who ultimately bought pots and pans.

He was getting real life practice for becoming one of the most successful motivational speakers of our time. Zig would go into a home and personally prepare a full meal for the client as he demonstrated the use of his pots and pans. Invariably, the clients would “try them out over a period of time,” rarely returning them.

If memory serves, it took a few years for my parents to finally pay off the tab on that cookware. At the minimum, they complained about it for at least two years.

Zig normally did not have to prepare such an elaborate meal for every client, but then the Aun household was no small number of people for whom he had to cook. At our peak, there were 11 children and 2 parents all eating under one roof, not to mention a handful of friends that would tag along with us kids. I do not know much about the profit margin on pots and pans, but my guess is he did not get wealthy off the Aun clan.

Years later, I enjoyed the privilege of speaking alongside Zig in many venues, from the big, Positive Thinking Rallies to presentations in front of dozens of common clients. Invariably, we would always have a good laugh about how much money Zig lost cooking that meal for the Aun gang.

I would occasionally bump into Zig at various National Speakers Association meetings a couple of times a year. He was awarded the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame award by NSA in the last century.

I was flattered to receive the same honor in 2000 at NSA’s Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Unlike Zig, it took me 18 years of being nominated by our peers for me to be selected.

CPAE is an acronym that stands for Council of Peers Award of Excellence. You can only be nominated by an existing CPAE member and must be elected by the same group.

In 2009, Zig and I were selected to receive the “Legends of the Speaking Profession” award given at the Veteran Speakers Retreat, along with the late Jim Rohn, CPAE, who was recognized posthumously.

At the time I was selected, I was not age eligible. You had to be 60 years old to be nominated. Existing “Legends of the Speaking Profession” did all the recommending and voting. My 60th birthday was the same week the award was presented, making me the youngest member ever of the group of “Legends of the Speaking Profession.”

Our family’s life, and more specifically my own, has been blessed to have crossed paths with the Zig Ziglars of the world. How privileged can one man be?