Last week, sales/motivational speaking legend Zig Ziglar passed away at the age of 86.

Maybe you’ve never heard of him or read any of his books, but chances are the inspiring lessons he taught for the last four decades have somehow influenced your life without you even realizing it.

I had the opportunity of seeing Zig in person when he spoke at an event in Green Bay back in August of 2008. As luck would have it, Zig’s event and the NMC Regional Meeting were scheduled in Green Bay on the very same day. But since they were located only a few miles away from each other, I was able to attend both.

Before going to watch him perform at the Resch Center that day, I didn’t realize that Zig was no longer his usual self. It turns out that in 2007, Zig fell down the stairs and was still recovering from a serious head injury that affected his short-term memory.

With his loving daughter by his side performing in an “interview format”, Zig struggled on stage, forgetting and repeating his lines. But in his struggle, I couldn’t help to learn a different lesson from him that day. Although he was no

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What does your Employee Turnover say about the culture at your dairy?

TOO MUCH Employee Turnover = Either people don’t like their job, their boss, their co-worker(s), their working conditions, or maybe a combination of the above… Either way, hardly anyone wants to stay.

TOO LITTLE Employee Turnover = Either you’re TRULY GOOD to work for, or you’re TOO GOOD to work for… Either way, hardly anyone wants to leave.

As you probably already know, neither extreme is where you want to be. Sure, you’ll always have employees who come and go, and that’s a good thing. In fact, there are actually two types of good employee turnover.

The best kind of employee turnover is when someone realizes that they’ve outgrown their current opportunities with your company, and they choose to move on and do something else. The other kind of turnover is when you decide to let someone go so they can find a different job, and you can hire someone who’s a better fit within your team.

Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about… building a team of people that works well together. In the end, the cows are happier, your job is easier, and everyone on your team is better off.

Have you ever found yourself captivated by the sales pitch of a late-night infomercial? As much as I’d like to believe their bold claims, I’m a realist. Sure, I’d love to get rich while working from home for just a couple hours a day. And who doesn’t what to chop, blend, mix, and juice anything in mere seconds for just three easy payments of thirty dollars while losing twenty pounds!?!

But I don’t honestly believe that all of those investments, diets, and gadgets are really going to work. Now I’m not saying that every infomercial is a scam. But they definitely bring to mind the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

So… let’s turn off the TV. Now, what silver bullet are you currently considering for your business? Is it a new piece of technology? A new piece of equipment? The promise of a shortcut that will solve a nagging problem? Be honest, do you

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When it comes to what I believe and what I value, my choice is clear. And chances are, yours is too. But… all of this “clarity” doesn’t mean we share the same opinion, right?

Whether we agree or not, we know what we stand for and what we support. Everything I’ve experienced and observed throughout my life are uniquely mine, and yours are uniquely yours. And it’s the sum of these experiences that have formed our perspectives of the world around us.

My attitude about religion, about politics, about people, about relationships, about work, about money, about EVERYTHING has come from

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A few months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast, I went down to Mississippi with a couple friends to check it out. As we were driving down Beach Blvd. from Biloxi to Gulf Port, no one in the car said a word. Sure, we saw the damage on the nightly news. But nothing could prepare us for the destruction we saw as we drove along the coastal highway. There was hardly anything left.

Now only seven years later, Hurricane Sandy has devastated the East Coast in a way that most people never imagined possible. Fortunately, most of us have no idea what it’s like to live through a deadly storm or lose everything in a flood or a fire. But as of this week, that’s become the new reality of millions of people up and down the East Coast.

This massive, tragic storm got me thinking… if I were in their situation, what would I do? Sure, it’s easy to watch the storm and its aftermath from a thousand miles away and say that everyone should have followed the evacuation orders and left their homes. But at the same time, I suppose it’s a lot different when it’s actually your home and everything you own.

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I’m not a big cycling guy, so I never really followed the Tour de France. But I love to see people overcome adversity and achieve greatness. So, like many people, I admired Lance Armstrong’s courage to beat cancer and I paid attention to his cycling career. Year after year, I wanted Armstrong to get the yellow jersey and win the Tour. And right up to the past few days, I truly wanted to believe that Lance Armstrong legitimately won each of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles. But now it seems pretty clear, Armstrong cheated. And as the saying goes, cheaters never win.

Well, actually that’s not completely true. Cheaters often do win. It’s just that their victories are typically short-lived. And in the case of Armstrong, it appears that his winning streak has come to an end. As of this week, he’s been stripped of all seven titles and banned from the sport for life, his sponsors have walked away from their contracts, and he is no longer the chairperson of his own charity LIVESTRONG. Although he made it to the top of his profession, his “success” will forever be tainted.

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You’ve got another busy day ahead of you, right? So, what’s the most important thing you have to do today? Wait, let me rephrase that. Of all of the things you’re going to do today, what will bring the most value to your team?

There’s a difference… a big difference. Don’t’ get me wrong, I’m not saying that the tasks you do every day are not important. They are. But, do YOU have to do all of them?

Now, I realize you’re not going to fill your schedule with a bunch of work that’s not important. And no, you can’t fill your entire day with “ultra-high level jobs” from sun-up to sun-down. But at some point you need to ask yourself, “Am I doing work that only I can do?”

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This past Friday evening, I read a friend’s post on Facebook like no other.

Bill Eberle, Operations Manager at Rosendale Dairy, wrote a tribute to his friend and co-worker Brian Ramel. Brian lost his fight with cancer earlier that day, at the age of 25. I never met Brian, but after reading the following tribute that Bill wrote about him, I think you’ll agree that these sincere words are a reflection of both men’s character and compassion.

With Bill’s permission, here is his tribute to Brian that he posted on Facebook, shared in its entirety…

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