In honor of a beautiful lost friend

It was right before the pandemic of 2020 was announced. My wife and I had the opportunity to participate in a certi cation program put on by the Zig Ziglar Corporation. It is a program called Ziglar Legacy Certi cation, or ZLC for those who have gone through it and graduated. Although I was the previous president of the company, and knew the content in depth, I wanted to share this experience with my wife and carry the o cial designation as a Ziglar Legacy Certi ed trainer and coach.

e group that we joined was a ectionately known as ZLC23, as we were the 23rd group to complete the certication. On the very rst day we met our classmates, each came up with their own story, their business story, their personal story, and then there was their life story. We met Jessica, Shelly, Marvin, Sundiata, JillMarie, Brent, David, Amy, Jerrod, and a few others. But there was one woman who stood out amongst the rest, Jill. Jill’s smile, enthusiasm, and passion for wanting to complete the program and to begin helping others was contagious. Her energy and intentionality for being a di erence maker in the lives of others was abundantly clear. Her purpose and mission for attending were evident in how she

ERIN ADDENBROOKE Marketing Consultant eaddenbrooke@coloradocommunitymedia.com

AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com participated in the learning through role playing, table exercise, and group discussions. I remember sitting next to her for two of those group discussions and table exercises. And I remember walking away from both feeling the impact of her presence and contributions to the conversations.

One of these exercises required us to share at our table what we liked, appreciated, or loved about someone else we had gotten to know during the week. We had to write it down privately on a note, and then read it out loud before handing it to the person at our table that we were writing about. I will share with you that the person reading the note and receiving the compliments was usually in tears, happy tears. As it was Jill’s turn to be the center of attention, we all eagerly wrote our messages of love, a ection, and appreciation. And as we all read our note, the consistency was unreal; Jill was light, love, passionate, determined, a role model of success, bright, beautiful, and someone who exuded the desire to help others.

Why am I sharing this story? Sadly, Jill passed away suddenly last month. Her beautiful smile to never grace this earth again, but that will bless the halls of heaven for eternity. ose of us who knew her well, knew all sides of Jill as we had three plus years to share calls, Zoom calls, webinars, texts, and emails. Some of us got to see her and be with her since we graduated ZLC23. And there wasn’t any one

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