FPRA - Florida Public Relations Association Blog

Mark Ziegler is an Associate in Communications, College of Communication at Florida State University. Mark is a very energetic speaker to say the least. His style is very engaging. He opened his session with a quick story about an FPRA conference he attended almost 10 years ago in Boca. His credit card had been stolen during the event, so when he thinks about FPRA he always checks his wallet :-)

Mark had intended to go to medical school, but he saw the signs when he was studying. During gross anatomy he had trouble opening the chest cavity. He said, "this is a sign."

The first day of medical school at the University of Florida, Mark decided to quit. He went home to his apartment in Gainesville and called his parents. They were cool with his decision. That was the type of relationship he had with his parents. Shortly afterward he had the opportunity attend Florida State University on a fellowship grant for Masters work. He visited the campus and had, 'good institutional fit' or in his words, 'I likes it here.'

While at Florida State University he was taken in by Dr. Melvene Hardee. Dr. Hardee was a true inspiration to Mark. Shortly after arriving at FSU he was asked to teach a public speaking class. He called his mentor, Dr. Hardee and shared his concerns about teaching a course, her response: "Nonsense, stand and deliver." Four words that still resonate with him today. He began teaching and it changed his life.

Over the next few years he had a number of positions at FSU and other colleges. He was chasing that thing called happiness. But what is happiness? Happiness is not something that you acquire, it's something that ensues.

Mark moved on to grief. We all have to deal with grief. The worst type of grief is grief with regret. One of Mark's rules is to take out the garbage every night. When you leave your loved ones don't leave any open issues. Sure, 99 times out of 100 it's not an issue, but you don't want to be in a position to have grief with regret.

Next up was worry. What worries you? Can you work on it? Yes it sounds simple, but just work on the things that worry you. Also, don't worry about things you can't control. So much energy is wasted worrying about things you can't control.

Mark continued on with some hilarious stories from his childhood....think lice. Hard to relate via a blog.

Mark's final message was (quoting Ferris Bueller) - "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."