Bob Burg  10:00

Well she was in a middle or sort of upper middle management job that she thought was pretty secure, and it turned out it wasn’t. And so she got involved in a small group of people who got together to find a job, basically. And there was a big focus on themselves. Everyone was focused on themselves and how. But what happened was basically, they sort of came together. And Heather had read the book and said, You know what? Instead of focusing on how to find jobs for ourselves, let’s instead focus on how we can help each other find jobs. In other words, they shifted their focus from themselves. They shifted from an I focus or a me focus to an other focus. And what happened is now you had this hugely expanded pie, and all of a sudden people are getting jobs left and right. Well now more people are coming into their group, they’re learning this philosophy, and they’re doing the same thing, and it was very successful for them.

Jeremy Weisz  10:58

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people, too, are out there, and maybe they’re trying to struggle to find their mission or their voice, like you have. Do you remember that time that was like a light bulb moment for you, and you knew The Go-Giver was something you need to get out to the world?

Bob Burg  11:15

Oh, gosh, you know, that’s a great question, Jeremy, and I’m not sure if it was necessarily a one light bulb moment, as much as it was sort of that I grew into it. I was teaching networking in terms of cultivating relationships, mutually beneficial, win, win relationships in which people could increase their business through doing this and really Endless Referrals, which was my first book, which is, that’s what it was about business networking is really the how to aspect of The Go-Giver. But what happened was, I always loved business. Endless Referrals was a how to book. And I always loved reading parables, business fables, starting with odd man, dinos, greatest salesman in the world. You know those books richest in Babylon by class and and then in the 80s, there came that short, that sort of shorter parable, Blanchard and Johnson’s One Minute Manager, Johnson’s One Minute Sales
Person, Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese?, friends like Robin Sharma, Chris Widener, all these different people were coming up with these parables. I thought, great. You know, you could read them in an hour, hour and 15 minutes, hour and a half and fun, and take these great lessons. And so I thought, would it be a great idea to put Endless Referrals into parable form and I thought about it, and I came up with the basic theme and the title The Go-Giver.

But here’s the thing, Jeremy, I sat down to write the book, and it took me all of about one minute to realize there’s a big difference between writing a how-to book, which is simply putting down what you know, and writing a fictional story. Now I can tell a story from stage, but it’s always when something really has happened. There’s a big difference in that, in actually creating a story. So I knew it was not just outside my comfort zone, I can live outside my comfort zone, I think we all do that as a matter of course. But it was as Dr. John Maxwell would say, it was outside my strength zone, and I knew I could not do justice to the story, so I asked my friend John David Mann, who I never met in person at that time, but he was my editor in chief of a magazine I used to write for, and he always did such a great job editing my monthly stories articles. Our running joke was, you know, he’s such a nice guy, he’s brilliant, and he’s very helpful. So he’d always write back and say, you know, I fix this, I change that. Is this okay? And our running joke became, I’d write back and say, John, not only is it okay, you write my stuff better than I write. So I asked John, he was the only one I wanted to write this with me and he was the lead writer and storyteller. Believe me, it’s John’s great writing that made the characters come to life. But once this was developing the story, I saw this was kind of it. I knew, I just knew. Again, I credit John’s great writing. I knew this was going to make a huge impact.

Now I think The Go-Giver itself, rather than being my life mission, is one part of my life mission. And let me just explain real quickly, and I might be the only one who finds this interest. I’m giving you that warning, but you know, my dad has always had it to this day, and he’s 89 years old. To this day, he has always had this terrific way of bringing out the best in people. He does what I call making people genuinely feel good about themselves. Okay, he’s always done that, and I’ve always tried to emulate that, and I think that’s really my mission. I think if there’s a reason I was brought here, it’s gonna help people genuinely feel better about themselves. But I think The Go-Giver goes some of the way to do that, and that’s the way, I guess, I express that, and try to bring that, but really that’s part of what I think is even a little bit of a greater mission to do that.

Jeremy Weisz  15:15

Yeah. I mean, because I remember listening to Endless Referrals, and it does have all the undertones of The Go-Giver. I mean, it’s and that’s why I was asking, because sometimes we’re thinking, we’re, we’re doing certain things, but we don’t put it like in that singular mission. And so I guess it takes some collaboration with someone else to kind of bring that to the surface.

Bob Burg  15:36

Yeah, I think that’s a great point.

Jeremy Weisz  15:38

What was an example where you saw your dad just kind of make someone feel so good that you remember?

Bob Burg  15:46

Well, I actually always remember him doing that. And he had a very unique type of business, because he started by opening up a little health club when he was about 32-3. He actually ran it  after he got out of World War II. He ran the Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach, Florida, a very famous fight gym owned by Angelo and Chris Dundee. Angelo Dundee later became the trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and many others. This was in the 50s, and this was in Miami, and it was, it was beginning to be a pretty big gym, and dad ended up running the gym. And when he came back up north, I grew up in Massachusetts, and that’s where dad grew up, he was running this gym, and it ended up that he just had a gift.

Here’s a guy who never went to college. I mean, that wasn’t even something that, you know, he had gone up to join World War II when he was 17, and they were very poor. College wasn’t even something that was thought of. But really he was giving boxing lessons, and he was teaching kids physical activities, sports and self defense and working with families. And sort of this is just a gift dad had. He understood that if you could make a person feel comfortable with themselves physically through sports and self defense, which were two areas of strength for dad, you could help them to really feel emotionally good about themselves. So he actually have families working together physically during the lessons. He’d meet with them as a family. And so my whole life, I basically grew up watching dad, you know, help families better communicate with each other, feel good about themselves, taking kids with a real low self confidence and really help. In fact Time Magazine did a story on him I think in 1971, a big thing. So, again, I had a great example of someone. And my mom and dad, they just celebrated their 56th anniversary a couple of days ago, as we’re taping this, So, yeah, I was very fortunate in having a great example to emulate.

Jeremy Weisz  17:52

I love it. Thanks for sharing that. A lot of people out there are teaching and speaking, and you obviously do a phenomenal job of setting yourself apart from everyone else. What’s a story or example of how a company chose you to speak because of how you applied the go-giver way?

Bob Burg  18:11

That’s a great question too. I would say that you know my friend Sean, who’s a very, very successful entrepreneur up in Michigan. He says that a good salesperson connects the benefits of his or her product or service with the needs, wants and desires of the prospect. So I think what it is is when I’m able to position myself to a potential, in this case, a speaking client, because that’s by and large what I do now. I think they end up seeing that what I’m going to bring to the table, what I am going to, in this case, teach to an audience, is going to align with their philosophy and provide the people in their audience, not not just with a fun, entertaining and humorous program, but one in which they have the confidence to be able to take that information and begin to apply it immediately. And I think in a sense, I position myself in the marketplace that way, that companies have an understanding that that’s sort of what I bring to the table with them.

Jeremy Weisz  19:20

Yeah. I mean, do you find that there’s advocates within the company that say you need to have Bob, or is it more of the kind of reaching out, people reach out to them, and then they kind of hear your message to the book?

Bob Burg  19:33

At this point? And really, this is really more from  after The Go-Giver came out. Now it’s that somebody in the company got the book at the bookstore or on Amazon.com they read it, they passed it along. It went actually up the chain, which is sort of the opposite of how you think of things going. And then finally, you know, then we get a call, and the book has gone through our company, we want to have you come in and so forth. Much different from what it used to be, even with endless referrals. And that was a very successful book. I use it as a positioning tool and as a marketing and sales tool, but it was still usually outbound, and then, you know, I’d work a response on my my customers and clients now with The Go-Giver, the calls tend to come to us because the book’s been discovered by someone within the company. And as you said, there was an advocate within the company.

Jeremy Weisz  20:26

Right. So I wanted to find out too, maybe a time early on, before being a you know, before The Go-Giver was ingrained, that maybe you struggled to apply to your life, or you saw a friend struggle to apply it, and how they overcame it, because feel like a lot of people are trying to implement it, but they fall off the wagon once in a while. Is there an example you could tell us that would kind of how they overcame how they were before?

Bob Burg  20:54

Well, you know, it’s interesting when you follow the principles that are shared in the book, there’s nothing self sacrificial about them. So it’s not like you’d fall off the wagon because you’re thinking, oh, you know, this can’t work, because I’m just giving myself away, because that’s not what it’s about. So I don’t think there’s that challenge, but I but I hear what you’re saying, and I think it’s just, are we keeping the focus where it’s supposed to be? And that’s on the other person. And really what you know, what is The Go-Giver? The basic premise of the book is simply that shifting one’s focus from getting to giving, and when we say giving, in this case, we simply mean constantly and consistently providing value to others. But what we understand is that that’s not self sacrificial, because in a free market based economy where you know no one’s forced to buy from you, the only reason they’re going to buy from you is because they see there being value in the transaction. So to shift your focus and focus on that other person, you know, that’s the most self-ish thing you can do.

You know, it’s funny my friend, Adam Grant, who just wrote a wonderful book called Give and Take. And it’s just starting to make its way around. It’s already a huge seller. He cites a study, an Australian study, of financial advisors, what made them the most successful, in terms of financial and of course, part of what was studied was how much knowledge they had of finance, which is very important, how hard they work, which is also very important. But what trumped all of them was simply that the most successful financial advisors in terms of their income, it was because they put the needs of their clients before themselves and before the company. So you know Adam says, you know it’s not, and I love how he says this, because he says it better than I do. He says it’s not a matter of being self-less, and it’s not a matter of being self-ish, it’s a matter of being other-ish. Focus is on the others, but it turns out to be the best thing you can do for yourself. So I think when it comes to falling off the wagon, maybe it’s that, you know, do we forget that the focus needs to be on others? So you know, I go back to what you said. I think you’re right, that that actually can happen for that reason, if we, if we forget where we need to keep our focus.

Jeremy Weisz  23:36

Yeah. I mean, I think sometimes, like, I find myself maybe in mid conversation with someone, I’m like, wow, I’ve been talking way too much about myself. I need to, you know, hear more about them. And at that point, it kind of, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve, you know, listened to The Go-Giver and some of the other books, you know, but it does trigger, it just triggers my mind.

Bob Burg  23:56

Well, it’s interesting that you bring that up, because it reminds me, you know, when we write sales copy for a project that we’re doing now we know and we teach have your focus on the others, right? It’s not about us, it’s not about the features. It’s about the benefits and how the benefits apply to them. So it’s going to be tough. So what’s funny is we’ll notice when we write a sales letter, and I do the first draft of the sales letter, we go through it the first time. It’s so much more about us than it’s supposed to be, you know. So we’re going through the whole thing, changing it from us, because it’s natural, you know, we’re excited about the product or service, about those and how great the thing is, and that so. But here’s the thing, right? You make a great point from being conscious of it now we’re in a position to be able to correct it. But, you know, there’s a very old sales story that you know most of us learn in our first sales class we ever take. And that is you know, every year, millions and millions and millions of quarter inch drill bits are bought and yet, not one person buying one of these millions and millions and millions of quarter inch drill bits actually wants a quarter inch drill bit. What they want is a quarter inch hole. Right? The drill bit is simply the medium to help them get what they really want. Now, the drill bit has to be good, it has to work, it has to be guaranteed at what have you. But it’s never about the drill bit. It’s always about the hole and how that person is going to use that, that quarter inch hole.

Jeremy Weisz  25:29

And one of the things that I’ve gotten out of the books that I use on a daily basis, which is ingrained in me, which actually reminds me of to be a go giver, is, instead of saying no problem, there’s a part of the book where you say, don’t say no problem, say, it’s my pleasure, right? And that gives me a daily reminder for me to be a go giver, because every time I slip up and go, Oh no, it’s my pleasure. So I appreciate that.

Bob Burg  25:58

That was something actually learned when doing a program years ago for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Because right when the guest contacts employees, and greets a customer, it’s never hi, hey, or how are you doing? It’s always good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending upon the time of day. And when you ask them to, you know, show you, you know, where, how do you get to the so and so, they’ll never just point. They’ll always drop what they’re doing and take you there. When you say thank you, they won’t say, no problem. They won’t even say, You’re welcome. They’ll say, my pleasure.

Here’s what’s interesting about that. People say, Oh, well, that’s the Ritz-Carlton. You know what? To provide that kind of excellence, you don’t need to be the Ritz-Carlton, any other hotel, motel anywhere could do it. And, by the way, some do, but it’s just not systemized like at the Ritz-Carlton. I mean, the Marriott, the Hyatt, the Westin, and all fine properties, they could do it. The Super 8 hotels, they could do it. Motel 6, where Tom Bodett leaves the lights on for you, they could do it. And Dave and Mary, of Dave and Mary stop and stay in, they could do it too, but they usually don’t. Now, someone could say, well, Oh, Bob, okay, that’s fine. But you know, Dave and Mary, of Dave and Mary’s little stop and stay in, they could say, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and my pleasure till the cows come home. They’re not going to take market share from Ritz-Carlton. No, they won’t. But what they will do is they will capture much more market share in their targeted demographic, and they’ll probably take some market share from Motel 6 and even Super 8. So, you know, it’s just those little things we can do to add extra value that doesn’t cost a lot of money. It takes some thought and some effort and simply the consciousness to recognize its value, its importance.

Jeremy Weisz  27:40

Yeah, yeah, that’s a great point. Now, I was talking to a bunch of entrepreneurs, and they’re really excited to hear what you have to say. When I told them I was going to talk with you, they go, you know, I want to know a little bit about a day in the life of Bob Burg, like, what, what’s in his routine that makes him successful, or that makes him productive? Because I’m sure you have a million things going on. What’s something in your daily routine that you incorporate?

Bob Burg  28:09

Well, let’s see. You know, they, first of all, would be amazed to find out what most people would consider to be very boring my life is. Now, I don’t find that way. I find it totally fascinating. Okay? I find like, fascinating. I love it. But I don’t really, you know, go out, do a whole lot of things. I’m not the most active person in the world. My day starts, I work out first thing in the morning, not because I’m so self disciplined. I have a trainer who comes in, her name is Diane. She comes at six days a week to the house. We go outside and do cardio three days. We do strength training inside with some makeshift weights and everything. And the only reason I do it is because I pay her to come over, and I know I’m accountable, so I’m creating an environment for my success. Okay, and then I do those things that everybody does, checking the email and doing that. I know people say, Well, you should leave that until the afternoon. Well, I don’t. I get the emails out of the way. I check Facebook and Twitter and do all that. So I make sure when I have blog posts to post, I do those, get those out there. I actually do a lot of my social media from about 9 to 9:30 and then I’m usually writing, whether it is a, you know, a week’s worth of blog post, or whether it’s, you know, a new book, or whether it’s you know, any project that I’m doing, I get to write it. I do probably three or four interviews a day, because I’m continually promoting The Go-Giver like anything as much as it’s a word of mouth book, I still keep the engine running by consistently doing interviews and other things. So I don’t, you know, have a hugely exciting life, as most people would look in and see it, but boy, it worked for me, and I just love it.

Jeremy Weisz  29:54

Yeah, but those details are what are important. It’s not the exciting things that we do on a daily basis. It’s those things we do consistently, so it’s good to know. I have one final question for you, Bob, but before I ask it, I wanted you to tell us a little bit more about what you have going on now, about your website, because I think it’s really important for people to check out your website too. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Bob Burg  30:20

Yes. Thank you. My website is Burg.com, B-U-R-G.com, and while they’re there, they can subscribe if they’d like, to my influence and success insights, which is very value based information that we send out from time to time. They can download chapters one of The Go-Giver, Go-Giver Sell More, Endless Referrals. They can visit my blog if they’d like, about 400 archived articles, audios, videos, all sorts of things. And they can connect with me on social media through the home page. And we also just did this really cool little four minute and 30-second overview, a whiteboard animated video of The Go-Giver that they can check out there as well. So, you know, we invite people to come to Burg.com,B-U-R-G.com, just hang out for a while and have some fun.

Jeremy Weisz  31:08

No, I love those whiteboard animated videos. What is the, is there a special like URL like Burg.com? What Is that?

Bob Burg  31:17

It’s a Burg.com/tgg, as in The Go-Giver. Burg.com/tgg. You can also find it on that home page, but it could be easier just to go right to the to the link.

Jeremy Weisz  31:32

Yeah, I love watching those. My final question is, what’s one thing, you left those with a lot of great information, things we can do, and things we should think about. What’s one thing people should remember in general in order to be successful?

Bob Burg  31:47

Well, yeah, I think one thing is we just never stop learning. Just keep learning. And there’s so much great information out there, you know, whether it’s those classic books, whether it’s the things that they can grow riches, or the you know, books like from 1900 Orison Swett Marden’s Peace Power & Plenty. One of my favorite books of all time. He’s the founder of Success Magazine. He wrote that book in 1900. Books like Ben Franklin’s autobiography, which we can learn so much and studying people like Booker T Washington and you know, there’s just so much out there, so much great information. I think it’s also a matter of really, you know, just like in Think and Grow Rich, when they talk about your definitive purpose, it’s really coming up with that and you alluded to this earlier. When really deciding your purpose, deciding why you’re here, and what that big desire is, and something that really keeps you, wow, just so excited about life and so wanting to do that. Then I think there’s really a three step formula once you know what it is you want to do. I think it’s first, seek out and find the information. If you want to do it, someone already has. They put it in book form or CD form, or there, or somehow. Okay, so in other words, find the system. What is the system? I define a system as simply the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how-to principles. So don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Find the wheel and the map you know the instructions for it, and do it that way. Next is take the information, you know, apply the information immediately. Don’t wait till you’re perfect, because that’s not going to happen. Apply the information and you’re going to improve as you do it. Three is, be persistent. Outlast the nose. You know, my friends Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton, they have a book, a little, small, little book called Go for No! and you can find it at www.goforno.com, and it teaches you not just how to accept the nos, but how to embrace the nos. Their mantra is, yes is the destination, no is how you get there. But when you know that nos are natural. So I think that people get discouraged because they think they’re the only one that’s getting told no or getting knocked down, when we realize it’s part of the process, we’re fine with it. And then the other thing is just have such belief in what you’re doing that you’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and that keeps you able to keep going after that desire.

Jeremy Weisz  34:16

On the persistence note, and I remember when I was watching all the videos of you that I found, and could you tell a story about the publishing when you were trying to get it published? Because you went through a lot of persistence and resistance with that.

Bob Burg  34:32

Well, yeah, with The Go-Giver, e work with a wonderful, wonderful agent, the McBride literary agency, and we went through, I think, 25 or 26 rejections. And Margaret was great though, our agent, because she had really terrific information on how to sort of upgrade the proposal and, you know, she had me create a video that kind of said, and so it was a matter of taking the objection and not feeling defensive about it, although there’s that inclination to do that too, because why don’t they want this book right? But then making the adjustments and going after but sometimes you got to realize too that what you’ve got is correct. You just need to find the right person. Well, we ended up finding a publisher, and I’ve worked with many, many publishers. I’ve had a bunch of books out, and all my publishers have been great, great people. These people, though, are just the best. The portfolio division of Penguin, the most supportive, amazing publishing house I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. So all those rejections, what did they do? They helped us find the people who were the right ones to publish the book, and magically in the book, success?

Jeremy Weisz  35:48

Yeah. I mean, it’s a good way of looking at it because a lot of people out there may be getting discouraged, and it’s not as easy as it looks. It takes a lot of hard work and persistence.

Bob Burg  35:57

Remember you know, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield, didn’t they go through hundreds of rejections or something for Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s sold, what, close to a half a billion copies now

Jeremy Weisz  36:06

I remember hearing. Well, Bob, I just want to be the first one to thank you for joining us. I know you have a million things going on, so thanks for taking the time. And everyone should check out Burg.com. And thank you so much, Bob.

Bob Burg  36:19

Thank you so much, Jeremy, I appreciate you greatly. Thanks for having me with you.