John S.  0:00  
John, welcome to Simon Says Inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR and I'm Dina Simon. Our guest today is Bob Burg. Bob is co-author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, The Go Giver, a little story about a powerful business idea and its companion volumes, Go Givers Sell More, The Go Giver Leader and The Go Giver Influencer. Bob speaks to corporations organizations and at sales and leadership conferences worldwide. Bob, welcome to our podcast. 

Bob  0:42  
Well, thank you for having me. I've got to say I love this, father in law, daughter in law team. This is my the first time I have been on such a podcast, and I just absolutely love the whole concept.

Dina Simon  0:56  
Thank you,

John S.  0:57  
Bob., Why don't you take a minute and maybe tell our audience a little bit about maybe where you live and what you like to do sometime, if you have any spare time.

Bob  1:06  
Well, I actually, I have plenty of spare time now, I'm, I guess I would say semi retired, only in that I no longer travel on airplanes to speak. So while I still do virtual keynotes, now I do not step on planes, so I've got time. Nice. Love it. I live in the town of Jupiter, Florida. I grew up in Massachusetts, but got down here as fast as I could. Nothing against Massachusetts, other than the weather is really cold and the warm weather suits my style. And I've been down here for about 40 years now, and I, you know, I don't have a lot of hobbies. I'm very much a homebody, but I love to read, and you know, that's pretty much happy doing that.

Dina Simon  1:48  
So, nice, nice. What part of Massachusetts are you from?

Bob  1:52  
So I grew up in the western suburbs of Natick, which is about, I'd say, 20 minutes directly west of Boston when I grew up there, and I'm, I'm 67 now, when I grew up, there was a kind of a small town, great place to grow up, wonderful people. Uh, now I understand it's this huge city, the whole area up there, and I haven't been up there for a while, but that the whole area now is a big, you know, one big megalopolis, so

Dina Simon  2:16  
sprawling and growing, absolutely sprawling and growing. Yeah, yeah. So we definitely want to get into the book, but we wanted to talk just a little bit so life, leadership and building legacy. So share with us a little bit about your professional life before you became an author and a speaker. So talk to us a little bit about that.

Bob  2:34  
Yeah, I began as a broadcaster, first in radio, doing sports and then television news. I worked for a very small ABC affiliate in the Midwestern United States. I worked my way up to the late night news anchor ship, but I really wasn't very good, and it wasn't long before I was no longer a news anchor. And I like to say I graduated into sales, because really, I had nowhere else to go. You know, nothing else, but the challenge was I knew not that I had never had any formal sales training, so I floundered for the first, I guess, three months or so. Then one day, I walked into a bookstore looking for some answers, not even understanding the question. Because I back then, you know, again, this 40 years ago or so. Who knew about sales training or books on that? You just didn't even know they were there, unless you, you know, had been around for a while. So I was looking for something I wasn't sure what, and I saw two books on selling. One was by Tom Hawkins, How to Master the Art of Selling, a classic in the and then one by near We All Are, the one by Zig Ziglar. So zig and Tom, both legends, of course, you know, icons in the sales space. So I got those two books, and just seeing those two books on sales was was inspiring to me, because I didn't know that was a thing, that there was a methodology to this. And so I I began studying. I always say I didn't read their books. I devoured them, and I would stay up to the wee hours of the morning just highlighting and note taking and practicing and the whole thing. Within about three weeks, my sales began to go through the roof. And you know, there was no real significant difference in me from three weeks earlier only now I had a system if you will, 

Dina Simon  4:24  
a system, yeah, format, yep. 

John S.  4:26  
At that point, what were you selling, Bob? 

Bob  4:28  
So I was selling advertising time for both radio and television. So, yeah, I kind of stayed in that same thing, yeah, at that point, yes. So when it comes to systems, and this is just, you know, I define everything I'm I obnoxiously have to define every you know term, it seems like so. So I define a system as simply the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how to principles. The key being predictability. If it's been proven that by doing a, you'll get the desired result of B, then you know that all you need to do is a, and continue to do a, and continue to do a, and you'll eventually you let the desired result of B. So that's it to me, okay, I can do this because I can learn from their experience, right? So that was great, but, but here's what I really learned, and what was so wonderful is it is is all the suggestions to read personal development books. So I started getting everything from How to Win Friends and Influence People to The Magic of Thinking Big, to Think and Grow Rich, to, you know, psycho cybernetics, to all these, the greatest salesmen in the world, all these wonderful personal development books that were feeding my brain and feeding my heart, and I start, I realized that that by I started to realize that success is really an inside job. It manifests itself outwardly, of course, but it begins in here, in the head, and then works down to the heart, and it becomes part of you, and you start to grow into the type of person who is going to be successful, yeah, and so I just loved it and loved sales. And went to a couple other sales jobs over the years, and eventually worked my way up to sales manager of one company. And then people started asking me to teach their sales team. What was it? Whatever it kind of eventually morphed into a speaking business on sales and communication, and it's been fun.

Dina Simon  6:26  
Love that, yeah, yeah. And now, now being an author yourself, and having people go to a Barnes and Noble or a bookstore to get your own book off of the shelf, that has to be very rewarding.

Bob  6:38  
Yeah? You know, it really is. And when you you know, at a at an event, and someone comes up afterwards and says the book made a difference, or receiving an email from someone that it made a difference, I don't think there's any better feeling for an author. There really isn't. So, yeah, it's that's been a that's been a joyous part of it. 

John S.  6:58  
Reading your book brought a lot to mind. I remember at the associates when I was there, I went through the two different job levels, as an assistant VP, and then a VP, and then in operations. And they said, well, you're going to be the new senior vice president of sales. And I said, Well, that's really cool. I've never sold anything in my life. Yeah. And they said, it doesn't make any difference, because it's all about relationships, and you have great relationships with all of our customers, so that's what we need, and the selling will take care of itself. It's just nurture those relationships.

Bob  7:34  
Yeah, you know, one of the things I back in my first book, which was called Endless Referrals, Network Your Everyday Contacts into Sales. This was back in the early 90s, when it first came out, and it made its way into the Go Giver too. But the underlying premise, if you will, really touches upon this John, and that was that all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust. 

Dina Simon  8:01  
Absolutely. 

Bob  8:02  
And it's and it's the same with leadership, right? They'll allow themselves to be led by they'll willingly follow those people they know, like and trust. So, yeah, it really, it always comes down to the relationship,

Speaker 1  8:14  
Even the fact that I've been retired for 24 years now, and I still have customers that I'm in touch with, that we have, they've been on the podcast, so, you know they there's where that relationship comes in.

Dina Simon  8:28  
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to just share with you for a second, because I haven't told you this how the Go Giver came into my life. So during like, COVID times, I was working a tremendous amount of hours in an HR capacity. So HR was what, you know, was one department that got hit very hard in trying to help people finagle and get through this pandemic that we were in. And so I actually had a lovely friend of mine here in Minneapolis. His name is Brad Lance, and he was a mental fitness coach for me during that time. And so I went through a series of different things, and he gave me a copy of your book to read, and he gave me a copy like to borrow. And I think I sat down and started reading it, and I'm like, No, I can't borrow this book. Like, have to have this book because I have to highlight in it, and have to write in it. And so the story has been so powerful, because I feel that I have lived my life in sales, in leadership, and what we do on a day to day basis with that mentality of giving. And it just was so powerful. So I loved it so much, and I continue to go back to it. And then so a shout out to Brad for introducing it. 

Bob  9:42  
Thank you, Brad. Yeah. Thank you, Brad. Appreciate you,

Dina Simon  9:45  
Exactly. And then we had Lisa Rangel on not too long ago. Love Lisa, yeah. And so then when I saw you and Lisa connected on LinkedIn, I was like, Lisa, you know Bob, and she goes, Well, I do. I'm not like best friends with him, but I do know Bob, and I'd be happy to make the introduction. And so I immediately, as you said, yes, got John a copy of the book, because he lived his life as a Go Giver within his career, and I know that. And so John, I'm glad that you got to read it and loved it. And I'm sure you saw many stories that you could have shared both yourself in the book, but then other leaders and customers that you worked with that had some of the very same principles. 

John S.  10:26  
The next person that I'm going to share it with is my grandson, Jake, who's a senior in college, and I think it would be great for him to read. It's such a quick read. Yeah, you can do it in a couple hours, but there's so much that you can walk away from with it. And I, I want him, because he'll be just getting into the business world when he graduates next year.

Bob  10:47  
Well, I got to tell you, you know, John David Mann, who my co author of the book. And John was really, you know, he was the lead writer, storyteller. I mean, I'm a how to I'm step one, step two, step three, John, who was a great entrepreneur in his time. He's a wonderful storyteller, so it was really a collaborative effort, but he's the person who made this thing sing. You know, we take it as a great compliment. We've discussed this many times. When we hear from a parent who gives the book to their child, a grandparent who gives it to their grandchildren. We've heard from families who they read it as a family, and then they discuss it. And, you know, I don't think there's any greater compliment than that, you know, to hear that. So thank you for sharing that with me. 

Dina Simon  11:34  
So you talked about a couple of books that led up to the Go Giver. So then you did the Go Giver. And then there's the series. But Go did Go Giver come first?

Bob  11:42  
yeah. So that was the the original one we wrote that in, I think it was that well as actually published, I think like December 27 2007 so we say it really came out, hit the bookstores back when there were still some bookstores in 2008 so that was the first one after that. We had so many people asking for different examples of people who and so the publisher asked us to do a couple more the in the next one would be go givers sell more. And that's the only one in the series that is not a parable. Okay, so that's more of an application guide, and in that book, we share stories from people who either had read the Go Giver and, you know, utilize the principles to make a significant difference in their business, or people who had been living their lives and conducting business that way long before the book ever came out, and they just shared Go Giver type stories. And so we went through all the five laws, you know, value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivity, and showed the application part of it, which was a lot of fun. And then, yeah, then there was the Go Giver leader, which is a parable Go Giver influencer, which is on people skills. That's probably my favorite book in the series. But then I've got to tell you, because a lot of people don't know this, John and his wife, Anna, they actually wrote a another parable. They wrote it on marriage, the Go Giver Marriage, and they have a wonderful marriage, and and her background on his background was in that. So they did sort of a the first part of it was a parable, and the second part was how to and, yeah, it was really, it was really cool.

John S.  13:26  
I enjoyed reading the part about being authentic, open to receiving as well as giving. One of the hardest things that I struggled with was receiving. I would always want to give that it's so nice now that the the children, the grandchildren, daughter in laws, son in laws, they, they're able to do things for me now that before, I almost wouldn't let them do, you know, and it in letting them do that, I I make them feel better. Yes, do something and yes, when Yeah, that's that's part of me giving, letting them do.

Bob  14:05  
You're exactly right it. You're allowing them to give and feel good about themselves. You know, when we with the fifth law of the law of receptivity, is the, you know, the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. And really that means nothing more than understanding that, yeah, you breathe out, you also have to breathe in, right? It's not one or the other, it's both. You breathe out, carbon dioxide, you breathe in, oxygen, you breathe out, which is giving, you breathe in, which is receiving. And and giving and receiving are not opposite concepts. They're simply two sides of the very same coin, and they work together in tandem. The challenge is the world around us does not really give us that message. It gives us so often, a very negative and we would call my friend Randy Gage calls it an anti prosperitymessage, you know, and so, so it's, it can be tough when you're a natural giver, as you both are, to be able, you know, to that part comes easy. You know, the first part, four laws, those come easy. It's the fifth law, the law of receptivity, that can be a real, real challenge, but it's also very important.

Dina Simon  15:18  
It is absolutely.

John S.  15:20  
And it makes them feel great whenever, you know, and that's, that's the biggest part of it there, you know, giving them the opportunity to have a feeling like that,

Dina Simon  15:29  
yeah, because people, people want to help, they want to give, but they have to have the open door to do so. And sometimes too. How, you know, how can I help you? So, whether it be, you know, helping somebody find a new job or find a client like, just tell me what do you need. But you need to know what you need in order for me to be able to step in and help. 

Bob  15:50  
There are many ways to add value or give value to others. And you know, when we talk about, let's say, the law of value real. What is value? Well, value is, is the relative worth or desirability of a thing, of some thing to the end user or beholder. In other words, what is it about this thing, whether it's a product, service, concept, idea, what have you that brings so much worth or value to someone that they will willingly, and whether it's exchange their money for it, want to be in relationship. You know what? Whatever it happens to be. So the key though is that it is relative. In this case, because we all value different things differently, right? We all pursue happiness in an individual way, what we need to do is understand that what we might find to be a value isn't necessarily what someone else finds to be a value. How do we discover it? Then? Well, we ask questions and we listen right? And we listen with the with the understanding that you know, because we're that different human beings see the world in different ways. So we don't necessarily even know. We might not be defining what they mean the same way. We may not be understanding what they actually mean when they say something. So we've got to respectfully dig deeper and really clarify and make sure when we really feel as though we we know what they need, what they want, what they desire. Now we're really in a position to serve, now we're in a position to give value.

Dina Simon  17:33  
Absolutely. Yeah, love it, love it, love it. And so often, as you said, it's the digging deeper. It's making sure you're on the same page, the understanding, the listening and just the continuing to ask questions and and really, because sometimes people don't know. So the part of the the law of authenticity, for me, the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. When Brad gave me the book to read through as I was going through, just like, you know, total overwhelm us in this pandemic. That was probably I didn't have the value of myself, because I had lost a piece of myself during that time, and so that was probably the one that I spent the most time on, just being reminded that, yeah, that's actually what I what I have to give and I have to understand the value of me.

Bob  18:23  
You Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, and it can be difficult sometimes, because as human beings, we're so emotionally close to ourselves, we don't always see the good stuff we have to offer. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, we might have a certain talent or a skill set that may have come somewhat naturally, but we probably worked at it very hard, but eventually it became part of us, and it became part of our being. And so we kind of just see as though, yeah, well, that's awesome, you know, if I can do it, well, everybody else can do it, too, too, right? And yet that's not true, right? And that's why it's so great to have you know mentors or something, you know someone close to you, but not close, not not too close, that they're, you know, can't see as well, but you know, and who's able to say, No, this is, you know, what you do is you just do this, right? And you bring this to the table and and so forth and so on. But, but, yeah, so it's very important that we recognize not only our intrinsic value, which we all have just by by being here, but what I call our market value. And I can you know, market value is the I define as that combination of strengths, traits, talents and characteristics that allow you to bring value to others, to the marketplace.

Dina Simon  19:41  
Powerful.

Speaker 1  19:42  
Yeah, the other thing you mentioned about, you know, having someone like a mentor that they'll be honest with you, they yeah, it's not all about making you feel good. It's a hey, here's how, here's how we can improve what we're doing here, and learning that way too. And that's a true friend that will do that.

Dina Simon  20:00  
Absolutely. Yeah, so Bob, you were on the speaker circuit for a while, and you still are, but as you said, you don't have to get on an airplane anymore. So did you enjoy the speaking and the being out there and sharing the stories?

Bob  20:12  
Oh, I loved it again. I was just so, so fortunate to do what I did for like, 35 years or so, 32 year, whatever it was, because last few years, I did less and less on the road, and now not at all. I never liked the traveling part though, even when traveling wasn't bad, I still didn't really like it, because I am a homebody, but, but, you know, you had to do it. That was part of it. And you there are trade offs, but the actual, you know, speaking, and the the clientele I got to work with. And, I mean, how do you Yeah, it was just, it was a blast. 

John S.  20:47  
Look at all the free tickets you earned all throughout the years, racking up miles, and now you're saying no, thank you. I don't want.

Bob  20:55  
I always gave those away. I didn't need them. I didn't, you know, didn't. Yeah,

Dina Simon  21:00  
So you gave them away to people come visit you in Florida. 

Bob  21:02  
Yeah? Well, you know, it's funny when you live in South Florida, and boy, there's all these people who you know were great friends of yours, but, you know,

Dina Simon  21:10  
yeah, so, so legacy, obviously, you have a huge legacy in the book. And the books, I can't I actually, I'm gonna go get the rest of the series. But the, you know, the people that you have impacted, and the stories that you hear, and so that certainly is a piece of legacy. But legacy to us is, you know, not just what we're what we leave behind, it's what we're doing on a day to day basis. So anything else that you'd like to talk about from a legacy perspective?

Speaker 2  21:39  
Well, I mean, I think my legacy is very much modeled after my dad. You know, I was very fortunate to have two great parents, a wonderful mom and dad. Lost my dad a few years ago, but, you know, Dad was just that type of person who just had a very natural interest in others. His people skills were off the chart. Just and with him, it really was natural. Most things are not, you know, most, I think most skills are learned, and so forth, and but he just did have a a natural that was a gift he had, but it was really because he had such a genuine interest in others, and always wanted to make people feel genuinely good about themselves. And, you know, I've always said, if there's anything that I can carry on regarding that I consider that I'm carrying on my dad's legacy. As someone who's an encourager and as someone who is, as I say, in this is what we call genuine influence, you know, attaining the results you want while making others feel genuinely good about themselves. And I think when we can do that, you know, then we're, we're really, you know, making a difference, and hopefully, you know, leaving a legacy. But, you know, I've read so many books on the on that topic, starting with Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence. We took many, many books on the top, but I could go back to but whenever I have a question about what to do or what to say, or how to say it, I just think of my dad and how he would handle it.

John S.  23:10  
I'll bet, if you look back and think about it, he was probably a great listener. 

Bob  23:15  
Oh, very much. So always asking questions and really listening and really caring. It didn't matter who he was speaking with, and it didn't matter what their position.

John S.  23:25  
And would remember so the next time he saw that person, he could spend back on previous conversations. 

Bob  23:32  
Always, and that was that was something I really learned from him.

Dina Simon  23:36  
Nice. He had to be so proud of the work that you did do, absolutely right, because think of the lives that you've impacted, and it sounds like the Apple did not fall far from the tree. Well, that's yeah. So is there anything else knowing you're going to be on the podcast that you wanted our audience to hear?

Bob  23:55  
No, I just appreciate being with you both again. I just, I love the family aspect, the father in law, daughter in law, yeah, I just hope you keep on doing this. I think these are just just so wonderful. 

Dina Simon  24:06  
I think we're going to keep doing it. John,

John S.  24:08  
Yep, it's it becomes a fun project for us. We kind of look forward to it. And as I mentioned in a few other ones, the people that have listened to the podcast said, Wow, how much rehearsing do you do? Because it sounds so good and everything so well. We started recording at three. We got on at 2:45, so, you know, we maybe do 15 minutes worth of sound check and, you know, maybe compare a couple notes. But Dina does most of the legwork, and it really just happens naturally.

Bob  24:37  
Well, the both of you sound like, you know, especially when I was listening to your opening and everything, I'm thinking, wow, this thinking, wow, this these guys sound like really big time. You know, radio. So this is, this is great.

Dina Simon  24:50  
Well, we've had a tremendous amount of fun with every single guest that we've had on. You are our largest national bestseller author. That we've had on and just truly an honor to meet you, spend time with you, because I know that your book has touched me others around me, and I love John, that you're going to give it to to Jake to read. I shared it with Mandy the other day, my daughter, who just graduated from college, and as I reread it this weekend, there's, there's a list of people that need to have a copy of it so it just, you know, and it's a use. I think you said 2008 was the first version, so it's been around a while, and it still is so relevant, if not more relevant today than it was in 2008 like everybody needs to be listening to it. It's very kind. Thank you. So Bob, we're going to make sure people know how to get in touch with you, because you because you have a weekly, I think you have a weekly email that you send out, don't you?

Bob  25:45  
Yeah, actually comes out Monday through Friday, and we it goes out early in the morning, no matter where the person's located. Nice. That's one of those nice things about technology.

John S.  25:56  
I woke up at four o'clock this morning and I looked at my phone, and there it was. I started receiving it last week.

Bob  26:02  
Oh, thank you.

Dina Simon  26:04  
Nice, nice. So we'll make sure people know how to follow you, how to get on your email list, and then you're still doing virtual keynote speeches for businesses that need you, so that's amazing and awesome, and just thank you for your time.

Bob  26:19  
Oh, thank you both. This has been just such a pleasure and an honor.

Unknown Speaker  26:22  
Great. Chatting with you, Bob.

Dina Simon  26:25  
I would like to thank Bob Burg for being a part of our podcast. Bob, it was such an honor just to get to spend some time with you, huge fan of the primary book that you're known for, the Go Giver. And Bob and his co-author John David Mann have a series of books, so we'll make sure that we post that in the show notes. But go check out get Bob's book, The Go Giver. And also, he made it super easy for everybody. His website is Berg b, u, r, g.com, check it out and get access to his daily impact emails and learn a little bit more about just the books and his speaking and Bob again, just a just a joy to have you on the podcast. As always, I think my father in law for co-hosting with me and excited to kick off another year of podcasts. And we are proud members of the C suite radio - until we talk again.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai