141: Giving Bigger Value, Receiving Bigger Income with Bob Burg

Pete Mockaitis
Bob, thanks so much for joining us here on the How to be Awesome at Your Job podcast.

Bob Burg
Pete, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, boy, I’m so excited to get into some of your wisdom here but, first, I want to hear a little bit of your story. You are known as a die-hard animal-lover. Is this true? And what’s the backstory?

Bob Burg
Oh, it’s absolutely true. The backstory is really that I grew up in a family that had a lot of dogs. We always had one or two or three dogs at a time, and they were always just so amazingly fantastic and loving and loyal. I love all animals, it’s just that I basically grew up with dogs so always a total dog fanatic but I’m a fanatic for all animals.
I, now, have a cat from the shelter and he’s just my best little buddy. And so I just think animals are just the nicest thing about life and they’re just beings that want to please and beings that want to be happy and live their lives, and I think we owe it to them to treat them well.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s lovely. Well, now, a follow-up, if you encounter an ant or a spider or a cockroach, what’s your M.O.?

Bob Burg
I try to get them out of the house without killing them. Just try to pick trap and pick them and then put them outside safely so they can go about their lives.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s so kind of you. It sounds like you really are sort of living some of the principles behind your top bestseller there The Go-Giver. I read it years ago and it’s still, some of it really has stuck with me and I recalled it.

Bob Burg
Oh, thank you.

Pete Mockaitis
So, why don’t you orient us a bit to the big idea behind this work?

Bob Burg
Well, it’s a business parable that it was written with John David Mann who is just a fantastic writer. He was really the lead writer and storyteller. I’m much more of a how-to, step-by-step person. But it’s a parable so it is a story. It’s a work of fiction though many of the incidents in the book, in the scenarios, came from both of our individual lives, and we put them into the book as part of the ongoing story.
It’s about a guy named Joe who’s a young, ambitious, up-and-coming, aggressive sales guy who’s a good guy and a lot of potential but really not living up to his potential. And he comes to realize – and this is really the main lesson, the premise of the story – that shifting your focus from getting to giving, and when we say giving in this context we simply mean constantly and consistently providing value to others. Understanding that not only is that a nice way to conduct business, it’s actually a very financially profitable way as well.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s lovely. And so it’s interesting, I think I can almost hear some of the alarm bells, like, “Well, people are going to take advantage of you.” It’s like, “How do you prevent from getting ripped off? And is it going to make money and investing your resources for optimal gain?”

Bob Burg
Sure.

Pete Mockaitis
How do you respond to the cackle of alternative voices to that one?

Bob Burg
Oh, sure. Well, it’s understandable because if they haven’t read the book and they see the title The Go-Giver or what does it bring to mind, “Oh, give yourself away,” Right? Or, “Let yourself be taken advantage of,” or all the things that you would associate with that, I guess.
So, the first thing we need to understand is that there’s nothing about being a go-giver that has anything to do with being a doormat, with being a martyr, or with being self-sacrificial. Absolutely not at all. It’s simply understanding, and there’s nothing magical or mystical about this, “Oh, just be a good person.” No, being nice is great. Lots of people ask, “Well, so you and John are just saying the moral of the story is that nice guys, nice gals, nice people finish first?” Absolutely that’s not what we’re saying.
Now, being nice is a great thing both for its own sake and because, let’s face it, it’s actually easier to succeed when you’re nice than when you’re not because most people would rather do business with someone who’s nice rather than someone who’s nasty. But even that isn’t enough because you and I and everyone listening, we all know plenty of people who we would describe as being simply nice people, who we would also have to describe as being simply broke people.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Bob Burg
Success is a matter of doing the correct things in the success process that allows a person to be successful and finish first. So there’s nothing magical about this. It actually ties very deeply into human nature.
For example, when I’m speaking at a sales conference, I’ll often begin by saying, “How many of you would agree with the following statement, ‘Nobody is going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet’?” And all the hands will go up and everybody laughs, right? Because, of course, we all know that. They’re not going to buy from us because we have a quota. They’re not going to buy from us because we need the money, and they’re not even going to buy from us because we’re a really nice person who believes in our product or service and thinks they should have it. No.
They’re going to buy from us only because they believe that they are better off by doing so than by not doing so. And in a free market-based economy, when I say free market I simply mean no one is forced to do business with anyone else, people would do it on their own volition. And in that type of situation it’s incumbent upon the salesperson to focus so intently on bringing value to that other person that that person, they know you care about them, they know you’re looking to benefit them, they know you have their best interests in mind and only then are they going to have the trust to do business with you.

And it’s the same with someone who’s working within a company. Remember, if you’re an employee, an up-and-coming C-suiter or whatever you are in a company, you may not be an entrepreneur but you’re an intrepreneur. You’re still serving customers. Now, your main customer is the person who employs you, of course, but your other customers are your associates, the people you work with, your supervisor and the people you might supervise. They’re all your customers. The end user is the customer. So your job is to focus, and focus on finding ways to provide so much value to the organization itself through the people you work with that you are a person of value and you become indispensable.
So, again, there’s nothing about this that is being doormat-y or taken advantage of. This is very straight on, if you will.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Understood. And so I’d love to dig into that sort of key phrase there – give value. I guess that can encompass, boy, thousands of different sort of ways and means you can give value. Could you maybe unpack what you mean by that phrase and give us some concrete examples of sort of ambitious professionals and how they may well proactively give value to folks they’re engaging with?

Bob Burg
Sure. Well, as you said, and you really picked up on it, that the giving of value is the key to this. So what does value really mean? Because it’s sort of almost become like a buzzword. It gets used so often. So let’s look first at the difference between price and value because this is key.
Price is a dollar figure. It’s a dollar amount. It’s finite. It simply is what it is, right? Now, value, on the other hand, is the relative worth, or desirability of a thing, of something to the end user or the holder. In other words, what is it about this thing, this product, this service, this concept, this idea, what have you, that brings so much worth to another person that they will willingly exchange their money for this and feel glad, be glad that they did while you make a healthy profit?
Well, okay, let’s take this now within a company you’re working for. Remember, your employer is he or she has you in their employ only because they believe they are receiving more in use value from you than what they’re paying, right? Otherwise why would they have you on?

Pete Mockaitis
Understood.

Bob Burg
Okay. So, your goal is, again, as we were talking about early, to find ways to provide that kind of value. So how do you do that? Well, there are probably, as you said, hundreds of ways to communicate value but they tend to come down to five what we call elements of value.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, I’m all ears.

Bob Burg
Yeah, and those elements are excellence, consistency, attention, empathy and appreciation. Can we take a few moments and just sort of delve a little bit into them? So, excellence really is two-fold. The first part is simply, hey, there’s nothing like being very, very competent at what you do. Right? That’s, you know your job, you know the pegs and shims, I would say. You know your business. You continue to study it, you continue to learn it, so you bring that kind of competence at excellence in everything you do.

Pete Mockaitis
And I love that notion and it gets me thinking about a previous guest, Jeff Kavanaugh, when he was talking about the difference between handing in work that’s technically done versus done-done. In like it meets the goals and requirements associated with it as opposed to just kind of technically being sort of checked off of the box.

Bob Burg
Then that’s such a difference-maker, and that’s really, he gave a great, great example, and that’s excellence. Now, excellence is also how you make people feel when they’re around you. It’s how you greet people. It’s how you address people. It’s how you respond to people. It’s returning calls and emails in a timely basis. That doesn’t mean you have to jump through hoops. Again, we’re not talking about being a doormat but that you do things in such a way that people always have a good feeling about you, and you make people feel good about themselves. That’s excellence.
Now, consistency is really such an important thing because we live in an inconsistent world. Somebody, a person, we all know people like this, right? They’re one way one day, and the next day or next time you see them they’re like a totally different person, and you’ve got to walk on eggshells around them because you don’t know who they’re going to be. Are they going to be Jekyll or Hyde? You just don’t know.
And so consistency is very key. People treasure consistency and this goes back to the cave person days when every day was literally, not figuratively but literally, a matter of life and death. Could you survive the day? So you depended on things being consistent. You had to know who the people were you could depend on and who you couldn’t. You had to know what the bent twigs meant or what the footprints meant, and they had to mean the same thing today, tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month, what have you.
So, while we don’t have that kind of life and death survival issue to this day, it’s been, yeah, as the saying goes, hardwired into our DNA. So when you show up consistently, day in and day out, and people know who you are and they know what to expect, right there that’s value. In fact, we can say that when you combine excellence and consistency, right there you’re communicating exceptional value.
There’s attention. Attention to detail. It means attention to the person you’re dealing with as a person not just as a notch on the way to getting done what you need to get done or your step to the next level. It means you deal with people regardless of who they are in a very human way, and you pay attention to what they’re saying, and you pay attention to what they’re not saying. There was an old book years ago Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Great book. It was really about peripheral problems. Don’t sweat those little things that we make a big deal out of, but really they’re not big deals.
But I also love, when you take things on a reversal, right? There’s always the opposite of everything. Harvey Mackay, years ago, in his classic Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, he made a great statement. He said, “Those who sweat the small stuff get the business,” because, hey, it’s those little details that are the difference-makers. So, attention is very important.
Then you’ve got empathy. And empathy is perhaps the most important human skill as well as most important business skill there is. The dictionary definition of empathy is simply the identification with, or vicarious experiencing of another person’s feelings, which sounds like just a fancy way of saying put yourself in the other person’s shoes. And it would be except for the fact that most of us have different size feet.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, right.

Bob Burg
And what I mean by that, Pete, is, hey, we don’t always know how they’re feeling because we’re not them, right? We come from different experiences, we come from different belief system, we come from different ways of seeing the world so we don’t always know how that other person is feeling. And so I don’t think that in communicating empathy you’ve actually got to literally know how they feel.
I think in order to communicate empathy you simply have to communicate to them that you understand they’re feeling something, and that this something is causing them distress and that you’re there to help them through it. And when you can do that, now a person feels understood and they feel listened to. Very important.
Then the last element of value is appreciation. And really, as you know, that person who lives with a sense of gratitude, with that energy of gratitude, it’s a very attractive energy. People want to be around people who have a smile, a genuine smile on their face. They feel good about who they work with. They appreciate what they have. It doesn’t mean everything is a bed of roses.
Life is life and it’s filled with problems. But it means that we choose to take on, again to cite a bromide, that attitude of gratitude. And we put out that energy of thankfulness and gratitude and gratefulness. And when we do that, again, we bring something very special to the table. So, when you combine those five elements of value when you’re dealing with others that’s what brings that additional value.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, that does sound like a potent combination certainly. And I’d love it if maybe you could share with us perhaps a couple of examples or stories or illustrations that really highlight the distinction between a high level of attention or empathy or appreciation versus a typical level of those same things.

Bob Burg
Well, I think what it comes down to, because you see examples every day. I mean, you can see it in a person who waits on you at the fast food place, if you eat fast food and you know the difference between the ones that greet you with a smile and they’re anxious to see you and they’re going to do everything they can to make your experience a fantastic one, and the ones that come over as though you’re disturbing their day and taking up their time. And you can go through and then you can look at the ones who do it the same way every time so you look forward to their waiting on you or there’s ones that you… right? We see this every day as a study in this.
In fact, what I would suggest to your listeners is notice this, these five – excellence, consistency, attention, empathy and appreciation – with everyone you come across and see what happens. I’ll give you one quick example, if I may. I was in an office. What do you call it when you get your blood taken and so forth?

Pete Mockaitis
The MinuteClinic?

Bob Burg
Yeah, I can’t remember what it was but it was something like that. And so I was sitting in there waiting, and there was an elderly woman who walked in and she was very upset. She approached the receptionist and said something like, “I am just so angry. I can’t believe you all lost the first results of my test and I had to take the morning and come in again.” And the receptionist, though she wasn’t nasty, but she was totally unfeeling and she just looked at the elderly woman and said, “Please take your seat. We’ll be with you in a moment.”

And again, she didn’t say it meanly but she said it without any empathy, any feeling, any emotion at all. Well, the elderly woman kind of laughed defensively and said, “Well, I’ll tell you if this happens again I won’t be back.” Again, that woman just waited, and she said, “Well, please take your seat. Someone will be with you soon.”
And the woman went to her seat and was just beside herself, and the other people in the waiting room kind of gave silent looks to each other, and we all understood why. All this woman, this elderly woman, all she wanted was for the receptionist to say, “Oh, I am so sorry that happened. I don’t know what did happen but I promise you I’m going to check on it and we will make sure this never happens again. Please take your seat. And may I bring you over a glass of water or a cup of hot tea? And someone will be with you very shortly.”
Now, had she done that, she would’ve taken this disgruntled, angry, elderly woman and turned her into a raving fan. Empathy is good for business. Instead, I guarantee you, this elderly woman went back to her condo that night and told everybody there about the horrible experience at this diagnostic center, that’s what’s called, this blood diagnostic center and why you should never go there.

Pete Mockaitis
That’ll do it, absolutely. And it doesn’t take a whole lot of time or effort or money. Just a touch and you’re there.

Bob Burg
No, not at all. At all. Exactly.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, we went deep on value but you’ve got five laws of stratospheric success you cover off in your book. Could you give us a taste of each of them?

Bob Burg
Sure. The law of compensation says your income is determined by how many people you serve as well as how well you serve them. So, with law number one, focus is on the exceptional value you’re providing. Law number two tells us that the more people whose lives we touch with this exceptional value the more money with which we’ll be rewarded.
Law number three is the law of influence which says your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first. Now, again, let’s go back to nothing about that is doormat-y or self-sacrificial or anything like that. It’s simply understanding, and by the way, I would tell everybody or I would suggest, if you look at the greatest leaders that you know, the top influencers, the most profitable salespeople in your company, you’ll notice this is how these people run their lives and conduct their businesses.
Now, again, there’s always exceptions to the rule. But if you look at most of them this is exactly what they do. And it’s really because, as Sam, one of the mentors tells Joe in the story, the golden rule of business is simply that, all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.
And, Pete, there’s no faster, more powerful or more effective way to elicit those feelings toward you from others than by genuinely and authentically, law number four, moving from that “I” focus or “me” focus to that “other” focus. Making your win all about the other person’s win, and to the degree you do that, that’s how you make yourself very, very valuable in the marketplace.
Yeah, law number four is the law of authenticity. It just says the most valuable gift you can have to offer is yourself. Don’t try to be anyone else. Be yourself. And the way you do that is by understanding what you bring to the table. It’s understanding that you have intrinsic value as a human being but you also have market value because you have certain strengths. And while it’s important to make sure we acknowledge and understand our weaknesses, by and large when it comes to talents we want to lead with our strengths.
I define market value as that combination of strengths, talents, traits, characteristics that allows you to add value to the marketplace in a way you’ll be financially rewarded to the degree that you understand and embrace those strengths and embrace your own value, that’s the degree to which you’re able to present yourself authentically.

Pete Mockaitis
All right.

Bob Burg
And law number five is the law of receptivity, and this says the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. And this means nothing more than knowing that it’s not just a matter of breathing out, which is giving, it’s also a matter of breathing in, which is receiving. We don’t just breathe out carbon dioxide, we also have to breathe in oxygen. It’s what sustains us.
And so we receive from the world around us so many, I won’t even say, mixed messages. We receive so many negative messages about money that it can really mess with your mind on an unconscious level. But the truth is, especially the more free market the economy is where people aren’t forced to do business with you, the only way you can make a lot of money is by providing exceptional value to a lot of people. So, if you’re doing that, if you’re focusing on the value, you’ve earned the right, not the entitlement, but the right to receive and you simply need to make sure you allow yourself to be open to it.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Thank you. And so these are some great laws. And as I reflect on them they seem true and uplifting in terms of it’s not a dog-eat-dog world where you’ve got to kind of claw to get yours. It’s a much sort of kinder, warmer place I like to imagine. So, could you share with us a bit when it comes to this giving, are there any sort of means or mechanisms by which you sort make the determination of who you be sort of focusing your giving toward?
Because, in a way, you talked about breathing out and breathing in, it’s kind of impossible to give everyone you encounter sort of everything. There is a degree of finiteness to our time, our energy, our money.

Bob Burg
Of course. Absolutely, there is.

Pete Mockaitis
So, I’m wondering how do you make those calls in the moment in terms of who will be the recipient of my giving and who will have to wait a bit?

Bob Burg
Well, you’re always looking to create relationships with people. And while you can be nice, kind and respectful to everyone, and should be that way to everyone, you’re certainly not going to be in deep relationships with everyone including business relationships with everyone. So, those you obviously want to attract those to you that are going to be most beneficial both in terms of what you can receive and what you can give from and to the relationship.

I think it makes a lot of sense that if you’re in a company, obviously the relationships you’re establishing are, first, with the people you’re working with directly and then indirectly, and then you might meet people through other people, or whatever, and then you’ve got to decide when you meet someone who you’re going to pursue a relationship with.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Very good. Thank you. And speaking of relationship pursuits, you’ve got some perspective on mentorship, mentoring and being on sort of both sides of that. What’s your take there?

Bob Burg
Well, I think it’s very important to find a mentor. A mentor can really cut your learning curve time by years and can help impute onto you the experience they have had that money can’t buy, only time and experience can buy. And so I think it’s a fantastic thing. What I think a lot of people do though that’s maybe not productive is in the way they pursue a person who they’d like to have as a mentor.
For example, if people will just go, they’ll find someone who they would like to have mentor them, and they’ll simply say to this person, “Hey, would you be my mentor?” And when there’s no relationship, remember a mentor-protégé relationship is just that, it’s a relationship. And like any relationship it takes time to develop.
So when we just go up to someone and say, “Will you be my mentor?” it’s sort of like going up to someone who doesn’t know you from a hole in the wall and saying, “Hey, would you share with me your 20 or 30 or 40 years of experience?” It’s not something that usually someone is going to honor. It’s not something that someone is really going to want to do.
On the other hand, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with – and I think everything right with – approaching someone who you do have a lot of respect for, letting them know that you’re in the process of, and whether it’s building your business acumen, or creating a new business, or whatever it happens to be, growing in your what have you, and to say to them, “I understand you’re very busy, so if this is not appropriate or feasible it’s absolutely understandable. I’m wondering if I might be able to take a few minutes of your time and ask you a couple of very specific questions.”

Pete Mockaitis
Right.

Bob Burg
And when you do that you’ve just honored the process, you’ve honored them, you’ve let them know you’re not seeing this as an entitlement or something that they owe you to do. You’re totally respecting them. And the chances are, and not everybody because not everybody is going to, but most people are pretty nice people, especially the bigger people are, typically, there’s a reason they got to where they got. They like adding value to people’s lives so usually they will.
Now, a couple things I’m going to suggest. One is be sure you research this person – and with the internet, of course, these days there’s no excuse not to – so that you don’t ask something to which some simple research would’ve provided the answer because they’ll know that and they’ll know that you didn’t respect the process like you should. So I would say, make sure the questions are very specific.
The other thing is find out – which again, easy to research – what this person values in terms of what’s their favorite charity or what have you, and it doesn’t have to be anything big, make a small donation to that charity in their name. They’ll be notified about that. And you’re not doing it to kiss up to them or anything, but you’re doing it to let them know that, again, you respect the process and you appreciate them, and you honor the time they took with you, and that even though, “I can’t give this kind of value to you that you can give to me, I want to let you know that my goal is to try to in any way I can.”

It’s the same if you know they’re a collector of antique books, or books on ancient Roman warfare, or something, find that from a collector and send it to them or something like that. In other words, however you can provide value to them in a way they see it as being of value, and that’s the key, that’s what you want to do. And I would, by the way, the very day that this person gives you that advice, I would write a handwritten personalized thank you note to let them know how much you appreciate their time, that you look forward to applying their wisdom and you’ll keep in touch and let them know.
And then when you call back or you email back, or whatever, a month later or a few weeks later or whatever, and let them know how things are going and maybe one more question, now you start to, in time, develop that relationship. And if it’s meant to be an ongoing mentor-protégé relationship – great. Sometimes it’s a three-month thing or a two-question thing, and other times, you know what I’m saying. You just never know. You can’t be attached to that kind of outcome. But if you do it like that, you’re going to find yourself successful in that regard.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, I think that’s so beautiful, and the handwritten note, it makes a world of difference.

Bob Burg
Sure does.

Pete Mockaitis
I sent one to someone who told me they had not received such a note in 15 years.

Bob Burg
Right.

Pete Mockaitis
Wow. And it makes an impression. So, thank you. Those are some excellent kind of broad perspectives as well as precise tactics that I think makes great sense. Do you have a quick thought for when you are the mentor? Any dos and don’ts on that end?

Bob Burg
I think you want to make sure, as a mentor, that you don’t necessarily do things for them as much as provide the context for their knowledge so that they can turn it into wisdom. So, you’re there as a guide as opposed to their parent, if you will, for lack of a better way of framing it.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Well, that’s just great. So, Bob, tell me, we covered so much good stuff. Is there anything else you want to make sure you mention before we quickly hear about some of your favorite things?

Bob Burg
I think it’s really just a matter of training yourself if it’s not something that you usually do, but it may very well be, to just make sure you’re always looking for ways to be of value to others. And going back to the very first question, making sure you don’t confuse that with being a doormat or anything like that. The two have nothing to do with each other.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, perfect. Thank you. Well, now, could you start us off by sharing a favorite quote, something you find inspiring?

Bob Burg
Oh, so many of those. I love quotes. I always love Zig Ziglar’s famous quote, “You can have everything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.” And that’s actually the quote that usually gets misquoted, but that’s the quote, and I think we owe it to Zig to make sure. I see that quote misquoted so many times, well-meaning, of course, but misquoted. I would like to see people really know that quote before they quote. That’s just a personal pet peeve.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, no, it’s a great one. It deserves it, so thank you. And how about a favorite study or experiment or a bit of research?

Bob Burg
It’s interesting, I enjoy reading. I read a lot of books. I just love to read. And there are certain books that they really go into the end notes and the study. You get a guy like Robert Cialdini who wrote Influence and his recent book Pre-Suasion which I think was even better. I don’t know how he outdid Influence but I think he did with Pre-Suasion.
And in both of those books he cites numerous studies. And what’s interesting is I find some of the studies as interesting as the material. I think he does a brilliant job with that. I think many, many authors do that. I don’t do that. I can’t even imagine going through all those studies and doing all those things. My books are a little bit different. Not a little bit. They’re a lot different than that. And I have so much admiration for those people who cite all those amazing studies.
So there’s no study I can think of right now that I could quote but I could sure go into a lot of other people’s really great books and look them up.

Pete Mockaitis
We can count that. So, Cialdini’s dozens of studies encompassed in his two books they’re so good. So good.

Bob Burg
Yeah.

Pete Mockaitis
And how about a favorite book, one that really sticks out for you? And if you can’t choose one, a couple are fine.

Bob Burg
Sure. And, again, there are so many. One I would recommend, and not many people know about this book, it’s called The Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne. B-R-O-W-N-E. It’s not just for salespeople. It’s for everyone. This was published posthumously. He died several years ago. He actually wrote it in the mid to late ‘60s. He actually wrote two different manuscripts, short ones. One was on understanding human nature, and the other was relating sales to human nature.

And his wife, Pamela, his widow, found the manuscripts after he passed and she sold, or not sold. I don’t know if she sold or gave it to, whatever the rights to an independent publisher. But I’ve got to tell you, it is the most magnificent book. It’s one of those if you could recommend one book for someone to really understand how life worked, that would be the book. It’s an absolute beautiful look at human nature and why the successful people in this world, they don’t try to change human nature. They work within human nature in order help everyone come out ahead.

Pete Mockaitis
Excellent. Thank you.

Bob Burg
And there’s so many other great books.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, that’s a fun one because, you’re right, I’m not familiar with it and I’m excited to get familiar with it. Could you also share with us a favorite tool, something you use often that helps you be awesome at your job?

Bob Burg
Well, I don’t use this myself but my business partner, Kathy Tagenel, she uses Infusionsoft and the software program, the contact management, she runs a whole lot of our business from there. Really, I couldn’t tell you how she does it or what it entails but I know that she credits it for helping our business grow a lot.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, very good. And how about a favorite habit, a personal practice of yours that really helps you flourish?

Bob Burg
I’d say reading. Is that a habit?

Pete Mockaitis
It totally counts. Is there a particular sort of time or is it like, “Every morning at 8:00 a.m. I spend 20 minutes reading”? Or how does it work?

Bob Burg
No, I just read whenever I can, all the time or just whenever I have a chance to. I’ll pick up a book. I usually have about four or five books going at a time. I’ve got one in the car, one at the office which is in my home, but just one wherever I go in the house it seems like it’s out there, and I’ll be reading. I just love it. I enjoy it and I learn so much from it.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, thank you. And how about a particular favorite nugget, something that you share that people just tend to, they nod their heads, they take notes, they highlight it up in the Kindle version of your books? Is there an articulation or two of your message that seems to really hit home?

Bob Burg
I think that if there’s anything it’s understanding that success in life is probably about 10% technical skills and talent, and about 90% people skills which, by the way, and let me qualify that, that doesn’t mean that talent is not important. It doesn’t mean that technical skills aren’t important. Remember, we were talking about competence earlier. It doesn’t mean that’s not important. It is very important. But it’s just, at this point, it’s the entry level. You’ve got to be that if you want to have a chance to thrive.
But 90% of success of the people that really, really get to the top of the summit, they have mastered people skills. But I would say this, and this is the thing I say that, like you were saying, I guess, gets underlined or whatever, and that is that the single greatest people skill is a highly-developed and authentic interest in the other person. They know when you care or if you’re manipulating.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, perfect. Thank you. And what would you say is the best place for folks to get in touch or learn more about what you’re up to?

Bob Burg
Yeah, the best place is just thegogiver without the hyphen, thegogiver.com. And while they’re there they can get the first chapter of The Go-Giver and they can connect with my podcast if they’d like and join The Go-Giver Movement and connect with me on the various social media.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, thank you. And do you have a final call to action or challenge for those seeking to be more awesome at their jobs?

Bob Burg
I’d say whatever it is that you want to do or plan to do next, start doing it. Take action. This is why we say it’s great to be a go-giver and a go-getter.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s good.

Bob Burg
Right? We want people to be both go-getters, people of action, and go-givers, people who are focused on bringing value to others. What we don’t want is for people to be go-takers.

Pete Mockaitis
Gotcha. Well, Bob, thank you so much. This has been a ton of fun, and keep on rocking and giving and it really has been an inspiration because you live it. We got connected through Jamie Newman who also has a great show.

Bob Burg
I love Jamie.

Pete Mockaitis
And you just gave of your time to his show when he was just getting started. You didn’t have a ton of publicity or exposure to be gained, and you already had all these bestsellers, and here you are you’re sharing with us and we appreciate it.

Bob Burg
Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s my pleasure. Jamie is a fantastic person and you are, too, and I appreciate the value that both of you are bringing to the lives of so many people.