Unlock the transformative power of generosity with Bob Burg, co-author of "The Go-Giver," as we explore a radical approach to prosperity that's all about giving. Imagine a world where your success isn't measured by what you acquire, but by what you contribute. This episode takes you on a journey through the five laws of stratospheric success, where Bob and I dissect how these principles aren't just good karma—they're a business strategy with proven financial merit.
Engage with the profound stories of entrepreneurs whose lives and businesses were uplifted by the Go-Giver's philosophy. As we reflect on the book's ripple effect, from its origins to the lives it has transformed, you'll hear how embracing authenticity and leading with value creates a legacy that transcends profits. Join us for an inspiring conversation that may just shift your perspective on success and open the door to a world of unexpected opportunities.
Unlock the transformative power of generosity with Bob Burg, co-author of "The Go-Giver," as we explore a radical approach to prosperity that's all about giving. Imagine a world where your success isn't measured by what you acquire, but by what you contribute. This episode takes you on a journey through the five laws of stratospheric success, where Bob and I dissect how these principles aren't just good karma—they're a business strategy with proven financial merit.
Engage with the profound stories of entrepreneurs whose lives and businesses were uplifted by the Go-Giver's philosophy. As we reflect on the book's ripple effect, from its origins to the lives it has transformed, you'll hear how embracing authenticity and leading with value creates a legacy that transcends profits. Join us for an inspiring conversation that may just shift your perspective on success and open the door to a world of unexpected opportunities.
Hi everybody, welcome to. I Love Palm Beach and we have a really special guest here today. We have Bob Burke, who's a published author of the renowned book called the Go-Giver. Hey Bob, thanks for being here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you both for having me. What an honor.
Speaker 3:Well, first off, would you mind telling us a little bit about the Go-Giver and the mission inside of it?
Speaker 2:Well, the Go-Giver is a business parable. So it's a short story. It's a work of fiction co-authored by John David Mann, who's a fantastic writer. He was actually the lead writer and storyteller. I'm much more of a how-to person. I'm step-by-step one, two, three. I'm kind of the boring guy and so, thankfully, john's a great storyteller and it's really.
Speaker 2:You know, the basic message in the book is that shifting your focus and this is really where it begins shifting your focus from getting to giving. And when we say giving in this context, we simply mean constantly and consistently providing immense value to others, understanding that doing so is not only a more fulfilling way of conducting business but the most financially profitable way as well. And you know and not for some kind of way out there, woo-woo, magical, mystical type of reasons it actually makes very logical sense when you are that person who can take your focus off yourself and place it on serving others, discovering their needs, their wants, their desires, helping them to overcome their challenges, helping move them to happiness. People tend to feel good about you, they feel great about you, they want to get to know you, they like you, they trust you, they want to be in relationship with you, do business with you and they want to tell the world all about you, to be your what we call personal walking ambassadors.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And then would you mind giving a brief overview of the five laws found therein.
Speaker 2:Not at all. I'd love to the five laws themselves are the laws of value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivity. The first law, the law of value, which says your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment, which could sound kind of counterintuitive when you think of it give more in value than I take in payment it sounds all nice and nice and everything, but it sounds like a recipe for bankruptcy, right? So we just have to understand the difference between price and value. Price is a dollar figure, it's a dollar amount, it's finite, it is what it is.
Speaker 2:Value, on the other hand, is the relative worth or desirability of a thing, of something, to the end user or beholder. In other words, what is it about this thing, this product, service, concept, idea? What have you that brings so much worth to a, or value to another person's life that they will willingly exchange their, their money for it? So if we took the the simple example of an accountant who you hire to do your taxes and she charges you a thousand dollars, right, that's her price, her fee or price. But what value does she give you in exchange? Well, she saves you. Let's say, five thousand dollars in taxes. She saves you countless hours of time. She provides you and your family with the security and the peace of mind of knowing what was done correctly, right. So she gave you well over five thousand dollars in value in exchange for a thousand dollar price. So you feel great about it and she made a very healthy profit.
Speaker 2:And the key to this is first understanding that in any free market based exchange and when I say free market I simply mean no one's forced to do business with anyone else there should always be two profits the buyer profits and the seller profits, because each of them come away better off afterwards than they were beforehand. But the other key point is understanding that the reason this took place was because she her focus was not on her fee. Her focus was on the immense value she was providing her client. The money was just the result. So, as John David Mann and I like to say, money is simply an echo of value. It's the thunder, if you will, to values lightning, meaning the value must be your focus. The value you're providing another person, the money you receive is simply a natural result of the value you've provided. Now I'll just shoot quickly through the other one so I don't take up too much of your time here, because you know you could be on.
Speaker 2:Number two, the law of compensation, simply says your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. So it's not a matter of just having one client, but how many lives do you impact with your immense value? Law number three, the law of influence, says your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. No, not in a self-sacrificial way or a barterish type of way, or a doormatty type of way. It's simply understanding that. You know what I call the golden rule of business, and that is, all things being equal. People will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know like, and there's no faster, more powerful or more effective way to elicit those feelings toward you and others. Then by genuinely moving from that, I focus, or me focus to that other focus. Now, law number four is the law of authenticity, and and this says, the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. In this part of the story, deborah Davenport, who is the very successful realtor, shared that that All the skills in the world the sales skills, technical skills, people skills as important as they are and they are important they're also all for not if you don't come at it from your true, authentic Core. But when you do, when you show up the same way day after day, week after week, month after month, people not only feel good about you, people feel comfortable with you, people feel safe With you because they know who they're getting.
Speaker 2:Now I think authenticity today has been kind of it's an overused word now and and it's come to mean well, no boundaries, just whatever you want to say and do. That's authentic. I disagree with that. You know, that would sort of be like the person who says well, I have anger issues and I yell at people a lot, and if I were to act any differently, that wouldn't be authentic of me and that's malarkey. It simply means that person has an authentic problem that they need to authentically work on in order to become a better, higher, more effective, authentic version of themselves. So we don't want to use authenticity as an excuse to not grow, but as an impetus to become our highest Sales.
Speaker 2:I define authenticity very simply. It's simply acting Congruently with your values. That's really authenticity. And then the last one law of receptivity says the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving, and this really means that, yeah, you breathe out, you also have to breathe in. It's not one or the other, it's both right. We breathe out carbon dioxide, we breathe in oxygen. We breathe out, which is giving. We breathe in, which is receiving, and, despite the many negative, anti-prosperity messages we get from the world around us, that is, giving and receiving are not opposite concepts. Giving and receiving are simply two sides of the very same coin and they work in tandem. And when we, when we give value to others and touch the lives of many and place their rinkers first and come at it from our authentic core, we've created what we call the benevolent context for success. Now we just need to allow ourselves to receive with gratitude.
Speaker 3:I love it. It's absolutely beautiful. Thank you for giving us a taste. I'm sure that you've now enticed all of our listeners to go out and read your book. There's so much more value in there. It's such wonderful principles that apply to everyone. That's been my philosophy and business from the beginning is to approach with hands open, because if your hands are closed, as what you're trying to receive back, you'll never be able to grab the opportunities in front of you either. So I think it's beautiful, beautiful. What kind of feedback have you received from readers or audiences about the impact of the Go-Giver on their lives or businesses or organizations?
Speaker 2:Well, fortunately, you know, since this book's been released years ago now, we've just been so honored to receive so much great feedback on it. And what was interesting to John and me and I think this is what kind of surprised us is that the initial adopters if that's the right name of the book were not the people who needed it. Our first wave of emails after it was released was from the people who said this is how I built my business, or this is what I did in building my empire. This is how I did it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But none of my people believe me, right, because we've been brought up watching the TV shows or the movies where you know they had to be horrible and terrible and ruthless, and this and that, and, and, and you know they said this is how I did. They won't believe so.
Speaker 2:Apparently, what they did was they started sharing the book and used it as third party credibility with the people who they wanted to teach. So we were getting orders for, you know, tens and hundreds and sometimes thousands of books for them to share throughout the team. Now the second wave of emails, about six months later, came from those people who would say you know, I never knew business could be done like this before. I feel so much better about myself. I'm much more successful. This book was given to be by my sales manager or CEO or you know whatever. So that was. You know, that's kind of been the feedback, so we've just felt so fortunate for that.
Speaker 1:I want to. I want to ask really quick what were you and John doing that prompted to write this book? So he was back in 2007.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I came out like December 27th 2007 or something like that, so yeah. So I had had a book out many years before that, in the in the 90s, called Endless Referrals. The subtitle was Network your Everyday Contacts into Sales. That was kind of my first major book, if you will, and it was really about how entrepreneurs and salespeople could go into their you know communities and be able to develop those no like and trust relationships, have people do business with them, refer them to others. And it was for those entrepreneurs and salespeople who knew they had a great product or service but they didn't feel comfortable with the process of going out and acquiring a new business. So so after the book came out you know I'd always read a lot of business parables and it always enjoyed them.
Speaker 2:I think as human beings, we relate to stories. They touch our heart in a deeper way, a significant way, and I always thought what if we could take that basic idea or that premise and turn it into a story? But you know, I can tell a story from stage as a speaker, but I'm not a storyteller. As a writer, you know, I'm not a fiction writer and so I'm a how to writer, but fortunately I had met this brilliant guy named John David Mann. In the early 2000s I was writing a monthly column for a magazine. He was editor in chief and even then John had this fantastic reputation as a writer. He was also a great guy and so we kind of got to know each other just by him editing my, my articles every every month and developed a friendship. And you know, I eventually brought this idea to him about this book and you know he was busy at the time and he wasn't really looking to do and he's. By the way, this guy is now co-authored a bunch of you know best selling New York Times best selling books on everything from how to leadership parables. He even has written now three mystery thrillers. I mean, this guy is just brilliant.
Speaker 2:But one day he and his wife they are back then girl fiance, now now wife Anna they were visiting her mom across the state in the Tampa area and so they took a four hour drive to here in Jupiter. We had about a three hour dinner and discussed the idea of the book and you know he didn't even decide them. But three weeks later he called and said you know, I think we got something here, let's do this. So it only took a few months to write the book and again he was the lead writer. But we got turned down by 24 New York publishing houses over the course of a year before the 25th. One said yes. So that was kind of a neat thing and it turned out that they were the perfect publishing partner for us. They've been fantastic.
Speaker 3:I would love to hear about the rest of the series as well. So I see that the Go-Giver is part of a four book series. Can you tell us about some of the other spin-offs as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the following book we wrote, go-givers Sell More is the only one in the series that's not a parable, so it's more of an application guide to the Go-Giver, because so many people wrote and said, oh, can you write a book on just you know how to actually apply the principles and examples of people who've done such. So that included examples of people who had gotten the book, had some ideas, applied them, wrote to us. But it was also from a lot of people who would, who were Go-Givers, if you will, long before they ever read the book. Those were the you know, the successful people who never needed the book. They were already doing it and we included a bunch of their stories as well.
Speaker 2:Then there was the Go-Giver leader, and that's again that's a parable, how the five laws of the Go-Giver, how they apply to leadership. And then the fourth one in the series, the third parable, the Go-Giver influencer, which is my favorite of the series, and that's on people skills, which I believe is the you know, sort of that trait or skill, if you will, that can move a person from being fairly successful to being really, really successful, and so that was just a joy to, you know, to to co-write with John. Now here's the funny thing John and his now wife Anna. They wrote a fifth book together called the Go-Giver marriage, and so Anna's background is in that plus, the two of them have a fantastic marriage, and so it's half parable and half how to. So that's pretty neat itself. So I'm very proud of them.
Speaker 3:I love this quote from it. It says to say love is what makes a marriage work is like saying it takes oxygen to climb a mountain. Yes, oxygen is necessary, but not sufficient.
Speaker 2:Right Exactly Going through hard things.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love it, love it.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't have a comment right now.
Speaker 3:Well, I think we are at the end of our podcast episode here. We'd like to wrap up with a little bit about your story into I mean, you spoke about Jupiter before, but maybe touch on how you came to live here and what you love about living in the greater Palm Beach area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I've been here for 35 years now and there is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for being right here in the Palm Beaches. I absolutely love it. Now, I grew up in Massachusetts. I'm kind of a whim, so I don't like the cold. Never did, Never got it. Okay. So I always, you know, I often say to people I grew up in Massachusetts but got down here as fast as I could, and nothing against Massachusetts except for the cold. But you know, I just really I am so grateful to live down here. My folks had heard about it from a friend of theirs who had heard about it, and again, this is many, many years ago. And so I came down and as soon as I, as soon as I stepped foot down here, I said you know, this is it, this is this is where I want to spend the rest of my life and I, I'm so thankful.
Speaker 3:Were you joining any family or were you the trailblazer coming down here?
Speaker 2:So my folks had had. They had bought a place part time. They were going to be snowbirds. Okay, then my sister and a very quick period of time. My sister got engaged to a guy from Miami who my dad and his dad had been old friends. The families had known each other for years and had visited each other in Florida and Massachusetts and so forth. So when Robin and Steve got married, that kind of set the stage. But once Robin was pregnant with the first one, that was it. My folks were no longer snowbirds. They were down here forever and so it was all in the space that I had a brother who was living in Las Vegas at the time. He came back about a year later. He kind of helped me get my business started when I was doing it. So within the space of about two years the entire family was relocated and absolutely never looked back.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. And then, right now, what are some things around the holidays, perhaps, that you look forward to being down here?
Speaker 2:You know, I'm actually pretty much of a loner and pretty much of an introvert, even though it doesn't seem like I am, because I get up and stayed in front of lots and lots of people. But that's two different things. So I don't really I won't be going out and doing a whole lot of things. I'm really a homebody. But it's just, you know, it's kind of just enjoying knowing that everybody is having a great time and I think I really take pleasure in that. I just, you know, it's sort of just a nice feeling to know. I think the holiday season in South Florida is just a fantastic thing, and so, you know, I just kind of again, the words that come to mind are just filled with gratitude for being here.
Speaker 1:Perfect Well we are so happy to have you here today. This was one of my favorite podcasts. And it's so nice to have a local who put out such a wonderful book, but I wanted to remind everybody that Bob also has a podcast and I happen to follow you guys and to pick up a book and hopefully we'll see you in live in person someday. Maybe we can do an event together.
Speaker 2:I would love that. How fun would that be.
Speaker 1:That would be really fun. Well, thank you so much for being here on. I Love Palm Beach and everybody. Have a wonderful day.