Bob Burg on Closing More Deals with the Go-Giver Sales Strategy | Sales | YAPClassic

Summary

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Bob Burg on Closing More Deals with the Go-Giver Sales Strategy | Sales | YAPClassic
Host: Hala Taha
Guest: Bob Burg
Release Date: April 11, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Young and Profiting with Hala Taha, host Hala Taha welcomes sales expert and author Bob Burg to discuss his transformative approach to sales—the Go-Giver Sales Strategy. Drawing from his renowned Go Giver book series, Bob Burg delves into how shifting focus from closing deals to giving value can revolutionize sales outcomes. The conversation is rich with actionable insights, personal anecdotes, and profound quotes that challenge conventional sales tactics.

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Bob Burg’s Journey into Sales and Personal Development

Bob Burg begins by sharing his career trajectory, which transitioned from broadcasting to sales. He recounts his early struggles in sales due to a lack of formal training, which led him to self-educate through seminal personal development books like Dale Carnegie’s "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and Napoleon Hill’s "Think and Grow Rich".

Bob Burg (02:07): "Sales was really about building yourself on the inside. That success manifested outwardly."

This self-driven learning not only boosted his sales performance but also ignited his passion for personal development, eventually leading him to become a sales manager and, later, a sought-after speaker.

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The Essence of the Go Giver Philosophy

Go Giver vs. Go Getter

Bob Burg introduces the core philosophy of his Go Giver series, contrasting Go Givers with Go Getters.

Bob Burg (07:01): "We love go getters because go getters are people of action... you're always providing immense value to others. You're a go giver."

Go Givers focus on providing value and serving others, while Go Getters are characterized by their proactive nature. Burg emphasizes that the true opposite of a Go Giver is not a Go Getter, but a Go Taker—someone who takes without giving.

Bob Burg (07:01): "The opposite of a go giver is a go get taker... they feel almost entitled to take without adding value."

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The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success

Central to Burg’s strategy are the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, each building upon the principle of giving more value than one takes in payment.

1. The Law of Value

   • Definition: Serve others with ultimate generosity, making their success your priority.

   • Key Insight: Ensure that the value you provide exceeds the price you receive.

     Bob Burg (10:21): "Each free market-based exchange should always result in two profits: the buyer profits and the seller profits."

2. The Law of Compensation

   • Definition: Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.

   • Key Insight: Expanding your reach and the quality of service directly boosts your earnings.

     Bob Burg (17:08): "Law number two tells us that the more people whose lives you touch with exceptional value, the more money you'll be rewarded."

3. The Law of Influence

   • Definition: Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first.

   • Key Insight: Building genuine relationships based on trust and authenticity enhances your ability to influence others.

     Bob Burg (18:13): "All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those they know, like, and trust."

4. The Law of Authenticity

   • Definition: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.

   • Key Insight: Authenticity builds trust. Acting congruently with your values fosters deeper connections.

     Bob Burg (34:14): "Authenticity means you act congruently with your values. It should never be used as an excuse for staying where you are."

5. The Law of Receptivity

   • Definition: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.

   • Key Insight: Balance giving with the willingness to receive, recognizing that both are essential for mutual success.

     Bob Burg (36:03): "Giving and receiving are not opposite concepts. They're two sides of the same coin and work in tandem."

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Deep Dive: The Law of Influence

Hala and Bob explore the nuances of the Law of Influence, highlighting the difference between influence, persuasion, and manipulation.

Influence vs. Persuasion vs. Manipulation

• Influence: The ability to move someone towards a desired action by genuinely placing their interests first.

  Bob Burg (21:36): "Great influencers don't push their will on others; they pull through genuine value."

• Persuasion: Encouraging others to make decisions that benefit them, enhancing their self-esteem and position.

• Manipulation: Aiming for control without regard for the other party's well-being, resulting in a win-lose scenario.

  Bob Burg (26:52): "Manipulation aims at control, not cooperation. It results in a win-lose situation."

Burg emphasizes that true influence is about pulling, not pushing, and aligning your actions with the other person's goals and values.

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Practical Strategies for Applying the Go-Giver Sales Strategy

Shifting Focus from Getting to Giving

Bob underscores the importance of prioritizing the client's needs over immediate sales goals. For instance, in a scenario where someone hires an accountant, the value provided (e.g., saving $5,000 in taxes) far exceeds the cost, fostering trust and long-term relationships.

Bob Burg (15:54): "Both of you come away much better off afterwards."

Building Relationships for Referrals

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around generating referrals through genuine relationships.

Bob Burg (18:13): "All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those they know, like, and trust."

Key Strategies:

• Focus on the Other Person: Make conversations about the client's needs and aspirations.
• Ask the Right Questions: Determine how you can serve the client's goals.
• Provide Immense Value: Ensure that your offerings significantly benefit the client.

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Advanced Concepts: The Law of the Back Door

Bob introduces the Law of the Back Door, which emphasizes respecting the client's autonomy and providing them with an emotional escape hatch.

Bob Burg (31:59): "The bigger the out or back door you give someone to take, the less they'll feel the need to take it."

Application Example: When encountering a defensive prospect, reframing the conversation to focus on mutual discovery rather than a hard sell can alleviate pressure and foster trust.

Bob Burg (33:45): "We're creating a context where the person doesn't feel pressured, reducing the need for the back door."

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Defining Happiness and Success

In the concluding segment, Bob ties the Go-Giver philosophy to personal fulfillment, defining happiness as the result of living authentically and congruently with one's values.

Bob Burg (37:27): "Happiness is an ongoing and genuine feeling of joy and peace of mind, the result of living congruently with one's values."

He asserts that true success is not merely about financial gains but about achieving a state of happiness through authentic interactions and value-driven actions.

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Conclusion and Resources

Bob Burg wraps up the conversation by reinforcing the importance of authenticity and receptivity in achieving both professional success and personal happiness. He invites listeners to explore more about his work through his website.

Bob Burg (38:33): "Best place is Burg.com."

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Key Takeaways

• Shift from Getting to Giving: Prioritize providing value to clients to naturally close more deals.
• Embrace the Five Laws: Integrate the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success into your sales approach.
• Build Genuine Relationships: Focus on building trust and authentic connections to foster referrals and long-term success.
• Balance Giving and Receiving: Understand the importance of being open to receiving as much as giving.
• Define Success by Happiness: Align your professional actions with personal values to achieve true happiness and fulfillment.

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Notable Quotes

• Bob Burg (02:07): "Sales was really about building yourself on the inside. That success manifested outwardly."
• Bob Burg (07:01): "The opposite of a go giver is a go get taker."
• Bob Burg (10:21): "Each free market-based exchange should always result in two profits: the buyer profits and the seller profits."
• Bob Burg (17:08): "Law number two tells us that the more people whose lives you touch with exceptional value, the more money you'll be rewarded."
• Bob Burg (21:36): "Great influencers don't push their will on others; they pull through genuine value."
• Bob Burg (26:52): "Manipulation aims at control, not cooperation. It results in a win-lose situation."
• Bob Burg (34:14): "Authenticity means you act congruently with your values."
• Bob Burg (36:03): "Giving and receiving are not opposite concepts. They're two sides of the same coin and work in tandem."
• Bob Burg (37:27): "Happiness is an ongoing and genuine feeling of joy and peace of mind, the result of living congruently with one's values."

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Where to Learn More

For listeners interested in delving deeper into Bob Burg's methodologies and philosophies, visit his website at Burg.com.

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This episode provides a compelling shift from traditional sales tactics to a more relationship and value-driven approach. By embracing the Go-Giver philosophy, entrepreneurs and sales professionals can not only enhance their sales performance but also achieve greater personal fulfillment and happiness.

Transcript

[Hala Taha]

Today's episode is sponsored in part by Airbnb, OpenPhone, Shopify, Microsoft Teams, Mercury, Bilt, LinkedIn and indeed, hosting on Airbnb has never been easier. With Airbnb's new co host network, find yourself a co [e-mail] host OpenPhone is the number one business phone system. Build stronger customer relationships and respond faster with shared numbers, AI and automations. Get 20% off your first six months when you go to openphone.com Profiting Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Sign up for a one per month trial period at shopify.com profiting if you're looking for a way to collaborate with remote workers, your co founders, interns and volunteers, then you need to check out Microsoft Teams Free. Try Microsoft Teams Free today at AKA Ms. Profiting Mercury streamlines your banking and finances in one place so you can focus on growing your online business. Learn [e-mail] Profiting Start paying rent through BILT and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits. Go to joinbuilt.com Profiting to sign up for Bilt today. Stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. Get a $100 credit on your next campaign by going to LinkedIn.com profiting attract, interview and hire all in one place with Indeed. Get a 75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com profiting terms and conditions apply. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes [e-mail] deals.

[Bob Burg]

What'S up yap fam? What if I told you everything you've been taught about sales is backwards? What if the key to closing more deals was to stop trying to close and start giving Instead? In this Yap Classic episode, which first aired in 2022, I spoke with Bob.

[N/A]

Berg, host of the Go Giver podcast.

[Bob Burg]

About a radically different approach to sales, one that's not about pressure or persuasion, but about value, service and authenticity. In our conversation, he breaks down the five laws of stratospheric success, the most common mistakes salespeople make, and how to build real trust and connection with every prospect that you meet. Are you a go giver when it comes to persuading and influencing others? Stick around and find out.

[Hala Taha]

Hey Bob, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. So happy to have you here.

[Bob Burg]

Hey, thank you Hala. Great to be here.

[Hala Taha]

Yeah, likewise. Before we get into all that good stuff and the meat and potatoes of the interview, I do want to talk to you about your career path Similar to me, you started in radio. So I started my career at Hot 97 and then kind of evolved from there. So I'd love to hear about your broadcasting background and how you ended up, you know, becoming such a popular writer.

[Bob Burg]

Just began as a sportscaster for a local radio station where I grew up, got into tv. I was the late night news guy for a very small ABC affiliate in the Midwestern United States. I wasn't very good at it though. I was, yeah, I could read the news, anyone can do that. But I certainly wasn't a journalist. And so it wasn't long before I graduated into sales and I stumbled and floundered for the first few months because I had no formal sales training and the company I was with apparently didn't either. So I was sort of left on my own for fortunately after a few months I was in a bookstore and I saw there were a couple of books on sales, which doesn't seem like a big deal right now, but that was 40 years ago and sales books were just. They simply were not as prolific as they are now. So I didn't even know such a thing existed. So when I saw them, I picked them up, brought them home and every night I'd come home after work and I would study into the wee hours of the morning. And within a few weeks of applying the information, my sales began to go through the roof. And it was really a great experience for me. From there I started to really get into the personal development aspect because I quickly learned that sales was really about building yourself on the inside. Right. And that that success manifested outwardly. But it really was what you put into your mind and took into your heart. So I started getting all the, you know, the classics of personal development from Dale Carnegie's how to Win Friends and Influence People to Think and Grow Rich, the Magic of Thinking Big and Psycho Cybernetics and As a Man thinketh and OG Mandino's books and all the great books that I just. I became a. I guess an internal library and you know, so I really enjoyed it and eventually worked my way up to sales manager of a company. And people began to ask me to show their sales team what was working for me and eventually just morphed into a. Into a speaking business.

[Hala Taha]

I love the fact that you brought up that you've read so many books. I interviewed Steven Kotler pretty recently and he told me that books have the best ROI on your time and you can literally time arbitrage with books because these authors are spending years of their lives researching and pouring out their expertise that might have taken a decade to acquire. And then you get to read that book in just a few hours and absorb all that information.

[Bob Burg]

Exactly. And you know, I think when you. And there are different types of books, there are the books that really you're just developing yourself personally and professionally and then there are the how to books and they can provide and such as the ones I purchased, and they were by Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins, the two that I purchased. When I first saw them, they were roadmaps for me. They told me how to do what I needed to do. It was really, it was a methodology, it was a system. And to this day I personally define a system as the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how to principles. The key being predictability. Right. If it's been documented that by doing A you can get the desired results of B, then you know, all you need to do is A and continue to do A and continue to do A and eventually get the desired results of B. So yeah, absolutely. And you think about how many years Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Zigler spent learning their craft and then as you said, they put it into book form and I got to read it within a few hours and you apply the information. So yeah, I think you really, you really hit it right on the head.

[Hala Taha]

So I know we don't have that much time together, so I do want to get into the bulk of the interview and really understand what a Go get. So Go Giver is a very popular book series that you wrote with your co author and there's four books in that series. I think it's Sales, Leadership, Influence and then the original. And let's just understand what a Go Giver is. I guess it's the difference and the difference between a go Getter and a Go Giver.

[Bob Burg]

Well, kind of. Let's, let's look at that. So the basic premise of the Go Giver is simply this, that shifting your focus. And this is really where it all begins. Shifting your focus from. From getting to giving. Now 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, it's the most financially profitable way as well. And not for any way out there, Woo woo. Type of magical, mystical reasons. It makes very logical, very rational sense when you're that person, Hala, who can take your focus off yourself and place it on serving others, on discovering what they need, what they Want what they desire, focusing on helping them solve their challenge and problems. Taking your focus off of yourself and making it about helping to bring them closer to happiness. People feel good about you. People want to get to know you. They like you, they trust you. They want to be part of your life, part of your business. They want to tell others about you. Now we would say in terms of go giver and go getter, it always depends upon how you define terms. Okay? So what we like to say is we love go getters because go getters are people of action. You're a go getter as well as a go giver. You're a person of action, right? And you started in radio, you went into, you had your blog that you had, you led a whole group of teams as that died down, now you went into something else. You're a go getter, but you're always providing value to others. You're a go giver. And so we like people to be both go getters, people of action and go givers. People who are absolutely focused on providing immense value to others. We would say the opposite of a go giver is a go get taker. And that's that person who feels almost entitled, if you will, to take, take, take without having added value to, to the person, to the process, to the situation. And they tend to be frustrated because they, they rarely have the kind of sustainable success that they believe they have.

[Hala Taha]

I love that go takers. I think that's really interesting and I, I can't wait to get into manipulation later on. And I think that really ties nicely with manip we get into that. Even though influence, persuasion, manipulation is literally my favorite topic to talk about. Let's Talk about your 5 laws for success that you talk about in go Giver. What are those five laws at a high level?

[Bob Burg]

Okay, so the, the law, they're the laws of value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivity. The law of value is all about making the experience so wonderful for the prospective customer and client and eventual customer and client that aside from just the intrinsic value of your product or service, it's the excellence, it's the consistency, it's the empathy, it's the attention, it's the gratitude, it's everything you put into the entire experience that makes it so worthwhile for them that they feel as though they're receiving much more in value than what they're paying. And they do. While you also make a very healthy profit. In any free market based exchange there should always be 2 profits, the buyer profits and the seller profits. Because each of them come away much better off afterwards than they were beforehand.

[N/A]

Let's hold that thought and take a.

[Bob Burg]

Quick break with our sponsors.

[N/A]

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[Hala Taha]

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[Hala Taha]

So basically what you're saying is we need to provide more value than just what we're getting paid for, if I understand correctly. So how do, like, give us some examples, some concrete examples. How can you have an engagement with someone they're paying you? Give us examples of providing more than what they're paying you for and going and providing that extra value that they'll remember you for.

[Bob Burg]

Okay, so let's say you hire an accountant to do your taxes and she charges you. We'll just name a round figure. $1,000. That's her fee or her price. Okay, $1,000. But what value does she give you in exchange that is so immense? First, through her experience, her knowledge, her wisdom, her. Her to find out about you and what you're looking to accomplish, she gets to know your business, okay? She's able to save you $5,000 in taxes. She also saves you countless hours of time. She also provides you and your family with the security and the peace of mind of knowing it was done correctly. Right? So she's just given you well over $5,000 in value in exchange for a thousand dollar payment of price. So you feel great about it. But she also made a very healthy profit because it's worth her time. It's worth her while, okay, to sell or lease her time, her energy, her expertise, her caring, her. You know what I'm saying?

[Hala Taha]

Yeah, totally.

[Bob Burg]

And so both of you come away much better off afterwards.

[Hala Taha]

Awesome. Okay, Law of compensation.

[Bob Burg]

Okay, so this says that your income is determined by how many people you serve as well as how well you serve them. So we're law number one. One says give more in value than you take in payment. Law number two tells us that the more people whose lives you touch with the exceptional value you provide, the more money with which you'll be rewarded. Nicole Martin, the CEO, in that part of the story told Joe the Protege, that law number one, the law of value, represents your potential income. But it's law number two, the number of lives you impact, that represent your actual income. So we could say exceptional value plus significant reach equals very high compensation.

[Hala Taha]

Got it. So my question for this law is really about referrals. Because if we want to expand our sphere of people that we help, I think the best way to do it is through referrals. And you are the guru when it comes to getting referrals. So tell us about some key strategies and I know we gotta be a little bit quick, but like what are your best strategies for getting referrals?

[Bob Burg]

Well, it's building the relationship. You know, one of the things that I said, the premise of endless referrals and something that was in the go giver was that all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know like and trust. So this is really where law number three of the Go giver comes into play, right? The law of influence. Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. Which isn't to say in any way that you should be anyone's doormat or a martyr or self sacrificial. It's just that when you look at the all things being equal, the know like and trust, what do we see? That placing that other person's interests first. Okay, that is the way to develop that know, like and trust toward you in others. And that's how referrals will, will happen. Because you're developing, you're creating these great relationships with people. The way you begin doing it is from that very first conversation to make it not about you, but about them. It's asking them questions about themselves and their business. Not in a prospecty type of way, just in a way that creates a relationship. It's asking them how they got started in their business and what they enjoy most about it. It's asking that person what I call the one key question that will distinguish you from the rest, which is how can I know if someone I'm speaking with is a good customer for you? Which totally reframes everything from being the typical I'm out there trying to give my elevator speech and sell you my product or service the first time I meet you to I want to know how to help you, I want to know how to serve you, I want to know how to bring value to you. And it's the same whether you're in person or online. You know, you're really a LinkedIn expert. You're someone who's so lit, you have such a huge audience on LinkedIn. And how many times do you see when someone sends you a connection request, what's the first thing they do after you connect? They send you a sales Thing. Right. To buy from them. Well, are you going to create a relationship with that person? Probably not, but it's probably the person who's asking themselves a question. How do I add value to Hala's life, to her business? How can I comment on one of her posts or one of her interviews? You know, how can I share something that's going to bring her value? How can I get to know her in a way that she sees that my focus is on? Right. And that's how we start the referral process. Now there's certain questions we can ask once the know like and trust is there to create the context where the person's probably going to give us great referrals, but it always begins with the relationship.

[Hala Taha]

I'm going to have to have you back on to just talk about referrals at some point because I think you'll.

[Bob Burg]

Miss 30 minutes just on that.

[Hala Taha]

I know. For real. Okay, so let's go on to. I think we got to. We're at the law of influence.

[Bob Burg]

We kind of did law of influence. We did that within the. Within that. So we sort of snuck that in a little bit because it's again, it's placing the other person's interest first, not in a self sacrificial way, but in a way that benefits everyone concerned.

[Hala Taha]

So I do wanna dive a little deeper on this influence topic because I heard you saying something on another interview and I loved it. And that's the fact that when you're a true person of influence, you're not pushing, you're pulling. Talk to us about that because I think that's really powerful.

[Bob Burg]

Sure. So if we ask what influence is, because remember, you know, the word influence has been thrown around so much now that people have lots of different definitions for it. And so I think if we look at it first on a very basic level, influence can be defined simply as the ability to move a person or persons to a desired action, usually within the context of a specific goal. Okay. That's the definition, but it's not its essence. Because the essence of influence, as you said, is pull as opposed to push. Right. How far can you push a rope? Well, not very well, at least not very fast or very effectively. Which is why great influencers don't push. They don't push their will on others, they don't push their ideas on others. They're not pushy. Right. You never hear someone say, wow, that David or that Mary, she is so influential. She has a lot of push with people. No, Mary's influential. She has A lot of pull with people. So how does that pull manifest itself? Well, again, and this is that law of influence, it goes back to placing the other person's interest first. The genuine influencer ask themselves questions to make sure they're facing the right way. See, I believe that we need to be internally motivated but outwardly focused. Because remember, people don't do things for our reasons. They do it for their reasons. I often, when I speak at sales conferences, I'll often say, nobody's going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet, right? They're not going to buy from you because you need the money or even because you're a really nice person. They're going to buy from you because they believe they'll be better off by doing so than by not doing so, which is the only reason we could ever expect or should ever expect anyone to. To buy from us. So. So the genuine influencer ask questions of themselves to make sure they're outwardly focused. For example, how does what I'm asking this person to do, how does it align with their goals, with their needs, with their wants, with their desires? How does what I want this other person to do, how does it align with their values? What problems am I helping them to solve? How am I helping them to get to a direction or get to a place where they want to be? Now, when we ask ourselves these questions thoughtfully, intelligently, genuinely, authentically, not as a way to manipulate another human being into doing our will, but as a way of building everyone in the process, now we've come a lot closer to earning that person's commitment, right? As opposed to trying to depend on some type of compliance or push.

[Hala Taha]

The other thing I really want to cover for my listeners is the difference between influence, persuasion and manipulation, because I think they're all slightly different. And I think it will help us understand, you know, where on the spectrum we want to be sure.

[Bob Burg]

So if influence is a matter of being able to move a person to a desired action, okay, there are two ways to influence. You could do it through persuading another human being, or you could do it through manipulating another human being. One's positive, one's negative. Right? Now, the interesting thing is both persuaders and manipulators understand human nature. They understand what motivates people. They understand how to move people to action. In a sense, you could say persuasion and manipulation are cousins. Now, one's the good cousin, persuasion, and one's the evil cousin, manipulation. If we want to describe manipulation, I think the person who described it best was a guy by the name of Paul W. Sweats who wrote a book published in 1987 called the Art of Talking so that People Will Listen, which was really more about listening than it was about talking. But that was the title. It was a wonderful book and in it he said, manipulation aims at control, not cooperation. It does not consider the good of the other party and it results in a win lose situation. Now in direct contrast to the manipulator, the persuader always seeks to enhance the self esteem or I would say the position of the other party. People respond better because they're treated as responsible, response able, self directing individuals. So it begins really with intent, though that's not where it ends. But here's the thing. See, a manipulator may not be trying to necessarily hurt the other person, but if that's what it takes to get their way, they'll do so because it's all about them and their needs. With a persuader, that can never happen because for a persuader to be happy with the situation and with themselves, they have to know that not only has the other person benefited, but that the other person feels good about the situation.

[N/A]

We'll be right back after a quick.

[Bob Burg]

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[N/A]

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[Bob Burg]

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[Hala Taha]

Okay, so my last question on influence is really about the fact that people love to be the ones making their own decisions and they want to make their own decisions. So tell us about the law of the back door. I thought this was really interesting.

[Bob Burg]

Well, thank you. Yes, autonomy is a key aspect of human nature. People want to feel they're in control of their own lives. Okay, an out or a back door is an emotional escape hatch you give someone so that they never feel as though they're back into a corner. Okay, so Berg's law of the out or back door simply says the bigger the out or back door you give someone to take, the less they'll feel the need to take it. So you don't necessarily give them that out so that they'll take it. Although if they think they should, they will, which, that would make sense. But no, you do it so that they feel comfortable enough with you and the situation that they don't feel pressured and they don't feel the need to take that out or backdoor. So even saying something, let's say you have a prospect, a sales prospect, and you're in front of that person and they kind of come to the table kind of defensive and it's, well, you know, don't think I'm going to buy anything necessarily from you. I'm not some easy sell. Why did they fit? But who knows what their experience has been? We never know what someone's experience is. Maybe that somebody took advantage of them or maybe they really are someone who doesn't trust themselves to make the. I don't know. But what we can do is reframe this using the out or backdoor. So it might be something like, you know, Susan, while we've been fortunate to be able to help a lot of people with this product, whether or not it's the right fit for you, we simply can't know without exploring deeper and both of us discovering that. So please know that this conversation is for both of us to determine whether this would be right for you. And if it is, great. If not, that's okay, too.

[Hala Taha]

And I bet you you could even do that in a simpler manner. Like, if you just want to hop on a call with someone, you could be like, hey, you're probably slammed this Friday, but if you have time, would you be able to hop on a call? Like, does it work in. Yeah. Even works in simple situations like that?

[Bob Burg]

Very, very much.

[Hala Taha]

Okay, so I know we have two more laws that we didn't cover. And so I just want to make sure my listeners understand them, at least at a high level. So I believe it's the law of. Yep, go ahead.

[Bob Burg]

Most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. And in this law. Deborah, who was the mentor in this part of the story, explained that all the skills in the world, the sales skills, technical skills, skills, people skills, as important as they are, and they are all very important, they're also all for naught if you don't come at it from your true authentic core. But when you do, when you show up as yourself, day after day, week after week, month after month, people feel good about you. People feel comfortable with you, they feel safe with you. And why not? They know who it is they're getting. So authenticity is a very powerful part of building trust. Now, I think today, authenticity, just like influence, it's a word that gets bandied about so much. I think people kind of confuse aspects of it. I think, you know, a lot of people, I believe, think authenticity means you have no boundaries. Say whatever you want, do whatever you want. This is how I am. Take it or leave it. Which, by the way, good philosophy. If you want no happy relationships and you don't feel like being successful in business, then it's a good philosophy. But otherwise, no, it's really not. Authenticity does not mean you have no boundaries. Authenticity simply means you act congruently with your values, okay? It should never be used as an excuse for staying where you are. It's like the person who says, well, I have anger issues and I yell at a lot, and I yell at people a lot. And if I were to act any differently, that wouldn't be authentic of me. That's baloney. That's hogwash. It simply means that person has an authentic problem that that person needs to authentically work on in order to become a better, more effective, higher version of their authentic selves.

[Hala Taha]

Got it. And so thank you so much for explaining that. And then your last law.

[Bob Burg]

Yeah. The law of receptivity says the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. This means nothing more than understanding that, yeah, you breathe out, you also have to breathe in. 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. Giving and receiving. Despite the many anti prosperity messages we receive from the world around us, which is really a shame. Despite that, giving and receiving are not opposite concepts. They're simply two sides of the very same coin and they work in tandem. The key is that you focus on the giving and you allow the receiving. Which is why John David Mann and I say that money is simply an echo of value. So you focus on the giving. And when you do this and you create such wonderful value for others, you've created that benevolent context for success. And then you allow yourself to receive as a natural result of the value you've given.

[Hala Taha]

I think that's a really important point. A lot of people kind of block themselves off from receiving all the good that they've put out for themselves. So I totally agree there. So the last question that I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life?

[Bob Burg]

I think it goes back to a definition. As you can tell, so many things go back to definitions. Right. And I think it's when we, you know, we talked about authenticity, acting congruently with your values. I think happiness, which is really what it's all about, when you think about it, the end of our life, what is it? It's how happy we were. Right. I personally define happiness as an ongoing and genuine feeling of joy and peace of mind, the result of living congruently with one's values. So I think that with everything we do, if we're able to check on this is what I'm about to do. Congruent with my values, congruent with the person who I believe I am and or want to become, then I think we create that context for happiness. Which doesn't mean life is, you know, rainbows and unicorns either. Life is life. Okay. But it means that we have that ongoing sense of happiness.

[Hala Taha]

Makes sense. Thank you so much, Bob. This was such a wonderful conversation. Where can our listeners go to learn everything about you and what you do.

[Bob Burg]

Best place is Burg. B U r g dot com.

[Hala Taha]

Awesome. Thank you so much.

[Bob Burg]

My pleasure. Thank you.