Phil and I were absolutely thrilled to chat with our good friend Bob Burg, a highly acclaimed national speaker and bestselling author. In our chat with Bob, we talked about being pushed out of your comfort zone and shifting from an already established career to launch projects that are more enjoyable.
The most influential leaders and best sales people around have been endorsing Bob’s books and presentations for many years, including our very own Phil. If you’ve ever wanted to know the true success principle every top producer uses, you don’t want to miss this episode.
Share Some SHUT UP Love –> Some people don’t buy a drill to have a drill. They buy a ¼” drill to get a ¼” hole. Great salespeople get that. @bobburg #shutupshow (click to tweet)
Fun Facts:
- Bob has been featured in CNN, SUCCESS Magazine, Oprah & Friends, Montel, and Bill O’Reilly, to name a few media appearances
- Bob is a highly acclaimed, long-time member of the National Speakers Association and elite authority on relationship marketing
- Bob teaches business professionals how to leverage their network of everyday contacts into a never ending stream of new prospects
- Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve
- Bob is a founding board member of Club 100, a charitable organization focused on helping underprivileged local area youths
- Bob was best known for his book Endless Referrals, but over the past few years it’s his business parable The Go-Giver , which shot to #6 on The Wall Street Journal’s Business Bestsellers list just three weeks after its release and reached #9 on BusinessWeek
- Bob was inducted into #CousinsOfBerniXiong in 2011 shortly after meeting Berni in a weekly #KTCO tweetchat hosted by Chris Brogan and Joe Sorge
Defining SHUT UP Moment:
ON CAREER TRANSITION – I’ve made several shifts in my career. When I was first starting out, I was speaking on a different topic and I really positioned myself well. When I wanted to make a shift and start teaching referrals and networking–because I really enjoyed it–it was difficult because I had an already established niche.
ON WRITING A BUSINESS PARABLE BOOK – Go-Giver is very much Endless Referrals in a storytelling fashion. Personally I love business parables. I knew I could write a how-to book, but writing a work of fiction was outside of my strength zone. I’m lucky to be able to work with my co-author John David Mann on the series. He’s a brilliant man who can really write a story. We partnered on the book. We were turned down by 25-30 publishers. Our agent helped us re-position the book and we ended up finding the perfect partner to publish it, a division of Penguin out of New York.
ON PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING – Whether I’m speaking to 25 people or 15,000, I get that sick feeling in my stomach before I go on. Every single time just like I did when I played sports as a kid. As soon as my name is announced, the butterflies go and it’s mine. I say a quick prayer and I’m up there feeling confident because I know I’m prepared. The fear is still there. But really, in everything I do, unless I know for sure what the answer is, there’s always a different degree of fear.
SHUT UP Tips:
It’s never about the sales person and it’s never about the product or service. It’s about the client and how what you’re offering is going to touch their lives. – Bob
My dad said “Who is a brave person? One who is smart enough to be afraid but still do their job.” My personal feeling is there are some who don’t know enough to be afraid. While we admire them, it’s not really bravery. – Bob
Now when we’re putting fear when it’s not supposed to be there, then that’s not very productive. – Bob
You become more of what you already were, the more money you make. – Berni
Really prepare yourself for what you need to do. The more prepared you are the less you have to fear. Realize its okay to have fear. – Bob
Far too often we already have the resources and tools in hand and sometimes we’re afraid to pull the trigger and apply what we learned. – Berni
Bob Recommends:
Dale Carnegie – How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
Lisa McLeod – Selling with Noble Purpose
Adam Grant – Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success
SIGN UP to receive Bob’s Influence & Success Insights along with 4 powerful special reports, and download chapters from four of his books: his international bestseller The Go-Giver, Go-Givers Sell More, Endless Referrals and It’s Not About You
Adversaries into Allies comes out in October 2013
Find Bob:
To learn more about Bob’s books, speaking, and training programs, visit www.Burg.com