Facts Tell, Stories Connect and Other Insights into Public Speaking with Bob Burg.

Welcome to Public Speaking with Peter George. I'm Peter George, public speaking trainer, speaker, and award-winning author of The Captivating Public Speaker. I'm thrilled to have Bob Burg as my very first guest. Bob is a sought-after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences and has shared the platform with everyone from today's top business leaders to a former U.S. president. He's the author of numerous books on sales, marketing, and influence, with total sales of over a million copies. His book The Go-Giver, co-authored with John David Mann, has sold more than 850,000 copies and been translated into 28 languages. Here's my conversation with Bob Burg.

Why The Go-Giver Resonated

Peter: Before we get into your speaking career, I want to spend a few minutes on the Go-Giver series. Why do you think it has resonated with so many people over the years?

Bob: I think there are two main reasons. One is that it's in story form, and stories tend to connect more effectively than how-to information. There's an old saying — "facts tell, stories sell" — but as my co-author John David Mann says, that's not totally true.

The second reason is that the book gave people permission to conduct business the way they truly wanted to — not the ruthless way business is so often portrayed. It demonstrated that when you come from a value base and focus on bringing value to others, that's when you succeed in a sustainable way. Interestingly, our first adopters weren't the people who most needed to hear the message. They were already-successful leaders who said, "This is exactly what I've been telling my people — but they don't believe me." The book gave them validation. From there, the second wave of adopters were people who heard about it from those leaders and felt, almost overnight, that they had permission to be a good person and still succeed wildly.

What Speaking Is Really About

Peter: As someone who speaks often, what do you see as the real benefit of speaking — both for the speaker and for the audience?

Bob: It depends on your business model. Some speakers speak to promote their consulting or coaching practice — the engagements lead to the core business. Others make speaking itself their primary revenue source. Either way, the key insight is this: your clients are not buying a speaker. They're buying an expert who speaks, an authority who speaks, or an entertainer who speaks. Nobody wants a speaker for the sake of having one. They want someone who delivers a meaningful message effectively.

But ultimately, when we speak, it's not about us. It's not even about our topic, as important as that may be. It's about the value the individuals in that audience will derive from what we share and how they'll use it in their lives. It's also about the client who has invested significant money and chosen you — and is depending on you to make them look good for having done so. The goal, as one of the mentors in The Go-Giver describes it, is making your win all about the other person's win. Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill — they want a hole in the wall. As a speaker, it's the same shift: move from an I-focus to an other-focus.

How Bob Got Into Speaking

Peter: How did you actually get involved in speaking?

Bob: I don't think I planned it. When I was growing up, speaking as a career wasn't something you even knew existed. I started in broadcasting — radio, then television as a late-night news anchor for a small ABC affiliate in the Midwest. I wasn't particularly good at it, and before long I graduated into sales. The problem was I knew nothing about sales and the company's training was negligible. I floundered for months.

Then one day in a bookstore — almost 40 years ago now — I came across books by Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar. I devoured them. Studied, highlighted, practiced. Within weeks my sales were entirely different. I had a system. I define a system as the process of predictably achieving a goal based on a logical and specific set of how-to principles. When you know that doing A reliably produces B, you just keep doing A.

Eventually I went to a seminar, bought the speaker's tape set, learned how to give short speeches for any group that would have me, and sold the tapes afterward. I did well. Once I wanted to do my own thing, I connected with the National Speakers Association and learned from people who had already built successful speaking practices. I applied the system, and within a few years, I was doing pretty well.

Handling No's

Peter: Along the way, I'd imagine you got a few no's.

Bob: A ton of no's. Mostly no's. And what I think drives people out of any business — including speaking — isn't the no's themselves. It's the feeling that you're the only one getting them. You see successful speakers on big stages and think they just walked in and it happened. They didn't. They got a whole lot of no's along the way.

One of my favorite books is Go for No by Andrea Waltz and Richard Fenton. They've reframed what no means: yes is the destination, no is how you get there. Now, that doesn't mean you have to love the no's — they still sting. But they're part of the process. One of the most successful speakers I ever met, Dr. Gail Carson, said simply: "I really didn't care who wasn't interested. I just kept calling until I found someone who was." That's how you get to yes. Too many of us talk ourselves out of asking before we even hear no. The number one reason you don't make a sale? You don't ask.

From Perfect to Human

Peter: What part of speaking came naturally to you — and what surprised you along the way?

Bob: I've always gotten very nervous before stepping on stage, but the speaking itself came fairly naturally. The irony is that for the first couple of years, I was technically perfect — I didn't make mistakes. But because I never allowed myself to be human, I wasn't nearly as effective as I could be. Once I let go of flawlessness, started sharing defeats, and accepted that imperfection is part of the connection, I became a much better communicator.

Just a few weeks ago, I was in Dallas speaking to a cold audience — the meeting leader had read The Go-Giver, but no one else had. Five minutes before I took the stage, I walked over to speak with the emcee and didn't notice a large floor monitor sitting between us. I tripped right over it and went completely head over heels. There was a hush. I jumped up and said, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Everyone laughed. When I finally took the stage, I said, "How many of you witnessed my spectacular fall from grace?" The ones who'd seen it explained to the ones who hadn't. Everybody laughed, and from that moment on, the audience and I were one.

When I first started, that fall would have humiliated me. I wouldn't have known what to do. But when you let go of having to be perfect — and when you truly realize it's not about you — you can take a moment like that and turn it into something that brings the audience closer rather than pushing them away.

It's Always About the Audience

Peter: And that really is the biggest lesson — it always has been and always will be about the audience.

Bob: Absolutely. The moment you stop making it about you and start making it about them, everything changes — your effectiveness, your connection, and ultimately the difference you make for the people you're there to serve.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Public Speaking with Peter George. To connect with Bob Burg and explore the Go-Giver series, visit burg.com for speaking information and thegogiver.com for books and resources. Are you ready to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then visit petergeorgepublicspeaking.com and let's make it happen. I'll see you next time.