Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:20
Aaron Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game. Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Kraddock, and I'm super excited today to have the legend Bob Berg on. And so a little bit of context.

00:20 - 00:45
Aaron Craddock: This is episode 52. And so we've been as many of you have been listening, we've been doing this podcast for two years, and I wanted to bring somebody I really respect onto the podcast. And so a little bit of context of how I got exposed to Bob was our mutual friend Josh Hines recommended that I read the book The Go Giver. I was going reread How to Win Friends and Influence People. And he's like, no, Aaron.

00:45 - 01:02
Aaron Craddock: Like, I think you should read this new book called The Go Giver. And little did I know we would incorporate these principles into everything we do and everything we're building and our vision. And that's part of a lot of the success and growth we've had the last few years. So Bob, welcome to the podcast.

01:02 - 01:15
Bob Burg: Wow, Aaron. You just made my day hearing that. And, of course, I'm I'm no one to ever discourage anyone from reading, you know, how to win friends and influence people. That's a a classic. But our our great friend Josh, who who I've known for gosh.

01:15 - 01:32
Bob Burg: It's got to be thirty years, such a fantastic guy and he's always been such a big supporter of book and in the seventeen or so years it's been out and so forth, I'm just I'm very grateful to him for recommending it to you and you know, you for your friendship as well. So thank you for having me on.

01:33 - 02:04
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, I really appreciate it, Bob. And for those of you that are watching this on YouTube, I actually have his book here, The Go Giver, which if you're starting at it, I'd recommend The Red One First, the little story about a powerful business idea. And I actually had Bob sign this a couple years ago when I was in Florida with him. And it was just a magical time we had for a couple days where I got to spend with Bob and this group of friends here. And so, yeah, super excited to have you on.

02:04 - 02:07
Bob Burg: Well, we loved having you with us at the event. It was

02:07 - 02:09
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. It was such a magical two days.

02:10 - 02:19
Bob Burg: It really was. Yeah. Yeah. Good group. Just a good group of people who all came with a, you know, a spirit of wanting to add value to everybody else's life.

02:19 - 02:30
Bob Burg: But, you know, nothing self sacrificial about it. In doing that, they created wonderful relationships with one another and received a lot back in return. And it just you know, really, it's what it's all about.

02:31 - 02:50
Aaron Craddock: That's awesome. Yeah, many of us have stayed in touch over the last couple of years, and it's been cool to see how that's played out. And so first question I have for you today is at what point did you realize growth was tied less to what you achieve and more to the people you helped?

02:50 - 03:24
Bob Burg: I think it's more that one is a cause of the other, right? So we remember Zig Ziglar, of course, the great speaker and author and sales professional and entrepreneur who said whose most famous saying, which is often messed up by everybody, not by everybody, but by too many people. But the actual quote that he said was, you can have everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. Right? So it's and I think that's such a a wonderful, fantastic quote.

03:25 - 03:39
Bob Burg: And really, that's what it's about. So it's to the degree you can focus on providing immense value to others. Okay? Touching with their lives. That's the degree to which you're gonna be successful.

03:40 - 03:48
Bob Burg: So I don't think it's so much is one better than the other. I think one is the result of the other.

03:48 - 03:58
Aaron Craddock: Have you believed that your whole life? Or is that something that came, like, for you personally, like as a result of like the Ziegler book or something else?

03:58 - 04:37
Bob Burg: Well, you know, I was first very, very fortunate, Adam, that I grew up with wonderful parents who embodied this themselves. And I know my co author, John David Mann, he did as well. So, you know, we both got to to witness that, to, you know, experience that growing up. Now, when you get into the business world, you know, you start seeing different things. Something, you know, you see people who do things in a way like that, they're very successful, and others who don't seem to be as successful, and you see people doing things that are not really the nicest or the best or or, you know, most benevolent, and sometimes they're successful and sometimes they're not.

04:38 - 05:34
Bob Burg: But I do believe that after a while, if you pay attention, you start to see patterns develop. And what I saw, and what I saw very plainly after a while, is that those people who seem to have a focus on making other people's lives better, who truly cared about their prospects, their customers, their clients, their team members, those they worked for, those they led, you know, people who just seemed to have that they seemed to be the ones who were the most sustainably successful. And not just financially, although certainly also financially, but also mentally and spiritually and relationally and, you know, in the other ways which one can measure success. So, yeah, you know, that that pattern clearly developed. And yeah, it just it made sense to me, which was great because that's, you know, again, what I grew up seeing.

05:35 - 06:07
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, the thing that struck a chord with me about the book just when I first read it is I was like, that's just how I want to do business. And it aligns, like you said, just relationally with how I want to experience life spiritually, values. And yeah, that's where it really resonated with me. And so you said for you, you saw that as just a pattern in business of the people you were around that you saw were consistently successful.

06:07 - 06:09
Bob Burg: Yeah. Had

06:09 - 06:12
Aaron Craddock: that core element. That was like the recurring theme.

06:12 - 06:45
Bob Burg: It was very much it was very much a recurring theme. You know, it's interesting in his in his book, To Give and Take, Adam Grant, the professor at Wharton Business School, you know, he wrote a great book called Give and Take. And and he, you know, he cited a a study of Australian financial advisors. So these are people who, you know, manage wealth for for their clients. And he said what he said the biggest distinguishing factor, he said now, well, the ones who were very, again, sustainably successful.

06:46 - 07:14
Bob Burg: And he said it it wasn't product knowledge, though they all had that. They all had very big financial acumen. It wasn't the ability to work hard, though they all had that as well. The distinguishing characteristic were the most successful ones of all, were the ones who who really put the interests of their clients before themselves and before their companies. Now, again, there's nothing self sacrificial about that.

07:14 - 07:25
Bob Burg: Okay? And I want to really make that, you know, that point. There's nothing self sacrificial about that, because here's the thing. You know, it it just makes sense. Nobody is gonna buy from you.

07:25 - 07:40
Bob Burg: Nobody is gonna do business with you because you have a quota to meet. Right? Or because you need the money. Or you know what, even because you're a really nice person. People are gonna do business with you.

07:40 - 08:11
Bob Burg: They're gonna buy from you because they believe they'll be better off by doing so than by not doing so. And really what that tells us is, you know, the most self interested thing we can do is to put our self interest to the side and make it all about them. Now, it's most effective when this comes from a very authentic base. Right? And you can develop that if you don't already have it, you know, but a lot of people do.

08:11 - 08:50
Bob Burg: And I think this is one area where people don't understand that, you know, most people, and this is an element of human nature, not all elements of human nature are particularly positive, some are very negative. But one, I think, positive element of human nature is that most people, they want to make a positive difference in their world, right? They, you know, and again, human nature, we want to feel like we're making a difference. Now, most of us, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're in corporate, whether you're recruiter, whether you're a it doesn't matter. We tend to do this through our work.

08:51 - 09:32
Bob Burg: Right now, this doesn't mean we can't be involved in other things, of course, but but we spend a lot of time at work. And this is where we are able you think about that recruiter who was able to match up, you know, a person and a company and bring immense value to both. That not only has immediate impact to both, but that impact spreads, right, as each of them add value to one another and to all the customers' client. Right? And so so that's why those who have that that natural feeling of wanting to be of value to the world, to the marketplace, to other people, they tend to just take right to this and they do very, very well.

09:34 - 09:54
Aaron Craddock: So you mentioned a little bit about in some people, it's in their innate nature. And so that was you'd already kind of thought the direction I was going Is the principle of being a go giver, is it inhuman nature on average, or is it a learned discipline?

09:55 - 10:07
Bob Burg: That's a great question. I think for some, it is innate. I think for others, it isn't. But it's also the way people are brought up. And I don't mean just brought up by their parents, although that that certainly as well.

10:07 - 10:18
Bob Burg: But I mean, what they brought up by what they see around them. You know, what is their belief system? What is their what is a belief? Well, a belief is a subjective truth. Right?

10:18 - 10:37
Bob Burg: It it doesn't mean it's the truth. It's the truth as we understand it to be. So what if we grow up in every TV show, in every movie, and everything we learn in school, or the first time we get into business, what do we learn that it's dog eat dog, you've got to get that other person before they get you. Don't worry about helping out, just go for the you know, and so forth. Right?

10:38 - 10:59
Bob Burg: Well, that's a belief system, and that person doesn't necessarily see or even know anything about the go giver way of doing something. So then the question becomes, okay, what if they're somewhat successful? And by the way, you can be successful without be you know, financially without being a go giver. It's just a lot tougher. Right?

10:59 - 11:17
Bob Burg: Because you really you know, again, no one's buying for your reasons. They're buying for their reasons. So the person who's what we would call instead of a go giver, a go taker. Right, their focus is on themselves, right, not on helping you. It's it's more it's more difficult to succeed that way, but it's certainly doable.

11:17 - 11:35
Bob Burg: We see people doing that a lot. But they're probably not nearly as successful or at least as sustainably successful as they could be. So the question is asked, well, so so how do you, you know, how do you share that with someone? How do you help it? And this is really where the relationship comes in.

11:36 - 12:06
Bob Burg: Because if you can say to somebody and, you know, this person, they know you, they like you, they trust you, they respect you. You know, you can say to this person, you know, I really admire so much about what you do, your work ethic, your knowledge, and your you know, and whatever it is that's really genuinely good things that they do. Would you be open to me sharing an idea with you that I think can help you? And now if if, again, if their thing is about, you know, making more money, then it's that's increasing your income even further. Okay, so you're hitting them where they're at.

12:06 - 12:38
Bob Burg: Okay, that's what they're interested in. They they will probably say, yeah, sure, you know, of course. And now you can share with them the the two different ways of approaching, let's say, working with a prospective customer or client in a sales conversation, where the first way, you're not really interested in them, you're more interested in the money. So the way you ask questions is really just to try to sharp angle the close, not understand them. The defensiveness you might get when trying to overcome an objection, you know, closing too early and close often.

12:39 - 12:59
Bob Burg: Are they gonna be more interested or less interested in doing business with you? Probably less interested. Doesn't mean no one will be, but it's gonna be a lot harder. But now what if you do with the go giver way? What if you ask questions in order to really truly understand their needs, their wants, their desires, to understand their problems that you can help them, right, to to work through?

13:00 - 13:43
Bob Burg: And understanding how you can move them closer to happiness. What about when there are objections rather than trying to overcome them? Instead, you work effectively within the objections, and you work with that person to really understand the root cause of objection, not just the objection they give you, and you work through it together and able to help in order to help them understand. And, of course, you do this patiently, and you do this with with true caring. And then, you know, when you ask them and if you've done a good enough discovery session with them that's focused on, again, their needs, their wants, or by the time you ask them to take action, right, you're simply asking them to to take action on something they've already told you they want to do.

13:44 - 14:11
Bob Burg: But more than anything, they understand that you have their well-being at heart. Right? And they're much more likely, you know, and I'd say this for now, is that person more likely or less likely, you know, to want to do business with you? And this is why, you know, again, John David Mann and I say that money is simply an echo of value. You know, it's the thunder, if you will, to values lightning.

14:11 - 14:38
Bob Burg: The the the focus must be the value you're providing or giving to another human being. The money you receive is simply a natural result of the value you're providing. And when you can help a person understand this, now you take that that, you know, young up and coming sales professional and you turn them into just a fantastic, you know, sales professional who really has a a very lucrative and sustainable career.

14:38 - 15:02
Aaron Craddock: That's good. The where my mind goes, like, with our specific audience, is is that driver recruiting is sales. Right? So Sure. So our company, like hiretruckers.com and the other brands we own, drive leads to a fleet where where they're typically, let's say, 20 recruiters on staff that get those inbound driver calls or applications.

15:02 - 15:38
Aaron Craddock: And then they have essentially a sales conversation because these drivers often have five, ten, 20 other opportunities. And so so thinking through that specific use case, like in terms of that sales conversation of a recruiter, how can either the director of recruiting over that team coach their team towards these principles? And or just how can the individual recruiters listening increase their close rate with prospects and then also have a better driver experience? Because at the end of the day, the drivers are what move our country forward.

15:38 - 16:08
Bob Burg: Yeah. Well, yes, absolutely. Well, I think it really all comes down to who is going to be the one who's going to communicate their interest in serving best. And you don't communicate it by saying, hey, trust me, I'm the one who's going to do it better, right? If you do it by that discovery, again, I go right back to the discovery, which one of my mentors, Harry Brown, always said is the most important part of any sales conversation, Right?

16:08 - 16:46
Bob Burg: And and it's the one who now by the way, that discovery starts before the actual sales conversation because you can always do research. Right? And now AI, of course, helps us do that even, you know, even even simpler, more effectively. But once you get on, whether it's a phone conversation or Zoom or however it is or in person, however this usually transpires, again, it's it's that person who can ask those questions and understand the individual needs, wants, desires, problems, challenges, so forth. That's the person who's gonna, you know, who's going to to get the business.

16:46 - 17:21
Bob Burg: It's also, you know, a matter of sending personalized handwritten thank you notes and being the only one of everyone else who's competing with that does that. Right? And it's connecting them with other people when you can. It's doing those things and creating a reputation for yourself as that go to person, as that person who just has those relationships, who people know, like and trust, but who is also very competent and very, you know, excellent at what you do. But I mean, I think it's really nothing more than that.

17:21 - 17:51
Bob Burg: You know, there's no magic bullet, it's just doing consistently those right things, but it always comes down to and, you know, and I think Jeff West was at the the the event that you were at, and Jeff's probably one of the best I've ever seen, you know, at doing this. And it's just a matter of of having that sales conversation so that as Jeff says, your questions are so good that eventually your prospect tells you what they need

17:51 - 17:52
Aaron Craddock: to hear.

17:53 - 18:02
Bob Burg: It's not us telling them what they need to hear. It's asking the questions in the right way so that they tell themselves and tell us what they need to hear.

18:04 - 18:11
Aaron Craddock: Yeah. And and that's a good point that Jeff was there. So so Jeff West wrote Streetwise to Sales what's the name of it again?

18:11 - 18:55
Bob Burg: So he and I co authored Streetwise to Saleswise, become objection proof and Beat the Sales Blues. That's another business parable. Jeff was just for twenty years, he was a magnificently successful salesperson and then sales sales manager. He's also written a number of books, he's co authored a number of books on sales and personal development, but he's just, you know, he's such a student of sales, you know, as well as as well as a practitioner and a teacher of sales. And I think that's one of the big things too, is to continually learn, understand human nature, know, how to win friends and influence people is still, to me, a book that everybody should have in their library.

18:55 - 19:35
Bob Burg: A great book is doctor Robert Cialdini's book, The Psychology of Persuasion, which he he first wrote in the I think in the eighties, I was gonna say the nineties, I think the eighties, but he just updated it in, I think, 2018 or 2019. It's a book everyone should read because you because it helps you to understand human nature. And we always, you know, need to remember, you know, we always we always hear b to b, you know, business to business or b to c, business to consumer. It's always h to h, human to human. And to the degree we keep that in mind, that's the degree we're really nine steps ahead of the game in a 10 step game.

19:35 - 19:55
Bob Burg: Yes, let's let's learn about AI and all those things and let's use that, but never think that's what it's about. It's never what it's about. It's about the the human connection. All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like, and trust.

19:55 - 20:20
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20:20 - 21:00
Aaron Craddock: Visit truckingclicks.com or call (512) 982-0816 today. One the one thing that stuck out to me whenever we got together with Jeff, Jeff and you and Kathy and that other group in Florida was that both you and Jeff and Kathy specifically live out those principles even with how you facilitate a discussion. And so I think sometimes people wonder when you meet the author of these books do they actually embody this stuff or did they just write about it? So that's what's been cool to me, Bob, is that you embody that. That's why I'm so thankful Josh connected us.

21:01 - 21:20
Aaron Craddock: And then same thing with Jeff and same thing with Kathy. I think you guys may have talked the least or at least the same amount as everyone else in the room over those two days. Is that something you're doing again, like any of those sessions, local meetups, things like that?

21:21 - 21:35
Bob Burg: Yeah. So we I think we only had maybe two of them this in 2025. I I don't know if we'll be doing any in 2026. You know, we usually hold these here in Jupiter, Florida where I am because I don't travel anymore. I don't get on planes.

21:35 - 21:59
Bob Burg: So but fortunately, Jupiter, Florida is a place a lot of people like to to come, and you remember the hotel we were at. It's a really, really nice hotel. So I, you know, I think we'll do a couple more of them. But, you know, you just you you never know in advance what's what's gonna happen. But I I always I enjoyed them, you know, I used to in my day, I used to speak in front of, you know, whether it was hundreds or or thousands of people or a thing, know, those were always fun and I always enjoyed those.

21:59 - 22:40
Bob Burg: But I got to tell you, you know, as you know, there were I think, was there eight eight attendees and then two and then then Kathy and me and then Jeff and the other master coach. So there were 12 of us, I think all together, if I'm correct. I love those. Those are just so fun because it's very intimate, you know, and you really get to hear people's stories, everyone gets to share with each other what, how to, you know, how someone comes with a challenge, know, how do I do you get people from different industries, different professions who are all, you know, making suggestions that we might not think of because we're from this industry, so we don't think of that. Somebody else said, how do I apply that to it?

22:40 - 22:43
Bob Burg: So those are just, those are a lot of fun.

22:44 - 22:52
Aaron Craddock: Yeah, it was a mix of coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, a guy that owned a solar company.

22:52 - 22:52
Bob Burg: Yeah.

22:52 - 23:04
Aaron Craddock: They had just all kinds of things. And, yeah, I was just amazed at how, yeah, the room added the value, and then that was just facilitated by you and Kathy and Yeah. And Jeff and others just asking really good questions.

23:04 - 23:05
Bob Burg: Oh, thank you.

23:05 - 23:24
Aaron Craddock: Well, I'm kind of curious. This is just an airing curiosity question because we haven't caught up in a little while. What's on your horizon for 2026 as you're thinking about goals, what you're wanting to do in your business? I'm just curious, like, what does what does 2026 look like, or have you even started thinking towards the new year?

23:24 - 23:43
Bob Burg: Yeah. So, you know, again, I'm off the road speaking, and so I'm doing more virtual keynotes. And so I really enjoy those a lot. I always say the fees aren't as high, but boy, the commute is fantastic. From upstairs down to here.

23:43 - 24:12
Bob Burg: It's not, I really enjoy it and I'll be doing a bunch of those this year. And then we're building our you know, we have a certified Go Giver speaker coach licensing program. So Kim Angeli, who's really taken over as the executive director, And now that I'm in town a lot more, it's frees me up to work with the speakers and the coaches, you know, much more personally even. And and Kathy, of course, is always there for support. So we're building that.

24:12 - 24:26
Bob Burg: And, you know, that's pretty much it. I mean, I guess I'm not in any way retired. I'm having too much fun, but I'm semi retired. So I guess I don't think as big as I used to, but I enjoy it so much. I just love every day.

24:27 - 24:34
Aaron Craddock: Well, sometimes that biggest influence is influence you know, John Maxwell says leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.

24:34 - 24:35
Bob Burg: Yeah. Love that.

24:35 - 24:52
Aaron Craddock: And so by you, even in those small rooms, influencing those leaders that might have 20 employees, 50 employees, And yeah, I mean, just the magnifier of those. It might not be speaking to thousands of people, but you're influencing the influencers. They're just extremely powerful.

24:52 - 24:57
Bob Burg: Thank you. Thank you. And that's fun to think of just in and of itself.

24:58 - 25:06
Aaron Craddock: One thing, I reread the little story about a powerful business idea last week in preparation for this.

25:06 - 25:07
Bob Burg: And

25:08 - 25:45
Aaron Craddock: in reading through it, one of the things that really stuck out to me that's relative to my current part of the journey of building the company is there was a concern presented that if you help your competitors, they're gonna undermine you or they're always looking for a leg up on you. And then there was a principle around or a way of looking at it is kind of what I took away. A way of looking at it to where we can actually like, people are gonna treat us how we view that they're gonna treat us. And so

25:45 - 25:45
Bob Burg: I am right.

25:45 - 25:55
Aaron Craddock: If we approach the conversation from a mindset of, hey. These may be competitors in some aspect, which there's a lot of overlap in our space, and it's hard to define who a competitor is.

25:55 - 25:56
Bob Burg: But

25:56 - 26:25
Aaron Craddock: just the power of treating those relationships of like, we can all help each other. How can we that that's you know, most of the time, it's not going to come back and bite you as much as you might think it would. It can create this, instead, this just abundance for everyone if you have that. And so if you're kind of speaking so the question in that is if you're speaking towards just our industry and around that concept, like like, would you what would you add?

26:25 - 26:53
Bob Burg: Yeah. So there's a couple of things, and I love that you brought that up. I mean, there's a time and place for everything. And certainly, if if two company two or more companies are going after the same client you both, know, you offer the same basic thing, well, yeah, I mean, you're gonna do your best to distinguish yourself from the competition and win it, of course. But really, what we're talking about and what you bring up is, you know, you may not have exactly what that customer needs, but one of your competitors does.

26:53 - 27:35
Bob Burg: The very best thing you can do, because it needs to be about the customer and what's in their best interest, is sure to make that referral. Now, there's a couple things. One, the chances are your competitor, again, everybody, but most people, your competitor is going to appreciate that. And when there's time that they can't handle something as effectively, they'll probably do the same thing. But even more than that, your person who you just referred to someone else because they could serve them better, you've just built up a whole lot of trust in them and you don't know who they know, who will refer you and say, you know what, here's a person you know that you can talk to them and they're going to tell you exactly what it right?

27:35 - 28:00
Bob Burg: And so so you build up that that goodwill. It it's it's not that we don't have competition, of course, we do, but we don't focus on the competition. And I first learned this from reading Wallace Wattles, Wallace D. Wattles 1910 classic, The Science of Getting Rich. And he talked about living on the creative plane as opposed to the competitive plane.

28:00 - 28:10
Bob Burg: Again, it doesn't mean naively thinking you don't have competitors. Of course not. No. You know who they are, you understand them, you know their strengths, their weaknesses, the whole thing. But you don't live on that.

28:10 - 28:22
Bob Burg: You don't focus on that. You focus on creating value for your customers and your clients. Right? And when you do that, you're living on a whole different level. Right?

28:23 - 28:42
Bob Burg: Let others worry about you if you're going if they're going to, okay? Some will, some won't, but you focus on the value you can create, you know, for those in your world. And sometimes the very best thing you can do is, yeah, refer to someone who is in some ways a competitor because they have, they can take care of that person better.

28:44 - 29:03
Aaron Craddock: Gold. The last question, I know we're running short on time. When it's all said and done, Bob, you said you're not retired, kind of semi retired, but still doing what you love. When it's all said and done with your career, what do you want people to say about you and how you made them feel?

29:04 - 29:36
Bob Burg: You know, that's actually an easy one for me to answer because, know, to me, one of the things I admired most about my dad was that he just had such a great way of making people feel genuinely good about themselves. And that's, I try to carry on his legacy in that way. And if people say that Bob Berg was an encourager, you know, that Bob Berg made people feel good about themselves, genuinely good about themselves, I would have considered things a success.

29:37 - 29:46
Aaron Craddock: I love it. Well, you did that for our audience today, Made made them feel good about themselves and and certainly encouraged me. So thank you so much for your time, Bob time, Bob.

29:46 - 29:49
Bob Burg: You're awesome. I I always appreciate you. Thank you.

29:49 - 30:01
Aaron Craddock: Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game. If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.