Why affiliate sites must give value with Bob Burg

you've got to focus on the value that's why John and I and John made up this saying as he usually does and he he said you know money is simply an echo of value right it's the Thunder to values lightning and and that really needs nothing more than understanding that yeah you must focus on the value you're providing another person the money you receive is a natural result of that value you've value you've provided I'm John Wright and you're listening to affiliate bi the business intelligence

and affiliate marketing podcast brought to you by sta welcome to the affiliate bi podcast today we're chatting with Bob berg who is the author of The goger which is a Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestseller with over a million copies and I think he said it's uh closer to one and a half the book has a solid 4.7 rating on Amazon with over 10,000 ratings Bob welcome to the show thank you John great to be with you so I read the book recently and I'll

go into the story about how we got connected but I just want to ask like how did you end up in your position where you're a speaker you've written this amazing book did this come naturally or is this something you've learned over time as far as the go-giver principles and so forth yeah I I was very fortunate to grow up with great parents who really set a fantastic example and my co-author John David man he came from that same type of family so we both had

that advantage of having great parents who said a wonderful example for us I think as you get older you go out into the business world people do things in certain ways not all of them are congruent with your values and different things and but I think over time patterns for successful people and what they do and who they are and what came to me was that those who were sustainably financially successful as well as successful in terms of their relationships their sense of joy happiness and

so forth they seem to be the types of people who always had as a focus bringing immense value to other people not in a self-sacrificial way it wasn't as though they in any way hurt themselves by doing it it was just that as part of life their focus was on bringing joy to others adding value to others as business people making sure they were providing not only a product and and service that was great but the overall overall overall experience so I think that's really how

it it it came about and of course John and I both are students of success he was a very successful entrepreneur and leader and as a a professional writer for the last 30 years he's had an opportunity to interview some of the most successful people in the world as a speaker for the last 30 years I've been on stage with some of the most and I'm always asking questions and wanting to learn more so we put our heads together with this and that's how we came

up with the Five Laws of stratospheric Success for the book there's nothing new about it there's nothing that John and I made up other than putting it in such a way that was that was familiar to people and easily applicable that's really how it all came about that is cool because I like to think that I like to study other people's patterns of of success and try to go what are the things I can learn from other people and personally I'll I'll be honest I think

it's taken me a long time to learn the principles in your book and I just feel like in my own journey of being in affiliate marketing for over 20 years and trying lots of different things it was actually how do I make money first it wasn't really the opposite of like how do I become useful to someone do you think these principles are just are they always lost upon people is there going to be a point in time where you think more people get it or

maybe they just need to be presented to your book where they can go maybe there's something to this I think more and more people are getting it the challenge is when it comes to any kind of sales is that most people have a backwards notion of what selling is and that's because of what they see on TV and in the movies and perhaps sales people they've met who didn't represent the profession very well a lot of people think selling is about trying to convince somebody to

buy something they don't want or need and that first of all that's not selling that's called being a const but the but that's not what selling is selling by definition is simply discovering what the other person needs wants or desires and helping them to get it the interesting thing is when people say yeah you've got to put the money first other than actually that's if if you want to make a lot of money Mone putting the money first is not the way to get there and

here's why and I used to say this when I spoke at sales conferences all over the place I I i' begin by saying nobody's going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet okay they're not going to buy from you because you have a sales goal or because you need the money or even because you're a nice person they're going to buy from you only because they believe that they will be better off by doing so than by not doing so so with

that in mind doesn't it make sense that if you want this sale to happen you've got to find a way to make their life better you've got to focus on those value that's why John and I and John made up this saying as he usually does and he he said money is simply an echo of value right it's the Thunder to values lightning and and that really means nothing more than understanding that yeah you must focus on the value you're providing another person the money you

receive is a natural result of that value you've provided yeah and I think and also just relating to my experience it's like how do you get to that stage of getting to the sale and right before it is trust and I think in order to gain the trust you basically need to be providing value all the time yeah I couldn't agree with you more and it it's really from the from the moment you meet that person whether it's inbound whether it's outbound whether it's online in

person what what have you from the moment you meet that person through the followup and follow through the relationship building process the sales process the referral process how do you make that person feel at every single touch point do they feel good about themselves thus good about the situation and good about you are you inspiring trust are you building that I've said this I and I said this in my first book endless referrals it's probably the saying I'm known for if I'm known for a saying

and that is that all things being equal people will do business with and refer business to those people they know and trust and there there's no better faster more powerful more effective way to elicit those feelings toward you and others than by genuinely and authentically moving from that I focus or me Focus to that other Focus looking to as Sam one of the mentors and the go-giver advised the prot in the story Joe to make your win all about the other person's win yeah and then

like some ways I've been trying to earn trust from people by sharing stuff on LinkedIn and funny enough I think it was a LinkedIn comment is how we connected where I think someone was talking about something and maybe they referenced you and then I left a comment and then you replied which I was surprised and it wasn't like a cheap comment like thanks or thanks John it was like you actually uh put some some thought into it which made me go who is this guy and

then I looked up your LinkedIn profile I found there's something to it I was like this guy would be a great person on the podcast so I've done LinkedIn from a maybe a me first kind of way where I've learned from people that it's like in order to get more out of LinkedIn you have to be giving and it sounds simple and basic but I think just like replying to comments and not just giving the cheap reply but putting a bit of time and effort it's

like you're saying thank you to people what would you say to this as a concept okay so let's go back to something you said that was that you think you'd been doing it from I think you said your reasons first or your point first but here's the thing this is life in order to benefit yourself you've got to benefit others Ralph Waldo Emerson the Great American poet said this back in the the mid 19th century that it's one of the most beautiful aspects of Life terms

of compensation that you can't do something for other without it coming back to you now it doesn't always happen directly but here's the key it's not why you do it it's the result of doing it and I have no doubt John that you want to add value to people's lives the fact that you know that by doing that it's also going to come back to help you there's nothing wrong with that and this is The Duality that John and I talk about the the either or

what we call the false dilemma the unnecessary use of the word or okay I'm either a good good kind giving person or I'm just some person who just has it in for myself no it's actually both it's like breathing out and breathing in you can't do one or the other you've got to do both now the the best thing is that when you give value to others because it's something you really enjoy doing wonderful you give without attachment to the results understanding that the more seeds

of Good Will of great will that you plant you're going to create that benevolent con text for success for yourself but even if a person does it because they feel well they're going to benefit from it it's okay okay I don't want people to be too hard on themselves the fact is once you start doing it it feels so good to do that right that it becomes just a natural part of you and you start doing that just because it's who you are and because it's

who you are it's what you do and then the results come back to you I I think what you're doing is great when I comment I do so for one reason it's because I have gratitude for somebody who says something nice or has a comment or whatever people said doesn't it take a lot of time yeah it does but you know what it's something I hold as a high value thanking people who have now does it come back to me uh it does I'm sure it

does okay but that's not why I do it but even if it was that's okay as well so I just don't want people to be too hard on themselves do the right thing and when you do the right thing enough times good things are going to come back and you're going to start to enjoy the fact just that you're doing the right thing yeah I allude to sometimes there's nothing wrong with doing the right thing for the wrong reason is I'm hoping something comes back doing

the right thing regardless exactly all right so flipping this on its head in the past I used to do affiliate coaching where I'd help people and it was a free service but my monetization of this was I hope that the Affiliates would click on links to join affiliate programs right get 5% Commission on average but this never came out of their pocket and I stopped doing coaching where I had one client that this worked out well for and that turned into a lifelong really good friendship

on the other end I had probably the equivalent of three to four people that once they got five 10 hours of my time they said why should I click on these links I said we agreed to do this and it's why I gave you help and some of these Affiliates went on to make more money but maybe like I don't regret doing it but I do have this small kind of Grudge where it's like that wasted a lot of time maybe I should have been more

en forceful on my monetization or a contract what would you say to people that maybe have a fear of doing the right thing and worrying that someone's just going to take advantage of them there's nothing about being a go-giver that is congruent with being a doormat or a martyr or self-sacrificial okay so if something is part of your business strategy okay that in other words you are giving them this time this coaching and the reason is when they start doing this they're going to utilize your

links and your that should be part of the agreement and that should be part of a written agreement and written agreements aren't because you don't trust each other written Agreements are for expect to set expectations that people understand so that once you come back once there's somebody forgets you can politely and tactfully bring them back to that and so I believe what we agreed to is now what I find in life is most people aren't going to take advantage of you especially when they know that

it's there's an expectation in terms of a an agreement okay but some people will you just can't help that that is part of life it's going to happen but I find that if you are doing things with others and they understand from the get-go what is expected most people aren't going to take advantage like that yeah and to look back in time I don't regret it too much in the fact that we now have software that helps Affiliates and I think my coaching background helps because

I now use that as who am I in relation to being an industry exactly yeah it helped you in the way in that way as well but yeah but we don't we don't like for people to take advantage of it's not that's not nice either so I'm spinning it around to make it so it's a one of many so it's if I am going to give you help I'll put this on YouTube so if you're not going to say thanks in any way other than a

like likes are still like transfer into a form of equity but if it helps other people it's I'm expanding the giving part the big thing is this John if you're doing something where there is an expectation of return in some way which is what business is a lot when you are providing value to somebody you are they are paying you for the if there's an expectation of it as part of the business model it should be in writing and it should be clear to all to

all parties if it's something where you're just giving some help to someone because that's just what you doing lots of different thing you do it with no attachment to what the results are in that way and good things can happen from it but you're doing it just cuz you're doing it but being a go-giver doesn't in any way mean you don't have a business model that you're working from yeah so the next question I don't know if I'm going to word this properly but it's more

of a story and comment where in my past 20 years I've been in affiliate marketing and I've never really felt passionate about what I've been working on it's I'm trying to make money so I'm building a product and I'm expecting people just to click on links and everything would be great but I found in my personal Journey that when I started deciding to build software for Affiliates like I went into that coaching thing where wait a minute there's a problem that needs to be solved I'm

handing this over to affiliate so I'm now basically becoming like their servant in that regard and the deeper I've gone into this I don't know if you want to call it a rabbit hole I just found it more fulfilling hey like these people are super excited that we're building the software and I said I'm now not competing in their space I'm now helping them get to the next level yeah it's just it's been been an interesting journey of discovering it and yeah I don't know how

else people can Discover it I don't know if if I would ever would have read your book and said I know exactly what to do I'm going to go apply these principles immediately well thank you I appreciate you saying that and I think all things being equal it's always great to to be doing something that you love that you're passionate about it's so funny because that there's been a discussion about this over the years it's shifted in a way where people used to just go with

your passion Follow Your Passion the money will come and then you had another group of people who said who started to say in the last few years forget about your passion just do the work and you'll get the passion don't worry about your passion just here's the thing I think both are incomplete so the first one where it says just do what you love follow your passion and the money will come it's not that it's not true but it's incomplete okay because to me it's great

to be passionate about something why given the choice why wouldn't you want to do something you're passionate about but you also have to be very good at it which which often is typically when we are passionate about something we're usually good at it but then there's a third part this is also important there's got to be a market for it you've got to be to sell this product or service or thing that you're passionate about and that's where the follow your passion and the money will

come this is the the boat it's you've got to be able to either know there's a market for it or there's one that you are committed enough to develop or whatever and as entrepreneurs we take chances the hopefully good risks but but RIS but all that depends but then when people say forget about your passion that's not what it's about just do the work that's tough that's tough to really do and when you hear people the the the wealthiest people around are the ones who will

tell you try to do something you're passionate about because it's simply easier to do all the work it takes to really make it big in business to me again it goes back to all things being equal because not everyone has the opportunity to be able to do what they're passionate about but if you possibly can and you can make a great living from doing something you're passionate about passionate about absolutely yeah it it made me think like I had these thoughts even before I read your

book and I read another book it's um something about Babylon it was like the stories have the richest man in Babylon that one yeah James Classen yeah that's a great That's a classic yeah so before reading your book it's I've been thinking over years about going like I I lived in a small town for a couple years and I just felt like all these people in small towns are looking for jobs and my whole life has been work online freelancing like doing freelancing work or hiring

Freelancers and I just think there's an abundance of work whether it's affiliate marketing or or other things and I just felt there's like a lack of Education of trying to help people go hey you can learn these skills of SEO and of course there's no shortage of SEO courses but I thought about an idea about why not just do this as a volunteer and after reading your book I don't even have a thought process of what's something that other end of that from a monetization point

of view it's the more I started giving in the last couple years I did a podcast I've got a newsletter I'm just trying to spit out useful information and stuff I'm passionate about yeah I don't know if it's really a question I'm sure you'd probably encourage me to say a go I would say sure but also try to find a way to to monetize it okay because again you want to when you're giving Great Value when you can monetize that it's the best of both worlds

like it's breathing out and breathing in it's not one or the other now if you find it something that you can't monetize but you just take great pleasure and joy in doing it then that's fine too is as long as you're doing it because it brings you Joy but the best of all world is do something that brings you Joy and that you're able to really monetize yeah I don't have a concern that I wouldn't be able to monetize this it's just that I don't think

I'm necessarily going to be creating courses and going okay I'm going to targetless Market it does have an indirect benefit that could actually go back to our software company but I'm not even thinking about this I'm just thinking hey it'd be really cool to do this because I have helped small business owners in the past where it's like hey I need a bit of help and it's just give them an hour and then that's great but that's fine because here's the thing John that you're doing

something that is congruent with your personal values right so it's bringing you Joy by doing it and that's a form of payment too yeah and then it's weird because I think we live in a world where everyone's trying to measure stuff and it's like how are you measuring Joy but the last question I have for every guess is what do you see of the future of affiliate marketing as it intersects with business intelligence and your go here in this immeasurable spot and you'll end up with

actual results that you can you can measure yeah without certainly me not being an expert in affiliate marketing it's it's not for me to make any kind of sayings that are that anyone should take seriously but again I'm going to say like anything else if it's something that brings value to the marketplace then it's great I think that's insanely understated like back in the day like probably in the last 10 years you'd be able to build affiliate sites without actually having to add value you're just

creating content Google understands his content you get your rankings then you get your money but I think Google has actually changed the game where they're basically penalizing sites that are just information and I think your core message is actually becoming stronger but my job is to see if I can actually connect the dots and say hey find your book and I actually think that more people should start thinking about the other end of the user the most successful Affiliates I know today actually have gone in

that direction and it's everyone's looking at them going why are they so good and it's I have a lot of friends that they're struggling to get to that next level and it's it all comes back to Value wow powerful Bob thank you so much for doing this it's really cool chatting with you and like I said I just digested your book very quickly the last couple weeks and it just makes me feel good that my personal journey of just giving more stuff going on video doing

a podcast it's brought immense value in return I had no idea what I was doing I was like look my go to market is just doing absolutely terrible results right now I'll try anything so I gave it a go and yeah it's I think you understand what it has done for you what it's done for people that are read your book and applied it I just want to say without even reading your book I've applied these principles and it's real thank you John great to be

with you wish you best and continued success thank success thank you thank you for tuning in to the affiliate bi podcast I'd like to take this time to ask for a small favor to leave a raing and review wherever you listen to your podcast that helps us expand our reach to rank higher in podcast directories and reach more listeners