Diane GardnerFounder, Adept Business Solutions · Profit First Professional

Pranking Bob Burg: The Secret Word Challenge!

19 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this light‑hearted YouTube anecdote, the speaker recounts a backstage prank played on fellow presenter Bob Burg, author of The Go‑Giver. The narrator first paints Burg as a polished, gentlemanly figure who always stands for women and wears a three‑piece suit. Moments before Burg’s stage appearance, the narrator whispers a “secret word” challenge to him, telling him his secret word is “skid mark.” Burg, unfazed, incorporates the phrase into his speech, delivering it with perfect timing and a sly glance back at the prankster. The story highlights the camaraderie among speakers, the spontaneity of live events, and the humor that arises when a polished speaker is caught off‑guard.

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One of my favorite speakers, Bob Burg. Bob Burg wrote the book called The Go-Giver. Bob Burg is the consummate gentleman. He wears the 3-piece suit, is perfectly primed. If he's sitting and a woman comes in the room, he instantly stands, he opens the door for everybody. But you can play with him. Bob and I are speaking at an event together and he's gonna go on right prior to me. And then there's some other speakers going after. I grab Bob, he's like, they're announcing him on stage. So that means he's got about 5 seconds before he has to walk out. I said, Bob, Bob, real quick. He goes, yeah, what was it? He goes, the secret word. I'm like, you have to say the secret word on stage. All of us have a secret word. And he goes, what's my secret word? I said, skid mark. You have to say skid mark. And he goes, he fixed it. Okay. He delivers a speech and he throws in skid marks so well, so perfect. And you see him kind of look offstage back at me. He's like, take that, you mofo. I was like, damn, Bob Burke! Bob Burke just schooled me.