2371 - Networking Beyond Followers and Creating Value Through Meaningful Relationships with Ultimate Networking's George Dubec

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0:45Visit podverify.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, it is George DeBeck. George, you are known as The Ultimate Networker. Your website is TheUltimateNetworker.com. George, it's great to have you. Well, thanks, Josh. I'm excited to be on your show. It's very good that you're providing great information to the business world and to people in general about different things in life that can make them more successful. Heck yeah, it's good, especially, George, when I get great people like you. So before we get going and talking about your superpowers, and we're going to be talking about very tactical ways and the ROI of networking versus a lot of other activity that a lot of us leaders spend our time doing, always love just kind of hearing what multi-passionate business leaders do when they're not at work.

1:48What have you been into lately? Well, listen, Josh, I've been around a long time. I just turned 79 last week. So I've lived in different decades and different time spans. And when I was younger, I was totally into athletics. I played tennis, racquetball, football, basketball. I mean, you name it. Sports was pretty much top of the list. And then as I got older, it became more focused on business. the mid the mid years i think in most people people's lives they focus more on making money in business and then now in my latter years i would say my total focus and fun is all about family everything i do is related to my kids my grandkids my great-grandkids i visit them i take them places i play with them um that's my fun sure what's something specific that you like doing with them?

2:45To be honest, just being around them. George, give me something specific that you guys have done lately. They like candy. They like ice cream cones. They like Disney World. We just went to Legoland with my granddaughter here a couple of weeks ago. That's it. What did they like at Legoland? Legoland is incredible. We went to the one in Florida. That's the one I go to. My granddaughter's four years old. She loves Legos. She builds constantly these Lego things. Well, let me tell you, I had a couple of Lego fanatics. They are now mechanical, studying mechanical engineering at UCF, but we spent a lot of time going to Legoland, let me tell you.

3:29So you're inspiring, George, you're inspiring the next generation. And also you inspire a lot of people to follow your lead when it comes to networking. Do you mind just sharing a little bit about why you're such an advocate for the skill and art of networking? Well, you know, when I was younger, and again, as I grew up and went into the business world, I really didn't understand the principles of networking. I didn't use it to my advantage at all. I basically, I don't know how to describe it. I just flowed through life, business. But as I got older, I realized that, you know, your fortune is in your network, is who you know, and who knows you.

4:12And when I probably I really started focusing on networking when I was in my 50s. And then I decided that it's really important that I build a database. So I started collecting names and phone numbers of doctors, lawyers, accountants, just everybody that I could imagine I run into, I I started building a database. And so as of today, I'm kind of like a resource center. People call me up every day, Josh, and say, hey, you have a good doctor, you have a good attorney, I have this problem, you have, I'm looking for an employee, I'm looking for work. So, and then the one thing I found out is that really, if you do proper networking, you can get anything you want in life.

4:56If you use your network, you can ask for anything, the people are afraid to ask their friends and neighbors for help, whatever it is you're looking for, advice, clients, you're looking for a job, you're looking for a place to live, ask your network to help you find a place. Yeah, it really is. And George, I love the way you shared this. Like, I mean, our superpower, particularly for those of us who have spent time building relationships, we've been just doing what we've been doing. I'll go so far as to say that, you know, it's like, I would say that this is probably one of the areas, you know, I hear this a lot where the more you do something, the longer you stay involved in doing something, like generally life gets easier professionally, the longer you stay in it.

5:46Now, some of that is just, you know, wisdom and experience and things that we learn. But a lot of that is we just know a lot of smart people. So for example, starting a new product or effectively a new startup this year, man, I'll tell you what, it is hard, but it is so much easier for me today than someone who has to start from square one. You gotta do a lot of advertising to try to attract people. Not me, I've been following the George Dubeck manual and just really focus on building lots and lots of meaningful relationships, not just social media followers. And I'm kind of teeing you up here because I know as I'm saying this stuff, you're like, oh yeah, this is it right here.

6:31True connection. And if you have like an army of connections like this, man, again, life is just easy. yeah well also you brought up a good point when you started the interview by asking me about like what do i do because another way of building good relationships josh is not just talking business okay is getting to find out their personal things about their wife and their kids and ask them what they do for fun and find out what their hot buttons are like one thing i notice if you're from the same town as somebody else there's an immediate affinity to connect right like i'm from Youngstown, Ohio.

7:11And when I go out and somebody hears me say, oh, you're from Youngstown, they're immediately like my friend. It's crazy how that works. Like your hometown or a football team that you follow, or if you're a fan of something, it's amazing how those connections really help, not just doing business. Well, George, what do you do professionally and how do you help people? Well, I do basically promoting events. I'm in South Florida. So as you can see, my background here, the sun, the seas, the breeze, but I promote events. I run events of my own. I do very select coaching. I don't like to do big groups because I find in my years past, teaching big groups of people, it's a waste of time.

8:00I like somebody that is going to focus on a certain skill and I can coach them individually and train them and they're dedicated to it because I believe Josh more in training than in education or webinars or zoom calls yeah I think if you want to learn a skill you have to train yourself you have to read the books take the coaching and then practice and implement what you learn if you don't do that you know going to listen to Tony Robbins for$5 ,000 for a weekend is not going to make you successful. You got to train yourself in being a businessman or a salesman or even a good father. Think about it.

8:41How many people train themselves to be a good father? Well, hopefully by experience, we get better every single day. Well, I think that the problem is it takes too long to get that experience. kids i'm a believer in in frontline training in fact my favorite story josh is would you rather be in a foxhole in a war zone with a navy seal who flunked out of high school or a straight a student from annapolis yeah uh in in that instance i i will i think the skills valuable for that situation i want someone who's going to shoot the gun pretty well right a guy that's been trained. He doesn't have to be smart.

9:27He just is trained in a skill. So that's why I tell people, if you want to be a good husband, a good father, you want to be a good salesman, go get trained. I mean, we lack training and we have education, but we don't have enough training. I firmly believe that. Well, George, your book is called Ultimate Networking. What does someone learn when they study your work, your course or your book? The most important thing is to assess where you're at as a networker. In fact, I have an assessment in my book. And everybody has to take the assessment that reads my book, and it'll rate you as a networker.

10:04Because you got to understand where are you right now in what you're doing when you go out and you network with others and build relationships. And this is a funny story, Josh. But before I wrote the book, I thought on a scale of one to 10 that I was an eight as a networker. Okay. I just assumed that, man, I could talk to anybody. I'm out there. I'm doing business. I'm connecting. And then when I wrote my book and I took my own assessment, you know what my score was? I scored myself as a six because I really wasn't doing what I should be doing to the extent that I feel is a better performance.

10:44so then I had to upgrade my own skill set to match my book how's that yeah and what did you have to do well it's just that I had to be more dedicated to getting the names and contact information because too many people go to events and they meet people and they don't get all the proper information their name their phone number their email address their website and then also take notes like i'll tell you what when i go to a networking event josh see this oh i don't know if you could i guess it's transparent all i see is your oh wait it's kind of hard to see anyway i carry a transparent box with me and in the box is my books and i also when i meet somebody of import i have a an old-fashioned clipboard yeah and i pull this out i don't do the digital cards and the business cards.

11:41I actually sit there with the person that I meet and I write their name, their phone number, their email address, and I make notes while they're watching me because these are people that I'm gonna actually follow up with. And again, follow up and follow through is where the fortune is in building relationships and networking. So I show people that I'm very interested. They see me writing their information down. When I go home, that's my worksheet and I upload them in my database And then I follow up with emails, phone calls, Zoom calls. So I'm a real serious networker. You know, George, and I think you do have a bit of a refreshing message today where I think a lot of folks are focused on followers.

12:23But it doesn't it sounds like you appreciate more than just having a follower here is truly having a relationship and a connection. and that overall that often can outweigh, you know, it's like the value of one true connection versus a hundred rando followers or whatever on social media. Yeah. Well, that's, and then the other thing that I do is I try to constantly connect people. Like if I meet somebody out at an event and they have something that I think would be of interest to one of my people in my database, I connect them. Okay. So I'm always connecting people. I connect the dots, I call it.

13:03So I'm always referring people to friends and associates and other people that they'll probably never had a chance to meet, but I can connect them. Yeah. And, and connecting people costs virtually nothing, but it is such high perceived value, uh, for the people involved, if you can help make that right connection. So you then become a really valuable person to know. George, tell me about how folks engage with you. Like if they've been listening to our conversation, how can they continue to get value from you? I know you have a business networker assessment on your website, theultimatenetworker.com.

13:45You've got some resources that you give away. Well, yeah. Well, of course I have my books. I wrote six books on networking and I have a workbook too that people can purchase on Amazon and they can go to my website, theultimatenetworker.com and they can order the books and so forth. And then also if anybody individually wants to contact me for coaching, like I said, I do coach individuals, but on a very select, limited basis. People that are really focused on improving their skills and networking and not just, you know, on a periphery reading a book or going to some webinar. People that are real serious because I definitely can teach people how to network properly and even find a date or a mate.

14:29In fact, I talk about social networking, Josh. I used to teach courses for people looking to find a mate or to basically get married by using your social network to find a mate. So what I used to teach, I had classes where I would tell people to write down everything they wanted in the opposite sex and then give it to your friends, family and your neighbors and say, look, if you know somebody. Yeah, let them do the work for you. That's right. And that's how I found my wife 46 years ago, Josh. Wow. I made a list. I gave it to my 10 best male friends. And within three months, my best friend, Paul, called me up, introduced me to my now wife.

15:10And we've been married 46 years. Got a hot lead for you. Well, congratulations on 46 years. George, your website is theultimatenetworker.com. When people go to your website, what should they click on? What should they do? Well, like I said, if they're interested in my books, there's a section there where my books are, and then they can take the assessment to see where they stand as a networker. And my phone number's on there. They can call me up, and I'll be more than happy to discuss anything with anybody, answer the questions, or if they're interested in private coaching, I can explain how that works.

15:44Excellent. All right. The Ultimate Networker. George, you're back. Your website, theultimatenetworker.com. George, thank you so much for the conversation. Have a wonderful rest of the day, my friend. Okay, Josh. It was a pleasure. Great.

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