In this episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing, host Beverly Cornell talks with George Dubec, a networking expert with over five decades of experience. George, also known as “The Ultimate Networker,” has built a legacy of connecting people, places, and projects, driving success across multiple industries.
In this conversation, he shares invaluable insights on how to build and maintain a powerful network, the importance of the human connection in today’s automated world, and the art of following up. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to scale your business or just starting out, George’s advice on networking will empower you to make meaningful connections that last a lifetime.
Key topics from the episode with George Dubec:
- The Power of Networking and Relationship Building
George discusses the critical role networking plays in personal and professional success.
- The Importance of Persistence and Follow-Through in Business
George highlights the significance of being consistent, persistent, and relentless in business efforts, particularly in following up and nurturing relationships.
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The Ultimate Networking
George Dubec
America’s Real Deal
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Transcript:
Beverly:
Did you know that over 70 percent of successful business leaders attribute their achievements to effective networking? Welcome to another insightful episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing. I’m your host, Beverly Cornell, and today we are thrilled to introduce George Dubec, widely known as the ultimate networker. With an impressive career spanning over five decades, George has established himself as a top business and social networking expert. From his early days as an engineer at General Motors to hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, George has continuously connected people, places, and projects, driving success across many industries. George, it’s wonderful to have you here.
George:
Hey, Beverly. Yeah, it’s great to be on your show and. I know you have an extensive background in working with people, interviewing people, helping people in sales and marketing. And that’s great. I like to talk to people that are veterans and you seem to have a really great background there.
Beverly:
When you’ve been around for a few decades, you get to have lots of experience. So talk a little bit about how you went from GM to the ultimate networker, what did that look like?
George:
Yeah, of course I started my career at General Motors. I worked there for 18 years. I was an executive. We made all the electromotive wiring harnesses for GMC trucks and buses. We had a plant that had 12, 000 people, and that was in a small town, Warren, Ohio of 60, 000 people. So we were the town that made the whole that we were the hub of the wheel in Warren, Ohio. Right now that town is down to 20, 000 people because Packard Electric doesn’t exist. Half of the facilities moved to South Carolina because they were non union. And of course. When I worked at packet electric, they were union. So the wages were very high. So they moved with a lot of facility down South with non union wages. And then when those wages went up, they moved everything to Mexico. And then the plant in Warren, Ohio, almost a mile long doesn’t exist. So that’s the Made in America, no more.
Beverly:
There’s been a huge evolution of manufacturing from human to automation from Detroit and even the US to Mexico, China. I think some of it’s coming back, like they’re making an effort to make it come back. But I don’t think it will ever those golden years of how things used to be
George:
listen, Beverly, it’s not only moving to other countries, but I’m sure you’re up to date on Elon Musk says that every person in the U. S. is going to have their own robot by 2040 and we won’t have to do any physical labor. It’s going to cook for us, clean for us, do all the manual labor, and all we have to do is sit and eat bonbons and watch soap operas. Here’s another one that blew my mind. I was on a zoom call last night with an organization just launching August 17th. And it’s a biomedical platform, but what they’re doing within it, it’s a multi level marketing concept. And what they’re doing is they’re giving all distributors an AI generated sales expert to go along with your affiliation with their organization. So in other words, This AI device or software will answer every question, every objection that anybody has that you’re talking to. So you don’t even have to know the information yourself. You just plug your prospect in to the AI generated software and it’ll answer all their questions. It’s so we don’t have to sell. We don’t have to talk. We don’t have to do anything. I don’t know. Like I said, we’re, I don’t know what we’re going to wind up doing. That’s crazy.
Beverly:
I think there’s still a need for humans and there’s still a need for networking and that connecting part though, George. Like I, even though a lot of what I do is automated and some of the things that I create, my team is all remote all over the world that I work with. My staff. But there’s nothing quite like the human connection and having the network of people to be able to pull from for expertise So I think being a networker still has a lot of of importance in our, and actually maybe even more so because we, since COVID and everybody’s working from home and is more isolated than ever. Having the ability to network and get out there is even more important now.
George:
One of the problems we’re facing is just what you’re saying, the human element, the human touch. Because what’s happening with all of this is, it’s reducing our emotional responses. So we’re becoming more flatlined. In fact, that’s the human element is the emotional responses, sadness, happiness, warm fuzzies. So when you eliminate all of that, you become almost like a human robot. Because you don’t have that feeling anymore about anybody. And one of the things that I noticed, because I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and probably most of your viewing audience is the fact that we’re losing respect, etiquette, morals, and values. And one of the key issues is respect. People don’t respect older people authority. They don’t respect their own family members. They don’t respect anybody. The one thing that everybody respects is money. Money gets everything in today’s world. It’s all about money. The more money you have, you look better. People talk to you. They’re your friends. As long as you got the money, you’ve got the connections and that’s the way the world’s going. In fact, I just, this blew me away. Do you know how much it costs to get a ticket to go see Taylor Swift? Two grand.
Beverly:
Thousands of dollars. There are some challenges. There’s no question, but George, how are you? Making a difference in all of that. What are you doing? Okay. So over the years I’ve been in corporate, I did corporate networking. I did direct sales. I’ve been involved in network and multi level marketing, which is another whole aspect of networking and so forth.
George:
And I’ve taught networking. I’ve written books about it. I’ve lived it. And I even teach my own family, my grandkids, how to start networking when they’re going to high school and college. I tell my grandkids, everybody you talk to every day at school, your teachers your friends, your students get their name, their phone numbers, their addresses, and put them in the database. Because when you leave college, all those people may become important later on in life. The number one thing I tell people is create your own database. In fact, everybody that sends me an email, I capture every day, I put in five to 10 new email addresses in my database. Even salespeople to send me an email. I capture their email address and I put it in a database in a category. That’s my network and people call me all the time and they say, Hey, George, I need a doctor. I need a lawyer. I need a landscaper. I need a I need to find a place to rent. I need to find more clients. I need funding for my business. So I’m like, I become this like resource. Everybody’s calling me
Beverly:
All of us go about our lives and we bump into human beings. Whatever that looks like now, it might be through a podcast, might be on the phone, might be an electrician who comes to your house. And we’re all having these experiences and the connections that we have is really what makes us super unique is all the people we know, the experiences we’ve had. That’s what makes us unique. And even with my team. George, they’re all young, out of college. I’m like you guys need to be on LinkedIn. Really simple things sometimes. To you’re saying a doctor or a specialist or something that might be even life saving, but all along, that network, that is really what makes you unique and gives you so many options, to be able to have that ability to grow.
George:
Still today, I would say most really good jobs are hired people from networking through friends and associates. I don’t know anybody today that’s single is in a nightmare world to be single today is awful. Even with the online dating and the matchmakers and singles events, they have speed dating.
Beverly:
Yes.
George:
Most of the time it’s not working very well and people are frustrated. And this is what I did and everybody loves this story. This was 44 years ago. Anyway, it was back in the seventies. I used to be a disco king. I had a three piece white shirt, a white suit, black shirt, gold chains. I had a smoking abandoned firebird. And remember the movie Saturday Night Fever? I had plenty of dates. I didn’t have a problem finding gals because I was a great dancer, but I never could find like the one that really clicked. So I says how do you do this? We didn’t have online dating and cell phones. It was basically going to the local disco and meeting girls and stuff like that. So I said, you know what? And this is how the whole networking kind of started social networking. So I said, I got 10 male friends. That are meeting women all the time and I might not be there, but they may be there somewhere meeting some girl. So I made a list and I call it today the love list. I made a list of everything I wanted, physical characteristics, personality traits, deal makers, deal breakers background, experience, everything. I made a list and I gave copies to my 10 best male friends and I said, look, I want you to help me. If you meet somebody like this, why don’t you connect me? So three months later, my best friend calls me up. He says, George, he said, I met this girl at a party last night. You got a meet her. We met and oh my God, 44 years later, and we have a beautiful daughter. We’ve been married and So I use, I call it referral matchmaking, using your own friends, family, and associates to help you find somebody in your circle that is more credible, more reliable, and a better connection than meeting some stranger online who’s a liar, he might be a predator, you have no idea where these people are coming from, so there you go if the single people out there watching this, Take advantage of that tip, use referral matchmaking, you got a better shot at getting a mate through a late. How’s that?
Beverly:
I love it.
George:
So
Beverly:
who are your typical clients and what problems do you solve for them?
George:
Basically I’m working right now. My big initiative using my network is a brand new TV show. I don’t know if you heard about it called America’s Real Deal. Okay. You’re familiar with shark tank, right?
Beverly:
Yeah.
George:
Okay. This is shark tank on steroids. They’re in their second season and it’s a streaming show. They’re on Hulu and Roku and YouTube, but they’ve had six episodes. And what they simply do Beverly is they work with mature companies. Now shark tank, the investors, they provide seed money for startups. And to be honest with you, they’re taking a big risk because startups, the danger of them being successful is. It’s, I don’t know what the chances are, but it’s tough. This particular show takes companies that are mature. They have to have a gross general gross income from last year of at least a million dollars.
Beverly:
Okay.
George:
So in other words, they’re already ongoing. They’re making money.
Beverly:
Yep.
George:
So the sharks on this show invest in companies that want to expand. They need expansion. Money. Yeah. They want to, they’re scalable and they have a better chance of an ROI by working with these companies. So that’s what this show is. It’s they have sharks. But they also have a studio audience of accredited investors, which Shark Tank doesn’t have, and they’re going to use a crowdfunding platform and allow the viewing audience to invest.
Beverly:
I like that idea.
George:
The companies have a chance of getting investment from different
Beverly:
areas.
George:
Plus the America’s Real Deal organization is creating their own private stock exchange, and they’re putting all these companies into their private stock exchange so people can buy and sell their stock after the show is over. It’s really a unique concept. I’m excited about it. I’m on their advisory board and I’m out there looking for investors and I’m looking for companies that want to expand and want to showcase in front of a group of accredited investors. That’s my main networking. Ability at this point in time.
Beverly:
These are people who have had a business for a while. They’re established over a million dollars in revenue. They want to go to the next level scale in some way, shape or form. That would be great to, to be in there. So how, so the problem you solve is essentially getting them in front of the people who could invest and help them get to the next level.
George:
Exactly. Plus they get national exposure to the viewing audience
Beverly:
yeah. So how did you go from GM? You said obviously the things closed down to doing this so different. You have radio background, you have all these different backgrounds. What were some of the major transitions to get you to where you are today?
George:
Oh it actually General Motors did, I didn’t leave because they shut down. I bought my job out in 1985. I had her buyout. I was living in Ohio and I wanted to move to a nice climate and I moved to Florida. So I bought out my job and I moved down here and I started doing all kinds of entrepreneurial things doing, at one point I was a professional flamenco dancer, I’m a stained glass artist. I’ve had so many careers, I’ve written six books, I’ve been in movies. I had my own radio show from almost for 15 years. It was called the internet business hour. Back when the internet first started, we were in 36 markets all around the country. We had a regular broadcast radio show. I did radio. I’ve been on the Sally Jesse Raphael show. Remember that show?
Beverly:
I do remember the red glasses. Yeah, I remember. Why were you on her show?
George:
Okay. I had a program called find a mate and we were teaching people what I was explaining about the referral matchmaking. So she had me on the show too. And it was funny because she was also asking me how I can help her single daughter find a mate. So everybody was using everybody and networking and educating everybody. And it was fun.
Beverly:
And that
George:
that was another thing I had from 1985 to 1990, I had the largest singles network in South Florida. It was called the find a mate singles network. And we used to teach referral matchmaking at all the adult education programs at all the local colleges. And we did that for a long time. And then my wife got pregnant and we sold that business and we got into high tech. It’s just like everything just kept moving in my life. And again, I’ve had so many different aspects of my career. When I think back, I just scratched my head and I go, how did I do all that? It’s crazy.
Beverly:
So that’s how life lived. If you’ve done many things that’s exciting. That’s the way how it should be. I think we have seasons for everything,
George:
yeah. And also I’m going to give a tip to all the old people out there, which I’m one now. Okay. I’m 77 years old. I highly recommend do not retire. Now there’s certain people that probably should retire, but if you’re older and you stop working and stop being productive, I don’t mean have a job necessarily. If you stop being productive, you’re going to slowly wither away at your brain will atrophy. I work harder now, believe it or not, Beverly, then I did when I was young, I put in 12, 14 hour days. I love to work and be productive. I love it. It’s great. It’s stimulating.
It’s part of your DNA. Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. What do you think, or how do you think? Your strategy or decision making process has evolved with all the different ventures you’ve had.
Beverly:
Like what has been the biggest changes and how you process and make decisions from when you were younger to now?
George:
That’s a good question. Interesting question, because I’ve thought about it. And one of the things, if I would go back in my younger life, What I would have done different is I made too many personal decisions, gut feeling decisions. And I thought always I was smarter than everybody else, but if I would go back in time, what I would do when I would make major decisions now is I would go out and find other resources. And bounce off my project or idea with a whole bunch of different people and listen to their input before I made these decisions. 85 percent of my big decisions in life did not turn out all that good. I consider myself a pretty sharp, smart human. But 85 percent of my personal decisions. I found out now did not work out all that great. And I wish I would have talked to more people, more knowledgeable people at that point in time.
Beverly:
Interesting. I think that the more seasoned I get, the more wise I get as a business owner, the more I realize that. It’s better just to hire the right person to do the job and to try to figure it out. If it’s not my forte, just lean into the people who know their stuff and it’ll save you time, headaches, mistakes, all the things. So I think leaning into the people who really know it, live it, breathe that it has been extraordinarily transformative for me.
George:
That’s a good point because like right now I’m facing this whole AI thing. And I don’t want to learn it myself. It’s Oh my goodness, I don’t want to take the time to understand it. So I’m going out there, like you said, looking for people that are doing it, that are expert in it and working with them and utilizing them.
Beverly:
Yeah. Again, all about building your network though, going back to that and having the people available at your fingertips to be able to do that. So what are some of the most significant challenges? That you face as an entrepreneur? I would
George:
have to say myself and almost most of the people I work with companies, organizations, individuals is not enough funding. No one ever has enough money to do everything that they would like to do within their company or organization. It’s never ending. Everybody’s looking for money, no matter how much sales you got or how much revenue you’re generating. There’s always something you want. You want new software. You want new marketing campaigns. You want a better advertising program. You want to start to install, artificial intelligence in your organization. It’s like never ending. You always need more money. So you’re always juggling. Using the money that I have, the budget I have versus what I really, what I’d like to have. Even if some people have a good job, everybody’s trying to start a business, that’s everybody’s becoming more creative becoming entrepreneurs.
Beverly:
You’ve used a lot of different marketing over the years. What’s been your most favorite marketing tactic?
George:
It depends on, the environment that I’m working in, if it’s a corporate, it’s different. If it’s multi level marketing, it’s different. Building teams like let’s say market and not multi level marketing is more like recruiting and team building and creating relationships with your team, making sure you’re training people like that. In direct sales I used to manage, salespeople and it’s training them how to be a good salesperson, how to network. How to follow up, follow through. Of course the biggest thing that I always advocate in networking is follow up. The main point to the follow up is to follow through. A lot of people do follow up, but they don’t do the next step, which is to consistently dripping on a prospect. So if you make a phone call and the prospect says, no, I’m not interested. You hang up. And then you forget about them. Don’t put them in a tickler box or tickler pile. Come back three months later and make a phone call because everything changed in their life and they might be more prone to listen to you or buy your product or service. So I have a good phrase in sales or marketing is be consistent, persistent, and relentless. I train people on the fact of, look, if somebody’s not interested at that point in time, ask them for a referral. Hey, you have somebody else that could use my product or service. That’s the other thing. Even companies that have customers don’t understand how to use. Referrals to their customers. I never could figure that out. They’ll spend a lot of money in marketing to get new customers, but they already got a customer, but they never asked them, can you refer me to some of your family and friends or neighbors?
Beverly:
What would you tell an entrepreneur who has customers and what would you tell them is the best way to ask for that referral in a way that doesn’t feel, I think some people feel like they’re being like swarmy or salesy or whatever what’s a way to do it in a really genuine, authentic way that feels good about it.
George:
My strategy is be so good, be such a good provider to your customers. Go, in other words, whatever they paid for, do more than what they paid for. Overwhelm them. With your products and services, make sure, call them up and ask them, Hey, is everything? Okay? Are you happy with our service? You have to overwhelm them and be such a good provider that you don’t have any problem. Pick up the phone. Say, Hey, Joe. Hey, can you refer me to somebody? Because then you feel great. You feel like this guy is happy with me and make sure he’s happy with you. And once he’s happy with you, do you have a problem in asking for a referral? No, because you know that you’ve done this guy really good.
Beverly:
The thing is George going above and beyond isn’t that much actually, like it’s just a little bit really. Cause Most people don’t do it. So just going a little above and beyond the standard can make a world of difference. People don’t have to overthink this. It doesn’t have to be super complicated. But I think just making the ask. So what I have always said is, I really truly believe what we do solves a problem for our customers. If I don’t believe in what we did, I wouldn’t be a very good salesperson anyway. Like I just, I have to believe in what I sell. However. Asking for that, asking for the referral, the lifeblood of any business is referrals. And it would be a disservice to other entrepreneurs if I didn’t ask I can help them. So why are you not asking that?
George:
There’s no, there’s another strategy and it doesn’t fit all particular products and services, but if you have a good reseller program or an affiliate program. That’s another way to contact your customer and say, Hey, by the way, we have an affiliate program. If you refer people to us, we’ll give you a five or 10 or 15 percent commission. So that’s an an innocuous way to do it.
Beverly:
Yes. Which makes it feels a little bit easier because you’re giving them something too, which is great. Yes. So what is one marketing mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?
George:
Probably just basically not having the time or the resources to do the follow up process you lose a lot of prospects because you do, the follow through process. You do the follow up, but you leave a lot of balls hanging. And it would be nice to have some kind of a follow up software or more helpers more assistance to do the follow through to continue to be on top of people that are somewhat interested in your products and services. Again, it’s just lack of time and resources. I
Beverly:
think it’s fair. I think a lot of us are really busy. It’s hard to keep that. That’s why there’s the feast and famine. Like when I have time, I do that really well. And then I’m really busy and then I’ll feed the machine like I’m supposed to, and then I have a little bit of a famine and then I feed the machine. And so that’s really, there’s a direct correlation with my follow through. For sure.
George:
I also have another version of the show for business networking. The same thing, like when you go to a networking event, do most people know how to go to a networking event? I’m going to show you something that I use. And nobody does this, okay? I’m the ultimate networker. When I go to a networking event, see this? Isn’t this kind of crazy? This odd looking box.
Beverly:
So to my listeners, he has like a rubber made tote. That’s maybe two feet wide by two feet long by one foot wide with a lid. It’s clear. And there’s a bunch of stuff in there. What’s in there, George?
George:
Ah, see that’s what, when I walk into a place, I dress up really nice, I wear a sport coat. And I wear like usually a a Don Johnson t shirt. You know who Don Johnson is?
Beverly:
I’m the
George:
Miami Vice look. Okay. So I walk in, but everybody says to me, what is that? What’s in there? Everybody wants to know. So immediately I have a conversation starter.
Beverly:
So
George:
that gives everybody an opportunity to come up and talk to me. And of course, and then inside I have microphones. I carry my books. I whip my books out
Beverly:
and a lot
George:
of people buy my books. They go, really? You got a book? I go, yeah, this is my book. So again, it is my office. It’s it’s got all kinds of stuff in there. And then the best part about it. Now, let’s say Beverly, you go to a trade show or a networking event and you meet somebody, what do you normally do? Do you exchange business cards?
Beverly:
I have a QR code card, but yes. Okay.
George:
QR code. A digital card?
Beverly:
A V
George:
card. A dot card or,
Beverly:
I have my book. I sometimes take my book depending on what it is, but yes.
George:
Once I meet somebody at an event that I find of that I really have a strong interest in, I whip out an old fashioned clipboard. It’s in my box. What I do is I take my pen and pencil or whatever. And I say, Beverly, I want to get your information here because I want to follow up with you. And at that point in time, I solidify how we’re going to interact ongoing okay, let’s have a cup of coffee. Let’s meet up or let’s do a zoom call or let’s, I’ll send you an email. So I write your name, I put your phone number, I put your email address and I make notes. Follow up with Beverly. I’m going to send her an email with my products and information on it. Now, if you just gave me a business card, what would you think? I don’t know. I might go home, throw it away. I might lose it. I might forget about it, but this is serious. I’m making that human connection with you. A serious connection. I’m going to give a tip to all of your listeners. When you go to an event, a trade show, an event or whatever, the first thing you should do is go to the host, the promoter, or somebody of significance at that event, introduce yourself. If you don’t know, tell them what you do and simply ask. Hey, do you know somebody at this event that is looking for my product or service? Can you connect me with somebody? Let the host or promoter make an introduction right at the beginning before you even get started.
Beverly:
Nice.
George:
Now, they may not know anybody, but at least now the promoter knows you. And maybe later on in the night, he’ll come over and say, Hey! Hey, George, I remember you came up to me and I got somebody right here.
Beverly:
How many people do you talk to in an hour with your form? Like how many people do you typically get that?
George:
Hopefully if I can get two or three. People on these are two or three significant people. I’m good because that’s right then and there. I got to go home. I got to put them in my database and then I got to make arrangements on my calendar, schedule the column or do whatever I’m going to do. That’s the followup at home. When you get home, you got to do all this stuff right away as soon as you get home. So you don’t forget what you did. And then another thing that I do, of course, we all have cell phones, right? So these people. That I write down. The next thing I do is I take a selfie with me and them.
Beverly:
When
George:
I get home, I send them the selfie and I put down great meeting you. And I put a smiley face.
Beverly:
This I love this. I love, because now you have a visual of you together. You already have a connection because you’re like together in this picture, you’re like psychologically creating a relationship before there’s even a relationship. I love this so much. Yes. Yeah, so
George:
that, that’s what I, that’s what we were talking about earlier. Creating a human connection, a human element relationship.
Beverly:
How many events do you do a week? Like how often are you doing this?
George:
Oh I space out the events. It depends on what kind of event that I go to. Sometimes I even run my own events. It’s just random. I don’t have any set patterns. Sometimes I go to it depends on the category. Like for, if I’m doing something for America’s real deal, I go to a lot of startup events where they have a lot of startup companies coming, looking for funding, those kinds of things.
Beverly:
So I, so one of the things that I’ll share a couple of secrets that I had when I was in Detroit and I was working there doing some global business is I was really intentional about which organizations I went to. I became members of Automation Alley, which is a, like a tech hub of people. And they were, a lot of them were in the auto industry as well. So they were pretty established companies really diverse backgrounds. And then I also went to the Detroit Economic Club, one of the premier speaking clubs in the country, which means like they have some of the best speakers ever talking. So we had presidential candidates. We had. Really really amazing speakers and the cost to attend these events was very inexpensive considering, but I actually was really intentional. But when I joined the organization, there’s committees that you can join when you join an organization. I wanted to be on the committee that was dealing with the speakers, like the VIP committee. So I wanted to go and be on the VIP committee. So I helped them. Find their way. If they needed anything, like I was there, got to know them. But again, the idea was what kind of people do I want to interact with? And who am I serving? And being intentional about where I even spent my time within the organization.
George:
Along, along the lines of what you’re saying, I got another tip. See, I never pay to go anywhere I get in. My mantra is I get in everywhere free. And the way I do it is when somebody is inviting me to an event and there’s like a surcharge or a fee or an admission because I built a database. I tell’em, say, listen, I’ll tell you what, I’ll come to your event, but you let me in as a VIP and I’ll promote your event to my database and I’ll invite people and I’ll put on there that George Beck is gonna be at this at your event. And that will attract people because they know I’m going to be there. And they and, a lot of people say no, where, we don’t want to do that. You get, you still got to pay. Okay, then I’m not coming. But if you want me to help you promote it, I’ll cross promote as long as you can let me come in. And maybe even bring a guest and I’ll come to your event and I’ll highlight the fact that I’m going to be there to my database
Beverly:
when you’re the ultimate networker, you have a little bit more power in that sense.
George:
Yeah, it takes time. You can’t, everybody can’t just do that, that’s why building a database
Beverly:
is,
George:
and also I promote a lot of other people’s events. Sometimes I charge people to do it. And if I really like it and I think it’s going to help my database, I’ll promote it just because I like those events. That’s another thing. I cross promote events with people. Those are other great ways to do it.
Beverly:
Nice. So I have a lightning round where I ask a few questions. So I, one of my questions is how have you created and maintained lasting relationships and connections? And I think that is your formula for that is to be persistent, relentless, and consistent.
George:
To create long term relationships. Okay. You got to provide good products and services if they’re your customer or whatever. And then you have to do other things to make them the more human touch. Like sometimes you might want to call up a customer or somebody that you met and just chat, just call them up. Don’t talk business. You say, Hey, how are you doing? I remember that your your daughter’s going to get married. How’d that go? I heard you’re going to be on vacation. Talk about other stuff than just business. And that’s a way to make a person feel like, Oh, Hey, that guy’s really interested in me.
Beverly:
Yeah.
George:
And also when you put people in your database, Especially the people that you have some you want to definitely have a good relationship with, make sure you put notes in there, like their wife’s name how many kids they have, where they live,
Beverly:
their dog. Yeah.
George:
One of the biggest things we know is that people, because we’re all spread out all over the country, but if people are connected to your old hometown somehow, or they live in a state where you’re from, I don’t know why that just makes people like,
Beverly:
Immediately connect to you, right? Oh, you’re from Michigan. Oh yeah. Yeah. Even when we first started chatting, you were like, Oh, I’ve been to Michigan all the time. There is a connection like right away if you have that. So I think that’s a great thing to think about. So you’ve been around a while. You say dive back into all that wisdom you have in business and all of the years and tell me about a book, a podcast or an entrepreneur that has left their indelible mark on you and your journey.
George:
And this is funny, but I didn’t even mention this, but For about seven years, I was the number one director of the Nightingale Conan Speakers Bureau. You know what Nightingale Conan is? But back in the day, do you remember those big vinyl cassette covers with, they would have six cassette tapes in it and a workbook and all the motivational speakers would sell
Beverly:
their audio packages,
George:
Anthony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Dennis Commuda, Dennis Whateley, Brian Tracy. Back in the mid 2000s, I worked with all those guys. I was, I used to schedule those speakers and I met all those guys. That used to be in my network. So I was a director of the Nightingale Conant Speakers Bureau. They were the number one distributor of audio cassette tapes in the world. Motivational tapes.
Beverly:
Okay.
George:
My point being is that with all this background experience, Probably the one that out of all these books and a lot of motivation I feel is a false promise to people. I think people get too enamored with The possibilities and they don’t work hard. They think that this stuff is going to happen by magic. Remember the movie, the secret Oh, all you got to do is think about it and put it out there. And all this is going to, no, you got to work your butt off and you got to make connections and you got to have people help you a lot of people, there’s no secret to it. It’s hard work. It’s connections. It’s networking. But one of my favorite books. It’s called The Aladdin Factor,
Beverly:
and it’s
George:
a book that teaches you and helps you to ask for things. The number one thing that people are afraid to do is ask for anything. And I’m trying to, I teach my kids that my grandkids, I say, whatever you do, just keep, just ask for whatever you want. Ask other people. And when I go to a store, I buy some product. You know what I do? Every time is I asked a clerk, Hey, can you throw something in here for free? Do you have anything else around here that you could, cause I just bought this. You have anything you can give me? And it’s amazing. Hey. What they’ll throw in is you just have to ask for it. If you’re,
the answer is always no. If you never ask
George:
and
asking, if you, if they say no, you’ve lost nothing because you didn’t have anything to start with. So I’m an only child and my parents didn’t raise me to be spoiled, but I certainly was empowered to ask for what I wanted and because there was no one around me, To fight for resources or things for the most part.
Beverly:
I got what I wanted George So I married a man who has is one of seven And he’s like you He never asked because the answer was always no for him because of the other mouths to feed and whatever but I always feel very empowered to ask and so he’s always amazed by me that I have no problem just making an ask. And if they say no, it’s fine. It’s okay. Yeah. No, even especially if you’re single go ahead and ask for the date, ask for the dance. Ask people are just afraid because again, they think of the big word rejection. I’m going to be rejected if I ask, or I’m going to be told no. Okay. Again, it’s just a moment in time and it doesn’t matter if you don’t ask, you’ll never get it.
George:
And it’s just an ask for the sale. When you’re talking to a prospect, say, Hey, by the way, are you ready to buy it yet?
Beverly:
I love it. What’s one tool or app that’s become your secret weapon for success or it’s revolutionized how you work?
George:
I have a lot of different apps I use mainly the thing that I guess the marketing tool that I use the most is texting. I’m a I text all the time and people are texting me and I’m texting people. I know there’s like telegram and WhatsApp and there’s that meeting place called clubhouse. And I don’t know, I’ve used all kinds of other things, but that one, I think just texting to me is the one that I like the best.
Beverly:
How do you keep your entrepreneurial spirit alive? What do you do to feed it?
George:
One of the things in now in today’s world when I was younger, my only goal was to be able to retire and live comfortably for my wife and I. But now that I’m older, I realized I made a big mistake. I really want more money in my life. To help people in my family, because so many people in my family are struggling. Because there’s just not a lot of good jobs. The price of homes is ridiculous. It’s really hard. And the lifestyle today is not like in the old days when we had nothing, but we were okay.
Beverly:
So how do you maintain a sense of purpose and clarity in this kind of crazy world?
George:
That’s the thing is that I want, I have the ability to make a lot of money and that’s what I want to do. I want to really help them. But also I want to help other people give them my wisdom and advice.
Beverly:
I always ask this question. It’s a little bit fun, George, but if your business was an animal, what animal would it be? And why, what creature would it be? And why?
George:
Oh, I don’t know. I guess it would just be a lion, king of the jungle, the ultimate networker. Believe that I have information and things that I can teach people that are above and beyond what most people know or experienced. Just because of my background experience, my research, my study. So yeah, I’m king of the jungle.
That’s the end of the lightning round. Super interesting answers and definitely insightful information. So the last kind of section is really about. If somebody is listening today, they’re an entrepreneur, whether they’re seasoned or they’re just starting out, what is one piece of actionable advice that you could give as soon as this podcast is over, they could go do right now to build their network.
George:
Basically planning anything, whether you’re looking to raise funds or build a sales organization or learn networking is put a plan of action in place. Plan what you want to do and then have action steps and then take the steps every day. Be methodical about it. Don’t just shoot from the hip or think it’s going to happen because of the secret or whatever. And the other thing is whatever skill that you want in life is not just educate yourself or read books or go to webinars and seminars. Figure out what it is, what skill you want, and then you got to go into training. You got to train yourself to how to implement that skill. Training is the most important thing versus knowledge and education, which is meaningless. In fact, my favorite analogy is I’ll ask you, Beverly, if you were in a foxhole in the middle of a war, okay. Would you rather be in a foxhole with a graduate from Annapolis that got straight A’s Or a Navy SEAL who flunked out of high school. Who would you rather be in that foxhole with
Beverly:
Navy SEAL? No question. Why
George:
is that? Because he’s smart.
Beverly:
No, because
George:
he’s trained. He’s
Beverly:
been there, done that. Yeah, exactly.
George:
Been there, done that. And he’s trained in skills.
Beverly:
So just books, not just book smarts, but actual skills in the foxhole.
George:
That’s, what’s so sad about so many people go to all these webinars and seminars and read all these books and spend all this money. They never implement what they learned. They don’t train themselves. They always say, and I used to teach so many classes. And people would shake their heads and they’d go, Oh man, that’s, Oh, that’s great advice. Oh, those are great nuggets that you just told us. And I laughed at them because they’re not going to do it. They just shake their head and they agree. They go, that’s great, man. Oh, I love that. But they’re not going to do it. So
Beverly:
they’re comfortable. Yeah.
George:
It’s easier to read a book and agree with the book. Then to go out and actually try to do it yourself.
Beverly:
Cause then they have to do the work and then they, it might be uncomfortable and and it has, there has to be a reason to want to change too. There has to be an impetus, a deep desire for some kind of different result. I think that’s the ultimate definition of motivation is dissatisfaction. Yeah. That’s, all this motivation stuff they talk about and inspiration. It doesn’t work. Unless you’re so unhappy that you’re going to do something about it. This has been great, George. It’s been really nice spending time with you today. Before we go, do you want to share where my listeners can learn more about the ultimate networker, the TV show, like your latest projects? Where can they go to?
George:
The number one website is the ultimate networker. com of course, right? My slogan. And also, by the way, it’s important to brand yourself in today’s world. And I’ve branded myself the ultimate networker. I connect people, places, and projects. The other one that I’m working with right now is America’s real deal. All one word America’s real deal. com. That’s the new show that we’re involved with. And that’s exciting. And then of course I have my name, georgedubeck. com. So those are the three main websites that anybody that wants to find out about my books. Contact me or whatever they can go right to those sites. Theultimatenetworker. com, georgedubeck. com, that’s D U B E C or americasrealdeal. com.
I’ll put those links in the show notes as well, George, so that they’ll be there if people want to access them as well.
George:
Okay great. I do a lot of podcasts and you are a great host. I appreciate the time we spent and it was a lot of fun and I got to learn more about you and you have a great background also.
Beverly:
Thank you so much, George, for sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience with us today. I’ve certainly learned so few things and a couple of great networking tips to use for my own business. I hope others can take these insights and implement them into their own business. If you have any questions or need any further assistance related to networking or marketing, feel free to reach out to George or myself. I’m sure we will both be happy to assist you and network further with you. Remember to implement. These insights shared today into your small business and don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Stay tuned to more inspiring conversations and actionable tips to ignite your marketing journey and your entrepreneurial path on future episodes of the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing podcast. And until next time, keep sparking and igniting.
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